Chapter Three: You Block the Chips; I Buy the Rules

Failure would freeze his candidacy and close the neural interface forever. “When is YaoCore’s supplier conference?” “Two o’clock. Chairman Han Zheng will announce the X10 and a lifetime cloud-security agreement. Ruifeng is invited only to explain its ‘violations.’” “We’ll go.” “To apologize?” “To buy something they think nobody understands.” YaoCore’s Cloudsea Hall was packed with major manufacturers. Onstage, Han Zheng introduced the X10: forty percent more performance, only fifteen percent more expensive. But every customer had to accept cloud permission over startup, scheduling, maintenance, and retirement. Everyone applauded.