CHAPTER 331: CHAPTER 174: SYSTEM UPGRADE_3

Let’s use Brother Lie’s Level 4 skills as an example... um, never mind, this technique is even harder to understand. Everyone can do it, but while it’s easy to learn, it’s hard to master.

Let’s make an analogy with Level 4 bluffs... that won’t work either. A bunch of straight guys and otaku girls, I guess you’re all just cute little victims of deception.

Anyway, it’s a level where one could do quite well, above just being proficient.

Specifically, the mathematical knowledge stream that Han Lie is now absorbing includes—

Real analysis, harmonic analysis, complex analysis, functional analysis II, abstract algebra II, commutative algebra, group theory, representation theory of groups, introduction to Riemannian geometry, homology theory, differential topology, mathematical methods in classical mechanics, Gromov-Witten theory...

Man, Han Lie was being force-fed until he practically rolled his eyes.

If his Intelligence hadn’t risen to the genius baseline, he’d probably have crashed by now.

But, as uncomfortable as it was, the gains were even bigger than expected.

The Level 4 mathematical knowledge wasn’t very deep, but its scope was freakishly vast.

Normally, undergraduates from the School of Mathematics at Peking University would have stopped taking general foundational courses by their third or fourth year and started choosing their specialties, such as basic mathematics, computational mathematics, information science, probability and statistics, and financial mathematics, among others. Divided by major fields, there are also classes like analysis and equations, algebra and number theory, geometry and topology, and so on.

But the system didn’t care about any of that; it just pumped knowledge from all fields directly into him.

Halfway through, Han Lie suddenly realized—Holy crap, it’s so shallow!

Getting a diploma wouldn’t be a problem, but trying to do my own research in theoretical fields... nope, forget it.

However, if someone were to diss Level 4 mathematics as not being powerful, that would be incorrect.

A broad yet solid foundation allowed Han Lie to effortlessly and quickly develop practical competence in any application area.

For example, in the field of finance, quantitative analysis and financial engineering are child’s play for someone who is truly good at mathematics. If your math is so-so, forget about it; it’s none of your business.

There was a time when Wall Street was overflowing with quants, recruiting specifically graduates in mathematics, physics, statistics, and computer science, while finance masters from prestigious schools got beaten black and blue.

What’s the most badass thing? Mathematics or statistics PhDs could casually pick up a bit of knowledge in finance or computing, and instantly, their careers would skyrocket, becoming a manager in three years, and a vice president in five.

The king of disciplines—the title is well deserved!

Having just recovered somewhat, Han Lie immediately made up his mind—Next time, I’ll still prioritize upgrading mathematics!

The second subject he upgraded was finance.

Finance is actually included within economics, but due to the peculiarity of the financial market, it has branched off on its own. It didn’t require as high a talent as mathematics, so it didn’t put any pressure on Han Lie.

Easily done~~~

The third subject was naturally economics. It’s not difficult, but it’s extremely broad.

The current mainstream economic schools in the world can roughly be divided into two major camps—

One, the economic schools of the liberal camp.

Two, the economic schools of the state intervention camp.

No need for explanation; everyone should know that the state intervention camp is the correct path. A pure free market is purely nonsense. Our Huaxia’s example is right here; with the state’s correct intervention, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, right?

But the curious thing is that what is mainly taught in domestic universities has always been classical and neoclassical economics. It seemed that it wasn’t until after 2016 that the "Macroeconomics" textbooks were completely switched to Mankiw’s version—Mankiw, a neoclassical Keynesian, belongs to the state intervention camp. But even then, they did not completely eliminate the influence of the Hayek Austrian school.

In a previous life, a big shot came out and criticized neoclassical economics as deceptive theology, and then... he disappeared...

Ahem, let’s stop there. Anyway, Han Lie has learned all of them, but he doesn’t fully believe in any single school of thought.

With Level 4 proficiency, it’s naturally not enough to create a new school of thought, but it doesn’t matter; Brother Lie already knew the right answer—

Stick to exploring the Huaxia path, and be irreconcilably opposed to the compradors!

...

After finishing these three subjects, the rest was a breeze.

Performance skills were upgraded in minutes, and he learned a lot of strange knowledge. Like feeling the inner self, originating internally and manifesting externally, absolutely rejecting the method acting approach, winning with technique~~~

Come on, help pull Reba over here, and watch how I outplay her!

I’m not bragging, but in my age group, there isn’t a single person who can compete; they’re all noobs!

Upgrading bluffing skills was even easier. Han Lie hardly felt anything; it was over in three seconds.

After it was all over, he carefully pondered it and felt a bit empty. I feel a bit empty. There’s no one for me to test my skills on...

He turned his head to look at Chairman Wang, who was sleeping like a log.

Hmph, he’s completely out of it.

Just as he was sighing, a prompt suddenly popped up on the panel—

[You have met all the upgrade requirements, and the consumption system has been upgraded to Level 3]

[Changes are as follows:]

[1. The feature to add points to Heavenly-tier attributes has been unlocked, and you can now use experience points to add points at any time.]

[For attributes between 80-89 points, each point requires 10,000,000 experience points.]

Ha! Just as I expected, 10,000,000 per point!

Han Lie was very happy and didn’t find it expensive at all.

Even though it’ll take a total of 800,000,000 in consumption to max out all four Basic Attributes plus the four Secondary Attributes, it’s totally worth it.

He was no longer the loser he once was; he could correctly assess the value of attributes and dared to spend money.

Money is easy to earn, but Health is precious...

Furthermore, for the rich, Special attributes selling for 500,000,000 a point? That’s reasonable, right?

If you don’t believe me, ask Brother Dong if he wants some! That foolish girl who got carried away at a drinking party and rashly tried to extort him lost both her criminal and civil cases, but she really did seriously damage Brother Dong’s male pride. How many minutes did the chat logs say it was again? If attributes could be resold, I’d be willing to sell 10 points to my good Brother Dong for the friendly price of just 5,000,000,000. Hehehe...

[2. The maximum level for professional knowledge and skills has been opened up to Level 5, with the upper limit being Level 5 with 199,999,999 experience.]

Looking at that string of numbers, Han Lie’s head started to ache.

I have no idea how to even get from Level 4 to Level 5, let alone fathom 200,000,000 experience for Level 5... In the short term, if I can get 10,000,000 experience and level up my stock trading skills, that’ll be great.

Han Lie glanced at the 2,200,000 in cash available for spending and felt the long road ahead.

Just as he was feeling troubled, Han Lie glanced further down and saw a new feature entry, his eyes instantly lighting up.

[3. A new feature "Consumption Critical Hit" has been unlocked.]

[Every time you spend, there is a 5% chance to trigger a Consumption Critical Hit.]

[Once a critical hit occurs, you can receive 2-10 times the amount spent in monetary rewards.]

[The reward will be issued to the foreign exchange platform account, please select the platform—]

Seeing a familiar name, Han Lie casually decided, "FOREX Gain Capital."

In Huaxia, trading in foreign exchange is an activity that is neither prohibited by law nor protected. Thus, trading has to be done on international platforms only. As a well-regulated, long-standing foreign exchange group and an American-listed company, Gain Capital has an impeccable reputation.

At least, there won’t be any problems until I make a lot of money. If I really hit a huge jackpot, like spending 100,000,000 and netting 1,000,000,000, they might not actually be willing to pay up. Because domestic customers are under looser regulation. You can simply understand it as foreign customers being protected by the law, while domestic customers are not, so they are placed in a special supervision area, and the corresponding penalties are comparatively weaker. They’ll definitely pay out small amounts on time, but for large sums... it’s better not to test human nature. In the future, once I have more money, I’ll have to set up a legitimate investment company on Hong Kong Island.

Making a note of this, Han Lie went to sleep contentedly.

「The next morning when he woke up...」

Wang Tianqing exclaimed, "Stop! Brother Lie, hold on! Uh... today the literature and art department has its second round of auditions, you have to go!"

Oh, I actually forgot such an important event!

"What time?"

"8:30!"

Looking at the time, there was only an hour left, clearly not enough.

Han Lie, with diminished enthusiasm, let her go and got up to wash and get ready. Then he quickly ate some breakfast and went back to the dormitory to change clothes.

As he opened the door, Little Northeast and Ding Ding were chatting animatedly about something. The moment they saw Han Lie, their brother-in-law who had finally returned home after so long, Han Lie’s gaze immediately became dangerously sharp...