Uneasy Days

The first encounter with the Vampires ended unpleasantly, but it didn't escalate to the point of a blood feud...

Is that so? Henry wondered, feeling uneasy.

Based on the portrayal of Vampires in various films and television shows, this is a vengeful and evil creature. But one could also say that their lifespan is so long that they are particularly interested in things that provide amusement.

However, before the other party shows their attitude, it's not wise to use prevention as an excuse to attack them first. It would be too foolish to misjudge the situation and let it escalate to war without leaving any room for maneuver.

In the world of martial arts or the old society, one could say that striking first gives you the upper hand. But in modern society, it's all about taking full responsibility for striking first.

Furthermore, since this was their first encounter with Vampires, although the other guy, who looked like a thug, did fit Henry's image of a perverted Vampires, the other big shot was much more shrewd and not as impulsive as the young punk.

The latter requires more attention than the former. Because with Henry's experience and knowledge, he simply cannot predict what methods the other party will use.

Expecting the other party to forgive and forget is unlikely. Otherwise, Old Charlie from the Continental Hotel wouldn't have used the phrase "relentless pursuit." While Charlie Fisher's words may have their own purpose and cannot be entirely trusted, this statement can still be taken with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately, there weren't suitable people on hand to keep watch, nor were there any effective monitoring methods. So Henry could only passively wait for the opponent to make a move before he could think of a countermeasure.

Or they'd personally take charge, monitoring with Krypton technology 24/7!... Hmm, would that even allow for a normal life? Does just staring at Vampires really make life happier?

With this feeling of unease, the season progressed from late spring to early summer. Henry, ostensibly checking progress on Git, was slacking off in the Stark Studios CEO's office.

Although the internet in 1996 did not have as many resources as it would later have, and was relatively scattered, it already had a basic prototype.

In this era of the internet, the power of discourse is in the hands of portal websites. The traffic generated by Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, and Excite is the key to all websites' traffic, while search engines, with web crawlers at their core, have yet to take center stage.

Don't think that just because you created Google in this era, you can seize this enormous wealth.

The importance of portal websites lies in guiding netizens to use and become familiar with the internet. They are like a bibliography, telling readers what information is in the book and where to find it. But their role is limited to the book itself.

It will only change the online landscape to one dominated by search engines when internet users are no longer satisfied with the content in books, that is, when the limited information provided by portal websites is available. This will take time to cultivate.

However, for someone like Henry, the limited space on the homepage of a portal site offers far too little recommendation. Although not many websites rise to prominence through Google Pay, those that make it onto the homepage are truly high-quality sites.

This is also because the internet is still in its developmental stage, and most internet companies are simply throwing money around with enthusiasm, without yet figuring out a reasonable way to monetize it. So there's not much of a commercial aspect to it.

However, there are always some websites that cannot be discussed, and they are not featured on the homepage of these portal sites. Even internal searches will not yield relevant resources.

There are usually two reasons: one is that these websites are unwilling to be co-opted, and most of them will use technical means to block the traffic from the portal websites. The other is that the portal websites are self-regulating and dare not put the content and links of these websites on the site.

This was the prototype of what people would later call the Dark Web.

Some Dark Web methods are even more ruthless, like the Joker BBS set up by Henry. If network security technology is not up to standard, simply connecting to the website can lead to reverse intrusion.

Henry was certainly capable of ignoring all of that; he simply scanned all the responding IPs and monitored the internal messages of these network servers.

Although online information can be both true and false, as the fastest, most direct, and most unrestricted medium of communication, it certainly contains a lot of valuable intelligence from above.

So, Henry had been monitoring online content and refining his own search engine for a long time.

Now facing the threat of Vampires, and with no other clues, Henry naturally turned to the internet for information. However, most of the results he found were far-fetched Vampires stories.

Considering that Vampires can't openly declare themselves Vampires, neither can their blood servants and Vampires parties. The latter are humans who yearn to be converted and are trying to show loyalty to Vampires.

Only a very few arrogant individuals dare to reveal their identities online. However, the chances of them not being believed are also very high.

Most of the time, they communicate in a rather subtle way. Occasionally, after a deeper conversation, they might leave some clues for others, or they might accidentally let something slip.

Therefore, Henry continuously made adjustments to the program, trying to filter out websites or comments that might be useful, rather than simply using such a rudimentary function as keyword search.

Henry hadn't anticipated that resistance from the Vampires had already begun. However, it wasn't directed at him, but rather at those around him. They had held out until now, finally unable to resist coming to his doorstep.

JJ Harris, dragging Charlize Theron who couldn't stop her, barged into Henry's CEO office!

Henry, who had already sensed the situation with his Super Senses, was naturally not intimidated by the aggressive agent. However, her slamming of her hands on the table and her angry demeanor were still quite intimidating.

"What exactly did you do?" JJ Harris asked in a low voice, his voice sounding as if it were rolling from the depths of his throat, with a rumbling effect.

Henry, of course, couldn't answer such a nonsensical question. As for his girlfriend, who couldn't hold him back, she stood behind him, making an apologetic expression.

Henry said calmly, "I know what I did, but I don't know what affected you. So please sit down, and we can talk this over. Miss Williams, please bring my guest some coffee."

The chubby, dark-skinned woman, who should have been sitting in the small office outside, had half her face hanging out of the door, originally trying to eavesdrop on some gossip. Startled by Henry's call, she immediately replied and turned to operate the coffee machine.

Don't blame her for not stopping people; Henry never entrusted her with this kind of responsibility.

This CEO's office is open to anyone; all employees can consult with him at any time, unless there are special instructions or someone else is already inside.

Furthermore, the person who came was Charlize Theron. This girlfriend has been to Stark Studios more than once, so everyone should recognize her. This is one of the reasons why Charlize and JJ Harris could walk right in.