Technical Domination
Brother Kun led K through the small door into a corridor completely different from the main hall outside. Here, there was a cheap but clean carpet, the walls were simply painted, and the overhead lights, though not bright, were no longer the stark white fluorescent tubes outside, but warm yellow ceiling lights.
The smell in the air was much better. Although there was still a faint musty and smoky smell, at least the intense stench of sweat, fast food, and despair that filled the air outside was gone.
The corridor wasn't long, with several closed wooden doors on both sides. Brother Kun stopped in front of a door with a simple plastic sign that read "Technical Department" and pushed it open to go inside.
The room was small, about twenty square meters. Compared to the oppressive and spacious lobby outside, it felt cramped and cluttered. Three walls were piled high with various electronic devices: stacks of secondhand desktop computers, monitors, routers, switches, and a tangled mess of cables.
In the center of the room were two long tables pushed together, piled high with disassembled computer parts, soldering tools, multimeters, and several computers that looked to be of higher specifications, their screens lit up, displaying complex code interfaces or network monitoring diagrams.
A thin man wearing a wrinkled plaid shirt, greasy hair, and thick-rimmed Glasses was standing with his back to the door, bent over fiddling with something in front of a buzzing server, a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his mouth, the ash almost falling off.
"Old Zhao!" Brother Kun called out.
The thin man was startled, his hand trembled, and the cigarette ash finally fell, landing on the server's motherboard. He hurriedly tried to brush it off, but got burned and turned around, wincing. When he saw it was Brother Kun, a fawning smile immediately appeared on his face, but deep in his eyes was a tension and exhaustion from long-term pressure.
"Kun, Brother Kun! What brings you here? Is there anything I can help you with?" Old Zhao —who seemed to be the only "IT talent" in the park—hurriedly came forward and casually stubbed out his cigarette in a ramen noodle box full of cigarette butts.
"I've brought someone over." Brother Kun stepped aside, making room for K behind him. "He's new, supposedly an IT expert, very skilled. You can 'test him' and see if he's really got the skills."
Old Zhao pushed up his Glasses, which had slipped down his nose, and carefully examined K. K was dressed plainly, looked even younger than him, and had a blank expression on his face. His calm gaze didn't seem like that of someone who had just entered this hellhole. A hint of doubt flashed in Old Zhao's eyes, followed by deep disbelief and a barely perceptible resistance—here, his skills were a scarce resource. Although the pressure was high and his position wasn't particularly high, he was at least a "technical backbone," and Brother Kun had treated him fairly politely. Now, suddenly, a "master" had appeared. What if he really was one? Wouldn't that threaten his position?
"An expert?" Old Zhao chuckled dryly, his tone tinged with sarcasm and a hint of probing. "Brother Kun, our system here may look simple, but maintaining it properly, preventing any mishaps, and guarding against cops and hackers outside—there's a lot more to it than that. It's not just about installing a system or fixing a computer to be considered an expert."
Brother Kun naturally understood the meaning behind Old Zhao's words. He smiled but didn't respond. Instead, he gestured with his chin to K: "Show off your skills to Engineer Zhao. Let's see what you're made of."
K nodded without saying anything and walked straight to the long table piled with clutter. His gaze quickly swept over the several computer screens on the table, then stopped in front of a computer displaying a complex network topology diagram and real-time data stream.
Old Zhao followed and stood next to K, arms crossed, looking like he was about to watch a good show. Brother Kun also pulled up a chair and sat down with great interest, lighting a cigarette.
"Engineer Zhao," K suddenly spoke, his voice calm, "The third node of the campus's external firewall has a logical vulnerability in its dynamic allocation algorithm for the virtual IP pool. Approximately 137 spoofed data packets attempt to penetrate it every second, with a success rate of about 0.3 per thousand. Although it hasn't caused any actual intrusion yet, it will accumulate abnormal logs over time, increasing the risk of reverse engineering."
Old Zhao's expression froze instantly, and he lowered his arms. He slammed his face against the screen, staring intently at the network monitoring interface that K had just glanced at. The data stream displayed on that interface was extremely complex, with lines and numbers of various colors jumping around incessantly, making it impossible for the average person to see or understand.
The node K mentioned was indeed a weak point in their external network defenses. He himself had only recently vaguely noticed something was wrong, but he hadn't been able to pinpoint the exact problem, let alone pinpoint the vulnerability details and data so precisely!
"You... how did you figure that out?" Old Zhao's voice was a little hoarse, and most of his previous contempt and disdain had disappeared.
K didn't answer, but instead reached out and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. His fingers were long and steady, and his typing speed was so fast that it almost left afterimages. The complex interface on the screen switched rapidly, a command line window popped up, and lines of code flowed down like a waterfall.
Old Zhao's eyes widened. K's operation was fluid and seamless; his familiarity with the system was as if he had built it himself. The internal diagnostic tools and log analysis commands he brought up were things that even Old Zhao himself had to think about to find, but K reacted as if it were instinctive.
Less than a minute later, K stopped typing. The screen froze on an analysis results interface, clearly highlighting in red the location of the firewall node's algorithm vulnerability, as well as the detailed path and statistics of the abnormal data packet penetration that K had just mentioned.
"There are two approaches to patching this," K said again, still without much emotion. "The first is to modify the core function of IP pool allocation, adding a random factor and a verification layer, but this will affect the overall allocation efficiency by about 5%. The second is to set up a decoy virtual node to actively guide and record these probe packets for anti-tracking and attribution, but this requires additional computing resources. I recommend the second approach, which can be used to monitor potential external threat sources."
Old Zhao's mouth dropped open, speechless for a long time. Not only did he instantly pinpoint the problem, but he also proposed two solutions, even clearly analyzing their pros and cons! This level of skill... was absolutely superior to his! No, it far surpassed his!
Although Brother Kun didn't understand the technical details, he already understood about 70-80% of it from Old Zhao's ghost-like expression and K's calm and talkative attitude. He flicked his cigarette ash, and his smile deepened.
"Talk is cheap." Old Zhao took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, but his tone was much more polite, even carrying a hint of seeking advice. "We have a file server on our intranet, with access control and encryption. I... I accidentally mixed up the access keys for an important business group a while ago, and now the people in that group can't access their task data. The server logs are huge, and I've been searching for two days without finding a clue..." This was his biggest headache lately, directly affecting the progress of a certain "pig butchering scam" group. He had already been urged by his superiors several times, and the pressure was immense.
K nodded, gesturing for him to move aside. Old Zhao quickly gave up his spot.
K didn't sit down; he operated the system standing up. He first typed rapidly on another computer, seemingly searching for something, then switched back to the main computer, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Windows opened and closed on the screen, and various commands and scripts ran at lightning speed. Instead of sifting through the massive server logs, he directly wrote a sophisticated script that performed cross-correlation analysis by comparing recent permission change records, file access failure logs, and the key signature databases of various business groups.
Old Zhao watched in a daze, many of the combinations of commands and tools were things he had never heard of before, but upon closer reflection, he found them ingenious and to the heart of the matter.
Just three minutes later, K stopped moving.
"Found it," he said calmly. "It was at 4:27 PM on March 15th. When you were updating keys in bulk, a regular expression in your script mismatched, mistakenly overwriting the permissions file for the 'Omega_Asset_03' group with the key for 'Alpha_Group_07'. The first eight characters of the incorrect key are: K8s! p@2L. This is the old key for the 'Alpha_Group_07' group, and it only differs from the new key in the last four characters."
As he spoke, he brought up the script file that had malfunctioned and the operation log at the time, highlighting the error. He also located the position of the permission file that had been incorrectly overwritten.
Old Zhao's expression shifted from shock to utter admiration, even a hint of dejection. This problem had plagued him for so long, yet the other party had not only found the root cause in just three minutes but had also precisely restored the incorrect key! This wasn't just a matter of technical skill; it was a complete and utter crushing victory in terms of system understanding, problem-solving mindset, and operational efficiency!
"Amazing... truly amazing..." Old Zhao murmured, his eyes filled with disbelief and a hint of awe as he looked at K. In the field of technology, strength is everything. The ability K displayed made his slight jealousy and resistance vanish, leaving only admiration.
Brother Kun slapped his thigh with a "smack," stood up, and smiled broadly, his eyes shining as if he had found a priceless treasure.
"Great! That's fantastic!" Brother Kun walked over to K and patted him hard on the shoulder. "Engineer Zhao, how's my judgment? Pretty good, right?"
Old Zhao hurriedly nodded and bowed, "Brother Kun has a discerning eye! This... this brother's skill level is far superior to mine! With him here, we can rest assured about the technical issues in our park!"
"Haha!" Brother Kun laughed heartily, in a great mood. He turned to K, his attitude more than ten times warmer than before, "Brother, no doubt about it! You're the best!" He gave him a thumbs up.
"From today onwards, you are the chief consultant of our park's technology department! No, the technical director!" Brother Kun waved his hand and began to announce the terms, "As for the compensation, the base salary is $30,000 a month! And that's just the base salary! There will be a year-end bonus, depending on overall performance and your contributions, with no upper limit!"
"I'll arrange a suite for you, with a private bathroom, air conditioning, and water heater! It'll be absolutely quiet, and no one will bother you!"
"Food and drinks will be the same as what I and the other managers eat. You'll have your own small kitchen and can cook whatever you want!"
"As for women..." Brother Kun winked, "Just ask, and I'll arrange everything perfectly for you. Domestic, Southeast Asia, European—take your pick! Clean, beautiful, and obedient!"
"And another thing," he lowered his voice, "If you're into those things, I have the best connections for ' Carefree Powder ' and ' Joyful Powder,' plenty to go around! But those things are bad for your brain, brother, a tech genius like you should avoid them. Save your brain for the company to make money, hahaha!"
The conditions he offered were indeed the absolute best in the park, far exceeding those of ordinary thugs or even team leaders, almost on par with him, the manager.
K listened quietly, showing neither elation nor feigned refusal. Only when he heard the phrase "keep your brains to make money for the company" did he subtly twitch the corner of his mouth, as if in some extremely subtle response.
He nodded, accepting this "honor" and the accompanying hospitality from the abyss.
"Great! That's a good start!" Brother Kun was even more satisfied. "Old Zhao, from now on you'll work with Director K and learn a lot! Director K, the technical department is now in your hands! Just tell me what equipment or manpower you need!"
He gave a few more enthusiastic instructions before leaving with a smug look on his face, his steps lighter than ever. For him, today was like striking gold; the park's technological shortcomings had been instantly addressed, and he could now "make money" more efficiently and safely in the future.
In the technical department, only K and Old Zhao, who had not yet fully recovered from the shock, remained.
Old Zhao watched as K calmly began tidying the table piled high with clutter, as if everything that had just happened was a trivial matter. A mix of emotions welled up inside him. He adjusted his Glasses, hesitated for a moment, then approached, his tone respectful and cautious:
"Director K... Director K, regarding that firewall vulnerability and the server access issue, shouldn't we... address them as soon as possible?"
K raised his head and glanced at him. His gaze was calm and expressionless, yet it sent a chill down Old Zhao Zhao's spine.
"No rush," K said calmly. "Let's familiarize ourselves with the overall architecture of all the systems first."
His gaze slowly swept over the buzzing servers and flickering network equipment in the room, like the most seasoned hunter surveying his new territory. The real mission had only just begun its core phase after acquiring this crucial springboard.