8mi #277 - Chapter 277 Time bomb, smiley face burst! Microsoft, collapsed!
#277 - Chapter 277 Time bomb, smiley face burst! Microsoft, collapsed!
Sun Yue had been frantic these past few days.
In his opinion, Hao-ge wasn't short of money, especially since he was asked to acquire the mine; he should have a plan in place.
This required a large sum of money, so he couldn't have been unprepared.
But…
Why hadn't the money been transferred yet?
There were only three days left until the agreed deadline.
The Chilean side had urged him several times, and he couldn't help but call to ask.
"Don't worry."
Chen Hao laughed and said, "Isn't there still time?"
"But… delays could lead to complications! The other party is also urging us!" Sun Yue said with a bitter face.
He didn't want to rely on his father.
He didn't want to be known as someone's son.
He wanted independence!
He wanted to build his own empire with his own abilities!
The trip to Chile was very important to him.
He absolutely couldn't let anything go wrong!
"They won't breach the contract, don't worry," Chen Hao said with a smile.
Currently.
The global demand for lithium wasn't high, and the Chilean government hadn't fully explored the reserves of its official mines.
It could be said that.
Whether it was a buyout for 12 billion US dollars.
Or a factory construction and development for 7 billion US dollars.
As it stood, the asking price was already very high; they were eager to make a deal.
"But…"
"That's it for now, I'm hanging up."
Chen Hao hung up directly and returned to his own small courtyard.
Almost…
It was time to close the net!
Ten minutes later.
He returned to the courtyard and walked into the study.
On the computer, a string of numbers was displayed on the program he had written.
Over 400 million.
That was the number of users who had installed the patch!
And it was still increasing.
But…
Uninstall the patch?
It would still reappear inexplicably.
The worst part was that users who hadn't installed the patch would constantly receive pop-up reminders.
Every few hours.
Fortunately!
After installing the patch, the operating system ran normally, and there were no problems.
But the more it was like this, the more he felt something was wrong.
Desperately popping up windows.
Desperately getting users to install the patch.
It couldn't be without a purpose, right?
In the evening.
Bill was getting ready to leave work.
He picked up his coffee, ready to finish the last bit before leaving. He had given up on the pop-up windows and the patch—he really couldn't figure it out!
Suddenly!
*Pa!*
The computer screen flickered.
A huge smiley face appeared on the desktop.
What the heck?
Bill was startled.
He subconsciously flinched, spilling half a cup of coffee on himself, but he wasn't in the mood to care.
Alright!
His computer had also installed the patch.
Because at first, he thought the security alert pop-up was from his company's technical department—this kind of pop-up had happened before.
Bill himself was also a top computer expert.
Ignoring the spilled coffee, he tried a series of operations, but…
The smiley face remained.
Next…
A terrifying scene appeared!
When he entered the background program and tried to find the program corresponding to that smiley face…
*Ding ding ding!*
Accompanied by non-stop notification sounds similar to text message bombing, smiley faces continued to increase on the screen.
Countless smiley faces, big and small, stacked layer upon layer.
Until…
*Pa!*
It crashed!
"F*ck!" Bill's face turned ashen.
At this moment, he finally realized that the patch wasn't completely harmless.
It was a time bomb!
The patch must have been tampered with.
But…
With the strength of Microsoft's technical department, they couldn't find the problem at all, so they pretended there was no problem.
In fact, it had been waiting to explode.
Why wait so long?
Very simple.
Over the past ten days, the pop-up appeared every few hours. Many users couldn't stand it and eventually chose to install the patch.
It was constantly accumulating the number of users who installed the patch!
When the expected number was reached…
Detonate!
Thinking of this, Bill was completely dumbfounded: now, he guessed the other party's plan, but he couldn't do anything at all!
"Boss, it's bad…" The assistant rushed in with a pale face.
"I know!"
Bill gritted his teeth: "Hurry up and deal with it? By the way! Contact the media and issue an announcement, saying… we will solve the problem as soon as possible!"
Could it really be solved?
An hour later.
The technical department was working frantically, but they couldn't do anything about those smiley faces.
At the same time.
The news covering 400 million users couldn't be contained!
Some media outlets with fast speed began to broadcast.
All kinds of social networking sites were filled with related news.
Of course.
There was more cursing.
That smiley face, if you ignore it, it's fine; it's just an eyesore on the desktop, but if you try to find it or even eliminate it, it's like a bomb being detonated—countless smiley faces pop up frantically.
Popping up until your computer crashes!
Not just North America?
98 system users covered the globe!
Not only were North American netizens cursing.
The whole world was cursing!
Especially the users in China playing Legend…
No!
Not only were users cursing, but many bosses were also cursing.
"Bastard!"
Deng Xiaoyan was furious: "The bastards at Microsoft are killing me!"
As long as you use a computer with the 98 system, even if it's not genuine software, it will still pop up windows.
And then?
Many people couldn't play Legend anymore.
"Boss, it wasn't done by Microsoft."
The technical director said with a bitter face: "If this kind of thing happens, Microsoft's losses would be the greatest, so… it should be a hacker, going against Microsoft, that's why it turned out like this."
Hacker?
Deng Xiaoyan was stunned, then cursed again: "Damn hacker, he's simply not human!"
After speaking.
He took out his phone and dialed a certain number: "Haozi! Something big happened, all Microsoft system computers have a smiley face… you know?"
"Didn't you say that Gong Wei is very good at this? Can you ask him for help?"
"Damn hacker, hacked into Microsoft…"
*Pa!*
Suddenly.
The other party hung up the phone.
"Why did you hang up my phone?" Deng Xiaoyan was at a loss.
On the other end of the phone.
Chen Hao rolled his eyes: You're the damn one! Cursing your godfather in front of your godfather? Ungrateful son!
The news spread all over the world.
What consequences would the next step bring?
When the smiley face exploded, it was 6 p.m. in North America, and the stock market had already closed.
…
New York Stock Exchange.
9:30 a.m. the next day.
Many people were staring at Microsoft's stock price.
Yesterday, Microsoft issued an announcement, claiming to solve it in the shortest time, but it hasn't been solved until now.
Last year.
The North American Internet bubble burst.
Microsoft was affected, and its stock price fell from a peak of $38 to $18 today.
In fact, Microsoft was less affected.
After all.
As the number one Internet giant, Microsoft's strength was beyond doubt.
The operating system covers the world, unparalleled!
The hard power was solid, how much further could it fall?
But now!
The hard power supporting Microsoft…
Something went wrong.
A white man was staring at the screen.
He was a loyal Microsoft fan, holding a lot of Microsoft stock, and believed that the future was promising.
Finally.
The market opened!
The man's face turned pale instantly.
There was no such thing as a limit down for individual stocks in North America.
Instantly!
The moment the market opened, the stock price fell from $18.25 to less than $7!
Such a plunge…
He had never seen it in his life!
Far away.
Chen Hao sat in front of the computer, seeing Microsoft's stock price, which had plummeted by more than half in an instant, a sea of green, the corners of his mouth curled up in a faint smile: Sorry, selling you the XP system for 100 million US dollars, I felt it was too cheap afterward.
Now!
Taking this opportunity to get some back.
But…
Is it really just 'some'?
(PS: Everyone, please don't say that red means decline and green means rise in North America anymore. That's what you see on North American websites. Look at the websites in China and you'll know.)