74: Chapter 74 Chen Fan's Revenge!

At 6 AM, Chen Fan and Lin Hao were still busy at Fanxing Factory.

The last damaged precision machine tool emitted a faint hum under Chen Fan's palm.

"Boss, all factory equipment has been completely repaired," Xiao Zhi's mechanical voice sounded steadily. All equipment had undergone anti-magnetic storm repairs.

Chen Fan withdrew his hand, fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead. Using the Mind Anchoring Amplification ability at high intensity for several consecutive hours made even his current physique feel waves of exhaustion.

But there wasn't a trace of fatigue in his eyes; instead, there was suppressed rage and battle intent about to erupt.

He walked to the central control console and pulled up the factory-wide surveillance.

Seeing all the machines running normally, only then did Chen Fan and Lin Hao take a deep breath.

They grabbed chairs and sat in the factory yard. Lin Hao brewed two cups of hot tea, watching the sun slowly rise.

"Fan Zi, if it wasn't for your Amplification ability, our factory would have gone bankrupt on the spot this time." Lin Hao still felt the lingering fear of a narrow escape.

"That kid Long Zaitian really kicked a steel plate with me; he'll have a bitter taste of it later." Chen Fan took a sip of tea and sneered.

"You have a plan?" Lin Hao saw Chen Fan's confident look.

"Hahaha, you'll find out later. Look at how full of life this sun is." Chen Fan saw the sun break over the horizon and felt a bit of excitement; he couldn't remember how long it had been since he properly watched a sunrise.

---

Seven in the morning, Long Zaitian's villa.

Long Zaitian wore a custom suit, standing before a mirror adjusting his cufflinks. The man in the mirror was radiant, with a faint smile on his lips—the composure of a successful hunt where everything was under control.

The assistant knocked and then pushed the door open.

"Third Young Master, the latest news." The assistant's voice betrayed irrepressible excitement. "Yesterday's attack on Star of Fortune's side was very successful."

Long Zaitian adjusted his tie knot unhurriedly: "This EMP we developed for the military was first used on Chen Fan. This technology is currently leading even on an international level; it would be a miracle if Star of Fortune could withstand it."

The assistant smiled, "We've tested the power of the EMP; civilian-grade industrial equipment simply can't hold up. Even if they can repair some of it, the entire production line shutting down, data loss, order delays... these chain reactions are enough to drag down a startup like Fanxing Technology."

"It's a pity about their technology; I actually quite appreciated him. If Chen Fan had been willing to cooperate with me back then, how could he have fallen to this state!" Long Zaitian was very pleased with himself for being able to teach Chen Fan a good lesson.

He paused, the curve of his lips turning cold: "But he insisted on holding out. Insisted on proving his naive idea that 'technology changes destiny'."

He walked back to the sofa and sat down, taking a sip of coffee: "Notify Zhao Qiming to suggest to the higher-ups that Fanxing Technology's qualification review for 'xuanyuan phase one' be suspended indefinitely on the grounds of 'safety hazards.' Additionally, spread the materials we have on Star of Fortune's 'immature technology and unstable production' to those potential customers who are still on the fence."

"Yes. And as for Chen Fan's side..." The assistant recorded quickly.

"Let him struggle for a few more days." Long Zaitian stood up and walked to the coat rack to take down his jacket. "Wait until he has exhausted his last bit of capital and energy on rescuing the factory."

He put on his jacket, giving his collar a final adjustment in the mirror, his eyes sharp in the reflection:

"I'll give him one last chance to choose."

"Either kneel."

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"Or die."

---

Chen Fan's revenge plan began immediately.

He had Xiao Zhi pull up all the business information of the Long Group.

That map was as complex as a neural network. The Long Group's business spanned four major sectors: real estate, finance, manufacturing, and technology, with over a hundred subsidiaries.

Its digital territory was equally vast: seventeen data centers, forty-three backbone lines, thousands of servers, and those encrypted networks hidden behind legal business for handling 'special affairs.'

"Master, the penetration rate of the Long Corporation main network has reached 92%," Xiao Zhi's synthesized voice reported steadily. "We have gained control permissions for its production management system, supply chain database, financial settlement center, and some encrypted communication nodes."

Chen Fan stared at the nodes marked in green on the screen, his eyes cold.

Counterattack!

He issued the command, his voice devoid of emotion, "Target: Long Heavy Industry, all intelligent production lines. No warning, no names left behind."

"Command confirmed. Estimated paralysis time: 12 hours. Implanting camouflage traces: technical characteristics of the German competitor that failed in the Long Corporation's bidding last month."

---

At the same time, the Long Heavy Industry's Third Manufacturing Base.

Workshop Director Old Wang held his thermos, patrolling the control room as usual. The production data on the screen jumped steadily; everything was normal. He yawned and looked at the clock on the wall—6:30 PM, he could hand over the shift in another hour and a half.

Just then, an inconspicuous parameter on the main control screen flickered.

Production cycle: 45 seconds/piece → 46 seconds/piece.

Old Wang frowned but didn't care. It might be a sensor error; he prepared to record it and handle it tomorrow.

But within the next three minutes, the anomaly spread in an eerie way:

The logistics robots' navigation systems began to show a 1% path deviation, which 'infected' each other among the three robots;

The temperature control sensor readings of the Five-axis machining center showed periodic fluctuations, but the actual temperature did not rise;

The visual inspection system began to develop 'visual fatigue' for specific shaped parts, with the misjudgment rate slowly climbing from 0.01% to 0.05%... Every anomaly was small enough to be ignored, but they coupled and amplified each other in the system.

At 6:47, quantitative change triggered qualitative change.

"Warning! Navigation system anomaly! Logistics robot number three has deviated from its intended track!"

"Warning! Five-axis machining center B-7 spindle temperature rising abnormally! Safety threshold exceeded!"

"Warning! Visual inspection system misjudgment rate surging! Seventeen consecutive qualified products have been misjudged!"

In the control room, seven or eight screens simultaneously popped up red warning boxes! The piercing alarm sound instantly shattered the peace of the workshop!

The thermos in Old Wang's hand fell to the floor with a 'clatter.' He lunged at the main console, his fingers tapping frantically on the keyboard: "Restart! Restart all systems immediately!"

But after the system restarted, the problem became even more bizarre—the operation interface had turned into German, which none of the engineers could understand; the system logs were piled with error messages like 'configuration conflict' and 'parameter overflow,' but they all pointed to the 'system optimization patches' the Long Corporation technical team had made themselves three months ago.

"Is... is there a problem with our own update package?" The technical team leader stared at the log, sweat breaking out on his forehead. "But these patches have been running for three months after going online without any issues!"

"Don't worry about the cause for now!" Old Wang roared. "Can we resume production?!"

"At least... ten hours." The technical team leader's face was pale. "We have to roll back the patches one by one and troubleshoot conflicts. And..." He swallowed, "And the system shows that the same configuration problem is spreading to the other two bases."

Old Wang's vision went dark.

---

7:20 PM, Long Group Headquarters.

Long Zaitian was reviewing a report on new energy investment when there was an urgent knock on the office door.

"Come in."

The assistant pushed the door open, his face looking not very good, but he was still relatively calm: "Third Young Master, something happened at the Heavy Industry's Third Base; three intelligent production lines have temporarily shut down."

Long Zaitian didn't even look up: "What's the reason?"

"The technical department's preliminary judgment is... a system configuration conflict." The assistant weighed his words. "The optimization patches that went online three months ago seem to have compatibility issues, which broke out collectively tonight. It has already affected production; recovery is expected to take about ten hours."

"Ten hours?" Long Zaitian finally looked up, his brow slightly furrowed. "Loss assessment?"

"Direct losses are about four million, mainly production capacity loss and equipment standby costs. Fortunately, what's being produced tonight are routine orders, so there's no urgent delivery pressure."

Long Zaitian nodded, not caring much. This kind of technical failure happened from time to time in large enterprises; as long as it wasn't sabotage or a major accident, it was within an acceptable range.

"Have the technical department hurry up and handle it, and write a detailed report. Also—" he paused, "check if there are any external factors."

"Yes." The assistant was about to leave.

The internal line on the desk rang.

Long Zaitian picked it up, listened for a few sentences, and his face darkened slightly.

Wait, after hanging up, he looked at the assistant: "Finance says the fund settlement system is experiencing 'intermittent delays,' and several payment processing times were three minutes longer than usual."

The assistant was stunned: "Also a system problem?"

"The technical department is checking." Long Zaitian leaned back in his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest. "Production line failure, financial system delay... a coincidence?"

The assistant didn't dare to respond.

Just then, a third call came in.

This time it was the general manager of Long Corporation Real Estate, his voice anxious: "President Long, the smart home control system in our high-end residential development in Jiangdong just failed on a large scale! The smart door locks, temperature control, and security systems in the owners' homes are all paralyzed! The customer service line is being blown up!"

Long Zaitian sat up straight with a start: "When did this happen?!"

"Just... within this last half hour! The technical team says the central control system's 'configuration file is corrupted' and they are performing emergency repairs, but it will take at least five hours!"

The air in the office suddenly froze.

Production lines, financial systems, real estate smart homes... three completely unrelated business sectors had 'system failures' one after another within half an hour.

This was absolutely no longer a coincidence!