Chapter 361: Chapter 361

"Other ’Fire Gods’ ah..." Colonel Lei pondered for a moment, "That’s hard to say. Computer technology has developed to the point where it’s deeply integrated into every corner of society. Cybersecurity companies are actually a kind of mercenary and arms dealer in disguise. ’Fire Gods’ are all ’Black Hat’ hackers, those guys keen on technology, who like to crack software, find vulnerabilities, for profit or fame. These folks who tread on the edge of the law go to great lengths to hide themselves, and indeed, they are quite adept at hiding..."

Xiang Shan laughed, "You could have just said you don’t know."

"I can only say ’not sure’," Colonel Lei smiled as well, "Sometimes you think you’ve caught them, but the person you caught might just be a decoy. It’s also possible that a group shares one ID, and under one alias, there’s a whole team. These things are hard to say."

"However, the most famous one would probably be ’Vulcan’ getting caught in India a few years back."

"They actually caught one?" Xiang Shan was a bit surprised.

"After all, what he stole was national secrets of a certain country. The national cybersecurity personnel might not be as ostentatious as those hackers, but they aren’t weak either. He was careless himself," Colonel Lei said, "After being arrested in India, he was extradited to a certain European country for trial, and his sentence was over two hundred years. About half a year later, many ’cyber arms dealers’ flocked there, wanting to pay bail for this hacker’s release on parole. That included some enterprises from our country."

"Uh, wait a minute..." Xiang Shan inquired, "So many companies together? Or was it a bidding process?"

Officer Hu laughed, "It couldn’t be public, but it must have involved some exchange of interests."

Xiang Shan frowned, "Once he’s out on parole, can he move around freely?"

"According to the law, he can only be active near the designated community, and if he goes out, he must be accompanied by a sponsor or their agent," Colonel Lei explained, "He must wear an electronic ankle monitor and must report his movements at all times."

"Uh... all under the ’sponsor’s’ surveillance?"

"Can the sponsor revoke the bail?"

Xiang Shan rubbed his nose bridge.

He had a faint feeling that "Vulcan" was in a somewhat inhumane situation.

Xiang Shan thought for a moment, "This is simply the ideal employee. Completely unable to decide their own whereabouts, virtually no bargaining power with the employer, or else they lose even that little freedom."

That phase of "exchange of interests" really had the flavor of "auctioning off humans."

Colonel Lei nodded, "If I were a boss, I might also like to use that kind of employee."

Officer Hu, however, said, "At least it was the hacker’s own choice. It might not necessarily be like what Director Xiang imagines."

"That’s true," Xiang Shan nodded. He was always ready to assume the worst in people. Maybe he was being overcautious this time.

Xiang Shan’s gaze returned to the tablet next to him, still lit up. The page was a discussion about "Xiduo" among "Zhu Rong" and other hackers.

Xiang Shan had never met "Zhu Rong," didn’t know if this person was male or female, young or old. But from the content of their technical discussions, this person had a spirited soul. Xiang Shan had also searched for "Zhu Rong’s" past posts on this forum, read some of the vulnerabilities and code they’d released.

Xiang Shan still couldn’t sketch a programmer’s personality through lines of code, but he did believe that a programmer’s personal preferences in code can profile their character.

He only had a vague sense that... Zhu Rong was like a free bird.

—To go and catch that person...

Xiang Shan couldn’t help but think.

Of course, Xiang Shan wasn’t trying to make excuses for this information terrorist. Although he liked the act of stealing technical data and sharing it, it was still an improper act that disrupted order. He didn’t think "I don’t want to catch him."

But the one thing Xiang Shan didn’t hope for was for "Zhu Rong" to become a bargaining chip after being caught, to become the puppet of some cyber arms dealers.

That would be too much of a pity.

"If Zhu Rong is captured..."

Fearing Director Xiang’s stubborn temper might surface, Officer Hu interjected, "That hasn’t been decided yet. After all, we don’t know which country ’Zhu Rong’ is in, what their motives are. Everything must wait until they’re caught."

Colonel Lei added, "Additionally, ’Hephaestus’ is believed to be owned by a Japanese person. He’s the leader of a famous hacker group, operating semi-openly in a grey area. They’ve been declaring they want to obtain the ID of ’Kagutsuchi Life,’ taking their own country’s mythology quite seriously. Of course, our country’s ’Red Hat Alliance’ has also long since stated they want ’Zhu Rong’s’ ID, but have yet to find it."

The three chatted some more.

Since they didn’t know which country or region "Zhu Rong" was currently in, major powers around the world were eager and prepared to raid any location at any time. Theoretically, in the next few weeks, a "United Nations military force" could raid any room in the world.

Colonel Lei had already been working on the "227 Special Project Task Group" for a while when they brought Xiang Shan and his group in, privy to some secrets. Naturally, he and two other colleagues were in charge of this connection.

Then, it was also him who had recruited Xiang Shan into this special project. The two knew each other and, according to "the rules," there was a personal connection. And now, theoretically, Xiang Shan was one of the heads of the "Hanuman Task Group."

That’s why Officer Hu brought him over for a visit.

If everything went as expected, the one in charge of liaising with Xiang Shan would be Colonel Lei.

Until Zhu Rong was captured.

In the midst of conversation, Colonel Lei subtly mentioned that, due to the commotion caused by "Zhu Rong," fleets were preparing for war.

It was likely the case for both the Federation and the Russian Federation.

For one person to stir the world stage to such an extent was, indeed, unprecedented.

After Colonel Lei left, Xiang Shan returned to perusing discussions in the "Risk" community and occasionally jotting down some inspiration.

By evening, he was still analyzing the content discussed by the hackers.

It appeared that Zhu Rong was in a similar time zone. Their active hours were roughly the same. Of course, it could also be that "Zhu Rong" was a creature of the night.

Xiang Shan’s eyes were sore from reading, so he set aside his tablet and rested for a few minutes. Then, he took out his cellphone and opened QQ.

In his spare time, Xiang Shan was also a science fiction author. This was one of the reasons he could have deep conversations with Jing Hongtu. He had published a few short stories domestically, and magazine editors and critics had invited him into various science fiction author groups.

Xiang Shan just so happened to see someone bragging about their work being bought by a film company, preparing to start shooting a movie.

The review process for science fiction movie projects was quite lax at the time. Numerous big productions were greenlit within a year.

Xiang Shan glanced at the guy’s ID but couldn’t recall his work. After a quick Baidu search, he remembered that this guy was best known for writing "exchange"-themed stories. His stories mostly revolved around humans forging light-hearted, humorous friendships with aliens.

Xiang Shan put down his phone.

He thought of Zhu Rong again.

Over the past few years, "Ender’s Game," the science fiction novel about humanity waging war with an alien Bug Race due to misunderstandings, had spawned a series of movies, TV shows, and games. Both popular and lesser-known works were being bombarded at the public.

In these works, aliens were not always friendly or easy to communicate with. There were also vicious invaders.

Yet, in these types of movies, there was a unified message: "If humanity stands together, we will never succumb to those alien invaders."

Perhaps it was the bureaucrats’ wish for the public to accept "aliens as a regular concept."

At that stage, the topic of aliens was extremely popular.

To most people, this was simply a return of a classic trend. Chapters first released on novelꜰire.net

Few knew that it was the government manipulating popular culture.

In public view, the reason for these topics to surface was a sensational piece of news from NASA years ago—that a celestial body named "Argon" might be an alien artifact.

"For some reason," this news sparked a retro wave of science fiction elements.

But "Argon" was just the beginning.

At this thought, Xiang Shan’s mood grew heavy.

The actions of the major nations were expressing their stances.

And the more these major nations took such stances, the more precarious Zhu Rong’s position became.

Xiang Shan looked at his tablet once more.

He was still just browsing. Every operation on this tablet was monitored by cyber security personnel. As an outstanding researcher, Xiang Shan had the privilege to use it at any given time. The fact that Xiang Shan used this tablet to browse the "Risk" community during his rest time meant that a team of cyber security personnel was working overtime.

In truth, Xiang Shan felt quite apologetic. But today, he was particularly eager to view these hackers’ discussions.

The existence of the "Risk" community continued because the nations didn’t want to startle the snake in the grass.

No sooner had "Zhu Rong" released "Xiduo" than the website went down.

Didn’t that make it even more obvious that there was something wrong with "Xiduo"?

And once a group of formidable hackers became interested, the Rama Project would be in trouble.

According to their plan, they would first capture Zhu Rong and then control him, or direct other hackers to publish different intel on this website, pretending it was "other secrets" to invite attacks.

Either way, Zhu Rong would certainly be taken under control.

Suddenly, Xiang Shan had an idea.