Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On the second floor of the Innovation Park.

Li Bin looked at Chen Yansen across from him and felt an inexplicable pressure. The other guy was only a freshman while he himself was a junior, yet he felt as nervous as if he were facing a family elder or a department head.

Hearing Chen Yansen’s question, he answered instinctively, "I’m currently F3. Based on how often I shop, I should be able to get to F4 within six months."

Chen Yansen’s expression was odd.

To reach F3 status on FoxTao, a user had to spend over 10,000, and F4 status required spending over 100,000.

’This guy, Li Bin, is clearly from a very well-off family, yet he’s here interviewing for a price comparison editor position that pays 3,000 a month. It’s really surprising.’

"The price comparison editor position has a low barrier to entry but great potential. The future career path leads to category operations manager or user experience optimizer. I need someone who can commit to a stable, long-term position..."

Chen Yansen said calmly, sizing up Li Bin’s clothes.

"Brother Sen, as long as you don’t fire me, I could work at FoxTao for a lifetime!" Li Bin chuckled, rushing to make his position clear, his face full of youthful zeal and persistence.

’A lifetime?’

’Young people love to exaggerate.’

"Come in tomorrow to get started. Welcome to FoxTao."

Chen Yansen stood up, patted Li Bin’s shoulder, and escorted him out of the interview room with a smile.

"Next," Chen Yansen called out to Xu Dan.

Just as he returned to his seat, he saw a familiar face walk in—the top seller of Xucheng Telecom campus cards in 2010.

Li Hui pushed up the frames on his nose and greeted with a smile, "Brother Sen, long time no see."

"I know what you’re capable of. The business development role at FoxTao is different from other e-commerce companies. Ninety percent diligence and ten percent emotional intelligence can make you a top performer. I hope you can adapt quickly."

Chen Yansen waved his hand, skipping the unnecessary procedures, and directly gave Li Hui an offer.

’At FoxTao’s current stage, you could tie a dog that knows how to type to a computer and it would still be able to sign on merchants. And this was Li Hui—quick-witted, experienced with selling campus cards, and with a flimsy sense of morality. He was a natural-born salesman.’

’The only thing I’ll have to watch out for is him trying to skim off the top.’

"Thank you, Brother Sen. I’ll definitely work hard to make money for you." Li Hui bowed repeatedly, showing none of the thin-skinned shyness typical of a college student.

He hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be so direct, hiring him without asking a single question.

"That’s not the right way to put it. What motivation would you have working to make me money? You need to be working to make money for yourself," Chen Yansen said with a faint smile.

The business development role paid a base salary of 3,000 a month, plus a 3% commission on gross profit. If monthly sales exceeded 300,000, the commission rate would increase to 4%, and for anything over 500,000, it would be 5%.

Li Hui broke into a silly grin, then went out to leave his contact information with Xu Dan.

’Just relying on these college students won’t be enough,’ Chen Yansen sighed softly to himself. ’I’ll have to poach some account managers from Jingdong, Store No. 1, and Taobao Network, or maybe nab some people from the brands themselves.’

’Category operations managers at the major platforms have at least a few hundred merchant contacts. If I hire ten of them and pool their resources, FoxTao’s merchant CRM could swell by several thousand.’

’That would drastically shorten our development time!’

Having a clear plan, Chen Yansen made a mental note to have Xu Dan register on some recruitment websites later and start FoxTao’s hiring process for experienced professionals.

’As for whether he could find people, he wasn’t worried at all. As long as the money was right, who wouldn’t come?’

When the morning interviews ended, Chen Yansen called Xu Dan over to give a few instructions, then headed towards 0418.

As the November salaries were paid out, prompts indicating an increase in Human Dao Fire continuously appeared before his eyes. In just a few moments, the value on his panel became 18, representing that FoxTao’s labor cost for the previous month was 180,000.

It didn’t seem like much, but after deducting the part-time wages for ten customer service reps, the remaining thirty-plus people had an average salary of over 5,000 each. In Xucheng in 2010, that was no small sum.

"System! Allocate points!"

Chen Yansen walked into the living room and unhesitatingly focused his mind on the constitution stat.

The moment he spoke, the bone-chilling cold struck again. A wisp of white energy, like a curling tendril of smoke, suddenly drilled into the spot between his eyebrows. It rapidly merged with his flesh and bone, erupting with terrifying energy.

"THUMP—THUMP—!"

A torrent of blood surged into his heart before rushing out to every corner of his body. An intense feeling of power filled him completely.

Once the changes in his body subsided, Chen Yansen took out a tape measure and measured his height. It was still 1.86 meters—no change.

’Damn! Looks like this is my maximum height,’ Chen Yansen thought with a sigh of relief. ’If I kept getting taller every time I added points, I’d be a freak in a couple of years.’

He was inwardly thankful.

His constitution had become 1.67!

’According to the system, the limit for a normal human is 3. Now that I’m at 1.67, just how strong are my strength, reflexes, and endurance?’

At this thought, Chen Yansen’s interest was piqued. ’It’s no good just adding points without knowing the effect.’ After heading downstairs and finishing lunch, he went alone to a gym off-campus.

"Do you have a membership?" The young woman at the front desk looked up at Chen Yansen, her eyes lighting up as she asked with a beaming smile.

Men love looking at beautiful women, and women likewise love looking at handsome men.

"No." Chen Yansen shook his head.

"No problem, I can give you a one-week trial pass. You can try it out for a few days, and if you like it, you can sign up for a membership then," the young woman said enthusiastically, holding out a card.

"Oh, thanks." Chen Yansen took the card, swiped it at the entrance gate, and stepped inside.

"CLICK"!

The sound of a camera shutter from behind him was jarring.

Chen Yansen turned around to see the young woman from the front desk holding up her phone, smiling awkwardly.

"Hey handsome, I pressed the wrong button. You believe me, right?" The young woman giggled sheepishly. It was a terrible excuse.

Chen Yansen nodded, paid her no mind, and continued walking inside.

’He was completely focused on testing the changes to his body; he had no time for flirting.’

After he walked in, the young woman at the front desk quickly logged into QQ and sent the photo she just took to her best friend: "Yaoyao, get to the gym, quick! I found a perfect 10/10 hottie!"

Meanwhile, Chen Yansen walked into the gym proper and found the equipment was all quite old: three treadmills, six stationary bikes, and two bench press machines, but there were plenty of barbells and dumbbells.

Perhaps because it was the afternoon, there were only a few people in the gym. A guy in a tank top was doing dumbbell flys.

Chen Yansen walked over to a barbell and glanced down at the weights. The 2.2-meter bar weighed 20 kg, with 60 kg of plates on each side, totaling 140 kg—close to the strength limit for an average person.

He bent down, gripped the bar with a mixed grip, and with a gentle pull, the barbell rose steadily.

"Too light! I don’t feel a thing!" Chen Yansen muttered.

There were plates stacked nearby, so he loaded on two more 20 kg plates.

"Up!"

Chen Yansen grunted, the muscles in his arms bulging and straining the fabric of his shirt.

The 180 kg weight had some heft to it, but it was nowhere near his limit.

The guy doing flys nearby saw him effortlessly pull up the 180 kg barbell, immediately dropped his dumbbells, and came over.

He looked Chen Yansen up and down. ’Dress shirt, slacks, and sneakers. Is he trying out that whole "business-casual workout" thing?’

He wasn’t wearing a belt, knee sleeves, or gloves—not even lifting straps.

A 180 kg deadlift was upper-intermediate for an amateur, and considering Chen Yansen was doing it raw, that made it even more impressive.

"Dude, you’re pretty strong. How come you’re not in workout clothes?" Hu Yongfan, who had been bottling up his questions, asked while helping Chen Yansen add more plates.

"Uh... I left in a hurry, didn’t have time to change." Chen Yansen glanced down at his clothes. ’This outfit really isn’t right for the gym. It looks like I’m trying to be a poser.’

"Another 40 kilos?" Hu Yongfan asked tentatively.

Chen Yansen had a slender build, and his long-sleeved shirt made him look tall and lanky. Pulling 220 kg would be no easy feat.

Chen Yansen didn’t say a word. He just walked up, gripped the bar firmly, and suddenly exerted his strength.

With five 20 kg plates now loaded on each side, the 220-kilogram total weight was enough to make the bar bend.

He bent, and rose! All in one smooth motion!

The veins on Chen Yansen’s neck bulged, a button on his sleeve popped off with a POP, the thick tendons on his wrists stood out like cords, and in the blink of an eye, blood rushed to his head, turning his face beet red.

"GET. UP!" Chen Yansen roared.

The barbell, weighing over 200 kilograms, was actually muscled up by him!

Hu Yongfan stared, dumbfounded. The fitness scene in 2010 was nothing like it would become over a decade later. Plenty of people worked out, but most focused on sculpting their bodies. He had never before seen someone like Chen Yansen, who just walked in and immediately started stacking plates.

"CLANG"!

Chen Yansen dropped the barbell, gasping for breath, his blood roaring in his ears, his heart pounding, and steam practically rising from his head.

"Dude! Fucking awesome! Are you from Xucheng Academy too? I’m Hu Yongfan, ’08 Civil Engineering." Hu Yongfan was all smiles, enthusiastically introducing himself.

"’10 School of Communication and Culture, Chen Yansen," Chen Yansen replied softly after catching his breath.

’The School of Communication and Culture?’

’I thought you were a damn weightlifter from the Physical Education department!’

Hu Yongfan was shocked, clicking his tongue in amazement. He stared at Chen Yansen with a burning gaze, looking like he wanted to rip Chen Yansen’s clothes off to see what was underneath.

Seeing this, Chen Yansen instinctively took a step back, thinking, ’Just as I thought. In a gym, if you lift well, you tend to attract guys.’

"Whoa! Dude, don’t get the wrong idea, I’m straight," Hu Yongfan instantly understood and hurriedly explained.

’That just made it worse!’

With that explanation, Chen Yansen took another step back.

"Are you going to add more weight?" Hu Yongfan shook his head helplessly and asked with a wry smile.

"Might as well try. I’ve still got some strength left," Chen Yansen said after a moment of thought.

"You’re a beast! I’ve been working out at this gym for three years. It’s not that I haven’t seen people deadlift 220 kilos, but you’re the first one I’ve ever seen do it in dress clothes," Hu Yongfan said, impressed.

A minute later, the weight on the barbell was increased to 260 kg. This was a truly elite number; even internationally, it would be considered professional level.

When Hu Yongfan saw Chen Yansen was about to attempt the lift without gear, he quickly stopped him. "Bro, I brought a belt and knee sleeves. Use mine. If you injure a muscle, recovery can be really slow."

’That makes sense,’ Chen Yansen thought. He was just trying to test the limits of his 1.67 stat, not trying to be a poser.

He nodded and readily accepted the gear.

The people on the treadmills and stationary bikes heard the commotion and gathered around. This included the young woman from the front desk, who was now holding her phone up, openly recording a video from her spot in the crowd.

Chen Yansen paid them no mind. Using a mixed grip, he took hold of the bar, and under everyone’s watchful eyes, suddenly unleashed his power.

The 260-kilogram bar bent into an arc, and the collars groaned under the strain.

As Chen Yansen pulled with all his might, the barbell moved bit by bit, past his shins, past his knees, and finally, with a powerful straightening of his back, he managed to lock it out.

"Holy shit! This dude looks like he’s under 90 kg, but he can deadlift 260 kg! He’s a monster!"

"If he punched me, he’d probably pulverize me!"

"Deadlifting in dress clothes! I hereby dub him Xuyuan’s Number One Poser!"

The onlookers muttered amongst themselves.

"CLANG"!

Chen Yansen dropped the barbell, panting heavily. His face was flushed, and it was clear he had reached his limit.

’This system is really something else!’

’I’m this strong with a stat of just 1.67. What would I be like at 167? I could probably obliterate Superman with a single punch!’

Chen Yansen clenched his fists. He had finally found the meaning in this second chance at life.