Chapter 115 goes viral, Lu Jingming becomes a national idol.

The scorching sun of Donghai City baked the asphalt road of the Xinghai Technology park.

The sensor door in the lobby on the first floor just slid open.

Two security guards in black suits, built like towers, dragged a several-hundred-pound ball of flesh out.

Ballmer's seven-thousand-dollar custom suit was soaked through with sweat.

A smudge of glaring black paper ash still clung to his cuff.

"Let go! I can walk myself!"

A roar like a broken bellows squeezed from his throat, his short, thick legs kicking wildly in mid-air.

One of his expensive leather shoes was kicked off, landing on the scorching pavement.

The security guards remained expressionless.

Like throwing away a bag of stinking trash, they suddenly let go.

Ballmer lost his balance, his hundreds of pounds of fat crashing directly onto the edge of the flower bed.

It emitted a dull, heavy thud.

The paparazzi squatting by the curb in the distance had their eyes light up instantly.

Their camera shutters clicked so fast they were practically smoking.

The white camera flashes were glaring even in the daylight.

Ten minutes later.

This set of high-definition photos, titled "Microsoft CEO Thrown Out of Xinghai Gates Like a Dog,"

directly flooded all major social media platforms.

Weibo's servers crashed three times in a row.

The programmers didn't even have time to eat their hot dry noodles, sweating profusely as they frantically jammed RAM sticks into the server racks.

The top five on the trending list were all in glaring dark red font.

#Microsoft CEO Thrown Out the Gate#

#Lu Jingming Burns Ten-Billion-Dollar Check to His Face#

#Xinghai Technology: Not Selling a Single Byte of Core Technology#

The comment section completely exploded.

Netizens' adrenaline peaked, their fingers aching from pounding on their keyboards.

"Holy crap! That's Ballmer! The boss of Microsoft! Just like that, he got thrown out?"

"Burned ten billion dollars? Really? Boss Lu has such a fiery temper, I love it!"

A verified local influencer posted a pinned comment.

"To the person above, my brother-in-law is a security guard at Xinghai, he saw it with his own eyes! That Citibank cashier's check was burned until not even ash was left!"

The replies below instantly exceeded ten thousand.

"Satisfying! That is so damn satisfying!"

"Let them have a taste of what it's like to beg, after they spent every day trying to choke us!"

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

The tide of public opinion surged again like a tsunami.

The most authoritative official media account posted an unprecedented long article with pictures.

The accompanying picture was that side profile of the xinghai matebook, thin as a blade.

The title had only four characters.

It was powerful enough to pierce through the paper, making people's eyes burn.

"National Treasure."

The accompanying text below was incisive.

"The backbone of technology is straightened by oneself, not bestowed by foreigners."

Once the official media set this tone, the entire digital circle in Huaxia fell into a frenzy.

The explosion-proof glass of several Xinghai direct-sales stores in Donghai City was almost crushed by the crowds.

The line of people waiting wrapped from the first floor of the mall all the way down to the garage on the third basement level.

There wasn't even a place to stand in the sweltering garage.

Scalpers clutched stacks of red bills, squatting in the corner and wiping away sweat.

"Brother, stop lining up!"

The scalper's voice was hoarse from shouting, "The deposit slots are already booked until next spring! You can't buy the actual product even with money!"

Yanjing.

In the male dormitory of the Computer Science Department at Shuimu University.

The air was filled with the mixed smell of stinky socks and instant noodles.

A boy wearing thick-rimmed glasses stared intently at the official media post on his computer screen.

His Adam's apple bobbed violently, and a layer of fanatical bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes.

Beside his mouse lay a high-paying job offer that had just been sent by a Silicon Valley giant.

He grabbed the hard-shell paper printed with English.

"Rip."

He tore it in half with both hands and casually threw it into the trash can by his feet.

"Screw Silicon Valley."

The boy's hands typed rapidly on the keyboard.

"I'm staying in the country! I'm going to Xinghai to build computers with Lu Jingming!"

This scene was playing out frantically in laboratories and dormitories at top universities across the country.

The talent recruitment backend of the Xinghai Technology official website.

The server was paralyzed by the massive influx of resumes from the country's top talents.

Donghai City, Xinghai Technology building, top floor office.

The air conditioner was puffing out white mist.

With a dull "bang."

Chu Xuan stumbled and pushed open the solid wood door.

He was wearing a floral shirt with yellow background and black stripes today, looking like an overweight hornet.

He clutched that crumpled tissue he always kept handy.

Chu Xuan wiped the waterfall of oily sweat on his forehead indiscriminately, panting like an ox.

"Lu, Boss Lu!"

Chu Xuan gasped heavily, his chest heaving violently.

"Our HR department has exploded! Fifty thousand resumes have been stuffed into the backend!"

He swallowed a mouthful of dry saliva, his voice cracking from excessive excitement.

"They're all bachelor, master, and doctoral students from top universities like Shuimu and Zhendan!"

Chu Xuan's legs were shaking, "There are even several big shots who have worked in Silicon Valley for ten years, saying they'll come back even with a pay cut!"

Lu Jingming had one hand in the pocket of his washed-out jeans.

He stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window without turning around.

Looking down from this height.

One could clearly see the long line of applicants outside the technology park gate, blocked completely.

Heads were moving, a black mass of people.

With the scorching sun overhead, no one was willing to leave the line for even half a step.

Lu Jingming pulled out his right hand.

In his hand, he pinched that chipped green plastic lighter.

His thumb pressed slowly and deliberately onto the metal grinding wheel.

"Click."

A crisp mechanical sound.

A deep blue flame flared up, reflecting his sharp canine tooth on the glass.

"Talent is the highest level of moat."

Lu Jingming casually extinguished the flame, the plastic casing making a slight clacking sound.

"Screen all those resumes, pick the ones with the strongest technical skills."

He sneered, a fierce light of calculation in his eyes.

"Doesn't Gates think our foundation is thin? I'm going to pack all of Huaxia's smartest brains into Xinghai right now."

Just at the moment the lighter went out.

Lu Jingming's movements suddenly paused.

His pupils contracted slightly.

The muscles in his back tightened suddenly, and even his breathing stopped for a beat.

Deep in his mind.

Without warning, a cold, mechanical voice filled with massive amounts of information crashed down.

[Ding—]

[Global prestige value threshold of 100 million reached.]

[Primary technology tree locked.]

[Intermediate breaking-defense exchange mall, officially opened.]

Lu Jingming's chest heaved once.

In front of his retinas, a deep blue holographic panel that only he could see slowly unfolded.

The icons that were originally gray and invisible were now bursting with glaring golden light one after another.

Holographic projection, solid-state battery.

There were even several fragments of blueprints for complex beamforming antennas, quietly floating in the center of the panel.

Chu Xuan stood in front of the desk, still frantically wiping sweat with a tissue.

He watched Lu Jingming freeze in front of the window, motionless for a long time.

He felt a bit uneasy.

"Boss Lu?"

Chu Xuan took a small, tentative step forward, his shoe soles rubbing against the carpet.

"What are you... looking at? Did someone come to smash the place outside?"

Lu Jingming turned around.

The sunlight from outside hit his washed-out black T-shirt.

In his eyes surged a kind of fanaticism that made Chu Xuan's back go cold; it was the look of a beast eyeing new prey.

"Chu Xuan, go pass a message to the finance department."

Lu Jingming curled his lips, his voice filled with the excitement of tearing through the sky.

"Tell Shen Qingqiu to prepare massive USD accounts. We're going to build a new species that doesn't even need wires."