While Qi Sheng was monitoring the Testing Tower's operation.
In the real world, at the Human Federation's Star Network Security Center.
Beep!
"Verification successful!"
An electronic notification sounded, and the metal door slid into the wall.
Ding Xiu entered the office and sat down at his computer desk.
Looking at the steadily increasing number of Network Report Information reports on his right, he could not help sighing.
Just then, the ceiling projector activated automatically. Its beams converged in front of the desk, forming a robot projection.
"Smart Xiao A at your service. You currently have 328 unprocessed Network Report Information reports, of which 227 have been flagged for AI processing and will be handled by Xiao A. After searching and reading the remaining 101 reports, I am unable to make an accurate determination. You will need to analyze and resolve them yourself."
Ignoring the intelligent assistant, Ding Xiu pressed the blue button on his desk. The ceiling projector immediately cast down more light, constructing a virtual workbench around him.
Countless blue and white light points slowly revolved around him.
"Time to work!"
Rousing himself, Ding Xiu quickly settled into work, clicking the white light points surrounding him to read the reports.
After the AI's screening, all the reports presented to him required his personal attention, to determine whether to forward them to the Local Law Enforcement Department or hand them over to another race's Internal Regulatory Unit.
After handling four reports in succession, Ding Xiu clicked another White Light Points.
The projection immediately formed a virtual screen before him, displaying the detailed report:
Reporter: Games Are Art Verified identity: Wang Xuexi (identity code: ...) Report details: Online scammers in the group are spreading a fake phishing link, claiming it can be used to download the Eclipse Race's latest virtual reality game, "Darklands"... (Attached: group chat screenshot) (Attached: screenshot of the poster's network ID information) ...
The report surprised Ding Xiu.
This sort of information was obviously fake. He knew it had to be false without even opening the link.
Even games released by the Eclipse Race years ago had no cracked versions, let alone the recently released "Darklands," which used more advanced security technology.
That was precisely what made this strange.
The AI assistant should have been perfectly capable of handling information like this on its own. Why had it needed to pass it to him for manual verification?
"Xiao A, why didn't you handle this report?"
At his question, the AI assistant Xiao A, who had been sitting idly on the desk, stood up and pointed at the report before him.
"We need to examine every report in detail and verify its contents before making a determination. However, I could not retrieve any useful information from the evidence provided in this report, so I could not process it further."
Xiao A's explanation only puzzled Ding Xiu more.
"Why couldn't you process it further?"
"There are three reasons. First, I searched for 'Perks Officer,' who was mentioned in the report. Although I could find information about this individual online, his account had no verification information, and I could not trace the location of his IP address... In other words, this account completed registration without identity verification. My database contains no precedent for unverified registration. There is a logical error I cannot comprehend."
"Second, I accessed the reported link to search for other clues and discovered that the link also had a problem. I was actually unable to bypass the permissions behind it... This was the final response I received."
As Xiao A finished speaking, the information on the light screen before Ding Xiu changed.
A notification appeared in the projection:
[The download limit has been reached. The publisher has not enabled further download permissions. Download unavailable.]
A humanlike expression of confusion appeared on the assistant Xiao A's face.
"My Level A Permission in the Human Federation's network information processing system means that only Level S information designated by the intelligent master brains of individual cities and the federal central AI brain is beyond my access. I have permission to bypass all other verification and view the contents directly, so the inspection of this link could only be deemed a failure."
"Finally, I examined Perks Officer's online trail but could not find any network leads I could read or trace. That includes which groups he posted the download link in. I cannot access the specific information."
"In conclusion, under Article 238 of the AI Brain Regulations, an AI must verify all information before handling a case independently. Since I could not further verify any of these three leads, the inspection was deemed a failure and transferred for manual processing."
After hearing Xiao A's account, Ding Xiu immediately realized that this seemingly obvious fake report was far less simple than he had thought.
He immediately followed Xiao A's procedure, rechecking the publisher's verified identity, the link information, and the IP address.
The results were exactly as Xiao A had described. He could not find any useful information at all.
"Could it be the Eclipse Race?"
Faced with such a bizarre problem, Ding Xiu's first thought was the Eclipse Race.
The Bio-Brain cores of the Human Federation's major cities and the federal master brain had originally been established with the Eclipse Race's help.
The Star Network, which connected the Human Race with the various factions that had fled here as refugees, had also been completed with technical support from the Eclipse Race. Thus, only the Eclipse Race possessed the highest permissions, allowing unrestricted access to the networks of other races.
The Human Federation had once worried about this issue, believing that connecting to the Star Network posed risks and would leave the Human Race's secrets entirely exposed to the Eclipse Race.
However, the issue had been set aside during discussions by the Federal Supreme Council.
The reason was simple. Someone at the meeting had asked this question:
"Let me ask the city administrators and federal councilors present: given the Eclipse Race's technological level, if they truly had designs on humanity, what chance would we have of successfully resisting?"
Those words had silenced the protesters at the meeting.
In truth, if the Eclipse Race wanted to invade Earth, the Human Race would have no power to resist.
In all their years of contact with the Human Race, the Eclipse Race had never shown any hostility and had even taken the initiative to provide various forms of technological support.
Connecting to the Star Network created by the Eclipse Race would give the Human Federation access to vast amounts of technology the Eclipse Race had stored there, greatly aiding its development.
The meeting ultimately voted for the Human Federation to connect to the Star Network and request the Eclipse Race's assistance in establishing city AI brains and a Main Brain of its own.
As such, the Eclipse Race's intelligent Main Brain possessed supreme network permissions exceeding those of every other race's Main Brain.
Only the Eclipse Race's super master brain had permission to designate absolutely confidential data on the Star Network, and it could also bypass the various races' Bio-Brains to approve unverified registration requests and complete their registration information.
At this thought, Ding Xiu's expression turned peculiar.
The highest-ranking members of the Eclipse Race, who could control a Super Bio-Brain, had registered an unverified online identity just to post a prank link on the Human Federation's network?
The conjecture was truly too absurd.
But aside from the Eclipse Race's involvement, he could think of no other possibility.
To establish Perks Officer's identity, Ding Xiu submitted the report to the head of the Network Security Group.
After explaining the reasons in detail over the phone, he put the matter aside and continued processing other reports.
Ten minutes later, the group leader, Yue Dong, appeared beside him as a three-dimensional projection.
"Ding Xiu, I've forwarded your report to the federal master brain. Its conclusion was that it had never approved any unverified identity registration, so Perks Officer is very likely a high-ranking member of the Eclipse Race."
"It really is the Eclipse Race?" Ding Xiu frowned slightly.
"Only the Eclipse Race possesses supreme permissions on the Star Network that can bypass the federal master brain. After analyzing Perks Officer's series of strange actions, the federal master brain proposed twelve possibilities."
"The first possibility is that some internal problem among the Eclipse Race High Command led one member to steal the database for 'Darklands' and distribute a cracked version on our Human Federation's network."
"The second possibility is that this is merely a prank by the Eclipse Race High Command, and there is no Cracked Version of the game behind the link at all."
"The third possibility..."
At this point, Yue Dong fell briefly silent before continuing.
"But none of these twelve conjectures can perfectly explain Perks Officer's series of baffling actions."
"The biggest problem now is that the federal Bio-Brain cannot trace Perks Officer's online trail, including which chat groups he distributed the link in. Nor can it download the contents through the link, so it cannot determine whether a game actually exists behind it."
"Ding Xiu, I'm assigning you a task. Monitor this link in real time and wait to see whether download permissions might be enabled again."
After hearing his group leader out, Ding Xiu immediately nodded.
"Understood. I'll watch for any changes to this download link's disabled permissions."
The group leader's figure faded away. Ding Xiu turned toward Xiao A, who was sitting idly on the desk.
"Xiao A, monitor the link for me in real time. Report any developments."
The assistant Xiao A raised its head, a humanlike expression of bewilderment appearing on its face.
"I do not have permission to access the link and cannot perform in-depth monitoring."
"I don't need you to check whether the download permissions behind the link are enabled. I want you to click download one hundred thousand times per second, twenty-four hours a day without interruption. Since we don't have permission, we'll use high-frequency connections to wait for the moment when permissions might be enabled."
"Understood!" Xiao A nodded.
Just as Xiao A began its high-frequency connections.
Qi Sheng, who was in Emperor Tomb Village, received feedback from Guide stating that an intelligent AI was submitting high-frequency access requests to the challenger system.
This made Qi Sheng realize that his method of recruiting players had very likely already attracted the attention of the Human Federation's Network Security Agency, or even its leadership.
Qi Sheng had no intention of taking any action in response.
As the number of "Monster World" players continued to grow, the day would eventually come when everything was exposed.
He was not worried about exposure. He only wanted to delay it.
And the various factions on Earth could not prevent the number of "Monster World" players from growing.
Because Guide had long since easily infiltrated and seized the highest permissions of the Star Network built by the Eclipse Race.