41: Giant God Group emerges

State Security Protection Bureau, Special Analysis Room.

At 2:10 AM, the lights in the analysis room were still on.

Lin Mo stood in front of a massive electronic whiteboard, densely covered with photos, maps, and sticky notes. Over the past five days, he had retrieved all intelligence related to the Emerald Principality from the bureau over the past year and screened it item by item. At this moment, his eyes were bloodshot, but his spirit was unusually high.

"Found it..." he murmured softly, his finger resting on a photo in the center of the whiteboard.

It was the last intelligence record sent back by the undercover agents in the Northern Mountains of the Emerald Principality, dated six months ago, exactly the day before they collectively fell into a coma.

Lin Mo pulled up the original files on the computer and arranged the undercover agents' reports chronologically. Soon, a strange pattern emerged:

Starting six months ago, the reporting style of intelligence personnel within the Gray Market Allied Forces suddenly became extraordinarily detailed, but the content grew increasingly hollow.

"October 3rd, Gray Market Allied Forces 2nd Brigade 3rd Battalion breakfast menu: porridge, pickles, eggs."

"October 22nd, Gray Market Allied Forces 5th Regiment sentry duty schedule: 6 AM, 12 PM, 6 PM, with a margin of error not exceeding 3 minutes."

"November 5th, Gray Market Allied Forces laundry room water consumption: daily average 2.3 tons, increasing by 15% on weekends."

Lin Mo's fingertips rapidly tapped on the keyboard, bringing up earlier records for comparison:

"August 28th, Gray Market Allied Forces held a secret meeting with the Taang National Liberation Army, suspected of planning an operation against the Ke Qin Independent Army's mining area."

"October 1st, Gray Market Allied Forces received a batch of arms, equipment suspected to be Russian-made CK-12."

"October 2nd, Gray Market Allied Forces high-level officials discussed a 'new boss,' but immediately fell silent after mentioning the word 'Titan.'"

The change occurred on October 3rd.

From that day on, all undercover agents' reports suddenly turned into trivial daily data, as if their focus had been deliberately altered. Even more bizarrely, this data was so precise it didn't seem like human work. No errors, no accidents, just like...

"Machine-generated." Lin Mo suddenly stood up, grabbed his jacket, and ran out.

State Security Protection Bureau, B3, Technical Reconnaissance Department.

"Old Zhou! Emergency!" Lin Mo pushed open the door of the encrypted analysis room.

Director Zhou, the head of the Technical Department, was wearing headphones and debugging equipment, startled by the sudden commotion: "In the middle of the night, what the hell?"

"Worse than seeing a ghost." Lin Mo inserted a USB drive into the terminal. "Help me analyze the generation pattern of this data."

Director Zhou glanced at the screen, his brows furrowing immediately: "This is... the reports from the undercover agents in the Northern Mountains of the Emerald Principality?"

"Focus on everything after October 3rd." Lin Mo pointed at the screen. "This data is too 'clean,' too clean to have been recorded by a human."

Director Zhou pushed up his glasses and quickly wrote an analysis program. Ten minutes later, the results made both of them gasp.

"All data conforms to the derivative patterns of the Fibonacci sequence." Director Zhou's voice trembled slightly. "Humans don't record information this way... This is AI-generated."

Lin Mo's pupils suddenly contracted: "You mean, from October 3rd onwards, the intelligence our undercover agents sent back?"

"They were all faked." Director Zhou pulled up the metadata analysis. "And they were generated in batches using the same algorithm."

The two exchanged glances, both seeing the chilling horror in each other's eyes.

"Even more terrifying," Director Zhou added, "these forged data can pass all our counter-espionage screenings, which means the other side has completely mastered our verification logic."

Lin Mo's phone suddenly vibrated, and an encrypted message popped up:

"Lin Mo, return to the office immediately. An anomaly has been found."

The sender was Wang Lei.

When Lin Mo rushed back to the office, Wang Lei was staring intently at the computer screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard. His face was pale, and fine beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.

"You'd better see this." Wang Lei's voice trembled slightly as he quickly turned the screen towards Lin Mo.

On the screen was a complex set of data charts. On the left was the price fluctuation curve of the international rare earth market, and on the right were the Emerald Principality's import and export trade records for the past six months.

"Following your line of thought, I cross-referenced the timeline of the warlords' demise in the Northern Mountains of the Emerald Principality with international bulk commodity transactions." Wang Lei pulled up a timeline. "Look here, three days after the Four Great Families were cleared out, international rare earth prices rose by 10% in a short period, marking the largest single-day increase in the past three years."

Lin Mo frowned: "This is illogical. Although the Northern Mountains of the Emerald Principality are chaotic, their rare earth output accounts for less than 6% of the global total. It shouldn't have such a significant impact."

"That's the problem." Wang Lei quickly switched screens, displaying another set of data. "Less than a month later, the Emerald Principality government suddenly announced a 'rectification of mining order,' suspending all rare earth export permits. Logically, even with only a 6% share, a reduction in supply should lead to a price increase, regardless of the magnitude, but the market showed little change."

Lin Mo's eyes suddenly sharpened: "Someone is manipulating the market?"

"No, it's more terrifying than that." Wang Lei pulled up an encrypted international trade settlement record. "I hacked into the WSITF system and found that the actual rare earth transaction volume that day increased by 300%, but all transactions went through a special channel, belonging to a secret account of the Emerald Principality's central bank."

A series of transaction records popped up on the screen, with staggering amounts.

Lin Mo's breathing hitched slightly: "They are... stockpiling rare earths?"

"No, they are selling off, and it's an official sell-off conducted by the government after officially prohibiting rare earth exports." Wang Lei pulled up a comparison chart. "Over the past six months, the Emerald Principality's officially reported rare earth export volume was five times the amount of rare earths from the Emerald Principality that we observed in the market. The only explanation is..."

"Someone is buying almost all of the extracted volume directly from the Emerald Principality government at a lower price." Lin Mo finished his sentence, his eyes cold. "And to do that, they must have the full cooperation, or even assistance, of the Emerald Principality's government."

"Exactly. The transactions must not have gone through any open market, but were completed privately between the Emerald Principality government and the buyer."

"And this too." Wang Lei pulled up another document. "The Emerald Principality government reported a trade surplus of 6.8 billion US dollars, but according to actual capital flows, it's at least over 40 billion."

"Where did the difference go?"

"Untraceable." Wang Lei shook his head. "After the funds entered the Emerald Principality's central bank, they disappeared as if into a black hole."

Wang Lei continued to pull up another set of data: "Even more bizarre is this."

The screen displayed the Emerald Principality's recent import records: thousands of tons of iron ore, copper ore, bauxite, and even large quantities of waste after rare earth separation.

"They are, uh... what kind of protocol is this? They even want waste?" Lin Mo frowned.

"More accurately, they are collecting raw materials." Wang Lei zoomed in on a shipping record. "The purity requirements for these ores are extremely low, even including smelting slag. But the destination for all shipments is an 'industrial park' on the outskirts of Mandala."

Lin Mo quickly did some mental math: "These import volumes, calculated solely by their refined weight, are enough to build three aircraft carriers."

"But the key is," Wang Lei pulled up satellite images, "the area of that industrial park simply cannot accommodate so many raw materials. Unless..."

"They are expanding underground." Lin Mo stared at the convoy of transport trucks on the outskirts of the industrial park in the image. All the trucks were heavily covered, but the cargo weight in the compartments was clearly abnormal.

Lin Mo was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked: "Can we find out the specific use of these raw materials?"

Wang Lei smiled bitterly: "That's the most terrifying part. I tried to track the sailing record of one cargo ship, and found that after it entered Yangon Port, it 'disappeared' from the customs system for 12 hours, then reappeared, but its waterline had risen by at least two meters."

"The cargo was unloaded midway?"

"No, the ship never docked." Wang Lei pulled up the altered port surveillance records. "Someone hacked into the system and forged the entire video of the ship's docking."

The office fell into a dead silence.

"After finding this information, I cross-referenced all the companies involved in the transactions." Wang Lei's voice grew softer. "Unsurprisingly, they were all shell companies. But what far exceeded my expectations was when I reverse-traced the initial source of funds and the final destination in this chain... I found it was actually the same company."

He pulled up the final tracking results, and a prominent red logo appeared on the screen: Titan Group.

Lin Mo stared at the Titan Group logo on the screen, his brows tightly furrowed.

"I'll check the background of this company." He quickly typed on the keyboard, pulling up the international corporate database. "See if there's any public information."

A few seconds later, the search results popped up:

"Registered in the Blue Anchor Free Islands, established... July 2019." Wang Lei frowned. "Strange, for such a large-scale company, there's almost no public information."

Lin Mo pulled up the global corporate association map, and the database quickly refreshed, showing Titan Group associated with dozens of shell companies.

"A typical offshore structure." Wang Lei clicked his tongue. "It's entirely for hiding the actual controlling party."

Lin Mo's fingers tapped lightly on the desk: "Since we can't find anything through commercial channels, let's try a different direction."

"You mean? Domestically?"

"Yes, since this company exists, there must be employees. Although not necessarily, there's a possibility of domestic employees."

Wang Lei quickly accessed the Jing'an Bureau's internal system and entered keywords. A few seconds later, the search results popped up:

Name: Li Ming

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Reason for leaving the country: Job application

Destination: Mandala, Emerald Principality

Reporting time: August 8, 2020

Remarks: Introduced by friend Zhou Ping, went to apply for a job at Titan Corporation in the Emerald Principality

Lin Mo's pupils contracted violently. He never expected that there would actually be Chinese nationals, and two of them, in this mysterious company!

"Quick! Brother Wang, pull up their complete files!"

Wang Lei quickly pulled up Li Ming's file: "Li Ming, 26 years old, Master's degree from Oriental Industrial University. Major in Mineral Exploration, won the gold award in the Architectural Design Competition..." He murmured the information. "In August 2020, introduced by his friend Zhou Ping, he went to apply for a job at Titan Corporation in the Emerald Principality."

Lin Mo stared at the file on the screen, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk.

"What about this Zhou Ping?"

Wang Lei quickly pulled up Zhou Ping's file: "Zhou Ping, 28 years old, university classmate of Li Ming, same major. After graduating in 2019, he went to the Emerald Principality to apply for a job."

Lin Mo frowned: "Zhou Ping went more than a year before Li Ming?"

"That's right." Wang Lei pulled up the entry and exit records. "And neither of them has any entry records to date."

Lin Mo's eyes sharpened: "So Zhou Ping went to the Emerald Principality first, and a year later, for some reason, introduced Li Ming?"

"Not only that." Wang Lei quickly retrieved communication records. "After Zhou Ping left the country, he had no communication with China for a full year. However, in the month before Li Ming left the country, he had a call with Zhou Ping, totaling over two hours."

Lin Mo immediately called the Technical Department: "Old Zhou, help me recover the content of Li Ming and Zhou Ping's last call."

Three minutes later, Director Zhou called back: "Only fragments, but crucial enough."

A muffled recording came from the loudspeaker:

Li Ming: "You goddamn...?! The police station was about to...!"

Zhou Ping: "Emerald Principality..., Titan..., eight thousand including food and accommodation..."

Li Ming: "Scam group...? ...deposit...".

Zhou Ping: "Legitimate multinational..., ...unconditional..., ...you believed it?"

Li Ming: "...figured it out..., ...come..."

Zhou Ping: "Okay."

The recording stopped abruptly.

After a long pause, Lin Mo slowly said: "We need to investigate on-site."

"It's too dangerous." Wang Lei lowered his voice. "If the other side can freely alter international shipping records, then our movements..."

The office fell into a brief silence.