1999, March 15th

  William was alone in the home gym. Eve was at the office, preparing for Microsoft's eventual attack. He knew for sure that they wouldn't try anything illegal. After all, they were already in an antitrust lawsuit. They wouldn't want to give the State more ammunition. He didn't warn Eve of that because she was hyper-focused on what Microsoft could do, not what Microsoft might do. She needed to learn how to see more of the board. I think I should play some chess with her. To teach her how to see more broadly.

  He shook his head and swung the sword with his left hand. He was testing out his new perk, Ambidextrous. It was still a wonder to him how the System just made him dominant in both hands. He continues practicing. It took some getting used to, being able to use both hands without any restraint. He was practicing to clear his head and find more ways to counter Eve's fighting style.

  William was also thinking of what to do. He had his future planned out already. By 2000, he would profit a lot from the dot-com bubble burst. He had ensured that he would profit. He had contemplated whether he should step into the entertainment industry. He realized that it was a big money sink, but it could also bring him a lot of profit. He decided to throw the decision down the road. His first thought was buying Marvel, but if he remembered correctly, Marvel would continue declining in stock price until 2000. He would buy it then.

  He blocked an imaginary stab at his guts and counterattacked. Think, William. Think. Where could I reasonably expand into? Chips and hardware? Too early, I think. Cloud? Maybe, but I have no serious infrastructure for that. Biotech? I know literally nothing about that. Energy? Maybe some renewable energy? I don't have enough capital to go into that field yet.

  He scratched his head. The easiest field was Cloud Computing. It just required money. He had money, but most of it was tied up in stocks.

  Next, he wanted to test out his new perk, Blade Bond. He couldn't feel any different with blades he knew familiarly, like a longsword or a cavalry saber. He picked out a katana from the storage. Strangely enough, it was a lot different. Despite not having any familiarity with a katana, he could feel something from the katana, like it was communicating. What is this supernatural bullshit? Still, he tested it out. He tried out a quick draw. It satisfied his inner weeb.

  The blade sang through the air as he visibly heard the air being cut. The movement was far more fluid than it should have been for a weapon he'd never used before. The weight, the curve, and the balance of the sword felt entirely natural to him.

  I can't really think of any fields. Let's get some inspiration. Oh, right. I can look through the system's technology store. He pulled up the Technology store.

  [Filter by Era]

  [Near Future(2000 - 2010) - 24 Available]

  [Mid Future(2010 - 2030) - 47 Available]

  [Far Future(2030 - 2080) - 89 Available]

  [Speculative(2080+) - 12 Available]

  [Filter by Category]

  [Computing & Software]

  [Hardware & Electronics]

  [Biotechnology & Medicine]

  [Energy & Power]

  [Transportation & Aerospace]

  [Material Science]

  [Telecommunication]

  [Military & Defense]

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  He selected Near Future and looked through all the categories.

  In Computing & Software, there were options like Social Media Platform Architecture, which he had previously seen before, now priced at 1150 points instead of the previous 450 points. There were also technologies like Video Streaming Platform Architecture with 1250 points, Voice Recognition Engine at 2000 points, Email Spam Filter at 1250 points, and Biometric Authentication System at 1900 points. In Hardware & Electronics, there were Lithium-Ion Battery Efficiency Optimization at 1900 points, Consumer SSD(Solid State Drive) at 2750 points, Mobile Touchscreen at 2400 points, and Bluetooth 2.0 at 1650 points. In Energy & Power, Photovoltaic Panel Efficiency Upgrade at 2400 points, Wind Turbine Blade Optimization at 1900 points, and Thermoelectric Power Generation Prototype at 2150 points. In Transportation & Aerospace, CubeSat Satellite was sold for 2400 points, Jet Engine Efficiency Tuning Algorithm at 2000 points, and Autopilot Assistance Module for 2150 points.

  There were also technologies like 3G network, Unmanned Recon Drone, Composite Armor, Self Healing Polymer, Early Smartphone Design, and VoIP Communication Protocol.

  He felt a bit happy, looking at these options. He had his next goal now. It would still be in the software section, but it was bound to be extremely successful. He immediately decided on three options. Video Streaming, Cloud Service, and finally, VoIP communication. It was very simple. Video Streaming and Cloud Service went hand-in-hand. In fact, video streaming wouldn't exist without a cloud service. The next one, VoIP, was special. It would allow voice communication over the Internet. And with his growth in the browser market, he was bound to have millions of users there. And after that, he would buy the Early Smartphone Design and use the knowledge from that to design his own superior smartphone.

  He also had a backup file, just in case it failed, but it was very unlikely. He knew what would happen, how it would happen, and why, simply because he had been reborn in the past. It was unlikely to fail, and it was the most simple and logical conclusion he came to.

  He parried the imaginary strike and performed Tsuki, which was a straight thrust with a single step forward. Then he performed Chiburi with the katana, which involved flicking the imaginary blood from the katana, before actually sheathing it. It fulfilled his inner chunni self.

  He immediately went to work. First, he called Eve.

  "Hey, Eve. How's it going?"

  She sounds skeptical, "Well, it's going well so far. There's no movement from Microsoft just yet."

  He said awkwardly, "That's good..."

  William almost heard her narrow her eyes, "You know something, don't you?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about, Eve."

  "You're definitely lying. You're scratching your right ear right now, no?"

  He looked at his right hand. It was indeed scratching, "How the fuck did you know that?"

  "I guessed. You tend to do that when you lie."

  "Tsked. Fine, you caught me."

  She sighed, "So what is it?"

  "Eve, they're not going to take any legal or monopolistic actions."

  She sounded confused, "Why? Do you have any insider information?"

  "It's quite simple, my dear Eve," he said, pretending she was Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes. "They're currently facing an antitrust lawsuit. So they're lying low and wouldn't do anything."

  She groaned, "Argh. I forgot about that. If you knew, why didn't you tell me, Will?"

  He shrugged, "You need to learn to see the bigger picture, Eve. You're too hyperfocused. I was going to let you take this as a lesson, but you caught me."

  She sighed, sounding defeated, "So how do I fix that?"

  "Play some chess."

  "Chess?"

  "Yes. Chess will help you see multiple ways to advance. And as a bonus, it's also extremely fun."

  Eve was quiet for a moment, "Fine. But you'll have to actually teach me, not just beating me and gloat."

  "I don't gloat."

  "You absolutely do."

  "Alright, maybe I do. But only when I win."

  "Yeah?"

  "Alright, that statement was stupid, but it's technically true."

  She hmmphed, "So why are you calling me for?"

  William grinned, "Couldn't it be just because I want to talk to you?"

  "Absolutely not. You wouldn't call around this time because you know I'm busy. You would only busy me if you had an insane idea."

  "That's uncalled for, dude. My ideas are not insane."

  "They are, Will. Who the fuck thinks creating an OS just by yourself is a good idea for a business idea?"

  "I do."

  She sighed and stopped arguing, "So what is it?"

  "Well, I have an idea-"

  "An insane one."

  William ignored her, "-We should create three separate software at the same time."

  "Three? Are you insane? We have no developers, Will."

  "That's why I called you. I want you to hire 10 to 30 developers."

  She sighed again, "So what are they?"

  "The first one is cloud computing. We need to buy more servers. The second one is a video streaming website. We're gonna be using our own cloud computing to do that. For that, we'll need like tens of servers just to be ready for a launch. And third, I want to create an app that can send voice over the internet. There's a technology called VoIP, which seems to be really great and goes well with our browser."

  She sounded tired, "Fine. I'll prepare for it."

  He hesitated, "Sorry for putting more work on you, Eve. I'll make it up to you."

  Eve snorted, "You better."

  "Of course. I'll seriously teach you chess tonight, alright?"

  Her snort came through the phone, "Sure. I'm busy now."

  He smiled, "Alright, alright. I'll get out of your hair."