Cracking

South Korea, National Computer Research Center.

The work to crack the Phantom Projector was proceeding at full steam.

Over three thousand top figures from South Korea's IT industry, senior engineers in the field of projector software and hardware, had joined this plan. The supporting personnel exceeded ten thousand, with tens of thousands more peripheral technical staff available for immediate deployment.

Industry leaders gathered, pooling the wisdom of the nation's top talents. Dozens of meetings among these leaders took place daily. With the assistance of national supercomputers and the incentive of money, the progress of cracking the system was slowly advancing.

The more they researched and attempted to crack it, the more these top talents felt a deep sense of awe and utter admiration for Ning Yifan, who had invented and manufactured this driver software.

The underlying language of the driver software was unlike any programming language currently in use; it was an unknown programming language created by Ning Yifan himself, making it incredibly difficult to crack.

However, fortunately, with so many people, ample resources, and the computational power of supercomputers, progress was still being made, albeit slowly.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed. Inside a laboratory designated as Test Lab Number 19.

A lab technician picked up the driver board, on which the driver program had just been written by the support staff, and installed it onto the projector. As the technician started the projector, they wrote on a report: "Test Lab Number 19, Test Startup Number 57,623. Test Result: _____".

After recording the blank result in the experimental log, the projector finished booting up.

Casually glancing at the projection on the wall, the technician picked up a pen and muttered unconsciously, "Failed again."

Just as they were about to write on the experimental record, the technician suddenly turned their head, looking back at the projection on the wall.

The wall clearly displayed the startup animation. Unlike the mosaic they had seen countless times before, this time the projected image was incredibly clear!

"No, it didn't fail, it succeeded! We succeeded!" the technician shouted excitedly.

This was the fifty-thousand-plus test in Lab 19, and the fifth-million-plus test across all one hundred test labs. Finally, success had been achieved!

This projection and the resulting image were extremely clear, very close to the display effect of the Phantom Projector that the technician had tested countless times before. It could even be said to be identical, as all components except the driver program were the same as those in the Phantom Projector.

Only the driver program was a crack derived from the Phantom Projector. Once the driver program was successfully cracked, the assembled unit would naturally be the same as the Phantom Projector.

News of the successful experiment quickly spread. This laboratory was soon swarmed by related technical personnel, all looking at the image on the wall with excitement. This day had not come easily!

All data related to the driver program tested in Lab 19 was quickly sealed off.

Subsequently, with the efforts of numerous cracking personnel, one hundred more driver boards for projectors were produced based on this sample and distributed to every test laboratory.

A new round of testing began, this time with many precise performance tests, including RGB color gamut, display latency, projection effect under strong light, clarity, and comparisons with the Phantom Projector.

With thousands of people working in coordination, the test results came out quickly and were exhilarating. Except for calibration, which was only at 80-90% of Shenma Technology Company's level, all other data was no worse than the Phantom Projector!

The laboratory had successfully replicated the Phantom Projector and manufactured its own projector!

Samsung's executives were naturally the first to learn of this news and quickly arrived at the laboratory, leading their team to observe the entire cracking process.

Among the crowd, holding a thin driver board, only two fingers wide, the President of Samsung had a complex expression.

This tiny driver board, with its simple chips, was hardware-wise inferior to the motherboards in most current electronic products. Yet, it had consumed vast amounts of manpower and resources for Samsung Group, taking nearly a month and costing nearly twenty billion Korean won.

Fortunately, it was all worth it. The President's team watched as technicians on-site entered the driver program and installed the driver board into a newly assembled projector. The test footage being played was clear and vibrant, its effect no less than Shenma Technology Company's Phantom Projector.

The President waved his hand and said to the surrounding engineers, technicians, and company executives:

"Arrange the production line and achieve mass production of our own Samsung projector products as soon as possible.

At the same time, the experts who made significant contributions during this cracking process should not leave for now. Having a product identical to Shenma Technology Company's is just the beginning. We need to upgrade and manufacture even more powerful projector products based on the existing data.

We must launch our Samsung-branded projector products in the shortest possible time and crush Shenma Technology Company so they can't even lift their heads.

The rewards for the technical personnel who made outstanding contributions during this R&D process should also be distributed quickly."

After a brief arrangement, the Samsung President suddenly recalled a piece of information his subordinate had reported: Shenma Technology Company had not registered any patents for the Phantom Projector!

Immediately, the President instructed his secretary: "Secretary Zhao, organize the relevant materials as soon as possible and register the driver board program as a patented technology."

Whether Ning Yifan of Shenma Technology Company was confident or arrogant, the patent technology for this product was about to become Samsung Group's!

With the patent, they could even dictate to Shenma Technology Company that they were not allowed to produce the Phantom Projector series, otherwise, it would constitute infringement of Samsung Group's exclusive patent technology, and they would sue Shenma Technology Company into bankruptcy in court!

The terrifying power of Samsung Group operating at full capacity meant that patent registrations, which would normally take a long time for ordinary people to approve, were completed in less than a day.

Concurrently, a prototype projector manufactured by Samsung was produced. Its performance was almost identical to the Phantom Projector; at least, ordinary people could not distinguish between the two!

The situation was set. Samsung Group's senior management, through a meeting, decided on the company's future course of action.

On this day, many of Samsung's top executives gathered in the headquarters conference room.

"Since we have the patent registered in hand, Shenma Technology Company's production of the Phantom Projector constitutes infringement of Samsung Group's patent. At the same time, it has caused significant losses to Samsung Group. All of this must be resolved properly through legal channels!"

"Let's strike first. Find a legal team as soon as possible and sue Shenma Technology Company for infringement."

"At the same time, we must leverage online public opinion to let everyone know that we are the righteous party!"

"Not only should Shenma Technology Company be unable to continue producing Phantom Projectors in the future, but they must also compensate Samsung Group for the profits made from producing and selling so many Phantom Projectors previously!"

"Find people to gather evidence, and simultaneously issue gag orders to those involved in the cracking work. Whether through signing confidentiality agreements or financial incentives, ensure they remain silent when we sue Shenma Technology Company."

"Shenma Technology Company only has one person and no legal department. We are absolutely guaranteed to win the lawsuit and make him pay for his arrogance!"

The executives voiced their opinions freely. Those in such positions had handled such business dealings many times before.

The meeting continued in a relaxed atmosphere for nearly an hour. As the meeting drew to a close, the executives smiled, each saying with emotion:

"The plan is proceeding smoothly. Not only will we be able to crush Shenma Technology Company, but in the future international market, Samsung Group's Phantom Projector products will dominate with their superior performance."

"We have turned a crisis into an opportunity! Hahaha, we can finally stop worrying about Shenma Technology Company and the Phantom Projector product squeezing our company's products. From now on, it will be Samsung Group's products that will seize the entire global television and projector market!"

"Still too young. Young people are very talented, but they're not steady at all in their work. To leave such a huge loophole... I originally thought that even if we cracked the Phantom Projector's production technology, we'd still need to research it further, modify some things to bypass patents, and then produce the product. I didn't expect we could just use it directly."

"Suddenly, I feel like we should thank Shenma Technology Company for giving us such great technology!"

"That young man named Ning Yifan is indeed very talented. When his Shenma Technology Company goes bankrupt, then we, Samsung Group—no, we can't have Samsung Group appear directly. Let a company unrelated to us make the offer. We'll offer him a high price to work for us, hahahaha!"

"With the technology for the Phantom Projector product, our Samsung company is like a tiger with wings. Perhaps this is an opportunity for our company to advance further. If our company's income grows again, it's not impossible for us to account for half of South Korea's total income!"

"Such happy news! We must celebrate properly tonight. A few actors in the entertainment industry have performed very well recently. Let them come sing and dance tonight!"