174: Poisonous mosquitoes enter the brain

As soon as Eve's figure disappeared behind the partition of the remote terminal area, Simon glided silently to her main workstation like a weightless wisp of green smoke.

His movements were swift, without a hint of hesitation.

He attached the black "Data Mosquito" to the most hidden corner of the host's cooling grille.

The "mosquito" seemed to come alive, silently deploying several black chitinous probes thinner than a strand of hair, precisely piercing the data interface below.

In Simon's eyes, on a contact lens screen invisible to others, a progress bar for an encrypted file copy began to jump frantically.

5%... 20%... 57%... Meanwhile, in the production line's remote terminal area.

Eve looked at the "abnormal parameters" displayed on the screen, her brow furrowing even tighter.

"What the hell is going on?" she complained in a low voice to the empty terminal. "It's just a 0.03% energy drift, not even reaching the warning line, yet they used a highest-priority alarm? Do these idiots want to give me a heart attack?"

Despite her cursing, her perfectionist nature still drove her to extend her slender fingers and operate rapidly on the light screen.

"Recalibrating damping coefficients..."

"Resetting energy output curve..."

"Synchronously refreshing all associated modules..."

She felt her precious time was being ruthlessly wasted by a group of incompetent teammates.

In the laboratory, the progress bar in Simon's eyes had already soared to 99%.

He could almost hear his heart beating heavily and powerfully in his chest.

In the final stage of data copying, the "Data Mosquito" followed its preset program and silently injected a piece of "Logic Bomb" code, perfectly disguised as a low-level driver update package, into the system's firmware.

[Injection complete.]

[Copy complete.]

A bright green "Success" indicator flashed briefly on Simon's contact lens.

It was done.

Several galaxies away, in Giant Star Mining's Secret Data Relay Station, there was a burst of cheering.

"Boss! We got it! Data transmission complete!" a hacker with dark circles under his eyes excitedly took off his headphones and shouted to Hoffman on the other end of the communicator.

"The fish has taken the bait! The 'gift' we sent has also been received!"

Hoffman's confident laughter came through the communicator: "Beautifully done! Tell Simon he can pull in the net."

Hanhai Trade Base, Laboratory.

Just as Simon reached out, preparing to retrieve the "Data Mosquito," a sudden change occurred!

The laboratory's alarm lights suddenly flashed a soft but deadly yellow warning light.

A cold, emotionless female system voice rang throughout the space.

"Warning. The system will perform a routine full-domain security scan in 60 seconds. All non-core personnel please leave non-secure areas immediately. Repeat, scan will begin in 60 seconds..."

Simon's heart skipped a beat, as if gripped by an invisible hand!

Damn it! Why now of all times!

He had to retrieve the device and leave before the scan began, otherwise, the physical access traces left by the "Data Mosquito" would be discovered the moment the scan started!

50 seconds... 40 seconds... some Technicians in auxiliary positions had already begun to stand up and leave.

A bead of cold sweat broke out on Simon's temple, but he forced himself to stay calm.

Going directly to retrieve the device under everyone's gaze would be too conspicuous!

30 seconds... Instead of rushing to Eve's workstation, he walked quickly toward a backup power cabinet on the other side of the room.

With a flick of his finger, a tiny metal shard landed precisely into a gap in the power cabinet.

Zzzzt—!

A blinding burst of electrical sparks suddenly exploded!

"It's a short circuit! Quick! Cut the power to that area!"

"What happened?!"

Everyone's attention was instantly drawn to the burst of sparks and the pungent smell of burning.

Now!

The moment everyone turned their heads toward the commotion, Simon's body turned into a phantom, rushing back to Eve's workstation with lightning speed far beyond an ordinary person's imagination.

He retrieved the "Data Mosquito" and turned around in one smooth motion.

He crushed the tiny device in his palm, grinding it completely into powder and inconspicuously mixing it with a pile of prepared, meaningless metal scraps in his pocket.

By the time the crowd reacted and turned their gaze toward him, he had already put on an expression of "surprise" and "concern" like everyone else, looking like an innocent bystander.

At that moment, Eve finished handling the "urgent" problem and walked back with a weary face.

She glanced at Simon, who had caused the short circuit, and the surrounding crowd, then waved her hand impatiently.

"What are you all doing crowding around here? Don't you have work to do? Scatter!"

The crowd immediately dispersed like startled birds.

Eve rubbed her temples and sat back in her seat, completely unaware that just moments ago, her proudest system had been implanted with a fatal "cancer."

Giant Star Mining, Hoffman's office.

He looked with satisfaction at the complete, clear core design of the Hanhai energy block on his screen, as if admiring a perfect work of art.

He turned to the Head of the Counterfeiting Department beside him and issued an order.

"Spread the word. At any cost, within two weeks, I want to see our imitations filling shelves across the universe!"

"Yes, Director!"

Then, he turned to the hacker team on the other side.

"Set the detonation time of the Logic Bomb for the day of our new product launch."

A devilish smile appeared on Hoffman's face.

"I want the entire universe to watch with their own eyes as the shooting star that is Hanhai Trade turns to ashes at its most brilliant moment."