496: Chapter 496: Counter-intrusion successful, all equipment rendered unusable.

After all, ever since the installation package was decompressed, the continuous stream of attack traffic had been blocked as if by a wall of impenetrable iron.

Soon, Liu Zhihong was once again too stunned to speak.

Because the Star Shield system had automatically generated a layer of dynamic barrier, virtualizing tens of thousands of fake server nodes outside the real server.

Each node had simulated databases and system logs; if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they would have absolutely mistaken it for the real thing.

All the attacks from the frenzied hacker team instantly struck empty space.

...

Silicon Valley, United States, secret data center.

Xinyu was staring at the cracking progress bar on the screen, watching it reach 78%, about to breach the second gate.

"Damn it, this little thing is really hard to crack! As expected of Transsion?"

"You rotten worm, have you forgotten how much they poached from the United States back then? Their current technology is only thanks to us in the United States; they aren't easy to deal with."

"Who are you calling a rotten worm?"

"Stop arguing! It's at 99%! The second layer is already this difficult, the third layer will be even harder. As far as I know, they use tiered protection..."

Although Ghost said this, a look of victory was already plastered on his face.

But in the very next second, the progress bar suddenly stopped.

Immediately after, countless fake database ports popped up on the screen, instantly covering the entire display, stretching on endlessly.

The third gate, which was about to open, vanished in an instant.

And they were like people who had walked into a maze, completely unable to distinguish which was real and which was fake.

"What's going on?"

Lizard slammed his hand on the table and then instinctively looked around at the people nearby.

"Who touched the configuration? Why have so many virtual nodes appeared?"

"We don't know!" the other hackers nearby panicked instantly. "We didn't do anything; the other side's server suddenly changed."

"No! This is a honeypot! But how could there be such a large-scale honeypot? And the generation speed is too fast!"

Ghost also leaned in, his expression very grim: "This isn't right. Our attack packets have completely failed. The opponent's defense logic has completely changed; it's on a completely different level than before."

"It's like..."

"It's like they suddenly switched to a whole new system!"

As soon as Ghost said this, everyone present glared at him.

"Impossible. How could they switch systems in just over ten minutes?"

Lizard gritted his teeth, and the other hackers were even more furious; after all, they were about to gain their freedom... but instead...

"Keep attacking! Everyone, use all your skills. I don't want to see anyone slacking off from now on. Attack with everything you've got! I don't believe they have no vulnerabilities; use every exploit we have."

For the next half hour, they exhausted every means possible.

Scanning, injection, brute force—all attacks were like pebbles thrown into the ocean, failing to stir up a single ripple.

They couldn't even find the server's entrance!

All their attacks were guided by the fog wall to fake nodes, a waste of effort.

Just when the entire team was so tortured by this new firewall that they wanted to give up, Shadow suddenly shouted out:

"Oh no! We're being reverse-traced! The opponent's system is tracing back through our jump servers!"

"How is it so fast? How was the first layer of the system breached so quickly?"

Shadow suddenly seemed to lose all his strength, looking a bit panicked.

"What?" Thompson's expression changed drastically. "Cut the jump servers! Cut all links immediately."

"It's too late!"

Shadow and Ghost's hands were typing rapidly on their keyboards, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.

"The opponent's tracing speed is too fast, and they are uploading something to our local terminals!"

"What is it?"

"It's a virus, and it's a virus we've never seen before. We don't know how this virus was generated today, but it has the effects of all viruses, and it is currently devouring our files."

Before he could finish speaking, the computer screen in front of Ghost suddenly turned blue, followed immediately by a black screen and a crash.

"My machine."

Ghost cursed furiously. Although it wasn't his personal machine, the equipment provided by Silver Lake Capital was not cheap, costing at least 5 million; this was all his property.

After finishing this job, it would have been his! But now...

He reached out to press the restart button, but there was no response; the host's permissions had already been seized by the virus.

Immediately after, like toppling dominoes, the computers in the server room began to blue screen and crash one by one. The hard drives spun wildly as the data inside was rapidly copied and then destroyed.

Moreover, this virus seemed to have a consciousness of its own, spreading rapidly through the local area network. Whether it was a server or a personal terminal, as long as it was connected to the network, nothing was spared.

"Pull the power! Pull the power quickly."

Lizard roared, hurriedly ripping out the power cord of his machine.

But even pulling the power was already too late.

This counter-attack virus, automatically generated by the core, had already invaded the BIOS layer of the devices; even cutting the power could not remove it.

As soon as the power is turned back on, the device will be immediately rendered useless.

In just 3 minutes, dozens of top-tier devices in the entire secret machine room were all paralyzed.

These top-tier hackers, who were famous in the United States and even globally, looked at the chaotic scene and only felt terror.

They had been hackers their whole lives, written countless viruses, and breached countless systems; they were always the ones playing others for fools.

Today, they had actually been counter-killed by a defense system, without even touching the opponent, their own lair had been taken out first.

"This is impossible... This is simply not a defense system that a human could write."

Fear flashed in Lizard's eyes.

He couldn't figure out how, when the attack rhythm was clearly normal, it had reversed in just over ten minutes.

Where on earth did Transsion get such an all-weather defense system?

"Mr. Thompson, we... we lost." Shadow turned his head, finally admitting the reality. "And our real IP has been exposed. The other side will be able to trace it here very soon. We must evacuate immediately!"

Thompson came to his senses, very clear that once the opponent caught concrete evidence, Silver Lake Capital and the United States government would lose all face, and it would also invite strong countermeasures from the Chinese side.

They dared to even attack the United States; what was a small capital firm compared to that?

"Retreat! Destroy all equipment immediately, and everyone evacuate at once."

He gritted his teeth and gave the order, his voice filled with a hint of panic.

...

Meanwhile, at the Yangcheng Command Center, everyone was stunned once again.

They knew this defense system was outrageous, but they didn't expect it to be this miraculous!

"They just retreated?"

"This defense system took them down."

Liu Zhihong looked at this system and suddenly felt that those good brothers might not be able to afford the price.

After all, it could not only defend but also automatically counter-attack, and it did so so beautifully; this was simply something out of a science fiction movie.