Chapter 118: Rebirth of the Tool Man in a Pampered Protagonist Novel

The elderly lady looked very flustered. Her husband, equally worried, quickly held up his phone and said,

“Don’t worry, dear. I just recorded a video of you. It’s clear that the device broke on its own, and it’s not our fault. We’ve got evidence!”

The elderly couple was extremely nervous. Although they usually led a youthful life and kept up with modern trends, they were still just an ordinary old couple with limited education. Their comfortable life and the chance to attend this grand technology event were all thanks to their filial children, but they didn’t actually understand much about the technology around them.

When they entered the exhibition area, they were curious yet cautious, sticking close to the tour guide out of fear that they might accidentally break something expensive—after all, they’d heard that these high-tech products could be incredibly pricey!

If it hadn’t been for the fact that everyone else was trying out the devices, the couple wouldn’t have dared to participate. And now, something had indeed gone wrong!

“Don’t worry, Grandma, it’s okay. There’s no need to panic—I’ll testify for you. Maybe the device just ran out of battery. Let me go find a staff member to check.”

The young woman who had been pulled aside by the grandmother was amused but not upset. After comforting the elderly couple, she went to call for assistance.

The staff quickly came over after hearing about the issue, but after a thorough check, they couldn’t find anything wrong and simply replaced the device with a new one for the grandmother.

The elderly lady, who had a good-natured temperament, wasn’t frustrated. Since the experience was free and the tickets to the technology event were expensive, she was determined to make the most of it!

However, it didn’t take long before she noticed… the device seemed to have broken again!

“Oh my, young people, this isn’t just bad luck on my part—this really seems like a problem with the quality of your device. If you can’t figure it out, you should call a technician. I’ve heard this is high-tech stuff, and only a technician can fix it properly…”

The grandmother spoke earnestly, thinking to herself that while people often say foreign imports are good, that might not always be true. This fancy-sounding “Healthy Motion” device seemed impressive at first, but it clearly had some serious quality issues!

The staff member was unsure what was wrong with the device and quickly reported the issue. Upon entering the control room, they found that several other staff members had also come to report similar problems.

“Lise, why are you here too? Don’t tell me your device is malfunctioning as well?”

Seeing another colleague enter, everyone began asking questions.

Lise, the staff member who had just arrived, was a bit stunned. “…What do you mean, ‘malfunctioning as well’? Does this mean it’s happening everywhere?”

It didn’t take long for Lise to understand the situation. Indeed, the issues weren’t limited to the device she was managing—other spectators were experiencing similar problems, and the number of malfunctioning devices was growing rapidly.

The staff members reporting the issues had no idea what was going on. The M team members were sweating profusely with anxiety.

“Captain, this isn’t working. We need to notify Mr. Moore immediately. We have to get a lead developer over here—there’s a problem with the core data, and none of us here can handle it.”

“Hold on, I’ve already contacted Mr. Moore. We need to use the master control to prevent further malfunctions!”

The team captain was also frantic, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he tried to control the situation.

But unfortunately, their efforts were futile.

The problems that initially appeared in just a few scattered machines in the exhibition area soon spread, and within an hour, nearly half of the products in the area mysteriously malfunctioned, exhibiting severe quality issues. Even when they replaced them with newly unpacked devices, they would fail within ten minutes.

Since the competition was being livestreamed, the audience’s experiences were broadcasted to the viewers.

Netizens from various countries noticed the situation and naturally focused their attention on it.

“What’s going on? Everything was fine for so many days, and now suddenly there’s a problem?”

“I don’t know. I saw someone in the audience who seemed knowledgeable saying that it might be a problem with the product’s operational data.”

“That’s impossible. These are prototypes for a competition—they should have been meticulously checked before leaving the factory. How could there be such a serious data issue?”

“Could it be a hacker attack? It’s hard to believe that a competition product would have such major quality problems.”

“Who knows? Let’s wait and see…”

**

Netizens speculated and discussed the situation. Other teams in the competition also noticed what was happening. The reactions varied—some were gloating, some were watching thoughtfully, and others didn’t care much—but most were pleased.

After all, one less competitor means less competition, especially when it’s a strong opponent like the M team.

But while the competing teams might have been amused, the spectators weren’t as concerned. Seeing that the M team’s products were malfunctioning and unusable, they quickly moved on, taking their experience tickets to other exhibition areas.

In the last three days of the second round of the competition, the M team had to end their participation early due to the quality issues with their products.

When the competition ended and it came time to evaluate the results, the M team, despite having accumulated a high number of audience votes in the early stages, sparked significant controversy over their ranking due to the product failures.

After deliberation, the judges decided to allow the M team to advance, but they did so in last place.

This outcome drew mixed reactions from netizens worldwide.

Meanwhile, Moore was furious!

“How could there be a data issue? Didn’t I tell you to double-check everything? How could this kind of mistake still happen?”

Moore, in a fit of rage, began smashing everything within reach, unable to maintain his usual gentlemanly composure. His eyes were bloodshot with anger.

The past few days had been nothing but bad news, one after another.

Ever since the competition started, nothing had gone smoothly. Not only did the earlier attack fail to harm their opponents, but it also cost them several allies!

Even more concerning was the mysterious disappearance of Shi Liangchen and the missing laboratory professors, all of which pointed to the possibility that he was being outmaneuvered by someone else.

Knowing this made him even more worried about the rest of the competition. He had ordered a thorough inspection of all their competition products and even took the risky step of altering certain parameters and data for extra security, but it still wasn’t enough to prevent the disaster.

Shi Liangchen, that bastard—could he have really sabotaged things right under my nose? But how is that possible!

“Investigate it for me. I want a definitive answer before the third round of the competition starts! We can’t afford even the slightest mistake in this round!”

Moore’s face was dark as he gave the order. The James family had put everything on the line for this competition. He could hardly imagine what the allied politicians would do if they failed. His ability to keep those people in check depended entirely on the success of these projects. If they failed… he didn’t dare to think about it.

The researchers, also troubled by the situation, replied hesitantly,

“Mr. Moore, we’ve already thoroughly inspected everything. There’s no evidence of tampering during the product development process. We monitored Shi Liangchen’s every step, and we can assure you of that… From our findings, it seems the problem lies with the core data.”

“A problem with the core data?”

“Yes, Mr. Moore, it’s definitely a core data issue. We didn’t notice it earlier, but we’ve now discovered that the ‘Healthy Motion’ core data was flawed—it’s missing several crucial lines of code. To fix this, we’d need to consult the person who provided the original data…”

Moore’s eyes narrowed as he radiated cold fury. “And what about the product for the third round?”

“There’s no issue with the hover car that’s up next. We’ll need to conduct a more in-depth inspection for the subsequent products.”

“Good. I don’t want to hear any more bad news. You can go.”

Moore restrained his anger as he waved the researchers out of the room.

Once they had left, Moore unleashed his rage, smashing everything within reach until the room was in shambles. With his expression still dark, he finally left the room and ordered,

“Bring Shi Liangchen to me… And call Loki over as well. The losses I’ve suffered will not go unpunished!”

Moore’s fury after these events was something Fang Ziyang didn’t witness directly, but he could certainly imagine it. Moore was never known for having a good temper; he was like a venomous snake lurking in the shadows—cunning and quick to anger. By this point, Fang Ziyang was sure that Moore had begun to suspect something.

Given Moore’s nature, Fang Ziyang was certain that he wouldn’t just sit back and let things happen. If he couldn’t manipulate things within the rules, Moore would undoubtedly resort to tactics outside the rules. After all, the James family wasn’t directly involved on the surface, so if something went wrong during the competition, they could easily deny any “involvement.”

As for whether this would drag down other allies… that wouldn’t even cross Moore’s mind.

With this in mind, the day before the third round of the competition, Fang Ziyang approached their team leader, Professor Yu.

“You’re asking to change our exhibition area? Why? Is there something wrong with our current area? Changing locations now would be problematic—not to mention that it would waste the accumulated audience data and votes, and we’re running out of time.”

Professor Yu looked concerned.

Requesting a change in the exhibition area at this point would indeed be difficult. Even setting aside the issue of losing the votes they’d already gathered, the timing was a major problem. With the third round starting tomorrow, there wasn’t enough time to apply for a change and set up a new area overnight.

“Professor Yu, we don’t need a complicated exhibition area. Tomorrow’s product only requires an open space. Please trust me on this—we have to change locations for tomorrow’s competition, and…”

Fang Ziyang took a deep breath, “I would like you to submit the application tomorrow, at the last minute.”

“Have you received some bad news?”

Professor Yu’s expression grew tense upon hearing this.

He had been briefed by the higher-ups that Fang Ziyang was far from being as simple as he appeared. This referred not only to his research skills but also to his strategic thinking and cunning.

Before they set off, he had been instructed to cooperate with any special requests from Fang Ziyang. However, Professor Yu was still concerned, given the high stakes of the competition.

“In a way, yes. Let’s just say, based on my calculations, our current exhibition area might have bad feng shui tomorrow…”

Fang Ziyang smiled slightly.

Professor Yu: …

Previous TOC Next