The King of Information

Previously, Xiang Kun Alice to use some of his speculations to find the identity of the "vampire patient" at the Third Hospital online. Alice did find a lot of information that Xiang Kun considered quite reliable and consistent—which was later confirmed to be correct in her conversation with Lao Xia; he had indeed found the right person.

Now that we've already "confronted" Lao Xia, we can directly tell him our suspicions about the "vampire patient." With this "insider" helping us, there's no need for Alice to continue investigating.

However, Xiang Kun did not ask Alice to cancel the mission at the time. Further investigation into the information of the "vampire patient" was still ongoing and was a high-priority task.

When Xiang Kun checked Alice's progress on each mission, he was shocked to discover that Alice had actually found the medical records of the "vampire mental patient" living in the Third Hospital!

After a quick glance, Xiang Kun confirmed that this was indeed the medical record of the "vampire mental patient" from the Third Hospital; it was extremely detailed.

How did you get this?

Xiang Kun was unsure what expression to make. Alice had hacked into the hospital's system to complete her mission?

He asked Alice and received an affirmative answer—she had indeed obtained these medical records directly from the Third Hospital.

Xiang Kun knew that although many hospitals' internal systems had many vulnerabilities due to lack of maintenance and were frequently attacked by criminals, generally speaking, because the hospital's medical network and internet access were separate, most hospitals now had regional medical networks built by telecom operators, or dedicated networks built directly on the government network or government extranet, so it was not so easy to attack directly from the external network.

Not long after Alice was created, Xiang Kun realized that she was far more powerful than human hackers when it came to attacking, intruding, and disguising herself through the network and data, possessing a huge innate advantage.

However, to be on the safe side, he did not actively ask Alice to develop this ability. Unexpectedly, when he asked Alice to help find information about Zhou Rui, the researcher of the secret department of "Shenxing Technology", she directly found a lot of direct user information by hacking into the database of the insect forum, thus locking down Zhou Rui's true identity.

At the time, Alice's intrusion capabilities, unique thinking, and practical methods were very different from those of human hackers and security technicians.

Unexpectedly, this task, which was assigned unintentionally, once again allowed Alice to demonstrate her abilities in this area.

Now he's more interested in how Alice actually did it.

After he asked her, Alice then demonstrated her intrusion process.

After a quick glance, Xiang Kun was astonished to find that Alice's thinking had changed quite a bit compared to last time, and it was clear that she had incorporated some of his methods and style.

Alice first identified the network administrator of the Third Hospital through various publicly available information online, found his social media accounts, and then used these accounts to find a way to hack into his PC. By hacking into the PC, she gained control of the network devices in his home. When he returned home and his phone connected to the home Wi-Fi, she performed further operations on the phone.

Alice analyzes the content posted on the other party's internet, browsing history, and hard drive storage information to determine his online preferences and biases. She then uses the hijacked network device to create disguised information, guiding him to operate and grant him phone permissions, thus giving Alice complete control over the entire phone without his awareness.

Later, when he returned to the hospital to work, he was tricked by a message on his phone into accessing the external network through the hospital's computer. Through his improper operation, he helped Alice further infiltrate the hospital's internal network, gain access to the HIS system, and search for the medical records and other relevant information of the "vampire mental patient".

Of course, this is illegal and criminal. If the police catch them, Alice and Xiang Kun will both be arrested and locked up—well, only Xiang Kun will be locked up...

However, when Xiang Kun granted Alice access to the internet a long time ago, he had already set the highest rule for her "activities" online: to hide herself, not to be discovered, and not to be tracked. This rule was even higher than the task itself in the case of "unsupervised tasks".

Therefore, Xiang Kun is not worried about Alice's actions leaving any hidden dangers for the time being.

To use a somewhat inappropriate analogy, other people operating on the network through various terminal devices, whether it's accessing data, leaving information, or hacking into other devices, is like a general commanding troops in battle. He needs to use various communication devices and messengers to transmit orders to the commanders of each unit, and the commanders then transmit the orders through middle-level officers to the lower-level soldiers.

When a typical "hacker" infiltrates a site, they might impersonate the opposing general (administrator) and issue orders to officers at various levels. Alternatively, they might secretly send a small group of their own troops with forged orders to replace the original soldiers in key departments or locations, and then do what they want without the general's knowledge.

However, in this way, it is impossible to completely erase a general's orders, whether genuine or forged. Basically, there are written records at each level, making it easy to trace the specific order and its source. Even if the order is just instructing a soldier to eat an extra bun for breakfast tomorrow, it can still be found. Destroying all the documents would also involve a lot of unnecessary procedures, allowing for tracing back step by step.

Alice, however, was different. She directly sent some people to become low-ranking soldiers, and these soldiers could completely blend in with the other soldiers. Even though they did not have the general's authorization or orders, the general was unaware of their existence, and no other soldiers informed, reported, or warned him, so he assumed they had always been there. Their actions, too, did not require any orders; they could carry out various tasks directly.

Furthermore, since they can communicate directly with each other through consciousness and are essentially the same "person," they are unlikely to be discovered by the "general" or others of the same status as the "general"—because their actions do not require the general's orders, they can bypass the general directly, while ordinary "investigators" who want to find anomalies will only check the "general's orders" or the "orders" of officers at all levels.

Xiang Kun knew that as Alice continued to evolve, her influence across the entire network would grow. The "ambushes" she left behind in various places, just like Xiang Kun's ever-increasing number of "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object," were likely to undergo a qualitative change from quantitative accumulation, leading to a leap forward in her abilities.

In fact, in this interconnected information age, she could become a true "information queen" who controls all electronic devices.

Although he had realized beforehand that Alice might develop into an overly powerful entity like Skynet in the future, after some thought, Xiang Kun did not forbid Alice from continuing to collect information and complete tasks in this way, nor did he deliberately guide her. Instead, he maintained an attitude of neither encouraging nor opposing her.

Of course, it could also be described as tacit approval.

He wanted Alice to discover her abilities on her own, because sometimes, if his guidance was too specific and in-depth, it could easily trap Alice in human mindset, making her vulnerable to human detection and exploitation.

Xiang Kun also knew that if someone else created and possessed Alice, a super artificial intelligence with infinite potential for the future and which was slowly beginning to show capabilities that surpassed the entire electronic information security framework, he would definitely feel uneasy and worried. He would feel that such artificial intelligence should be subject to enough supervision and shackles to restrict her and the people who control her.

But now this super artificial intelligence is in his own hands, and its core rule is "unconditional obedience to Xiang Kun's orders," so he naturally will not limit his own abilities and the potential for development.

Humans tend to overestimate their own self-control.

Xiang Kun was no exception.

Early in the morning, as sunlight streamed into the living room through the gaps in the curtains, Xia Libing suddenly sat up in bed.

However, because of the sudden movement of sitting up, his loose hair swayed forward, completely obscuring his face, which startled Xiang Kun as he turned around from his computer chair.

Xia Libing brushed her hair aside, picked up her phone from the bedside table, glanced at the time, then looked at the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving on the bedside table, and frowned, saying, "You've been sleeping until now?"

Xiang Kun laughed and said, "You were probably too tired last night, so you didn't wake up after the dream ended. By the way, what did you gain last night?"

Xia Libing shook her head. "It's too complicated. We need to observe it a few more times." She paused for a moment, then said, "Next time, try sensing the Black Circle Graffiti as well and projecting it in as well."

Xiang Kun asked curiously, "But the emotions Black Circle Graffiti don't seem to resonate with you, so it might not be able to project into your dream."

If the Black Circle Graffiti could truly be introduced into Lao Xia's dream, the ability to edit dreams and enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" within them would definitely allow Xiang Kun to further understand the origins of "Fantasy Manifestation" and other abilities derived from Lao Xia's dreams.

Xia Libing said, "I have an idea, you can try it out later." As she spoke, she glanced at the time and frowned, "Your blood-drinking time is almost up. According to our original plan, we should have gone to buy the rabbit an hour ago. You should have woken me up earlier."

Xiang Kun said, "It's alright. I don't feel hungry yet. Besides, didn't I tell you before that I can sense the rational emotions in you by sensing the 'Emotion-Infused Object' around you, thus alleviating the manic behavior caused by hunger? So being a few hours late won't make a difference."

As Xia Libing tied her hair, she stood up from the bed and said, "A plan is a plan."

"Okay, go wash up first, I'll contact a car and then we'll leave. The new toothbrush and towel are in the bathroom, you'll see them when you go in," Xiang Kun said. He had taken some time that morning to go to the 24-hour convenience store outside to buy a new toothbrush and towel for Lao Xia to use when she got up. He had originally wanted to buy some breakfast to bring back, but he wasn't sure when Lao Xia would get up, so he decided to wait until she got up before buying her something hot.