Chapter 5

The tech department was chaotic, keyboard clicks thundering.

Tech Director Sam Johnson was sporting massive dark circles, cursing at his screen.

"What kind of garbage code is this?!

Does that new girl Lily have rocks in her head?

Creating a deadlock in a simple loop!

I stayed up all night rescuing the servers!"

Seeing me enter, Sam quickly stubbed out his cigarette.

"Sasha, what brings you here?

I heard Richard gave you trouble this morning?"

I walked to the meeting room and knocked on the glass door.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing.

Meeting room, now."

A dozen core team members exchanged glances, then set down their keyboards and filed in.

I closed the door and pulled down the blinds, blocking outside view.

"I'm leaving."

Straight to the point, no preamble.

The meeting room exploded.

"Sasha, what happened?!"

Sam jumped up in agitation.

"Is this about that ten-million-dollar contract?

I heard it was that little snake Lily who lost it.

Why should you take the fall!"

"Exactly!

Is Richard blind?

We only recognize you as our project director!"

"Sasha, what are we supposed to do without you?

Who's going to shield us from those idiotic client demands?"

Watching these pure tech geeks, warmth flooded my heart.

In my past life, Sam was the only one who brought flowers to my grave and got fired for publicly cursing out Richard at the company.

I raised my hand, signaling them to quiet down.

"I'm not here to listen to complaints or to whine."

I pulled out a stack of printed documents from my bag and pushed them to the center of the table.

"This is the equity distribution plan for my new company.

It's called Stellar Tech.

I hold fifty-one percent.

Of the remaining forty-nine percent, I'm allocating thirty percent as an option pool for the founding technical team."

I looked Sam in the eye.

"Sam, you'll be Technical Director with ten percent equity.

Everyone else gets shares based on level and contribution."

The air seemed to freeze.

Everyone's eyes widened.

Even their breathing grew quiet.

For employees, empty promises were commonplace, but real equity incentives—especially such a large percentage of actual shares—was an absolutely irresistible temptation.

Sam swallowed hard, his voice trembling slightly.

"Sasha... are you serious?"

"When have I ever joked about money?"

I braced my hands on the table, my gaze sweeping across each young face, my voice steady and seductive.

"Follow me.

I can't promise you'll be driving Ferraris tomorrow.

But I promise that every line of code you write won't be wasted.

Your talent will receive maximum respect and direct monetization."

"No more suffering under incompetent management, no more all-nighters cleaning up stupid decisions, no more watching the face of an intern who can't even write 'Hello World.'"

"We work for ourselves."

Silence.

Ten full seconds of silence.

Suddenly, Sam slammed his hand on the table so hard the water in the cups splashed out.

"Damn it!

I've been sick of serving that idiot Richard anyway!

Sasha, I'm with you!"

"Count me in!

I'm writing my resignation right now!"

"Me too!

Whoever wants to stay at this dump can have it!"

The entire tech team—fifteen core members—every single one chose to follow me.

Looking at their excited faces, a cold smile curved my lips.

Richard, Ethan, did you think getting rid of me would let you rest easy with your little white lotus?

You have no idea that a storm capable of crushing you to dust has already formed.