Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

Star Media, underground server room.

On the main monitoring screen, Wang Tianqi's face, contorted with excitement, and the furtive figures at several workstations created a strange scene.

The three men in the picture are the core members of the technology department of Xingchen Media.

The leader was Li Xiang, the technical supervisor, who was personally recruited by Gu Ming from a large factory.

At that moment, he was intently watching the live broadcast of Tianqi's press conference while inserting an encrypted USB drive into his work computer, his lips twitching involuntarily.

The data copy progress bar is moving forward slowly.

In their view, the end of this progress bar is boundless wealth.

Chen Mo stood behind Gu Ming, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Boss, Li Xiang, Wang Wei, and Sun Peng are copying Zero's non-core database. You secretly granted them access three minutes ago."

Gu Ming didn't say anything, he just looked at the excited faces on the screen.

His methods of cleaning house were always unconventional.

Instead of going to great lengths to find the mole, it's better to give them a chance to expose themselves, and incidentally, let them take a big gift with them.

Su Qingying walked over, her brows furrowed.

"I have prepared lawyer's letters regarding non-compete agreements and confidentiality agreements, and I can do so at any time..."

Before she could finish speaking, Gu Ming's phone, which was on the tea table, rang.

Caller ID: Wang Tianqi.

Gu Ming pressed the speakerphone button.

Wang Tianqi's laughter came from the other end of the phone, with the sound of champagne being popped and cheers from the crowd in the background.

"Gu Ming, did you enjoy my press conference?"

"I heard there's a huge reporter mob outside your office? How about I send someone to get you out of there? Hahaha!"

Wang Tianqi's tone was full of boastfulness.

"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. Your most capable tech whizzes will soon be working for me. Stock options, penthouse suites, million-dollar salaries—I've got them all ready. What are you going to offer to keep them? Your empty promises?"

He seemed to be showing off his spoils.

"Gu Ming, remember this: a small workshop like yours will never be able to retain real talent."

Gu Ming picked up his teacup, blew away the foam, and spoke in a calm tone.

"Really? Then Mr. Wang should treat them well. After all, they worked overtime all night to earn this pledge of loyalty."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. Wang Tianqi seemed not to understand the strange words and assumed it was just Gu Ming being stubborn. He snorted and hung up.

Su Qingying's expression darkened further.

Wang Tianqi's phone call was clearly meant to undermine his morale.

Almost at the same moment the call ended, the Star Media office area erupted in chaos.

"I quit."

With a roar, technical supervisor Li Xiang suddenly stood up from his seat, holding a freshly printed labor contract in his hand, and tore it into pieces in front of all the employees.

Paper scraps flew everywhere and landed on the ground.

The entire office area fell silent instantly; everyone stopped what they were doing and looked this way.

Li Xiang's face flushed red as he pointed at Gu Ming, who had just come out of the computer room, his voice shrill.

"Gu Ming! You're just a stubborn and self-willed dictator! You cling to your outdated technology like it's your treasure. Apocalypse's soul engine is the future. We're technicians, not sacrificial lambs to die with you."

Behind him, Wang Wei and Sun Peng also stood up, their faces resolute.

These words made the already anxious employees even more uncertain.

Many people turned pale as they watched their former core members defect, which severely shook their confidence in the company's future.

"Li Xiang, calm down." Su Qingying stepped forward quickly, her voice stern. "You signed the highest level of confidentiality agreement. If you leave now, the company has the right to pursue legal action against you."

Li Xiang looked at Su Qingying with a contemptuous smile on his face.

"President Su, don't try to scare me with the law. Do you believe that Tianqi Entertainment's legal team can sue Xingchen Media into bankruptcy? We're leaving; it's a wise choice to leave."

"You guys!" Su Qingying's chest heaved with anger.

Just then, a commotion broke out downstairs at the company.

A black Bentley sedan came to a smooth stop at the entrance of Star Media. The car door opened, and Wang Tianqi's chief assistant personally got out, respectfully opened the back door, and gestured for him to enter.

This scene was captured by media reporters who had been lying in wait nearby, using their cameras and microphones.

Within minutes, the news headline "Star Media's technical team flees en masse, founder Gu Ming abandoned by his followers" began to spread like wildfire online.

Inside the office area, all employees could see this glaring scene through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows.

People's hearts have completely broken down.

Li Xiang straightened his collar, and led the other two men, walking proudly toward the door amidst the complex gazes of the employees.

He walked up to Gu Ming, stopped, and looked down at Gu Ming.

Everyone was watching Gu Ming, waiting for him to either get angry or try to persuade him to stay.

Gu Ming slowly walked forward.

There was no anger on his face, not even the slightest ripple.

He was holding a black portable hard drive with a label that read: Core Patch.

Under the deathly silence of the entire room, Gu Ming handed the hard drive to Li Xiang, his voice gentle.

"Since you're leaving, take this with you."

"Mr. Wang's technical skills are good, but there are some flaws in the underlying computing logic. This patch can solve the computing power explosion problem he is about to encounter."

"Don't let the new employer underestimate the people who came from Xingchen."

Li Xiang didn't react for a moment.

He looked at the hard drive in front of him, then at Gu Ming's calm face, his mind blank.

A few seconds later, he realized what was happening.

Gu Ming was begging for mercy. Faced with Wang Tianqi's offensive, he was afraid and wanted to use the core technology to exchange for a way out.

Thinking of this, Li Xiang's last bit of concern vanished.

He snatched the hard drive and gripped it tightly in his hand.

He leaned close to Gu Ming's ear and said mockingly in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Thanks, Mr. Gu. You're acting like a complete coward right now, like a dog."

After saying that, he burst into laughter, and with a victorious air, walked without looking back towards the Bentley that symbolized wealth and luxury.

Su Qingying felt her hands and feet turn ice cold as she watched this scene.

She didn't understand, she had absolutely no idea why Gu Ming would do this.

However, just three minutes after Li Xiang's figure disappeared at the elevator entrance.

"drop--"

With a soft click, all the screens in the office area, including employees' computers and the projectors on the wall, switched to the same image.

What appeared on the screen was an enlarged scan of a document.

The title is: "Experimental Discarded Technology Transfer and Risk Assumption Agreement".

The agreement clearly states:

Party A (Star Media) will transfer an experimental, obsolete code with the internal code name "Greed" to Party B (Li Xiang, Wang Wei, and Sun Peng) free of charge.

Party B voluntarily acquires the code and undertakes full and unlimited joint liability for any data disaster, hardware damage, or economic loss caused by the use of the code.

The signatures of Li Xiang and the other two were written in a flamboyant and elegant style.

The signing date was just now.

It was mixed in with a bunch of resignation documents they signed.

Su Qingying turned on the company-wide broadcast.

"Look carefully, everyone. What they took away was a piece of experimental code that we had long since abandoned, containing a fatal bug."

"What they signed was a pledge to voluntarily take responsibility for this technological disaster."

As all the employees looked at the agreement on the screen and recalled Li Xiang's smug face just now, a chill ran from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.

They looked at Gu Ming, who stood on high, and that man remained unusually calm throughout.

Gu Ming walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the Bentley slowly driving away. His voice was not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"There's a logical backdoor hidden in that code; I call it greed."

"Every time Tianqi Entertainment's computing power is loaded onto it, the physical lifespan of its core server is shortened by half."

"What Li Xiang and his men took away was a death warrant for Wang Tianqi."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes were on Gu Ming.

……

The message reached Shen Guodong's study as quickly as possible through certain special channels.

After listening to the insider's report, the financial tycoon's hand, which was holding a teacup, remained suspended in mid-air for a long time.

"This Gu Ming..."

"It's like using the enemy's hands to wash your own knife."

This statement caused a minor stir in Beijing's top capital circles.

For the first time, the name Gu Ming was imbued with a near-godfather-like quality.

In the underground server room, Gu Ming turned around and looked at Wang Min, the company's public relations manager.

He pointed at the screen, at Wang Tianqi, who was being touted as a god by countless media outlets and investors, and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

"Since he wants to be a god, let's send him to the clouds."

"We need to contact every channel we can reach—marketing accounts, financial influencers, industry media—we can't leave any out."

"From now on, I want the entire internet to reach a consensus—"

"Wang Tianqi is the AI ​​savior of this era."