Three days passed.
As scheduled, Apple's S2 launch event kicked off.
Originally, Apple's press conference had been slated for a month ago. But once Marching Ant Company unveiled the Butterfly Eye, Apple had quietly pushed their timeline back.
Why?
Because the comparison wasn't favorable.
Outside of its processor, Apple's new phone offered no significant advantage over the Butterfly Eye, and the prices were similar. Worse, Marching Ant had the one thing Apple didn't:
A true intelligent assistant.
Apple had attempted to license the smart assistant, but Marching Ant refused. Then came the boardroom scandal—a suicide, internal chaos. It had been a rough few weeks in Cupertino.
Now, with Samsung suppressing Marching Ant and the tech media's attention shifting, Apple saw an opening.
Their moment to strike.
Backstage, Tim Cook stood stiffly, adjusting his cuffs.
Success or failure—it all hinged on today.
The S2 was meant to be revolutionary. A design masterpiece. But Marching Ant's smart assistant had stolen the thunder.
If this launch didn't land?
Apple might fall off its pedestal.
The only silver lining: Marching Ant's international expansion had hit a wall. That gave Apple breathing room. If they could advance their AI efforts fast enough, they still had a shot.
Composing himself, Cook smiled and walked onto the stage.
There was a ripple of excitement across the auditorium. Then silence.
"Good morning, everyone. I'm honored to see you all again. Over the past year, we've been quietly working to craft the most perfect product possible…"
The opening was polished, classic Apple. As Cook transitioned from a series of warm-up features into the main event, tension mounted.
"Now… allow me to introduce our new flagship phone—the Apple S2."
The screen behind him lit up with a massive render of the new device.
A glass back, painted with a deep blue hue—the Enchantress. The front display was seamless, no notches, no bezels.
A true full screen.
A murmur ran through the crowd, followed by a wave of applause.
"It's our finest work. Elegant as the Enchantress herself," Cook continued. "It features our most advanced full-screen display yet, with embedded fingerprint technology right beneath the glass."
He moved through the features:
The new A14 bionic smart chip
Wireless charging
iOS 13
Screen-embedded fingerprint sensor
3D glass body with artistic patterns
Waterproofing
Hidden camera modules
Visually, the phone was stunning—second only to Marching Ant's Butterfly Eye. The display stretched from edge to edge, the bezels nearly invisible.
But one flaw remained:
No smart assistant.
Many in the audience sighed inwardly. It was a beautiful device, but in the current age, a phone without an intelligent assistant felt… incomplete.
Still, Apple's engineering had delivered a triumph of design. As the event ended, fans were thrilled. Apple's stock surged 6%, erasing its recent dips.
A strong recovery—but not without cracks.
With Apple's launch complete, Huawei, Samsung, and Xiaomi followed suit.
Each press conference became a hotly contested spectacle.
Samsung and Huawei, like Apple, brought high-end flagships loaded with performance. Xiaomi's Black Rice series targeted the upper-mid market—priced lower but with solid specs.
Samsung and Huawei had a key advantage: compatibility with Marching Ant's smart assistant.
Apple still didn't.
The three tech giants clashed in the high-end segment, all pricing around ¥6,000 and up. Xiaomi struck at the mid-high tier, hoping to siphon users from both ends.
Now that Marching Ant's flagship Butterfly Eye was stuck in supply chain limbo, the four companies were racing to divide up the premium market it had threatened to conquer.
Outside, the tech scene was buzzing.
Inside Marching Ant Company?
Silence.
No press conferences. No flashy reveals. Just quiet, methodical movement.
In Chen Mo's office, Zhao Min was delivering a situation report.
"Samsung's move hit us hard," she said. "OLED shipments stopped with no warning. The high-end Butterfly Eye model is completely sold out. We can't restock. It's a clear setup—disrupting our supply, then dropping their own phone days later."
Chen Mo frowned.
"What about BOE?" he asked.
"They said their flexible OLED output is maxed. Their current lines are booked by other clients. The new production line should be ready by year-end. Only then can they start exclusive supply to us."
Chen Mo sipped his tea, expression unreadable.
"Samsung's really playing dirty."
"We've already started reaching out to Toshiba and other panel suppliers. We can't rely on one source anymore," Zhao Min said. "Still, I'm curious how well those launches performed."
Chen Mo shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. Huawei and Apple can hold Samsung back. With their track record in China? They're not expanding much here anyway."
He wasn't wrong.
Between the Note7 disaster, consumer backlash, and lingering anti-Korea sentiment, Samsung had lost most of its standing in China.
Marching Ant could have retaliated—by licensing the smart assistant to Apple or Samsung—but Chen Mo chose not to.
"I'm not authorizing the assistant. Not until our phones go global," he said simply.
Back when Huawei launched its M9 model, Samsung pulled the same OLED trick. The lesson was learned. This time, Huawei was ready. Their diverse suppliers shielded them.
But Marching Ant was still too new. Too small to retaliate. They'd take the loss quietly—for now.
"Suspend the high-end Butterfly Eye," Chen Mo said. "Keep the lower-tier version going. Let those four companies exhaust themselves. In the meantime… I want you to start buying up pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies."
Zhao Min blinked.
"Come again?"
"You heard me right," Chen Mo smiled. "It's time to lay the foundation in another industry."
Zhao stared at him like he'd grown a second head.
"You want to move into pharma and beauty... now?"
"Exactly," Chen Mo nodded. "We're going to build Marching Ant into a full-spectrum powerhouse. That includes biomedicine. Sooner or later, we'll enter that space—so we need to lay the groundwork now."
Cosmetics. Aphrodisiacs. Breast enhancement supplements. Anti-aging.
All lucrative verticals.
Drug development wasn't like software. It took clinical trials, long lead times, licensing—they needed to start now, even if the payoff came years later.
Zhao Min gave a half-smile.
"You don't think small, do you?"
"Didn't I say it the first time we met? Marching Ant doesn't play small."
Zhao Min laughed and nodded.
She didn't need convincing. Chen Mo might be younger, but she'd long since realized—he saw further than most could dream.
Right now, the media was obsessed with four titans clashing over mobile dominance.
They had no idea the dark horse they feared was already marching into a whole new battlefield.