Network Information

Network Information

"Finally, I can be independent."

In the end, Huang Ji boarded the train to Magic City.

Although the school term did not begin until September, Fan Lingli and Zheng Xuan had to return to work within the week, so on April 12, the three of them traveled to Magic City together.

Since he was going to school, they thought it would be best for him to get used to life in YC City early. They believed Huang Ji probably did not even understand some basic common sense, so they planned to have him stay in Magic City for four months first to familiarize himself with the place.

Huang Ji naturally raised both hands in agreement. He had not come to attend school in the first place; he just wanted to get out into the world.

"Let Huang Ji stay with you. You're usually so free—teach him more," Fan Lingli said.

"This..." Zheng Xuan looked troubled. His real profession was hacking. Although Huang Ji was mildly intellectually disabled, he still felt it would be inconvenient to live with him.

"Let's rent him another place."

Fan Lingli shook her head. "What? You promised his Grandpa you'd take good care of him, and now you don't want to bother?"

"Can't we just rent the place across the hall? I promise I'll take good care of him," Zheng Xuan said awkwardly.

Fan Lingli narrowed her eyes. "What's this about? It's not like I've never been to your place. You got some treasure hidden there? Or are you planning to bring other women back to play, and you're worried he'll be in the way?"

"How could that be? My place is just too small. Fine, I won't argue. Leave him to me, okay?" Zheng Xuan said.

"His Grandpa entrusted him to us, and he entrusted the money to us too. You'd better take this seriously!" Fan Lingli said.

"Don't worry." Zheng Xuan patted his chest.

Fan Lingli nodded. She was usually busy with work, while Zheng Xuan's job was relatively leisurely and gave him more time off. It was best to leave Huang Ji in his care for the time being.

Only after seeing Zheng Xuan promise to take it seriously did she feel at ease.

After arriving in Magic City, the two of them took Huang Ji out for a meal, then brought him to buy a phone and all sorts of daily necessities.

After that, Zheng Xuan took him home.

As soon as Zheng Xuan got back, he called the landlord and rented a room across the hall for Huang Ji.

This way, he and Huang Ji lived separately, each with their own private space.

He did not explain his actions, but Huang Ji understood perfectly well.

It was simply that Zheng Xuan did not want anyone watching when he did certain things. Zheng Xuan had his secrets, and so did Huang Ji. This arrangement suited him just fine.

"You noticed that private kitchen restaurant downstairs, right? I usually have them bring food upstairs. You can do that too—just put it on my tab. But you'd better not wander around. When it's mealtime, just come over to my place and eat with me."

Zheng Xuan rambled on. After listening, Huang Ji said, "I saw a Xinhua Bookstore on the way up. I want to go take a look at some books."

"Sure, I'll go with you." Zheng Xuan took him downstairs.

The apartment building stood right by the street, with restaurants, bookstores, supermarkets, and everything else nearby.

When they reached the bookstore, Huang Ji picked up a copy of Ten Thousand Whys and began reading.

Zheng Xuan smiled and pulled out a book on economics to read.

But half an hour later, he had lost patience. Looking at Huang Ji again, the boy had not moved at all, as though he were completely immersed in an ocean of knowledge.

How is this an inability to concentrate? His patience is clearly far better than an ordinary person's, Zheng Xuan thought. Of course, he could not rule out the possibility that Huang Ji was simply spacing out...

Zheng Xuan looked around and paced back and forth, losing his own composure instead.

He was getting impatient, yet he could not bear to urge Huang Ji. He merely said, "If there are any books you like, just buy them and read them at home."

Seeing this, Huang Ji smiled. "I don't know what I like yet..."

"If Brother Xuan has something to do, go ahead. I'll be fine by myself."

Seeing how obedient he was, and how unlikely he seemed to run off, Zheng Xuan thought about it and nodded. "Then I'll go upstairs first. Remember to come back for dinner. Forget it, I'll come down and find you."

Huang Ji nodded. Zheng Xuan gave him a few more reminders before leaving.

After watching Zheng Xuan return to the apartment building, Huang Ji put down the book and walked straight out of the bookstore.

He went to the subway station, studied the subway map for a moment, then bought a ticket and boarded the train in one smooth motion.

Even if Zheng Xuan were beaten to death, he would never have imagined that Huang Ji would simply take the subway and leave.

Magic City Mail Divide Transport Transit Station.

Huang Ji needed to confirm whether his money had arrived.

Before leaving his hometown, Huang Ji had used certain methods to send out that box in advance, addressing it to the home of one of Zheng Xuan's friends.

Of course, Huang Ji would not actually let those three million be delivered to a stranger's home.

He only needed to pick it up himself with his ID before the package was dispatched.

Even if he missed it, it would not matter. Zheng Xuan's friend's ID number would not match, so he would not be able to claim the box. The package would eventually be returned and would remain at the transit station for a while, giving Huang Ji another chance.

What Huang Ji needed to do now was simply go directly to the transit station and retrieve the box before it was delivered to its destination.

"That was fast. It's already here."

Once Huang Ji confirmed that his package had arrived, he immediately picked it up.

The seventy-pound box was too troublesome to carry, so Huang Ji hailed a taxi to transport it.

Naturally, he did not take it back to Zheng Xuan's apartment. Instead, he headed to a high-rise apartment building in the eastern outskirts of Magic City, where he had already arranged with the landlord to view a place.

Huang Ji had no intention of saving money. In no time at all, he paid cash to rent a four-bedroom apartment with two living rooms.

Inside, he opened the box, took out two hundred thousand, put it into a backpack, and began shopping nearby.

He mainly bought a computer. Through Zheng Xuan, Huang Ji had learned that this thing was extremely useful. This was the age of the internet.

He directly bought a computer with the exact same configuration as Zheng Xuan's, had fiber internet installed, and got a multifunction printer as well.

After seeing off the technician who had helped install the printer, Huang Ji smiled as he looked at the computer.

"So there really is a difference between theory and practice..."

Huang Ji eagerly sat before the computer and operated the mouse with stiff, awkward movements.

He had never touched one of these things before. Although he had gained a basic understanding of computers through Zheng Xuan, he was still like a complete novice when actually using one.

"Through a browser, I can access thousands of websites. With a powerful search engine, I can search for anything I need. Wonderful..."

Like everyone experiencing the internet for the first time, Huang Ji browsed with curiosity and excitement.

He did not want to miss news recommendations, other people's comments, or any words that caught his interest.

What was even more unique for Huang Ji was that he could see through the surface-level information online and perceive the vast amount of hidden information behind it!

"Hiss, there's too much information..."

After probing only slightly deeper, Huang Ji felt dizzy and hurriedly blocked most of it out again.

"I'll only explore deeper when I see something that interests me."

Huang Ji opened Du Niang and typed, one pinyin syllable at a time, searching for "aliens."

However, the results were either movies, company names, or electronic products.

Unable to find what he wanted, Huang Ji thought for a moment and added "moon" after "aliens."

This time, some things actually related to reality finally appeared: "There are aliens on the far side of the moon," "America saw UFOs during the moon landing," "There is a base on the far side of the moon where alien spacecraft are docked."

All kinds of UFO enthusiasts discussed these topics on their own forums and message boards.

Huang Ji read with great interest. These were all novel things he had never seen before.

"So many people believe in aliens just like I do. They don't have my ability, yet they can still prove the existence of aliens from small clues."

"Aliens have always been around us? That's right, what he said is completely correct!"

"There's an alien base on the moon? It may not be on the surface—the one I know of is inside it—but perhaps there was one on the surface too. America's astronauts have already seen it? But... why has school never mentioned anything like this..."

Huang Ji quickly found the original poster who had made those claims on the message board and looked at his ID.

"Na Mei Ke Jin Ren?"

Huang Ji blinked, and information about that ID immediately flooded into his mind.

Place of registration and the ID used, current IP address, login account, previous passwords, active passwords...

Even whether the person was currently online, what posts he had made, what he had browsed, every login time, and every read, unread, saved, and deleted private message...

It was worth noting that all of this was real information, regardless of whether the website's server had any records.

Whether posts had been deleted or not, Huang Ji could perceive them. Even content the website itself could not retrieve could be found by Huang Ji through the information, as long as it had once been posted or viewed by the account called "Na Mei Ke Jin Ren"!

He even knew that this person was currently online at a place called Star Diamond Internet Cafe in Jin Men... seated at computer Number 12, with a balance of fifteen yuan.

In fact, this person called "Na Mei Ke Jin Ren" had not registered the account with his real ID at all. He had simply found someone else's ID number online and used it.

When Huang Ji perceived his real identity, he discovered that the ID used for registration did not match the account's true owner at all.

"The information I perceive exists somewhere beyond our awareness... Or perhaps it is information inherent to the universe itself? It does not need any physical medium in reality to preserve it..."

"He never registered under his real identity, yet I can still find him... If I were a security expert, every hacker in the world could be sent to prison..."

Through perceiving Zheng Xuan, Huang Ji had gained some understanding of a hacker's work. At the very least, he knew that Zheng Xuan had once infiltrated the personal computer of the president of Wall Securities Company on Wall Street in America and obtained evidence of his financial fraud. With the threat, "I'm very familiar with the FBI," Zheng Xuan had easily extorted one million dollars.

That was where the money in his Morgan Bank account in America had come from. Of course, timing mattered too. Because the man himself had been involved in shady business, the so-called Wall Street tycoon chose to pay for peace and did not dare pursue the matter too deeply. He only made a token effort to trace the hacker who had extorted him.

After all, it was only one million. If the FBI obtained the evidence and brought charges, the legal fees alone would exceed one million. If he were convicted, the fine would be fifty times that amount, and he would also go to prison.

So, with technical skills in hand, making money was truly too easy.

Of course, Zheng Xuan had not withdrawn the money. The annual interest alone was enough for him to live his seemingly ordinary Little Days in Magic City.

The premise behind all this was skill. Without real ability, even a fat sheep could become a vicious wolf.

Now, on Huang Ji's first time online, merely by looking at someone else's account, he could learn the person's true identity and even know where they were accessing the internet from...

Through any of a person's online accounts, as long as they logged in, he could know their internet access location. Even if they were not online, he could know the location from which they had last logged in...

This probably was not limited to ordinary accounts. It likely included anonymous traces left behind by hackers after an intrusion.

Taking a step back, even if a hacker left nothing behind, as long as he used the internet to send Huang Ji even a single sentence—or even one letter—for him to see...

Huang Ji would know who had sent that information...

Without a doubt, he realized that he was the nemesis of all hackers.

Online anonymity? Information disguises? Erasing traces? Proxy servers? Zombie computers? None of it meant anything.

P.S.: Sorry.