"This is a typical chain reaction caused by hardware damage! Do you know what a security parameter is? Do you know what level of access is required to enter this machine's backend?"

He turned to Bill, continuing to fan the flames with a heartbroken expression. "Mr. Lamar, you're just too soft-hearted. That's why you were deceived by these charlatans! Now, great. Four million dollars has been completely wasted!"

Bill's fists were clenching, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. He pointed at me, his voice trembling with extreme anger. "Shaun, you'd better give me an explanation. Otherwise, that contract... Today, you won't be able to walk out this door no matter what!"

The immense pressure squeezed me from all sides, like tangible seawater.

Bill's eyes flashed with a fierce glow, as if he were about to pounce over and tear me apart.

Henry stood to the side with a smile.

The slight awe the factory workers had felt for me vanished instantly, replaced by the amusement of onlookers watching a spectacle.

However, I remained unusually calm. I pointed to a line of error code on the screen and said to Melody, "Look here."

Melody instinctively leaned closer.

My voice was not loud, but everyone heard me. "Error B-4711. In DMG's fault code database, all hardware fault codes start with A. Codes starting with B indicate software or parameter anomalies. The official definition of B-4711 is: Unauthorized external parameter writing causing system protective lock."

"Henry." I turned to look at him. "You're an expert in this; you should understand this code better than I do, right?"

Henry's smile froze. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes, but he immediately denied it. "Nonsense! I've studied DMG's systems for over a decade, and I've never seen a B-4711 code! You're making things up to stall for time!"

"Is that so?" I sneered.

I ignored him and turned to Melody, who seemed somewhat dazed from our conversation. My tone was gentle. "Melody, could you do me a favor?"

Melody hesitated for a moment before nodding instinctively.

"Get your laptop from your car and connect it to the machine tool's maintenance port with a data cable."

"What do you want to do?" Melody was somewhat wary.

"Enter engineering mode and check the background logs."

Henry immediately shrieked, "Impossible! Engineering mode requires the highest-level password, and only engineers at the Gorman headquarters have it! How could a warehouse manager like you have it?"

His reaction was excessive.

Even Bill sensed something was off. His gloomy gaze swept back and forth between Henry and me.

Melody hesitated, looking at the hysterical Henry and then at my calm face. Finally, she gritted her teeth and chose to believe me. "Okay!"

She turned around and ran out, quickly returning with a pink laptop. Following my instructions, she connected the data cable.

"Open HyperTerminal, set the baud rate to 115200, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity," I recited a series of parameters.

Melody typed rapidly on the keyboard, and a black command window popped up.

"Now, enter the password."

I took a deep breath and recited a complex password consisting of 19 characters, including both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. "D... M... G... h... a... n... o... v... e... r... 1... 9... 9... 8... k... l... a... u... s...!"

When I uttered the last character, Melody's finger stopped on the Enter key. She looked up in shock at me.

The first half of this password was DMG and Honover. The second half... was the name of her Gorman mentor! 1998 was the year her mentor joined DMG!

This was something her mentor had told her privately. It was a God password that theoretically existed but was never allowed to be used!

She no longer hesitated and slammed down the Enter key forcefully.

On the screen, the black window was instantly filled with a line of green 'ACCESS GRANTED'.

A hidden interface, filled with various data, popped up.

Henry turned deathly pale instantly.

"Open the log file 'system_log.txt'," I commanded.

Melody found the file and double-clicked to open it.

The densely packed system records were presented to everyone.

I pointed to the last few lines. "Look here. Just yesterday afternoon at 3.15 PM. A device with the IP address '202.118.XXX.XXX' logged into the backend system through the remote maintenance port. Login permission: Administrator. Operation log: Modified the core security parameter 'Voltage_Threshold', increasing it from the default 1.2 to 1.8."

"This IP address..." Melody's fingers searched on the keyboard. She then suddenly looked up, her eyes shooting toward Henry. "It's the dedicated education network of Westham University Town."

Henry was a visiting professor at Westham University!

All eyes instantly focused on Henry.

Bill's eyes were no longer filled with anger, but with a murderous chill.

Cold sweat poured down Henry's forehead, instantly soaking his shirt collar.

I delivered the final blow. "Raising the voltage threshold from 1.2 to 1.8 will not cause any hardware damage when the machine is off. But as soon as power is applied and the servo motor starts working, the instantaneous voltage detected by the system will immediately exceed the 1.8 threshold, triggering the highest level overload alarm and forcibly locking the system. It'll create the illusion that the motherboard has been damaged and burned by high voltage.

"This way, the machine, which originally only had a minor mechanical problem, will truly have a motherboard failure. Then, he could make Mr. Lamar spend 1.2 million dollars to buy a brand new motherboard from that so-called Gorman original factory channel... that Henry specified, right?"

My voice was not loud, but every word pierced Henry's heart like an awl.

"I... I didn't...You're spouting nonsense! This is slander!" Henry rambled incoherently, trying to argue his way out.

Bill could not take it anymore. The self-made businessman hated nothing more than being scammed like a fool. He suddenly kicked over the toolbox beside him, scattering metal tools everywhere with a deafening bang.

"Henry Lewis!" Like a furious lion, Bill lunged at Henry and grabbed him by the collar. "You fucking dare to scam me? I pay you 200,000 dollars a year for consulting, and you fucking colluded with outsiders to swindle me out of four million dollars?"

He punched Henry hard across the face.

Henry's refined face instantly turned into a bloody mess; his gold-rimmed glasses flew off and shattered on the floor.

"Mr. Lamar! Mr. Lamar, let me explain! It's a misunderstanding!" he screamed in horror.

"Misunderstanding my ass!" Bill kicked him again, knocking him to the ground. "Beat him! Beat this traitorous bastard out of here!"

Several burly workers, who had long disliked Henry, immediately rushed forward and dragged him out of the workshop.

Henry's piercing screams echoed through the workshop before gradually fading into the distance.

The farce finally came to an end.

Bill breathed heavily, his chest heaving. He walked up to me, his face alternating between pale and grim, his expression utterly complex. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but he eventually pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to me.

He changed the way he addressed me, his voice now hoarse and embarrassed. "Shaun... No, Mr. Zigger. I acted impulsively... just now. I'm sorry."

I did not take his cigarette, only shaking my head. "Get the machine fixed first."

I returned to the computer and asked Melody to revert the maliciously modified parameter to its default value.

Melody typed the command, but a new warning window popped up on the screen.

[Firmware Locked by Administrator]

Melody's expression changed. "Oh no! He had a backup plan! He locked the entire firmware. We no longer have write permissions! This is the highest-level firmware lock. Unless we have the original Gorman-made key generator, it's impossible to unlock!"

Bill's newly ignited hope was instantly extinguished. He was frantic, like a cat on a hot tin roof. "What do we do? It's still useless, isn't it?"

The atmosphere in the entire workshop froze again.

I stared at the screen in silence for a moment.

Everyone thought I was at a loss.

I suddenly said, "No need for a key generator."

I turned to Melody. "Melody, do me a favor. Go to the electronics market and buy me an Arduino Uno development board, a decent soldering iron, a roll of 0.2mm solder wire, and some DuPont wire."

Melody paused.

Arduino? Was that not a basic microcontroller development board for students and electronics enthusiasts? It was only a few dozen dollars each.