Chapter 95 Qin Wentian teams up with the lead planner to steal talent data

Ghost's screenshot comparing the truth and falsehood was pinned at the top of the US Server forums for three days, and William's rumors were completely debunked. US Server solo players spontaneously organized a "Truth Clarification Group," which identified every loophole in William's forged chat logs and created long educational infographics to post on the forums of every major server worldwide. William squatted on the highest steps of the Liberty City Guild Territory, watching the Counter-Alliance he had painstakingly built be washed away by the tide like a sandcastle, leaving not even the foundation. The vice-guild leader of the Freedom Alliance silently handed over a resignation letter. William took it and saw that the applicant was a core member he had personally mentored for three years. He didn't sign it, but folded the letter and put it in his pocket before walking down the steps. A group of players demanding to leave the guild was blocking the entrance again; they automatically made way when they saw William come out. No one spoke, and that silence was more painful than any verbal abuse.

On that same night, in a rental house in a first-tier city in China, a person who hadn't logged into the game for a long time was staring blankly at the truth-comparison screenshot posted by Ghost on the holographic screen. Qin Wentian had lost a lot of weight, his eye sockets were sunken, and dark stubble had sprouted on his chin. In the corner of the study lay the wreckage of twenty smashed custom gaming pods, which he hadn't cleaned up since his last outburst, and a thin layer of dust had accumulated on the machines. He looked over Ghost's screenshot several times, then turned off the holographic screen and opened an encrypted communication software used in reality to send a message to the game's Lead Designer.

"You told me that your official backend has never been able to obtain Lin Ye's Talent data. Now the opportunity has come. His studio is focusing all its efforts on dealing with the overseas rumors, and the tech department is working overtime every day. Their defenses will surely be lax at some point. Help me get his core Talent data, and I'll help you resolve this major threat that's been keeping you awake at night. Our goals are aligned; we both get what we need."

After a long time, the Lead Designer replied with a message of only three cold words.

"How to help?"

A faint curl appeared at the corner of Qin Wentian's mouth as he continued typing. "Your official backend has maintenance permissions for the game's underlying code. Lin Ye's Talent resonates with that code; you should know this better than I do. You only need to plant a Data scraping hook in the backend and trigger it the next time he performs a Cross-server teleport. At the moment of Cross-server teleport, his Talent energy will produce the strongest resonance with the underlying code. That is the only chance to capture the complete data."

This time, the Lead Designer replied quickly. "I can plant the hook. But Lin Ye's account is under permission monitoring; that's how my former colleague who was fired got caught. You need someone inside his studio to cooperate and turn off the alarm on that monitoring device."

Qin Wentian stared at the sentence on the screen for a long time. He still had some usable people among the remnants of the Heavenly Temple. Although the guild had disbanded, among the players who had followed him back then, a few had used his money to open studios in reality and owed him favors. He opened another contact and sent a voice message.

"Do something for me. If it's successful, the debt you owe me will be cleared. If not, it's none of your business; just act like I never said anything."

After putting down the communication device, he stood up and walked to the pile of smashed gaming pod wreckage in the corner of the study. Twenty pods, twenty slips of paper that once bore the names of core members, were now all scattered on the floor, their writing covered by dust. He bent down and picked up one of the slips, which had the name "Po Jun" written on it in his own handwriting. He clenched the slip in his hand for a long time.

A few days later, in the middle of the night, in the tech department office of the Unscrupulous Business Center, Ghost was staring at an abnormal data access record on a holographic screen. His hand hovered over the keyboard, his brow slightly furrowed. The screen showed that someone had issued a data-grabbing request to Lin Ye's account through the official backend maintenance permissions. This request was hidden very deeply, disguised as a routine permission verification during Cross-server teleport. If it weren't for the Interdimensional Energy Signature Monitoring Program that Ghost had written himself, it would have been impossible to discover.

He didn't immediately alert anyone, but began to reverse-trace the path of the data request. The tracing chain started from the Chinese Server, passed through a former GM permission springboard that had already been banned, landed on an overseas server, circled around internationally, and finally folded back to a registered IP of a deactivated game account within China. Ghost packaged all the tracing data and lightly knocked on the door of the third-floor VIP room.

In the office, Lin Ye was sitting by the window reading the studio's weekly report, Su Qinghan was organizing contracts opposite him, and Fatty Wang was slumped in a chair dozing off. Ghost pushed the door open and said softly, "Brother Ye, someone is stealing your Talent data." He placed the holographic projector on the table, and the tracing chain unfolded layer by layer, with every node marked with a time and corresponding IP address. "The Data scraping hook is buried in the official backend maintenance permissions, and the trigger mechanism is bound to your Cross-server teleport action. The coding style of the hook is very mature, not like an amateur hacker, but like someone with years of backend maintenance experience. But this springboard account in the middle was banned three months ago; it's the backup account of that Lead Designer you guys caught before."

Su Qinghan put down her tablet, her brow furrowing slightly. "That Lead Designer was fired for colluding with Qin Wentian, and the backup account should have been reclaimed by the officials long ago. How can it still be used?"

Ghost answered softly, "The account was reclaimed, but the permissions weren't completely revoked. Someone inside the official team opened a backdoor for him. Moreover, the final receiving end of this data request..." He flipped to the last node, his finger hovering over an IP address, pausing before saying, "The registered ID for this IP is surnamed Qin." Fatty Wang suddenly sprang up from his chair, his drowsiness instantly vanishing. "Qin Wentian? Didn't he quit the game? How did he pop up again!"

Lin Ye looked at the IP address on the holographic screen, his expression not changing much. He had long had a faint feeling that Qin Wentian wouldn't disappear so willingly. Qin Wentian had been steamrolled by him in a minute during the cross-server race, and his company had been ruined by debuffs in reality; he seemed to have completely fallen, but the man had an obsession with being unable to lose in his bones. The more miserably he lost, the more he felt that others had stolen what he deserved. This obsession couldn't be suppressed and would eventually resurface.

"Ghost, organize the complete path of this Data scraping hook and archive the raw logs." Lin Ye stood up, his tone very calm. "Also, check who Qin Wentian has contacted recently. Dig up every contact method he has ever used."

Ghost nodded. "I'm already digging. He was very cautious this time, not using his own device to send messages directly, passing through several proxies in between. But he made one mistake..." His finger swiped lightly on the holographic screen, and a segment of code was enlarged. "When he had the internal official personnel help him plant the hook, the hook's own code used the syntax common to that Lead Designer, a certain incorrect calling habit that perfectly matches the historical logs of the banned account I got from GM Xiao Zhou. Code written by the same hand doesn't change its style, no matter how many springboards are used."

Lin Ye walked back to the window. The night in Dawn City was deep, the sign at the entrance of the Unscrupulous Business Center was still glowing, and the line of solo players in front of the gold custom gaming pod hadn't dispersed. Qin Wentian probably thought that Lin Ye was busy with the aftermath of the overseas rumors, and with the power-leveling orders piled up and the tech department working overtime every day, their defenses would surely be lax. He had timed it perfectly, but he failed to account for Ghost. A youth who could breach the firewalls of top overseas hacker organizations at the age of fifteen was inherently more difficult to deal with than all the hackers Qin Wentian had seen in his life combined.

"Send the tracing results to GM Xiao Zhou. Have him turn them over to the official investigation team, but don't startle the snake." Lin Ye turned around and looked at Ghost. "Qin Wentian isn't just using his own resources this time; someone inside the official team is keeping a backdoor for that fired Lead Designer. I want you to root out this person as well."

Ghost nodded slightly and turned to return to the tech department.

Su Qinghan closed her tablet and walked to Lin Ye's side, lowering her voice. "Qin Wentian's goal this time isn't materials, gold, or the guild's face—it's your Talent's core data. If he gets even a part of it, he might be able to replicate a weakened version of the Decay effect in reality. He's no longer a game opponent, but with his personality, he might directly cross the boundaries of the game and do things in reality with uncontrollable consequences."

Lin Ye didn't answer immediately. He looked down at his private messages; GM Xiao Zhou had already replied, his tone shocked and urgent. "Brother Ye! I just checked that fired Lead Designer's backup account, and the permissions indeed weren't fully revoked. This isn't something he could do alone; there must be someone in the Backend Security Group helping him. I'll report to the leadership immediately to form a Special Investigation Team, but first tell me, how much data was leaked?" Lin Ye replied: "No data was leaked. Ghost intercepted it. Have the investigation team check your own internal people first." After sending the message, he closed the private message box, poured himself a cup of tea, and sat back in the chair by the window. In the direction of the Abyss Rift, a faint purple light was glowing; it was the light from the Lord of the Abyss, who was constantly mining.