The next morning, Adam woke before sunrise.
For a few seconds, he stayed on the bed without moving and stared at the ceiling.
He had no intention of visiting Kenji today.
He had no intention of meeting Bruno either.
This day was for thinking.
No pressure, no threats, no disguises. Planning.
After washing his face and changing into plain clothes, Adam stepped out of the apartment and started walking with no visible hurry.
His mind, however, was already moving fast.
'I know many things that will become valuable in the future.' Adam thought.
That was true.
He did not know every single stock that would rise or every exact date a market would move, but he knew sectors. He knew where demand would explode. He knew which fields would slowly turn into monsters.
He also knew which trends looked bright on paper but would trap money for too long before producing anything useful.
The problem was time.
'There are sectors where my money can multiply, but most of them need years. I don't have years.' Adam thought.
He needed something he could start building now.
He had close to one million dollars, and that was no small thing for someone who had once counted every meal.
But it was still not enough.
'One million sounds big, but it won't last forever. And against John, this is still a thin foundation.' Adam thought.
That led him back to one name again.
Kenji.
The most urgent task was not just making money.
It was bringing Kenji to his side.
Adam had never personally watched Kenji run a business in the previous life, but he had read enough to trust the man's ability. Newspapers, newsletters, long articles, interview records, biography pages, all of it pointed to the same thing.
Kenji knew how to manage growth.
He knew how to build structure.
And more than skill, he had the kind of loyalty Adam wanted.
That part mattered most.
In the last life, Adam had met many capable people and learned a harder truth: skill without loyalty was only another doorway for betrayal.
'I don't want to hire him like an employee. I need him to believe in me.' Adam thought.
If Kenji only worked for salary, John or someone like him could eventually poison that relationship. If Kenji believed the journey itself was worth joining, that would be different.
So before approaching him, Adam needed something stronger than money.
He needed a plan that looked strange enough, sharp enough, and real enough to make Kenji stop and think.
For the next week, Adam disappeared into research.
He did not contact Bruno.
He did not sit near Kenji's table.
Instead, he moved between public libraries, old magazine shops, business archives, newspaper stalls, and places that sold newsletters and industry reports.
Every day, he collected information.
Every night, he returned home and sorted it.
He compared one source against another, marked contradictions, and discarded anything that looked like paid noise instead of real industry movement.
He made categories in a notebook.
Fields where his Copy and Paste skill could create early advantage.
Fields where entry cost was manageable.
Fields where competition was still weak enough that a new player would not be crushed immediately by giants.
That last point was critical.
'If I step into a field where the big players are already watching, I die before I grow.' Adam thought.
Right now, he had money, future knowledge, and one powerful skill.
What he did not have was protection.
Not real protection.
That meant he had to choose a battlefield where bigger predators had not fully turned their eyes yet.
A place with future value, present neglect, and enough technical depth that ordinary copycat money would hesitate.
By the end of the week, one answer stood above the rest.
Chip manufacturing.
Adam leaned over his desk that night with scattered notes all around him and stared at those two words.
At this point in time, only two countries were truly ahead in practical microchip production at a serious scale. Their technology supplied phones and other growing electronics, but the industry had not yet reached the future shape Adam remembered.
In that future, only three countries would dominate chip production.
And inside that structure, three companies would become so powerful that even governments would struggle to pressure them like ordinary businesses.
That was exactly why Adam wanted to enter now.
Not when the walls were already built.
Before they hardened.
Over that week, he studied fundamentals, equipment chains, production bottlenecks, policy conditions, and the situation inside his own country. His broader future knowledge gave him direction, but he did not rely on memory alone. He checked what was true right now.
Slowly, the foundation became clear.
His body also changed during that week.
Every morning, before touching any notes, Adam trained.
Push-ups, squats, running, grip work, and whatever else his still-limited body could endure. He pushed carefully, not stupidly, but he pushed harder than before.
By the seventh day, his stamina was clearly better.
His body recovered faster.
Sweat no longer emptied him as quickly as it had during the first days.
Even his life force felt denser in a way he could not fully explain.
'Now I can copy larger things too.' Adam thought.
He had not tested that seriously yet.
There had been no need.
Blindly testing power without direction felt wasteful. For now, information mattered more.
Research came first.
On the morning after that full week, Adam sat at his table and organized everything into one clean document.
Not for himself.
For Kenji.
He removed useless notes, arranged the logic in order, and wrote the business direction in a way that would not sound like fantasy at first glance.
At the end, he added one short note meant only for Kenji's eyes.
Then he put the papers into a file, stood up, and left the apartment.
This time, his destination was clear.
Adam went straight to the same cafe where Kenji always came.