Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 563: Chapter 537: Open the Door, Check the Water Meter!

Richard refused to believe that this was targeted at him.

What merits or abilities did he have that required so many people to come after him?!

He would rather believe that there was a hidden serial killer or a foreign spy within NetDragon, or someone who had hidden dangerous explosives, preparing to launch a terrorist attack on NetDragon’s headquarters…

In any case, they should not be coming for him!

“They’re not here for me.”

“No way!”

But the next moment, with a loud “bang,” the office door was violently pushed open, and a SWAT team poured in–

“Xiajing National Security Bureau Special Operations Team! Leave your positions! Put your hands on your head and squat down!”

Three of them headed straight for Richard, and in the next moment he was handcuffed with his hands behind his back, his entire face slammed into the tempered glass of the window: “You are suspected of seriously endangering national security! You’re under arrest!”

Although shocked, Richard wouldn’t be foolish enough to resist arrest under these circumstances, but he absolutely could not admit to these charges: “You’ve got the wrong guy! This is a trumped-up charge! I protest! I want my lawyer!”

Before his words had even finished, there was another “bang” and the face of Patrick, the department supervisor, was also pressed against the glass.

The two looked at each other, their faces full of horror.

The difference was that Patrick’s face was not only filled with horror but also with grievance: Boss, that’s not what you said before!

Henry entered the office and glanced at Richard and Patrick, making sure that they had captured the two key figures from the information provided by Lincoln, and then nodded in satisfaction.

“Take them away for interrogation.” freeωebnovēl.c૦m

“Click,” “click.”

The two “important suspects” had their hands cuffed behind their backs and were taken away for questioning.

It was obviously impossible to take away all the hundreds of employees in the entire building.

What they needed to do now was to conduct on-site interrogations, carry out the first round of screening, and take away all those involved in the case.

As for those who knew nothing, they would have to register all their information for subsequent questioning.

*

In the co-driver’s seat of an inconspicuous box truck downstairs, Lincoln wore a headband and a hat while sticking his head out to watch the commotion.

He didn’t have this idea initially, but Mavis wanted to see the scene.

After the internet connection was completely cut off, the virtual world couldn’t see the live stream anymore, so Lincoln brought Mavis along.

And he was taken there by Pengju, who was part of the security team in another box truck not far from him.

It was then that Lincoln realized: Wow, you guys have a lot of identical box trucks!

What he was watching now, of course, was not the commotion inside the NetDragon building but the spectators gathered outside the isolation zone.

These people were really daring. Even though they saw a large group of armed SWAT officers, they weren’t afraid at all, and even eagerly gathered around to watch the commotion.

Someone even boldly approached and asked, “Brother, what did NetDragon do? Can you tell me?”

Not discouraged when they didn’t get an answer, they stepped back and took a few interesting photos to post on their social media and captioned it: [Big trouble! NetDragon’s getting raided!]

…

Lincoln felt a finger gently poking his face.

Lowering his head, he saw that it was Mavis sitting on his lap calling him-captain–there were only two seats in the box truck, Pengju was in the driver’s seat, Lincoln was in the co-driver’s seat, and Mavis had to be held by Lincoln.

“The internet has been restored,” Mavis’s voice came through the headphones.

At the same time, Pengju with the headphones also began to relay the news to Lincoln: “All personnel have been controlled, power and internet have been restored, we are now collecting key evidence.”

…

“The interrogation went smoothly, NetDragon boss Richard confessed: The mastermind is the marketing department director Wesley. And the marketing department director Wesley said: The mastermind is the boss Richard.”

“?” Lincoln looked over in surprise.

Pengju didn’t care: “Just shifting the blame, this kind of thing is very common. We can talk about this later, the key is we found out that the technology leaked from a factory you worked with before. They reverse-engineered the equipment by tampering with the assembly line.”

As he finished speaking, Lincoln noticed two cars immediately starting up and speeding away from the scene.

At the same time, Mavis’s voice came through the headset: “Mavis remembers! On September 8th, one of the factories reported damage to the assembly line. That must have been it!”

Lincoln nodded, “Now that I remember, we were too busy back then, and there weren’t many Cloud Dream people, so we didn’t have time to investigate deeply. We just sent a replacement and forgot about it.”

“But luckily, after that we added three-layer security measures to all production equipment, so there should be no more leaks.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mavis happily nodded her head, “Mavis saw that NetDragon’s R&D center was also surrounded. Can Mavis go in and take a look?”

“Go on, go on.” Lincoln didn’t have any psychological burden at this point since it was NetDragon who initiated the action.

“Who are you talking to?” Pengju asked, puzzled.

Lincoln tapped the headband twice, replying: “A friend online.”

Yue Pengju turned away in irritation.

Ever since Lincoln started wearing the headband every day, he seemed a bit abnormal, and Yue Pengju even suspected whether he was involved in an online relationship.

But to his surprise, when Lincoln asked, he was rebuked with: “Disgraceful!”

He didn’t understand: What’s disgraceful about an online relationship?

Isn’t it normal?

Especially with the virtual world now, online dating is much more reliable than before! It’s been a long time since something went wrong.

…

After spacing out like this for a while, there was finally some action at the entrance.

A large number of uninformed ordinary employees completed registration, took their inspected personal belongings, and left the company through the main entrance.

Then, security department staff in uniform were seen carrying evidence – mainly computers and a small number of paper documents.

Later, three people were taken away in handcuffs and escorted to a police car. They were Patrick, then Wesley, and finally…

The pale-faced, weak-kneed, barely able to walk NetDragon boss, Richard.

The sound of camera shutters clicked in unison.

Many times, you have to admire the speed of the reporters. Now, at the entrance of NetDragon, there were already over twenty reporters gathered, and they continued to run over from outside the crowd.

Lincoln had already closed the one-way glass window and was sitting just seven meters away from Richard, watching him get into the police car.

In the end, he didn’t roll down the window or have a real face-to-face encounter with Richard.

—There was no need.

After today, his grudges with NetDragon would come to an end as well.

How NetDragon would fare in the future doesn’t concern him anymore.

“Not just them, but many other participants with technical backgrounds are directly involved, bringing the total number of suspects to 67,” Yue Pengju continued to explain the situation to Lincoln. “All of these people will be punished accordingly, including detention, fines, confidentiality agreements, and a one-year monitoring period. Afterward, they will have to report to the relevant departments regularly for one year, and they cannot leave the country for at least five years.”

“There are also some people who know about the situation but did not participate. They will go through a round of questioning as well.”

Lincoln looked at Mavis, finding that the little girl was no longer watching outside the window, her eyes blank as she spaced out.

It was obvious that her main battlefield for gossip had shifted to the internet.

Without looking, Lincoln already knew that the arrest of NetDragon’s boss and executives had surely caused a huge sensation.

Right now, the internet must be bustling with activity.

So, Lincoln nodded and said, “I see. Let’s get out of here. I have something to do at noon.”

“Going to the company?”

“Going home.” Lincoln fastened his seatbelt. “I have to chat with a player in the virtual world during lunch. I’m busy watching the excitement. It’s rare for NetDragon to be in trouble, and I’ve got to give myself a break and celebrate.”

Yue Pengju was speechless, silently starting the car.

…

As soon as Lincoln started heading home, the two box trucks that had left earlier had already reached their destination-

The house where their target was located was already in sight.

Inside the living room of the house, Quentin was sitting on the sofa with a frustrated look.

The number of orders for his factory was getting smaller and smaller, and it was getting hard to keep up.

Ever since Cloud Dream eliminated its orders and lost NetDragon’s orders because of the company’s dishonesty, the factory inevitably began to decline.

Expenses kept shrinking, workers’ wages had been delayed for two months, and there was nowhere else to cut back.

If they don’t receive more orders, the factory will go bankrupt by the end of the year!

Although all his assets and savings had been transferred to his wife and daughter, and he had nothing left in his name, even though the factory’s bankruptcy won’t affect his living conditions in the short term.

But who would want to close down when they could continue to make more money?

Worried and anxious, this is how he feels every day now.

Thump, thump, thump-

As he was fretting, there was suddenly a knocking at the door.

“Who is it?” Quentin shouted impatiently.

“Open up, we’re here to check the water meter.”