Chapter 84: The Reckoning

Tian Jia’s face finally turned ashen, his voice hoarse and desperate. “Hey, you—Zhou Dongyun, Ma Wei—five hundred thousand, no, I’ll offer a million if you can find a way!”
The staff present were all stunned; no one expected Tian Jia to speak like this.
Zhen Yuqi remained silent. Zhou Dongyun, for her part, still hoped things could be salvaged and looked at Ma Wei with expectation, clinging to the last shred of hope.
“I really, really admit my fault. Brother Ma, please help me. I know you’ll have a way. You were the first to discover the existence of Masked Sheep. Earlier, I mocked you—my own foolishness, my sharp tongue. I’ll give you a million… No, two million! If you can help, please!”
Tian Jia was nearly begging, just short of kneeling. The situation was grave—this was a hardware-level attack. Data leaks aside, if the hardware failed, losses would directly reach hundreds of millions. The legal entanglements and business reputation damage from the data breach were incalculable.
Ma Wei, however, seemed like a different person, looking at him coldly in silence.
Zhou Dongyun, who was kind-hearted, gently nudged Ma Wei.
Ma Wei finally spoke, “Two million?”
“Yes, help me and I’ll give you two million!” Tian Jia replied.
Ma Wei thought for a moment. “Two million is a lot. Suppose it could still be salvaged, the value of this level of expertise is fifty million per hour. Mr. Tian, you can’t afford such an engineer. You mentioned business contracts—so let’s negotiate as businessmen, price by contract.”
With that, Ma Wei glanced at his phone for the time and said calmly, “I want two billion. Mr. Tian, you have about twenty-seven seconds to decide. Deal? I’ll record this as evidence of the contract, witnessed by Prosecutor Zhen Yuqi and Academician Zhou Dongyun.”
Tian Jia shouted, “Are you insane?!”
“I’m quite certain I’m not insane. Two billion is the value of my labor. Mr. Tian, you have twenty-four seconds left; after twenty-three, not even the gods can save you.” Ma Wei was unusually calm, as if he weren’t speaking nonsense.
“Are you crazy from poverty?! My company’s entire assets aren’t worth two billion!” Tian Jia roared, losing all reason.
Ma Wei responded serenely, “That’s your problem, not mine. This is a business contract; both sides must agree voluntarily. By the way, Mr. Tian, you have nineteen seconds left.”
Tian Jia cursed furiously, “You bastard, go to hell. You’re trying to swallow my company! I suspect you’re the insider on this crime, colluding with others to extort me. Just wait! However great the loss, I’ll bear it—if I don’t have someone take you down afterward, I’ll count myself as raised by you.”
Ma Wei replied coolly, “I wouldn’t dare raise you; the people and places that raised you you’ve called ‘your country.’ But that’s none of my business. I’ll repeat, this is a business contract; you and I are businessmen. You have fourteen seconds left to decide, will you accept the contract?”
Enraged, Tian Jia grabbed the keyboard to smash it at Ma Wei.

Zhen Yuqi raised her hand and pointed, coldly saying, “I dare you!”
Tian Jia had to put it down, taking a deep breath, thinking.
“Not enough sincerity; price rises to four billion. Eleven seconds left.” Ma Wei grew even calmer.
Tian Jia stared at him, murder in his eyes.
Suddenly, inspiration struck Tian Jia—he could agree now and renege later, dealing with Ma Wei afterward.
But before Tian Jia could speak, Ma Wei put away his phone. “Time’s up. I’m powerless now, Mr. Tian, seek your own luck. Perhaps the government will be lenient and won’t hold you accountable, but who knows what attitude the Poseidon crew will take? I’ve heard—just heard—they care greatly about reputation and honor, and many have died for it!”
Tian Jia shouted angrily, “Wasn’t there still eight seconds? Why do you say time’s up?”
Ma Wei answered, “Because seven seconds isn’t enough to complete a proper contract with you. No contract, no project. As a businessman, I’ve chosen to abandon this job. Take care, Mr. Tian.”
With that, he ignored Zhen Yuqi and Zhou Dongyun, turned, and prepared to leave.
“Bind him for me! Don’t let him leave!” Tian Jia demanded furiously, shocking everyone.
Zhen Yuqi’s face darkened, “Try it. Want to detain me too? If you don’t pick up soap for five years over this, I’ll count myself as raised by you.”
With that, any security guard who obeyed Tian Jia would be out of their mind; they all retreated in horror.
Zhen Yuqi took the opportunity to gently take Ma Wei’s hand and softly said, “Don’t leave just yet. There’s been a major case here; at least some procedures must be followed. Please don’t make things difficult for me.”
She was a seductress, and this ambiguity was intentional. But the Demon King always fell asleep at the first sign of flirtation.
Ma Wei, less temperamental, was somewhat partial to Zhen Yuqi and thought to stay and see if there was anything worthwhile.
So Ma Wei nodded, “Alright, since you want me to stay, I’ll stay.”
Zhen Yuqi looked at him even more ambiguously, pondering: you’re so formidable, your time so precious, yet you’re willing to stay for me.
As expected, once the time Ma Wei mentioned was up, the screen displayed “Game Over,” then went black.

All data was stolen!
And more than that, Masked Sheep was ruthless, reminiscent of ancient wars ending with a “massacre.” Tian Jia’s hardware was basically destroyed!
This was because Masked Sheep’s last act was to leave an electromagnetic bomb that triggered a hardware attack. Under a special frequency electromagnetic pulse, Tian Jia’s CPU matrix overheated and was completely ruined.
Tian Jia’s equipment was top-grade, all solid-state drives. With the underlying firmware affected by the electromagnetic pulse, not only was his data leaked, but he personally lost almost all of his data as well.
The consequences of the data loss aside, Zhou Dongyun helped Tian Jia conservatively estimate that the hardware losses alone exceeded 630 million. Adding the data loss and business disputes, reputation damage, and so forth—even if the Poseidon crew were truly a group of freedom-loving, kind citizens—Tian Jia’s company was essentially finished.
So Masked Sheep’s taunting message was correct: Tian Jia’s game was over.
In fact, Tian Jia had yet to realize the true gravity of the situation. He was only considering the financial loss, unaware that he’d soon face Elsa—the madwoman who, with a single word, had severely damaged a seven-hundred-million-dollar Aegis system with electromagnetic interference, never hesitating to confront American destroyers directly.
The Russians didn’t have this technology, but Elsa did, and she gave it to the Russians. Because it was designed by the Demon King in his youth, just as Intel left hardware-level backdoors in CPUs for the masses, the Demon King’s Aegis system also had a backdoor that could be exploited.
The electronic age is economics, but also a grand deception. Everyone is caught in the Demon King’s web—that is his domain of magic.
This magic domain is a kind of society, and where there’s society, there are anti-social terrorists like Masked Sheep and Sheep City. So the Second Otaku World War wasn’t the Demon King defending justice—it was dictated by interests and standpoint; thus he decisively eliminated Sheep City.
But it seems… Masked Sheep is stirring again.
When the “Third War” will start is unclear, but signs are ominous, as if in the calm before a storm. And at such a moment, the Demon King falls asleep at the slightest provocation.
Left to Ma Wei’s decisions, apart from using this body to muddle along until the world’s end, there’s no other way—carelessly waiting for doom, which is really the heart of the otaku.
The prehistoric loli and the demonesses who sit beside the Bodhisattva are the only things Da Min cares about. As for Tian Jia’s seventy-two ways to die, neither the Demon King nor the heartless Ma Wei are concerned—so long as he’s happy.
It’s said that in this world, what goes around comes around.