Chapter 26: Programmer

The city air was exceptionally fresh after a night of torrential rain. The whole city seemed to have taken a bath, washing away the dust from the greenery along the roads.

Huang Zhuowang pulled up the roller shutter door of the internet cafe.

Wearing flip-flops, he sleepily stretched his back. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling very stylish, and then sat down satisfied in the swivel chair at the front desk. He turned on the computer, ready for an intensely passionate shooting game.

After playing for a while, just as he was planning to go make some instant noodles, a person walked in from outside. His voice was as deep as a voice actor's.

"I need to set up an internet card."

Before he could even snap back to his senses, the person handed over an ID card. He took it foolishly and looked up. For a moment, he seemed to hear his heart skip a beat.

It was as if a crack had appeared in his peaceful life. The person before him and the internet cafe that had been reduced to a mere background had distinct layers between them. It was like someone who should clearly be conducting high-level transactions had walked into the wrong place, they weren't on the same layer.

The first thing Huang Zhuowang noticed was the undeniably extraordinary bearing of the person in front of him. Then, he associated it with the thought that this foreigner's identity must be extraordinary.

Huang Zhuowang thought of the international mercenaries on the dark web, speculating in his heart: What is his purpose in coming to China?

"Are you going to do it or not?"

Xie De was expressionless and a bit impatient. He was already low-key enough. He was wearing a hat and a mask, almost completely covering his facial features. He was also wearing very ordinary clothes. How long was this guy in front of him going to stare at him?

"Oh, oh, oh," Huang Zhuowang hurriedly snapped back to his senses, revealing an awkward smile.

"Sorry about that, sorry, right away, right away... uh."

Huang Zhuowang looked down at the ID card, blinked slowly, and showed a hint of confusion. Did the photo on the ID card have even half a cent's relation to the man in front of him? Although the man in front of him was wearing a mask, one glance at his impressive brow was enough to tell that these two were not the same person. They were at most only fifty percent similar. This wasn't something that could be simply glossed over with a "not photogenic" excuse.

The name was also very ordinary, a standard Chinese name—Xie De.

Hiss, good lord, he's not even pretending anymore. This fake ID actually looks so official!

"This..."

"Recharge 60 yuan." The man's gaze casually locked onto him, and he did not seem like someone easy to mess with.

"O...kay."

Forget it, better to avoid trouble. Huang Zhuowang swiftly processed the card, not daring to utter a single word of nonsense.

But at the same time, he inevitably developed an intense curiosity, silently observing Xie De.

And Xie De was annoyed to death. Where did he have the time to care about Huang Zhuowang's restless curiosity?

He went to find an empty seat in the deepest corner. It was still early, and there were hardly any people in the internet cafe. Those who pulled an all-nighter were asleep, so he didn't care and opened his phone screen, letting Gibberish hurry up and connect to the network via the computer.

Gibberish's main code had turned into gibberish yesterday and was currently still under repair. It couldn't randomly hack into the city's surveillance systems and electronic device positioning systems like before.

It had to switch to a more conventional method: first finding a computer to set up a new user, using a VPN to bypass the firewall and download the required software, establishing encryption keys. After a series of complex operations to add a few layers of "armor" to its identity, it could sneakily yet openly breach the firewalls of those two systems and silently slip in to find the target.

The computer screen, which in the past had only displayed game visuals, went high-end for once. Unexpectedly, dense binary code in green text on a black background appeared, scrolling rapidly up and down, completely impossible to read clearly.

The security camera behind flashed with a red light.

Huang Zhuowang stared dumbfounded at the surveillance footage he had pulled up. He zoomed in and zoomed in again, his eyes wide. He just knew that someone like this coming to an internet cafe definitely had an ulterior motive.

Although Huang Zhuowang was a bit unreliable, he was a genuine, recently graduated top student from the computer science department. He was somewhat arrogant about his talents. If it weren't for some problems in his studies that made him not want to stay in school anymore, he could have easily coasted to a PhD degree.

So of course he could tell what the code displayed on the computer screen was. Wasn't that the source code for their city's surveillance system? Back in school, his professor had even taken him to participate in a national bug-fixing competition for this exact thing!

Heavens above!

It would be fine if it were any other system, but why did it have to be this one?

The competition he participated in back then had gathered talents from all over the country. Everyone had wracked their brains for this system, building firewalls thicker than the Great Wall. Even a professional hacker, without top-tier equipment and skills, wanting to breach it would simply be wishful thinking.

So what he was seeing on the surveillance monitor must definitely be a hallucination!

Wait, calm down. This man might be from the government. Having this source code is very normal. But why would someone from the government come to such a small internet cafe? Is he executing some secret mission? No, he's a foreigner, how could he be from the government? No, this person is probably mixed-race, so it's actually possible he's a government agent!

Perhaps he's an agent executing a mission against foreign spies!

His thoughts took eighteen hairpin turns in his head, and the more Huang Zhuowang thought about it, the more he felt his idea was correct.

He became inexplicably excited, as if coming into contact with a top secret that ordinary people could never possibly touch was something thrilling. He couldn't help but want to investigate a little further.

But the next second, he suddenly realized the feed on the monitor was gone. The man was standing at the front desk, quietly looking at him. Goosebumps instantly erupted all over his body, and he stiffened into a mummy. He mechanically raised his head and revealed a fawning yet terrified smile.

"If I said I wasn't looking on purpose, and I completely don't understand it, and I don't know what this thing is, would you believe me?"

The man's gaze grew colder and colder. It was obvious he didn't believe him.

Huang Zhuowang felt like he was going to cry.

"Bro! I can sign a non-disclosure agreement! And… and I'm just a clean, ordinary citizen with a very clean background. I really didn't mean to peek, I was just too curious."

"Bro, since I was a kid, I've especially yearned for a life like yours. I'm begging you, take me under your wing. I came back from studying abroad at a top-tier university, and my major was computer science! The thesis I wrote in college was on Artificial Intelligence. I've applied for patents and specialize in researching top-tier technology! My thesis has even been published in international journals. Bro, I can be considered a talent too, single-mindedly patriotic, just unappreciated! I beg you, let me work with you!"

Huang Zhuowang was teary-eyed, eager to jump up and demonstrate his value.

What kind of crazy fit is this all of a sudden?

This made Xie De absolutely not dare to mention returning the card and getting a refund.

Gibberish ran over to look at the surveillance feed for a few glances, deep in thought.

"Host, he seems to have misunderstood and thinks you're a big shot hacker."

"So what do we do?"

Gibberish pondered.

"I feel like this guy is about to pass out from excitement. Let's give him a contact number. We can trick this talent into working for us, and since he's so awesome, maybe he can help me slightly repair my primary auxiliary code."

If he could really help fix some of Gibberish's bugs, that would simply be a massive help.

Since things had come to this point.

Xie De wrote down a phone number and gave it to Huang Zhuowang.

"Wait for my contact."

With an excited heart and trembling hands, Huang Zhuowang treated it as if he had obtained a precious treasure. He felt that he, a winged steed, had finally met his talent scout.

By the time his excited emotions passed, Xie De had long since vanished without a trace.

And when he went back to check the surveillance footage, planning to look at it more carefully, he was shocked to find that all footage involving the man had completely disappeared. He couldn't even find a single trace of the computer access logs.

If it weren't for the phone number still in his hand, he would have suspected that everything just now was an illusion.

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Rei’s note:

Another misunderstanding, LOL. I am suddenly looking forward to how he would react if he ever gets to know that he misunderstood Xie De ಡ⁠ ͜⁠ ⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠ಡ