Chapter 50 Target Locked! Who's the Next Fat Pig to Be Slaughtered?

Inside Underground Laboratory No. 1, the incandescent lights were blindingly bright.

The floor was covered with discarded circuit boards and tangled network cables, making it impossible to find a place to step.

Lu Jingming pushed open the glass door and slapped a few crumpled A4 sheets of paper onto the stainless steel table.

With a sharp "crack," the sound made the screws on the table jump.

Xia Weiliang was curled up in a swivel chair with her legs crossed.

She had half a ham sausage in her mouth, her hair was a bird's nest, and she shot a glance over impatiently.

At that one glance, she froze, and the ham sausage went "plop" onto the keyboard.

"What... what is this thing?"

She leaned sharply toward the table, her thick-rimmed glasses almost touching the drawings.

Lao Zhou brought his tea mug over, took one look, and gasped.

"Young Master, the screen size isn't right, is it? It's nearly ten inches?"

He pointed at the structural lines on the sketch, his hand trembling slightly.

"And you removed the communication baseband module? This can't even make calls; what kind of Xinghai Third Generation is this?"

Lu Jingming pulled out a metal chair and sat down with a commanding presence.

"Who told you this was the Xinghai Third Generation?"

He tapped the drawing, his eyes filled with a condescending arrogance.

"This is called a smart tablet, which is basically just a large touchscreen computer."

Xia Weiliang scratched her messy hair, her eyes growing brighter and brighter.

"Removed the communication module and kept only the WIFI module."

She slapped her thigh hard, her voice cracking.

"And then load it with an enlarged version of Xinghai OS! This interaction logic could wipe the floor with the clunky laptops we have now!"

"You're smart."

Lu Jingming leaned back in his chair and fished a plastic lighter out of his pocket, spinning it in his hand.

"Those giants in Europe and America hold tens of thousands of communication patents. If we take a mobile phone overseas, it's like walking straight into the line of fire."

He sneered.

"But a tablet is a new species; their patent trolls can't touch this blind spot."

Lao Zhou suddenly realized, his old face turning red with excitement.

"Dimensional reduction strike! The foreigners haven't even figured out capacitive touchscreen smartphones yet."

His hand holding the tea mug trembled.

"If we just slam the tablet down in front of them, besides staring blankly, they won't even know where to start copying!"

"Don't be so hasty, there's also this."

Lu Jingming reached out and pointed to the other, smaller sketch.

On it was drawn something resembling a rubber wristband.

"Smart wearable wristband."

Lu Jingming looked at the two of them, who were completely dumbfounded.

"Step counting, heart rate monitoring, Bluetooth connectivity. It syncs with the phone and tablet to directly build an ecosystem closed loop."

He stood up, his tone carrying the ruthlessness of tearing down the old order.

"We'll take this thing overseas and sell it at triple the price."

Leaving the laboratory, Lu Jingming strode back to the top-floor office.

Chu Xuan had been waiting at the door for a while.

Standing next to him was a middle-aged man in a gray suit, clutching a worn briefcase.

This man had triangular eyes, and when he smiled, he revealed half a gold tooth, exuding an air of sinister craftiness.

This was the head of Xinghai's legal department, Liu Shoucai, known as The Pizza Hut of Donghai City.

"Boss Lu." Liu Shoucai pushed up his black-rimmed glasses. "I heard we're going to the Americans' doorstep to snatch their meat?"

Lu Jingming pushed open the door and pointed at the sofa.

"Sit. The foreigners love to swing the legal stick; this is your specialty."

He threw the appearance sketches of the tablet and the wristband onto the coffee table.

"We've avoided the communication patents. But for the appearance design and interaction patents, you need to build me a firewall."

Liu Shoucai picked up the sketches and flipped through them, the gold tooth at the corner of his mouth glinting.

"Don't worry, Boss Lu. I know the legal loopholes in America like the back of my hand."

He stuffed the drawings into his briefcase and slapped it with a loud thud.

"We'll register a shell company in North America first and claim all these appearance patents. If they dare to copy us, I'll turn around and sue them into bankruptcy."

"Well done." Lu Jingming nodded in satisfaction.

To deal with thugs, you have to use even more sinister methods than the thugs themselves.

He turned to look at Chu Xuan, who was sitting to the side.

"Are the overseas social media accounts ready?"

"All set!"

Chu Xuan patted his chest, his face flushed with excitement.

"Twitter and Facebook, all registered with virtual IPs, and we've been aggressively building up the accounts over the past few days."

"Very good. Prepare to release the material."

Lu Jingming walked to his desk and opened the drawer.

"Don't release fancy promotional posters; that's too cheap."

He stared at Chu Xuan, explaining the essence of baiting.

"Go take a few spy shots in low light, the blurrier the better, showing only a glimpse of the screen's chamfered edge."

"Don't bother finding a translator for the caption; just use the worst broken English possible. It doesn't matter if the grammar is all wrong."

Chu Xuan froze, scratching his parted hair.

"Boss Lu, will the foreigners understand our broken English?"

"The point is for them not to understand."

Lu Jingming placed his hands on the desk, his smile hiding a sharp blade.

"If they don't understand, they'll start guessing. If they can't figure it out, those foreign devils will get anxious, and once they're anxious, they'll start swearing online."

He straightened up.

"The louder they curse, the higher the popularity. This is what we call zero-cost international marketing."

Chu Xuan's eyes instantly lit up, and he slapped his thigh and stood up.

"Brilliant! Running to the foreigners' doorstep to bait them—I'm an expert at this!"

He rubbed his hands together in delight.

"Just you wait, I guarantee I'll have those foreigners on Twitter so confused they won't know which way is up!"

The night deepened, and the roar of the machinery in the factory area gradually faded away.

The entire Xinghai building quieted down.

Lu Jingming sat alone behind the large desk.

He took out a cigarette case and lit a cigarette.

The bluish-gray smoke rose slowly in the dim office, blurring his features.

He closed his eyes and focused his mind.

The system panel deep in his mind instantly unfolded, emitting a blinding golden light.

[Current Total Break-Defense Value: 3.75 million points!]

Looking at this massive astronomical number, Lu Jingming exhaled a ring of smoke in satisfaction.

Over the past few months, the contributions from domestic competitors and Samsung Group have been truly solid.

With this huge sum, he had the greatest confidence for the upcoming transnational business war.

Suddenly, the system panel vibrated violently.

A dazzling purple-gold beam of light shot up from the void of the data sea.

[Ding! Break-Defense Value accumulation target reached; Intermediate Technology Tree fully unlocked!]

Lu Jingming sat up straight, his eyes locked on the newly lit technology branch.

It was no longer simple mobile phone component assembly or pieced-together underlying drivers.

What appeared on the light screen were deeper underlying chip architectures, independent PC operating systems, and even precise blueprints for industrial machine tools.

These were the blood-sucking tools that the foreigners used to truly strangle the world and harvest profits everywhere.

Lu Jingming swiped across the glowing panel.

His gaze passed over the countless corporate icons and finally stopped on a name emitting a faint blue light.

[Microsoft]

The absolute hegemon of the PC era, an old-school oligarchy that threw its weight around by monopolizing operating systems.

They were about to launch that inferior new system globally, which had been criticized to no end.

A burst of hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

Chu Xuan didn't even knock; he just poked half his body inside.

"Boss Lu! The Twitter account's popularity has been hyped up; the foreigners are going crazy cursing in the comments section!"

Chu Xuan waved his phone excitedly.

"Which fat pig in Silicon Valley should we aim our first wave of dimensional reduction strike firepower at?"

Lu Jingming withdrew his gaze, and the system panel slowly faded from his mind.

He picked up the plastic lighter on the table.

"Bang."

The lighter landed on the solid wood desk with a crisp click.

"Go check Microsoft's financial reports and keep a close eye on the release schedule for their new system."

Lu Jingming's voice was cold.

Chu Xuan froze, his face full of confusion.

"Microsoft? They do computer operating systems; that's got nothing to do with us, since we do mobile, right?"

Lu Jingming turned his swivel chair and looked at the sparse starlight outside the window.

With a "click," he lit the cigarette between his fingers.

The flame instantly illuminated the sinister and arrogant sneer at the corner of his mouth.

"Who said it doesn't? From today on, Xinghai's rules are the rules for the entire industry."

Lu Jingming held the cigarette and turned to look at Chu Xuan.

"We've decided on it."

He flicked the ash, his tone filled with an arrogance that could crush everything.

"Notify the guys to get to work. Go ask those arrogant foreigners if they're ready to have their defenses broken?"