49: Chapter 49, "The Azure Sky," went viral but faded away within 30 minutes.

At 10:00 AM, the subways, bus stops, and large office building screens in Jiangcheng were all taken over by promotional posters for "Firmament." The slogan "Space Epic, Setting Sail Today" was paired with images of a vast galaxy, so bright it was hard to keep one's eyes open.

Blue Whale Games poured 50 million into marketing. From information flow ads to hype from top streamers, the overwhelming offensive caught the attention of the entire gaming industry.

Allen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the CEO's office, watching the heavy traffic below, the corners of his mouth curling up uncontrollably.

On his phone, the data reported by the operations director was still refreshing: "CEO Allen, pre-registrations have surpassed 100 million! We're number one in pre-downloads across the three major app stores!"

"Understood." He hung up the phone and turned to Kudo Shinichi on the sofa. "Chairman, everything is ready."

Kudo Shinichi, wearing a custom-tailored kimono, toyed with a folding fan in his hand, his Chinese heavily accented: "Allen-kun, thank you for your hard work."

This founder of Blue Whale had a legendary first half of his life—in his early years in Japan, he earned a living drawing adult manga. One of his works unexpectedly became a hit in China and South Korea, allowing him to accumulate his first pot of gold.

Later, at a cocktail party, he met a Jiangcheng official who had come to Japan to attract investment. He was persuaded to invest in China and stumbled into the gaming industry, eventually building a listed company.

"It's what I should do." Allen handed over a cup of sake. "The performance of 'Firmament' this time will definitely allow you to hold your head high in front of the board of directors."

Kudo Shinichi squinted and smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bunching up: "Once the official version stabilizes, we will launch overseas distribution. I have already contacted Japanese publishers, and they are very interested in the space theme."

At exactly 12:00 PM, the official version of "Firmament" went online on time.

The moment the servers opened, millions of players flooded in like a tide.

Before the galaxy animation on the login screen could even finish, the number of online players surpassed ten million.

At 12:10, the data jumped to 20 million. The monitoring screens in the Technology Department were all green, incredibly stable.

"We broke the record!" The girls in the operations group screamed, hugging each other in celebration.

In the CEO's office, Kudo Shinichi opened champagne, the golden liquid splashing with foam: "Good! Good! Allen-kun, I announce that this year's year-end bonus will be tripled for everyone!"

"Thank you, Chairman!" Allen beamed, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes smoothing out. "Once this wave of revenue comes in, we can make a push for the global market and go toe-to-toe with giants like EB and Sok!"

Chang Yuan squeezed through the crowd, raising his glass to toast everyone, his face filled with unconcealable pride.

Last night, taking advantage of the Technology Department's dinner, he had secretly deleted the backup key Zhang Fan left behind and "optimized" several lines of core code.

In his view, without the hidden danger of Zhang Fan, "Firmament" was his ticket to achievement; a promotion to Vice President next year was guaranteed.

However, this revelry only lasted half an hour.

At 12:30 PM, the alarm in the Technology Department suddenly shrieked piercingly, like a siren in an air-raid shelter. The green on the monitoring screens was instantly swallowed by red, and all the server icons flashed frantically.

"What's going on?!" Wei Xiang lunged toward the screen, his fingers trembling so much he couldn't hit the keys correctly. "The number of online players... it's zeroed out?"

"It's not zeroed out!" The young man in the testing group's voice trembled. "All players have been forced offline!"

Almost at the same time, Allen's phone was ringing off the hook. The operations director's voice carried a sob: "CEO Allen, all the players have been kicked out! The forums are exploding; they're saying all account data is gone!"

"What?!" Allen stood up abruptly, his wine glass crashing to the floor. "Check it! Check it immediately!"

Online, angry players flooded social media platforms like a tide.

"I spent 30,000 on skins! It's all gone!"

"The orange gear I spent half a month grinding for, gone just like that?"

"Blue Whale, you damn scammers! Refund my money!"

Hot search terms climbed at a visible speed: #FirmamentDataLoss, #BlueWhaleGamesScam, #CollectiveRightsProtection, followed by the bright red "Hot" tag.

In the Technology Department, programmers hammered away at keyboards like crazy, cold sweat soaking their shirts. "The database is locked!" a technician wearing glasses roared. "There's a virus! We can't clear it!"

"Where's the backup? Use the backup!" Wei Xiang grabbed his shoulder, his nails nearly sinking into the flesh.

"The backup... all the backups have been formatted!"

These words were like a thunderclap, freezing everyone in place. Chang Yuan's face turned pale, and he stumbled back.

When he was "optimizing" the code last night, he seemed to have accidentally deleted some file. He hadn't cared at the time, but could it be...

"Impossible!" He lunged at his computer, his fingers clicking randomly. "There must be a way... there must be..."

A line of gibberish popped up on the screen, like a mocking grimace.

At 2:00 PM, Blue Whale Games' stock price plummeted, falling from the opening price of 87 yuan to 32 yuan, hitting the limit down hard.

The three major partner streaming platforms urgently issued termination statements, and the licensor of the Sok Engine also sent a lawyer's letter, demanding termination of cooperation and compensation for losses.

Kudo Shinichi flew into a rage in the conference room, slamming his folding fan in half: "Useless! A bunch of useless fools! 50 million in marketing! 20 million online! And now you're telling me the data is gone?!"

Allen lowered his head, the shirt on his back soaked through as if he had just been pulled from water. He knew it was all over—without data, there would be no revenue; without revenue, the company's cash flow would break immediately; combined with player claims and partner penalties, Blue Whale wouldn't survive the month.

"Call the police!" Chang Yuan suddenly roared. "Call the police and arrest Zhang Fan! It must be him! He's the one behind this!"

Allen shuddered, then acted as if he had caught a lifeline: "Right! It's him! He left a backdoor!"

At 3:00 PM, two police cars stopped at the entrance of the University Town Incubation Park. When the police walked into Singularity Technology's studio, they were stunned.

In the small room, besides Zhang Fan and Gu Jingshen, there were actually five men in suits sitting there, each carrying a briefcase, with laptops and stacks of documents laid out before them.

"What are you..." The lead police officer was a bit dazed. "A game studio? Or a law firm?"

Lawyer Wang stood up and showed his ID: "Officers, we are from the Legal Department of the Gu Group. We are currently providing legal consultation for Singularity Technology."

Zhang Fan sat behind the desk, twirling a pen in his hand, and looked up at the police: "Are you looking for me for something?"

"Are you Zhang Fan?" The police officer took out a summons. "Blue Whale Games has reported a case, saying you are suspected of damaging a computer information system. Come with us."

"Damaging the system?" Zhang Fan smiled. "Do they have evidence?"

Lawyer Wang stepped forward and handed over a document: "Officers, this is the chain of evidence we have compiled. First, Blue Whale owes my client 2.5 million in labor compensation, with audio and video recordings as proof. Second, according to Article 286 of the Criminal Law, damaging a computer information system requires proof of 'subjective intent,' but my client left Blue Whale after fixing the bugs, and he has an alibi. Finally, we suspect that Blue Whale's data loss was caused by internal operational errors, and now they want to frame my client."

He spoke at a steady pace with clear logic, turning a summons into an indictment against Blue Whale.

The police looked at the thick stack of evidence in their hands, then at the five serious-looking lawyers, and felt a bit conflicted. They had heard of the Gu Group's reputation; someone who could have the Gu Group's legal team personally oversee them was clearly no ordinary programmer.

"This..." The lead officer took out his phone. "We need to report to our superiors."

Zhang Fan leaned back in his chair, looking at the sunlight outside the window, a faint smile playing on his lips.

He had long expected Blue Whale would act out of desperation. So, he had Lawyer Wang bring the team over early this morning, prepared with all the evidence.

Gu Jingshen leaned in and whispered, "Fan Zi, that's impressive. This is what you call killing the heart and winning without a drop of blood."

Zhang Fan didn't speak, just lightly tapped the desk.

He wasn't a saint. Having his project snatched, his girlfriend taken, and his career ruined, he had to take it all back. The collapse of Blue Whale was less his revenge and more their own self-destruction—greed, arrogance, and short-sightedness had long ago laid the groundwork for today's outcome.

The police finished their call, their expressions somewhat complicated: "Mr. Zhang, we need you to cooperate with the investigation. Please come with us to the Police Station to make a statement."

"Fine." Zhang Fan stood up, and Lawyer Wang immediately followed. "We'll go with you."

As he walked out of the studio, Zhang Fan looked up at the sky, which was as azure as the galaxy in "Firmament." He remembered when he first joined Blue Whale, he too had dreamed of creating a game that would change the industry.

He just didn't expect that the ones who would eventually bury this "dream" with their own hands would be themselves.

And his path was just beginning.