The Smith Corporation’s situation actually wasn’t as good as how Joel had put it just now.
The physical industry was currently in decline in the States whereas new media networks were flourishing. The Smith Corporation had also opened a few companies doing online businesses.
All the servers were in the Smith Corporation. Once the servers went down, those in other places...
He had only just thought of that when someone hurried over and said, "Mr. Smith, our games’ players are all sending feedback that they can’t access the games. They are threatening to uninstall the apps!"
"Mr. Smith, the live-streamers on our live-streaming app are asking why they can’t access the app and what’s wrong with the servers!"
"Mr. Smith, we had to make a fund transfer for the big deal today, but now that there is no Internet, we can’t complete the transfer..."
All sorts of problems came one after another.
Joel got his subordinates to deal with them one by one, and then he entered his office.
It was already evening by then.
The troubled Joel rubbed his temples and took out his cell phone. His finger was already on Nora’s number when his executive assistant pushed the door open and came in. "Mr. Smith, we are trending on social media!"
He closed the call app and went to take a look at the trending topics on social media first.
There were five to six trending topics, such as #SmithCorporationServersBreakDown, #SmithCorporationGetsHacked, #XXMobileGameServerDown, and so on. They occupied the first few places among the most popular topics.
Obviously, someone had paid money to make them trend.
Comments had already exploded:
"Oh my god, has something gone wrong with the Smith Corporation’s network? Can we still trust the Smith Corporation?"
"Why were they hacked? Do they take cyber security so unprofessionally when they are such a big company?"
"My personal information registered with the Smith Corporation won’t be stolen, right?"
"This is unacceptable! How can they still call themselves the second-best enterprise in the country when this is all they can do? Is a company whose network defenses were breached so easily really trustworthy?!"
"This is too much! I finally took time off today to play games for a whole day, yet they are suddenly telling me that the server is down, so I can’t log in? What the hell? I’m uninstalling this! Goodbye!"
All sorts of rumors flew all about the Internet.
Everyone in the company could only keep watch on the ongoings with their own Internet hotspots. All of them were terribly anxious, yet also helpless.
The IT department was even starting to call up people for help. However, the moment IT experts heard that it was Q targeting them, no one dared to come over and help.
The people in the IT department had no choice but to work overtime! But no matter how hard they tried, they simply weren’t the other party’s match!
Q was constantly online. Once they found a flaw and fixed it, Q would attack again. It was impossible for them to guard against him!
"Mr. Smith, this is terrible! Our stocks are plummeting!"
His executive assistant delivered another piece of bad news. All the trending topics about their server downtime had finally ushered in the most terrifying crisis for the Smith Corporation!
Once the stocks reached the lower limit, their company would be in danger!
Joel narrowed his eyes and said, "Find a way to intercept Q and stop him from damaging the servers further for now. I will look for someone to help."
The assistant nodded. Just as he was about to leave, someone pushed the door open again. It was Samuel.
He looked at Joel furiously. "What’s the matter with the Smiths’ stocks? The price has fallen so much! Are all the people the Smiths are raising all rubbish? They can’t even repair a lousy Internet network?"
Behind him was his executive assistant’s assistant. She looked absolutely flustered as she said, "I’m sorry, Mr. Smith. I couldn’t stop him."
Joel glanced at her and then looked at his executive assistant.
The executive assistant nodded and left the office with his assistant.
Samuel sat opposite him. "I heard that it’s Nora who offended Q? I knew that the woman was a jinx! She caused so much trouble the moment she returned to the family! Since they are just doing this because they’re angry, how can you still fight him so stubbornly and put our entire business at stake?! Our stocks are plummeting right now, and it is very likely that we’ll be delisted after hitting the lower limit! The Smith Corporation is a listed company, it is not something you can use to defend her for her nonsense!"
Joel corrected him. "He claims that he is Q, but he may not necessarily really be Q. I am already looking for someone to confirm his identity."
Samuel was so furious that he was dumbfounded. "How would he be able to take down our network and put so many people at a loss if he wasn’t Q? Besides, why would he pretend to be Q? Just what are you thinking about all day long?! Is the problem him being Q right now?"
Joel ignored him. Instead, he took out his phone to confirm something first. He dialed Nora’s number. "Nora, I heard that there’s some bad blood between you and Q? What exactly happened?