181: Chaotic Algorithms and Data Phantoms

The alarm was not a sharp blare, but a low-frequency tremor like a sudden cardiac arrest, thrumming frantically at the base level of Eve's console.

"We've been spotted." Eve's voice was as cold as if she were reciting an autopsy report. Her fingers turned into a blur on the virtual keyboard, moving so fast they left light trails on the retina. "The opponent's sense of smell is sharper than I imagined. This is an old vulture; he smelled a living soul on a data corpse."

Chen Feng stood behind her, his hands gripping the back of the chair so tightly his knuckles turned white. He stared at the dark red raptor rapidly taking shape on the screen, composed of countless pieces of malicious code, and asked in a deep voice, "Can you block it?"

"Block it?" A mocking curve pulled at the corner of Eve's mouth, but her eyes burned with a nearly insane fighting spirit. "If I just blocked it, that would be too boring. I want him to think he's torn out my throat, and then—feed poison into his stomach."

Su Li was so anxious nearby that she almost crushed the tablet in her hand, her voice trembling. "Eve! Don't play with fire! That's Giant Star Mining's professional security team! Once the network defenses are breached, our accounts, customer data, and even the base's life support system will be taken over in seconds! We won't have to wait for bankruptcy; we'll suffocate to death right now!"

"Shut up." Eve barked without looking back. "Whether it's financial statements or life-support oxygen, it's all on my keyboard right now. If you want to live, don't break my rhythm."

The red stream of light on the screen was like a burst dam, instantly submerging the first firewall Eve had built.

[Scene Change: Giant Star Mining Secret Data Center]

In the dim room, there was only the hum of running servers and the blinking of indicator lights. The man codenamed "Data Vulture" leaned back comfortably in his ergonomic chair, looking at the collapsing green defense line on the screen and letting out a sneer.

"Boss, it's just a clumsy scan." He opened the communication channel and reported lazily, "It seems that hillbilly programmer from Hanhai finally discovered our little gift. But it's too late. This level of reverse tracking... is like using a stone axe to strike a starship's armor."

He typed a line of commands on the keyboard, a malicious smile appearing on his lips. "Since this little mouse doesn't want to sleep, I'll play with him. Send the 'Logic Sweeper' virus, and... leave him a message."

[Scene Change: Hanhai Trade Base, Eve's Laboratory]

*Beep—*

A line of glaring bright red characters popped up directly in the center of the main screen, carrying a sense of condescending humiliation:

[Third-rate programmer from the Trash Planet, your firewall is just like your origins—full of holes and stench. Stop struggling and just lie down.]

When Su Li saw this sentence, she trembled with rage, her face turning ashen. "Bastards... These arrogant bastards!"

Chen Feng, however, narrowed his eyes and looked at Eve.

To everyone's surprise, Eve was not enraged; instead, she smiled. That smile, illuminated by the eerie blue light of the screen, appeared strange and excited, as if a hunter had seen prey step into a trap.

"Thank you for your arrogance," Eve murmured softly, her fingers suddenly typing a series of extremely complex commands. "I was just worrying about not having enough random entropy to feed my 'Chaos'... Since you've come to my door, then become my nourishment."

"What is this?" Reno asked in shock, looking at the jumbled data stream that suddenly emerged on the screen, devoid of any logic. "Is the system... crashing?"

Those data streams were no longer neat code, but like wildly growing vines, full of contradictions, infinite loops, and meaningless junk information, even mixed with the taunt Eve had just intercepted.

"This is the 'Biological Chaos Algorithm'." Eve's voice held a bone-chilling calmness. "It's a byproduct I discovered while studying the Law Contamination in Reno's body. High-dimensional laws can crush low-dimensional ones because their logical density is higher. But what if... I give it a maze without logic?"

On the screen, the arrogant red vulture suddenly stalled. It lunged back and forth within those crazily growing data vines, but every attack was like hitting cotton, and it was even being ensnared by those mocking data fragments.

"What's going on? Its attack frequency is dropping!" Su Li looked at the data panel in disbelief.

"It's confused." Eve sneered. "Standard military-grade viruses are also built based on logic. It can't understand chaos. It's trying to parse my 'junk', and this... is the beginning of its system failure."

Just then, the alarm escalated again, and a destructive black light appeared on the edge of the screen.

"It's here." Eve's pupils shrank. "The 'Logic Sweeper' virus. He's desperate and wants to format our system directly."

"Then what do we do?!" Su Li cried out.

"Inviting the thief in." Eve took a deep breath and suddenly took both hands off the keyboard, making a "please" gesture. "Welcome."

Under everyone's horrified gazes, Eve actively withdrew all defenses. That destructive black light instantly rushed into Hanhai's system core as if entering an uninhabited land.

"Eve! What are you doing?!" Reno instinctively reached for his gun, as if that could physically block the virus.

"Don't move!" Chen Feng suddenly spoke, his voice as steady as a mountain. "Look at the tail of that virus."

Everyone looked closely and saw that while the black light was wreaking havoc, countless microscopic green light dots, like parasites clinging to bone, were quietly attaching themselves to the end of the virus's data stream.

Eve stared at the screen, her eyes flashing with the light of revenge, explaining at a rapid-fire pace: "He is devouring our data, but I've mixed 'parasites' into the data. That's a reverse program rewritten using his 'Logic Bomb' core. The more he eats, the more poison he takes back with him."

On the screen, the progress bar representing Hanhai's system quickly hit zero, and the interface turned into a deathly silent gray-white.

"Simulated crash complete," Eve said softly, as if announcing the end of a performance.

[Scene Change: Giant Star Mining Secret Data Center]

"Done."

"Data Vulture" looked at the screen displaying [Target system offline, data clearing complete] and whistled with satisfaction. He casually clicked the recovery button, pulling the virus program—along with the tons of "spoils" in its belly—back into his own core database.

"Mr. Hoffman," he connected to the communication, his tone contemptuous, "the target has been cleared. Their resistance was just as weak as I imagined. Even if God himself came, he wouldn't be able to fix that pile of data ruins in time for the expo in two weeks."

He completely failed to notice that deep within his vast ocean of data, a tiny seed shimmering with an eerie green light was quietly taking root along with his recovery command.

[Scene Change: Hanhai Trade Base, Eve's Laboratory]

Silence.

A long ten seconds of silence.

Until Eve slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and hit the Enter key once more.

The originally gray-white screen instantly lit up, returning to its normal blue-green tone. However, in the corner of the screen, there was an additional small red window that was constantly transmitting data back.

"Parasitism successful." Eve turned her chair around, a weary but lethal smile hanging on her face, which was so pale it lacked any trace of blood. "Now, his system is my backyard. The remote control for that Logic Bomb is already in my hands."

"Brilliant." Chen Feng looked at her, his eyes showing unhidden admiration. "You didn't just dismantle the bomb; you stole back the detonator."

"More than that." Eve pointed to the red window. "It's still transmitting data. This guy's browsing history, operation habits, even the IP addresses of their subsidiaries... they're being sent over in a steady stream."

Watching this scene, Su Li's nerves, which had been taut with fear, finally relaxed, but immediately afterward, a massive sense of powerlessness struck again.

She raised her wrist and pointed to the bright red countdown on it.

"10:04:12".

"We won a battle, Eve." Su Li's voice was hoarse, carrying a deep despair. "But the war continues. These 10 hours aren't something you can type out with code. Without money, no matter how beautiful this data is, it's just our epitaph."

The smile on Eve's face froze. She looked at Chen Feng, the fire that had just ignited in her eyes dimming slightly. "I... I can only do this much. The problem of money is beyond the scope of logic."

Chen Feng looked at the countdown in silence.

That string of ticking numbers was like a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

"That's enough."

Chen Feng straightened his collar and turned to walk toward the door, his back as straight as a spear.

"You bought us time, Eve. That's enough."

"Where are you going?" Reno couldn't help but ask.

Chen Feng stopped at the door without turning back, his voice so calm it was chilling.

"To sell some things."

"What else do we have to sell?" Su Li laughed miserably. "Besides this pile of scrap metal and our wretched lives?"

Chen Feng turned his head, his gaze as deep as an abyss, looking directly into Su Li's eyes.

"To sell the 'future'."