79: Chapter 79 Mysterious Company

Fox Hunter hung up the phone with a bitter expression and tossed it onto the table in front of him.

Go, or not go?

This was no longer a question of whether he could choose; he had even lost the power to choose when to go. Looking at the time written on the screen, Fox Hunter let out a sorrowful sigh.

If he had known this would happen, he wouldn't have dared to target this small website even if he had a hundred times the courage! Now look at this, his wonderful life was over. He, the dignified Fox Hunter, was going to work for someone else, and doing completely unrelated graphic design work at that.

Thinking back to that snort Hong Guang couldn't hold back just now, Fox Hunter felt his face burn. That bastard definitely spat out his drink! Definitely!

Bastard! If it weren't to protect you guys, would I have bothered to travel all this way to be some graphic designer? It's one thing not to appreciate it, but you even laughed at me!

Fox Hunter gritted his teeth, full of resentment, then continued to look dejected.

One wrong move, and the whole game is lost. His reputation of a lifetime was ruined! From now on, he would go from being a legend in the organization to a joke.

If the younger brothers and sisters who joined the group later asked, "Who is the legendary Fox Hunter?"

How would he answer? A graphic designer?

Or when others were vividly recounting their own struggle stories, he would suddenly blurt out that he had once been tracked by his IP in just over ten seconds and had to go work for someone else?

How would those younger ones look at him? And how could he continue to happily enjoy the thrill of successful posturing?

So melancholy...

Fox Hunter let out a long sigh.

...

Watching the text on the screen slowly disappear, Wang Shuo's angry mood finally calmed down a little.

This skirmish of infiltration and counter-infiltration without smoke or fire lasted less than half an hour. The time Wang Shuo actually spent fighting back was less than twenty seconds. With Zero's assistance, Wang Shuo, who saved himself the trouble of complex code input operations, was invincible in doing these things. His reaction speed alone crushed the opponent by several orders of magnitude.

After all, while the opponent was still huffing and puffing while inputting commands, Wang Shuo had already let Zero trace the path all the way over. Zombies and the like were trash in the face of this speed; it wouldn't even give you time to jump.

Throughout the whole process, Wang Shuo only did three simple things: search for the source of the intrusion to determine the IP, lock onto the opponent's zombie IP jump point to counter-trace, and find the next IP to continue tracing until the source—that was all.

As for what the opponent guessed about infiltrating telecommunications company network communication terminals or blocking regional signals, not to mention that Wang Shuo didn't have time to do it, even if he did, Wang Shuo wouldn't do such illegal things. He was not a hacker; this was his bottom line.

Han Xiaoxin's phone losing signal was only because he connected his phone to the Wi-Fi, and it was wiped out by Wang Shuo in one go; there was nothing complex about it.

"Fortunately, I had Zero generate core nodes for covert intrusion in advance, otherwise it would have been a bit troublesome to encounter this situation."

Wang Shuo touched his chin. Ultimately, it was because his server was too small. Even with the addition of two arrays, the total resources were not large. Even if the opponent couldn't break through the firewall or find vulnerabilities, they could send a massive amount of data packet requests to crash the server and cause downtime.

This was the most shameless tactic.

Servers are all used for external data interaction; you can't just close the server ports and refuse all data requests, right? What the opponent was exploiting was this loophole that wasn't really a loophole.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem for large servers. As for why? Their server's data throughput in one hour is dozens of times the amount of this intrusion, okay? These data points would just melt in without even a splash. Trying to crash the server? What were they thinking?

However, no matter how small the splash, it was still a splash. To try and weed out this meaningless junk traffic, those big websites had thought of many methods, such as... various image CAPTCHAs, numeric CAPTCHAs, and slider CAPTCHAs.

These were all born to detect whether request data was sent by computer scripts. As long as the verification failed, it meant it wasn't a user request, and the server could legitimately turn you away, reducing resource occupation and preventing the server from being maliciously crashed by a run on resources.

"Looks like I have to continue adding servers."

Wang Shuo sighed. "Blessings never come in pairs, but misfortunes never come singly." The ancients truly did not deceive me.

These past few days, first a lunatic from nowhere in the Chen Group popped up, obstructing his purchase of equipment in every way. The Chen Group's self-developed equipment he originally wanted to buy for 5.6 million per unit was forced up to imported equipment costing over 10 million, and the quantity couldn't be reduced; they wouldn't sell just one.

Their reason was quite reasonable: because there were too many orders and insufficient production capacity, they couldn't provide ready-made equipment within a few days and could only import it. Importing was more complex, and if he wanted to expedite it, there was only one way: pay up, pay a deposit.

As for the technical materials he sent over, they didn't even look at them.

This almost made Wang Shuo vomit blood from anger, but the price went up, and the precision went up too. For the sake of precision, he endured it. Just like that, nearly 20 million was gone.

Then there was the school; thinking about this gave Wang Shuo a headache.

Ever since he met those leaders like the presidents and deans last time, professors had been constantly running to his dormitory these past two days. Coming was one thing, but don't bring things! What was with bringing a little notebook?

The key was that Professor Zeng also came, bringing a group of professors of various ages. Looking at that appearance, it seemed like they were here to offload burdens.

Looking at the white-haired, eager-faced deans and associate professors, Wang Shuo finally softened his heart and obediently followed them to a small coffee shop outside the school. That trip lasted more than seven hours.

Since then, except for attending classes, Wang Shuo would never stay in the dormitory for long.

Furthermore, there was still no news about some raw materials he asked Liu Yemei to contact. He didn't know if the other party couldn't make them or didn't want to do it because the amount was small. Anyway, the invitation was sent out with no response. It seemed he would have to go there himself another day.

Now, he still had to pay to buy servers. After this whole set, he didn't know how much money it would cost. But he couldn't not buy them; Zero's performance depended entirely on these servers.

Spending money was like water flowing away.

...

The flight was at 9:00 AM on the third day.

After a flight of over an hour, Fox Hunter, who got off the plane after ten o'clock wearing a small blue-brimmed hat, greeted the relatives of that mysterious expert with immense resentment after failing to get a taxi near the airport for a long time.

He even felt some resentment toward this convenient transportation, which left him without even an excuse to delay.

Fortunately, he didn't have much luggage and wasn't burdened with big bags and small packages, so after managing to endure for half an hour, he was quick-eyed and nimble enough to snag a taxi.

Once in the taxi, Fox Hunter let out a sigh of relief, feeling that he had accomplished a major life goal.

"Driver, go to the Software Park."

"Software Park?" The chubby driver was stunned for a moment, then shifted gears and made the vehicle speed off before curiously asking, "Young man, are you also going to the Software Park? What business do you have going to the Software Park?"

What business? Fox Hunter said indignantly, "Working!"

"Working, huh?" The chubby driver said in less-than-standard Mandarin, "You really picked a good place! Let me tell you, the Software Park has been extremely popular these past two days!"

"Popular?" Fox Hunter was stunned. Since when could the software industry be described with the word "popular"?

"Young man, let me tell you! You are the fifth group of passengers I've taken to the Software Park today! The previous groups were truly more anxious than the last. Are you anxious?"

"Not anxious." Fox Hunter shook his head, becoming interested. "Driver, you said there are many people going to the Software Park?"

"Many, very many." The chubby driver shook his head and swayed, not waiting for Fox Hunter to ask, and rattled on, "It wasn't that many before, but yesterday the number of people increased. That scene, tsk tsk, with long guns and short cannons."

Long guns and short cannons? Fox Hunter was confused. What the heck was that?

Seeming to see Fox Hunter's lack of understanding, the chubby driver said excitedly, "Reporters! It's all reporters! And some who aren't reporters. It's so lively."

"You also want to know what happened, right? Haha, then let me tell you, you asked the right person! Old Gao, I've been hanging around the airport for years. I don't have other skills, but I'm a first-class expert at digging up news. There's no news I can't dig up." The chubby driver revealed a hint of pride and stopped playing coy, saying, "As far as I understand, these people coming here to the Software Park are all here for the same thing! I heard there's an incredible company in the Software Park that came up with an incredible treasure, and even CCTV was alarmed! Many people even ran here from Beijing!"

"Then, driver, do you know exactly what it is? What field is it in?" Fox Hunter asked.

"I don't know about that; it seems to be some kind of program. Sigh, that thing, how could a commoner like me understand it? In any case, it's incredible. If it weren't extremely incredible, could these reporters and those big shots be like cats smelling fish?"

This metaphor... Fox Hunter was speechless.

"Young man, let me tell you another secret." The chubby driver continued mysteriously, "I also heard that there is spiritual energy in this Software Park!"

"Spiritual energy? That mysterious?"

"Of course, if there were no spiritual energy, how could this thing have come out of the Software Park?"

Watching the chubby driver look so righteous and confident, Fox Hunter shook his head helplessly.

"Then driver, what is the name of that company you mentioned that came up with an incredible program?"

"I know this." The chubby driver said proudly, "It's called Frontier Technology Co., Ltd.! By the way, young man, where are you going to work?"

Fox Hunter gritted his teeth, "It's this Frontier Technology Co., Ltd.!"

The one-hour drive passed quickly.

Although after talking with the chubby driver, Fox Hunter already had some mental preparation for what he was about to see, when he actually arrived at the entrance of Frontier Technology Co., Ltd., he was still shocked by the scene before him.

Looking at the impassable road in front of him, the dense crowd, the flashing lights that went off from time to time, and the many personnel still standing on the surrounding roadside, Fox Hunter finally had an inkling of what the chubby driver meant by "many people."

What exactly did this company come up with that was worth so many people blocking the entrance?

After scanning roughly, Fox Hunter spotted several familiar media logos in the crowd.

Without exception, they were all blocked at the entrance.

This... Fox Hunter braced himself and walked forward, trying to push through the crowd.

"Excuse me, excuse me, let me in."

"What are you pushing for? Those who came later go line up at the back," a young man said with dissatisfaction.

This sentence was quickly echoed by everyone.

"Exactly, everyone is waiting, why do you have to squeeze to the front?"

"If you want to interview, do it one by one; don't break the rules!"

Fox Hunter smiled bitterly, "I am an employee of this company."

The crowd fell silent for a moment, and then...

"There is an employee from Frontier Technology here!" The young man who spoke first shouted.

Fox Hunter suddenly felt that he was being stared at by dozens of hot gazes, which made his scalp tingle. The crowd exploded instantly, clusters of microphones were thrust in front of him, and voices came from all directions.

"Hello, sir, are you really an employee of Frontier Technology? What position do you hold at Frontier Technology? Did you participate in the development of the system?"

"Sir, please answer, is the post on the Tianya forum true? How much of it is real? Has the domestic system really made huge progress?"

"Sir, recently Professor Tanaka of Japan's W Company has publicly issued a statement. Has the content of this statement been communicated with your company? Is this a publicity stunt by your company?"

"This gentleman, I would like to ask if the system developed by your company was commissioned by a technology company under the Chen Group, and can you disclose the content of the contract? Has your company had further cooperation with the Chen Group?"

"Your company's legal representative, Wang Shuo, has not yet appeared in public. Is it consistent with the rumors that your legal representative is still a student? If it is true, may I ask if the capital force behind your company is the Chen Group or some senior executives within the Chen Group?"

What does it feel like to be stared at by dozens of fiery, burning gazes?

Fox Hunter only felt his throat go dry. When had he ever enjoyed this kind of treatment?

As a hacker who always stayed in the dark, he had absolutely no experience in this area. How should he reply? Say he didn't know? Or be a bit arrogant and say "no comment"? Or...

Just as Fox Hunter was letting his imagination run wild, a cold, clear female voice came, not loud, but with great penetrating power.

"Everyone, please be quiet. Our company will announce major news in half an hour. Please wait patiently and do not make noise."

How impressive, daring to talk to reporters like that.

Fox Hunter looked up and looked toward the gate. At this one glance, he was stunned.