Unexpected

Fan Tian Lei belonged to the Special Operations Brigade, but throughout the entire exercise, the Special Operations Brigade was only one component of the Blue Army. In a large-scale battlefield—especially in a modern battlefield exchange of fire—this was not really the Special Operations Brigade's job.

Nor could they get involved.

Their mission had temporarily ended the moment they captured Master Kang. Most of the Special Operations Brigade's work involved infiltrating deep into the Red Army's theater for special reconnaissance, but reconnaissance was not something that could be completed in a short time.

"Commander!" Fan Tian Lei said directly as he answered the phone.

"Is Kang Lei with you?" A vigorous voice came from the other end of the line.

"Yes, Commander!" Fan Tian Lei immediately replied.

"Tell him that once the exercise ends, he is to submit a report—a complete report on this attack against the command system. A few of us old fellows will be hearing it." The voice on the other end spoke bluntly.

"Yes!" Fan Tian Lei was somewhat stunned. A report naturally had to be made, but the exercise had not even ended when this call came through. And it had specifically sought out the commander of the Red Army's Iron Fist Regiment to give this order. Though everyone was usually comrades-in-arms—

At this particular time, issuing such an order now meant the impact of this incident was enormous!

"Commander, may I know what happened?" Fan Tian Lei still asked.

"Four military reconnaissance drones just crashed due to this cyberattack. There were no casualties." The person on the other end did not hide it and answered directly.

Fan Tian Lei froze. This was not the simulated kind of "destruction" during an exercise, where they simply withdrew from the order of battle. These were real crashes!

"This..." For a moment, Fan Tian Lei did not know what to say. Losses during exercises were normal, but four drones crashing at once was still quite a major loss.

"Commander, I think losses like this should be anticipated during an exercise. I don't think anyone should be held accountable for this..." Fan Tian Lei drew a deep breath and said. Though he did not know who had done it, this was a talent; they should not be held accountable.

"Hold who accountable? Did I say anyone was being held accountable? They should be rewarded! We'll discuss it after the exercise." The call ended immediately.

Still, hearing that no one would be held accountable, Fan Tian Lei let out a sigh of relief. But honestly... this outcome really was beyond his expectations.

In truth, Jiang Yan Hai had not expected this incident to cause such a huge stir either.

The main reason was that although Jiang Yan Hai had reduced the power of his information bomb and made it less difficult, there was something he had not anticipated.

First, much of the hacker technology transmitted through the Red Star Engine's B-rank hacking skills was highly streamlined and efficient!

Simply put, compared to the techniques used by other hackers, these hacking techniques were not only more efficient at attacking, but also extremely simple and direct. In cyberspace, that meant they took effect much faster!

It was like two different ways of fighting. Outside hackers were the type to throw all kinds of punches at different parts of your body, making you hurt until the pain became unbearable and you finally gave up resisting.

Putting efficiency aside, such attacks were slow to take effect at the very least.

But what Jiang Yan Hai had learned was more like the attack style of a Special Forces Soldier—going straight for the vital points, striking the weak spots directly, subduing the enemy in an instant, and leaving them unable to resist.

Though the analogy was not entirely appropriate, that was roughly the situation. So even though Jiang Yan Hai had already reduced the power of his information bomb, the stir and damage it caused were far greater than he had imagined!

There was another reason for this situation. Other hackers systematically studied their craft and gradually reached their respective technical levels, so they had a clear understanding of how much damage the viruses and other tools created by their skills could cause.

But Jiang Yan Hai was different. Since acquiring this knowledge, he had only tested it two or three times. He simply had no idea how much damage this thing could actually cause!

It was like giving a small nuclear bomb to a child. The bomb might not look big, and the child would have no way of understanding that it could instantly wipe out all life within several kilometers.

That was the result of having no clear understanding whatsoever of the technology in one's own hands.

Fortunately, Jiang Yan Hai still had some sense and had reduced the information bomb's power. The Blue Army headquarters' Communication Soldiers quickly found a solution and contained its spread.

But at the very beginning, it had been specifically designed to disrupt communications. As it spread rapidly through the Blue Army's communications system, four drones were being remotely controlled to conduct reconnaissance in multiple areas.

In theory, drones losing signal was perfectly normal. Large military drones in particular had built-in control chips. After losing their signal, the drones could make their own judgments and continue cruising along predetermined flight routes until the signal was restored.

They were not like civilian drones, which might crash after losing signal.

Military drones rarely encountered such situations because that possibility had already been considered during their design. The problem lay with Jiang Yan Hai's information bomb.

Its primary purpose was to cut off enemy communications. So after infecting the system computers controlling the drones, its data rapidly spread and directly infected the four drones in the air. This caused the chip computers inside all four drones to receive faulty signals, and their gyroscopes, altimeters, and other systems instantly began returning erroneous data.

As a result, all four drones flew straight into mountains and crashed.

Fortunately, their built-in safety measures at the time of the crash—especially the infrared Thermal Imaging reconnaissance system—caused them to crash directly into uninhabited areas, resulting in no casualties.

But this still caused an enormous stir within the Blue Army! That was why a call had been placed directly to Fan Tian Lei.

"Regimental Commander Kang, orders from above." After hanging up, Fan Tian Lei spoke directly to Master Kang.

"Present." Master Kang immediately stood at attention, his expression solemn.

Fan Tian Lei repeated the order he had just received. After hearing it, Master Kang's expression became exceptionally colorful.

What the hell did he know? He did not even know who had done this. But it did not matter. After the exercise, he could just ask around. After all, it had been one of his own soldiers.

"My dear brother, even if you have such a powerful weapon, you can't use it like this. What if those four crashed drones had landed on the heads of our own comrades? Wouldn't that have caused a tragedy?" Seemingly thinking of something, Fan Tian Lei leaned closer with a smile.

Honestly, Master Kang was a little dumbfounded after hearing this. He had not expected such consequences either. But seeing Fan Tian Lei's attitude, Master Kang could not help curling his lip.

"Don't come so close. Whenever you talk like that, it's obvious you're a weasel paying respects to a chicken—up to no good."