Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

Hangzhou, the headquarters building of Internet Empire.

On the huge LED monitoring screen, a blinding red light flashed wildly.

The heat map representing traffic in Greater China is fading at a visible rate.

The piercing alarm blared back and forth in the empty top-floor conference room, making everyone uneasy.

"Clatter".

The custom-made cigar that Ma Tengyun was holding between his fingers slipped from his hand and fell onto the expensive Persian carpet.

The spark burned a charred hole.

He usually treasures this rug the most, but now he didn't even glance at it.

He stared intently at the "Holographic Chip Technology Analysis Report" that Lao Wei handed him.

His hands trembled as if he were having a Parkinson's attack, and the thick pages of paper rustled as he squeezed them.

"Twenty years ahead? Are you sure you're not talking to me about science fiction?"

Ma Tengyun suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.

His voice was hoarse, as if he were sawing wood, and it carried an air of disbelief and terror.

With a bitter face, Lao Wei pushed the tablet computer in front of the boss.

"Mr. Ma, take a look for yourself. This is the underlying code of Yunxiao Holographic that our technical department just extracted. It's completely incomprehensible; it's just a bunch of superdimensional gibberish."

"They integrated the holographic projection module directly into a regular mobile phone chip."

Old Wei wiped the fine beads of cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling.

"No bulky VR headsets or external devices are needed. Just open the Cloud System, and the product will float directly in your living room at a 1:1 scale."

The operations director slumped into his chair, his eyes glazed over, looking as if he had lost his soul.

"Not only can you see it, you can also touch it! They even simulated haptic feedback!"

"Those merchants on our platform who rely on photo editing and filters to deceive people have had their true colors exposed in front of the holographic system!"

The operations director swallowed hard and waved his hand in despair.

"Users can instantly tell the quality of the holographic fabric just by touching it. How are our online stores supposed to survive?"

Ma Tengyun felt a buzzing in his head.

He thought Yan Qingfeng was just a local warlord who rose to power by building houses, speculating on land, and manipulating political and business relationships.

He thought that by throwing down 50 billion yuan in cash subsidies, he could make this nouveau riche kneel down and beg for mercy.

But what's the reality? They didn't even bother with his 50 billion yuan.

Yan Qingfeng dropped a nuclear bomb straight down from the sky!

"Mr. Ma, our flat graphic and text-based model is completely outdated."

Old Wei sighed, his voice filled with deep despair.

"In front of Master Yan's holographic system, we are like primitive people holding stone axes."

Old Wei pointed to the plummeting curve on the screen.

"What about the other side? They're firing Gatling guns! This is a complete and utter 'dimensional reduction' attack!"

A deathly silence fell over the conference room.

Those arrogant internet executives who constantly talk about "empowerment" and "closed-loop ecosystem" are usually arrogant.

At this moment, they all shrank back like quails, not daring to utter a sound.

"Beep beep beep!"

The phone on the operations director's desk suddenly started ringing like crazy.

He listened to a couple of sentences on speakerphone, and his face instantly turned ashen.

"Mr. Ma, we just received an urgent call from the Major Accounts Department! Thirty of the top fifty brands on our platform have suddenly submitted applications to close their stores!"

The operations director clutched his hair, his voice trembling with tears.

"Closing the store? Are they crazy? They're not going to pay the exorbitant penalty for breach of contract?" Ma Tengyun's eyes widened.

"No way! They'd rather lose money than not move it to Yunxiao Holographic Mall overnight!"

The operations director slammed his fist on the table, looking utterly devastated.

"The merchant said it themselves: customers now only care about clothes they can actually touch. Even a dog wouldn't look at our fake print ads!"

It's not just clothes; even those selling agricultural products are starting to roll up their stock.

"Our system just detected that a fruit farmer was cutting up an apple directly in the holographic projection!"

Old Wei added from the side, his eyes filled with both fervor and despair.

"The holographic chip even simulated the aroma of fruit as the juice flowed down the blade, using low-frequency brainwave stimulation!"

"This is using neural network deception technology! Master Yan's move is simply divine!" Old Wei shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Bang!"

Ma Tengyun kicked over the mahogany trash can next to him.

"A god? Yan Qingfeng is a living Yama who eats people without spitting out the bones!"

He leaned on the table, panting heavily, his large belly heaving.

"How large is the loss exactly? Give us a precise figure!"

The operations director's fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up a set of alarming data.

"The daily active users in Handong Province have fallen below the historical low. The core user base has been completely wiped out."

"That's not the worst part," the operations director said, his voice trembling.

"Screenshots and screen recordings of holographic shopping have gone viral on social media across the country! The Lingxiao Consortium dominates the top ten trending topics!"

He held the tablet up to Ma Tengyun.

"In the surrounding provinces of East and North China, users are frantically searching for flashing tutorials to forcibly flash the Yunxiao OS system onto their phones."

"Our national daily active users plummeted by 30% in those three hours!"

Thirty percent!

These words struck Ma Tengyun's heart like a heavy hammer.

His once-proud trillion-dollar empire was ripped out of his heart by Yan Qingfeng in just three hours!

"Moreover, Yan Qingfeng had no intention of leaving this technology only in Handong."

Old Wei threw out the final death warrant.

"Lingxiao Consortium's official website just released an announcement, officially opening the nationwide merchant onboarding channel. The first 10,000 merchants will have their annual commission waived!"

Old Wei looked at Ma Tengyun's bloodless old face and gritted his teeth.

"Mr. Ma, if we don't get their system authorization soon, it won't be long before we're in trouble."

"Our trillion-dollar e-commerce empire will have to shut down completely and become a garbage dump in the history of the internet!"

Ma Tengyun's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the large boss's chair.

All my strength seemed to have been instantly drained away by a water pump.

He has been in the business world for decades and has seen countless ups and downs.

Despite countless brutal attempts at capital manipulation, he carved out a bloody path through adversity with his inherent ruthlessness.

But this time, he felt a deep fear he had never felt before.

That's the feeling of powerlessness when facing a higher-dimensional civilization.

You think someone is playing chess with you, but they're actually playing StarCraft.

They just overturned the chessboard and the table!

With a "whoosh," Ma Tengyun suddenly jumped up.

He shoved aside the chair blocking his way, making a screeching sound.

He didn't even bother to change his signature black cloth shoes.

Wearing a pair of gray soft-soled cotton slippers, he strode directly out of the meeting room.

"Mr. Ma! Where are you going?" A group of executives were startled and all rushed after him.

"Where to? To save our lives!"

Ma Tengyun roared angrily, his eyes red, and spat all over the vice president's face.

He knew that if he continued to act like a godfather at this point, his stocks would plummet to rock bottom the next day.

"Arrange a private jet for me immediately! Fly to Beijing! The sooner the better!"

Ma Tengyun shouted at his secretary as he walked quickly toward the elevator.

The female secretary jogged along in her high heels, panting heavily.

"Mr. Ma, applying for flight routes from the control tower requires going through procedures, and it'll take at least half an hour in the middle of the night..."

"I don't care what methods you use! You have to throw money at it and get an air route built!"

Ma Tengyun was so anxious that he stomped his feet and roared at the ceiling of the corridor.

"Old Wei! Take all the data handover permissions and come with me!"

He turned around abruptly and pointed to the technical director, who was still standing there in a daze.

Old Wei was dumbfounded.

"Handing over authority? Mr. Ma, are we going to surrender?"

"What else can we do? Just wait to be wiped out in one fell swoop!"

Ma Tengyun gave a bitter smile, his eyes filled with lingering fear.

The elevator opened with a "ding".

Ma Tengyun climbed into the sedan chair, his fingers trembling as he pressed the close button.

"Also, immediately use all available connections to contact Master Yan's chief secretary, Zhou Yuan!"

Ma Tengyun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked at his reflection in the elevator mirror.

The arrogant demeanor of that godfather has long since vanished, leaving only a terrified old man.

The female secretary swallowed hard and asked tentatively.

"Mr. Ma, what if Master Yan doesn't show up? I heard he's currently staying in a top-tier courtyard house in Beijing's Second Ring Road, with very high standards."

"I have to see you, even if I don't want to!"

Ma Tengyun gritted his teeth, a resolute look of utter desperation flashing in his eyes.

"Tell Secretary Zhou that even if it means I, Old Ma, have to kneel beside the stone lions at the entrance of that courtyard house and get soaked in the autumn rain all night."

Ma Tengyun took a deep breath, his voice terribly hoarse.

"I must also kowtow to Lord Yan in person before dawn!"