A slight sound, almost perceptible only to Lu Cheneng, exploded deep in his mind.

At that moment, a crack appeared in the absolute rationality that he was proud of.

The fiercely clashing data streams before his eyes seemed to blur for a moment, and a "thing" he had never experienced before, unfamiliar, and unable to be defined by his logic library, ran through his nerve endings like an electric current.

What is that?

For the first time, his heart rate broke the limit of 60 beats per minute without extreme physiological stress, reaching 61, 62... 65!

"Young Master, you..." The assistant next to him noticed that Lu Chenshang's face seemed a little strange, an extremely pale expression.

Lu Cheneng suddenly came back to his senses, and the data flow in his eyes became clear again.

"The invasion has been suppressed and the enemy has retreated." He heard his own voice say, still so cold.

That's right, in that thrilling final moment, the surging red torrent of data suddenly seemed to gain self-awareness, as if it had sensed some potential threat or successfully achieved some unknown goal. In the blink of an eye, the torrent retreated at an astonishing speed like a receding tide, as if it had never appeared.

However, its impact was far from over. The Oracle system was shattered by this torrent of red data, its once orderly structure now a chaotic mess, with data and instructions intertwined and conflicting, creating a dizzying chaos. The once arrogant executives now looked pale, watching the whole thing with lingering fear. They had clearly not anticipated this.

The crimson dome of the conference hall, now as if under a spell, gradually faded its glaring red, revealing a tranquil, deep blue. This blue, like the color of the sky, pure and clear, brought a refreshing and soothing atmosphere to the entire conference hall.

Everything seemed to be returning to the track they were supposed to be on. It was like a jigsaw puzzle that, after much effort, was finally pieced together to form a complete picture. Everything seemed so natural and harmonious, without the slightest abruptness or disharmony.

But Lu Chensheng knew that something was different.

His fingertips touched the cold alloy tabletop, and for the first time, he felt a physiological reaction called "trembling", although it was so weak that it could be ignored.

The tiny stream of data that penetrated the chip was like a stone dropped into a deep pool, causing imperceptible ripples beneath the surface of his frozen emotional lake.

The chip...seems to be faulty.

No, not an error.

It is something that has been suppressed to the extreme, and under external stimulation, it produces an inappropriate "response".

He retrieved the intruder's remaining data fragment, which was a very short, encrypted signature.

【Red.】

Just one word.

Scarlet...like fire, like blood, like some kind of...forbidden color.

Lu Cheneng turned off the light screen, stood up, and left the meeting early for the first time.

"The acquisition will be carried out as planned." He said this and disappeared at the door of the conference room.

No one noticed that an unusual thin layer of sweat appeared on the palm of his clenched left hand.

No one knew that in his brain, which was hailed as the "most powerful machine of the chaebol", a line of garbled code had quietly appeared in the operating log of the "emotional suppression chip".

A line of burning crimson garbled characters.