An hour after the market opened, Apple's stock price dropped 1%, evaporating $8.2 billion in market value. Over three days, the decline reached nearly 4%. For a tech giant like Apple, that was a major hit.
The last time Apple faced such a sudden drop was when they announced new charges for reward features on the App Store. But this time, the cause was clear: Xiaodie—the smart assistant from Marching Ant Company.
Apple's closed-source system can't support Xiaodie. In the next phase of the smartphone market, Apple would lose its edge. The iPhone, being one of Apple's most profitable pillars, had its vulnerability exposed—and that was enough to send shockwaves through the stock market.
Media outlets were quick to seize the moment:
"Has the Marching Ant Been Born?" — The New York Times
"The Rise of a Tech Giant?" — Wall Street Journal
"Aggressive Ants on the March!" — The Times
Reports flooded in from all directions. Everyone was suddenly talking about the threat posed by this unexpected player from the East.
Meanwhile, inside Apple HQ, things were far from calm.
A stern-faced, bearded researcher stared grimly at a screen full of code. For a week, his team had been trying to crack the file they stole from Marching Ant Company's database.
So far, they'd barely scratched the surface.
"Come on… just a little more…"
Finally, after days of effort, he broke through the final layer of encryption. A brief flicker of satisfaction crossed his face… only for it to freeze moments later.
Garbled nonsense filled the screen.
Then—blackout.
Not just his computer—all the machines around him went dark.
His pupils shrank in horror.
"F***!"
He slammed his fist into the keyboard, eyes blazing. No doubt about it now: they'd been played.
Marching Ant had planted a virus in the decoy file.
Back at Marching Ant Company…
Chen Mo chuckled as Ink Girl gave her report. Everything was going as planned.
"Let them play around a bit," he murmured, satisfied. "That was just a light warning."
He stood, put on his lab coat, and stepped into the lab, leaving the fallout to unfold.
While things inside the company were calm, the online world was in chaos.
Xiaodie was dominating social media. On Weibo, a video of a guy arguing with his smart assistant—then angrily throwing his phone—went viral.
In another video, someone tried to troll Xiaodie, only for her to sass them back so hard they dropped their phone in shock.
The comments section under Marching Ant's official Weibo page had turned into a circus:
"I've never seen a sassier assistant. I insulted it, and it clapped back! I don't dare talk back anymore. Just bought a new phone... again."
"Product defect! Marching Ants, compensate me! I said 'take a bath,' and it told me to put it in water. Forgot it's not a Butterfly Eye..."
"At least I'm not the only one suffering. My screen's shattered, but I'm still proud."
"I'm joining the battlefield. My phone's a Nokia... wish me luck."
The tone was playful, but the subtext was clear—Xiaodie was incredibly advanced.
Her natural voice interaction hinted at how far Marching Ant had come in AI. And everyone knew: artificial intelligence was the future.
Whoever could make a breakthrough in this field would own the next era of tech. Companies had poured billions into AI, and now the world was taking Marching Ant seriously.
Numerous investment and research firms rushed to calculate Marching Ant's value.
Eventually, Morgan Financial made the first official statement:
"Estimated valuation: $10 billion."
That number sent shockwaves through the financial world.
But many scoffed.
Too low.
Way too low.
Even without factoring in the Butterfly Eye phone or the Marching Ant OS, Xiaodie alone could easily justify that figure.
Let's do the math:
If just 50 million global users subscribed to Xiaodie at 20 yuan/month, that's over 12 billion yuan annually.
That's with conservative projections.
There are billions of smartphones globally. Add derivative products, cross-industry potential, and possible expansion into cloud AI, smart homes, robotics, etc.—Marching Ant's future seemed limitless.
To many, that $10 billion was just the baseline.
Back in China, Marching Ant's popularity was off the charts.
With just two product launches, this year-old company had rocketed to tech giant status. A legendary rise that stunned both industry insiders and casual observers alike.
No company had ever climbed this fast.
Inside the eye of the storm, the Marching Ant team was busier than ever.
Zhao Min sat at her desk, buried under a mountain of documents. Her head was pounding.
The company was growing at a breakneck pace, and while public perception painted Marching Ant as an unstoppable juggernaut, Zhao Min knew the truth:
"We're short on people. Badly."
During the Butterfly Eye launch, they'd already expanded into major cities across the country. But now, the scale-up was bigger. Faster. More demanding.
They needed skilled managers, engineers, designers—everyone.
To fix the talent gap, she had already signed deals with top headhunting firms. New branches were being planned across major cities. Nationwide recruitment was underway.
Marching Ant had become a giant machine—and every cog had to turn smoothly.
"Troublesome..." Zhao Min muttered, knocking her head gently against the desk before taking a deep breath.
Yes, the revenue was pouring in.
Yes, the smart assistant was basically printing money.
But more money meant more problems.
Just as she finally leaned back to take a short break, Xiaoyu stepped into her office.
"Zhao Jie, Mr. Yu Chengnan, CEO of China Micro Terminal Company, is here to see you. He's waiting in the reception room."
Zhao Min sat up straight.
Looks like the big players were starting to come knocking.