A repair progress bar appeared on the big screen.

It kept moving forward. 85 percent.

"The AI is about to fix everything!" someone shouted excitedly.

Florin let out a sigh of relief, loosened his tie, and shot me a mocking look.

Mary, who had been nervous just moments ago, now proudly said to him, "Mr. Stretton, the AI has reduced the repair time for the three failure points from 40 minutes to just three minutes. That's a 92% improvement in efficiency."

Florin grinned.

Then he turned toward me, still standing by the door, and deliberately raised his voice. "Ms. Lyttle, this is the difference between you and AI."

I said nothing. The AI had only patched the problems on the surface. It was nothing more than a temporary fix. It wouldn't hold for long.

Just then, Florin's phone rang.

It was the special ringtone he had set for their biggest client, Martin Vassell.

The moment he answered, Martin roared before Florin could even speak.

"Florin, what the hell are you doing? Why is your system sending out alerts? How can your company be this incompetent?"

Florin glanced at the repair progress and replied, "Mr. Vassell, please don't worry. It'll be fixed in just a moment."

But Martin wasn't finished. "Florin, the Fourth of July Sale is almost here. If your system goes down at a time like this, I'll make sure your company pays for every bit of the damage!"

At that moment, another message appeared on the AI control panel. "Issue located and repaired. Current system efficiency is 30% higher than the previous version."

Seeing that, Florin calmly answered, "Mr. Vassell, rest assured. We were simply performing an emergency optimization. It's already finished. I guarantee you we won't have another major issue."

Martin was silent for a few seconds before speaking again. His voice was still filled with anger. "You'd better be careful, Florin. My business cannot stop during the Fourth of July Sale. If anything like this happens again, I won't let your company off the hook."

"No problem. You have my word."

After hanging up, Florin let out another long breath.

Then he looked at me with a smug smile.

"Ms. Lyttle, see? Whenever something went wrong before, you'd spend all night fixing it. The whole department had to camp in the server room eating instant noodles. It often took an entire day. Yet you kept acting like you were the company's savior and that we'd somehow wronged you."

He shrugged.

"The AI fixed everything in three minutes. From the first alert to the repair, it took less than ten minutes."

Mary stood up and added with a sneer, "Mr. Stretton is right. Ms. Lyttle is getting older, so it's only natural that she's slower. But AI is different. It's fast and efficient."

Just then, someone shouted. "Mr. Stretton! The AI says there's an exception that requires human confirmation. It says the logic is too complex and beyond the model's ability to understand..."

Florin frowned. "What? Mary, didn't you say the AI had completely mastered Ms. Lyttle's skills?"

Sweat formed on Mary's forehead. "It did learn everything, but some of Ms. Lyttle's code is built on logic that's too complicated. The AI can imitate it, but it doesn't understand why she wrote it that way..."

Florin cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Then have the AI force the repair. We'll deal with any problems later."

Mary hesitated for a second before pressing Enter.

A new message appeared on the screen. "Forced repair executed."

The log window soon became quiet again, and everyone in the engineering department breathed a sigh of relief.

Standing at the doorway, I finally relaxed too.

The AI's forced repair had just triggered the trap I buried.

Every order the system processed from now on would be treated as a free promotional giveaway.

The company's losses would be beyond imagination.

The countdown had officially begun.

Florin was thrilled.

"Starting today, our efficiency is going to skyrocket! Our AI employee is officially online. Let's all give it a warm welcome!"

The office filled with applause.

I sneered to myself, picked up my box of belongings, and walked away.

"Wait! Ms. Lyttle, please step out for a moment."

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, security guard Cole Wollacott stuck his arm between them.

"What is it?" I asked with a frown.

Another security guard explained, "Mr. Stretton instructed us to make one final check before you leave. We need to make sure you aren't taking anything that belongs to the company."

I tightened my grip on the edge of the box.

"I already completed the handoff. Every piece of company property has been accounted for."

Mary squeezed between the two guards. "That's only on the surface. How do we know you didn't secretly take something?"

Florin walked over behind her and gave the order. "Search her."

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the elevator, set my box on the floor, and raised my hands.

"Fine. Go ahead."

I just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. I didn't want to stay in this place for another second.

Mary walked over and circled around me.

Florin spoke up from the side, "Please hand over your phone. The IT department will inspect it and return it afterward."

I handed him my phone.

Mary took it and passed it to another security guard behind her, Jack Lowry. "Take this to IT and have them make a complete backup."

Then she started throwing everything out of my box.

She picked up my keyboard and slammed it onto the floor.

The keycaps scattered everywhere.

"My keyboard..." I stepped forward.

A security guard grabbed my arms from behind, keeping me from moving.

It was the first keyboard my grandfather had ever bought me before he passed away. I had treasured it ever since.

"Let me go!" I shouted, my voice hoarse.

Florin remained calm. "Ms. Lyttle, please calm down. This is just a routine inspection. If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about."

"There's nothing here." Mary shook her head at Florin in disappointment.

Then she suddenly asked, "What about inside your pants?"

I froze.

"What?"

She replied calmly, "You could be hiding something inside your pant legs, your waistband, or your cuffs. We're both women. What's the problem?"

I gritted my teeth. "Then call the police and let them handle it."

Florin waved his hand. "That's enough. The search is over."

Mary curled her lip and stomped hard on my keyboard.

A dull crack echoed through the lobby.

"You..." I was shaking with anger.

Florin spread his hands. "Ms. Lyttle, this is standard company procedure. I hope you understand."

Mary smirked. "Oh, and don't forget to clean up all this trash. Don't leave a mess in the company."

My heart ached as I looked at my broken keyboard.

I glared at them.

"I won't let either of you get away with this."

Florin let out a dismissive laugh, wrapped an arm around Mary's shoulders, and walked away.

I carefully picked up every single keycap from the floor, my anger burning even hotter.

It wouldn't be long before I got my revenge.

The next day, I spent a relaxing day at home.

Tomorrow was the Fourth of July Sale. The event would officially begin at 8:00 p.m. tonight.

It was one of the biggest shopping events of the year. It pushed servers to their limits and was the day every system was at its most vulnerable.

It was also the moment my trap would explode with the greatest impact.

Just after 8:00 p.m., I finished taking a shower and found my phone filled with missed calls.

I randomly answered one of them. The person on the other end sounded panicked. "Ms. Lyttle, something terrible has happened!"