Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 98, Section Ninety-Seven: Email
Why not say yes?

In Lu Yingting's apartment, Yang Guan's holographic image appeared in his field of vision. He looked at Su Ge with a somewhat disappointed expression. But his tone was only one of doubt, not to the point of questioning.

"The investigation can continue, and you can receive a reward that should be enough to help you investigate the aftereffects of hibernation and complete all the procedures for brain-computer interface implantation. You can then fully integrate into modern society."

Suger sat on the bed against the wall and shook his head.

"This is too complicated. Even when I was still a counterfeit, I had already disrupted the market order."

"Market order? I didn't expect you to say that."

"how?"

“Only ‘black market dealers’ care about the order of the black market.” Yang Guan’s eyes were subtle. “That’s the black market.” He emphasized, “The so-called order of the black market is just the tacit rules agreed upon by those smugglers. That’s what’s supposed to be the target of regulation.”

“I’m just an informant. I can help you gather intelligence, but I can’t take responsibility for something as important as improving public order,” Suger said. “We should investigate the Spirit Society in a different way.”

“The investigation has come to an end,” Yang Guan said. “If you don’t cooperate with the Lugu Group, the Lugu Group won’t cooperate with us either.”

"I suggested a different approach..."

"What method?" Yang Guan interrupted Su Ge. "Do you have any other clues?"

Suger didn't say anything.

Yang Guan sighed and was about to hang up. Just then, Su Ge asked again, "Will the Security Bureau terminate my temporary contract?"

"will not."

“That’s great.” Soger smiled. “I’m counting on this allowance to get by.”

“There are no missions for you right now,” Yang Guan said. “But if you have any intelligence, the Security Bureau will pay you based on the value of the intelligence.”

"What kind of intelligence do you need?" Suger asked.

“You can report any illegal or criminal activity.” Yang Guan paused. “If you can provide any clues related to the prison break, even just the slightest hint, the reward will be very generous.”

"Understood," Su Ge said without changing his expression.

After Yang Guan hung up the call, Su Ge got out of bed, walked out of the room, and, leaning against the corridor wall, lit a dopamine blocker. He had refused the Lugu Group's demands and temporarily severed his cooperation with the Security Bureau; now he had to rely on himself to investigate intelligence. Jiang Ning's leads were linked to the Spiritual Society, but without Qian Yun as a connection, he felt at a loss as to how to proceed with this loosely organized group.

“I found some gatherings of the Spiritual Society, mostly online, some offline, but none of them are core meetings.” Shen Ke appeared beside Su Ge. “I need to develop some ‘accomplices’ so that I can find valuable intelligence.”

“I’m quite curious.” Suger exhaled a puff of smoke. When he took this drug, he always felt exceptionally clear-headed. “What will happen to those accomplices you control? Do they still have self-awareness?”

“You asked too simplistic a question,” Shen Ke said. “Some of the henchmen have become complete zombies, while others are basically unaffected. For example, I only take up a very small portion of their computing power, so small that they don’t even notice it…” She recalled the past, her voice becoming somewhat ethereal, “It may sound absurd, but I actually helped them.”

Su Ge raised an eyebrow and looked at Shen Ke.

"It is indeed quite absurd."

“People will always have some kind of belief.” Shen Ke’s lips curled up. “Even if I don’t use that part of the computing power, they will still use it to worship some deity, pray, and chant scriptures. And my appetite is much smaller than those deities, after all, I can’t stand the light of day.”

What practical effect do their chanting and prayers have?

“Your understanding of religion is still stuck in the old days. Their chanting isn’t just about repeatedly reciting boring Buddhist mantras.” Shen Ke paused for a moment. “Or you could think of it this way: when you believe in a deity, you become a unit in His thought matrix.” The air was a little chilly, and Su Ge felt goosebumps rise on his forearms. He couldn’t help but look up, but the overlapping buildings and holographic neon lights blocked his view, making it impossible to see the projections of those gods and Buddhas high in the clouds.

A sense of dread quietly rose from the depths of his heart. In the past, he had thought they were the digital life forms behind those projections. But now, those majestic and mysterious figures crumbled into countless colorful fragments in his mind. Those fragments stretched into countless tentacles, spreading to every doorway of the skyscrapers, intricately intertwined, omnipresent.

Even after the antagonist had burned out, he was still somewhat dazed.

A logistics drone flew past, its airflow swirling the white smoke between his fingers. He snapped out of his reverie, lit another cigarette, and shook his head.

"Let's talk about it later."

Su Ge's response was to Shen Ke's request to develop his accomplices.

He wasn't stubbornly upholding justice; his concern was that once he started using the power of demons and monsters, that power would become uncontrollable. On the other hand, he also worried that those accomplices would expose Shen Ke, thereby implicating him as the mastermind behind it all.

Shen Ke glanced at Su Ge, then looked back at the apartment building across the street.

"Do you think I'm wary of you?" Sog asked.

"Who knows?" she said indifferently. "You don't need to explain anything."

This nonchalant attitude made Suger feel a tightness in his chest.

"You have a new email," she suddenly reminded her.

Suger paused for a moment, then took out the Vision Pro from his pocket and put it on.

The email interface opened, revealing dozens of spam emails. He received various push notifications from unknown sources almost every day—products, housing, medical services… and this time was no exception. But Shen Ke's sudden alert indicated that he had received something unusual. He opened the newly arrived email—an advertisement for an affordable artificial heart. Unlike those advertisements that would immediately pop up with enthusiastic sales pitches from real-life holographic images, this advertisement was simply a poster floating in the air.

"Is there a problem?" Suger looked at the poster but didn't find anything unusual.

"The arrangement of text and graphics hides information."

Shen Ke flicked a corner of the poster, and it began to fold, quickly forming a three-dimensional spatial structure resembling a flower bud. Its original patterns and text formed new graphics within this structure, reminding Su Ge of the QR codes hidden within images that had already appeared in the 21st century, but he still couldn't understand the meaning of these new graphics.

Shen Ke snapped her fingers.

The flower bud seemed to be consumed by an invisible flame, and she extracted the hidden information from the email. A young man in a blue Wuzhu robe appeared in her field of vision and raised his hand in a salute to Su Ge. The figure flashed by, disappearing in less than half a second, leaving behind a digital seal.

“This is…” Sog was still completely confused.

“Shangqing Boy.” Shen Ke recognized its origin the moment he saw the boy. “You can think of it as a bank on the dark web.”

"Are there banks on the dark web?"

“The dark web needs banks even more.” Shen Ke looked at the seal. “Some people deposit things there, and this is a retrieval certificate. The storage fees at Shangqing Tongzi are very expensive, and only valuable goods are worth transferring in this way.”

Who deposited it?

“Anonymous,” Shen Ke said. “It’s hard to say whether this is a windfall or a trap; we’ll only know once we take it out.”

(End of this chapter)