No Choice

For a large corporation, data confidentiality is always a top priority.

If you were a hacker, and you were to infiltrate a company in an attempt to obtain some secrets, the first thing you would face would be an endless Electronic Barrier.

Even if you manage to penetrate it one by one using certain methods, what you'll face next is a "data security project".

This could be a combination of thousands of security software programs, or dozens of neural editor teams patrolling the network day and night.

Moreover, even if you manage to open the "classified project," what follows are various documents that are either nine fake and one real, or nine real and one fake.

Many documents also contain electronic viruses.

Don't assume that mega-corporations can't handle viruses; they're incredibly adept at it.

One theory suggests that someone capable of hacking into a super-corporation's database must be at least a top-ten ranked hacker.

Generally speaking, these are the battles that make a hacker famous.

However, Gao Yuanyuan did not need to do any of the above operations.

All she needs to do is find a high-level person, unlock a human brain, or find a database and access it.

All viruses, firewalls, and monitoring systems were useless against her.

Virtual network underlying architecture

Virtual Firewall

Signal processing module

Virtual warehouse technology

"Who are you!?"

Finally, a high-ranking official in charge of network defense, during a random network patrol, navigated through a complex virtual maze and saw a girl in a white dress sitting upright in the virtual dimension, 'reading', her two little feet swinging back and forth.

The girl looked up and smiled slightly at him.

The next moment, the scene seemed to be playing in reverse. When the higher-ups came to their senses, they found themselves standing at the entrance of the maze. They were stunned for a moment and muttered to themselves.

"Oh right, I just remembered, I came here tonight on a whim to inspect the database."

"Why are you just spacing out?"

When he arrived at the girl's location following the original route...

There was no one in sight.

"Is there something wrong with the data defense module?" he asked.

"Nothing's wrong," the AI said.

Clearly, it was also rewound.

[Task Completed - 1 million experience points, 10 skill points, 10 specialization points, and one random virtual skill upgraded.]

[Second link in the Tier 2 "Hellish" quest chain - "Clues to the Cypherpunks"]

[Second Stage of the "The First Avalanche" Quest: "Clues to the Cypherpunks"]

Difficulty: Hard+

Mission Briefing: In the "Simulated Place," you decrypted the encrypted Punk 4131 file and discovered the meeting place of the "Punk Family," Room 320, Third Street, East London District. So, the objective is clear.

Mission objective: Locate the ruins of the ancient city of "Lent" and the location of the punk gathering.

Mission Rewards: 1.5 million experience points, and a random blueprint for "Punk Killer".

"The first step of this mission is complete? That was pretty fast."

It had only been half a month since the senior engineer sent out a hacker group to carry out the mission.

From the perspective of a "hellish mission", this is already quite fast.

At this moment, the senior engineer, who was sunbathing on the starship deck, was filled with emotion. He was finally enjoying the treatment of being a boss, and he could easily get his henchmen to solve problems for him with a simple gesture.

This feeling is pretty good.

I drew the reward of "randomly upgraded virtual skill".

[Your Tier 2 skill 'Uncoded Warrior' has been upgraded to 'Tier 3 - Information Black Cavalry']

The original skill description was as follows.

Uncensored: You will see through the barriers of code with your naked eye and glimpse the truth of the world.

The current skill description is as follows:

Information Black Cavalry (Tier 3): The surface of the information sea is always turbulent, and you, as a cavalryman, can traverse it.

This introduction is strangely a bit sleazy.

Is this still considered a 'vision skill'?

The senior engineer used the skill "Information Black Cavalry".

The next moment, the senior engineer felt his body disappear, from the physical cells to the chemical substances, then to various signals, and finally, even the signals disappeared.

The world around us has changed; it is no longer the material world, nor the data world, but an indescribable interactive world.

All the 'information' passed through his body and then came out from the other side.

The senior engineer tried it out and stepped into the ancient database 'Black Bar'. The bar was empty and there was no one there. Then, with a thought, 'Black Bar' disappeared, leaving only a denser amount of information, like black seawater, threatening to completely engulf him. It was a strong feeling of suffocation.

He wanted to jump out!

Then, he heard a neighing sound, and in a daze, he seemed to see a black horse riding him from the information layer to the data layer. The image of the "black bar" flashed by, and then "man and horse became one" and leaped high again.

This time, he seemed to see pure white light.

The senior engineer opened his eyes and found himself back in his body. After a moment's thought, he said:

"So this is a sensory skill."

The previous "uncoded individuals" allowed senior engineers to see changes in the data layer with the naked eye, essentially giving them a blind spot perspective.

And now this "Black Cavalry" is completely disintegrating itself, diving into the information sea that is even deeper than the data layer.

When he can't hold on any longer, a "dark horse" will appear, leaping up and bringing him back to reality.

And the identity of that dark horse is also clear: it is one's own 'physical body', the physical body that has returned from the information layer to the material layer.

"A very clever skill mechanism."

Compared to the purely vision-enhancing "uncensored" ability, this skill has a more complex mechanism, but for Gao Gong, a seasoned virtual expert, "complex" is synonymous with "useful".

He immediately thought of several operating methods.

For example, in the simplest case, once one is infected by an "electronic virus," one can "darkly leap across the ravine," jump into the information layer, and then jump out over the "electronic virus."

In this way, even the most dangerous "electronic viruses" are powerless against him.

It seems that this skill can also resolve rejection issues.

However, this requires further investigation.

As the saying goes, "good things come in pairs," and soon, the system notification sounded again.

[You gain professional knowledge - [Virtual Network Underlying Architecture]]

[You gain professional knowledge - [Virtual Firewall]]

[You gained professional knowledge - [Biosignal Processing Module]]

[You gain professional knowledge - [Standard Virtual Network Protocol]]

[You have gained professional knowledge - the Life Transformation Protocol]

[You gain professional knowledge - [Personality Anchor Points]]

[You acquire professional knowledge - [Memory storage anchor]]

Should we conduct occupational knowledge synthesis?

Yes

[Virtual Network Underlying Architecture] + [Virtual Firewall] + [Standard Virtual Network Protocol] + [Life Transformation Protocol] + [Personality Anchor Point] + [Personality Anchor Point] + [Memory Storage Anchor Point]

A large amount of knowledge was broken down, integrated, and poured into the senior engineer's mind, forming a new knowledge chain within the camp.

[You have acquired the Tier 2 Faction Knowledge Chain [Cyber Network]]

Cybernetic Network (Second Order): It is the foundational theory of cybernetic networks, the network connecting the physical world and virtual space, and a virtual technology that all other civilizations that are moving towards virtual civilization must master.

Purely virtual civilizations are extremely rare; most are cultivated by artificial intelligence itself. The fundamental theory behind creating virtual spaces capable of accommodating "virtual life" based on the laws of physics is the "cyber network."

Even in a place like the Cyber Test Site, where civilization is haphazardly modified and technology is haphazardly developed, the impact of "cyber space" on the test site ranks among the top three.

The senior engineer finally showed a relieved smile.

The path she followed in her previous life has finally been carried on, and Gao Yuanyuan can now create her own virtual space.

So this is what it feels like to win without lifting a finger?

"Your smile is so lewd."

A voice interrupted the senior engineer's joy.

The senior engineer opened his eyes and saw the young woman staring at him curiously.

"Why are you causing trouble here instead of doing your work?" the senior engineer said lazily.

"The corporate war just ended, there's no work to be done, and besides, she's in there too," the young woman pointed to her head, and with just a slight sense, the senior engineer could feel her spiritual power, which was like a vast ocean.

Brain in a vat, Little Woman Number Two.

"What is she doing here?"

Since she was able to transform, this "information monster" has been in a semi-free-range state, either polluting the radiation beasts or on her way to polluting them. In a sense, she has indeed succeeded, although she cannot break through the "planetary host" and transform into the Gaia will of this planet.

But to be honest, it would be difficult for Mother City to deal with her. Like Ye Da Loli in the "Electronic Brain Project", she has become an immortal monster.

"It's all because you scared me," the young woman pouted, then looked around nervously and said, "That thing you mentioned is too scary, she hasn't been going out much lately."

"It can't be that bad," the senior engineer said in surprise. "She's not you."

The young woman rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not kidding you. But the reason she's not coming out isn't because she's afraid. It's because she's planning to plant another tree to fight that 'monster' you mentioned."

Planting trees?

The senior engineer paused for a moment, then realized what it meant: was it the "Radiation Life Atlas Tree"? That super unstable SSS+ monster?

"Ambitious."

That's the only way a senior engineer can describe it.

Without a doubt, the other party coveted the ability of the 'Memory Mother', which in a sense is a super-deluxe version of the 'Brain in a Vat'.

If she can absorb the power of the 'Memory Mother', then the planet's mainframe will no longer be able to stop her.

If things go wrong, she might even be able to cultivate a super biological civilization.

However, the senior engineer was quite pessimistic about whether it could be done.

A path to integration cannot be achieved simply by planting a tree.

The terror of the 'Memory Mother' is truly unimaginable without having faced it head-on.

"So, what are your thoughts?" The senior engineer looked at Huang Yuanli. Since she had deliberately brought up this topic, she must have her own ideas.

"What I mean is," the young woman said hesitantly, "If she's in any danger, could you help her?"

"Disaster."

The senior engineer shook his head.

Taking the path of integration is like walking a tightrope.

Dealing with the memory matrix is like walking a tightrope with a third leg.

Only a seasoned veteran like him, with his systematic approach, time travel, broad vision, and wealthy women—in short, having gone through countless trials—dared to say he'd give it a try, and was always prepared to run away.

It was the 'cosmic relic' that gave him his last bit of confidence.

Otherwise, he would have run away long ago.

Seeing the young woman's disappointed expression, the senior engineer thought for a moment and said, "Let me put it this way, when she chose to do this, her life and death were no longer within our control."