Chapter 104: Chapter 99: Hacker and Group In a pitch-black room, the lights were off. The only illumination came from the glow of various electronic devices, lighting up a young man sitting in front of a computer.
The young man wore a hazmat suit and glasses with thick lenses. His messy hair was a bird’s nest, and his face was slick with oil.
He looked at the information on his computer screen and muttered to himself, "The information suppression is really something else..."
As a genius hacker who had breached the internal network of a foreign security agency in his teens, the young man’s mastery of various network technologies was simply sublime.
Thus, just two days after the Blood Plague rule was announced, he keenly noticed that certain information was beginning to be suppressed online.
By constantly changing his IP and accounts to run tests, he confirmed that he wasn’t mistaken. There was indeed an automated system performing one-way blocks on specific keywords.
After using his self-developed big data tool for analysis, the young man extracted several keywords. At their core, they all pointed to a single fact.
’Does a serum with antibodies for the virus exist...? No wonder they’re suppressing the information.’
The young man could understand. He had broken into many secret archives since he was a child and knew that if certain secrets were made public, they would cause massive chaos. Moreover, it could very well get him killed.
So every time, he would just take a look for himself. Once he knew, that was enough; he would never spread the information publicly.
It was the same this time. Although he had used various technical means to uncover the suppressed information, he had no intention of disseminating it. After all, no matter how skilled you were with network technology, if the trouble you caused outweighed the cost of finding you, the higher-ups could still catch you if they were determined enough.
Phew...
The young man leaned back in his chair, a satisfied smile on his face.
Every time he completed a "campaign," he would be overjoyed, as if he had just won a great battle.
To him, his various devices were his soldiers for the attack, and the "enemy" was the myriad of robust network defenses. Each successful breach left him thrilled.
Moreover, it was the process he enjoyed, not the result of the breach. He would only be excited for a short while after each success before quickly growing bored and starting the search for his next "enemy."
Because of this mindset, his attacks never involved personal gain. He would even proactively report the vulnerabilities he found to the other party. After they patched it, he would challenge them again. If he succeeded a second time, the thrill was even greater.
At this moment, he was basking in the pleasure of having just cracked the official information suppression, browsing the internet aimlessly.
Just then, a post on a forum caught his eye.
To be precise, it was the post’s title.
"I’ve created a website that can never be traced or breached, dedicated to communication between Ascenders"
The "never be traced or breached" part of the title struck the young man as rather funny.
As a top-tier hacker, his motto was, "There is no such thing as a perfectly secure system in this world."
Even the most advanced systems have vulnerabilities. And as long as a vulnerability exists, it can be breached.
The young man clicked on the post. The poster’s nickname was "Ascender’s Home Webmaster," and the post’s content was very brief:
"The purpose of creating this website is to provide Ascenders with a safe, secure platform where they can speak freely. The site has just launched and will be improved upon in the future. I hope for everyone’s support."
The young man couldn’t help but smirk. He was a top-tier hacker who had been immersed in cybersecurity since he was just a few years old. For over twenty years, he had spent an average of more than twelve hours a day researching it. Even he wouldn’t dare claim he could create a truly secure platform, let alone anyone else.
He casually replied to the post: "You should use that time to study up. If you knew even the first thing about cybersecurity, you wouldn’t be making such ridiculous claims."
He was about to close the tab after replying, but unexpectedly, the "Webmaster" seemed to be online and replied to him immediately: "What I said is true."
’Oh? Challenging me?’
The young man raised an eyebrow and grinned slyly.
’Alright, today I’ll teach you just how vicious the world of the internet can be!’
He immediately opened the website from the post. The moment he saw the crude and simplistic page, he was filled with regret.
’Why am I wasting my time on this...’
Such a simple page looked like it was made from a generic template. Attacking a site like this was complete overkill for him, like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
He immediately wanted to close it, but then he remembered what he’d just said and sighed.
’Might as well just get it over with.’
He couldn’t even be bothered to look closely at a website of this caliber. He just launched his own cracking tool, set it to attack automatically, and went to do something else.
A minute later, the young man switched back to the tool’s interface. He was stunned by the result. ’It failed?’
Staring at the red words "Injection Failed" displayed by the tool, the young man frowned slightly.
This tool was his own creation, powerful enough to crack 95% of the websites on the internet. And yet, it had failed against such a ridiculously simple-looking site.
’Is there something wrong with the tool?’
The young man immediately used his tool to randomly crack several other websites. There was no problem at all; they all displayed "Injection Successful" within ten-odd seconds.
This made him sit up straight, his eyes shining.
’Well now, this website’s actually got something to it.’
He hadn’t taken it seriously at first, but this was an unexpected discovery.
After cracking the official information suppression, he had been looking for his next target. He never expected this happy accident; the security on this shoddy little website was actually pretty good!
"Alright, let’s see just how secure you really are!" The young man cracked his knuckles and quickly entered a state of complete focus, diving into his attack on the website. For a time, the only sound in the room was the CLACK-CLACK-CLACK of his keyboard.
...
On the twelfth day since the Blood Plague Virus outbreak, there were three days left until the rule ended.