Chapter 157: Chapter 155: Rising to Power and Elimination


    Trantor: 549690339


    Moonset, sunrise, and a new week arrives.


    Lincoln leaves home early today, feeling light-hearted as he goes to take his subject three exam.


    Warner also gets up early, but unlike Lincoln, he carries the heavy mood of one who has lost his parents as he goes to attend NetDragon’s monthly meeting.


    As expected, Richard emotionlessly questions him: “You were once brimming with confidence, iming that you would achieve a technological breakthrough within two months and catch up with Cloud Dream’s technology.


    Now there’s only a week left, do you have anything to report to me?”


    Warner’s face is bitter; report? He wishes he could report something.


    But the problem is that there has been zero progress in cracking the core microchip. What can he report? Apply for more funding?


    Or should he ask Richard to bring in more top experts to help crack Cloud Dream’s microchip?


    Or better yet, ask the boss to find someone more capable?


    Of course, these innerints couldn’t really be voiced.


    Warner can only helplessly say, “We can replicate the headband part, and we can replicate 80% of the consoleponents. However, thest keyponent, the neural modtor-demodtor, is still being cracked and needs more time.”


    Unfortunately, Richard studied business. If you talk to him about technology and games, he might be clueless. But business management and personnel management are his areas of expertise.


    He can’t fool his boss with the art of reporting using equivocalnguage.


    “So, how much more time? Are you saying that it’s impossible to achieve the original target of two months?”


    “Yes,” Warner admits helplessly.


    What else can he do but admit it? Is it better to wait until thest moment to be pped in the face?


    If they want to me anyone, they can only me Cloud Dream’s neural modtor-demodtor for being tooplicated and their microchip protection being too strict.’


    The previous 12 microchips had beenpletely destroyed during invasive cracking.


    On Saturday, they obtained 1+8 new consoles – 43 of which were purchased from the market, and only 5 consoles were handed over to thepany by employees who managed to get them.


    Yesterday, they had dismantled half of them, and the R&D department is still struggling to find a way to crack them.


    “So how long do you need?” Richard was angry, but he controlled it well. He


    Imows that scientific research can’t be rushed. “Give me an exact time.”


    I also want an exact time! Warner thinks, but what he actually says is, “It’s hard to say. Our team is working hard to crack the microchip. This involves trying every possible method, so it’s difficult to know which one will be effective, and if they don’t work, we need to research new cracking methods.”


    After more than a week of reverse engineering Mirage, Warner has bepletely humbled.


    Statements like, “Lincoln only stumbled upon it through blind luck” and “Give me two months, and our team can do it too” – simr thoughts, he no longer dares to express.


    The richness and strictness of the microchip’s protection alone is undoubtedly top-notch in the world.


    It is hard to imagine how outrageous the content inside the microchip is to assemble these not-so-high-techponents on the outside into a virtual reality device!


    Not to mention the creation of a perfect, executable virtual world software that runs smoothly without any bugs.


    Even if we don’t talk about technological breakthroughs in hardware, just to create such a software, it would take at least a few hundred people and a whole year toplete, right?!


    But what about Lincoln? Hepleted all of this together in less than a week!


    The more Warner studies, the more he realizes how unfathomable Lincoln’s technical prowess is!


    Each time he thinks about the gap between them, he feels fear—can he have even a sliver of hope of winning against such an opponent?


    But Richard doesn’t care about any of that; his anger boils up, “So you’re saying you don’t know when you can produce the new device?”


    Warner opens his mouth, but finding no usible reason, he can only helplessly say, “Yes.”


    “All this time, I’ve given you money when you needed it and personnel when you required it, and this is the answer you give me?” Richard is incredibly disappointed.


    He turns to look at Henry, “How about you? What is the progress of the DLC?”


    Henry also has a guilty conscience, “The progression is steadily increasing.”


    Indeed, things are improving, at least everyone has gotten used to the daily meeting work style, and meeting efficiency has increased significantly… But Richard is not an easy person to fool. “Give me an exact timeline!”


    Henry hesitated. Say one year? Definitely not! That would be tantamount to admitting that his efficiencv is appallinz!


    But to say three months? That would undoubtedly lead to being proven wrongter.


    How about saying half a year? Even if the work is not done by then, the problem can be dealt with at that time.


    However, just as he opened his mouth to speak, Richard raised his hand and interrupted him.


    Richard had a deep understanding of how slippery Henry could be, and he had already gotten his answer from Henry’s hesitation just now.


    But even so, Henry still wanted to y tricks,pletely exhausting Richard’sst bit of patience.


    Richard gestured for his assistant, “Call Jason in.”


    The female assistant immediately got up, and Henry’s face changed dramatically. He instinctively wanted to stop her but quickly put his hand down again.


    He had a terrible premonition.


    And the premonition was soon confirmed.


    Jason entered the meeting room with a USB drive and a stack of documents. With Richard’s permission, the assistant turned on the PowerPoint projector, and Jason began to present his n to everyone in the office.


    He detailed the content that needed to be created for the “ze 3” DLC, dividing it into eight modules. He sorted the modules by difficulty, itemized the necessary personnel and department coboration, and clearly marked the specific time required for each task.


    Who would lead the group, who would be responsible for music, and who would provide technical support… All personnel arrangements were made down to the individual.


    Work arrangements, eptance, testing, and modification processes were also clearly defined.


    On thest page of the PowerPoint was a detailed, feasible, and actionable timeline.


    ording to this timeline, with enough support, Jason could really reduce the development time to within three months!


    With this n as aparison, Henry’s dry remarks about “steady progress in pushing forward” were nothing but a joke !


    Richard sped his hands on the table and looked around at all the attendees, especially those who had previously spoken in support of Henry and helped him be Chief nner of “ze 3” — they all quietly looked away at this point.


    Finally, Richard turned to Jason, “Very good. You will be in charge of the DLC development team from now on! You can arrange the work of any member of the production team at your discretion. If anyone is unhappy, let theme and see me!”


    Richard was notcking in decisive execution, “If the task is sessfullypleted, you will be thepanys new game production team leader! The remaining employees of the me Group, as well as those in the DLC production team who are willing to stay after the task ispleted, will be under yourmand!”


    Jason immediately epted; this was his goal!


    As for Henry, he looked at Richard, wanting to say something, but Richard ignored him directly and adjourned the meeting on the spot.


    Henry looked at Jason angrily, this traitorous subordinate!


    But Jason ignored him too and turned around and left the office. He had to go back and announce the good news!


    Henry’s old friends also got up one after another and left without looking at him again.


    Henry finally felt at a loss: am I just out like that? So, what am I going to do next?


    He returned to his own office in a daze.


    Should he resign? But after resigning, where would he go? What would he do?


    Moreover, the boss didn’t ask him to hand in a resignation. Was he nning to transfer him to a vacant position?


    While Henry was feeling disoriented, Hiry, the Human Resources Department supervisor, knocked on the door and came in.


    With an apologetic look on her face, Hiry handed Henry the A4 page she held in her hand.


    Henry, visibly shaking, took the document and lowered his head to read the bold print…


    “Employee Dropout Notice”