Chapter 439 Old Customers

A short while later.

Two comrades from the Special Front flanked the ashen-faced factory director.

They led him into the back seat of a dark-colored SUV parked outside the factory gates.

Old Zhang, the engineer who was scared out of his wits, was also taken into another vehicle behind them.

As the engines started, the convoy smoothly drove away from this somewhat well-known toy processing factory.

Sitting inside the SUV.

Feeling the slight bumps from the road.

By now, the factory director completely understood.

The reason these soldiers, whom one usually never sees, had made such a big scene at their factory today...

...wasn't because of tax evasion or failing fire safety standards at all.

It was actually because he had been blinded by greed and tried to counterfeit that Firefighting Parent-Child Pistol that was going viral online.

'That actually wasn't an ordinary toy!' The thought surfaced in his mind.

After realizing this cruel fact.

The factory director was speechless, feeling a bitter taste in his throat.

In today's highly developed commercial market.

He was definitely not the only one with a sharp nose for trends who wanted to make a quick buck.

Their peers active in toy processing hubs across the country had also identified Li Jiajun's Firefighting Parent-Child Pistol as an absolute blockbuster.

They had all already begun counterfeiting it.

Quite a few bosses had purchased the physical items at high prices through scalpers, then gathered their technical backbone overnight to perform teardowns.

Of course, limited by the generational gap in industrial mother machines and materials science.

These small workshops that produced ordinary plastic toys naturally hadn't managed to replicate anything of substance.

At most, they had drawn a few sketches of the casing or stared blankly at the incomprehensible micro-modules inside.

However.

The act itself of attempting to reverse-engineer it had already touched a high-voltage red line.

Because the core algorithms and guidance technology inside that seemingly dusty plastic pistol had long been classified.

Just this afternoon.

A coordinated sweep operation began without warning across multiple provinces and cities nationwide.

Those factory directors still dreaming of getting rich, along with the engineers responsible for reverse engineering.

When faced with relevant personnel suddenly bursting through their doors, they all appeared just as dazed as that factory director from earlier.

Then.

Every single one of them was invited by comrades from the Special Front to go back and "drink tea," taken right from their office chairs.

...

In today's internet age.

Such a large-scale cross-provincial crackdown could not be kept completely invisible.

The relevant news quickly spread online.

For a moment, the Netizens were in an uproar.

On the trending lists of major social media platforms, the view counts for related hashtags skyrocketed.

Of course, they didn't know much, nor did they know the inside story of what kind of exaggerated destruction this gun had achieved on the Sanbianpo battlefield.

The authorities naturally couldn't release the actual lethality data of that gun.

However, they generally realized that the Firefighting Parent-Child Pistol was anything but simple.

The internet was filled with an air of merriment.

The comment sections of major marketing accounts were as lively as the Lunar New Year.

Netizens tapped away at their keyboards, mercilessly unleashing mocking bullet chats.

"(Facepalm) Of all the people to counterfeit, why did these directors have to pick Little Factory Director Li?"

"Isn't this like the God of Longevity hanging himself—looking for death?"

"Pfft, I can't hold it in, I really can't hold it in anymore."

"Hahaha, when I saw this news, I laughed so hard I snorted like a pig."

All sorts of comments paired with hilarious emojis emerged one after another.

In everyone's eyes, the things created by that Militia General were cutting-edge technologies that even the National Team had to take very seriously.

You bunch of unscrupulous merchants who usually only know how to make plastic ducks and low-quality water guns actually dared to mess with such hardcore equipment.

This was simply the biggest industry joke of the year.

...

However.

Amidst the joyful crowd of onlookers, some distinctly different voices appeared in a thread on a lifestyle-sharing forum.

It was a long, bolded, and colored comment.

Between the lines, there was a thick sense of grievance and reluctance.

This buyer wailed in the comment section:

"Waaaah, I can't laugh. Some officials just came and confiscated the Firefighting Parent-Child Pistol I bought from Little Factory Director Li's livestream. Even though they gave me compensation, I'd only just started having fun. Before, I was just using the one-click smart matching feature, and only recently started studying the manual. The manual has advanced playstyles, and I'd already figured some things out. I was planning to use this Firefighting Parent-Child Pistol to prank my upstairs neighbor who stays up all night."

As soon as this long comment, full of everyday life flavor, was posted.

It immediately drew a large wave of sympathy below.

Many buyers with the same experience also jumped out to find comfort in numbers.

Someone immediately replied below: "We're in the same boat; the one I bought was taken back too."

These Netizens were right.

Just this afternoon.

At the same time.

Ordinary citizens who had bought Li Jiajun's Firefighting Parent-Child Pistol...

...were also being visited by the authorities.

The staff members wearing plain clothes were very gentle; they not only showed their relevant IDs but also provided full economic compensation according to the procedure.

The entire process was orderly.

...

During the nationwide confiscation operation.

In Baishui City.

Inside a high-end residential complex with tight security.

Two staff members had just stepped out of the elevator, walking on the soft corridor carpet, and stopped before a grand security door.

Leading the team was a female comrade with ear-length short hair, holding a list of tracking numbers extracted from the backend.

This household was also one of the lucky ones who had managed to snatch a toy gun with incredible hand speed during that sales livestream.

The female comrade stepped forward and pressed the doorbell.

Ding-dong—

The crisp sound of the doorbell echoed in the quiet hallway.

And the person being visited was a loyal customer of Li Jiajun, a nine-year-old child.