Waves (1).

Hiring Lynn Carter as a manager was not a difficult thing for Hao Ren, he gave her the same terms as Markus Bourne. The lady also wanted to explore her possibilities. No high level company would give her the chance to make policies from scratch. 

Hao Ren promised her a free hand, and told her that while he demanded profit, he would not put the employees through stressed times. Lynn Carter did not even wait to sign the contract and began to call people before him to work. 

She was a smart person, and did not call any big-shots, but freshers who caught her eye and had the potential to do better. 

Hao Ren was gratified, because with this half of his work load was taken away. The young man took off to fulfill his lunch duties and without any trouble two days passed away quickly. The small office of Thunder Technologies was working with full capacity, and at this moment they were holding a product review meeting. 

The office was small so the five key players were gathered in the bull pen, where most of the employees would work in tandem. Other than Hao Ren, the rest of the people did not even have an office. 

Hao Ren asked, "Klaus, how are we looking?" 

His tone was calm but his heart was indeed uneasy. After all, who would want to have their company loss and dreams drive down in a ditch. Hymn Klaus said, "Boss, we are close to one million downloads. The response is crazy." 

Hao Ren was surprised, he asked, "What happened?" 

Klaus said, "The credit goes to Mister Bourne, he was the one who came up with this marketing strategy." 

Markus smiled and shook his head, "Without a convincing product we would not have been able to garner such a response." 

He had contacted a few well established tech reviewers to provide feedback for the Horizon OS, people were skeptical but when they used the product, they were stunned in a daze. 

Markus said, "The people were impressed, and many of them expressed the intention to be our spokesperson. They also provided some feedbacks that I have handed over to Mister Klaus. So on today's agenda you need to decide..." 

The meeting continued for four hours, and afterward Thunder Technologies released a demo version of their office tools and other such auxiliary programs, however, they were going to charge for this. Markus Bourne had contacted a few people in the business and after a trial they have all placed orders for the products. 

Thunder Technologies accepted the orders with grace. After the meeting Hao Ren said, "Now that we know what the people want, let us release this." 

He placed a storage drive on the table and said, "A mobile assistant, that is compatible with all the OS, and also can do anything that you might want it to, for example, calling a cab for you, and you would not need to move a thumb." 

The people were stunned, Hao Ren said, "Now, the tech team has to come up with ideas on how to upgrade it." 

The meeting continued, while Hao Ren was planning to gather the attention of as many customers as possible, somewhere on a big cruise ship, five people sat inside a luxurious room. However, the expressions of their faces were anything but pleasant. 

One of them asked, "Vincent, what is going on? Why did you call us all so urgently?" 

This guy had a gash on his forehead, which was stretched down to his cheek and it was red and tender. Yet this did not seem to bother him in a bit. The rest of the four people were all strong and had a ruthless aura. Vincent appeared to be the strongest of them, he said, "Red Banner is under attack." 

The four people around him were surprised and one of them asked, "What is going on? Who dares to attack us? Is it the Wolf Fang? Are they itching for death?" 

Others also asked who could attack them, after all they were one of the top five mercenary groups in the world. Vincent shook his head and said, "A few weeks ago, a client placed a seventy million dollar worth kill contract on Han Lingshi, a Han nation citizen and the boss of Empress International. 

Falcon and his team took off, but they died within twenty four hours. None of them managed to survive." 

The people were shocked, the scarred man asked, "I did not expect the Han forces to be so vigilant and ruthless against us." 

Vincent shook his head, and said, "No, it was not them. I suspect it was some other expert that has been protecting Han Lingshi, as we know it is quite possible for her to have a warrior escort. However, I have been searching for clues but I found nothing. It is as if that person did not exist. Not only that, just yesterday, Carlos, and Inzaghi were also in a shoot out. Their teams have been arrested by Global police. I cannot believe that all this is a coincidence." 

The people turned solemn, and the man with a scar said, "We will all investigate, those who stand against the red banner shall enrich the vibrance of the banner." 

The others also nodded, and they decided to find the enemy who was acting against them. 

... 

Byte Technologies office, a middle-aged man was presiding over a weekly review meeting when someone showed him the stats of Horizon Operating System. The man asked, "Do we have their details?"

The subordinate nodded, and the middle-aged man said, "Buy them out." 

That was how the big companies operated, they were ruthless when it came to hand the things that could be solved with money. The subordinate was a slightly chubby male, who said, "Director, we did contact them, but the offer was turned down." 

The old man said, "Then find a to get them legally bound to charge an appropriate amount for this OS. Or you can ask them to collaborate with us." 

The man said, "Sir, we did send them collaboration offer, but they refused with the reason that they want complete autonomy over their product. As for the legal progress, they have been charging money for the auxiliary tools they make. We cannot sue them." 

The middle-aged man asked, "Then what can we do to suppress them? We have just rolled out the latest version of Byte OS, we cannot change it so quickly. Looking at how these guys managed to reach one million download count in ten days, do you think they will not compete with us. It would have been fine if they were not charging but now they are generating revenue so as long as they accumulate, they could spell trouble for us." 

One of the people spoke, "Director, I can have our R&D team try to learn from this. We might be able to learn something." 

The middle-aged director frowned and said, "Try whatever you want, I want results within a week. I will come back from the Hawk Nation conference till then." 

The people nodded, and similar scenes took place in the conference rooms of various big and medium scale tech companies. Horizon Operating System has changed the scene. 

...

Han Lingshi was sitting in her office, and reading a file with a cold gaze. She said, "Oh, you should not have done that, Ye Shiling, you shouldn't have." 

It turns out that it was Ye Shiling who used her left over money to place a contract on her head. Han Lingshi clenched the fist tightly. At this moment, the door was knocked. She raised her head and found an assistant carrying a tiffin box. She raised her eyebrow and waved for her to put the food on the table.

She watched the assistant leave the room before she called Hao Ren and asked, "Where are you?" 

...

Hao Ren was driving the and was heading back to the office, he said, "I have to study a few things for the meeting tomorrow so I will be using the lunch time. What happened? Are you missing me?" 

Han Lingshi replied, "Bleh, who is missing you? Go study. But make sure to eat something." 

The two of them chatted for a few minutes before Hao Ren disconnected the call. The truth was that when Hao Ren had driven the car to the Empress International, Xiao Mei told him that it was Ye Shiling's brother who had placed a contract to kill Han Lingshi. The young man was thinking about what he could do to deal with them, when the system issued a task. 

*Ding: Shadow Master. You are in the shadow while you enemies are in the light. Deal with them thoroughly and ease the troubles of your wife.* 

This was basically a killing order for the guilty people of the Ye family. So, Hao Ren asked Xiao Mei what was the biggest strength of the Ye Family, and the reply was, Cosmetics, and mobiles. The mobile plan has already kicked off, and since he needed money he was going to come up with something that broke the back of Crown Internationals.

Hao Ren had the superior knowledge of traditional medicine so he was going to the traditional medicinal association to get a certificate and then he would be allowed to collaborate with big companies to earn from the royalty in sales. 

Xiao Mei said, "Boss, you can take the exam today itself, I have fixed it." 

Hao Ren nodded and said while driving, "Xiao Mei, pay attention to red banner, if they make any move, inform me immediately. Okay?" 

Xiao Mei replied, "I have set that up as a priority task boss."

Hao Ren nodded and head toward the Traditional Medicinal Association. Capital had all the big offices, and Traditional Medicinal Association was a place that regulated recipes, and also the personnel. The big shots of the medicinal world in Han History founded this place to make sure that only the worthy could practice medicine. 

Otherwise, everyone who knew one or two household remedies would call themselves a doctor. Hao Ren arrived at the building, and after confirming that he has an appointment, the lady on the reception counter bought him inside a room, where a few computers were set up. She placed his cellphone in a locker and said, "According to the rules, you have two ours to answer all the questions here, and only then you will pass the beginner's license requirements." 

Hao Ren nodded, his presence did not cause a fuss because he was going to acquire a trainee license. He did not wish to get a high level master license because he did not want the people to pay attention to him. The reason was the benefit of staying in the shadows. 

Hao Ren was able to take down the mercenaries because they did not know about him. He wanted to deal with the Ye Family and not have them hunt him down. Quickly, two hours passed, and Hao Ren achieved the above average score for the test. He deliberately controlled his scores to not raise any alarm. 

The lady was not surprised, because many people were self taught and there would be at least a few who would come to try their luck at the association. She looked at the scores and said, "Please wait, a senior doctor will call you to swear in." 

Hao Ren waited for few minutes, while he checked his phone to see if anyone contacted him. He also checked a few things about the trending cosmetics. As the young man was reading, the reception counter lady said, "You may go in now." 

Hao Ren followed her direction, and entered the room. The swearing process was simple, he had to express his intent that he would always hold the patient's safety above all else, and that he will never misuse his authority. The senior doctor also did not make things difficult and they were soon finished. 

Hao Ren suddenly recalled something and asked, "Ma'am, would you be by any chance related to the Magnificent Cosmetics?" 

The lady doctor was surprised and said, "Yes, why do you ask?" 

Hao Ren smiled and said, "Ma'am, I have a few herbal recipes that have been passed down my family. I wonder if I could present you some sample and ask you to appraise them?" 

The lady doctor raised her brow and asked, "Do you know that if you wasted my time I can cancel your license?" 

Hao Ren nodded with a fait smile and said, "I can understand your frustration, but if my sample worked, then you would not loss anything. I am willing to stake my license, but are willing to take a no-risk chance?"