77: Chapter 77 was crushed to death...

"Zero, what just happened?"

Wang Shuo asked, puzzled. He didn't know what the situation was, but Zero had experienced a two-minute response delay, ignoring his calls.

"Malicious attack data detected, blocked."

"Oh." Wang Shuo nodded, then shifted his attention: "Zero, calculate how many program sub-units you can support at the moment?"

"Calculating... The server currently supports a peak volume of 100,000 program sub-units."

One hundred thousand... Wang Shuo shook his head. It was a decent amount, but the limit itself showed how much the server hardware restricted Zero. This was just in general circumstances; if some data that the program sub-units couldn't calculate locally had to be calculated through Zero, it would greatly squeeze Zero's hardware space.

But for the current stage, it was enough.

"Zero, evaluate the current intelligent voice assistant, allowing you to call data crawlers to collect information."

After saying this, Wang Shuo waited as usual, but...

A minute passed, and Zero's response was long overdue.

Wang Shuo found it a bit strange.

"Zero? Respond to my data invitation."

"Detected... malicious attack data... enabling resource configuration firewall, please wait..." Zero's voice finally sounded, but the intermittent performance told Wang Shuo... something was wrong.

In Wang Shuo's design, this situation only occurred when system resource usage approached the red line... which was 95% usage. When system resource usage neared the limit and the server was running to its extreme, data response delays would occur.

But to let a system led by Zero approach the resource red line? What a joke.

"Zero, switch to auxiliary mode, I'm taking over." Realizing something was wrong, Wang Shuo frowned and continued to instruct.

As soon as he finished speaking, dense data dialog boxes appeared on the monitor in front of him. The red exclamation marks made Wang Shuo's brow furrow even deeper. He glanced at the system resource check; it was already approaching 96.7% and still rising, about to break 97%. This meant all the server's resources had been fully utilized by Zero.

What was even more frustrating for Wang Shuo was that the server temperature monitor showed it had already reached 42 degrees Celsius and was still steadily rising. The air conditioning system in his small server room could no longer meet the server's cooling needs.

The hardware facilities were just too outdated.

Wang Shuo shook his head speechlessly. Although he didn't know what kind of attack he was facing, it clearly wasn't enough to breach Zero's firewall. But... this was like a battle between two armies. Although his side's Weapon was advanced, unfortunately, there were too few people, and he was being overwhelmed by the opponent's human wave tactics.

If the temperature exceeded 45 degrees Celsius, the server system would crash and reboot itself. By then, even if he had immense capabilities, he wouldn't be able to stop the covetous attackers from invading the system. Although there were no important files or data in the system, and Zero's data had been disguised and hidden by him, but... attacking a small company's website so blatantly, was that really okay?

In broad daylight, was there no sense of justice left!

The usually kind-hearted Wang Shuo... was beyond furious! If he didn't show them some color, they wouldn't know why the flowers were so red!

...

Beijing, in the suburbs, the teenager's residence.

At this moment, the teenager's residence was very lively. Although the teenager was alone at home, the constant reporting sounds and the clatter of keyboards made the atmosphere feel more like a party.

"Line 1 attack normal."

"Line 3 attack normal."

"Line 2 connection normal, releasing zombies."

"Line 4 attack normal."

"Line 8 attack normal."

"Very good, thank you all for your assistance. Tech team, have you discovered anything?" The teenager was high-spirited, typing loudly on his keyboard while asking into the microphone.

"I haven't discovered anything here; all scanning methods have been used, and no vulnerabilities have been found for now."

"Same here."

"Tell the zombie group to increase the data volume; I think the opponent's server is about to collapse."

"I understand." A voice said dully: "Tell everyone to be careful, don't capsize in the gutter; this prey is a bit tough to chew."

A burst of commotion immediately came from the speakers.

"I say, Hong Guang, you are too cautious. With us here to help Fox Hunter, you can rest assured! A broken website of a small company, no matter how hard it is to chew, is it harder to chew than The White House website of the United States?" another voice said.

"Exactly, exactly. Hong Guang, when we attacked The White House website of the United States, we didn't see you saying such discouraging words."

The teenager laughed, typed furiously, sent a string of commands, and said: "I've already scanned it thoroughly. The opponent just has a slightly better firewall, but we aren't using technical means. We are using a brute-force human wave attack; I don't believe we can't squeeze out its server."

"We succeeded that time with the United States, and we made the Five-Star Red Flag fly on the website's homepage. We can do it this time too! There is no website that cannot be conquered. Our Hongmeng Alliance is invincible!"

Everyone shouted together: "Invincible!"

"Still, be a little careful." The person named Hong Guang shouted, then continued: "My scan gives me a very bad premonition. Everyone, don't expose your IP; just use jump server zombies, and it's best to set up a few more layers."

"Haha, Hong Guang, you are too cautious..."

"Rest assured, doing this kind of work, these things have all been considered..." The man who was speaking stopped mid-sentence and yelled: "What is this thing?"

"What's going on?" Hong Guang asked hurriedly.

"The opponent's data is cracking my jump server zombies! My one hundred zombies! Only thirty are left!" The man was somewhat flustered and exasperated.

"My IP has been locked! I'm going to..."

His voice stopped abruptly.

The people who were struggling and fighting fell into silence.

"What's going on? Why did Xiao Hei disconnect?"

Hong Guang said: "Call Xiao Hei and ask him what the situation is."

The teenager quickly took out his phone and dialed Xiao Hei's number. As a member of the group, members still had some private communication with each other.

The call connected.

"Fox Hunter, be careful! It discovered your IP! My broadband protocol was tampered with, and now I can't get online. I'm trying to find a way to restore it... It pisses me off! What is this thing? Why can't I modify it!"

Everyone heard it... The group fell into silence again.

"Fox Hunter, quickly check your zombies, have they been cracked by someone!" Hong Guang's voice was somewhat anxious.

The teenager woke up as if from a dream and hurriedly checked his data. Sure enough, a data stream was rushing along the jump server zombies he had set up, with an incredibly fast speed.

Before he could react, his screen went black, and he could no longer hear the voices of others in the speakers. Everything went silent, as if he were the only person left in the whole world.

This made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

A minute later, a line of text appeared on the screen.

"Why did you attack me?"

The teenager wanted to cry but had no tears; he... had been invaded in a crushing manner.