Don't Ask—It's a Superpower

Between life and death lay a great terror. He could even imagine the scene of his brains bursting apart.

But at that critical moment, a large hand grabbed the back of his collar and yanked hard.

His body suddenly felt weightless as he was flung backward through the air, while the massive truck roared past right in front of him.

"Crash!"

The metal body grazed the tip of his nose. Wu Zhong's hairs stood on end before he finally relaxed. He had dodged it.

He staggered before steadying himself, then sharply turned to look beside him. It was a man in black wearing leather gloves in the sweltering heat. Passing behind him, the man had pulled him away at the crucial moment and saved his life.

"Whoosh!"

After passing him, the truck slammed straight into a roadside tree. "Boom!"

It was a horrific sight!

"Fuck... Hah... hah..." Wu Zhong's eyes widened as he gasped for breath. Only then did he come back to his senses, his legs turning weak.

If he had not dodged, he would already be dead.

And the driver really was dead.

The truck had hit the tree at full speed. Its front was twisted and shattered, and the driver had been reduced to mangled flesh, too gruesome to look at.

Some passersby had wanted to help, but they stopped at the sight of the terrible scene and hurriedly called emergency services.

The hospital was right across the road, so professionals soon arrived to handle it.

Under the pouring rain, bloodied water covered the ground. Wu Zhong stood there blankly, his head buzzing amid the terrified, chaotic voices of the crowd.

Thinking of how he had nearly become a pile of flesh himself, Wu Zhong suddenly snapped out of it and hurriedly looked at the passerby who had pulled him away. "Brother, you saved my life!"

"Thank you! Thank you! If you hadn't pulled me back, I'd have been dead for sure!"

Having just gone through a brush with death, Wu Zhong was still shaken and thanked him repeatedly.

The man wore a simple black outfit, gloves, and held a black umbrella, standing firm amid the wind and rain.

His gaze swept over the wrecked accident scene, his eyes indifferent.

From beginning to end, he did not spare Wu Zhong even a second glance. He ignored his thanks and coolly turned to leave.

Wu Zhong followed after him, full of gratitude. "Brother, what's your name? Leave me your contact information so I can properly thank you."

Having walked away from death's door, Wu Zhong's mind was filled with nothing but relief and gratitude. It felt so good to be alive. Being alive mattered more than anything.

All those problems that had come crashing down on him at once had made him miserable, made him feel as though he could not go on living and even made him want to die. But now he realized they were nothing.

Once he was dead, he would truly have nothing. His grandfather would be left all alone with no one to care for him.

The thought made Wu Zhong shudder with lingering fear. In such heavy rain, why had he not watched where he was going?

Though the driver was clearly at fault—he had probably failed to slow down while turning and had somehow charged toward the roadside—Wu Zhong himself had reacted far too slowly.

He wanted to slap himself twice and wake up, but fortunately he had survived. That was why he was immensely grateful to this passerby.

Even if the man had only pulled him back casually, even if it had been a simple gesture, it was still a life-saving kindness.

Even if the man made an outrageous demand and asked for too much, Wu Zhong would accept it.

"No need." The other man remained cold and waved him off.

Wu Zhong spoke earnestly. "Brother, I'm just a poor nobody and can't offer much in return, but you saved my life. If you ever need my help in the future, I won't refuse... Just leave me your number."

Unexpectedly, the man grew annoyed by his questions. Seeing that Wu Zhong was still following him, he snapped, "Get lost! Stop following me!"

"..." Wu Zhong froze.

At a loss, he stopped following.

He had not expected that while he sincerely wanted to thank the man, the man would instead keep him at arm's length.

He had heard of people who were saved being afraid their benefactors would pester them. He had never heard of a benefactor being afraid the saved person would pester him.

Wu Zhong stood in the rain and watched the man leave.

Only after he was out of sight did Wu Zhong carefully cross the street and head to his grandfather's hospital room.

After going through all that, it was as if he had taken a trip to the gates of hell. His mind settled completely, and even his breathing became easier.

There was no hurdle in this world that could not be overcome. Besides, he had superpowers. Could a person really be driven to death by such a small amount of money?

He first found the doctor to confirm the situation and learn the details of his grandfather's condition.

It had indeed worsened. The hematoma was already pressing against brain tissue and causing damage.

"Get the surgery done as soon as possible," the doctor said.

Wu Zhong gritted his teeth and nodded. "Fine. Today!"

"Today won't work. The earliest we can arrange it is tomorrow afternoon," the doctor said.

Wu Zhong nodded. "All right, tomorrow. Doctor, you decide."

With the time settled, he needed to pay the fees.

He downloaded an online lending app as he headed back to the hospital room.

He found that his grandfather was awake and hurriedly took his hand. "Want some water?"

His grandfather's eyes widened slightly as he studied Wu Zhong for a while, as though trying to recognize him.

Wu Zhong asked again, and only then did his grandfather shake his head. "No... no... I want clothes..."

"Clothes?" Wu Zhong froze, then hurriedly brought over some clothes. "Yeah, the weather changed. It's pouring outside, so I'll put a couple more layers on you."

Just as he was about to help his grandfather change, his grandfather said, "Not these clothes..."

Wu Zhong blinked and picked up another set. "Then these?"

His grandfather frowned in frustration. "No. I don't want clothes. I want to eat clothes."

"Eat clothes? Do you mean you want to eat?" Wu Zhong put down the clothes and opened the meal box to feed him.

His grandfather shook his head again and refused to eat. "No, no. I want to eat clothes, eat clothes!"

Wu Zhong was dumbfounded and looked at the caregiver.

The caregiver shook his head while playing on his phone. "Don't look at me. I don't know what he's saying."

Frowning, Wu Zhong picked up a piece of clothing and showed it to his grandfather. "Eat... eat clothes? You mean you want to eat this piece of clothing?"

"That's right, I want to eat clothes." His grandfather wore an expression that said, You finally understand.

But Wu Zhong was even more confused. "How can you eat clothes? Why don't you eat some food?"

"Sigh, no, no. Not that kind of food. Clothes. There are clothes to eat in the house. Go get them..." his grandfather said with difficulty.

Wu Zhong sighed. "What do you mean?"

"There's one in the box at home. Give me clothes to eat. Be good, go get it..." His voice was not especially weak, but his ability to express himself was completely muddled and impossible to understand.

Wu Zhong looked troubled. What did eating clothes even mean...

The caregiver tried to persuade him. "Don't keep talking to him. His speech is confused."

Wu Zhong's gaze darkened as he tucked the blanket around his grandfather.

He left the hospital room and considered the matter of money.

He definitely had no money. Just as he opened the app to take out a loan, a message from Against the Light came through.

"@Endless Hatred, why are you asking about this again? I really can replicate that bug. It's very simple."

Endless Hatred was Wu Zhong's online handle. He hurriedly replied, "How did you know about the message I recalled?"

Against the Light sent back, "What a joke. Recalled messages are still visible on my end."

Wu Zhong sent a sticker that said, "You're awesome," then wrote, "You said you can replicate it, so help me do it. I want to try it out."

"???" Against the Light sent three question marks.

Then a voice call came in.

Wu Zhong answered it and heard a muffled voice.

"Are you crazy? That's illegal."

Wu Zhong pursed his lips. He had recalled the message because he had not wanted Against the Light dragged into this. He had intended to do it alone.

Unexpectedly, Against the Light had still seen it. And Wu Zhong truly knew nothing about this sort of technical work. He simply did not have time to learn.

After thinking it over, he braced himself and said, "I know..."

"Just tell me if you can make a program to help me trigger that bug. I'm just messing around..."

Against the Light fell silent for a moment. It had been noisy on the other end before, so he was probably in an office.

Soon, it quieted down, as though he had moved somewhere secluded.

Against the Light said, "Messing around my ass. You've gone crazy from wanting money. Do you think I don't know?"

"I'm telling you, a friend of mine maliciously exploited that bug before. He made 380,000 yuan, got sentenced to two years and ten months, and he's still in there working a sewing machine."

Wu Zhong looked at the payment counter and the people coming and going through the hospital. He too found a quiet spot and sat down.

Holding his phone, his eyes were firm.

If it had been before, those words would definitely have talked him out of it. But now, his financial situation was stretched as tight as a bowstring. Thirty thousand yuan was enough to crush him. He had no other choice.

Then prison it was. He would get his grandfather's surgery done, prepay several years of caregiver fees, and it would not matter if he spent two years in prison. Working inside would be easier than working outside anyway.

"You said your friend did it before, so you must have a ready-made program on hand, right? Just send it to me and teach me how to use it."

"Don't worry about anything else. You can delete me as a friend. Even if I get caught, I won't mention you."

Against the Light laughed. "You're killing me. You're actually serious?"

"Fine, even if you don't care, you still can't pull this off."

"I said I can replicate it because I know the platform never truly fixed that backdoor. After shutting it down, they only made it look like the bug had been fixed."

"But if someone really dares to maliciously exploit that backdoor, they'll be discovered in minutes, and the backend can shut it down immediately."

"Their security experts are damn good. Not only will you have no time to profit from it, you'll get arrested too. You can't escape."

Wu Zhong's eyes widened. Once he made up his mind, not even nine oxen could pull him back.

Especially after nearly being run over, he felt that everything in this world had to step aside for the sake of staying alive.

As long as he lived, what did it matter how he lived?

"Stop trying to talk me out of it. I'm desperate for money. Against the Light, how about you lend me some?"

"Ahem..." Against the Light coughed lightly. "Don't change the subject. Uh... actually, it's not impossible to use this bug, but we need to plan it carefully."

"First, my idiot friend's program was total garbage. I need to modify it."

"He was practically brute-forcing it to make money fast, so they noticed right away."

Wu Zhong's eyes lit up. "You can make it so they won't notice?"

Against the Light replied, "That's impossible. It's only a matter of time before they notice."

"That's why my friend brute-forced it and grabbed 380,000 yuan in an extremely short time."

"But if it's small payments, I have a way to hide it for a long time. If it's only a few hundred yuan at a time, I can guarantee they won't discover it at all."

Wu Zhong said, "What am I risking my life for if it's only a few hundred yuan?"

Against the Light replied, "Exactly. So it's only a matter of time before you're discovered. The question is how you choose: get discovered later but make less, or grab a huge sum in a short time."

Wu Zhong thought about it. Since he would be discovered sooner or later, he naturally wanted to get enough money at once to settle things at home.

Just as he was about to choose the latter, another thought struck him. He had superpowers.

If he still ended up like Against the Light's friend despite having superpowers, then what was the point of having them?

Fix it? Shut it down? What could security experts do, no matter how capable they were, against a backdoor opened by his superpower?

"Against the Light, what if they can't fix it?" Wu Zhong asked.

Against the Light laughed. "What a joke. How could they not fix it? If it were just a matter of closing the backdoor, I could handle it myself if I worked there."

Wu Zhong said, "What if they can't shut it down? Can they bypass that backdoor and solve the bug?"

Against the Light explained, "Bypass it? Bypass my ass."

"Do you know why such a huge incident happened last time, yet the bug still remained? Because it can't be bypassed."

"Don't be fooled by how big that old software company is. It's actually nothing but a mountain of shitty code, with no telling how many people slacking off. Unless they remake the app entirely, that backdoor will always be there."

Wu Zhong's palm was slick with sweat around his phone.

The backdoor could not be bypassed. That meant that once he opened it, it could not be closed either. In other words, the bug could not be fixed at all unless they shut down the backend or released a major update practically equivalent to rebuilding the app.

No matter what, he actually had plenty of time to exploit the bug. The only remaining issue was keeping them from discovering his real identity.

"Against the Light, assuming they can't close the backdoor, can you make sure they can't trace it back to my account?"

Against the Light stressed again, "That's impossible. I told you, getting discovered is only a matter of time."

"And how could they possibly fail to fix it? It's too simple."

Of course, Wu Zhong had no way to explain that he could permanently lock the backdoor open. He only said, "What I mean is, don't consider whether they can fix the bug."

"If they really fix it, then I just won't be able to use it. So what?"

"You know I don't need much money. I only need a little, so the priority should be not getting caught. Don't worry about them fixing it."

Against the Light understood what he meant and laughed. "What the hell do you mean, don't worry about it? With a serious bug that has already happened before, once it's triggered, their backend will automatically fix it."

"If I don't use some tricks, you won't even have time to exploit it once."

Wu Zhong fell silent, considering how exactly to explain himself.

Against the Light added, "But I understand what you mean. You only care about not getting caught, and it doesn't matter whether you actually make money, right?"

"Then it's actually simple. Just make it so the beneficiaries of the bug aren't only you, but all users."

"It'll save me trouble if I don't deliberately make a program that triggers it in one direction. Put simply, we'll recreate what happened last time."

"Wasn't that what happened last time? While the bug lasted, every user could profit from it, but in the end the platform did not claw back the money. After all, it was their own bug, so they could only swallow the loss."

"There's already a precedent, so as long as it looks like their platform itself had a problem and the beneficiaries include many people all over the country, it'll be fine. I can do that."

"But the key is that the platform won't make the same mistake twice. Once this kind of bug is triggered again, they'll definitely fix it instantly. You won't be able to make any money at all."

"I have absolutely no way to stop them from fixing it. I don't have that kind of ability, you know."

As soon as Wu Zhong heard that, he knew it was enough.

If there was a bargain, everyone could profit together. When this bug had appeared last time, many people had beaten their chests in regret for missing it and hoped it would happen again.

Then let it happen again. As for fixing it? It would not be so easy to fix this time. He would weld the backdoor shut!

He had directly solved the hardest part with his superpower.

"Fine, let's do it. We'll do as you said." Wu Zhong could hardly wait.

But Against the Light fell silent for a long time before suddenly saying, "You don't actually not care whether you make money. You're certain you have a way to make this bug difficult to fix, aren't you?"

Wu Zhong froze. Against the Light had guessed it.

Of course. He had made it so obvious, and Against the Light was not an idiot.

And once they started exploiting it, if the platform was unable to fix it for a long time, Against the Light would realize it was because of him.

Wu Zhong chose his words carefully, keeping things vague. "Yes, I have a way, but it involves a lot. Things beyond imagination. There could be serious danger, so I can't really tell you..."

"If something happens, I have a way to protect myself. You don't, and I don't want to drag you into this."

Wu Zhong was not merely trying to scare him. In fact, he had mentally prepared himself for everything being exposed.

His life was worthless anyway; he truly did not care. If he could not keep it hidden, then at worst he would hand himself over to the government. What was the big deal?

Some people talked about superpowered people being dissected, but he did not believe it at all. Complete nonsense. If a superpowered person really appeared, official research institutes would only conduct materialist investigations on him. Wouldn't dissecting him be a waste?

Against the Light replied, "Oh? Playing mysterious with me, are you?"

"Something involving a lot, beyond imagination, extremely dangerous... better not to know, blah blah..."

"What, are you a superpowered person or something?"

"Haha, have you been reading too many novels? Come clean. What exactly can you do to keep them from fixing the bug?"

Wu Zhong took a deep breath. Since he had already guessed at superpowers, as expected of a fellow reader, he thought, and decisively told him, "Fine. I actually have superpowers. I can weld the bug shut."

"Hahahaha!" Against the Light immediately replied, "You actually went along with it? What the hell does welding a bug shut even mean..."

"Fucking come clean already. Stop bullshitting me. Do you have someone inside Open Sesame Group?"

Wu Zhong froze. He had been completely honest, yet Against the Light did not believe him.

He said, "Stop asking. The answer is superpowers. It involves a lot, goes beyond imagination, and is extremely dangerous..."

Against the Light spoke in a knowing tone. "Tch. Everyone in this line of work knows that if you want a bug to stay unfixed, the best way is to have an insider in the group."

"Otherwise known as 'social engineering.'"

"Maybe they can't trigger the bug themselves and need some completely unrelated outsider to do it."

"Some insider tipped you off. Maybe to stay hidden, they didn't even give you a small program and had you find someone yourself."

"That's to completely sever any connection to you and reduce the risk of exposure. Heh heh."

Wu Zhong was speechless, but thinking about it, it made sense. As a programmer, Against the Light's first thought would naturally be social engineering.

He had often heard Against the Light say before that for truly formidable hackers, technical skill was not the most important thing. High intelligence was. They relied on psychology, scams, rumors, acting, honey traps, forged real-world documents, and extensive connections...

In short, there were all kinds of hacking methods, strange and varied beyond count.

Against the Light's mention of superpowers earlier had merely been casual trash talk.

Since he had already filled in the whole story himself, Wu Zhong could not be bothered to explain further.

He only said, "Stop asking. The answer is superpowers."

Against the Light continued, "Now I'm even starting to suspect that last bug incident was not so simple. How could a huge company like Open Sesame Group have such a stupid backdoor?"

"There's some seriously deep shit going on here. Forget it, it's none of my business. Since you have a way to ensure the bug won't be fixed quickly, then there's money to be made."

"With this kind of bug incident, the key is the window of opportunity. Last time it only lasted half an hour. A lot of people did not know about the bug and missed their chance to take advantage of it."

"I fucking missed it too. You, on the other hand, ran several bills through it. I was jealous as hell. Thinking about it now, you probably didn't just happen to catch it. Someone must have told you to spend money during that time window last time, right?"

"Was it some distant relative of yours, or someone you met somewhere?"

Wu Zhong had no answer for that and merely repeated, "Stop asking. The answer is superpowers!"

"Fine, fine, fine..."

Seeing that he kept saying the same thing, Against the Light stopped pressing him. "Anyway, when you're about to start, you absolutely have to tell me the time."

"A flat twenty percent off every transfer—that's a steady twenty percent windfall on every transaction. I'm planning to take out all my savings and go all in!"

"Move money from my left hand to my right, and one million instantly becomes 1.2 million."