All Chapters of The Chipmaker's Revenge: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I froze in my tracks.Over the past ten years, Zachary had patted his chest countless times and promised me, "Josh, the current director is my uncle. He invested early on, so I can't move him. Once he retires, the director spot is yours—salary doubled, no question!"I had waited—ten years—thinking the next name he'd call would be mine.But the next second, he didn't hesitate at all. He announced the name of my intern."Brian Leeman! Personally handpicked from Kings University. Strong abilities, has carried major projects multiple times—absolutely no problem."More importantly, he's the younger brother-in-law of the chairman of Genting Group. Him joining us is already a huge concession—we cannot afford to slight him!"It was like a thunderbolt had split my skull.On the other end of the line, the HR manager's hesitant voice came through, "But Sir, Josh has ten years at the company. His experience and skill far exceed Brian's. Couldn't you reconsider?""No need to consider anythi

My workstation was gone. In its place stood two enormous trash bins, set side by side, right in the center of the office."Josh," Brian said, hands in his pockets, strolling over with a slow, deliberate swagger, his face brimming with unhidden provocation. "Aren't you usually the model worker? How come you're late today?""By the way," he added, smirking, "five minutes ago, Zachary officially appointed me Director of the Technical Department. From now on, everyone in tech answers to me."Everyone always complains about trash disposal being inconvenient, so I commandeered your spot—turned it into the trash zone. Josh, you won't mind, will you?"His hostility didn't surprise me.When he first joined the company, I had genuinely taken him under my wing, teaching him everything I knew without reservation. But he was proud and conceited, always sneering at my "outdated thinking" behind my back.Just last week, he had shut down the backup data interface I had left in the Vespere chip,

Once the program was activated, it only completely locked the chip's underlying logic, preventing any unauthorized developer from modifying or repairing it. It would never leak trade secrets, nor would it cause any additional hardware damage to users' devices.This was my final line of defense—the last safeguard for the decade of work I had poured into the chip.I put my phone away and rode my electric bike home.The next day, I arrived at Genting Technology.The onboarding process went unusually smoothly. Every document had already been prepared in advance; all I had to do was sign my name. In barely twenty minutes, everything was complete.After the formalities, Greg didn't take me to an office. Instead, he led me directly to the top-secret R&D center three floors underground.We swiped through three security checkpoints and passed a full-body scan before entering the most secure lab.Inside, the lab was equipped with the industry's top-tier hardware—from chip design software

I immediately disabled friend requests on that social media account and quit every Dalton work group and colleague chat I'd been in.When Zachary saw I was unmoved, he turned to former colleagues and our university classmates, using them one by one to lobby me.Almost every classmate who still kept in touch over the years received a call from him. Some felt obligated out of years of friendship, others were harassed into compliance, and all reluctantly contacted me.The messages were all the same: appealing to our ten-year bond, urging me to return to Dalton to help Zachary weather the crisis.One university roommate, someone I'd been close to, called and said Zachary promised that if I came back, any condition would be met.I listened patiently and replied, "My ties with Dalton and Zachary are over. When he did what he did, he never considered the consequences. Don't try to persuade me again."After that, I ignored any similar calls and didn't reply to any messages. I had no ener

The moment the new chip was released, it sent shockwaves through the entire semiconductor industry.On the very day of the launch, dozens of companies signed letters of intent with Genting. Even top international tech firms reached out, eager to negotiate licensing deals or even propose joint ventures to build factories together.Every client who had cut ties with Dalton turned around and signed long-term exclusive agreements with Genting. They all understood one thing clearly: only I could produce truly stable, high-performance chips they could rely on.Within just a month, Genting secured over two billion in orders. The company's market value skyrocketed, cementing its position as the undisputed leader in nation's semiconductor industry.Meanwhile, Dalton Technology was spiraling into ruin.All their core clients had fled. Without new orders, the company had no revenue. The tiny funds remaining in the accounts had long been frozen by banks, leaving them unable to repay massive d