NOVEL NEXT Chapter 476 - 476: 476
Chapter 476: 476
After finishing dinner and having a chat in the restaurant’s tea room, discussing cooperation-related matters and agreeing to meet at the company tomorrow for a more detailed conversation, Xiang Kun and the others bid farewell to Zhang Qian and the other “Rising Jiao Entertainment” staff, and returned to the hotel.
Yang Zhen’er and Tang Baona only booked a room for Xiang Kun, but not for Old Xia. Just like before in Star City, they forcefully squeezed Old Xia into their room.
After eating supper together, around eleven or close to midnight, Xiang Kun confirmed through sensory information that the three girls in the next room were already asleep. He first checked Alice’s scan results of the “suspected surveillance” locations he had noted at noon.
Alice discovered a previously undiscovered security system. The backend server of this security system was also connected to a dedicated line network provided by a service provider, seemingly an internal network of the secret department of “Divine Technology”.
To a regular hacker, invading such a system would naturally be quite difficult. The most likely methods would be to first break it from the inside, or control a terminal first and use it as a stepping stone to operate.
But for Alice, any network, any system, any terminal, as long as she can find the node it is connected to at the physical level, whether wired or wireless, it is only a matter of time before she can invade and control it.
When Alice fully integrates into the “Super Sensory Item System” and is able to interpret and utilize more “Super Sensory Information”, she will be able to infiltrate and control any electronic device as long as a “Super-connected Object” is deployed, regardless of whether the target is connected to the internet or has network modules.
While Xiang Kun and Zhang Qian were eating, Alice had already infiltrated and taken control of the hidden security system and followed the clues to quickly figure out the software and hardware operating methods of the system.
Based on the situation Alice had grasped, this security system not only controlled the direct gate, relevant access controls, and internal surveillance in the underground third level, but also had several very clandestine smart cameras around the Brilliant Fortune Building, which were directly connected to this system.
Some of these cameras had specially adjusted imaging modes, including everything from low-light imaging to infrared thermography.
They also had an intelligent system that would scan and identify all creatures using multiple imaging modes, categorize them, and then cross-reference them with a database.
Each type of creature has a normal body temperature range and a standard comparison with their environmental temperature. If the body temperature shows abnormal conditions, for instance, if the body temperature of a homeothermic animal is significantly lower than average, or if a cold-blooded animal shows a abnormal difference between its body temperature and the environment temperature, the system will alert relevant parties through internal display devices.
Clearly, this is a monitoring and identification system designed by “Divine Technology” specifically for “mutants”.
According to what Alice found, security systems of this kind were also installed in other places, likely where secret research bases are located.
Luckily, when Xiang Kun previously visited the secret research base of “Divine Technology” in QiCheng City, he was able to detect and evade the surveillance equipment in the nearby area beforehand. He didn’t dare to get too close and mainly used the “Super Sensory State” to observe.
The servers in the underground network in Peng City serve as one of the main data centers, indicating that even among “Divine Technology’s” secret departments, this particular area is quite special.
Afterwards, Alice sent Xiang Kun several surveillance videos. Each video corresponded to a surveillance point of the security system in the Brilliant Fortune Building, allowing him to get a general idea of the situation inside.
From several of the internal surveillance points, it was clear that there was a closed space behind a heavy metal gate on the underground third floor full of various drones, modified cars and other equipment. Even late at night, there were still two staff members busily maintaining the equipment.
Apart from this, there were many other rooms, some of which didn’t appear in the surveillance videos sent by Alice. They likely didn’t have surveillance installed and were private areas.
However, what Xiang Kun was most interested in was the black GMC camper van parked in the corner, as well as the entrance to the elevator room next to it.
That should lead underground because Alice had confirmed that the third level underground had no elevators leading to the upper levels.
It seemed, his previous inference was correct, this underground area where the rabbit wood carving and the “mutant” was, is here.
Xiang Kun communicated with Alice a little more, confirming her control level of the intelligent security system. He then left the hotel and went to the Brilliant Fortune Building.
The security system of the third basement floor of the Brilliant Fortune Building mainly relies on intelligent recognition. The electronic gates and access control are all automatic, with no manual verification or supervision.
The so-called “artificial intelligence” of this security system, in Alice’s words, is as “foolish”. She easily had it fully taken over.
After the monitoring of the Brilliant Fortune Building was all taken over by Alice, Xiang Kun no longer had to deliberately avoid monitoring. His appearance on the screen was controlled by Alice, replaced and covered with previously recorded footage. The intelligent recognition system used to discern “mutants” did not function either.
Returning to the outside of the Brilliant Fortune Building, which he had observed earlier from the “Best Fish in the World” restaurant, Xiang Kun sensed the “Super-connected sphere” he had placed on the crashed drone at Wushu Mountain earlier. He found its location did not match the third basement floor position Alice sent him, deviating quite a bit.
By comparing it with the drainage system blueprints found by Alice, he speculated that the sphere had most likely drifted into a sewer during the drone recycling and cleaning on the third basement floor, currently depositing in one section of the sewer.
If that was the case, there was not a single “Super-connected Objects” left in that third basement floor – the Super-connected Objects Old Xia set up during the day were all above ground.
In fact, now if Xiang Kun wanted, with Alice’s help, he could go straight down from the dedicated channel of the third basement floor. The surveillance would not detect him, the electronic gates would open for him, and his journey would be unimpeded. All he had to do was avoid the two poor workers who were still “working overtime” on drone maintenance on the third basement floor. This was a piece of cake for him.
After entering the third basement level, he could naturally set up “Super-connected Objects” at will. He could even throw “Super-connected Objects” down the elevator shaft. In this way, the places underground where those few “mutated creatures” were, could have not only the rabbit wood carving “Emotion Infused Objects”, but also “Super-connected Objects” within the sensing range to call upon, which would allow him to do more things and exert a deeper influence.
However, considering that he didn’t know much about the characteristics and abilities of the “mutated creatures” next to the rabbit wood carving. He didn’t know if they had some special ways, like smell or other senses, to detect traces left by “mutated creatures” and notice that he had been there.
So, to be on the safe side, Xiang Kun decided not to go in person right now.
At this point, he kind of missed “001”, “002”, and other derivative ant legions. They were perfect for this kind of stealth operation to plant “Super-connected Objects”. Even if they were discovered, it wouldn’t arouse much suspicion.
Unfortunately, he didn’t bring “001” and “002” to Peng City, as they had been left in Chongyun Village.
However, Xiang Kun wasn’t without other means to layout “Super-connected Objects”.
He directly controlled ten “Super-connected spheres” to enter from the special entrance and exit of the third basement floor, rolling along the road. After they were out of sensing range, he went to the first and second level parking lot of the Brilliant Fortune Building, which was open to company employees and visitors.
The entrance to the parking lot was guarded all night and equipped with a lot of surveillance equipment. But with Alice’s assistance and Xiang Kun’s superior sensory abilities, he easily infiltrated it, arriving directly on the second basement level.
In the second basement level, he found a location relatively closer to those spheres on a straight line. Xiang Kun could then enter a “Super Sensory State”, continue to perceive and control them, and conduct “Spatial Deployment”.
His control of these “Super-connected Objects” is only related to distance. It doesn’t matter what is in between.
As for the specific deployment location, Xiang Kun could easily match the spatial structure cognition in the Super Sensory State with the interior surveillance footage of the third basement floor previously given by Alice and find a great hiding corner.
The tungsten steel balls were really small, making them extremely easy to hide. Plus, the third basement floor was extremely spacious, and the two people who were still doing drone maintenance could not notice the movement of the ten “sneaky” tungsten steel balls hugging the wall dozens of meters away from them.
After setting up the “Super-connected Objects”, Xiang Kun noticed, that the two workers on the underground third floor, had driven through the passageway and left.
However, according to the report from Alice, the car driven by the two workers didn’t go far after leaving Brilliant Fortune Building, but only went to a 24-hour convenience store no more than a hundred meters away to buy food.
Considering that the third floor underground does not have a direct elevator to the first floor, Xiang Kun immediately understood why they had to drive a car to come out.
Xiang Kun also left the parking lot on the second floor underground and went to a place not far from the convenience store, hiding in the dark alleys.
The two people who worked on the third floor underground were sitting on a bench in front of the convenience store, smoking and chatting. They did not notice Xiang Kun at this distance, but Xiang Kun could clearly hear their conversation.
At first, the two were talking about the types and flavors of cigarettes, which province’s cigarettes were good to smoke, which hot food in the convenience store tastes good, were there any new restaurants nearby, etc. In the midst of their conversation, the younger worker suddenly remembered something and asked the older one:
“Hey, Old Liao, wouldn’t you say we are ‘underground workers’? I mean, literally.”
The older worker, Old Liao, was choked by the smoke and coughed several times before laughing: “It seems so.”
The younger worker sighed: “Ah, I’ve studied for sixteen years in China and another five years abroad. A total of twenty-one years of studying, and in the end, I ended up being a drone maintenance worker on the third floor underground, pulling ten all-nighters a month, they don’t let me go home. Old Liao, don’t you feel dissatisfied?”
But Old Liao scoffed: “Oh, come on, quit being so dramatic. Isn’t the main reason we came to work here for the money? Are you dissatisfied with the salary, subsidies, and bonuses they give you? Of all the classmates who studied with you, whether at home or abroad, except for those few who started their own businesses, how many earn more than you? And the things we do, the equipment we deal with, do you think you can get in touch with them in an ordinary company or laboratory? Tell me, do you think you could design them yourself?”
The young worker paused, then nodded: “You’re right …”
“So, this ‘maintenance work’ is not something ordinary people can do.” Old Liao said with a sigh, “If you’re interested in research and development, you can apply to ‘Mr. Liang’ and they will naturally transfer you to the R&D department.”
“Ah, Old Liao, you’re just fed up with me, aren’t you? You want me to leave?”
“Aren’t feeling wasted? You studied for twenty-one years, and now you’re hanging out with me, a ‘mechanic’, feel aggrieved?”
“Damn! You talk as if you studied less than I did!” The young worker laughed and scolded. Then he remembered something and said: “Ah, what happened to Old Xie, how did his face get injured like that? It seems he never went home, always stays in the workroom, never shows his face, and never even comes out for a snack. We’re the ones who bring stuff for him. Surely there’s no rule that he’s not allowed to come out by himself, right? Also, who is the person Old Xie drives out in his van every time? Is there really someone in the car? Once, I happened to be passing the elevator when the van was waiting there. As the elevator doors opened, I glanced over and there was nothing inside. Old Liao, do you think that when Old Xie drives out each time, he’s actually alone and there’s no one else in the car? Maybe he’s ‘Mr. Liang’, and when he communicates with us using the intercom, he uses a voice changer …”
“Stop, stop, stop right there! Has your brain gone haywire? Have you forgotten the confidentiality agreement? So, you don’t want the job anymore, huh? I want to work here, I want to earn a few more years’ money for my retirement fund, don’t drag me down!” After saying this, Old Liao stood up, picked up his plastic bag from the side and walked towards his car parked by the roadside.
The young worker also realized that he’d talked too much. He threw his cigarette butt into the ashtray next to the trash can and got up to follow Old Liao: “Old Liao, wait for me. I was wrong, okay? Geez, you are too oversensitive. It’s the middle of the night, and it’s just us. Who could hear us, the company folks can’t possibly know … Okay, okay, I won’t talk anymore, I won’t talk anymore…”
Watching the small car make a U-turn and drive back towards the dedicated entrance on the third underground floor of the Brilliant Fortune Building, Xiang Kun had food for thought.
Xiang Kun knew that the young worker was wrong about one thing: his words were recorded by the special intercom on him which was activated by the keywords, even if they weren’t heard by him, Xiang Kun. This was a monitoring mechanism that Alice discovered after accessing the server on the third underground floor.
However, what these two people said had given Xiang Kun some insight.
He had already known that there was another person living in a room on the third underground floor besides the two workers who were maintaining the drones. That person was the driver with many scars on his face who drove the GMC van, a man with a strong stature.
Alice had also told him that the terminal for receiving surveillance footage of Xie Hongting’s family was in the room where the driver was staying.
His first thought at the time was that this driver was monitoring the family, but now that he heard the young staff member refer to Xie Hongting as “Old Xie”, another thought came to his mind.
“Alice, can you find information about that driver in Divine Technology’s servers?” Xiang Kun asked through his phone.
“There is no corresponding information, but the security system has his fingerprints, facial, iris, and voice recognition data, identified as ‘Old Xie’,” Alice replied.
“Find information on Xie Hongting and compare with it.” Xiang Kun commanded.
A moment later, Alice’s reply came in, “Comparison complete, based on facial traits and fingerprint comparison, there’s nearly 100% chance they are the same person.”
As he had suspected, the driver was indeed Xie Hongting who came here and became the driver of the “mutant” in the underground after his “passing.”
As for the underground “mutant”, it must be the “flying mutated creature” that he scared away with his sensing thunder after the massive battle on Wushu Mountain with a “mutated big bird.” This is not only evidenced by the tungsten steel balls stuck to the drone, but also confirmed by what the young staff member had just said.
The young staff member suspected that Old Xie had left in an empty car when he looked into the open elevator and saw it was empty, because the “mutant creature” was invisible when leaving the elevator.
During his time on Wushu Mountain, he had learned that the “flying mutated creature,” like the “mutated big bird,” had the ability to become invisible.
Now, they were all waiting for Alice to further analyze the internal information she obtained from “Divine Technology” to confirm whether or not the “flying mutated creature” was indeed “Mr. Liang”.
Of course, there was another method, which was trying to deploy an “Emotion Infused Object” near Xie Hongting and using Old Xia’s “Dream in A Dream” ability for some inquiries-—the situation that Old Xie knew about would undoubtedly be a lot.
For Xiang Kun, the most curious thing was actually the attitude of “Divine Technology” towards “mutants,” or this kind of “mutated phenomena.”
Based on previous observations, “Divine Technology” seemed to be studying “mutants,” using scientific methods to analyse “mutated phenomena,” and looking for ways to apply them.
But from the moment he sensed that the woodcarving rabbit was taken to the underground space by that “mutant creature,” the other three “mutant creatures” in the underground space never left and no humans entered the space. It didn’t look like anyone was researching or observing them.
Meanwhile, secret department researchers like Dr. Fang and Zhou Rui knew very little about “mutated creatures.” It seemed they never confronted a real “mutant” and all information was gradually explored from scratch.
This situation made Xiang Kun very puzzled.
What exactly did they want to do?
Until he figured this out, Xiang Kun had to try his best not to let “Divine Technology,” “Mr. Liang,” or other relevant individuals discover his presence, make slow and steady moves, patiently explore.
However, now that Alice had already entered “Divine Technology’s” dedicated network, controlled part of the servers and data, and since he had already deployed enough “Super-connected Objects” in the underground facility, he believed that figuring all this out was only a matter of time.
The initiative was in his hands.