Cyber Demon

The atmosphere in the hall changed at once.

No wonder even the well-informed Old Minister had broken character—they were investigating someone who had sent an email directly to their dedicated inbox? Didn't that mean the other party not only knew they were under investigation, but also knew exactly who the investigators were?

"Is this... a provocation?" someone murmured.

"Let's take a look first." Gao Wei tapped the table, signaling everyone to quiet down.

The signal was soon connected to the central screen. Then, in full view of everyone, the Intelligence Division opened the seemingly ordinary email. After a simple unfolding animation, a red-and-black door appeared in the center of the screen, accompanied by the words "Click here to enter." More instructions lay beneath it, and Zhang Zhiyuan, sharp-eyed as ever, read them aloud.

"A new round of games is about to begin."

"To enter Paradise, you may choose one of the following two tickets: one million US dollars, or outstanding investigative and crime-solving skills."

"In Paradise, you will enjoy unparalleled sensory stimulation and entirely new cognitive experiences. Not only can you obtain generous rewards from the game, but your life and fate will also undergo brand-new changes. Whether those changes are for better or worse is entirely up to you."

"Paradise awaits your arrival."

"Damn!" Cui Zhenen blurted out the international universal language. "This can't even be called a provocation anymore, can it? How is this any different from shoving a declaration of war right in our faces?"

"What do they mean by investigative and crime-solving skills? Are they planning to have us participate too?"

"You can't trace where this email came from?"

"No. The gateway has no data records. It's as if it appeared in the inbox out of nowhere." The voice of an Intelligence Division colleague came through the screen. They were clearly at their wits' end as well. "We've cut off external network access and are checking for backdoors and viruses."

"Can we click the registration button now?" Cui Zhenen asked with great interest.

"Theoretically, there shouldn't be any problem. The email is currently inside a virtual sandbox."

"Click it and see." Gao Wei gave the order.

The Intelligence Division did as instructed. The red-and-black door slowly opened, revealing a perfectly ordinary registration form.

"Uh... that's it?" Cui Zhenen couldn't help saying.

In truth, that was what everyone was thinking—the image had been fine while it was still, but the moment it moved, its shoddy production quality was completely exposed. The textures were crude, the door-opening effect stuttered and dropped frames. Forget an experienced programmer—even a university student in a related major could have made something better. The registration form itself had clearly been made in PowerPoint. Typing it out by hand would have taken less than three minutes.

There was no doubt that the Caribbean Company's technical capabilities could never have produced something this cheap.

"It feels like a job application form from some small company..." one criminal police officer muttered.

"Someone's deliberately screwing with us."

"Xiao Zhang, what do you think?" Gao Wei called on him directly.

Although Zhang Zhiyuan was only in his twenties, he was highly capable and fluent in several languages. Since being transferred into the International Criminal Police department, he had repeatedly distinguished himself, and the higher-ups valued him greatly. That was why no one found it strange that Old Gao had asked him.

"To be honest... I don't know." He scratched his head, somewhat helpless. After all, something this absurd had never appeared in his career, or even in the case files of the entire police department. "But there's one point I think we need to pay attention to. We shouldn't assume in advance that the Paradise organization is connected to Wayne Jance. That man did participate in the game, but he also boarded the Heart of the Ocean cruise ship. We can't just conclude that the entire Caribbean Company is involved. Only with that premise does this matter become worth investigating further."

"Mm. Go on."

"There's another point that concerns me." Zhang Zhiyuan pondered for a moment. "We can fill out several copies of this form with three false answers and one true one. At worst, we lose one person's basic information. But if they can easily send an email in here, obtaining our surface-level information probably wouldn't be difficult either. Look..." He pointed at the screen. "It doesn't even ask about our titles or positions, nor does it involve any case details. Just things like height and gender. It feels a little like some kind of mind-control trick."

"Mind control? How so?" Old Gao asked.

"When our department interrogated criminals in the past, if a suspect was especially stubborn, the interrogating officer would start with simple questions that were easy to answer, gradually making them lower their guard," Zhang Zhiyuan explained. "The questions would often be things like what day of the week it was or what they had for dinner. After enough repetitions, the suspect would subconsciously develop obedience."

"Bold bastards. So they're testing our obedience!" Cui Zhenen slapped the back of her chair.

"That isn't the key point." He continued, "We make suspects obey because we need their testimony. In other words, there's a certain cooperative relationship between both sides. So why is Paradise doing this? Simple mockery and provocation wouldn't require such methods."

His words left everyone deep in thought.

Gao Wei spoke first. "So that's why you said we shouldn't assume Paradise is connected to Wayne Jance. Makes some sense... but if they think they can discuss anything with us, they're seriously mistaken. Invading a government network is already against the law. Once we find these people, I'll make sure they're brought to justice!"

"Exactly." Zhang Zhiyuan agreed. "We can give it a try. Register first, while having our cyber intelligence colleagues trace the signal and contact criminal police in other regions to surround them. Even if we can't catch Wayne Jance, we'll at least have a chance to figure out what exactly he did at the previous gathering."

"Should we send someone to question Zhou Zhi?" Cui Zhenen suggested.

"Keep watching him for now. We don't know whether he'll participate in the second game, so we shouldn't alert him." After considering it, Gao Wei made the decision. "If he continues participating, we leave him alone. If he makes no move, then we'll contact him when the game begins and ask directly about what happened at the first gathering. Though I have a feeling he won't be able to provide us with much help." Old Gao rose to his feet. "Then, everyone... move out."

"Yes!" everyone answered in unison.

"...They really are a sharp bunch." Chaoyang slowly opened his eyes and couldn't help sighing.

In fact, he had not only sent the email into their inbox out of thin air, but had also watched the entire meeting through the hall's cameras. This was one of his abilities.

The moment he awakened, Chaoyang had not only learned how Demons survived, but had also instinctively understood the abilities he possessed. Simply put, Demon Power could be divided into two main types. The first was "deception." It was both the core ability and something every Demon possessed. For example, invading dreams, constructing illusions, or creating temporary objects and phantasms—the Wish Force expenditure increased accordingly.

Creating physical objects in particular was practically equivalent to suicide on Earth, where Wish Force was so scarce. Had he not discovered that Wish Force surged abundantly in another world, he might never have been able to use this ability.

The other type was power unique to himself, the mark that distinguished each awakened Demon. Chaoyang's power allowed him to effortlessly intervene in networks, transforming those intangible electronic pathways into routes and doors he could intuitively understand.

The first time he used this power, even he had marveled at the tide of technological progress. Even Demons were keeping up with the times.

He called this ability the "Cyber Eye."

And he was the first Cyber Demon of the twenty-first century.