Physical Antivirus? No, This Is Magic Attack!

The chaos in the broadcast hall was finally quelled after the police intervened.

The SWAT team swiftly took control of the scene, and the audience members who had regained consciousness were evacuated in an orderly fashion despite their bewildered expressions. Medical staff busied themselves checking whether anyone had suffered lingering effects from the infrasound.

At the center of the stage, Lin Yu—or rather, the once-arrogant "X"—lay slumped on the ground like a heap of mud.

The layer of Biomimetic Skin on his face had completely peeled away, revealing a festering, twisted visage warped by long-term injections of snake venom serum. No one could connect him to the glamorous piano prince he had once been.

Two officers stepped forward and put silver handcuffs on him.

Jian Ning stood not far away, still holding the suona that had rendered such great service, his feelings complicated.

[System, what was he even after?]

[He was dealt such a good hand, yet he insisted on courting death. Wouldn't it have been better to just be a young master from a wealthy family?]

System: [Desire is a bottomless pit. The moment he chose to bind himself to that greedy system, his ending was already decided. Host, although your Gossip System is a little improper, at least... we obey the law.]

As Lin Yu was hauled to his feet, he suddenly stopped when he passed Jian Ning.

He stared at Jian Ning with bloodshot eyes. The hatred in those murky pupils had faded, replaced by profound fear and a hint of strange mockery.

"Jian Ning..."

Lin Yu's voice was so faint that only Jian Ning could hear him.

"Do you think you've won?"

"X is only a codename... I was merely a decoy..."

"The one who truly wants to devour Huo Corporation... is Shadow. Watch out... for your shadow..."

Jian Ning frowned. "Shadow? What shadow?"

But Lin Yu said nothing more. He merely let out a few hysterical chuckles before the police escorted him into the patrol car.

Inside the van on the way back.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle did not lighten because of their victory. Instead, Assistant Lin's phone call made it even more grave.

Huo Si ended the call and rubbed his brow wearily.

"How bad is it?" Jian Ning handed him the hot towel in his hands.

Huo Si took the towel and wiped his hands, his voice heavy. "Not good. They came prepared. While I was being held up in the broadcast hall, they breached the Group's firewall. The core database is now locked down, and they're implanting a self-destruct virus."

Jian Ning's heart skipped a beat.

[A diversion!]

[Lin Yu drew all the fire out front while the real mastermind raided our home from behind!]

He took Huo Si's hand and found the man's fingertips slightly cold.

Though Huo Si appeared calm, Jian Ning knew that Huo Group was Huo Si's life's work. If the core data was destroyed, the losses would be incalculable. It might even trigger a financial tsunami.

"Any leads on that hacker?" Jian Ning asked.

Huo Si shook his head. "The IP address is virtual, with relay points all over the globe. The technical department has done everything it can, but the opponent's technology... seems to surpass conventional capabilities."

Jian Ning's eyes lit up.

[Beyond conventional capabilities?]

[Then we need unconventional methods, right?]

[System! Time to work! Since it's a hacker battle, can your Gossip System go up against that virus?]

System: [Ahem, Host, this system specializes in gossip and entertainment. Network offense and defense are not my strong suit. However... I can help you scan who exactly this "Shadow" is. As long as we find the operator, physically cutting the network cable will work better than any firewall.]

Jian Ning nodded. [Makes sense! Physical cheats are the deadliest!]

Huo Group headquarters, top floor.

It was already late at night, yet the entire building was brightly lit.

Dozens of technical department elites hammered frantically at their keyboards, while red warning windows popped up wildly across the screens like a virus.

"President Huo! You're finally back!"

Assistant Lin hurried over, his face deathly pale. "The virus has already spread to the financial system. If we can't stop it within another half hour, every account will be wiped clean!"

Huo Si strode toward the CEO's office, his aura icy.

"The hacker said they left something in my office. Did you find it?"

"We searched everywhere." Assistant Lin looked ready to cry from anxiety. "Security turned the office upside down. They even lifted the carpets, but they found nothing! No bomb, no listening device, nothing!"

Jian Ning followed Huo Si into the spacious, luxurious CEO's office.

Everything looked normal.

The massive floor-to-ceiling windows, the black leather sofa, the neat desk.

There did not seem to be anything unusual.

But the moment Jian Ning entered, the system alarm in his mind sounded.

[ Ding! Abnormal signal source detected! ]

[The signal is extremely weak and in a disguised state.]

Jian Ning stopped and looked around.

[System, Lin Yu said to watch out for "Shadow."]

[The place is brightly lit. Where is there a shadow?]

Huo Si walked to the desk and turned on his computer. His eyes turned cold as he looked at the skull icon counting down on the screen.

"The other party is still operating." Huo Si's voice was low. "They're in this building."

"In this building?!" Assistant Lin was shocked. "That's impossible! The entire building has been sealed off tonight. Aside from the technical department, no one could have entered!"

Standing in the middle of the room, Jian Ning's gaze slowly swept over every corner.

Then his eyes suddenly stopped on an inconspicuous ornament in the corner of the desk.

It was a crystal photo frame containing a picture of Huo Si and Jian Ning together.

But that was not the important part.

The important part was that in the backlit area of the frame, within the shadow the lights could not reach, there seemed to be a faint flicker of light.

Jian Ning narrowed his eyes and slowly walked over.

[System, scan that photo frame.]

System: [Ding! Scan complete. That is not an ordinary photo frame. A miniature "quantum signal transmitter" has been implanted into its base. That is the true source of the virus! It is directly connected to Huo Si's computer!]

Jian Ning abruptly reached out and picked up the frame.

"Huo Si! Found it!"

Huo Si immediately turned around.

Jian Ning pointed at the base. "This base was swapped out! The virus didn't break in from outside—it was transmitted directly into the computer from here!"

Assistant Lin stared in disbelief. "Th-this frame is President Huo's most treasured possession. Usually, only the cleaning lady ever wipes it down. Who could have..."

Before he could finish, Jian Ning and Huo Si exchanged a look.

[The cleaning lady?]

[No. There's one more person.]

Lin Yu's words flashed through Jian Ning's mind: "Watch out for your shadow."

A shadow referred to those people who were always by your side, yet were too inconspicuous and too lowly for you to notice.

"Assistant Lin." Huo Si's voice suddenly became incredibly soft, but also incredibly cold. "The new personal assistant hired by the CEO's office recently... what was her name?"

Assistant Lin froze before answering instinctively, "Her... her name is Xiao Ying? She just graduated from university. She's usually very introverted and barely dares to speak. She's only responsible for serving you tea, handling errands, organizing documents..."

"Xiao Ying." Jian Ning repeated the name. "Shadow."

"Where is she?" Huo Si asked.

Assistant Lin looked around. "She was just outside handing me coffee... Huh? Where did she go?"

Just then, the lights in the office flickered.

Immediately after, a soft click came from the tightly shut door to the lounge.

The door opened.

A young woman in a gray business suit and thick black-rimmed glasses, utterly unremarkable in appearance, slowly walked out with a laptop in her arms.

She removed the tacky-looking glasses, revealing a pair of sharp, crazed eyes.

"As expected of President Huo, and... Mr. Jian."

The girl's voice was no longer timid and submissive. It carried a machine-like indifference.

"You discovered it three minutes earlier than I expected."

Jian Ning looked at her, and the system panel finally displayed her true information.

[Target: Shadow.]

[Identity: The world's third-ranked hacker, as well as the final trump card left behind by King, Gu Hansheng.]

[Skill: Exceptionally skilled at disguising herself as an ordinary bystander and reducing her presence.]

Huo Si looked at the "personal assistant" who had lurked under his nose for an entire month. Killing intent surged in his eyes.

"It was you."

"You put on quite an act this past month."

Xiao Ying, Shadow, smiled as her fingers flew across the laptop keyboard.

"You flatter me. But even if you discovered it, it's useless."

"The virus has already finished implanting. Ten more seconds, and all of Huo Group's data... boom! Gone without a trace."

The mad smile at the corner of Shadow's lips widened to its limit, as though she could already see the fireworks of Huo's business empire collapsing.

Then—

"Beep—doot—beep—!!!!"

A heart-rending, mountain-shattering blast of suona suddenly exploded through the enclosed lounge without warning, as though it could blow the tops off their skulls!

It was not an ordinary performance. Jian Ning sank his breath into his core and activated the temporary skill the system had urgently gifted him: [Funeral Squad Lead Singer]. Then he blew a shrill high-note version of "The Whole Village Feasts" from Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix.

In that instant, the sound waves seemed to take physical form...

Shadow's finger, just about to press Enter, jerked violently. Her whole body convulsed as if electrocuted, her head buzzing as her vision instantly went black.

When humans suffered extreme fright and high-decibel noise attacks, their physiological reactions could not be controlled.

The laptop flew straight out of her hands and crashed onto the floor with a smack.

The screen flickered twice. The terrifying red progress bar froze at [99%], then—went completely black.

Deathly silence filled the room, aside from everyone's ringing ears.

[Huff... huff...]

Jian Ning lowered the suona and gasped for breath, feeling as though his lungs were about to explode.

[System! That was fucking awesome!]

[What kind of suona is this? It's practically an infrasound weapon! She's definitely getting a concussion now, right?]

[As long as I blow loudly enough, the virus can't catch me!]

Huo Si could still feel a faint ache in his eardrums, but he reacted quickly. The instant the laptop hit the ground, he stepped forward, swept out his long leg, and kicked Shadow to the floor. Then he seized her wrist with one hand and pinned her hard against the coffee table.

"Ugh!" Shadow let out a pained groan. All her earlier arrogance had vanished. Now she only felt the world spinning, as though countless cicadas were screaming inside her ears.

"You... you..." Shadow struggled to raise her head, staring at Jian Ning and his suona in utter disbelief. "What kind of freak are you?!"

What normal person carried a suona around with them?!

Who fought back against hackers with a sound-wave attack?!

This was not scientific!

Jian Ning wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, tucked the suona behind his waist—actually returning it to the system space—and assumed an unfathomable expression.

"This is called—physical interruption."

"Your firewall can block code and viruses, but can it block my Funeral Dirge?"

[Hmph. This is the system-produced Level-One Deafening Suona, specially made to cure all kinds of fancy nonsense.]

[What a shame. I should've added an erhu accompaniment just now and sent her straight into her final scene in this world.]

Huo Si listened to Jian Ning's thoughts, and a trace of helpless amusement flickered through his otherwise cold eyes. He glanced at the black-screened computer on the floor, then said coldly to Shadow,

"Looks like your ten seconds lost to one breath from Jian Ning."

At that moment, the lounge door was kicked open.

Jian Xiu rushed in with several fully armed bodyguards, dragging along several outside accomplices they had just captured.

The moment he entered, Jian Xiu saw the bizarre scene: Huo Si had the hacker pinned down, a shattered computer lay on the floor, and his own younger brother stood on the sofa holding a gleaming golden suona and striking a pose.

"...Ning Ning?" Jian Xiu's mouth twitched. "I heard a huge bang in the lobby just now and thought the alarm had exploded. So it was you?"

"Brother! Hurry and arrest this impostor!" Jian Ning immediately jumped off the sofa and pointed at Shadow as he complained. "She's one of King's people! She was sent by the mastermind trying to bring down our family!"

Jian Xiu's gaze sharpened. With a wave of his hand, he had the bodyguards take over and restrain Shadow.

Shadow's hands were twisted behind her back. Though she was in a miserable state, she still gritted her teeth and sneered. "So what if you caught me? King's plan started long ago. Huo Corporation may escape today, but it won't escape tomorrow..."

"That's not something you need to worry about."

Huo Si leisurely adjusted his cuff, picked up the damaged laptop from the floor, and removed its hard drive.

"As long as the hardware remains, the data can be recovered. As for the virus..." Huo Si looked at Jian Ning, his gaze gentle. "Thanks to Assistant Jian's 'special talent,' its transmission was physically cut off midway."

Jian Ning puffed out his chest, looking immensely proud.

[Of course! This is a huge achievement—I saved the entire Group!]

[Huo Si, shouldn't you give me a commendation banner? Preferably a pure gold one!]

[Or you could double my year-end bonus.]

The corners of Huo Si's lips curved slightly. "All right. Whatever you want. A pure gold banner and a doubled bonus."

Jian Ning's eyes instantly turned into ￥_￥ symbols.

[Holy shit! How did he know what I was thinking? Have we reached the point where our hearts are truly in sync?]

[Whatever! I'm rich, I'm rich!]

As Shadow was taken away, this thrilling hacker crisis finally came to an end.

However, the system in Jian Ning's mind did not announce that the mission was completely over.

That cold electronic voice sounded again:

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on successfully stopping Shadow's destructive operation.]

[Reward obtained: Points +5000, special item "Truth Spray" x1.]

[Main quest updated: Shadow is merely one of King's pawns. According to the System's scan, King's true location is not overseas, but in—Southwestern Miao Frontier.]

[Host, please prepare to unlock a new map: Ancient Miao Stronghold. There lies the truth behind the original owner's mother's death, as well as... the ultimate secret of your birth.]

The smile on Jian Ning's face stiffened for a moment.

Miao Borderlands?

Hadn't Mother died in a car accident?

No way, System. I just finished dealing with the entertainment industry and corporate warfare, and now I'm switching careers to film The Lost Tomb?

That place is full of bugs! I'm terrified of bugs!

Just as he was grumbling, Jian Xiu walked over and solemnly handed Huo Si a phone. "We found this on Shadow. There's an unsent encrypted message on it. The recipient's location... is deep in the mountains of Qianzhou."

Huo Si took the phone and glanced at it, his gaze darkening.

Was that where Jian Ning's mother had truly died? (He had heard Jian Ning's inner voice.)

He turned and took Jian Ning's slightly cold hand. "Looks like we'll have to take a long trip."

Looking into Huo Si's resolute eyes, Jian Ning's fear inexplicably faded somewhat.

Fine. Let's go, then.

Since that King is hiding in the deep mountains, pretending to be some god or ghost, this young master will take the System and teach him a lesson.

When the time comes, I refuse to believe his venomous insects can be more poisonous than my System!

Jian Ning clasped Huo Si's hand in return and flashed a brilliant smile:

"Sure. I've been wanting to see whether the legendary Miao Borderlands Sanctuary can really grow money trees."