Bitcoin Billionaire: I Regressed to Invest in the First Bitcoin!-Chapter 143: Digits and Directions

She knew to always wait by it, and she was already holding out a steaming cup of coffee. Today, she wore a navy blazer and an almost too tight pencil skirt.

Her dark brown hair swayed over her left shoulder, and as usual, the strands of hair covered her left eye. The second he reached her, she matched his pace without missing a beat.

"Rachel. What do you have for me this morning?"

"Trendteller reports are in," she began, eyes forward. "You're going to want to hear this."

Darren took the cup and gulped down a large amount. "How many licenses sold?"

"Base version hit 1042. That's $112,000 in monthly revenue. Trendteller+ landed a $110,000 enterprise analytics deal with Verdant Markets. They want scaling options by next quarter."

"Verdant Markets? I didn't think they'd be interested —" He shrugged. "Well, I did think they'll be interested but not this fast."

He nodded slowly, taking a sip. "1042 sells for the base version, that's really good. Lila will be happy to hear that. What's our cut in that? Like 25%."

"20% for the first year," Rachel reminded him.

"If we carry on like this for a full year. We'll be looking at around $1.5 million dollars for the first year." He pursed his lips and nodded. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

He took another sip.

Rachel side-eyed him. "Is that it?" She laughed nervously, once, her disappointment clear.

Darren glanced at her. "Is that what?"

Rachel looked at the file in her hand. "I don't know, I just... this was not what I imagi— We sold over a thousand licenses in one week. I thought you'd be happier."

His brows creased as he looked at her.

"I wanted you to feel it," she said. "That's a milestone, sir. Not many people make six figures in their first week in the market."

"Hey hey hey," Darren spoke softly, gently placing his palm on her hand. He looked down at her and whispered, "What is it? Are you okay?"

Rachel looked down at where his hand had touched her. "I am," she replied gently. "It's just... you've been so busy and... I know you have things to do now."

Darren bore into her eyes. "Hey, stop. Don't be like that. It's not that I don't care about this stuff. I do. But right now... all I can see is the block count. All I am focused on right now is mining just as I was focused on the software last week. Just as I'll be focused on you again as well."

Rachel stayed quiet a beat. Then her voice softened. "I'm not asking you to be focused on me... that's selfish. I just— I just don't want you to be cold. I lik— mhm!"

Darren suddenly pressed his lips into hers, kissing her deep and affectionately, while his palm caressed her chin.

Rachel closed her eyes.

When they were done, he pulled away gently and their lips made a quiet smack.

"Did that feel cold?" he asked her.

She shook her head, clearly rocked from the passionate kiss. "No," she mumbled. "It was warm. Really warm."

Darren smiled.

Then he pulled away and instantly returned to work mode, hand sunk in pocket. "Was there anything else?"

Still getting herself together, and even surprised by his sudden change in demeanor, Rachel remembered.

"Oh, yes." She pulled an envelope from her file. "This came in late yesterday. From Brookfield."

He opened it, scanned the cursive heading.

Brookfield University Graduating Class 2007/2008 Reunion. Friday, November 3rd.

His brows lifted. "I completely forgot about this. It seems they postponed it again. Tyler Mooney must be in town now if it's this close."

"Your alma mater?"

"Yeah," Darren replied.

Rachel softened her expression. "You don't want to go, do you?"

He downturned his lips. "I've thought about it. I don't have plans for Friday night so we'll see."

---------------

Two minutes later, the keycard door to the Operations Room slid open.

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

Warm air greeted him — but not oppressive. A low hum filled the space, the steady thrum of rig cooling fans, oil pumps, and silicon computation. The place was running. Alive.

Kara was in her element, whiteboard marker in one hand, tablet in the other. She looked up immediately. "Morning, boss."

"Status."

"We mined a block at 2:41 AM. Then another at 4:18. That brings us to 1,350 BTC total." She turned and underlined the new numbers.

Day 5 — Week 4 BTC Output: 2 Blocks = 100 BTC

Total BTC: 1,350 BTC

Current Price: $702

"Cooling stable?"

"Mineral oil is holding. Rig temps are averaging 44.8°C. We've had no throttling since the Rig 8 retrofit."

Rico waved from his corner. "I even squeezed an extra 6 MH/s out of Rig 2 with some script tweaks. Rotated hash schedules like you said."

Darren approached the wall-mounted dashboard and activated the system interface.

Ding!

┏Amplified Bitcoin Analyzer┛

┏Nonce Iteration Sync: Optimized

Rig-to-Block Latency: 5.3s

Projected Solve Window: 26–33 minutes┛

"Good," Darren muttered.

He turned to the room.

"Today is the last day of this week. Technically it should be the last day of the month and Q1, but lucky for us, we have Monday and Tuesday left in this month. That's two working days. Working days that we're going to use to fix the messy outputs of the earlier weeks. You all know the target."

Kara tapped the whiteboard with the back of her marker.

Target by Tuesday: 5,000 BTC.

Remaining: 3,650 BTC.

Required Output: 73 Blocks Minimum.

Everyone began to murmur. 'That's a lot.' 'Is that even possible?' '73 in three days?' 'Ah hell. Thank God I'm not working the night shift."

"Any issues with oil viscosity?" Darren asked, ignoring their murmurs. "Circulation speed?"

"We tested last night," Kara said. "Flow rate's holding. But we'll need a refill shipment by Wednesday."

"I ordered one already," Darren remarked. "It's scheduled."

He looked back at the team. "I'll go easy on you guys. Get me ten blocks today. Nothing less."

They all glanced at each other. "Ten blocks? He calls that easy?"

"Enough with the talking! Start solving! Mine those blocks!"

------------

By noon, another two blocks had been mined.

1,450 BTC.

Kara updated the board. Rico gave her a low-five, both of them looking satisfied, and at the same time, desperate to mine more blocks.

They needed eight more.

Back in his office, Darren stood by the window, hands in his pockets. Below, the city of Los Alverez stretched on — unaware of what he was building above their heads.

Rachel knocked once before entering.

"Meeting with Charles Nelson is tomorrow. Dinner's booked at Denley's Prime. Just you and him."

Darren frowned distastefully. "Tomorrow?"

"Yes," she replied. Then she noticed a sigh leave him. "What is it?"

"You're going to have to reschedule."

She nodded. "That's fine, it's no problem. I'm happy to do it, sir. What date would be better?"

"Thursday. This mining week will be over by then. Charles and I have much to talk about and I think that a meeting like that... " He thought for a while, knowing how big the Nelsons were. "I'd have to be at the top of my game to deal with it."

Rachel understood. "I'll call Denley's."