176: Chapter 176 System Warning

Late at night.

The wind from Houhai brought no coolness; instead, it seemed to repeatedly churn the day's dry heat within the deep alleys.

Inside the study of the Courtyard House, the lights were bright, and the air conditioning was set to just the right temperature.

Chen Fan had just finished reviewing the final document for the Huihuang Group's European acquisition. As his fingertips signed the paper, the map of a commercial empire worth thirty billion euros was finalized.

Chen Haoyu's figure appeared silently at the door, holding a tablet in his hands.

"Boss, there's a new development regarding Young Master Muyang."

Chen Haoyu's tone carried a hint of irrepressible praise. He handed over the tablet, which displayed screenshots from the Imperial Capital University campus forum, already dominated by the terms 'Huihuang Investment Society' and 'God of Finance Chen Muyang'.

He briefly and concisely reported how Chen Muyang, at the recruitment site, faced a public provocation from Zhao Kai, the president of an established society. In just a one-hour real- plate duel on the US stock market, Chen Muyang had crushed the academic authority the other had built over years, becoming a legend in a single battle.

"The 'Iceberg Order' analysis method the Young Master used... even several veteran traders in our group's trading department said his logic was too wild, too ruthless."

After listening, the tight lines on Chen Fan's face softened, revealing a heartfelt smile.

He took the tablet and swiped his finger, pulling up the security surveillance for the study. In one corner of the screen was a real-time recording from the third floor of the library.

In the surveillance footage, his son was looking at a girl with a cool temperament across a bookshelf. He remembered that girl—the Lin family's daughter, Lin Wanqiu.

Chen Fan did not speak or interfere; he just watched quietly.

Very good.

His son no longer needed to hide under his wings. He was starting to have his own circle of friends, his own battlefield, and his own hazy feelings of affection.

The satisfaction of personally cultivating a successor and watching him step-by-step toward strength was far more pleasant than signing any hundred-billion-dollar contract.

However, just as this rare moment of tranquility and gratification was about to overflow from his chest...

Buzz—

A slight but brain-piercing hum sounded deep within Chen Fan's consciousness without warning.

The world before his eyes seemed to be splashed with a layer of blood-red.

The interface of the [god-level investment system] forcibly popped up in an unprecedentedly crude manner without being summoned.

The entire deep-blue high-tech interface was now completely rendered in a glaring, dangerous deep red. A massive, rotating, and flashing exclamation mark occupied the center of the interface like a heart on the verge of exploding.

The smile on Chen Fan's face vanished completely within a tenth of a second.

A line of cold, emotionless system text slowly emerged beneath the exclamation mark, each word seemingly forged from ice.

[Warning: A lethal threat targeting the core business 'Pangu Biotechnology' is detected to be forming.]

[Threat Level: Sovereign-level.]

[Judgment: This threat will directly lead to the foundational destruction of the business and produce an irreversible chain reaction against the Host and his family.]

The air in the study seemed to be sucked dry at that moment.

Chen Fan's gaze instantly became as sharp as a blade. Without even opening his mouth, his thoughts interacted with the system with maximum efficiency.

"Source."

The system interface refreshed.

The double-helix logo of the multinational pharmaceutical giant "Prometheus Company" was clearly pulled up, along with a 3D architectural map of their Asian headquarters in Singapore.

Beside it were detailed files on the spy Anna, as well as an encrypted communication record between her and the company's top decision-makers that the system had just decrypted.

The communication records showed that after Prometheus Company followed the false technical route provided by Chen Muyang and burned through over two billion US dollars in R&D funds in just half a month, the project was declared a total failure.

Chen Fan had originally thought that this massive loss would be enough to severely wound them, or at least make them back off for a while.

But he had ultimately underestimated the greed of capital and the inhuman ruthlessness hidden beneath the veneer of civilization.

The new intelligence caused his pupils to contract slightly.

["Prometheus" Project has initiated Plan B.]

[Core of the Plan: Since the product cannot be technically replicated, it will be completely strangled in its cradle from the perspective of public credibility and social impact.]

[Execution Strategy: By manufacturing a large-scale mass medical incident with nationwide impact and severe consequences, all blame will be perfectly shifted onto the Huihuang Group's soon-to-be-launched biological health products.]

Seeing this, Chen Fan's expression lost all warmth.

More detailed intelligence poured down like a waterfall.

Through a global black market network and underground organizations, Prometheus Company had secretly contacted and bribed over thirty terminally ill patients from different provinces and cities in China who had less than three months to live.

They provided each patient's family with a "pension" sufficient to ensure their descendants would never want for food or clothing.

What these patients had to do was, after receiving the first batch of "Life No. 1" nutritional supplements to be distributed for free to critically ill patients through Huihuang Group's charitable channels, take a potent toxin provided by Prometheus Company that would trigger acute organ failure at a prearranged time.

At that time, the media, internet trolls, and those bribed "experts" would coordinate immediately.

A meticulously planned public opinion storm targeting Huihuang Group and Pangu Biotechnology would sweep across the entire internet within twenty-four hours.

Huihuang Group, the newcomer that had just reached the top in the Imperial Capital, would be branded with the eternal infamy of "disregarding human life" and being "unscrupulous profiteers."

And Pangu Biotechnology, the department carrying Chen Fan's highest future strategy, would be nailed to the pillar of shame at its very birth, never to rise again.

On the system interface, that list was incredibly detailed.

The name of every bribed patient, their home address, the bribe amount, the contact person's code name, and even the exact time they were required to take the toxin were all listed clearly.

This plan did not have a single loophole.

It precisely exploited human greed, the fear of death, and the cheapest form of sympathy.

This wasn't business competition.

This was an indiscriminate terrorist attack fueled by the lives of innocent people.

A bone-chilling coldness slowly climbed from Chen Fan's spine to the back of his neck.

He closed the system interface.

The original silence returned to the study, so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat.

He walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the quiet shadow cast by the old locust tree in the courtyard under the moonlight, and the warm light still on in his daughter's art studio in the east wing.

That was his world.

A world where no filthy thing was allowed to touch or defile.

He picked up the unmarked black internal encrypted phone on the desk and dialed a number he hadn't used in a long time.

The call connected. He didn't waste a single word, his tone as calm as a deep, frozen pool.

"Shadow."

"Initiate the 'Purification' protocol."

"I'll send you the list shortly."

"I don't care what method you use; before dawn tomorrow, I want every person on that list, and every contact behind them, to disappear cleanly from this world."