Chapter 368: Chapter 368

"Hahaha, your childhood must have been really unfortunate, little girl."

In 2025, Zhu Xinyu encountered a hacker.

Zhu Xinyu did not know who this person was. Until the end, she had never met this person. She did not know whether this person was male or female, or even whether they were from the Republic.

That was Zhu Xinyu’s first time entering the hacker community. Her original intention was to extract evidence of tax evasion or illegal activities within her father’s company. That year, children began to understand things like "economics." She was determined to seek vengeance.

By then, she already possessed strong technical skills, but her social experience was genuinely at a sixth-grade level. Some of her intelligence was easily extracted in just a few queries.

But that "stranger" did nothing to her, instead, he asked her if she wanted to learn skills from him.

So, Zhu Xinyu started to blend into the online world with her "master."

The master was an extremely cool "Black Hat." Unlike typical criminals, the master never harmed the public. He adhered to the philosophy of "stealing from the rich to aid the poor," specifically targeting the criminally wealthy because such individuals could hardly report theft to the authorities.

The master was an exceptionally brilliant hacker. At least at that time, he had few rivals.

At that time, Zhu Xinyu did not have much time.

Her father, since discovering that she was secretly jailbreaking the tablet, realized his daughter "might actually be a genius."

That woman took this opportunity to enroll Zhu Xinyu in a myriad of training classes.

Zhu Xinyu did not quite understand that woman’s purpose. Was it out of good intentions? Or did she want to overwhelm her with pressure and make her collapse?

But, they clearly underestimated her.

Zhu Xinyu could even use those so-called "Olympiad Math classes" and "Informatics competition classes" to catch up on sleep.

In these tutoring sessions, her performance was neither outstanding nor poor. She often slept through classes in a daze, skipping one or two lessons, and only paid attention when she came across a Chapter she did not quite understand.

She managed to achieve average grades without really listening to the lessons. At school, she kept to herself.

At first, her father tried to adopt the style of a strict father, but as time went by, he gradually let her be.

Zhu Xinyu made significant progress only in mathematics and coding.

Of course, all of this was for the sake of revenge against her father.

Zhu Xinyu only wished to dig up her father’s "incriminating evidence."

After the "master" found out, he told Zhu Xinyu that he had hacked into her father’s company overnight. Talking about tax evasion, there was some. But beyond that, there was no overly damning material. That information could disturb Zhu Xinyu’s father for a while, but it was certainly not enough to topple him.

Or, it could be said, Zhu Xinyu’s father had not committed any crimes severe enough to lead to his downfall.

Zhu Xinyu felt it was absurd, unbelievable.

Could it be that the suffering her mother endured was meaningless?

The "master" soon pointed out that the money from her mother’s house sale was accounted as an "investment" by her father. But the equity itself was diluted to a very thin slice. Moreover, Zhu Xinyu’s father’s company accounts were barely breaking even over the past few years, even running at a slight loss. Therefore, there really was no money on the books to repay the "debt" to her mother; giving her a monthly dividend was already "quite generous." Additionally, Zhu Xinyu’s mother had chosen to swallow the bitter pill herself, making it difficult for outsiders to help.

Zhu Xinyu plunged into confusion once more.

Could her father be a good person?

But why would such a "good person" harm his own wife?

Why would the mother forgive... no, it’s the other way around—plead for forgiveness from such a person?

Why could a businessman who suffered annual losses live in a 400 square meter mansion, employ several homemakers and nannies, while a white-collar worker who earns money daily could only afford to rent a 20 square meter room?

Why is this world so different from the world described in textbooks, from the world adults tell children about?

—Maybe the Giant of Light is indeed just a lie to children after all?

The girl thought so without reason.

But the "master" told her that this world was indeed wrong.

Two types of evil thrive in this world.

One is despicable malice, the other is mediocre malice.

The despicable forsake their conscience, plunder from others, and accumulate wealth. They are insatiably greedy, promote social hierarchies, inspiring a longing for nobility and strength, turning people into cogs within the machines they create to generate their wealth.

The mediocre watch all this, yet do nothing. They willingly become gears in the plundering machine. They adhere to morals, rigidly follow traditional boundaries set for themselves, neither being sneaky nor ferocious. But they can push the group into the Abyss.

The former commit crimes of a grave nature, while the latter are untouchable even for eradication.

"We must change the world, my apprentice," the master had said.

The master taught Zhu Xinyu some life lessons.

Zhu Xinyu realized much later that the "master" was also a strange person. He too was not normal, and his lessons on life were even less so.

But then, Zhu Xinyu was not exactly normal either.

And at that time, it was the most turbulent era for the hackers of Jianghu.

The tales between "Firewall Dragon," "Loki," and "Aqini" were celebrated by every hacker. Hackers declared they had found a place to vent their excessive energy. They began to vie for the ID of "Fire God."

And with an ID as the stake, Hero Arena significantly reduced the "risk" of real names being uncovered. Hackers began to understand an unspoken rule of "stopping at just the right point," a whole new culture was beginning to take shape.

The "master" always wanted to establish a formidable reputation. He sought to use these activities to propagate his values.

And what the master and apprentice did most, was to infiltrate corporations.

On one hand, it was to train her own skills, on the other, it was to collect evidence of crimes.

They did occasionally find something meaningful. Depending on the situation, the master would either hand it over to the police or demand that the enterprises to some charitable organizations.

Until she turned eighteen, Zhu Xinyu always felt these were the few brilliant moments in her otherwise bleak life.

The biggest thing the master and disciple duo did was in the year ’28.

At that time, Zhu Xinyu was sitting in the lounge of her father’s company, using a tablet connected to an external Bluetooth keyboard to help her master complete the "Hero Arena."

Zhu Xinyu’s father’s skills were actually not that great. In the business world, skills do not determine everything. Zhu Xinyu had come to understand that her father’s abilities were just "sufficient." What he possessed were Courage and shamelessness.

But regardless, this was still a high-tech company.

That day, all of the company’s technicians were assisting in handling an "unidentified intrusion" and "meaningless DDOS attacks."

In the world of hackers, "cheating" isn’t necessarily looked down upon. Besides, "Hero Arena" didn’t have specific rules in the first place.

After three years of guidance, Zhu Xinyu had become a first-rate hacker by then.

The master and disciple duo then claimed the ID "Fire Virtue Star Lord."

Zhu Xinyu remembered her heart beating fast that day.

She fell in love with the thrill.

But during these years, Jianghu changed again.

A few months before the master and disciple duo took the name "Fire Virtue Star Lord," the original Fire God ID "Aqini" had changed hands.

The new "Aqini," it was said, was a cop. He had sent the previous generation’s Aqini straight to jail.

And a few months later, "Vulcan" was also arrested in India.

After claiming the name "Fire God," hostility from all over the world emerged. The master and disciple started being targeted by more and more people.

At first, the master thought this was good. He became increasingly active in using his influence to promote "progress" within the hacker community, calling everyone to "rob the rich to help the poor" and "reform this filthy world."

It was also during this phase that Zhu Xinyu began to have doubts.

All she saw was her father still living in a mansion, still driving luxury cars. The master merely blackmailed her father into funding three Hope Schools. This added to the company’s reputation but didn’t cause any substantial damage.

Her father even became a celebrated entrepreneur.

The more her father flourished, the more miserable Zhu Xinyu felt.

She felt that "robbing the rich to help the poor" didn’t truly change the world.

She planned to do something else.

Then, during one hacking session, the master and disciple encountered an "enemy."

It should be "a formidable opponent," I guess. Zhu Xinyu didn’t know whether the person on the other side of the screen was male or female, an individual or a team.

But "there really was someone" tracing their tracks using a hop point.

Zhu Xinyu only remembered herself typing away at the keyboard. Only afterward did she realize the peril of that moment.

But this time, the master was very sensitive. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

"It must be ’Aqini,’" the master conveyed a sense of "fear" even through the text message via the chat software. He said, it had to be that terrifying stooge.

But the master wasn’t even sure it was "Aqini." Aqini was a Federation cop, it wouldn’t be like him to meddle without a good reason.

From then on, the master changed. He began to persuade Zhu Xinyu not to be too aggressive. He became less and less enthusiastic about stirring up other hackers.

Zhu Xinyu realized that the master was actually an ordinary guy too. His reasoning might not be so reasonable after all.

Zhu Xinyu had blown up at him during an argument. The master even said, "You’re still young, it’s better to do less of these kinds of things in the future."

There was this one time, the master even told Zhu Xinyu, "Wait till you’re an adult, huh... Later on, we two master and disciple could open a small studio... Your skills combined with my skills. Us father and son. The world would be ours."

Zhu Xinyu felt it was unbearable. She tore through the master’s multiple facades. For a moment, she remotely controlled the master’s device. If she wanted, she could have dug out the true name of "Fire Virtue Star Lord" right then.

But Zhu Xinyu didn’t make a move. She didn’t want to know the master’s real name from the beginning. She didn’t look at any data in that device, just created a text document on the desktop.

"Master, don’t come looking for me anymore."

When Zhu Xinyu was a child, her mother slapped her, forcing her to apologize to her father and that woman. After crying that time, Zhu Xinyu hadn’t cried for a long time. She cried terribly this day.

It was perhaps like her father had died.

That woman didn’t care about her. And her nine-year-old brother, thinking he was clever, said, "Early romance isn’t good."

Zhu Xinyu said, go die.

Later on, Zhu Xinyu found traces of someone hacking into the hop points she commonly used. It was probably the master trying hard.

But "Fire Virtue Star Lord" ultimately did not find Zhu Xinyu. This Fire God seemed also to be scared. He didn’t know whether Zhu Xinyu had stolen his real name. The things he had done could have left him with a huge, unpayable debt.

The following year, Zhu Xinyu started her own Hero Arena.