I had been managing the company’s warehouse software for five years.
Then the new manager came to me out of the blue, saying I didn’t understand frontline operations and that I was being fired.
Looking at the five-thousand-dollar severance, I just nodded.
“Fine.”
He patted my shoulder after seeing me so compliant and started lecturing.
“Young people should be out on the line, moving boxes! What’s the use of sitting in the office staring at data every day?
“We’re a logistics company. Strength is what matters, not a tech geek like you!”
I glanced at the high-end gaming computer in his office and obediently replied, “Yes, Mr. Fuller. Lesson received.”
Maybe I had been too comfortable these past few years, and he thought I was dispensable.
So, I handed over my ID badge and casually deleted all my personal login keys from my computer.
Little did he know that the entire warehouse logistics, inventory management, and route planning software had been coded by me.
I had let the company use it for free simply because the place was close to home and the work was easy.
Now that I was gone, the system running on my personal cloud server was naturally inaccessible.
Tens of thousands of items in the warehouse ground to a halt. As for any commercial software that could replace my system, a year’s subscription would cost exactly one thousand times my severance.
I packed up my things, everything fitting into a single cardboard box.
As I passed the warehouse, an old employee stopped me. It was Mark Grant.
“Sam, you’re really leaving just like that?”
“Can’t help it, Mark. Management told me to go.”
Mark’s expression hardened. The next second, he stormed straight into the manager’s office.
“Henry! What right do you have to fire Sam?”
Henry Fuller answered with obvious impatience. “Company personnel changes need your approval now?”
“I may not have the authority, but that still makes you an idiot.” Mark pointed right at Henry and shot back.
“Last year, during the major sales surge, the warehouse was completely backed up. Hundreds of thousands of packages were stuck. Who fixed it?
“It was Sam! He stayed up three nights straight and built the scheduling system that saved the entire company!
“And now you fire him? What are you going to use to dispatch orders? Your mouth?”
Henry’s face flushed dark red, a mix of embarrassment and fury.
“You old fool, what do you know?” he roared.
“This company needs people who actually do work, not useless trash hiding in offices!
“Say one more word, and you can pack up and leave early, too!”
Mark laughed, anger written all over his face.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his employee badge, and slammed it onto Henry’s desk.
“Fine. I quit!”
Then he pointed at the document on the desk and spoke slowly, one word at a time.
“Henry, let me tell you something. What you signed today isn’t a termination notice.
“It’s this company’s death sentence!”
With that, Mark turned around and walked out, not sparing Henry another glance.
A wave of guilt hit me, and I hurried after him.
“Mark, don’t do this because of me—”
“It wasn’t just for you,” he said, waving his hand. “For myself as well.”
He let out a long sigh.
“With idiots like that running things, sooner or later, this company will be finished.”
However, I still felt uneasy and stopped him.
“Mark, I don’t really have anything to make this up to you.
“I’ll analyze a few tech stocks for you as a small gesture.”
Mark froze. “You understand stocks?”
I didn’t answer and took out my phone.
The screen instantly filled with dense candlestick charts and data models.
My fingers moved quickly as lines of code and analysis graphs flashed past.
“These three. Their core technology has broken through. In the next six months, they’ll at least double.”
Mark leaned in for a closer look. His eyes widened at once.
He couldn’t understand any of the data or its curves, but he could tell this wasn’t something an ordinary programmer could produce.
He looked at me, shock plain in his eyes.
“Sam… who are you, really?”
…
I had just gotten home and hadn’t even settled down when my phone rang.
It was Henry.
“Sam! What did you do to the company’s system?” he roared on the other end of the line.
“Why did the entire warehouse system collapse?!”
I put the phone on speaker, tossed it onto the table, and calmly poured myself a glass of water.
“Mr. Fuller, that system was my personal project.
“It’s been running on my private cloud server this whole time.”
“Now that I’ve left, the server login authorization naturally stopped.”
Henry exploded on the other end of the line. “A personal project? That’s bullsh*t! You worked at the company! Everything you used belongs to the company!”
I took a sip of water and calmly threw his own words back at him.
“Mr. Fuller, we’re a logistics company. What matters is physical labor.
“Systems like that aren’t that important, right?”
The line went silent for a full five seconds.
Then came an even more hysterical roar. “Sam! I’m warning you! This is commercial sabotage! I’ll sue you! I’ll send you to prison!”
I laughed, unconcerned.
“Sure. My lawyer is with Skyfast Law. You can have the company’s legal team contact them.
“Oh, and one more thing. The server is overseas. It’s protected under local law.”
Henry’s voice cut off instantly, like a chicken being strangled.
Skyfast Law was one of the top firms in the country. There was no way he hadn’t heard of it.
I hung up, and the world finally went quiet.
A few minutes later, Mark called again.
“Sam, did Henry call you? I heard from the warehouse guys that the entire system is down. He’s completely lost it.”
“He did. I shut him down.”
“Serves him right!” Mark laughed loudly.
After laughing, he hesitated, then asked honestly, “Sam, let me ask you something. With your skills, why did you stay in our small warehouse for five years?”
I walked over to the window and looked at the traffic outside.
My chest felt tight.
“My dad was an old-school logistics guy, driving trucks his whole life.
“He always thought messing with computers was not a real job and that only physical strength mattered.
“I built this system and stayed here because I wanted to prove to him that technology could create more value than brute force.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see it.
Mark fell silent.
“Sam, you really went through a lot.”
“It’s all in the past.”
“Oh, there’s something you need to know!” Mark’s tone suddenly shifted.
“When I was leaving, I heard Henry calling group headquarters!
“He actually claimed the warehouse system was a revolutionary new platform he personally led the development of!”
I scoffed silently.
“He even said he’s planning to use his system to bid for SF Logistics’ annual regional distribution contract!”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
So Henry planned to turn my work into his ladder to success.
A plan quickly formed in my mind.
“Mark, when is the bidding conference?”
“Next week. At the city’s international convention center.”
“Good.”
A cold smile curved my lips.
‘Henry, you want to use my work to shine?
‘Then I’ll let you use it and watch you fall.’
I’m taking that contract.
…
Henry moved faster than I expected.
The very next day, an industry news site published an exclusive interview with him.
The headline read: [A Revolutionary in Logistics—Young Talent Henry Fuller and His Intelligent Dispatch System]
In the article, every word of my design documents was presented as his so-called “proprietary achievement”.
Even worse, near the end of the interview, he added a casual remark.
“I previously had an assistant who was fired for stealing the company’s core technology.”
The news alert popped up on my phone.
Before I could even react, my sister called.
She was a senior patent lawyer.
“Sam! I saw the article! That Henry—I can bury him!”
Her voice shook with fury.
“I’ve already sent my team to collect evidence! Patent infringement, commercial defamation… We’ll stack the charges, and I’ll sue them into bankruptcy!”
“Sis, don’t,” I said, stopping her.
“What? Are you afraid of him?”
“No.”
I stared at Henry’s smug face on the screen.
“What he stole wasn’t just code.
“It was my memory of Dad.
“This revenge has to be carried out by me.”
And it had to happen right at the moment he was standing at the very top.
Before hanging up the phone, I said one thing to my sister.
“Since he wants fame and fortune from this, I’ll nail him to the pillar of shame right in front of the entire industry.”
My fingers began moving across the keyboard.
One hour later, a tech company named Genesis Future was successfully registered online.
The legal representative was me.
Next, using this shell company’s name, I called Henry’s office.
“Hello, Mr. Fuller, I’m an investment consultant from Genesis Future.
“I saw your brilliant design in the news. We’re very interested.”
Henry was clearly stunned by this sudden burst of “venture capital”.
“An investment? How much are you looking to invest?” He asked eagerly, his voice filled with greed.
“Preliminary intent—fifty million.”
I named a figure he couldn’t possibly refuse.
“But we do have one condition.”
“What’s the condition? Please go on.”
“We’d like to see a public, full-load, live system demonstration at next week’s National Logistics Technological Summit.
“This is crucial for us to evaluate system stability and your technical capability.”
Henry didn’t hesitate for even a second.
“No problem! Absolutely no problem! I guarantee you the most perfect demonstration!”
Blinded by profit, he had already lost even the most basic judgment.
The next day, Mark told me Henry had diverted a large sum of company funds.
He rented the most expensive, well-located central booth at the summit.
In his fantasy, he would rise to fame in one battle, with SF Logistics’ massive contract in his left hand, and my huge investment in his right.
I sat in front of my computer, watching the server backend.
The core backend of the system he planned to demonstrate was still running on my server.
I had already prepared a gift for him.
A single line of termination code sat quietly there.
I even gave it a name.
“One-Click Cremation”.
…
The National Logistics Technological Summit was packed with people.
Henry’s booth sat in the most prominent location, with a massive screen behind him looped through his so-called “personal achievements”.
My Genesis Future booth was set up directly across from him.
It was simple: a table, a laptop, and an equally large, but completely blank screen.
Henry was surrounded by reporters and several sharply dressed men. Their badges clearly read SF Logistics.
When he saw me across the aisle, a flicker of surprise crossed his face before it was quickly replaced by disdain.
He probably thought I had come to beg.
Leading the group, he walked straight toward me.
“Well, if it isn’t Sam Miller,” he sneered loudly, pointing at me in front of everyone.
“The thief who got caught stealing. And you still have the nerve to show up here?
“Absolutely shameless!”
He turned and shouted at nearby security. “Security! Get him out of here! Don’t let trash like this pollute our venue!”
Several SF Logistics executives frowned.
I ignored his words and just looked calmly at him, like I was watching a clown perform.
Seeing me stay silent only made Henry more pleased with himself.
He turned back to his booth, grabbed the microphone, and began triumphantly.
“Distinguished guests, respected leaders! Today, I will present a system powerful enough to transform the entire logistics industry!”
He bragged for a full ten minutes before finally reaching the key moment.
“Now, I will activate the system’s core function—real-time data streaming!”
With a victorious smile, he stretched out his finger and pressed a button on the touchscreen.
At that exact moment, I lightly tapped the Enter key on my laptop across from him.
On Henry’s massive screen, all the flashy charts, dynamic routes, and flowing data
vanished instantly.
The screen went completely black.
The next second, a line of huge, blood-red text appeared in the center.
[System Ownership: Sam Miller. Thief, having fun?]
