I am a Big Player
Chapter 496 - 490, Plan to Start (3rd Update)_1

Chapter 496: 490, Plan to Start (3rd Update)_1

When Ren He heard about the Prism Project, joy blossomed in his heart; he hadn’t expected the other party to actually steal it! Since it had been stolen, there was no need to worry about the rest of the list. A single document, along with the details and pictures it contained, were enough to prove the point.

However, Steve’s asking price was still too high, so Ren He opened with a high offer, "We agreed on $100,000 US Dollars for stealing from one company, and you’ve only stolen from one so far..."

"So you’re planning to pay me $100,000 US Dollars?" Steve roared from the other end of the phone, "Are you out of your mind?"

"Hahaha, no, no, I’ll pay you $5 million US Dollars," Ren He said cheerfully, "but forget about the $10 million."

"No way, it has to be $10 million US Dollars!" Steve was furious!

Yet Ren He began to lay out the reality for him, "Look, if I suddenly decide not to buy this intel..."

Steve was taken aback. If Ren He didn’t buy it, he really had nowhere else to sell, and while everyone thought military intelligence was worth a fortune, the reality? When the defense diagram of the South East line leaked, the seller had made only $50,000 US Dollars...

Sharing the same thoughts as Ren He, Steve didn’t want any further entanglements in such matters. After this deal, he planned to retire for good, making Ren He his only choice.

Or he could simply not sell and destroy it!

But he couldn’t bear to part with the money; Steve knew he was fundamentally a money-grubber...

At that moment, he thought again; $5 million US Dollars wasn’t a small sum after all... He deflated, "Fine, $5 million it is. I hope the next time you call, it won’t be for something like this. How should I get the information to you? If it were less, it wouldn’t be an issue, but the disk drive is filled with a whopping 50T of data."

"Don’t worry, just enjoy your retirement. I only want the Prism Project data, as for the rest... When you have the time, simply find a way to toss the hard disk into the HSD consulate," said Ren He, having given it some thought. Passing the remaining data he didn’t need to Yang En was like doing a favor for his country, even though he didn’t want to get involved with these matters.

As for how Steve would dispose of it without getting caught, that was his business, and in a flash, Steve had already conceived a plan to deliver the hard drive remotely using a drone... It just goes to show, there’s a specialist for everything.

The next day, Ren He received an email in his inbox, which was a compressed file just over 1G in size. Ren He had Xu Nuo check the originating address of the email, which was located in the Cayman Islands.

Ren He was no stranger to the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.

The Cayman Islands are located 268 kilometers northwest of Jamaica and 640 kilometers south of Miami in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of three main islands. They are also a British Overseas Territory, and British colonialism has never been overly reserved. If it weren’t for China’s growing strength, Hong Kong might never have been reclaimed.

Ren He felt fortunate to be born in a powerful country, so he didn’t mind doing what he could for the nation, as long as it didn’t threaten his safety.

The Cayman Islands are a place rife with intrigue. In his previous life, some of Alibaba’s assets were in the Cayman Islands. Anyone who paid attention would notice that the company that hoarded trademarks like Alibaba Papa, Alibaba Mama, Alibaba Grandma, Alibaba Aunt, all had an address in the Cayman Islands, specifically: Capital Building, Floor 4, Mailbox 847, Grand Cayman Island, information that was publicly available.

It was no joke; Alibaba had indeed registered these trademarks...

Other companies have done similar things; for example, the smartphone brand Smartisan secured the trademark for the word "nail."

Lei Jun had also registered his own name as a trademark and it was even under the 10th category, possibly to prevent others from turning ’Lei Jun’ into a trademark for products included under the 10th category... These are all defensive registrations. Thinking of this, Ren He planned to instruct Qinghe’s administrative department to register a range of trademarks, including his name and anything related to Qinghe, to preclude any unpleasant occurrences, as well as to secure relevant website domain names.

This cautiousness made Ren He realize that he hadn’t chosen the wrong person in Steve.

And now, for the first time in his previous and current life, Ren He was in contact with such officially confidential intelligence. He read it with relish, further solidifying his resolution never to return to the United States.

However, now was not the time for exposure, as an abrupt revelation lacked persuasive power.

In his previous life, Snowden had risked his life to bring media attention to such issues; it was a gamble with his life at stake.

But Ren He didn’t plan to do that. What he needed to do now was to set the stage and then release this information all at once, eventually prompting the American public to question their government.

This matter wasn’t likely to overthrow anything; even Snowden hadn’t achieved that in his previous life. Ren He merely wanted to vent his frustration and cause some trouble for them!

First, he planned to disrupt their intelligence agency’s most prized system.

As for how to immerse the American public in the scenario Ren He desired, his mind suddenly recalled the most famous dystopian and anti-totalitarian novel from his previous life: "1984"!

The novel portrayed a suffocating and horrific, imagined totalitarian society with the ultimate pursuit of power, revealing through a detailed depiction of an ordinary person’s life that any form of totalitarianism would inevitably lead to tragedy for the people and even the entire nation.

Everyone lived under surveillance, the populace had no freedom, and the government was like a beast with complete dominion, demanding submission from all under its will.

When the book was first published, it caused a great controversy in the United States and Europe, being embraced by countless people and integrated into their political ideologies, while others resented it, as the life described was so oppressively bleak.

However, the book was written too early, and Ren He decided to make as many improvements to the original work as possible, incorporating modern elements to make it relatable to the current era’s readers.

And he also planned to hint at the existence of the Prism Project within the story.

Ren He wasn’t confident he could fully retain the literary and philosophical nature of the novel, as his own skills weren’t sufficient.

Yet his goal was to use the book, not to become famous from it.

Ren He didn’t know what impact a timeless novel could have in the 21st century, as times had changed.

But Ren He had money, and he intended to use it to push the book onto a high pedestal, ensuring everyone knew what it was about.

If only he had his own online army in the United States... Ren He planned to first let the book ferment in Europe, and then target the United States!

Ren He felt like he was becoming more of a warrior than Yang En at this point...

...

Extra update for the alliance leader of a potato flower