Friend, Have You Heard of Little X?

As dawn slowly brightened, a sliver of pearly white pierced the darkness, ushering in the light of a new day.

At that moment, within a three-hundred-square-meter mansion in Shangdu's exorbitantly expensive inner ring, faint snores drifted out without pause.

The room's decor seemed to follow a classical European style, but the clothes strewn everywhere, scattered beer bottles, overturned trash can, and ashtray all spoke of the homeowner's slovenliness.

On a luxurious Dream Paris bed, a mature man around thirty was sleeping soundly.

The man's face still retained some of the heroic spirit from his youth, but beneath the vaguely thickening middle-aged spread, that spirit was nearly gone.

In modern internet slang, he would probably be called "greasy."

The man's name was Zhan Fei. Seven or eight years ago, he had made his fortune through YY. Four years ago, he had founded his own guild and signed several hundred streamers to various platforms. Now, he mainly made his money through the livestreaming industry.

However, that was only his public identity.

In secret, Zhan Fei was also a hacker. He had dropped out of school early. After hearing that the computer industry had a promising future, he studied computer programming, then gradually became obsessed with the unrestrained freedom of the internet.

Back then, relying on his youthful aptitude, Zhan Fei began exploring the Dark Web, plunging headfirst into the internet's most evil forbidden zone, a place beyond even the reach of the law.

Over time, Zhan Fei honed a full range of skills—infiltration, cracking, compiling, decompiling, and more. In 2016, he had even written an incredibly destructive Worm Virus himself, earning several hundred thousand dollars.

Even now, he still lurked in the shadows of the internet. Like an assassin, no one in the world knew his true identity.

But today, that fact was completely shattered.

"Beep beep beep..."

Zhan Fei, who had only just fallen asleep, was suddenly jolted awake by a strange alarm.

It was a clear, music-box-like tune. The entire song consisted only of crisp melody, without any accompaniment or harmony, giving it a tranquil and pure quality.

But to someone who had been woken just as they were falling asleep, even the most beautiful melody was still noise.

"Damn it..."

Zhan Fei muttered under his breath. He grabbed the phone beside his bed, then froze.

The moment he unlocked his phone, the ringtone stopped.

A notification on the screen informed him that he had received an anonymous email.

Although Zhan Fei was nearing middle age, years spent moving through the underworld had left him highly vigilant. The moment he saw this, he immediately sensed that something was wrong.

He had never set an alarm for seven in the morning, nor had he ever set a ringtone he had never heard before.

More importantly, this email address was the one he used for his Dark Web identity. Fewer than ten people in the world knew the account.

"Did my phone get infected?"

Zhan Fei frowned. Out of a hacker's caution, he did not open the email. Instead, he sprang out of bed and carried his phone over to the computer.

He casually found a USB cable and connected the computer to his phone. Only then did he download the compressed file onto his heavily fortified computer.

He also opened an Android emulator, preparing to open the unknown email on his computer.

After extracting it, he discovered that it contained three software installation packages.

"Little X Translation Assistant? What the hell is this?"

Zhan Fei looked stunned. He read the description below. "Software that can translate foreign-language webpages? What does that have to do with me?"

Still, since it had come from the Dark Web, Zhan Fei made every preparation before installing the package onto the Android emulator.

The program's icon was cartoonish overall, basically a large X with two eyes on top, like something from an animated drawing.

Zhan Fei double-clicked the icon. Immediately, the emulator screen was covered by a transparent film, and the software displayed a pop-up window.

"Chinese system detected. Automatically translate all foreign languages into Chinese?"

Zhan Fei thought for a moment, then clicked "Confirm."

Then, nothing happened.

The software seemed to have automatically begun running in the background. Other than that, nothing had changed.

"That's it?"

Zhan Fei was dumbfounded. Somewhat unwilling to believe it, he checked the lower-right corner, but there was no warning about an unknown virus. The installation package seemed perfectly clean, without any issues.

However, Zhan Fei quickly came back to himself. After thinking for a moment, he tried opening a foreign-language website. Yet the instant it opened, he found that the supposedly foreign webpage was also entirely in Chinese.

"I haven't visited in a while. Did this site develop a Chinese version too?"

Zhan Fei was puzzled, but he backed out and opened another highly popular foreign website instead.

Yet to Zhan Fei's shock, that website was still filled with neat, square Chinese characters.

"This..."

Only then did Zhan Fei finally realize that something was off.

"That's impossible. How could a piece of software alter a webpage?"

After thinking it over, Zhan Fei quickly shook his head. "No, it didn't alter the webpage. It altered the webpage I opened?"

With that thought, Zhan Fei opened the emulator's system settings and forcibly stopped the Little X Translation Assistant process. Then, he opened that foreign website again.

Sure enough, English was still English. The site had not created a Chinese webpage for users in the Central Continent Region.

"Just as I thought!"

At this point, Zhan Fei finally came to a realization. But then he frowned again and immediately opened a search engine to look up "Little X Translation Assistant."

There was nothing online.

"So this is an application that hasn't officially launched yet?"

Now, Zhan Fei finally understood a little more.

His heart could not help but race. Even though he knew little about the translation market, he knew that not even Baidu Translate had ever managed such flawless English-Chinese translation.

This technology far surpassed every translation program currently on the market.

"But why send it to me?"

"Ring, ring, ring..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhan Fei's phone suddenly rang again.

This time was different from before. It was an unknown call.

That was right. No number appeared on the screen—only the four words "Unknown Caller."

Zhan Fei fell silent for a moment. This situation meant that the nearby base stations had already been hacked by the other party.

Clearly, the sender of that email had begun contacting him.

Although the thought made Zhan Fei somewhat nervous, he immediately suppressed it with sheer willpower. As a hacker, the most important thing was to remain calm.

If he could not even stay calm, then he could never be a hacker.

Besides, had the other party gone to all this trouble merely to show off and, incidentally, send him to prison?

That was highly unlikely. The other party had probably found something to use against him and intended to blackmail him with it.

Although he was in the open while the other party remained hidden, once they established contact, he might not have no chance to strike back.

With that thought, Zhan Fei steadied himself. He picked up the phone and gently answered the call.

The instant the call connected, a childish, babyish voice rang out from the phone.

"Friend, have you heard of Little X?"