Chapter 264 162: Zhang Niu: Chao Zi, You're Staying in the Capital City. Big Bro Will Take Care of Everything

The group went upstairs.

Zhang Liang and Zhao Gang were about to get in their car to go eat at a noodle shop, but...

Just as Zhao Gang turned around, his foot slipped, and he almost fell flat on the ground.

He looked left and right, thought for a moment, and declared,

"It's all Wang Chao's fault!"

Before Wang Chao came to the Capital City, he had never fallen in this exact spot at this exact time!

Zhang Liang was quite gratified.

"Your worker's comp will be settled with your salary."

"You got it, boss."

...

...

"Who says this Wang Chao is a bad guy?!"

"This Chao Zi is amazing!"

「Meanwhile, inside the hotel.」

Xu Huo and the others reached the top floor. As soon as they pushed the door open, Zhang Niu's face appeared before them, grinning cheerfully at Xu Huo and Wang Chao.

"President Zhang."

Wang Chao greeted him.

"Alright, alright, enough with the greetings. The food's getting cold. Let's eat first."

Zhang Niu gestured for them to take their seats.

After everyone was seated, Xu Huo, who wasn't in a hurry to eat, walked over to Zhang Niu and spoke to him in a low voice.

"President Zhang, I heard... there's a prototype for the phone?"

Xu Huo paused, looking at him expectantly.

'If this thing is done right, just based on my contract alone...'

'The amount of money I could make in a year would be astronomical!'

So, to say he wasn't concerned right now would be a lie.

No one would turn their nose up at money.

Zhang Niu paused for a moment, then nodded. "We have one."

"I was planning to talk about it after we ate, but talking now is fine too. That way, it won't affect the New Year's mood."

As he spoke, he paused. Then, suppressing his excitement, he pulled a new object out of his pocket.

"In this, I see the future!"

"This is the new concept for the future of mobile phones!"

"It will allow everyone on the planet to enjoy the internet, elevating our entire civilization to a new level!"

Looking at the black rectangle in his hand, Zhang Niu spoke with extreme excitement.

The object was palm-sized, about as thick as a finger, rectangular, and had a display screen on its surface.

There was a power button on the side.

Xu Huo turned it on.

A phone icon appeared on the screen, followed by a boot-up sequence.

After a short while...

The home screen appeared.

He tried touching the screen. It wasn't very responsive, but it could be controlled by hand.

There weren't many apps on the home screen.

Currently, only two seemed useful.

One was the camera. It could take pictures, but the resolution was extremely low, producing what could only be described as a pixelated mess.

The other was the phone function. Xu Huo tried making a call.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP~"

"Who is it?"

Wang Chao pulled out his phone, but the moment he did, the call disconnected.

Wang Chao: ?

"This concept turned out to be far simpler than the tech department predicted!"

"We were able to draw from existing, related technologies. By dedicating a massive team to simultaneously research different parts of the phone, we managed to build this prototype in just one month!"

"A truly great innovation!"

Zhang Niu took a deep breath, gradually calming his emotions.

Xu Huo examined it from all angles, finding it quite novel.

'It feels a lot like it did in my last life. If nothing goes wrong, the age of the internet will arrive very soon!'

"Hmm, the current challenges probably lie with things like the phone's processing power, camera resolution, and battery life."

He observed it for a moment before pointing out some of the phone's shortcomings.

"The resolution and battery are barely adequate, but the processing power is lacking."

'Resolution could attract key consumer groups like ordinary students, young people, and women.'

'Why?'

'Because in this day and age, digital photos like these can easily make others envious, which in turn drives sales.'

'But for now, that's not the most important thing.'

'The main issue is the processing power—that is, the phone's processor.'

'It's laggy and slow.'

'Overall, though, this is a great start.'

'Once it's released, we can reliably update the series once a year!'

"Exactly." A smile appeared on Zhang Niu's face as he chimed in. "The processor is a huge problem right now, and we also don't have enough signal towers."

He loved talking to people like this—people who could spot the problems before he even had to mention them.

"The signal towers aren't a major issue. Sales probably won't be high for the first few years anyway. For now, we can just market the phone like a feature phone for seniors."

"We plan to create a few single-player mobile games first to get users accustomed to the device and build a sense of dependency."

"We'll lay the groundwork for the signal towers at the same time, and then we can focus on upgrades and new models later."

He had thought it all through very clearly.

The problems also had solutions. Zhang Niu's company already had inextricable ties to signal tower infrastructure, so pursuing this now was like a fish taking to water.

That's why the entire tech department was currently working overtime to develop a processor that meets the standard.

As for whether anyone would buy a phone with only single-player games... even if it were just a block of iron, as long as it was positioned as high-end, someone would buy it.

Of course...

More importantly.

"Heh, speaking of which, our luck has been pretty good!"

Zhang Niu suddenly paused, a smile spreading across his face. He seemed to be in an excellent mood.

"The business alliance was just established at the beginning of the month."

"And by the end of the month, our intel was suddenly leaked by someone in the tech department."

"And what was leaked? The concept for the phone!"

"But we received the leak notification in the morning, and by the afternoon, the higher-ups had suddenly launched a massive crackdown. Man, you have no idea! Some of the rich businessmen in the Capital City scattered—each one faster than the last. I've never seen anyone move that fast in my life!"

Zhang Niu mused, but the more he spoke, the stranger Xu Huo's expression became.

"And just like that, the higher-ups took them down."

"If it weren't for that, Mr. Xu, Xiao Wang, and the rest of us might have had to face a terrifying opponent this time."

"I just don't know why there was a sudden, unprompted crackdown..."

Zhang Niu suddenly trailed off, musing aloud in confusion.

"Normally, a crackdown like that requires meetings beforehand."