Containment Team

Shao Yuan took the laptop from the back seat, holding it in his hands with surprise.

The screen was filled with dense hacking tools, various software programs running simultaneously.

Moreover, the entire system was different – a remarkably simple and ugly operating system that Shao Yuan had never seen before.

"Did you design all these programs and this system? As expected of a Cleaner, I'm getting more and more excited about your work," Shao Yuan said.

After all, Bai Ge had become quite mysterious in his eyes. He had some suspicions, like perhaps Bai Ge was a national agent, or even a hacker, a killer, or something similar.

Shao Yuan knew what Bai Ge had been doing before; on the surface, he was a private investigator, but in reality, he was a Cleaner.

Later, when Bai Ge displayed his hacking skills, his disguise abilities, and his uncanny knack for investigating evidence, it made Shao Yuan even more convinced that Bai Ge was a super Cleaner.

"Just how far have your hacking skills progressed?"

As Shao Yuan spoke, he followed Bai Ge's instructions and navigated to a dark web page.

Bai Ge replied, "My hacking skills are roughly world-class. Among them, my intrusion technology is unmatched."

With his Universal Unlock ability, Bai Ge's claim of being invincible at intrusion was, so far, quite plausible.

"Really? Are you the world's number one hacker?" Shao Yuan asked, his voice filled with surprise.

Then, Bai Ge immediately added, "It's not what you think... My hacking skills are still within the realm of humanity. You'll soon see how powerful skills that are not human are..."

"Not human?" Shao Yuan sounded confused.

He clicked on the Foundation's containment item list, and an immediate warning popped up.

"Unauthorized access detected from real IP. Network Guard is processing immediately."

Recalling Bai Ge's words, Shao Yuan immediately threw the laptop away.

In this regard, he was quite obedient, following Bai Ge's instructions without hesitation.

"Bang!"

The laptop exploded in mid-air.

The explosion was small, but it could still injure someone at close range.

Shao Yuan stared blankly at the exploding laptop wreckage as it fell into the roadside weeds, then turned back to Bai Ge after a long moment.

"Why did it explode? Can a computer explode with that much force?"

Normally, a computer might burn out, break down, or have some internal components short-circuit.

But to explode, and to turn an entire computer into wreckage, was truly terrifying.

Bai Ge said, "This is what I wanted you to see – non-human power, or you could say, surreal power."

"Surreal?" Shao Yuan was startled. He recalled the pages Bai Ge had shown him earlier; he had glimpsed a few names but didn't understand their meaning.

Bai Ge explained, "As you just saw, even the strongest hacking skills can't remotely cause a computer to explode, let alone be destroyed beyond repair."

"But the Foundation's 003-Network Guard did it. I installed the strongest defense system possible on my computer and activated numerous tools to resist network attacks, but it was useless. As soon as I logged into the Foundation's dark web, the Network Guard would immediately detect my unauthorized IP and then blow up my computer! Destroy all the data inside."

Shao Yuan said, "Even though it exploded, if the hard drive could be found, maybe it could still be repaired?"

Bai Ge shook his head. "The hard drive can be repaired, but the data is gone. I tried. After repair, all the data inside had vanished. The entire process is irreversible. This is a supernatural attack."

Actually, there was one more thing he hadn't mentioned. Bai Ge had tried to put the computer into his brain hole at that very moment.

But he still couldn't save the computer; it exploded instantly.

Through his investigation, he discovered that the so-called 'Network Guard' wasn't a super-powerful technology, but rather a characteristic.

Any computer that needed to be dealt with would have its data itself become a type of explosive, blowing up the computer.

Yes, a data bomb – a data stream capable of destroying physical matter.

This was one of the Network Guard's abilities. It didn't engage in offensive and defensive battles, or Trojans, or hacker games...

When an invisible, intangible data stream entered a computer, that computer would explode as if a bomb had been planted.

Bai Ge could find ways to isolate this data stream, but it was inherently part of the Foundation's page data.

In other words, if Bai Ge went to great lengths to isolate this data, it meant he was exiting the Foundation's page.

Shao Yuan blinked, still struggling to fully accept the supernatural concept.

"Supernatural attack, what exactly is going on?"

Bai Ge explained, "Anything that humans cannot understand can be called surreal. And things that violate certain objective laws can be called supernatural."

"The several items recorded in the Foundation are surreal and supernatural things. It could be an object, a person, a phenomenon, a scene, an area, or even a concept. Because of this, they can severely impact society and cannot be spread freely. They need to be contained and controlled, which is why they are collectively called containment items."

"Don't try to fully understand a containment item, because it might just be a setting, something that shouldn't exist in reality but inexplicably does..."

"So far, the largest containment organization I know of is the Foundation, which is the dark web you just hacked into. Of course, that dark web is just one of their online portals. Their mission is to effectively control all containment items, whether by sealing, imprisoning, destroying, or by guiding and utilizing them properly, to prevent them from harming humanity and affecting society..."

After listening, Shao Yuan said, "Isn't that a good thing? If what you're saying is true, someone has to contain and control those things, otherwise wouldn't society fall into chaos?"

Bai Ge chuckled. "That's true... but do you know the first major thing the Foundation did upon its establishment?"

"What was it?" Shao Yuan shook his head; of course, he didn't know.

"Kangaroo Extinction!"

"Ah? So kangaroos were extinct because of them? Those bastards!" Shao Yuan suddenly said angrily, slapping the car door.

Seeing his agitation, Bai Ge asked in confusion, "I'm only just finding out, do you love kangaroos that much?"

"No, I haven't dissected any! With the kangaroos extinct, this animal vanished from Earth, and I'll never know its physiological structure!" Shao Yuan said furiously.

"..." Bai Ge was a bit speechless.

Shao Yuan continued, "Ever since I learned about the kangaroo extinction, I was sad for a long time! An animal I never got to research, gone forever, and I'll never have the chance to dissect them. Can you understand that feeling of regret?"

Bai Ge chuckled, "I can understand, but isn't your focus a bit off?"

Bai Ge then continued, "The Foundation's purpose in causing the kangaroo extinction was to deter other countries. Since containment items appeared, naturally some people discovered and obtained them, including national governments and individuals. The Foundation is the largest non-governmental containment organization, and its establishment is naturally not recognized by any nation."

"And the decision the Foundation made was to display immense power that would make other countries hesitant to act rashly, serving as a form of... ultimate deterrence, surpassing nuclear weapons."

"This deterrent power comes from a containment item, the Foundation's 001-Extinction Document."

Shao Yuan swallowed, "I thought you were just bringing me along for jobs like infiltration, theft, destruction, espionage, and even assassination, which I could accept... but this... Extinction Document? Can it cause human extinction?"

"I don't know!"

Bai Ge didn't speculate too much, instead stating rigorously, "What exactly are the anomalous properties of the Extinction Document, no one knows except those within the Foundation."

"But even this unknown is enough to make countries compromise."

"Sometimes, the unknown is even more terrifying. If we all knew the specific details of the Extinction Document, then it might be possible to target it, to find ways to counter or deal with it."

"However, since we don't know, and before more intelligence is gathered, all national and private organizations, and even individuals who are aware of this deterrent power, will not dare to pressure the Foundation, at least not excessively."

Shao Yuan nodded, "I understand now, Bai Ge. You're one of the people who's been deterred, aren't you? Do you belong to a country? Or are you an individual? Do you have... a containment item?"

Although Shao Yuan still didn't fully grasp everything, at least he understood the situation.

Outside the society of ordinary people, there was a circle of containment items, and the main structure of this circle was the Foundation, along with some national organizations.

Of course, there were also individuals who had obtained containment items.

So, at this point, how could Shao Yuan not realize that Bai Ge possessed a containment item?

Bai Ge smiled, "Yes, I do have a containment item, it's this bow tie. It has some supernatural properties, which I'll reveal to you slowly later. To prevent enemies from knowing, I can't tell you for now."

Since he had decided to embark on the path of containment with Shao Yuan, there was no need to hide the existence of containment items.

However, the existence of the brain hole had to be kept secret.

Because Bai Ge couldn't let anyone know that he could customize properties, and even that all containment items indirectly appeared because of him.

This secret was too big; he was determined to keep it forever, attributing everything to the containment items. Even if someone discovered his power in the future, they would only think he was similar to others who obtained containment items, not special.

Let alone Shao Yuan, he couldn't even tell his sister.

It wasn't a matter of trust, but rather containment items... who knew what bizarre properties they might have?

Some things weren't truly secret just because Shao Yuan didn't mention them.

What if someone read his memories? What if he was controlled? What if someone overheard him mentioning the brain hole while talking to himself one day?

Therefore, Bai Ge even decided not to reveal the specific properties of the bow tie, but to let Shao Yuan gradually understand them later.

"I understand, if you don't want to say, then don't. Your hacking skills must have been granted by a containment item, right?" Shao Yuan said, showing understanding.

"No, the skills aren't. Although I know a lot of knowledge, I learned it myself. Come on, if my skills were an anomalous property, I'd definitely be the God of Hackers by now!" Bai Ge chuckled.

He directly stated that he was self-taught. After all, he would continue to learn knowledge in the future, so attributing this to a containment item was meaningless. It was better to portray himself as a scholar.

For the rest of the journey, Bai Ge had Shao Yuan browse the Foundation's public website. This website was searchable by anyone and was merely a web-novel chain, edited by many netizens using their imagination.

Although it had nothing to do with the real Foundation, the content within could greatly help Shao Yuan understand the various concepts of containment items.

Along the way, Shao Yuan read a lot, and of course, he knew it was purely for reference.

As they neared Yicheng, Shao Yuan asked, "We're coming to Yicheng for containment, right? Did you discover a containment item here?"

Bai Ge nodded, "Yes, it could be an individual, or someone possessing a containment item."

"How do you know?" Shao Yuan asked.

Bai Ge took out his phone and opened an electronic map, which directly displayed a red dot in Yicheng.

"This phone can mark the location of supernatural phenomena on the map. The red dot in Yicheng moves around during the day and is stationary for a considerable amount of time at night. This pattern of being active during the day and resting at night clearly indicates it's human."

"Of course, it's not impossible that it's an animal."

Shao Yuan looked at the phone, "Is this phone also a containment item?"

Bai Ge smiled, "Yes, it's my first containment item. It's how I... obtained the bow tie."

He deliberately reversed the order to explain why he had multiple containment items.

Shao Yuan chuckled, "I get it. You use this... containment item that can find other containment items, so you can obtain more containment items with it."

"I completely understand your intention. We're actually a containment organization... no, we should be a containment team!"