Chapter 1

The Nebula Algorithm I spent countless sleepless nights building single-handedly saved the company’s flagship project.

Yet, when the annual promotion list came out, my name was nowhere to be found.

Instead, a man named Julian Monroe, who had joined the company less than a month earlier, skipped several ranks to become my direct supervisor.

When I marched into my boss Sebastian Carter’s office to ask why, he lashed out at me without hesitation.

“You really think a community college graduate like you can compete with a master’s graduate from an elite overseas university?”

I clenched my fists, raising my voice to fight back.

“The employee handbook clearly states that engineering promotions are strictly performance-based, regardless of your degree!”

He pointed a finger right at my nose, his eyes filled with unyielding disdain.

“Rules are rigid, but people aren’t.

“A community college graduate like you should be down on your knees thanking God for the base salary this company throws your way!

“Know your place. This company will keep spinning just fine without you!”

I turned around and handed in my resignation letter on the spot, taking my core algorithm with me.

I couldn’t wait to see just how long his company would last without me, the “community college graduate.”

Chapter 1

After sleeping on a makeshift floor mat at the office for thirty consecutive nights, I finally finished coding every last core module of the Nebula Algorithm.

This afternoon was the company’s quarterly promotion meeting.

The Tech Director position had been vacant for six months.

Having single-handedly resurrected our flagship project with this algorithm, I was convinced the spot was rightfully mine.

By 2:00 PM, the main conference room was packed wall-to-wall.

Our CEO, Sebastian, walked up to the podium holding the promotion list, beaming with pride.

I sat in the front row, my palms slightly clammy.

“Now, for this quarter’s executive appointments,” Sebastian announced.

“The position of Tech Director is officially awarded to Julian Monroe!”

A round of enthusiastic applause erupted across the room.

I froze in my seat, a sudden high-pitched ringing buzzing in my ears.

Julian was an “overseas master’s graduate” brought in out of nowhere just last month.

He didn’t even understand the company’s basic operations—what right did he have to jump over me for the director spot?

I abruptly stood up.

“Mr. Carter, I don’t get it. I led the team and worked myself to the bone for a whole month to build the Nebula Algorithm.

“Why isn’t my name on the promotion list?”

Sebastian’s brow furrowed, the warm smile instantly vanishing from his face.

“Aaron, what exactly do you think you’re doing?

“Promotions in this company are based on overall caliber. Do you really think a community college graduate like you can compete with a master’s graduate from an elite overseas university?”

I clenched my fists, raising my voice to fight back.

“The employee handbook explicitly states that tech promotions are strictly merit-based!

“Which rule in the book says I don’t qualify for a promotion?”

Sebastian let out a harsh sneer, as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

“Rules are rigid, but people aren’t.

“Aaron, do you have some kind of delusion about your standing here?”

He pointed a finger right at my nose, his eyes filled with unyielding disdain.

“A community college grad like you should be down on your knees thanking God for the base salary this company throws your way!”

I gritted my teeth so hard my nails nearly bit into my palms.

The surrounding colleagues began whispering under their breath, their glances laced with a mix of pity and mockery.

Right then, Julian stepped up to the stage in a tailored designer suit.

He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and pulled up an exquisite presentation slides.

“Thank you for your trust, Sebastian.

“Next, I’d like to show everyone the cutting-edge Silicon Valley architecture I’m introducing to the company.”

The giant screen lit up.

I stared intently at the architectural diagrams and underlying logic displayed on the screen.

In an instant, the blood rushed straight to my head.

That was the exact core code of the Nebula Algorithm—code I had pulled thirty all-nighters to type out line by line!

My eyes turned red with fury as I pointed at the screen.

“That’s my code!

“Julian, you’ve been here for nearly a month, and you haven’t written a single line of code. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?!”

Julian looked down at me from the stage, letting out a contemptuous chuckle.

He walked down, patronizingly patting my shoulder.

“Aaron, don’t let your emotions get the best of you.

“Writing code is just grunt work—anyone off the street or outsourced could do it.

“Without me steering the strategic direction from above, those messy lines you typed would be nothing more than a pile of characters.”

He leaned into my ear, whispering in a mockingly low voice that only the two of us could hear.

“Work hard under me from now on.

“A community college graduate needs to learn their place.”

Chapter 2

I didn’t bother arguing any further. Turning on my heel, I walked out of the conference room and went straight back to my desk.

Opening my laptop, I clicked into a hidden folder.

There was something Sebastian and Julian didn’t know.

I had developed the core logic of the Nebula Algorithm entirely independently on my personal computer.

I had even planned ahead and registered the software copyright under my own personal name months ago.

It belonged entirely to me. The company didn’t hold a single grain of ownership over it.

I hit the enter key.

A pre-written script immediately kicked into action.

The progress bar flashed rapidly across the screen.

Line by line, I purged my proprietary core encryption modules completely from the company’s servers, wiping every trace of backup files clean while I was at it.

What I left behind on their server was nothing more than an empty, hollow shell framework.

Once that was finished, I unplugged my USB drive and packed it safely into my backpack.

Then, I opened a Word document and typed out a letter of resignation.

Five minutes later, I slammed the resignation letter down onto Sebastian’s desk.

Sebastian didn’t even glance at it before signing his name.

He leaned back in his leather executive chair, letting out a contemptuous laugh.

“What’s this? Throwing a temper tantrum just because your pride got hurt?

“Let me give you a piece of advice, Aaron—don’t let your arrogance get the best of you while you’re young.

“Once you walk out that door, a community college diploma like yours won’t even land you an interview at a respectable company.”

I looked at his arrogant face, feeling nothing but pity.

“Mr. Carter, I hope you don’t live to regret this.”

Sebastian reacted as if he had just heard the most absurd joke.

“Regret it? The world keeps spinning with or without you!

“Dime-a-dozen code monkeys with community college degrees like you are a dime a dozen. They’re practically crawling all over the streets!

“Get out of here already. Don’t waste Director Monroe’s time taking over your work.”

Ignoring him entirely, I turned around and walked out of the company I had poured my blood, sweat, and tears into for three long years.

That very evening, I logged into the country’s largest developer forum.

I created a stripped-down version of the core encryption module and open-sourced the underlying foundational algorithm.

After publishing the post, I took a shower and went straight to bed.

Around noon the next day, I was awakened by a sharp, persistent phone ringing.

Groggy, I pressed the answer button.

“Hello? Who’s this?”

A deep, commanding voice came through the receiver.

“Hello, am I speaking with Mr. Aaron Bennett?

“I’m Alexander Dawson, CTO of Apex Global.”

I snapped awake instantly.

Apex Global.

The undisputed Titan of the tech industry—the exact company Sebastian’s petty enterprise dreamed of riding the coattails of.

“Mr. Dawson? How can I help you?”

Alexander’s voice carried an excitement he couldn’t quite mask.

“Mr. Bennett, I saw the algorithm you open-sourced on the forum last night.

“It’s nothing short of pure genius!

“Our group is currently tackling a massive national-level big data initiative, and we happened to hit a brick wall at that exact bottleneck.

“Your algorithm solved our pain point flawlessly.”

Leaning back against my headboard, a cold smirk played at the corner of my lips.

It seemed there were still people out there who actually knew real talent when they saw it.

“You flatter me, Mr. Dawson. It was just something I put together.”

Alexander’s tone turned serious and professional.

“Mr. Bennett, I’ll cut straight to the point.

“We ran a background check on you and saw that you just resigned from your previous company.

“On behalf of Apex Global, I officially extend an invitation for you to join us.

“If you agree to come onboard, your starting salary will be $300,000 annually, plus core tech equity options.

“Furthermore, you will directly serve as the Chief Architect for our upcoming ‘Project Genesis’!”

My hand tightened around the phone.

An offer like this was something I wouldn’t have even dared to dream of before.

I deliberately paused for a moment.

“Mr. Dawson, you might not have read my full resume.

“I only hold a community college degree.”

A hearty laugh echoed from the other end of the line.

“Aaron, in the face of true technical genius, a piece of paper isn’t worth a dime!

“When can you start?”

I looked out the window at the dazzling sunlight and spoke softly.

“Tomorrow.”

Chapter 3

At the exact moment I accepted Apex Global’s offer, Sebastian’s company was filled with laughter and celebratory cheer.

Julian was sitting at my old desk, sipping a hand-drip artisan coffee while bragging to several interns about his “glorious days” abroad.

Sebastian pushed the door open, his face flushed with excitement.

“Everyone, stop what you’re doing for a second!

“I’ve got great news for you all.

“Apex Global’s inspection team will be coming to our office in three days!

“As long as our Nebula Algorithm demonstration passes their review, the multi-million-dollar buyout funds from Apex will be wired straight to our account!”

The office immediately erupted into a round of thunderous cheers.

Sebastian walked over to Julian, clapping him affectionately on the shoulder.

“Director Monroe, everything riding on you this time.

“Prepare the demonstration thoroughly. Make sure not a single thing goes wrong.”

Julian pushed up his glasses, bursting with confidence.

“Rest assured, Mr. Carter. It’s just underlying source code—I’ve already mastered every bit of it.

“I guarantee we’ll blow the people from Apex away.”

Sebastian left, thoroughly satisfied.

The moment Julian turned back around, however, the smile vanished from his face completely.

He clicked onto his computer screen.

Staring at the dense, wall-to-wall lines of core code that looked like an unreadable ancient language, a layer of cold sweat slowly broke out across his forehead.

Julian stared blankly at the chaotic, gibberish-like underlying logic on the monitor, his throat swallowing with great difficulty.

He downed two large gulps of iced water to force down the panic rising in his chest.

“So what if there aren’t any code comments?

“Self-taught hacks like him always have atrocious coding habits.”

Comforting himself, he turned and called over two newly hired interns.

“You two, re-encapsulate the API interfaces for these modules and make them look more high-end.

“The internal dry run is tomorrow. Don’t embarrass me.”

Looking at the mess of code where even the variable names were written in abbreviated shorthand, the two interns exchanged nervous glances, but they had no choice but to bite the bullet and take the task.

Julian let out a long sigh of relief and adjusted the tie of his tailored designer suit.

As long as the presentation slides looked slick enough, who would care about how the back-end actually ran anyway?

With only twenty-four hours left before Apex Global’s arrival, Sebastian sat at the head of the conference table, a cup of coffee in hand, anticipation written all over his face.

“Director Monroe, let’s begin the internal rehearsal.

“Show us the results of your world-class expertise.”

Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Julian forced a smile and walked up to the podium.

He opened the exquisite presentation slides he had spent countless hours polishing.

“Mr. Carter, esteemed colleagues.

“After my complete re-architecture over the past few days, the Nebula Algorithm has officially reached top-tier Silicon Valley standards.

“Now, I will demonstrate the real-time processing of our core data.”

Taking a deep breath, he pressed the enter key.

The progress bar on the screen began to climb agonizingly slowly.

Ten percent.

Twenty percent.

Suddenly, the giant display screen flickered violently.

Immediately after, a piercing, high-pitched buzz rang out.

The progress bar froze dead at thirty percent before the entire screen turned into a grim blue screen of death.

A dead, suffocating silence fell over the conference room.

Sebastian slammed the cup in his hand onto the conference table with a heavy thud, splashing hot coffee across the surface.

“What the hell is going on?!”

Frightened out of his wits, Julian trembled all over as he frantically tried to reboot the system.

No matter what he tried, the system was like a corpse—completely unresponsive.

The server racks in the back room even started letting out a strained, overburdened screech, and a thin wisp of black smoke began drifting from the server tower.

Sebastian lost his temper completely. He pointed his finger straight at Julian’s nose, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Julian! What the hell did you do?!”