They Framed Me, So I Let Their Million-Dollar Startup Burn

Late at night, our newly launched product crashed. We were losing millions of dollars every single second. As the Chief Technology Officer, I just sat there, calmly sipping my coffee. I did absolutely nothing. I watched those millions go down the drain in real-time. I watched our newly listed startup slide into bankruptcy, and my colleagues lose everything. In my past life, the moment the glitch appeared, I immediately rallied the dev team to patch the security loophole. Based on the source of the crash, I quickly drafted different emergency protocols. After securing the leak and saving most of the company’s assets, I finally relaxed, slumping exhausted into my office chair. But the next second, the police burst into the room and slammed handcuffs onto my wrists. "You're under arrest for intentional sabotage of corporate property!" The employees and our CEO, Donald, screamed at me with pure rage. "We trusted you! How could you purposely code such a massive backdoor just to ruin us?!" "Why did you lock the servers and restrict our admin access when the crash happened? You blocked us from taking the product offline!" "Why did you ruin this company?!" It was only then that I realized the entire crash had been a setup. I had literally risked my life to save the company at the very first second. The servers had been hijacked by a hacker. I wasn't the one who locked everyone out. I wanted to show the police my computer log history, but someone had already altered it. Even worse, my blood test came back positive for heavy hallucinogens. My closest colleague from the product team, Chloe, stepped forward with a video. "He's been eyeing the company's core assets for a long time. He coded this backdoor weeks ago." My intern, Liam, cried out in faked betrayal. "He used this backdoor to siphon millions of corporate funds into his own offshore account!" While I was being held for investigation, several board members cornered me on the rooftop. In the chaos, they pushed me over the edge. After my death, those same board members who pushed me got promoted to major shareholders. Liam took over my position as CTO. And they claimed that I committed suicide out of guilt, jumping off the locked rooftop. A sudden shudder ran through my body. When I opened my eyes, I was back. Back to the night of the massive product crash. 1. "Ethan, have some coffee." "The launch is in a few minutes. You need to stay sharp." Hearing that familiar voice sent a chill straight down my spine. I looked up and saw Liam's fake, smiling face. He handed me a cup of coffee with a warm grin. "Ethan, my girlfriend and I have a little emergency tonight. Can I take a three-hour leave? I promise I'll be back right after." "Please, man." Liam knew I was a soft-hearted boss. He knew I’d say yes. In my past life, I agreed without a second thought. And that was the exact moment I stepped into his trap. Before the launch, I had tested the code hundreds of times. There was no way a glitch of that scale could happen naturally. The only person who could have done it was Liam—he was the only other person with access to the source code! How did he pull it off? Looking at my intern, a cold sweat broke out across my back. "Sure, go ahead," I smiled, patting his shoulder. A dark glint flashed in my eyes. Since Liam was leaving, it was the perfect time for me to set up a little safeguard. A safeguard to protect myself. In my past life, I gave my blood and tears to this company, only to be framed and pushed off a roof. I wasn’t going to let them get away with it this time. "Ethan, drink up. I brewed it myself," Liam urged, pushing the coffee cup closer to my hand. I picked up the cup and sniffed. The bitter aroma of roasted beans filled my nose, but underneath it, I detected something off. In my past life, on this exact day, I only had this cup of coffee and the takeout food sent by the product team. Yet, they found heavy traces of LSD in my system. "Woah, Liam is such a golden boy," one of the junior devs teased. "You're lucky to have an intern like him, Ethan!" Hearing the compliments, a smug smirk crept onto Liam’s face. I calmly set the coffee down. "Go on, don't keep your girlfriend waiting." "Come on, Ethan! Your favorite intern made it for you. At least take a sip!" the other devs chanted. My face went cold as I swept my eyes over them. Sensing the sudden shift in the room's energy, a couple of the senior devs quickly ushered Liam out of the office. "Go, go, Liam. Ethan was nice enough to let you leave during a major launch. Don't push it." "Ethan, make sure to drink that coffee!" Liam called out one last time before the door shut. I didn't reply. I felt sick to my stomach. A little while later, right before the launch. Chloe, the Product Manager in charge of the launch, walked in carrying a lunchbox. "We're going live tonight. If anything goes wrong, we’re relying on you, Ethan!" She opened the box, presenting the food. "I made this myself. Can't have our star CTO working on an empty stomach." Looking at her sweet, caring face made me want to throw up. In my past life, I ate her food and felt incredibly drowsy. That drowsiness was the reason I couldn’t react in time when the system crashed. 2. I slid Liam's coffee over to her. "I don't have much to offer, but here, have this coffee to keep your energy up." Without suspecting a thing, Chloe took the cup and downed it in a few gulps. "Make sure you finish all the food, Ethan!" She couldn't stay in the dev department for long, so she waved and walked out. I watched her leave, my eyes dead and cold. "I'm not really hungry. You guys split the food," I told the team. "Awesome! I've been dying to try Chloe's cooking. Thank you, boss!" The devs cheered and dug in. Time ticked by. I looked at the corner of my screen. It was launch time. Right on cue, my phone vibrated. It was Chloe. "Ethan! We have a disaster! The system crashed right after going live!" "We are losing a million dollars a second!" I glanced around the office. The devs who had eaten Chloe's food were all slumping over their desks, completely out of it. In my past life, I had eaten all the food and drank the coffee. Yet, I fought the heavy drugs in my system and forced myself to patch the system to save the company. And my reward? Handcuffs and a trip off the roof. I leaned back and spoke slowly. "I think you called the wrong number. Shouldn't you report this to Donald first?" Chloe gasped, her voice dripping with disbelief. "Ethan, are you insane?! Report to Donald right now?!" "We are bleeding cash in real-time!" "If you don't believe me, check the servers! People are exploiting the backdoor and draining our assets!" "The company is going to go under in minutes!" I let out a cold chuckle. "Didn't Donald say we have to follow protocol? I'm waiting for the official ticket approval." Seeing that I wasn't moving, Chloe lost her mind. "Ethan! How can you be so selfish? I totally misjudged you!" "The entire company is dying, and you're just sitting there—" I hung up on her. Seconds later, my phone rang again. It was Liam. I tapped accept. "Ethan! Everything is falling apart!" "There's a massive exploit in the launch build!" "The company is losing a million dollars a second!" "I'm rushing back to the office right now. Please, do something to mitigate the damage first!" In the office, the devs were fast asleep, completely oblivious to the chaos. I held the phone away from my ear. "Oh. I'm waiting for the ticket to be approved." Liam practically screamed through the speaker. "Ethan! A million dollars a second!" "Just lock down the servers first! Lock out the users so they can't exploit it!" I stretched lazily. 3. Lock the servers? In my past life, I did exactly that. And because I locked the servers to stop the exploit, they accused me of restricting admin access and preventing the company from taking the product offline. I wasn’t falling for that twice. But I was curious: how did this exploit happen? I had checked the code repeatedly. How did Liam hide the backdoor? And who was the hacker who locked the servers in the past life? Only a few of us had root access. Who changed the core code? Before I could figure it out, Chloe burst into the tech department. "Ethan! Why are you just sitting there?! Why haven't you told the team to patch the exploit?!" She was shaking with anger and anxiety. I leaned back in my chair. "Well, the official ticket hasn't been approved yet. Why should I patch it?" My voice finally woke up the sleeping devs. One of them jumped up so fast he knocked his chair over. "Ethan! Why didn't you wake us up?!" "You're destroying the company!" "We're losing a million dollars a second!" I calmly nodded. "Yes, it's a major glitch. But management hasn't sent me the official ticket to fix it." The devs were furious. "Do you even know what responsibility means?!" "None of us are as fast as you! How can you just watch us burn?!" "Do you know how many people will lose their jobs and jump off buildings if this startup goes bankrupt?!" I shrugged and shut down my computer. "What does that have to do with me?" "At worst, I'll just resign. No big deal." Chloe’s face contorted. She whipped out her phone and played a video. In the video, I was sitting at my desk, complaining. "This company is a joke. Working until 3 AM every day is toxic. I’m going to make sure this launch ruins them. I don't care if it goes bankrupt, as long as I get my revenge." I saw right through it. It was a Deepfake. In my past life, right after I was arrested, Chloe leaked this exact video onto Snapchat and Instagram. I had begged the police to run a forensic analysis on it, but they claimed the video was authentic. I had to prove it was fake myself, because I had never said those words, nor had I ever thought them. No one wanted this company to succeed more than me—not even Donald. 4. This was the first company I joined after graduating from MIT. I built my career here step by step. Why would I want it to burn? But in my past life, before I could even explain, they dragged me to the roof and pushed me off. I never got the chance to clear my name. "I should have shown this video to HR weeks ago and had you fired," Chloe cried out, though her eyes flashed with excitement. "I thought you were just venting." "Do you know how many lives you're ruining?!" "Do you know how many people won't be able to pay their mortgages because of you?!" She played the victim perfectly, but her eyes betrayed her thrill. The devs surrounded my desk. Looking at their aggressive postures, it was clear that if I didn't boot up my PC and fix the code, they were going to get physical. Losing a million dollars a second meant hundreds of millions were already gone. Forget their launch bonuses—their jobs were gone. "What are you waiting for?! Turn the computer on!" one dev screamed, his eyes bloodshot. "Ethan, I thought you were a mentor. You're a monster! You don't deserve to live!" They were shaking with rage. Chloe added fuel to the fire. "You've caused historic financial damage. You're going to prison for life. If you want to reduce your sentence, you better fix it now!" I smiled slowly. "If you guys want it fixed so badly, why are you crowded around my desk?" "Does this company stop spinning without me?" Their faces froze. They realized none of them actually knew how to fix the core code without me.