Methods for Finding Candidates

Mo Fei felt utterly unfamiliar with this world. It was vastly different from his previous life in many ways, yet there were also plenty of similarities. He compared them online. Thanks to his identity as a web novelist, he knew a little about everything—but nothing in detail. After all, he wrote fiction, not history or tech. Fiction didn't need proof; the author was god!

Did historical facts matter in a novel? No. Just send in a protagonist, and everything could change! Did technological rigor matter in a novel? No. Pull out a system, and you'd be omnipotent!

If only he were the protagonist of a novel himself, directly transmigrating into Tony Stark. Why choose him? A winner in life: genius inventor, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist—countless halos surrounded him, and he had Pepper Potts by his side, always loyal and hardworking.

Of course, he also fully proved the law of "if you don't seek death, you won't die," constantly putting himself through hell. But what did that matter? After transmigrating and possessing his body, none of it would be a problem. Too bad Mo Fei could only dream.

Now that he had quickly understood this world, he grasped its technological level. Relatively speaking, it was indeed more advanced than his previous life. This pleased Mo Fei immensely—only then could he stir up trouble online!

"Not bad. A world like this lets me leverage my strengths. So, how do I pick my people?" Mo Fei started thinking again. Thinking was the only thing he could do right now. Finding such people online was tough; rarely did anyone discuss robbery in the network. "What about phones?" Mo Fei finally thought of phones. He couldn't come up with any other way to search.

"Smartphones haven't come out yet, but phone penetration is already high. Motorola and Nokia are here too, which makes sense—IBM shows up in the movies as well. A lot of things are very similar, just with tech way ahead. So, can I use phones to monitor the entire United States now?" Mo Fei's ambition was no small thing—he actually wanted to monitor all of America.

But he needed to figure out how. He searched online again. Thanks to technological progress, the U.S. phone system had long been computerized, which made things easier for Mo Fei.

Whether landlines or cell phones, they all sent signals to local phone companies or base stations, then connected for calls. In theory, a phone company could monitor anyone's calls. For that, Mo Fei needed to pick the city for his robbery plan. Every city had a phone company handling local calls, and monitoring all of America was beyond him right now.

He could only monitor one city's phones, so he had to choose his target. That was easy—Mo Fei directly searched for the most advanced banks. Banks that used computers for everything were his targets. Preferably ones with lots of cash reserves, so he could rob more. And these banks were easy to find—just type in keywords, and they popped up.

Sure enough, there were plenty of targets, but they were also concentrated. Manhattan, New York, had a huge number of banks, all using very advanced systems—almost the best of the era.

"You really are a disaster-prone place, attacked and destroyed countless times." Mo Fei found the search results strange. It wasn't that other cities lacked advanced systems, but here they were more concentrated, with massive cash reserves.

Plus, four of America's Big Six Commercial Banks had their headquarters in New York. That made Mo Fei's heart race. Robbing headquarters was impossible—that was suicide—but robbing their branches was doable, especially those with the latest security systems. They made Mo Fei drool. Now, all he had to do was get to New York!

But how to get there was another problem. Mo Fei had a basic understanding of computers, but navigating the network was still an issue. He set his sights on Paul again, especially the local IP address—that was easy to get. But what about New York's?

"The dumbest way is to blindly hunt for data from New York online, then crawl along the network to it. Another way is to hope this fat guy has a chat buddy in New York, send a message, and I follow along?" Mo Fei thought of two methods. He wasn't sure if they'd work—network signals weren't direct, with servers in between, and he didn't know how to move through servers.

"Fat guy, I'm counting on you!" To avoid getting lost, Mo Fei chose the second method. He checked Paul's chat buddy info. That was easy. Among the many contacts, one had a note saying New York. Mo Fei wanted to verify it, but how?

"Checking the other party's IP address—that's a bit advanced. I need to learn it. Preferably remote intrusion—that's basic hacker stuff. Let me see!" Online posts usually weren't too deep, but some hackers did post small tricks. Whether they worked, Mo Fei didn't know!

But he had a huge advantage: he learned fast and applied things easily. In seconds, he absorbed a ton of techniques. Comparing them, many were repetitive, some obscure. Mo Fei finally chose a common method and sent out a command. Network signal transmission was fast—he understood that.

Network signals were electromagnetic, traveling near light speed, but they caused interference, so speed was reduced to prevent it. Instantly, data came back: "The other party isn't powered on?"

Mo Fei was frustrated. Among Paul's chat buddies, only this Jennifer had New York in her info, and she wasn't online. He had no choice but to wait. He hated waiting—it was always endless, and for him now, each day felt like a year.

"I wonder if I'll go crazy like this? Always waiting, waiting, waiting, and stuck here alone with no one to talk to. In this environment, I'd lose my mind. Better go online and learn—I need to find something to do."

Mo Fei was terrified of waiting. If he were just alone, he wouldn't mind—as a web novelist, solitude was normal. But constant waiting was unbearable, especially his urgent desire for a physical body, making every second count!

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