Chapter 98: Pentagon computers collectively crash with a blue screen, the Starry Sky logo flashes.

The broken English on the giant screen stung John's eyes.

Breathing heavily, he slammed his fist onto the main console.

The metal surface vibrated with a buzzing sound.

"Investigate! Pull the plug for me!"

John's eyes were bloodshot, like a gambler who had lost everything down to his underwear.

The Cybersecurity Bureau Chief slumped in his swivel chair, his face covered in sweat.

"I can't pull it, sir. They've locked the administrative permissions; the screens in this hall are now entirely under the control of the Chinese."

John ripped off his tie and threw it fiercely onto the floor.

His leather shoes crushed the silk fabric as he walked over to the red confidential hotline in the corner.

He grabbed the receiver and jabbed at the dial buttons with force. The call went through.

"Connect me to The Pentagon Cyber Warfare Command Center."

John gritted his back teeth, his voice squeezing out from between them.

The person on the other end seemed hesitant. John roared directly.

"Silicon Valley is ruined! Use military force immediately and wipe Xinghai Technology's IP matrix off the face of the earth!"

Arlington County, The Pentagon underground bunker.

The air conditioning was running high.

Colonel Richard held a cup of black coffee, leaning against the tactical command table.

Green coordinate points pulsed on the giant screen.

The adjutant hung up the phone, stood at attention, and saluted.

"Sir, the Department of Commerce is asking for assistance. They say a private Chinese enterprise has paralyzed Silicon Valley's internal network."

Richard took a sip of coffee and sneered.

"John and those suits are fools, using taxpayers' money to raise a bunch of trash."

He set down his mug, the bottom hitting the table with a crisp sound.

"They can't even handle a tablet assembly plant and need the military to step in and clean up their mess."

"Get Team Three online."

Richard lifted his chin slightly, his eyes filled with condescending arrogance.

"Bring up the 'Hellfire' Trojan. I want the hard drives in their main server to melt."

The adjutant hesitated.

"Sir, that's a military-grade encrypted virus. Isn't that overkill for a civilian network?"

"Carry out the order."

Richard brushed the wrinkles off his sleeve.

"When crushing an ant, I only care about whether it dies fast enough."

The night in Donghai City grew deeper.

The air coolers in the Xinghai server room whirred loudly.

"Buzz—"

The alarm light, which had only just gone quiet, began spinning wildly again.

This time, the red light flashed more densely, stinging the eyes.

Xia Weiliang crushed her Red Bull can with a bite and tossed it into the trash.

"Oh, we've got a tough one."

She slammed her hands onto the mechanical keyboard, creating a chorus of blue switch clicks.

"Boss Lu, the Americans are fighting dirty."

"They've deployed a military-grade encrypted logic bomb. This thing is designed to burn physical hardware."

Upon hearing the word "military," Chu Xuan's legs went weak.

He hugged the iron frame of the server rack, his voice trembling.

"The military? Are we really going head-to-head with the American regular army? Where's the air-raid shelter?!"

"Shut your stinking mouth."

Lu Jingming pulled over a folding chair and sat down imposingly.

He twirled the plastic lighter with his fingers.

His gaze was fixed on the main control screen, showing no ripples of emotion.

"Can the defense line hold?" Lu Jingming asked, turning his head.

Xia Weiliang pushed up her thick-rimmed glasses, her brow furrowed in a knot.

"Holding out is a bit risky. This Trojan has a self-destruct program and is sticking to us like a plaster."

"Then don't hold out."

Lu Jingming's fingertips paused, the lighter stopping in his palm.

"Open a gap in the southwest corner of the firewall."

He curled his lips, revealing a flash of white canine teeth.

"Let them in."

As soon as these words came out, Old Zhou was so scared he plopped onto the anti-static floor.

"Boss Lu! That's poison that burns hard drives! If we let it in, our entire foundation will be finished!"

Old Zhou slapped his thigh in anxiety.

"Who said anything about letting them into the storage room?"

Lu Jingming stood up, one hand in his pocket.

He walked behind Xia Weiliang and pointed to a blank virtual sandbox area on the screen.

"Throw AI Assistant's bait here."

Lu Jingming sneered.

"Build an empty shell database. Once that fire comes in, weld the door shut. Let them burn themselves."

Xia Weiliang's eyes lit up, and her fingers flew across the keyboard again.

"Got it. Shutting the door to beat the dog."

The Pentagon underground bunker.

Colonel Richard looked at the progress bar on the screen showing the defense line being breached and smiled with satisfaction.

"Sir, 'Hellfire' has cut into their main thoroughfare," the operator reported loudly.

"I told you, China's network defenses are like paper."

Richard raised his coffee cup, ready to taste the flavor of victory.

Suddenly, the operator's voice cracked.

"Wrong! Sir! The virus upload path has been cut off!"

The green data stream on the screen instantly turned into an eye-stinging scarlet.

"They detonated our Trojan in the sandbox! And..."

The operator typed frantically on the keyboard, sweat pouring down his face.

"And what! Speak!"

Richard slammed the coffee onto the table.

Coffee splashed onto the back of his hand, scalding it red, but he didn't bother to wipe it off.

"There's a massive data stream flooding back through our attack channel!"

The operator's voice was hoarse, staring desperately at the warning boxes flashing all over the screen.

"They've seized our IP jump host! We can't stop it! The firewall has been torn open!"

Richard's brain went "buzz."

He rushed to the console, pushed the operator aside, and braced his hands on the surface.

"Cut the physical connection! Go pull the network cables, now!"

He roared at the top of his lungs. It was too late.

The sixth-floor non-classified office area of The Pentagon.

Thousands of staff officers and civilian personnel were processing daily documents.

In the quiet corridor, only the sound of typing and turning pages could be heard.

"Beep—"

A desktop in the corner emitted an eerie hum.

Immediately after, it spread like a contagious disease.

"Beep beep beep beep—"

Thousands of computer hosts emitted harsh, long wails simultaneously, the sounds converging into one.

It made one's scalp tingle.

A female clerk carrying documents stopped in her tracks, staring blankly at the screen.

The complex tactical simulation table that had been there instantly vanished.

The entire monitor turned a lifeless, deep blue. Blue screen.

This was no system failure.

In the very center of that blinding blue, there were no error codes.

There was only a line of bright red Chinese Pinyin flashing crazily on the screen: "XingHai KeJi, ZhuanZhi BuFu."

"What... what does this mean?"

A major on the staff patted his monitor, wearing an expression as if he had seen a ghost.

He picked up the desk phone to call for help.

From the receiver came the same mechanical female voice reading out that same line of Pinyin.

The entire office area of The Pentagon was in complete chaos.

Some tried to force a shutdown, but the power buttons were completely ineffective.

Even after pulling the plug, the laptops still displayed that line of red text.

The blinding blue light illuminated every terrified Caucasian face.

Inside the underground bunker.

Colonel Richard slumped on the floor, his military jacket wrinkled into a ball.

He looked at the giant surveillance screen on the wall.

The dense grid of squares on it had all turned into blue screens with flashing red text.

This was naked, in-your-face humiliation.

It was rubbing the face of America's highest military command center into the ground with the soles of their shoes.

The red confidential phone on the table rang like a death knell.

Richard's hands trembled as he scrambled up to grab the receiver.

On the other end, John Smith's voice was panting like a desperate wild boar.

"Richard! What is your military good for?! Is Xinghai's server paralyzed or not?!"

John roared over the phone.

The background noise was full of the sounds of things being smashed in the Cybersecurity Bureau.

"Those vampires on Wall Street are about to blow up my phone!"

Richard swallowed a mouthful of dry saliva, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

He stared fixedly at the blinding red Pinyin on the giant screen.

"John, Xinghai is not paralyzed."

Richard's voice was trembling, carrying a deadly dryness.

"You pig! Then what have you been doing just now?!"

John was furious.

Richard took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"We have been watching three thousand computers at The Pentagon all have their desktop screensavers forcibly changed by them."

He gave a bitter laugh, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

"John, where on earth did these Chinese monsters come from?"

"Do they have a ghost army under their command?"