The sun was up.
And the birds were chirping merrily.
Inside the tent, Zhang Ye was already awake. He pulled down the zipper from the inside and climbed out. Seeing a rare blue sky, he yawned and stretched. He felt refreshed. He checked his game ring and saw that there were only three hours left on the countdown timer. The 5× increased difficulty effect was almost over, which improved his mood.
Come on.
Let's see what major incident has taken place.
Zhang Ye took out his cell phone and went online.
Upon checking, Zhang Ye was stunned!
Not only him, but everyone in China, Japan, and Korea was stunned!
Just a moment ago, the Koreans had announced a piece of news that shocked the whole of Asia: After several years of relentless effort, their cybersecurity personnel had finally managed to track down a trail leading to the world's number one hacker, "2," and locked down a potential target!
Chinese hacker, 2?
The famous trojan horse, Panda Burning Incense?
The Sino-Korean Hacker War?
The calamity that happened to the Korean Internet?
All of these incidents would never be forgotten by the Asian people. Many people witnessed what had happened and would still express shock whenever they thought about it now. The identity of the hacker "2" still remained a mystery to many, and they thought that this case would never be solved. This was because after the Sino-Korean Hacker War, 2 had disappeared without a trace and never reappeared again. But now, the Korean authorities managed to track that hacker? How could the people not be shocked and curious? Compared to that, those unfortunate accidents involving Zhang Ye were nothing. At this moment, all eyes in Asia had turned to this matter!
…
China.
"Who is it?"
"Who on earth could it be?"
"God 2 is my idol!"
"Yeah, I still remember when 2 led the Chinese hackers to wipe out the Korean Internet. Just thinking about it gets my blood racing."
"Did they really manage to find out who it was?"
"I really want to know who it is, but at the same time, I don't really want to know either."
"Being exposed as a hacker often means disaster as well!"
"God 2 is our national hero. The country has got to protect him."
"Yeah, with 2's technical skills, the country will definitely have to recruit him and find a way to camouflage his identity. We can't just hand him over to the Korean authorities."
…
Japan.
"They've finally managed to catch him?"
"This hacker is indeed quite impressive."
"The Panda Burning Incense was such a frightening computer virus."
"At that time, the Korean Internet was really left for dead."
"After so long and with so many people looking for him, how did the Koreans manage to find him first?"
"Speaking of which, Hacker 2 was the one who inspired me as well. It was because of my admiration for him that I picked up networking technology. Of the Chinese people, he is the person that I admire the most."
"He's indeed a legendary hacker."
…
The reaction in Korea was the biggest.
"Arrest him!"
"That fucker!"
"I still shiver in fear whenever I see a panda these days!"
"Right, it's all his fault!"
"That person sent our country's networking and computer field into such a deep crisis, so we definitely must not let him off. He caused such great damage to us!"
"Hand over Hacker 2!"
"Right, hand him over to the International Court of Justice!"
"That guy is even more detestable than Zhang Ye!"
"Motherfucker, my computer was also infected with the Panda Burning Incense virus back then."
"What's the big deal with that? My computer was infected eight times by it! Fuck!"
The Koreans only had two public enemies.
One: Hacker 2.
Two: Zhang Ye.
There were only these two people!
These two people had caused great anguish to the people of Korea!
And Hacker 2 was clearly ahead of Zhang Ye in terms of being hated!
Of course, the Koreans didn't know these two public enemies were the same person.
…
2?
This was a name that felt far away, so far away that Zhang Ye had nearly forgotten about it. He had guessed yesterday that something major would happen. As it turned out, it happened the moment he woke up. And it was even an old case from a long time ago. Zhang Ye was rather helpless at this moment. It looked like whatever had to come would still come.
They found me?
How did they find me?
His cell phone rang.
When Zhang Ye saw the caller ID, it turned out to be Director Dong of the Internet Surveillance Bureau.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Ye answered: "Hello, Old Dong."
Director Dong sighed. "Did you see the news?"
Zhang Ye smiled. "I did."
Director Dong said: "I know you must be worried, so I thought I'd tell you about it. I'm not sure how the Koreans got so lucky, but while investigating another case, they found a computer that 2 had hacked into. The computer was also used by a hacker before, and it was running in a 'sandbox' environment. 2 used this machine as part of a botnet. Although it seemed like the access records had been cleared, there were still some traces the Koreans discovered by coincidence. After a check, the IP address was matched with our Internet Surveillance Bureau's IP. It was even specifically linked to our office's network. This bunch of Koreans must have had such a stroke of good luck. There's only a one-in-million chance of this happening. It really won't be easy getting Little Fan out of it this time."
Zhang Ye was stunned. "Who?"
Director Dong said: "Little Fan."
Zhang Ye said dumbfounded: "Fan Yingyun?"
Director Dong said: "Yeah, Hacker 2 is her."
Zhang Ye was speechless.
Director Dong said: "There are also many others who have great skills over here at the Internet Surveillance Bureau. But for someone as skilled as Hacker 2, there really isn't anyone other than Little Fan. She does have a past record of doing something like that too."
Zhang Ye asked: "Has Sister Fan admitted to it?"
Director Dong said: "She denied that it was her. The upper management has already sent people over to investigate this case, and the Korean authorities are also urging that this matter be handled quickly. However, we will definitely not hand over anyone to them."
Zhang Ye replied: "It's not Sister Fan."
Director Dong was taken aback. "Why do you say that?"
Zhang Ye said: "Don't you know what kind of temper she has? When she hacked into that American company, she did not even bother to mask her IP address. Otherwise, could the other party have caught her? With Sister Fan's temper, she would definitely admit to it if she did it. Trust me on this."
"About that, we can only investigate further."
Zhang Ye repeated: "It's definitely not her!"
More voices came from the other end of the line.
Fang Xiaoshui said: "Director Dong, I trust Sister Fan!"
Meng Yi also said: "It can't be her!"
The two of them had worked together with Zhang Ye in the past and were both employees of the Internet Surveillance Bureau.
Director Dong made a serious face and said: "Don't let your personal feelings get involved. We have to see what results turn up from the investigations."
Zhang Ye asked: "If they find out who actually did it, what will happen?"
Director Dong thought that he was asking about this on behalf of Fan Yingyun, so he answered: "The evidence points to us, so it's affected us badly. The upper management is also very concerned about this and insists that we hand over the person responsible no matter what. The fallout from the Panda Burning Incense was enormous and caused great losses as well. If it was really Little Fan who did it, she'll have to be prepared to squat in jail. After all, she's different from others. Not only does she have a previous record, but she's part of the Internet Surveillance Bureau. By committing a crime when you're supposed to be preventing them, the punishment meted out will surely be heavier. But we'll think of a way to protect her!"
After hearing that, Zhang Ye acknowledged: "I understand."
Three.
Two.
One.
The effective duration of the 5× increased difficulty ended.