Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 100 Ten Thousand Connections

Six months later.

Zuo Cheng stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of his new office, 402, looking at the Hangzhou skyline. The company had moved to a new location, from the old office building to a standalone office building in the Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. It was four stories high and 2,000 square meters, three times the size of the old one.

"Brother Cheng, the data is in." Han Lu pushed open the door, holding a report in her hand. "As of today, the Starlink Everything Open Platform has 1.2 registered developers, 340 applications launched, and a total of 10.3 connected devices."

10.3 million.

Zuo Cheng took the report and looked at the numbers, a complex mix of emotions welling up inside him. It took six months to go from 1.2 to 10.3. In those six months, 402 had accomplished so much: three major version iterations of the open platform, industry solutions covering the industrial, agricultural, and smart home sectors, the number of enterprise clients growing from 4 to 37, and paid revenue increasing from 20 per month to 280 million per month.

But more importantly, what does the number 10 devices mean? It means that 402's IoT platform is no longer a toy for startups, but a truly large-scale industrial infrastructure.

Han Lu continued her report: "Regarding enterprise clients, we have 37 paying customers covering 8 provinces. The largest client is a precision manufacturing company in Suzhou, which has connected 1200 devices at an annual fee of 45 yuan. Lin Yuan's industrial monitoring company is growing the fastest, having expanded to 5 factories, with the number of connected devices increasing from 50 to 800."

What about the developer ecosystem?

"Of the 1.2 developers, about 4000 are active, accounting for one-third. This proportion is quite high in the industry," said Han Lu. "Another interesting statistic is that there are over 2000 developer-generated technical sharing posts in the community, forming many best practices. We haven't spent a single penny on operations; it's all been self-generated by the developers."

Zuo Cheng put down the report and picked up his phone to take a look. On the system panel, the progress bar for the second stage of the [Sky Overlord] quest chain was full: 10.3/10.

He opened the panel and, sure enough, saw the notification that the task was completed.

[Main Quest Chain "Celestial Overlord" Part Two Completed!]

[Rewards: 80 points, Tech Tree Growth Acceleration x2.0 for 14 days, Internet of Things Branches and Leaves +2]

Current points: 205

80积分！比环节一的50积分多了30分。而且生长加速提升到了2.0倍，持续时间翻倍到了14天。更让左城惊喜的是直接奖励了两枚叶片，不需要消耗积分去扫描或融合。

He examined the newly acquired blades: one called "Multi-protocol Device Access," which supports unified access for multiple protocols such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and LoRa; the other called "Edge AI Inference," which allows lightweight AI models to run on edge gateways.

Multi-protocol device access means developers no longer need to worry about differences in underlying protocols; any device can be connected with a single click. Edge AI inference is a groundbreaking capability, meaning that IoT devices can not only collect data but also make intelligent judgments locally, without having to transmit all data back to the cloud.

These two blades arrived at just the right time. For a platform with 10 devices, the biggest headaches are protocol fragmentation and data processing bottlenecks. Multi-protocol access solves the fragmentation problem, and edge AI inference solves the bottleneck.

Zuo Cheng closed the system panel with a smile on his face.

Han Lu noticed his expression: "Brother Cheng, what are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing, I'm happy," Zuo Cheng said. "10 pieces of equipment, this is a milestone."

"It truly is a milestone," Han Lu said. "You know, among all IoT platforms in the industry, 402 is the seventh to connect more than 10 devices. The previous six were all large companies that had been operating for more than five years. We only took less than three years."

"The seventh one?" Zuo Cheng was somewhat surprised. "I thought there would be fewer."

"That's quite a lot. But it took the other six companies five years to reach 10 units, while we did it in less than three years. This speed is unprecedented in the industry."

Zuo Cheng thought for a moment: "Let's issue a press release. The data can be made public: 10 devices connected, 1.2 developers, and 340 applications. Let the industry know that 402 isn't just a company that only does projects; we're a platform with an ecosystem."

"Understood. My initial title idea is 'Starlink Surpasses 10 Connections, IoT Ecosystem Accelerates Formation.'"

"Can."

After Han Lu left, Zuo Cheng returned to his desk and reopened the system panel. 205 points—this number gave him more room to maneuver. He had been accumulating points, hesitant to spend them recklessly, as each scan and copy required a large number of points. But now that he had enough points, he could consider some operations he hadn't dared to do before.

For example, technological fusion. He already has three fusion blades; if he could fuse them again, he might gain even greater power.

However, the direction of integration needs to be carefully chosen. The Internet of Things (IoT) branch already has fifteen leaves; adding two new leaves opens up many possibilities for combination. Leaves from the communication engineering and aerospace communication branches can also participate in the integration, further expanding the possibilities.

Zuo Cheng didn't rush into action, but instead went through all the possibilities in his mind. Technological fusion consumes 5 points, but the cost of choosing the wrong combination of blades is far more than 5 points; it wastes time and opportunity.

He closed the system panel, deciding to put the matter aside for now. Today was a day of celebration—10 connections, another milestone in the history of 402 errors.

In the evening, Zuo Cheng made a reservation at a restaurant next to the science park, and the core team members all arrived. Chen Hao, Zhang Lei, Ma Hao, Liu Wei, Han Lu, and several newly joined technical backbone members.

"To 402, to 10 connections!" Zuo Cheng raised his glass.

"Respect to 402!"

Everyone clinked glasses, the atmosphere lively. After a couple of beers, Liu Wei became more talkative: "Brother Cheng, at first I thought 402 was just a small project-based company, but I never expected them to reach 10 units in less than two years. Following you was definitely the right decision."

"Did you choose this yourself?" Chen Hao asked with a smile. "I remember you hesitated for a long time before coming."

"That's different. I hesitated because I wasn't sure if Brother Cheng was reliable," Liu Wei chuckled. "Now I'm sure, he's very reliable."

Zuo Cheng smiled but didn't speak. Looking at the group of young people, he felt a sense of grounded satisfaction. In his previous life, he had been a cog in the machine at Huaxin for twelve years, never understanding the power of teamwork. In this life, he finally understood: one person can go fast, but a group can go far.

The technology tree was his own secret. This secret guided him, but it was everyone around him who truly paved the way.

His phone vibrated; it was a message from Yu Ying: "Bro, I heard it reached 10 connections? Congratulations!"

Zuo Cheng replied, "Want to have dinner together tomorrow?"

"Of course! It's my treat; you deserve it."

Zuo Cheng put away his phone and picked up his wine glass.

"Let's have another drink," he said. "To toast to 10."