Not a Single Penny Left

"Indeed, how could Little Xuan not resent us?" Lin Qingwan let out a self-mocking laugh.

From now on, she would likely feel even more ashamed to face Little Xuan.

She had been involved in this matter from start to finish.

"Wan'er," Lin Chang said, "Don’t dwell too much on Lin Xuan’s situation. People are driven by self-interest. Once Starlight Group rises and their Celestial Veil Group falls into decline, he’ll come crawling to us on his own, even if we do nothing."

"Mhm," Lin Qingwan nodded absentmindedly.

Little Xuan was proud—would he really lower himself to come back?

And with his computer skills, he’d be sought after anywhere. Even if Celestial Veil Group went bankrupt, he’d still thrive.

Deep down, she had long given up hope of Little Xuan returning to the Lin family. The only reason she helped steal Celestial Veil Group’s game was for Starlight Group’s sake.

With this game, they wouldn’t have to fear Celestial Veil Group’s retaliation.

The entertainment division was already on its last legs thanks to Little Xuan—the gaming division couldn’t afford to collapse too.

Starlight Group was her father’s life’s work. If it fell, her father might collapse with it. Sacrificing Little Xuan was the only choice she had.

"Dad, I’ll go attend to my work now," Lin Qingwan said, her face drained of color.

"Go ahead," Lin Chang nodded.

Not long after Lin Qingwan left the office, Lin Chang’s secretary strode in, her high heels clicking, hips swaying.

She wore a professional suit, the skirt barely reaching her thighs, paired with sheer black stockings.

The secretary knew exactly what kind of woman men liked—she had dressed this way deliberately to entice Lin Chang.

Lin Chang was in high spirits. Seeing her, he grinned and beckoned, "Come here, sweetheart."

The secretary placed a file on the desk.

"Chairman, I’ve brought the documents for your signature," she cooed, picking up a pen.

Then, with a deliberate slip, the pen fell from her fingers, clattering to the floor.

"Oh—!" she gasped theatrically. "The pen dropped, Chairman. Let me get it."

She bent over to retrieve it.

From Lin Chang’s angle, the view of her ample cleavage was impossible to ignore.

Unable to resist, he yanked her onto his lap.

"Ah—!"

"Chairman, I still need to pick up the pen—let me go first!" The secretary playfully pressed her hands against his chest.

Lin Chang tightened his grip. "The pen can wait."

"Sweetheart, you smell divine," he murmured, inhaling deeply.

"Chairman, you’re so bad!"

She giggled, lightly punching his chest.

Her coy act was the final straw. Lin Chang pulled her close, and soon, the two were tangled together.

Meanwhile, the gaming division at Starlight Group was ready.

The countdown had begun—soon, the in-game skin purchases would go live.

The staff buzzed with excitement, dreaming of the bonuses and success to come.

"These skins are going to sell like crazy. Our bonuses will be huge! I even bought company stock—it’s been hitting the limit up every day. My investment’s almost tripled already!"

"I’ve already planned a family vacation next month—my parents, my wife, and me. It’s going to be amazing."

But one female employee frowned. "Are we sure this will go smoothly? I’ve got a bad feeling about it."

Her intuition had always been sharp, and something about this launch felt off.

"Relax! Everything’s perfect. The game’s running smoothly, player engagement is high, and we’ve got hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for the skins. With all these factors, how could it fail?" another colleague reassured her.

"Is that so?" she murmured.

Maybe she was overthinking it.

At Night Garden, five minutes remained until the skin sales began.

Lin Xuan sat leisurely at his computer, booting it up with deliberate slowness.

Leaning back in his chair, his fingers flew across the keyboard.

He was silently infiltrating Starlight Group’s main game server.

The virus he had planted in their game lay dormant—now, with a single command, he could activate it. In half a second, their entire system would crash.

His typing slowed. A smirk curled at the corner of his lips as he stared at the screen.

"Lin Chang, stealing another’s game comes with consequences."

"Are you ready for my revenge?"

With that, he pressed Enter.

Instantly, Starlight Group’s "King’s Glory" game collapsed.

Every player was forcibly logged out.

Some assumed it was a glitch or a misclick. They tried to relaunch the game—only to find it completely inaccessible.

Frustrated, they flooded forums with complaints.

"Did King’s Glory just crash? I was in the middle of a match—why did it kick me out?"

"Same here! What’s going on?"

"@Starlight Group, hurry up and fix the game! I want to play!"

"@Starlight Group, go fix the game already! Do you still want to make money or not?"

It's common for big companies' apps to crash, and these gamers treated the crash of the King Heroes game as just another routine app failure, not paying it much mind.

They simply took to the internet, urging Starlight Group to quickly repair the servers.

The employees in Starlight Group's gaming department thought the same.

"Our game crashed. Go, get the tech team to fix the app now!" the gaming department manager said anxiously.

This was a critical moment for skin sales, and many players were trying to download the game—it had to be fixed as soon as possible.

Otherwise, Starlight Group stood to lose a significant amount of revenue.

When the tech team received the news about the app crash, they frowned in confusion.

How could it crash?

That shouldn't be possible.

Their department had taken extra care with this game, investing considerable time in its design and maintenance.

None of their other games had ever crashed before—why would this one fail now?

The technician puzzled over the issue, initially thinking it would be a quick fix. But after half an hour, there was still no progress.

"How is this possible?" the technician muttered to himself.

"What's going on? Why isn't it working yet?" the gaming manager pressed impatiently.

The technician replied, "Just give me a little more time."

The manager frowned. "Hurry up. This is peak skin-selling time—we can't afford any more delays."

"Got it."

Wiping sweat from his brow, the technician resumed hammering away at the keyboard.

Other team members were also scrambling to restore the crashed app.

Ah, it's the weekend...

Time to go have fun!

Thanks to Flying Nightmare, (dreaming), Chaos Great Immortal, Little Panda~, and other sweethearts for the gifts!

Uu.