Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On the first day of August, a fine, silken rain drifted down.

Chen Yansen slowly opened his eyes. He walked from his bedroom to the living room, glanced at the view outside, then turned and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face.

Five minutes later, he was lounging on the sofa with a copy of *A Brief History of Energy*. He flipped through it casually, his mind already churning with other matters.

Fast Taxi’s Series B funding was all but finalized. Once the official agreement was signed, the business registration updated, and the funds deposited, their expansion could accelerate once more.

Cheng Weixing had taken Kuai Pao’s ”Thousand Talents, Hundred Cities” initiative, tweaked it slightly, and developed a city-launch strategy perfectly suited for Fast Taxi.

To vie for the market and seize territory, you needed a strong and well-equipped force.

Suddenly, recruitment ads for Fast Taxi were everywhere.

Recruitment posters for Fast Taxi appeared on the homepages of all the major job sites, advertising positions in tech, operations, marketing, data, risk control, and more.

They also launched their fall campus recruitment drive across the East China Region, casting a wide net that spanned from top-tier universities like Fudan, Jiaoda, Zhejiang University, and Huake, all the way to second-tier schools like Luzhou Academy and Jinling Finance and Economics.

While Fast Taxi wasn’t considered an internet giant, its backing from Senlian Capital, combined with a comprehensive compensation and benefits package, made it highly attractive to college students.

As soon as the news broke, many graduating students began preparing their resumes.

After establishing a firm foothold in Luzhou, Hu City, Jinling, and Hang City, Kuai Pao had gradually expanded its operations to cover all of Huian Province. From Xiangcheng in the north to Huizhou in the south, every city, including Xucheng, was now within its sphere of influence.

Although it had yet to venture into the markets of smaller towns and villages, its presence in 16 prefecture-level cities with a combined population of over 60 million had already pushed Kuai Pao’s average daily orders past three million.

Once they fully tapped into the market potential of Huian Province, Kuai Pao’s nationwide daily order volume could reach 5 or 6 million at a minimum, perhaps even hitting 8 million.

To provide enough delivery capacity, Kuai Pao’s fleet of riders would need to grow to at least 100,000.

With no competition, Kuai Pao was tearing through the food delivery industry unchecked.

Pei Yi’s plan was to use Luzhou, Jinling, Hang City, and Hu City as hubs. Within six months, he intended to expand their service area to cover all of Huian, Sujiang, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region, aiming to break the ten-million-per-day order threshold.

On another front, Meituan and Dianping had both announced their entry into the food delivery market. Though their products hadn’t launched yet, they posed a potential threat that Kuai Pao had to guard against.

Chen Yansen and Pei Yi had discussed this and agreed that Liu Qiangdong’s playbook was a good one. After all, the Group Buy business was to Kuai Pao what the book category was to Jingdong.

Pei Yi would take on Wang Xin and Meituan the same way Handsome Dong had taken on Dangdang and Li Guoqing.

The approach might seem underhanded, but it had worked for Liu Qiangdong every single time, proving just how effective it was.

What’s more, he had already poached Shan Jiawei—the very heart and soul of Meituan’s legendary ground-promotion ”Iron Army”—and sent him over to Lashou Network.

The secondary traffic portals on WeChat and QQ would also be opened up for Kuai Pao and Fast Taxi.

In one fell swoop, he had neutralized two of Wang Xin’s biggest trump cards.

’Meituan still thinks it can counterattack in the food delivery sector?’

’They should worry about surviving the assault from Lashou Network first!’

When Chen Yansen returned to his senses, he found he had already flipped to the last page of *A Brief History of Energy*. Outside, the slanted rain and gentle wind had washed away the sweltering summer heat.

He beckoned with his hand. The refrigerator door swung open, and a bottle of milk and a croissant flew into his palm.

As he ate his breakfast, Chen Yansen pondered Gaode Map’s monetization strategy.

When Senlian Capital took over Gaode, its total user base was 40 million. But after Xiao Jun announced the new free-to-use policy, user growth skyrocketed. By the end of July, Gaode Map’s user count had surpassed 95 million, just a stone’s throw away from the 100 million mark.

The business models of Fast Taxi and Gaode Map were a natural fit, allowing them to form a perfect, closed ecosystem.

Simply adding a ”Hail a Ride” option to Gaode Map’s routing feature would funnel a massive volume of orders to Fast Taxi.

Gaode, in turn, could collect a commission, boosting its own profitability.

Kuai Pao, Fast Taxi, and Gaode Map had natural, complementary strengths. By integrating their ”delivery-to-home,” ”visit-a-store,” and ”get-to-a-destination” services, they could create a virtuous cycle.

The minutes ticked by, and in the blink of an eye, it was eight o’clock.

”Human Dao Fire +109,839!”

”Human Dao Fire +16,817!”

”Human Dao Fire +8,249!”

A series of translucent text prompts flashed before Chen Yansen’s eyes. In an instant, 121,081 wisps of Human Dao Fire appeared on his system panel, which could be converted into 1,210 Divine Dao Fire.

’Convert! And allocate the points!’

Chen Yansen was already an old hand at this. A few moments later, his Spirit attribute had risen from 73.34 to 85.44.

The range of his Divine Sense continued to expand, its diameter growing from just over seventeen meters to more than eighteen. Everything in the vicinity was now under his control.

The mental image in his mind grew increasingly detailed; he could even make out the intricate veins on the leaves of the sycamore tree below.

Unfortunately, the world he perceived through his Divine Sense was still in black and white.

”Time to test the weight limit of my telekinesis,” Chen Yansen muttered to himself, his gaze falling on a stack of dumbbell plates by the table.

Suddenly, a 10-kilogram plate lifted into the air, followed by a second, and then a third. That was a full 30 kilograms, yet he still felt he had power to spare.

The fourth 10-kilogram plate wobbled as it fought against gravity before finally hovering steadily in mid-air.

Only then did Chen Yansen feel the crushing weight, as if a massive boulder was pressing down on his head.

When he tried to lift the fifth plate, the strain was obvious. He barely managed to raise it a few centimeters before it fell to the floor with a CLANG.