Chapter 136 Waiting for a Rabbit to Run into a Tree Stump

The third day after the decoy system was set up, late at night.

Li Xiao had been up for two consecutive nights, dark circles under her eyes, but her spirit remained tense. She curled up in the server room chair, three monitors in front of her — one monitoring the status of the decoy system, one showing the operation of the real network, and one connected to Old Han's reverse tracking system.

Old Han had returned to the provincial capital to retrieve more technical resources, promising before he left that he would be back in "at most three days." But during these three days, the Ghost had seemed to vanish, without any further movement.

"Could he have noticed?" Li Xiao stared at the static monitoring screen, muttering to herself repeatedly.

Impossible. The decoy system was well-disguised, and the vulnerability in the old interface looked seamless. Even if he were an expert, it would be impossible to see through it at a glance.

Then why didn't he come?

Outside the window, the night wind of the Gobi Desert whistled past, the fine sand it whipped up tapping against the glass, making a soft rustling sound. Li Xiao rubbed her eyes, stood up to stretch her stiff neck, and prepared to pour a cup of coffee.

Just the moment she turned around, the screen lit up.

The alarm blared in the silent server room, sharp and jarring. Li Xiao lunged back to the desk, her heart rate instantly spiking to one hundred eighty.

On the monitoring screen of the decoy system, lines of code were scrolling rapidly:

Intrusion Time: 23:47:33

Entry Address: Backup Server - Old Interface

Trigger Method: Privilege Verification Bypass

Intrusion Status: In Progress

He had come. He really had come.

Li Xiao's fingers hovered over the keyboard, her mind flashing through every step Old Han had instructed — do not alert, do not counterattack, only record. Her task was to monitor, to record, and to turn every move of the Ghost into data to be handed over to Fang Lin for tracking.

She took a deep breath and opened the recording module.

The Ghost was clearly very cautious.

After entering the decoy system, he did not act immediately, but spent two minutes "observing the environment." His scanning tool was like an invisible tentacle, probing around in the virtual network, detecting firewall rules, checking system versions, and looking for potential traps.

Li Xiao stared at the screen, her palms full of sweat.

Would those scans discover that this was a decoy system? Would he notice the carefully disguised fake data?

Three minutes passed.

The Ghost seemed to confirm it was "safe" and began to explore deeper.

He first accessed the file directory of the backup server — the fake data Li Xiao had prepared in advance looked exactly like the real system. He browsed a few documents inside, stayed for less than a minute, and then exited.

"Not here to steal data?" A question popped up in Li Xiao's mind.

The next second, she understood.

The Ghost's real target was the interface of the core control system.

He found a "hidden channel" in the backup server leading to the core system — it was one Li Xiao had deliberately left behind, looking like a backdoor opened by some engineer for debugging convenience, but in reality, it was a dead end leading to a completely isolated virtual environment.

The Ghost did not hesitate and dove straight in.

Li Xiao held her breath, watching him step by step enter that carefully laid trap.

Inside the virtual environment was a simulated core control system.

The interface was exactly the same as the real one — first wall temperature monitoring, magnet current regulation, plasma ignition timing, and tritium cycle parameter settings. Every item was replicated by Li Xiao according to the real system, even the positions of the icons were identical.

The Ghost stayed inside for a long time.

He first opened the first wall temperature monitoring interface and checked the set of simulated temperature thresholds. Then he opened the magnet current regulation and tested a few parameters. Finally, he stopped in front of the plasma ignition timing interface.

Li Xiao's heart tightened suddenly.

That interface controlled the key steps of ignition — when to inject fuel, when to start heating, when to increase current. If he touched this in the real system...

The Ghost's fingers tapped on the virtual interface.

Then, he did something Li Xiao hadn't expected.

He didn't modify the parameters, but instead implanted a piece of code.

That code was very small, only a few lines, hidden inside the ignition timing control module. From the outside, everything looked normal. But if triggered at the critical moment of ignition...

Li Xiao's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.

He wasn't here to steal data.

He was here to plant a bomb.

Meanwhile, in an office building in the provincial capital.

Old Han's phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and answered immediately: "Engineer Li?"

"He's in." Li Xiao's voice was very low but filled with tension, "He's active in the decoy system, and... he's implanting code."

Old Han's heart sank: "What kind of code?"

"It's not clear yet, but it's hidden in the ignition timing module." Li Xiao said, "What about Director Fang?"

Old Han turned to look at Fang Lin beside him. She was staring at the computer screen, her fingers typing rapidly on the keyboard.

"Director Fang is already tracking him." Old Han said, "You keep an eye on him, don't let him get suspicious. On our side, we will lock his location immediately."

Hanging up the phone, Old Han leaned toward Fang Lin: "Director, how is it?"

Fang Lin didn't speak, her eyes fixed on the screen.

On the screen, streams of data were scrolling. She used the opportunity of the Ghost invading the decoy system to peel away the "stepping stones" he used to hide, layer by layer, through the reverse tracking system.

First stepping stone — a server in the Netherlands, virtual private network, cannot find the real IP.

Second stepping stone — a proxy server in Brazil, also virtual.

Third stepping stone — a public WiFi in South Korea, already disconnected.

"This guy used three layers of stepping stones." Fang Lin gritted her teeth, "Every layer is temporary, thrown away after use."

Old Han frowned: "Can we trace it then?"

Fang Lin didn't answer and continued typing.

Fourth layer — cannot find.

Fifth layer — also cannot find.

The Ghost seemed to realize something, his activity in the decoy system suddenly slowed down.

"Did he discover it?" Old Han asked nervously.

Fang Lin's hands didn't stop.

Sixth layer —

A sudden IP address popped up on the screen.

It wasn't virtual, it wasn't a proxy, but a real, currently in-use IP address.

Geographical location: a country in Southeast Asia, a coastal city.

Fang Lin's fingers hovered over the keyboard, staring at that address for three seconds.

Then, she smiled.

"Caught him."

Base server room.

Li Xiao was staring at the screen when she suddenly noticed the Ghost's movements stopped.

After he finished implanting the code, he didn't leave immediately but stayed in place for a few seconds. In those few seconds, he seemed to be observing something, or perhaps hesitating about something.

Then, all connections disconnected instantly. The decoy system returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.

Li Xiao's heart was beating fast. Did he discover it? Or did he not? That code...

She was about to check the logs when her phone rang.

"Let him go." Fang Lin's voice came from the other end of the line, calm with a hint of satisfaction, "When he was implanting the code, I locked onto his real IP."

Li Xiao was stunned: "You're not going to catch him?"

"Catch him for what?" Fang Lin said, "Catch him, and there will be another one. Now we know where he is, we know his methods, we know what he wants to do — these are more valuable than catching one person."

Li Xiao was silent for a few seconds, then understood.

Cast a long line to catch a big fish.

"That code..." she asked.

"Keep it, don't delete it." Fang Lin said, "That is evidence, and also a clue. When the time is right, we can counter-attack."

Hanging up the phone, Li Xiao leaned back in her chair and let out a long breath.

The sky outside the window began to turn white; a new day was about to begin.

She looked at the code the Ghost left on the screen and suddenly remembered what her university professor had said:

"In the digital world, the most terrifying thing is not being invaded, but not knowing what the other party wants to do."

Now she knew.

The Ghost wanted to plant a bomb.

And she and Fang Lin already knew where that bomb was buried.

At six in the morning, Fang Lin arrived at the base.

She went straight to the server room, where Li Xiao and Old Han were already waiting. On the three monitors, the Ghost's intrusion logs, the implanted code, and the locked real IP address were displayed respectively.

"This is it." Fang Lin pointed to the IP, "A country in Southeast Asia, a coastal city. The place where George last disappeared."

Li Xiao gasped: "George is there?"

"It's highly likely." Fang Lin said, "The Ghost should have been sent by his side. One in charge of the network, one in charge of the ground, working in tandem."

Old Han frowned: "Then what do we do? Catch him or not?"

Fang Lin shook her head: "Don't catch him. At least not right now."

She turned around and looked at them both:

"From now on, this decoy system will continue to run. Having tasted success this time, the Ghost will definitely come again. Every time he comes, we will learn a little more about his methods, his tools, and his habits."

She paused and emphasized her tone: "When he thinks everything is foolproof and prepares to act on the real system — that will be the time to close the net."

Li Xiao nodded, then suddenly remembered something: "What about that code? Should we clean it up?"

Fang Lin walked to the screen and looked carefully at the few lines of code the Ghost had implanted.

"Don't touch it for now." She said, "This is a bomb he planted on our turf, but it is also evidence in our hands. Keep it; next time he comes, we can use this to counter-attack."

Old Han's eyes lit up: "You mean..."

"Using his own methods against him." Fang Lin's lips curled up slightly, "He can plant a bomb for us, and we can plant a bomb for him."

The server room was silent for a few seconds.

Outside the window, the sun had fully risen, and golden sunlight shone through the glass, landing on Fang Lin's face. There was a light in her eyes — the light of a hunter seeing prey.

Li Xiao suddenly thought of a phrase: Waiting for the Rabbit.

But who they were waiting for was not a silly rabbit bumping into a tree stump.

It was a cunning wolf.

And they had already set the trap.