"Corporate executives, ah, corporate executives, I already gave you a chance, but unfortunately, you're useless!" Elliot said mockingly.
His fingers tapped a few times on the keyboard.
Several seconds later.
At the press conference, Elena Sterling was confidently stating that the Note phone was absolutely safe when suddenly, her expression changed, and the next second, she was in a panic, dropping the Note phone in her hand onto the ground.
Immediately after, the phone on the ground started smoking.
"Bang!"
The phone caught fire.
The sudden turn of events startled everyone present.
The reporters reacted the fastest, and after the initial panic, they rushed forward excitedly as if injected with adrenaline.
"Click click click..."
Flashbulbs flashed frantically.
StarTech's heiress, Elena Sterling's extremely unsightly face, combined with the burning phone on the ground, created a scene of strong contrast, and this moment quickly made the front page of major mainstream media outlets worldwide!
StarTech was greatly embarrassed this time.
At the press conference, the phone spontaneously combusted again, which rendered all of StarTech's previous explanations pale and weak.
The StarTech phone battery explosion incident completely ignited global public opinion.
Before the market closed that morning, StarTech Electronics' stock price plummeted by 5% like lightning, and coupled with the previous decline, the total decline had reached 12%!
Its market value evaporated by billions of credits.
This was the price of arrogance.
...
Around noon, Elliot walked out of his rental room whistling, going to eat a big meal to celebrate.
Celebrating his total points breaking through 70 million.
While he was enjoying the food, StarTech was plunged into chaos.
The CEO of StarTech Electronics became a scapegoat and announced his resignation.
At the same time, StarTech also announced that it would recall all previously sold Note phones globally, indirectly admitting the battery had safety risks.
"Hehe..." Elliot saw this news and started laughing, "Why aren't you keeping up the tough talk? If you knew today would come, why bother in the first place?"
Just about to close the webpage... wait a minute.
Elliot carefully looked at the content of the announcement, and StarTech's recall scope surprisingly did not include the Federation.
That is to say, Note phones sold in the Federation were not within the recall scope.
"Damn~~ Corporate executives, they really deserve to die!" Elliot complained loudly.
However, he wasn't angry.
He hadn't bought a StarTech phone and wasn't a StarTech user, so there was nothing to be angry about.
For those executives to do this, they are just courting death.
[Damn it! Corporate executives are actually discriminating against us!]
[Why aren't they recalling the phones sold in the Federation?]
[Corporate executives, they really deserve to die!]
[Strongly protest StarTech's discriminatory behavior!]
[This is blatant discrimination!]
...
Elliot opened Apex Portal and sure enough, saw that in the comment section of the news about StarTech's recall incident, netizens had already exploded.
Without a doubt, StarTech would pay the price for their arrogance.
A month later, StarTech phone sales in the Federation plummeted by 15%.
A year later, StarTech phone market share in the Federation fell from a former 18% to less than 3%, almost negligible.
This is what is meant by "If you don't court death, you won't die."
...
Corporate executives courting death had nothing to do with Elliot.
The StarTech incident came to an end.
Elliot's attention shifted to I am a Geek, preparing for the second episode.
At noon, Elliot received a message from Director Oliver saying that the recording time for the second episode had changed.
It was originally scheduled to be recorded at 8 PM on Saturday, but was changed to 9 AM on Saturday morning.
The reason for the time change was mainly because the production team wanted to extend the live broadcast duration, and the daytime was longer than the evening.
Of course, this was also related to the success of the first episode; the high viewership of the first episode gave the production team confidence in making changes.
"Beep beep!"
Elliot's email received the program list sent by Director Oliver.
This challenge was about website offense and defense, targeting the network system of Pinnacle University Library.
The program list also included the IP address of the library server.
"Isn't this difficulty too low?" Elliot thought to himself after reading the program list.
This challenge was simply too easy for him.
He could easily handle it by just taking out any vulnerability intrusion tool.
However, the program effect might not be good.
Vulnerability intrusion tools are powerful and can silently infiltrate the target system, but the process is too 'plain', and the audience won't understand it and might find it boring.
Is there a more fun way, a way with better program effect... Elliot started pondering.
"Haha, I've got it!"
Elliot suddenly thought of a fun idea.
Today was Monday, and there were five days until Saturday, which was enough time for him to prepare.
Thinking to himself, Elliot dialed Director Oliver's phone number.
...
Saturday, early morning.
The sky at the horizon turned a pale white.
The clock on the wall pointed to seven thirty.
There was still an hour and a half until the live broadcast of the second episode of I am a Geek.
Elliot stood in front of the mirror, tidying his clothes.
He was wearing a black suit today, looking very handsome.
Wait, Elliot couldn't show his face.
With a mask and hood covering his face, was there any need to dress so handsomely?
Yes, there was a need. Even if he couldn't show his face, he still had to maintain a handsome image.
OK.
He put on a red mask and hood, covering his face, leaving only a pair of bright eyes visible.
One word: cool.
Elliot was very satisfied with his image.
Exactly eight o'clock.
Elliot sat down in front of the computer.
First, he logged into the botnet.
The number of his botnets had expanded to 1 million... That's right, during this period, he had been expanding his botnet.
Then, using the botnet as a springboard, he connected to a network interface of the I am a Geek program team.
At the same time, in a lounge of the I am a Geek program team, the panel of experts and members of the two participating teams had already arrived.
The team from Pinnacle University Computer Society was composed of three young people.
One of the boys wearing jeans fixed his gaze on an area a few meters away, where there was an empty chair and a monitor; that was Little Boy's seat.
Little Boy was not online yet.
"Who do you guys think this Little Boy is?" the boy in jeans asked curiously.
"I don't know." A boy with a mole at the corner of his eye next to him shook his head, "I've never heard this name before."
"I haven't heard of him either." Another boy wearing a baseball cap also said.
In the past week, especially after the StarTech phone spontaneous combustion incident, the entire
"I guess he must be some Boss in the community, deliberately hiding his identity for the live broadcast, making it all mysterious," the boy in jeans guessed.
"That's normal too. I'm also planning to start a live broadcast, and when the time comes, I'll wear a mask too and won't show my face. For people in our line of work, it's better to keep a low profile," the boy in the baseball cap said.
"Yeah, caution is the parent of safety," the boy in jeans expressed agreement.
"Hey, Little Boy is online!"
On the monitor in the lounge, Little Boy's avatar appeared.
(End of this chapter)
Please Send Power Stones...
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Translator and Editor - Husband
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