Mastering the Sword Manual, sweeping across the globe

The barrier was raised, and the car in front drove off.

Another one.

Another one.

The director breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

The barrier slowly rose, and he was about to step on the gas pedal—

The car suddenly lurched violently, and a strong force was applied, causing the passenger door to be flung open as wide as it could.

The HR director turned his head in a daze.

The young man was sitting in the passenger seat, looking down as he fastened his seatbelt.

“Let’s go,” the young man said, “we’re blocking the way behind us.”

-------

Tenth minute.

The duty room of a courier service office in the west of the city.

The data center manager stumbled in, startling the two shift workers on duty.

"Help!" he cried. "Someone is chasing me!"

The students in the fast-paced class stood up and looked at him warily.

"Who's chasing you? Where are you?"

"A...a young man, wearing a light-colored T-shirt and a dark-colored jacket—"

Before he could finish speaking, the door to the duty room was pushed open again.

A young man wearing a light-colored T-shirt and a dark jacket walked in.

"General Manager Huang?" the young man said.

The two fast-track soldiers instantly became alert, their hands reaching for the equipment at their waists.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" one of them shouted.

"Oh, wrong place." With that, the young man raised his hand and pointed at the person in charge of the data center from a distance of a dozen steps away, then turned and pushed open the door to leave.

A student from the fast-track class quickly chased to the door, opened it, and looked outside—

Outside the door was an empty street, the streetlights were dim, and occasionally a car would drive by.

There was no one there.

Back in the duty room, the data center manager was still standing there.

He remained motionless, his face pale.

-------

Fifteenth minute.

A bus stop in the eastern part of the city.

The second person in charge of the strategic development department sat on a waiting bench, his eyes glazed over.

He didn't know where he was or where he was going.

He just ran, kept running, until he couldn't run anymore.

Then we arrived at this bus stop.

There were a few people waiting for the night bus on the platform; some were playing on their phones, some were yawning, and everything seemed normal.

Suddenly, it got dark around me.

"Have you rested enough?" a young voice asked.

-------

Seventeenth minute.

……

20th minute.

……

23rd minute

……

Twenty-fifth minute.

……

One call after another was made to the CEO's assistant.

He was caught in the seventh minute, just as he got into the taxi, and someone else got into the back seat at the same time.

Then the CEO assigned me to be in charge of compiling the data.

By the twenty-fifth minute, the assistant had counted twenty.

Then, there is no more.

--------

The thirtieth minute.

Fortieth minute.

An hour has passed.

No one else saw that young man.

But... twenty people... that's already more than a third of the number of P8 and above in the Ugly Group.

—Although its market share has been surpassed by Huang Le Me, everyone knows about the problems of big companies, and it's not so easy to reduce the number of senior management positions.

Of course, that's beside the point.

For Zhang Qiliang:

You can run all you want—Zhang Qiliang had actually arrived in the capital as early as 12 o'clock.

They didn't start their operation until 2 a.m., and one hour of that time was spent at the headquarters of the two platforms, ChouTuan and JiDong, checking, querying, searching, and confirming the aura of the corresponding P8-level high-ranking personnel.

Another hour was spent marking all these talented individuals with their unique qualities.

There's no way around it; even if one's thoughts are perfectly clear, creating suitable trial dreams for these talented individuals still requires consuming a large amount of materials.

Zhang Qiliang has been working very hard to get orders, but he can only accumulate about 20 training slots each day.

—So, during the next few days of downtime, it would be a real shame if some of the people these riders care about most in their daily work and life were to slip away.

Well, that was a digression.

--------

The shock subsided slightly.

Starting at the thirtieth minute, calls began to be made one after another.

The fast-track government office. The security department. The public relations firm. Familiar media friends. Acquaintances with influence through certain channels.

And then there are those within the established staff who meticulously manage their positions on ordinary days, just waiting to help out in crucial moments.

For example: now.

It doesn't matter anymore.

There were more than twenty people scattered in various corners of the city, from west to east, south to north. Some were blocked at their own doorsteps, some were dragged out of their cars, and some were publicly tapped on the forehead in the express shift duty room. Anyone with a brain knows that there's no way there's any secrecy about this kind of thing.

Everyone here is a smart person—given the mysterious man's unbridled manner, no one would believe he just appeared out of nowhere.

In some places, there must have been news about it long ago.

really.

When I made the third call, there was silence on the other end.

After a long silence, he said, "We are looking into this matter. We will let you know as there are any developments."

When they got to the fifth person, the other person directly asked, "Is the person you're talking about very young, in his twenties, and always smiling?"

When they got to the eighth one, the other side sighed: "You guys are unlucky too?"

"What do you mean by 'also'?"

……

At the fortieth minute, someone dialed the number of a high-ranking executive at Huang Lemei.

The two companies have been fighting for so many years. On the surface, they are competitors, but in private, they have all the necessary ways to contact each other.

Holiday greetings, occasional meetings at industry conferences, and the informants planted in each other's networks—the industry is only so big, how could anyone not know anyone else?

The phone rang five times, then I answered it.

"Hey?"

"Mr. Zhou, it's me."

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"Operation Chen?" The voice held a hint of surprise. "So late... oh... so late~~~"

He had barely uttered a sentence when the other side already understood a great deal.

Chen, the operations manager, didn't answer, but instead asked, "Mr. Zhou, how many people do you have on your side?"

There was silence on the other end.

A few seconds later, a soft laugh came from the other end of the phone.

There wasn't much doubt or smugness, but something more complicated—sympathy mixed with relief, and within that relief lurked an inexplicable...schadenfreude?

"Twenty-odd?" President Zhou asked in return.

Chen, the operations manager, felt a jolt: "How did you know?"

"Because we also have more than twenty people," said General Manager Zhou, "half of them are P8 or above."

Chen opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

"Don't be nervous," General Manager Zhou sighed. "Operations Manager Chen, I have a question for you."

"You said."

Have you ever delivered food?

……

Unlike just a few hours earlier, when all my efforts—playing the emotional card, making promises, even dredging up old grievances—couldn't get him to talk, this time the news came incredibly quickly.

Almost impatiently, they spilled all the beans.

The group quickly understood why the other party had been so stubborn: If you had known, and you had acted like human beings and rushed to reform, wouldn't that person's attention have been fixed on me? —As for whether that person was only focused on Huang? Based on the personality shown in the video, is that possible?

……

Fifty minutes.

The Ugly Group's online meeting room lit up again.

Everyone who could go home has gone home.

Those who couldn't go home—those still stuck in traffic or simply didn't want to come back—were also brought in via mobile phone.

One by one, the squares on the screen lit up again, and every face showed the same thing: exhaustion, fear, and lingering confusion.

Chen, the operations manager, and several other colleagues who had received the information recounted the details they had learned from Huang Leme.

It's worth mentioning that during the communication process, several senior executives of Huangleme even provided the full video recording of the meeting—which, of course, was also sent to the online meeting room.

The meeting room remained quiet for a long time.

"So..." someone began, their voice dry, "that person's goal was... to let us have a taste too?"

“That seems to be the case,” Chen said.