Bit Mania [Hacking]

August [-], [-], University of San Diego Supercomputing Center.

More than 20 computer mainframes are operating in the dust-free laboratory, the fans emit a steady hum, and the air conditioner is only turned on to [-] degrees, in order to ensure that the performance of the machines will not be affected by the temperature.

Sitting in front of these computers at this time is a group of young people who look like college students. There are drafts of paper scattered on the ground, and the monitoring program on the screen is still refreshing the data stream, which shows that the people here have just experienced a fierce cyber war. .

The atmosphere was extremely quiet, no one spoke, and they all looked like they hadn't recovered from a certain state, and their expressions were a little dazed and unbelievable.

Finally, someone spoke to break the silence.

"We...really..."

"...I think so." Another person said, paused, and added: "We blocked Octo's attack on the U.S. Department of Justice..."

The people present took a deep breath, and the next moment, cheers erupted in the laboratory.

"Did it, really did it!"

"Octo is no longer an invincible demon!"

In the midst of the bustle, the person sitting in front of the top computer seemed a little silent, quickly copying the data on the screen in his notebook.

"Team leader," put a hand on the shoulder of the frowning figure, "led us to fight a beautiful battle, but you don't seem very happy?"

Qi Xingchu stopped writing, turned slightly sideways, looked at the team members behind him, and said slowly: "Harry, things may not be as simple as you imagined."

"Is there something wrong with it?"

He nodded slightly, and pointed out to his team members what he wrote in his notebook: "Only confronting the opponent for four hours, a large number of redundant calculations have caused the accumulation of large-scale fragments on the disk, and the hard disk space has shrunk sharply. If ——I think if Octo was more aggressive, we might be overwhelmed by the opponent in the fifth hour."

"But he was chased away by us in the fourth hour, and we almost caught his source, didn't we?" Harry curled his lips in disbelief: "As a college student association, it's impossible to push Octo to such a degree. This is already a very remarkable achievement—you know, even the Pentagon has been helpless against that demon god for three years, and without us, the U.S. Department of Justice will fall tonight."

Xingchu shook his head, and just about to say something, there was a knock on the door of the laboratory, and the visitor opened the door and walked in. It was a fat middle-aged man, the dean of the college where Qi Xingchu was.

Why did such a person suddenly appear here in person?

The dean looked around for a week, his eyes stopped on Qi Xingchu, and he waved to the latter with a smile on his face: "Qi Xingchu, follow me to the principal's office."

When Xingchu walked into the principal's office, he saw that there were already two people sitting in the room, one was the president of the University of San Diego with gray hair, and the other was unexpected.

"You're here, Qi," the headmaster greeted him with a cheerful expression, "This is Admiral Modric, he is the one who has sponsored your school expenses for the past two years."

The admiral, who was not in military uniform but in a neat suit, sat comfortably on the sofa with his legs crossed, his deep voice rang out in the huge office.

"Meet you again, Qi Xingchu," he said, "You should not have disappointed me."

Xingchu received a graduation certificate one year ahead of schedule from the principal, and an employment contract with an air force base in the United States. After a few glances, he gently closed the paper.

"The general has the courage of an investor."

Modric smiled, stood up, took a step forward, and stretched out his right hand to Xingchu.

"Pleasant to work with."

"as you wish."

Melbourne.

There was a light knock on the door. The young girl was wearing white pajamas, her black hair was softly attached to her face, holding the pillow in one hand, hiding the other behind her back, standing outside the door with big eyes blinking. Zheng Xiu put down the pen Looking at her, he asked with a soft "Huh?" from his nose.

"Brother..." The girl ran over with her pillow in her arms and threw herself into his arms: "I can't sleep..."

He touched the fluffy little head in his arms: "What is hiding in the left hand?"

Hearing this, the girl stuck out her tongue playfully and took out her left hand. In her hand was a small book: "Brother, can you tell me a story?"

The lines at the corners of the boy's eyes softened a bit. He took the fairy tale book, placed the five-year-old girl on his own bed, covered her with a quilt, and then sat down on the side of the bed, casually flipping through the book in hand.

Immediately, the young man's eloquent narrative sounded in the room.

"A long time ago, there was a smart, beautiful and kind girl in a small town. Her name was Singerella... The new mother and sisters liked to bully her, ordering her to do all the chores at home every day before she could eat. ..."

"...Because of working every day, her face and body are always gray and plain, so everyone calls her 'Cinderella'..."

Not long after, the voice of the voice gradually decreased until it returned to calm. Zheng Xiu picked up his sister and sent her to the bed in the next bedroom without a sound, and then returned to his own room. At this moment, the mobile phone on the table rang .

Hearing the familiar ringtone, his eyes rippled with joy, and he pressed the answer button and placed it next to his ear.

"Zheng Xiu." A very young voice came from the other side: "Let me guess, you are doing a zero-knowledge proof of a one-way function tonight... Well, have you finished it yet?"

"Oh, I guessed wrong." Zheng Xiu raised the corners of his mouth, and his uncontrollable smile made his always cold face show an astonishing brilliance like ice and snow suddenly melting.

"I'm telling a story."

"……what story?"

"Cinderella."

Since Octo established contact with Zheng Xiu two years ago with a remote-controlled plane, the two have often communicated with each other on the phone, mostly to exchange some cutting-edge academic knowledge. Sometimes they hit it off right away, and sometimes they argue endlessly because of different views, but in the end no one is really angry, and instead feel as hearty as cooking wine.

Of course, it’s not just talking about those cold things. Many times, I also talk about interesting things, or troubles, or some incomprehensible reasons, and even what bad things Octo has done... After two years of friendship, they have a deep understanding of each other because of speculation, and they are both guys who are somewhat incompatible in real life, so they have been friends for two years and have become close friends who talk about everything.

"Graduated from high school... have you decided on college, Princeton?" Octo asked.

"Ah."

"Is it your wish?"

"..." Zheng Xiu was silent for a moment, and said softly, "It doesn't matter, it's pretty good there."

There was also a moment of silence at the other end, and the atmosphere of silence was transmitted to both ends through the telephone line.

Finally, Octo spoke first: "Come to my place."

Zheng Xiu's face froze.

"Zheng Xiu," the man solemnly read his name, and then said, "I need you."

The voice fell, and there was another long silence, only the long breathing of each other on the other end of the phone could be heard. Zheng Xiu opened his mouth several times to say something, but in the end he couldn't utter a single syllable. The clock on the wall slowly told the time , I don't know how long it took, the phone buzzed and vibrated, the battery was exhausted, and it automatically shut down.

He slowly lay down on the desk in front of him, and the mobile phone in his right hand was placed in front of him. He buried his face between his arms, and under the dim table lamp, he could only see the boy's motionless shoulders and spine.

It was a deep sense of bondage and exhaustion. Over the years, I have worked hard and trembling in every possible way. In the final analysis, it is just a word of debt repayment.That year, the Chinese couple took the boy out of the orphanage, freed him from robbing rough food, dirty bedding and never-ending fights with other children. They gave him a completely different new life, so he must Will live according to their wishes until the other is satisfied.

"Some people are not qualified to make decisions..." A lowered voice was buried in overlapping arms.

In [-], at the end of August, on a sunny day, a young man boarded a flight from Melbourne Airport with a suitcase that was not too heavy. He stepped on the gangway and turned back to look down. Waving with a proud smile on the front.

Zheng Xiu nodded slightly to them, then walked into the cabin without looking back.

Baiyuncanggou, the scenery on the ground seems to be pulled by an unknown force, and the geometric transformation shrinks sharply. The airport, the urban area, the city, a large gray road that traverses, and then overlooking the entire vast area, the kangaroo country is a large area. Green pastures and high-rise steel buildings spread one after another until the coastline.

The high heels of the stewardess stepped on the carpet, and the slight sound was barely audible. After the rapid ascension, the plane entered the stratosphere, and the satellite radio broadcast sounded in the cabin. After a soothing and pleasant piano music, the radio female voice began to sing slowly Narration: "A long time ago, there was a smart, beautiful and kind girl in a small town. Her name was Singerella..."

Zheng Xiu looked away from the window and waved to the stewardess: "What station is this?"

The latter tilted his head, with a decent smile on his face: "Sorry, I don't know either."

As soon as the words fell, she answered the internal call, and immediately after, all passengers received a notice: "The plane's navigation equipment is suspected to be malfunctioning, and it will be diverted to Honiara International Airport in the Solomon Islands."

There was a lot of discussion in the cabin.

The flight attendant comforted the emotions of the passengers, but the story was still playing on the radio on the other side.

"...On this day, the prince in the castle sent out invitations, inviting girls from various families to the ball, 'must come'..."

"When the girls received the invitation, they all jumped for joy... Cinderella held the bucket, looked at her gray face and clothes reflected in the water, and cried sadly..."

Accompanied by the light female voice, large islands on the sea came into view, and the country with nearly a thousand islands spread out in the ocean like stars, and then as the body leaned forward, the islands gradually enlarged, from a small Green dots, then dense mountains, black reefs beating on the coast, then villages, palm trees, and people.

Touched the ground, a long slide, calmed down in a strange country.Zheng Xiu got off the plane with the crowd, and the hot breath of the tropical rainforest rushed towards his face. A group of local aborigines ran towards him, happily holding his hand, repeating "Mr." and "Madam" in English. The messy address, seems to know that shaking hands is an international etiquette, in order to show goodwill, grabbed his hand and shook it again and refused to let go.

In the chaos, no one knew who hung a string of shell necklaces around his neck, and the clothes on his upper body were pulled off in a hurry. He struggled to squeeze out of the crowd with his suitcase in his arms. Looking back, the passengers who came with him Some cried for their father and mother, while others went along with the situation and had fun.

He wanted to straighten his clothes, but found that he was already shirtless. He lifted the pants that almost fell into the air, heaved a sigh of relief, dialed the airline, and got a reply that the other party would arrange another flight to New York tomorrow at the soonest. They found a hotel nearby to stay.

It was already night when they settled down, and the shouts of fishing boats returning to the port came from afar. The young man took out a shirt from the suitcase and put it on casually. Pull that thing out, it's a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

Accidentally brought it in when tidying up?Flipping lightly, I stayed on the folded page, which was the unfinished story called "Cinderella" last time.

Without turning on the light, he took the book to the balcony, and read it casually under the bright moonlight.

"The sisters dressed up and went to the palace, leaving Cinderella alone to do countless housework..."

"...she was crying so sadly that she didn't even notice someone was standing behind her. Until the magician asked aloud: 'Hey, miss, why are you crying?'..."

The phone rang suddenly, bringing him back to reality. He looked at the caller ID and curled his lips.

"What kind of place is Solomon?"

"Poverty, backwardness, excess energy," he said with a low smile, "you really know everything."

"Because that's what I arranged."

"you?"

"Tomorrow morning, at [-]:[-] your time here, the airline will arrange a flight from Solomon to New York for you, and you can take it to Princeton University smoothly," paused, and Octo continued: "And in Before that, at [-]:[-] tonight, there will be a sea freighter departing from here for Hong Kong."

"……What's the meaning?"

"Zheng Xiu, I have created a chance for you, the last chance." The other party said, "I want to see your own choice this time."

"——I will stay in Hong Kong for half a month."