Chapter 38: Ruthless Businessman.
Hao Ren was sitting inside his car when he heard the monotonous voice in his mind.
*Ding: You have consoled your wife and even improved her mood. You have proved that your bond with her is real and she does not doubt you anymore. The task is complete, issuing reward...*
*Ding: Congratulations host for receiving the Coin from Fortune God.*
Hao Ren raised his brow and asked, "System, can you explain the functions of this item?"
The system replied, *Ding: Host, this coin is blessed by the God of Fortune. If you place this thing in your work place, it will bring you profit. If you place it on your person, you will have a fruitful encounter.*
Hao Ren thought for a bit and asked, "Where is the coin at the moment?"
The system said, *Ding: It's in your wallet, Host.*
Hao Ren fished out his wallet from the glove box and opened it. He found a golden coin laying in a separate section with other coins. He picked it up and saw a very intricated design of fine lines. Hao Ren inspected the coin carefully and found a four leaved clover hidden inside the design.
He looked at the watch on his wrist and decided to go to his office, when he saw a msg from Han Lingshi. She was asking him what if Han Yuntian found out about their marriage?
The young man thought for a bit and replied, 'Even if he knows, does he have any proof? The files are masked. Keep your marriage book safe, and away from them, the rest can be managed. Your family would have asked you already about it had they known.'
Han Lingshi calmed down and then Hao Ren moved to his office. He arrived at the Rubicon Towers at seven in the morning. The tower stayed open for 24 hours because many offices in the tower worked on night schedules. Hao Ren came to the office and he was surprised to see that all of the technical team was present at the scene.
He walked up to Klaus and asked, "What happened?"
Klaus said in a deep voice, "We were working late last night when we faced a hack attack. They started doing it every thirty minutes, and now they are doing it every ten minutes. I do not know how long we would be able to hold on."
Hao Ren frowned and asked, "Did you try to track the person?"
Klaus nodded and said, "It failed."
Hao Ren nodded and fell silent, he took out his phone and typed a command, 'Counter hack, and track this person down without alerting them.'
Xiao Mei replied with a wink emote, and after a few seconds, Jian Koji said, "Huh? This is odd, how are they slowing down?"
Hao Ren did not reply and placed his phone back in his pocket, and said, "It could be that those people were tired. Watch a few more minutes, and try to track them."
They could not track down this person down with their level just yet. After a few minutes, Klaus looked at the screen and said, "Finally they stopped. I was really worried."
Everyone sat in their chairs and Hao Ren said, "You can go out and have some food and take the rest of the day off. It's been hard on you lot for the past few days. I will man the server management."
The people immediately yelled, "Long Live Boss."
Hao Ren chuckled and a few minutes later, the office was empty. Hao Ren looked at the clock and closed the doors, before he got down on the floor and began to do push ups, this was his daily task, he was not going to miss out on it. Ever since the system has purified his body, the results of his workout had increased to a terrific level.
He looked at the phone on the ground and said, "Xiao Mei, did you find out who it was?"
The AI replied, "Boss, it is one of the top hacker group in the Hawk nation. They go by the name Back-door intrusion, tch tacky."
Hao Ren was calm, he asked, "Why did they hack us?"
Xiao Mei replied, "Someone from Byte technologies hired them. It is a chain of people including twenty people. I tracked them all before they finally led to Byte."
Hao Ren nodded and said, "Post an advertisement on the net, if anyone can get through the firewalls of our operating system within twenty four hours, they will win ten million dollars. Also, break down Byte Technologies entire server and cripple all the data of their big clients. Leave the common people out of it."
Xiao Mei took a few seconds before she asked, "Boss, it will take up to twelve hours to do that. Byte tech has many firewalls, and I will have to divert my attention to defending also, this server is limiting me."
Hao Ren nodded and said, "Rent as many servers as you need to bring down the attack efficiency to six hours."
Xiao Mei replied after a few seconds, "That would cost two million."
Hao Ren nodded and said, "Do it. I want the Byte Technology shares to plummet like a bird with no wind under its wing."
Xiao Mei did everything, it contacted the accountant hired by Lynn Carter to make a receipt and authorize the motion to rent two servers for a week, and then it posted the advertisement on the internet and even promoted it to the top. Just a few minutes later, Hao Ren's phone almost exploded because of the calls.
He did not answer any call and took his sweet time to work out. After an hour, Xiao Mei said, "Boss, we are ready for the battle."
Hao Ren nodded and picked up his phone to call Markus Bourne. The latter picked up after one ring and asked, "Boss, did you put up the ad? Or is it someone else who did it to cause trouble for us?"
Hao Ren replied, "Mister Bourne, I wonder if you can come in a bit early today?"
Markus heard his calm voice and was surprised. He took a few moments to calm down and asked, "Sir, what is going on?"
Hao Ren replied, "We are at war with Byte Technologies. They hired someone to attack the servers, we survived, but they won't as the director of marketing, I would like you to come in soon and help me with getting the word out and highlighted."
Markus Bourne gulped, he knew how Hao Ren was capable of getting to his computer inside the Byte Technology office, now that he decided to attack the company, it would not end up good for them.
He replied, "I will be there in fifteen minutes."
...
While Hao Ren had issued the bombing orders, Han Lingshi was rolling in her bed, because she could not get the scene of Hao Ren carrying her in his arms, and bringing her upstairs, and then kissing her.
She suddenly turned over and buried her face in the pillow as she felt shy. However, her phone rang up. She thought it was Hao Ren, but when she looked at the screen, her smile faded. Her eyes grew cold, and she took a deep breath, before answering the call.
"Hello, Lingling, you did not come in for work today, are you alright?"
The caller was Maria. Han Lingshi was disgusted when she heard the lady address her in such an intimate fashion. She was not a fool to keep crying over feelings after realizing that she almost died. She replied calmly, "I had a little fever last night so decided to take a day off."
The other party showed concern and even asked to come over and check when Han Lingshi denied, and said, "No, I will be going to the Han family residence, so, it's okay."
Maria asked, "Why are you going there all of a sudden? Is aunty pressurizing you for a blind date again?"
Her tone seemed to be asking casually, but now that Han Lingshi knew Maria's real colors, everything became an attempt to sabotage her. The call came to an end, and Han Lingshi decided to go to the Han family residence, where her grandfather lived. She wanted his advice on how to deal with Han Yuntian.
...
Hao Ren was sitting in the bull pen with Lynn Carter and Markus, the tech team was on a day off. However, apart from Hao Ren, the rest of the staff was quite tensed, because they did not expect, Hao Ren to set up such an advertisement. To be honest most of them had high hopes for the company because they knew the products were really nice.
Hao Ren suddenly asked, "Why the sad face, it has been three hours and we have yet to see any competition. These wanna be hackers are unable to get past even the first firewall. Can you chill?"
Markus looked at him with an aggrieved face and said, "Boss, do you know what will happen if anyone managed to break through those firewalls? We will have to close shop even before we go to the market."
Hao Ren smiled and wanted to say something when a text notification popped up on his mobile. He checked it and smiled. He said, "Mister Bourne, have you ever tried talking to clients and getting them on board?"
Markus nodded and Hao Ren said, "Good, take all the sales department with you and teach them how its done."
The people did not understand when Lynn Carter stood up on her feet and exclaimed, "Holy shit! Byte Technology server has been breached and they are in a shut down."
"WHAT!"
"Manager, are you joking with us?"
Exclamations rang out in the entire office, and soon, everyone found that it was true. Only Hao Ren was leaning back in a chair as if nothing out of ordinary happened. Markus Bourne looked at him and his forehead oozed with cold sweat. He knew that it was Hao Ren who caused this. How he did it? Markus had no idea about that, but he was sure that Hao Ren did it.
Lynn Carter looked at Hao Ren and said, "Boss, the news stated that many people big companies have suffered a serious data breach because of this. Their data was stored on cloud servers of Byte Technologies. This is definitely a good chance for us to capture the market."
Hao Ren shook his head and said, "Not so fast. We do not have any significant achievement to show them. Now that Byte has gone under, we will need to wait it out and catch the left over because apart from Byte, there is another giant in the race."
A employee replied, "Singularity also has a cloud server farm, they will be moving in quickly."
Hao Ren looked at the young man and nodded, "You are right, Mister Bones. They will dive in to catch all the prey they can. They are not alone, we have Sigma data bank, Scepter Cloud, etc. Miss Carter, coordinate with Mister Bourne on this. Lastly, we will not be going to look for the people to come to us. Highlight the 24 hour challenge as much as you can.
I will give you one million for this. I want every hacker to come after us. If they say that 24 hours are not enough, give them a week."
Markus and Lynn were shocked, and the former asked, "Boss, are you sure? What makes you think they will come to us?"
Hao Ren said, "None of them is a fool to not notice an OS and a cloud server that can stand so many attacks. Also, use your digital influencers, have them broadcast the status of our servers live if you have to, I want the world to know that Thunder Tech is not an underdog."
Then he stood up and said, "I will head out for the day, do not worry, someone is watching the servers just in case. Okay?"
Lynn Carter asked, "Sir, who is watching the server?"
Hao Ren smiled and replied, "The one who created Horizon OS."
Then he walked out, every one in the company was curious as to who wrote Horizon OS code, and Klaus had told them that it wasn't them but an expert Hao Ren contacted, however, it was a company secret and divulging it to anyone can cause serious trouble for them. So everyone was quiet.
Hao Ren left the coin of fortune in the drawer of his cupboard. The effects should be pilling up soon.
...
Han Lingshi was driving her car and she was about to reach the Han Family residence when her phone rang up. She smiled faintly when she saw it was Hao Ren. She accepted the call and Hao Ren asked, "Lingshi, what do you want to eat today?"
Han Lingshi said, "I am at the family residence, you cannot come here to deliver food, can you?"
She was teasing him but who knew Hao Ren would say, "Fine, I shall capture the stomach of my in-laws. You are not getting away. You wait, I will be there soon."
Han Lingshi was shocked and then she chuckled, "I dare you to come here, Hao Ren."
...
Hao Ren was in his car, and he was about to reply to Han Lingshi, when the system said, *Ding...*