Brain-Mine Hacker

As the senior engineer said, he did not interfere in the war.

He just burned down a few of the "Research Association's " data processing centers when others were attacking them.

Or, if the enemy uses some dangerous tactics, a few top hackers might suddenly appear out of nowhere and have a chat with the commander of the war.

Even when the "Research Association" gains the upper hand.

The super hackers who were helping out suddenly and inexplicably went on strike.

Therefore, not only did the enemies hate him to the core, but even their own people wanted to shove their leader into a latrine.

The only person who can be hated by both sides, and even by a third party in the Northern Hemisphere, is probably Senior Engineer.

At this time, however, the senior engineer was not at the Research Association headquarters, nor was he causing trouble on the battlefield. Instead, he appeared in Kowloon Walled City.

This is the old town of New Machinery City, the same place where "I love Baozi" met "carrying a knife but no umbrella on a rainy night".

Beside the senior engineer was a woman with an ordinary face and a scar on her right cheek.

Bird of Paradise.

Not every hacker is a shut-in.

At least this one is an athletic champion, especially fond of mountain climbing, long-distance running, and ball sports.

Among natural persons, her attributes are quite good.

Therefore, her figure is also very well-proportioned and fit.

"It has been confirmed that the source of the 'Avalanche' software sales is a hacker we recruited."

The bird of paradise walked calmly.

"His active clones are inside this fortified city."

What's your ranking on the wanted list?

"He wasn't ranked, but his 'mining software' is very good and sells very well in the 'mining circle.' He himself is also a professional seller in the 'mining circle.'"

"Oh."

Not all Cyber Hacker are all-rounders, capable of hacking into enterprise-level servers to steal trade secrets, or infiltrating cyberspace to create dangerous viruses.

In fact, these "special forces" type hackers are actually a minority.

Extreme specialization, focusing on a single "gray area," with all weaknesses except for one's strengths, is the norm for Cyber Hacker.

As for the "brain mining circle," it's somewhat similar to the ancient "crypto circle," except that they're not playing with digital currency, but with computing power currency, and they're not burning through graphics cards, but with human brains.

Hackers in this circle specialize in targeting other people's brains, treating human brains as their own "mining nodes" to extract computing power, and then using algorithms to create "computing power currency" which is traded on the black market.

If a senior engineer is a complete novice, his brain has now turned into a "mining pool".

In contrast to 'virtual currencies' that do not produce real value, 'computing power currencies' are very useful. For example, some companies need to conduct special experiments that cannot be conducted by burning computing power on enterprise servers; some corporate spies need 'temporary computing power' to download 'gray software' into their minds; and it is also used as a special currency for underground transactions.

This is a huge underground market.

However, these "brain-mining hackers" are at the very bottom of the hacker hierarchy.

It's not that they target ordinary people, but rather that they have close ties with certain "corporate front men" and frequently leak secrets from within the industry.

Many hackers don't want to deal with this kind of person.

"This 'Black Leaf' is quite well-known in that circle, otherwise they wouldn't have extended an invitation to him," Bird of Paradise added.

Is the "good reputation" of hackers a positive or negative term?

The senior engineer thought for a moment, then changed the subject instead of responding.

"I previously sent you to 'Johnson & Johnson' to talk to Murdoch. I heard you hacked into 'Mr. Murdoch'?"

"Yes, we hacked right into his brain and turned him into an idiot."

Although the four hackers he sent out were all top experts in the field.

But if a super entrepreneur were so easy to deal with, that would be absurd.

Therefore, the "Merckt" they hacked into was most likely a fake.

"How are you feeling?"

The senior engineer suddenly said something out of the blue.

The bird of paradise understood what the other meant and thought for a moment.

"It was easier than I imagined. It had the strength of a normal enterprise defense system, with various types of Electronic Barrier and anti-hacking measures. I even fought against a few old rivals, all of whom were experts who had retired from the six departments of the mother city."

The senior engineer turned a corner, his gaze sweeping across the dark alleyway, where he noticed menacing eyes fixed on the two of them.

"Too normal in itself implies abnormality."

This is during a corporate war, and the opponent is a large biotech giant. If it's just normal network defense strength, something is quite wrong.

Bird of Paradise frowned and thought for a moment, then said:

"However, nothing went wrong during the whole process. I also had Miss Yuanyuan check, and there were no anti-tracking plugins installed in my own virtual data."

"That's even more interesting," the senior engineer joked, stopping in his tracks and looking at the old, dilapidated building in front of him that didn't even have an elevator.

"This must be the place, the 29th Tower Village, the address of that 'Black Leaf'."

This is deep inside the Kowloon Walled City, dilapidated, chaotic, and inhabited by some "walking dead".

"Go up," the senior engineer said.

The bird of paradise glanced around and said stiffly:

"Let me clear the area first."

This super hacker seemed to be expressing his dissatisfaction with the senior engineer. The next moment, accompanied by a clear phoenix cry, flames spilled from every floor of the surrounding dilapidated buildings, and every building was engulfed in flames.

What's even more interesting is that the living people on the other floors ignored the fire and were completely unaffected.

"The surrounding data nodes and underlying network have been blocked, so even if it's a clone, he can't escape."

The bird of paradise said coldly.

"Don't get agitated. Tell me, what exactly did 'Embroidered Moon' want from me before?"

If the other party is a wealthy woman, then the senior engineer is like a fierce yet adorable wild wolfhound, charming in every situation.

If the other party doesn't have the "rich woman" attribute, then the senior engineer immediately transforms into a comedian, born specifically to annoy people.

Following behind the other person, Bird of Paradise looked quite displeased. Just as she was about to retort, her eyebrows suddenly furrowed.

The old staircase looked very crowded, with men, women, and children squatting or lying down, their expressions blank, and there were even quite a few androids.

"Miners?" the senior engineer asked.

As a seasoned hacker, Paradise Bird nodded, clearly having figured it out at a glance.

These people have mining software running in their minds.

"That's really strange. Hackers aren't gangsters. Even if they're mining, they're just spreading viruses on the internet and attacking randomly. There's no need for them to gather so many people together."

"You've forgotten, now that cyberspace is gone, reality is virtual, and virtual is reality."

The data lights in the bird of paradise's eyes lit up, and after scanning around, a large area of the corridor was quickly cleared.

"So they're all virtual avatars? Tsk, they're just like real people."

In a world of global integration, unless a highly skilled engineer observes carefully, it is truly difficult to distinguish between a living person and a virtual illusion.

Most of the living people disappeared, and only a few androids remained.

"I heard that the latest legislation on androids specifically targets the smuggling of androids and the use of their personality chips for cryptocurrency mining?"

The bird of paradise didn't want to talk.

The two went up to the third floor, room 302, which was the offline location of the hacker "Black Leaf".

Without a word, Bird of Paradise kicked off with his muscular thighs, and with a loud bang, the door was kicked open.

A room that was neither particularly messy nor particularly clean, and a young man carrying a hacked version of the "network implantation pod".

The senior engineer's arm instantly deformed, and one after another, "skin-peeling snakes" shot out, quickly binding the other party.

"You--"

The young man's eyes rolled back as the "cracked implantation pod" hissed and crackled, clearly preparing to launch and run away. However, a second later, black smoke billowed from the implantation pod, indicating that it hadn't actually escaped.

Without saying a word, Bird of Paradise placed one hand on the other's head, and two beams of electronic light simultaneously shone from their eyes.

Compared to interrogation, hacking in directly is more efficient.

As for the senior engineer, he looked around the small room and quickly found something that interested him on the bookshelf: an old-fashioned disc with dense white snowflakes on the cover.

Another avalanche!

A moment later, the bird of paradise frowned and released its grip.

"He has no memory of anything related to this 'avalanche,' so perhaps that part of his memory is stored elsewhere."

"Unlikely," the senior engineer shook his head, waving the disc in his hand.

"If he really didn't want this part of his memory to be discovered, why would he leave such a conspicuous thing behind?"

Black Leaf was quickly awakened. Faced with the two menacing intruders, he remained completely submissive, shrinking back, bowing his head, and lowering his eyes.

"I can't remember where this came from. I have a hobby of collecting old music CDs and often go on shopping sprees at antique shops. Maybe I bought it from an antique shop while I was shopping there."

"Did you know that someone is selling this online, and you're the one who ultimately brought it here?!"

"I have never done such a thing. People in our line of work have to keep a low profile. We are not DVD dealers, and we would never distribute any 'dangerous software' on a large scale. That would be suicidal, and customers would no longer trust us."

"Black Leaf" quickly offered an explanation.

The senior engineer and Bird of Paradise exchanged a glance. Bird of Paradise said coldly, "Then hand over the other backup memories so I can check them one by one."

Black Leaf chuckled dryly, "Beautiful lady, as you know, in our line of work, handing over backup memories is a death sentence."

"You think you're exempt from dying now?" the bird of paradise retorted.

"Although I can't escape, at most only this one physical account will die," 'Black Leaf' said confidently.

"Really? Then let's give it a try."

The senior engineer called out to Gao Yuanyuan in his mind, and soon, five coordinates were transmitted over.

The purple light flashed several times.

Five "black leaves" appeared in the small house, all of them in a state of unconsciousness.

Amidst the terrified gaze of the 'Black Leaf,' the senior engineer chuckled:

"Don't get excited, you might have a backup stored online."