Fired Me For $50，Enjoy Bankrupting Your Family!

Only seventy-two hours left until my ten-year anniversary at the company—and my three-million-dollar stock option payout. But the newly appointed twenty-two-year-old Gen Z Vice President just slapped a "Voluntary Resignation Agreement" right in my face. "You're a fossil. This company doesn't pay people just to sit around and tap on keyboards." "Sign this, take this fifty-dollar bill for your troubles, and get the hell out of my building." Kyle Vance, wearing an Armani tailored suit, sneered at me. I looked at the crumpled fifty-dollar bill on the desk and burst out laughing. Fire me? I'm the only systems architect in this entire company! I hold the physical security keys to the core database of thirty million active users. If I unplug the ethernet cable at my desk, the entire company’s network will crash in less than two hours. He wasn't firing me. He was pulling the company's life support. Without a second of hesitation, I grabbed the pen. "Sure thing, Mr. Vance. You certainly move fast." "I'll sign it. Just make sure you don't regret this." I slowly unplugged my encrypted USB drive from the computer tower. Kyle scoffed. He pushed the fifty-dollar bill a little closer to me. "Glad you're smart enough to know when you're beaten." "At your age, you probably can't even write basic Python, yet you're hogging the Tech Director position." "I can hire a fresh college grad for a fraction of your salary, and they'll do ten times more work than you." Standing beside him was his new influencer-looking assistant, Chloe Bennett. She was wearing a tight pencil skirt and giggled behind her hand. "You're so right, Kyle. Everything is AI-automated now." "Old fossils like him should have been replaced ages ago." I'm only forty-five, but in their eyes, I was basically ready for the nursing home. "Mr. Vance, that's not how the math works." I tapped on the resignation agreement. "I can sign this." "But I have a ten-year contract from when the company was founded." "The contract officially expires this Friday, which entitles me to five percent of the original stock options." "Plus, since I've been here for ten years, standard severance package means eleven months of full pay." I pulled out my phone and opened the calculator app. Right in front of the entire open-plan office, I tapped in the numbers. "Base severance plus the option payout brings the total to three million and thirty thousand dollars." "So, Mr. Vance, are we doing a direct wire transfer, or will corporate mail me a check?" The smirk on Kyle's face instantly vanished. He slammed his hands on the desk and stood up. "Three million dollars? Are you out of your mind?!" "Why the hell would the company pay you that much?" I looked at his angry, twisted face calmly. "Because I'm Employee Number One." "Because every single line of code in our core database was written by me." "Labor laws are very clear on this. Until you pay me every single cent of my severance, I am not leaving." Chloe panicked next to him, tugging hard on the sleeve of his Armani jacket. "Kyle, the HR department only budgeted fifty thousand dollars for layoffs this month." "That won't even cover a fraction of what he's asking for." Kyle glared at me, his teeth grinding. "Marcus, you think you can play dirty with me?" "You want to cruise your way to Friday to cash out? No way in hell!" He snatched the resignation agreement off the desk and tore it to shreds. "I'm not firing you anymore." "Since you're taking home the highest salary in the tech department, you're going to do the grunt work." "Let's see how long you can last before you beg to quit on your own!"Half an hour later. I came back from the restroom to find my leather ergonomic chair gone. In its place was a cheap, wobbly plastic stool with a cracked leg. My three large high-refresh monitors had also been hauled away. The only thing left on my desk was a dusty, refurbished laptop from a decade ago. The young developers in the department looked at each other in silence. The entire room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Toby, a chubby programmer who was my closest friend at the office, shuffled over. "Marcus, Kyle ordered them to cut off all your tech access." "He even kicked you out of the core developer WhatsApp group." "Don't let pride ruin you. Just go apologize and play nice." I patted Toby on the shoulder, signaling him to go back to work. Apologize? The corporate world is a concrete jungle where only the strong survive. Whoever holds the keys to the core tech is the real boss. Kyle strutted over, Chloe clinging to his arm. "Marcus, starting today, you're transferred to the Archival Data Entry department." "We have a hundred boxes of paper files from ten years ago rotting in the basement." "I want them all manually typed into the system within three days." Three days? A hundred massive boxes of files? He was literally trying to work me to death. Toby broke into a cold sweat. He couldn't help but speak up. "Mr. Vance, that's over a hundred thousand pages of data!" "Even with OCR scanning software, it would take at least two weeks!" Kyle whipped his head around and glared at Toby. "Shut up! Did anyone ask for your opinion?" "This is a special assignment for senior employees. AI recognition makes too many mistakes; it has to be manual." "If you don't finish, it's a breach of contract, and you won't get a single dime of severance!" The entire office went dead silent. Everyone could see exactly what this was. Textbook constructive dismissal and corporate bullying. I pulled the broken plastic stool over and sat down calmly. "Are you sure you want me down in the basement typing files, Mr. Vance?" "Who's going to handle the daily maintenance of the main servers?" Kyle scoffed. "Oh, you mean clicking a mouse and running basic diagnostics?" "I can get an intern to do that." "Stop trying to make yourself sound irreplaceable." I nodded and opened the ancient laptop. "Fine. Since it's an assignment from leadership, I'll cooperate." "But let me make one thing clear." "If the main servers crash, it has nothing to do with me." Kyle snorted. "You really think the world revolves around you, don't you?" "This company runs perfectly fine without you. Now get your ass down to the basement!" I stood up and walked toward the elevator without looking back.The elevator doors opened. Basement level three. The air was thick with the smell of rotting paper and mold. A hundred sealed cardboard boxes were stacked all the way to the ceiling. I dragged the broken plastic stool over. Placed the ancient laptop on the dusty wooden table. I had to press the power button three times before the screen finally flickered to life. I pulled my personal backup phone from my pocket. And opened a hidden monitoring page. A red progress bar was ticking up. It was a server-level monitoring probe I had custom-coded myself. The RAM usage was skyrocketing. 85%. 88%. I laughed quietly. Ten years ago, when the company was just a startup. We couldn't even afford a proper server room. I pulled thirty consecutive all-nighters to write every single line of our core database. Three years ago, when we hit a massive cyberattack from offshore hackers. I was the one who saved the company by putting the entire database under physical air-gap security. To prevent internal leaks of our core data. Every day at exactly 2:00 PM. My unique, physical security key USB had to be plugged directly into the motherboard to run manual cache clearance and diagnostics. It was now 2:10 PM. Without my USB key plugged in. The cached data would pile up infinitely. Within twenty minutes, the entire system would freeze. Footsteps echoed in the corridor. Kyle and Chloe walked in. Chloe pinched her nose dramatically. "Ugh, Kyle, it smells awful down here." "A moldy dungeon like this is the perfect place for an old fossil." Kyle, looking sharp in his Armani suit, kicked the nearest cardboard box. Yellowed files spilled all over the floor. "Marcus, stop daydreaming!" "I want ten of these boxes typed into the system before you leave today." "For every typo, I'm docking fifty dollars from your pay." "If you don't finish, I'll mark it as job abandonment, and you can kiss your severance goodbye." I looked at the files scattered across the floor. "Mr. Vance, these files are past their ten-year legal retention limit." "They're literally useless scrap paper." "Making me type these is pure harassment." Kyle laughed out loud. He pulled out his latest iPhone and opened TikTok, starting a live recording. He shoved the camera right in my face. "Hey guys, today we're cleaning up the workplace." "This old timer is making six figures a year but just slacks off all day." "Time to teach him what actual hard work looks like!" Chloe chimed in with her high-pitched voice. "Kyle is so cool!" "Gen Z bosses don't put up with lazy corporate freeloaders." "Did you really think the company couldn't run without you old folks?" I leaned away from the lens and looked Kyle straight in the eye. "Is this TikTok video really necessary, Mr. Vance?" "I'm a founding shareholder. You don't have the right to film me without my consent." Kyle put his phone away, his face twisting in disgust. "Shareholder?" "Those stock options haven't vested yet." "I'm going to make your life hell until you quit." "That three million dollars of yours is going to buy me a limited-edition Ferrari." "My dad is the Chairman. I own this place. What I say goes!" Chloe stepped forward, holding an iced Americano. As she walked past my desk. She deliberately tilted her wrist. The dark brown coffee splashed all over the files I had just opened. The paper soaked instantly, turning the ink into a blurry mess. Chloe gasped dramatically, covering her mouth. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" "My hand slipped." "Mr. Director, some of those words are hard to read now. You'll have to look extra closely." "If you make a mistake typing them, that's on you." I looked at the mess on the desk. I didn't get angry. There was no point in getting mad at two idiots who were about to ruin their own lives. I pulled out a tissue and slowly wiped the coffee off my hands. "Whatever makes you happy, Mr. Vance." "But as your former Tech Director, let me give you one last warning." "It is currently 2:15 PM." "The RAM usage on the main server has probably crossed 90%." "In less than ten minutes, the entire system is going to freeze." Kyle paused for a second. Then he laughed. "Keep trying to scare me, Marcus." "With modern AI, I can fix any issue with a single click." "I already had Leo take over your duties." "He's an Ivy League grad." "We pay him three thousand a month, and he can do your job with his eyes closed." Just as the words left his mouth. Frantic footsteps echoed down the stairwell. Toby rushed into the basement, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. "Mr. Vance! Marcus! We have a massive problem!" "The payment gateway on the user end is completely frozen!" "Customer service is getting slammed with thousands of complaints!" Kyle's expression changed, but he tried to play it cool. "What's the big deal?!" "If it's lagging, just restart it!" "Why are you bothering me with something so stupid?" Toby slapped his own forehead in frustration. "We can't restart it!" "Leo tried to force-clear the system cache." "But the system demanded the physical security key." "It triggered the core security firewall." "Now the entire system is in a deadlock state!"Kyle glared at me. "Marcus, give me your physical security key!" He lunged forward to search my suit pockets. I stood up abruptly and pushed him back. "Back off, Mr. Vance." "My security key is only registered to the Chairman." "Since you're forcing me out, I have zero obligation to hand it over." Kyle stumbled back a step. His face turned red with rage. He pointed a shaking finger at me. "Marcus! Did you plant malware in the system?!" "I will literally call the police and have you thrown in federal prison!" I sat back down on my plastic stool, not even blinking. "Watch your mouth, Kyle." "That is the highest level of cybersecurity protection, designed to prevent hacker attacks." "Your father signed off on it himself." "The documentation and code are fully registered with the company." "If you don't understand tech, don't throw wild accusations around." Chloe tugged at Kyle's sleeve. "Kyle, don't let him bluff you." "He's just trying to blackmail you." "It's just a stupid USB drive. Why don't we just have Leo pull the power cord and force-reboot the servers?" Kyle's eyes lit up. "Exactly!" "It's just a server. Unplug it and plug it back in!" "Toby, go back up right now and tell Leo." "Pull the damn plug!" Toby's face went completely pale. He stared at Kyle in disbelief. "Mr. Vance! You absolutely cannot do that!" "This is our peak transaction hour!" "If we force a shutdown, over two million active transactions in the cache will be permanently lost!" "The liability claims alone could bankrupt us!" Kyle kicked Toby's leg in frustration. "Shut up!" "Are you the Vice President or am I?" "I'll take the responsibility!" "Go pull the plug right now!" Toby stumbled back. He gave me a panicked, desperate look. I gave him a subtle shake of my head. Signaling him to protect himself. In the corporate world. You never go head-to-head with a brainless boss when he's on a power trip. Toby gritted his teeth, turned around, and ran back upstairs. The basement fell silent once again. The moldy smell seemed to grow even heavier. Kyle turned to me, a smug grin plastered on his face. "See that, Marcus?" "Your era is over." "I don't need you to solve this!" "Once the system reboots, you're going to spend the rest of your life doing grunt work down here!" Chloe leaned her head on Kyle's shoulder. "You're so right, Kyle." "Useless old men like him belong in the trash anyway." "He really thought he was hot shit." I looked down at my phone. The clock struck exactly 2:20 PM. On the hidden webpage. The red RAM usage hit 99%. The moment Leo pulled the plug on the main server upstairs. The massive, interrupted data surge would completely fry the motherboard. Not only would the active cache be wiped out. But the off-site backup servers would also trigger a physical self-destruct mechanism to protect data integrity. Ten years of core company data. Wiped out in a single second. A loss that hundreds of millions of dollars couldn't fix. I took a slow, calm sip of my lukewarm water. "Kyle." "You really are a dutiful son." "Your father's life's work is about to be utterly destroyed by your own hands." Kyle lost his mind. He pointed at my face and screamed, "You old bastard! All you have is a big mouth!" "I'm going upstairs to watch Leo fix the system." "Let's see what smartass comment you have then!" He grabbed Chloe and stormed toward the elevator. I watched them leave, a cold smile forming on my face. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. I counted down silently. Three. Two. One. Suddenly, a deafening screech echoed from upstairs. And then. Every light in the building went pitch black. The high-pitched wail of the server room's emergency backup generators pierced through the floors. Echoing loudly in the dark basement.