Reed's Bold Guess

The bombshell news that the Gu Ding Pirate Crew had wiped out Wayne's team spread throughout the Universe Sea in less than three days, leaving everyone in the Shallow Sea Zone astonished.

Bucknell reacted the fastest, immediately accessing the surrounding satellite surveillance upon seeing the fireworks in the sky, and clearly witnessed the scene of the Gu Ding Team's spaceship bombarding the Wayne spaceship.

Before the news could spread, he reacted, sending men to take over the territory under Wayne's control. The takeover encountered almost no resistance, as Wayne had brought nearly all of his top fighters with him during his pursuit of Gu Ding, and they had all been wiped out by Gu Ding. Moreover, given Bucknell's background, no one else dared to covet the territory he had already occupied. By the time others learned of this, it was already too late.

Wayne wasn't exactly a big name in the Shallow Sea Zone, but he was still a minor leader Shallow Sea Zone, controlling eight universes and possessing the cultivation of High-rank God. Moreover, before establishing his base, his bounty had already reached 30 billion Universe Crystal. Such a person was hardly a weakling.

The Gu Ding Team, having only been in the Universe Sea for about a month, had already eliminated Wayne. This drew the attention of many powerful figures in the Gu Ding Team Shallow Sea Zone, as such an event had never occurred before.

Anyone who can occupy a territory in the Shallow Sea Zone Universe Sea possesses at least the Combat Strength of High-rank God, while teams newly entering the Universe Sea at most only have the cultivation of Low-rank God. The difference in strength between these two groups is an insurmountable chasm. Therefore, many people are curious about how Gu Ding Team managed to do it.

However, Bucknell immediately submitted the satellite footage he obtained to Federal Government Headquarters. Upon receiving the video, headquarters immediately ordered Bucknell to destroy the original footage and not to disclose any information about it. Bucknell chose to remain silent.

The day after receiving the video, there happened to be a military conference held by the Federal Government, which was once again chaired by Marshal Balin.

As the day's meeting drew to a close, Balin played a video of Gu Ding's Titan Warship, saying, "Everyone, take a look at this."

In the footage, after the Titan Warship flew out of Helen Star's atmosphere, it was pursued and surrounded by twenty-three spaceships. Strangely, after the twenty-three spaceships locked their cannons on the Titan Warship, they did not fire. Subsequently, the Titan Warship opened fire, simultaneously bombarding the twenty-three spaceships and destroying them all.

"Did you see anything unusual in this video?" Balin casually picked up his teacup, took a sip, and asked, seemingly unintentionally.

"It's strange. Why didn't those ships fire when they were aimed at Gu Ding's ship? There was at least a three-second pause, enough time for two waves of attacks," a young general commented.

"Can anyone tell me how to achieve that three-second pause?" Balin put down his cup and glanced at everyone present.

"Soul Shock!" a fat man exclaimed.

"Mass Hypnosis is also possible," someone next to the fat man replied.

"It's possible the spaceship was hacked!" said a young man.

"Reed. You studied this video all night yesterday, you should have learned something, right?" Balin turned to look at Reed, who was standing behind him.

Reed nodded. Then he said, "When I first saw this video, I was also a little confused. I wondered if it was a satellite signal problem causing the delay or freezing, so I had a professional analyze the video. The analysis showed that there was nothing wrong with the video. In other words, the three-second pause was real."

"There are only two possibilities that could cause this situation: either the person controlling the artillery malfunctioned, or the spaceship's own attack system malfunctioned."

"The first type of attack can generally only be achieved through mental attacks, such as the Soul Shock and hypnosis mentioned by the generals earlier. However, mental attacks are generally subject to strict limitations on range. The distance between Gu Ding's spaceship and other spaceships is at least 30 kilometers, making such mental attacks ineffective, especially considering the spaceship's outer shell and protective shield."

"On the contrary, it's quite possible that the spaceship's attack system malfunctioned, because rumors say that Gu Ding is a highly skilled hacker, and it's not impossible for him to hack into the spaceship's system. Although the spaceship itself generally doesn't connect to the external network, eliminating the possibility of most hacker attacks, it can't be ruled out that Gu Ding has a way to directly access the spaceship's internal network and interfere with the attack system." Reed's speculation was not far from the truth.

"You know Gu Ding very well, and you should also know a little about the level of his hacking skills, right?" Balin suddenly thought of this topic.

"The Gu Ding I know knows absolutely nothing about hacking," Reed shook his head. "I taught him some basic hacking tutorials before, but he wasn't interested in learning them at all. Later, when he left Deep Sea Star to make his way in the world, many people said he was a powerful hacker, which I found a bit puzzling. Now that I think about it, the prison system's sudden malfunction on Deep Sea Star must have been related to him."

"The hacking skills he's supposedly displayed are said to be unmatched by many in the entire Universe Sea. However, true hacking skills require years of practice to even reach a certain level. It's impossible for Gu Ding to become as powerful as those legendary hackers in just a few days. So I've always suspected that there's another hacker in his team, but this member has never appeared in public."

Reed stated his deduction, but then added, "Of course, the existence of this unknown member is just my guess. It's also possible that Gu Ding suddenly had an epiphany and learned these hacking skills on his own."

No one knew that Reed's speculation was incredibly close to the truth. He had even deduced the existence of Sea Emperor, though he wasn't entirely sure about the results of his speculation.

"An unknown member..." Balin narrowed his eyes slightly, as if recalling something. "Deep Sea Star ...eight months ago..."

"Let's adjourn today's meeting," Balin suddenly said, slamming his hand on the table.

"But Marshal, we still have one more..." A middle-aged man stood up.

"That newcomer named Koude.Brad, is that it? You handle it yourself. You don't need to ask me for instructions on this kind of thing," Balin said, waving his hand.

The conference room was empty except for Balin.

After watching the last figure disappear from the conference room, Balin lowered his head and dialed a number.

The notification sound went off for a long time, and just as it was about to be automatically disconnected, it was finally answered.

"Marshal Balin? What can I do for you?" The voice on the other end of the communicator sounded like a young man.

"Sains, how much do you know about Super Intelligence?" Balin suddenly asked this strange question.

"Marshal, all I can tell you is that the Super Intelligence is very intelligent and powerful." Sains's voice carried a hint of laziness, seemingly unconcerned about who he was speaking to. "Also, when you uttered the words 'Super Intelligence,' this conversation must have already reached SkyNet's ears. You'd better not speak ill of it."

"Tell me everything you know!" Balin was eager to know everything about the Super Intelligence. (To be continued...)