mijobooks Chapter 9 Points
Chapter 9 Points
Nakamura was gradually waking up at seven in the morning.
Li Shancheng followed Xu Qingqing through the narrow passageway of the electronics market, flanked by mountains of circuit boards, secondhand mobile phones, and various accessories. The air was thick with the smells of solder, plastic, and coffee. They stopped in front of a small shop with a sign that read "Geek Repair," its glass door covered with a strange combination of technical and rune stickers.
The store was small, with shelves on three walls piled high with electronic components and tools. A man in his thirties, wearing a magnifying lens and light, was leaning over a workbench, carefully picking up a microchip with tweezers.
"Cousin!" Xu Qingqing called out to the person not far away.
The man looked up, revealing a lean but energetic face, his eyes bright and alert behind his glasses. He turned off the soldering station and took off his headlamp: "Qingqing? What a rare guest! And this is..."
"Li Shancheng, my colleague," Xu Qingqing introduced briefly. "Shancheng, this is my cousin, Cheng Xu, a technical genius and half-cultivator."
Cheng Xu shook hands with Li Shancheng, his grip strong and his palm calloused from years of handling tools: "Don't listen to her nonsense, I'm just a repairman. Editor-in-Chief Qin called yesterday and said you need help."
"We need to hack into Hanshan Technology's internal systems," Xu Qingqing said bluntly.
Cheng Xu raised an eyebrow: "That's a legitimate listed company; the security level is quite high. Why?"
"They are stealing the energy from the array's core, which has already been severely damaged," Li Shancheng said. "We have obtained log evidence, but we need more technical proof to convince the relevant departments to take action."
Cheng Xu was silent for a few seconds, then walked to the shop entrance, hung up the "Temporarily Closed" sign, and pulled down the roller shutter. The shop immediately darkened, with only the warm yellow light from the desk lamp.
"Tell me more about it." He sat down and gestured for them to sit as well.
Li Shancheng and Xu Qingqing took turns recounting all the discoveries from the library incident to the Wenshu Secret Treasury. Cheng Xu listened quietly, occasionally jotting down notes in his notebook. When he heard about the diversion of the array's energy and the specific runes on the monitoring equipment, his brows furrowed even more deeply.
"A standard variant of the 'Energy Siphon' rune, combined with modern circuit design." Cheng Xu drew a complex diagram on his notebook. "This technology requires precise frequency matching, otherwise it will trigger the array's defensive mechanism. The fact that Hanshan Technology can do this shows that their research on the Wen Shu array's core is quite in-depth."
"Can we trace it in reverse?" Xu Qingqing asked, "To find the location of the terminal where they receive energy?"
"Theoretically, it's possible, but we need to get into their core network." Cheng Xu opened a laptop that looked modified, with four different operating systems running simultaneously on the screen. "Hanshan Technology's network security system is self-developed, integrating traditional firewalls and rune protection. Ordinary hackers simply can't get in, and even if they did, they would be detected immediately."
"What should we do then?"
Cheng Xu smiled, a smile brimming with the confidence characteristic of a tech enthusiast: "We don't follow the beaten path. No matter how powerful their system is, it still needs to connect to the physical world. And where there's a physical connection, there are vulnerabilities."
He took a palm-sized black device from the shelf, which looked like a large USB flash drive, but its surface was covered with miniature runes: "This is my homemade 'psychic sniffer,' which can detect and record specific types of energy transmissions. If Cold Mountain Technology is really siphoning energy from the array's core, then there must be abnormal energy fluctuations near their office building."
"Like using a metal detector to find electrical wires?" Li Shancheng explained.
"Similar, but more precise." Cheng Xu then took out several smaller devices. "These are wireless sensor nodes. We can deploy them around the Innovation Building to establish a temporary monitoring network to record all energy signals entering and exiting. Once we capture the characteristic frequency of the siphon energy, we can pinpoint the source."
Xu Qingqing asked worriedly, "Won't we be discovered?"
"The sensors themselves are very discreet, and I will use 'concealment runes' to shield their energy signatures," Cheng Xu said. "But the deployment process requires being close to the building, which carries risks."
"We can disguise ourselves," Li Shancheng suggested. "For example, we could pretend to be a delivery driver, a repairman, or... a market researcher?"
Cheng Xu thought for a moment: "Market researchers are a good option; they can operate openly in the vicinity. I need at least eight nodes, covering all four sides and four corners of the building. Each node needs to stay for thirty seconds to complete the initial calibration."
"When will we take action?" Xu Qingqing asked.
"This afternoon," Cheng Xu glanced at his watch, "from noon to 2 pm is lunch break time, there will be a lot of people, and it will be less noticeable. I will monitor the data remotely, and you will be responsible for setting up the nodes."
He pulled a suitcase from under the worktable, opening it to reveal neatly arranged equipment. The eight sensor nodes looked like ordinary power adapters, but had miniature antennas and indicator lights on the sides. Cheng Xu gave each person a waist pack containing three nodes and walkie-talkie headsets.
"Remember, once the node is placed, it will automatically blend into the environment, but initial activation requires manual intervention," Cheng Xu demonstrated. "Press the button on top, wait for the indicator light to turn from red to green, and then leave. The whole process takes about thirty seconds."
"What if there's danger?" Li Shancheng asked.
"There's an emergency channel in the headset. Pressing the side button for three seconds will trigger an alarm, and all nodes will enter deep stealth mode," Cheng Xu said. "But it's best not to go that far. Once they discover we're monitoring them, it'll be much harder next time."
At 11:30, they left the repair shop and headed separately to the Chuangzhi Building. Li Shancheng and Xu Qingqing disguised themselves as a couple conducting market research, dressed casually and carrying tablets and questionnaires. Cheng Xu stayed in the shop, remotely directing operations via his laptop.
At midday, the CBD was bustling with people. White-collar workers poured out of office buildings, searching for places to have lunch. In the square in front of the Innovation Building, the benches by the fountain were full of people, and street performers were putting on a show.
"The first spot is the flower bed in the southeast corner of the building. Be careful when placing it so that no one can see it, and be quick," Cheng Xu's voice came through the earpiece.
Li Shancheng and Xu Qingqing walked towards the designated location. Neatly planted shrubs filled the flowerbed, with a small tree in the center. Li Shancheng pretended to tie his shoelaces, quickly slipped a sensor node deep into the bushes, and pressed a button. The indicator light flashed red three times before settling on green.
"Node 1 activated successfully," Cheng Xu confirmed. "Signal is good. Next node: the bicycle parking area in the northwest corner."