I am a Big Player
Chapter 563 - 557, The World of Capital (First Update)_1

Chapter 563: 557, The World of Capital (First Update)_1

What was I doing at 17? Mark Pen pondered, as if he had just started his senior year of high school and hadn’t even enlisted in the military yet.

However, he now had to face a 17-year-old boy, who had become one of the rare opponents he had encountered in such a long time.

Mark Pen awaited contact from the Dutch CIA division; it was only with the joint operation of two combat teams that there was full confidence in capturing the other party.

It was at this moment that the encrypted file left in the hotel surveillance system was finally decoded. Inside there was nothing of substance, just a simple logo...

On the logo were two lines of text, the top line written in Chinese with the three characters for Big Player, while the English line read Big.player...

This was what Ren He and Xu Nuo had left in the hotel surveillance. Ren He had felt that traversing the Jianghu lacked some momentum without a name, which led to this contrivance.

Big.player was to ensure that those who didn’t understand Chinese could get it, yet these two words together meant more than just "big player"!

In fact, Big.player in English usually refers to something like an industry monopolist. But Xu Nuo, whose English was poor, didn’t understand this and had created the logo without realizing anything was wrong.

Ren He thought about it and then just laughed it off, not bothering to fuss over it. Why overthink when it was enough to let others know what’s going on?

Mark Pen stared intently at the logo, as if he could feel the other party’s will: So what if the CIA has a global warrant for me? I’m here, and I’m still very much alive.

Madman! Arrogance!

Members of the combat team suddenly found their captain sitting in the corner of the safe house, wiping his weapons over and over again.

After wiping them down, he would often gaze at the sniper rifle hanging on the wall of the safe house, lost in thought and silent, repeatedly thinking about taking it down, yet ultimately abandoning the idea each time.

Mark Pen’s way of killing time before a major battle was always to maintain his arms. His teammates knew this, but the hesitation over choosing a sniper rifle was out of the ordinary.

Mark Pen had used sniper rifles and was even renowned within the CIA for it, but the fact that he hesitated to choose the sniper rifle indicated that he was unsure if he could gain the upper hand over his adversary with it!

In the end, Mark Pen still didn’t pick up the sniper rifle. But not picking it up didn’t mean failure, for they had already laid a dragnet for Ren He.

...

"We must give our all in this competition, Cheng Jian, you need to let yourself go more in your performance, don’t hold back. Show the tension in your lines!" Chen Da was advising everyone over breakfast that morning.

Today was the day of the competition, a theater contest at the opening of a film festival, followed by the premiere of 17 indie films, and finally the opening ceremony and the awards ceremony.

It was certain that Chen Da and the others would not be able to see the awards ceremony as their trip was funded publicly, and the Central Academy of Drama was unwilling to cover seven more days of accommodation fees, especially considering the pricey hotel rates in the Netherlands.

It was said that the last year after competing in Berlin, Germany, everyone used their portion of the prize money to enjoy two more days in Berlin, and Chen Da himself hadn’t taken a penny.

Through this, Ren He had come to view Chen Da differently, knowing that his salary was just over 7000 RMB, which in the Capital back in 2007, was barely mid to lower class, as teachers’ salaries had not yet been raised at that time.

Chen Da used to be an actor with hefty expenses, but now lived a frugal life, which made it unsurprising that he wanted to return to the film and television industry.

Sometimes in life, one earns money not necessarily for oneself; getting married requires money, having children requires money, illness in the family requires money – everything needs money.

The so-called happiness in poverty is nothing but toxic chicken soup for the soul.

In my former life, many advocated hitchhiking as if it were a romantic concept, embodying the notion that one can be happy without money.

But what’s the reality? When girls hitchhike, if they don’t unbutton their clothes, nobody is willing to stop for them. Unbuttoning one’s clothes implies you’re willing to exchange your body for the cost of a ride.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch; this is the most basic principle of all.

Money itself is neither good nor bad. Used well, it’s a force for good; misused, it becomes evil. In the end, it all depends on whether the person using it is good or bad.

In China, the government seldom compromises with money, a reflection of its consistently tough stance.

But in the capitalist world of America, it’s often said that conglomerates rule the world. One shouldn’t fully believe that, but how much influence do these conglomerates have over a nation? A lot!

In China, the oil and chemical industries are all state-controlled, and all land belongs to the state.

But what about in America? In my former life, out of 16 oil and chemical companies, 8 were controlled by the Rockefeller Conglomerate. And let’s not forget the DuPont Conglomerate, which has long handled a significant portion of the U.S. government’s military orders, making it one of the largest arms dealers in the country.

It’s impossible for such conglomerates to treat the government as a puppet, since other conglomerates would not agree to this, but to say they have no influence is laughably incorrect. After all, many of America’s economic pillars are controlled by conglomerates, not by the state.

This economic form fundamentally differs from that of our country!

Ren He had been thinking since last night about how he and the CIA could end this battle.

In truth, his trip to the Netherlands was a bit too rash; it’s impossible for a single person to topple a powerful intelligence agency, and the situation in the future will certainly be inexorable.

Because the CIA made a mistake at the starting point of the Yang En incident, they didn’t dare to pursue him openly, but as long as the CIA remains, he must continue living like this. Can he bring down the CIA? The answer is no.

It’s absolutely alright to give the CIA a tit-for-tat response, an eye for an eye, blood for blood, but to bring down such a large organization is unrealistic.

After all, it is a time of peace, with nations seeking a balance of tranquility among themselves.

So, what’s the best way to deal with the CIA then?

It took Ren He all night to come up with an answer: Play the game of capital.

Qinghe TQ Communication has already started integrating industry resources, taking on the appearance of the penguin from his previous life, and Qinghe Pay is gradually becoming a fashionable way to pay, tied to Qinghe Mall, making it the leader among third-party payment platforms.

What was the market value of Penguin in my former life? It could be said that among Penguin, Alibaba, and Baidu, only Baidu was slightly weaker, while both Alibaba and Penguin had market values exceeding a trillion RMB.

What would happen if two powerful internet empires joined forces? Ren He wasn’t too sure, as it hadn’t reached that stage yet. What he was clear about was that when this internet empire sought external capital cooperation, the CIA warrant on his head might not even be an issue in that capital kingdom.

After all, in the past, international arms dealers killed Interpol officers and nothing came of it—the world of capital has its own set of rules.

There’s no need to worry about dealing with the devil, as the Qinghe faction is already a fierce tiger in its own right.