Strike While the Iron is Hot

Strike While the Iron Is Hot

"Did you find a trace?" Chen Xuan asked calmly.

"Yeah, take a look at these posts." She pressed her finger against the monitor, and the content on the screen immediately jumped—the ability to directly control a computer without going through a port connection was truly incredible. "Their content is basically all the same, pointing all the noon events toward a movie promotion."

For instance, the trending discussion title Chen Xuan had looked at.

--"Didn't expect the response to be this good. Looks like the promotion for Ascension is really putting in work."

The original post also provided several photos: cameras set up in hidden spots, staff members retrieving underwater cables, and the back view of a woman in a long white robe getting into a reception car.

The discussions within the thread were also quite "professional." Although there was no shortage of netizens bantering, many replies carried the tone of industry insiders, pointing out what the equipment in the photos was used for.

Another post was even more outrageous, directly posting a snippet of a sneak-peaked rehearsal behind-the-scenes video, seeming to corroborate that this incident was completely a premeditated promotional campaign.

Beneath that, quite a few netizens who fancied themselves independent thinkers sneered and mocked the eyewitnesses who took the immortals seriously.

"No way, you guys actually believe this kind of thing? Why don't you believe I'm Qin Shi Huang?"

"Can those who believe it leave some contact info? I'll sell you insurance when you get old."

Chen Xuan figured out at last that believing or not believing was quite normal, but those actor photos and pretend-busy filming crew members were clearly not things ordinary netizens could pull off.

He enlarged the photo of the woman in white and examined it repeatedly, discovering that this person had facial contours and a figure somewhat similar to Liu Shuyue. Coupled with the fact that most eyewitnesses were quite far from the bridge, upon seeing this photo, they would subconsciously connect her with the immortal.

"Are you certain this is entirely the handiwork of the Dimensional Limit Organization?"

He had heard Lin Qing introduce this organization. Generally speaking, although the Dimensional Limit Organization was massive and possessed unfathomable abilities, lurking underwater for a long time made its operational style primarily covert and low-key. The branches in each region all had a logistics department, which was mainly responsible for handling information leakage issues, and among them, the most adept at mixing truth with falsehood and making fake acts seem real.

Only, during the period when Lin Qing was active, the organization had already split for decades, and its organizational structure, philosophy, and guidelines were completely different from the past. Coupled with the high level of internal secrecy within the organization back then, she could only understand a rough outline based on past materials.

Lin Qing affirmed, "Rather than a network-wide ban, it's better to intentionally guide it. The resources they can mobilize are quite astonishing, and if I'm not mistaken, this hastily pieced-together Ascension has probably already started filming. It won't take many days before you find that the theaters really will release a trailer; this cost is nothing to them."

"Of course, I have even more definitive evidence," she added. "I archived all the supportive replies and then handed them over to Little Green for analysis—"

"Wait, who is Little Green?" Chen Xuan interrupted.

"An E63 efficiency-type, my personal AI assistant. In the future, everyone equipped with an auxiliary thinking chip will have a built-in AI system."

So advanced... He felt a surge of respect. "Go on."

"Little Green found that over 85% of these replies were AI-generated. They match the linguistic output characteristics of the large model 'Cow', and 'Cow' is one of the AIs developed by the Dimensional Limit Organization, continuing to work for us even after the split."

Chen Xuan could not help but gently clap.

This was the future... using AI to fool humans, and then using AI to arrest AI. They had the whole job wrapped up.

"But why call it Cow?"

"Is the name important? It's nothing more than saying it eats grass and produces milk." Lin Qing shrugged. "The AI itself doesn't mind, what are you fussing about?"

"True." Chen Xuan turned back to the main topic. "I have to say, doing it this way makes it pretty easy to muddle through. If I didn't know Liu Shuyue, I'd definitely think the actor in the photo was the woman who jumped off the bridge back then."

"I won't let them off the hook so easily. At a time like this, we should strike while the iron is hot."

"You came up with a good idea?"

"Hmph, I'm no pushover." The young girl's eyes flashed, looking full of spirit. "There are too many vulnerabilities in this world's network security, making it just right for me to showcase my skills. Even if this trick can only be used once, it's enough to give them a headache."

The door to the supervisor's office was tightly shut, and from time to time, subservient replies could be heard coming from inside.

Out in the cubicles, everyone lowered their heads, pretending to be busy, but the actual extent of what they could do was just browsing the web to see if there were any new developments.

"The captain is probably getting chewed out terribly this time," someone muttered softly.

"Our dignified Execution Team actually got ridden over by people from the Logistics Team. It's simply a supreme humiliation!"

"Shh, they're right next door. Watch out for being heard."

Wang Baihu spun his pen boredly, his gaze remaining fixed on the video of the woman in white jumping off the bridge. He always felt that recent events were not going very smoothly. It seemed that ever since Honglian took the risk to enter the C102 Erosion Point only to fall short at the final hurdle, not a single mission could be properly closed out.

He dragged the mouse, adjusting the progress bar back to the middle—This is for the best, saving me from having to hunt you down world by world... Let's make an end of it. When the woman uttered this line, he pressed pause and placed another picture side-by-side, enlarging it.

That was an "exclusive photo" bought by the Logistics Team from other channels. The photographer was only five or six meters away from the woman in white, and the camera had clearly recorded her profile.

Even without facing the lens directly, one could catch a glimpse of her peerless beauty, belonging to the kind of exceptionally distinct type that one would never forget upon seeing.

"Did you find something?" someone asked from behind.

Without turning around, he knew the speaker was Honglian.

Wang Baihu stretched, having sat blankly in the chair for a whole day; no matter how good his physique was, his waist and back inevitably felt somewhat sore and numb. "No clue. The Intelligence Unit checked for a whole day and night without results, how could I see a problem? Assuming the backgrounds of these people are all real, it means they are all experienced Wanderers. On the bright side, after the woman wiped out those three opponents, she has already returned to her own world and won't threaten us anymore."

"But that doesn't make sense." Xiao Jiu from the neighboring cubicle poked her head over, saying in a soft, delicate voice, "Four people entering and exiting a world need to cross the Erosion Point. This will definitely generate multiple oscillation waveforms with consistent frequencies multiple times. Even if we still haven't discovered this Erosion Point, the machine would have recorded it as a major characteristic, yet the Intelligence Department says there's no such thing at all."

"You're a newcomer, so don't take everything written in the manual too seriously." Wang Baihu curled his lip. "The machine missing or misrecording things is a common occurrence. Heaven knows what the real situation is like. Even if she's still staying in Jiangcheng, judging from her appearance... she probably isn't the type of destructive and bloodthirsty freak who loves stirring up trouble?"

"Just because she looks good?" Honglian sneered.

He coughed twice. "Well... outer appearance reflects the heart, you know."

"I'd like to ask a question." Xiao Jiu looked at the two of them.

"Go ahead." Honglian was actually quite polite to this junior.

"What if... she really does stay in Jiangcheng and is unwilling to cooperate with the organization, and repeatedly enters and exits the Erosion Point thereafter—should we also treat her as an enemy?"

The two exchanged a glance.

Finally, Honglian nodded and replied, "That's right."

"What if she's a really good person? She just doesn't trust us, but she doesn't want to fight us..."

"Then we at least have to drive her out and make sure she never sets foot in this world again." Honglian let out a soft sigh. "I know what you're worrying about. It might seem like we're being unreasonable hosts, rejecting all outside visitors, but this is a necessary measure to protect our world. The expansion of the Erosion Point will devour the space we depend on for survival, and it will also let more and more people gain mutation abilities. Can you imagine everyone possessing the ability of Strong Seize or Hidden Kill?"

"That kind of society would be way too thrilling." Wang Baihu patted the little girl's head. "To let everyone stroll down the streets and eat midnight snacks without a single worry, rules like this are absolutely necessary."

Xiao Jiu first gave an affirmative hum, but quickly looked at him with an expression of utter shock.

Uh, is there something wrong with what I said?

He turned his head to look at Honglian, only to find the latter also staring at him with wide, fixed eyes.

Wang Baihu suddenly reacted and turned his head back around. The computer screen had turned pitch black at some unknown point, displaying a huge number "5" in the center.

Other colleagues in the office also let out cries of alarm one after another.

"Hey, what's going on? My computer seems to have been hacked!"

"Me too, I can't operate it!"

Then came 4, 3, 2, 1...

When the countdown ended, a person wearing a mask appeared on the screens. "Hello, everyone who can see this broadcast. As you can see, I am an ability user."