Chapter 157 Full Network Investigation

Day twenty-three of the ignition countdown.

At six in the morning, three off-road vehicles with provincial license plates drove into the base. The doors opened, and Old Han jumped out with a technical team of eight. Each person carried a laptop bag, their faces showing the exhaustion of traveling through the night, but their eyes remained sharp.

Fang Lin was already waiting at the entrance.

"Old Han, it's an emergency. Go straight to the server room."

Old Han nodded and waved his hand; the eight people filed inside.

Li Xiao stood at the entrance of the server room, dark circles under her eyes but her nerves taut. She handed over a tablet: "These are the anomaly records from the past week. Response times have risen from 2.8 milliseconds to 3.2 milliseconds, increasing by 0.1 milliseconds every day. Nothing can be found at the software level."

Old Han took it and scanned it quickly, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

"A hardware backdoor?" he asked.

Li Xiao nodded. "I suspect so."

Old Han was silent for three seconds, then turned to the eight people and said, "Divide into groups. Group one, check system processes; Group two, scan network ports; Group three, analyze low-level logs. Group four—"

He looked at Li Xiao. "You're with me. We're checking the hardware."

The next twelve hours were the most tense day for the entire base.

The three people in Group One sat before their computers, checking every running process line by line. Over three hundred processes—each had to have its startup parameters, resource usage, and network connections reviewed. Normal ones were cleared; abnormal ones were isolated for analysis.

Three hours later, the group leader reported: "All processes are normal. No hidden processes found, no abnormal resource usage, and no suspicious network connections."

Old Han nodded. "Continue."

Group Two was responsible for network ports. They used scanning tools to conduct a carpet-style probe of the base's internal network, checking every open port for its purpose, access records, and data transmission volume.

Five hours later, the group leader reported: "Three hundred and seventy-two open ports, all purposes verified. No hidden ports found, and no abnormal data traffic."

Old Han's brow didn't relax. "Continue."

Group Three had the most exhausting task. They had to analyze all system logs from the past three months—over ten gigabytes of data. Every line of logs had to be read, every access record verified, and every abnormal event traced back.

Eight hours later, the group leader rubbed his eyes and reported: "Brother Han, all the logs match up. No abnormal logins, no unauthorized operations, and no suspicious access requests."

Old Han was silent for a long time.

Then he turned to Li Xiao. "Come on, let's check the hardware."

Inside the server room, a row of servers hummed as they operated.

Old Han opened the server where the cooling water control system was located, pulled out the motherboard, and placed it on an anti-static workbench. Li Xiao handed him a magnifying glass and a high-intensity flashlight, and the two began to inspect it inch by inch.

The components on the circuit board were densely packed; every capacitor, resistor, and chip had to be viewed through the magnifying glass. Some chips were so small that the text on them required a microscope to be legible.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

Old Han's neck had gone stiff, and his eyes were so sore they were tearing up. But he didn't dare stop.

Suddenly, Li Xiao's hand stopped.

"Brother Han, look at this."

She pointed to an inconspicuous corner of the motherboard. There was a tiny chip there, smaller than a fingernail, with no markings on its surface.

Old Han leaned in and looked through the magnifying glass for a long time.

"Is this from the original factory?"

Li Xiao shook her head. "I don't know. But all the other chips have model markings; only this one doesn't."

Old Han was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Take a photo and enlarge it."

Li Xiao took a photo with her phone and transferred it to the computer to enlarge it. On the screen, the details of the nameless chip were clearly visible—there were several tiny solder joints on the edges, rougher than normal solder joints.

"Hand-soldered," Old Han said in a low voice. "Original factory chips are all machine-soldered; it's impossible for them to look like this."

Li Xiao's heart skipped a beat. "So..."

"So, someone tampered with this motherboard." Old Han straightened up, his face grim. "When? Who did it?"

Li Xiao thought for a moment. "Three years ago. Ghost came in then under the guise of after-sales maintenance."

Old Han closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

They found it.

But what use was finding it?

The chip was already soldered on, and the code was already activated. Forcibly removing it could cause the entire control system to paralyze. If they didn't remove it, it would just sit there, waiting to erupt the moment of ignition.

"Brother Han," Li Xiao asked softly, "what should we do?"

Old Han opened his eyes and looked at her. "Report to Director Fang first."

At eight in the evening, Fang Lin rushed to the server room.

After listening to Old Han's report, she stared at the photo of the chip on the screen and remained silent for a long time.

"Can it be removed?" she asked.

Old Han shook his head. "It can be removed, but the risk is too great. That chip might be deeply bound to the main control program; forcing its removal could lead to a system crash. And—"

He paused and pointed to the chip's location. "It's soldered onto the power management line. If there's a short circuit during the removal process, the entire motherboard will burn out."

Fang Lin's brow furrowed. "Then what? We just wait?"

Old Han remained silent.

Li Xiao suddenly spoke up. "Director Fang, I have an idea."

Fang Lin looked at her. "Go on."

"Entrapment," Li Xiao said. "Since we can't find its trigger mechanism, we'll make it expose itself."

Old Han's eyes lit up. "You mean... stage a fake ignition?"

Li Xiao nodded. "We can conduct a full-system drill before the actual ignition, simulating the entire process. If that code really activates during ignition, it will activate during the drill too. Then, we can catch it."

Fang Lin pondered for a few seconds. "But will it recognize that it's just a drill?"

Li Xiao shook her head. "I don't know. If it's smart enough, it might not fall for it."

Old Han chimed in, "Then we'll create an environment it has no choice but to believe—every parameter identical to a real ignition, every signal simulating a real state. We'll make it think it's actually ignited."

Fang Lin looked at the two of them and was silent for a long time.

Then she asked, "How much time is needed to prepare?"

Li Xiao calculated quickly. "Three days. Give me three days, and I can build a complete simulation environment."

Fang Lin nodded. "Three days it is."

She stood up and looked at the motherboard hiding the lethal code:

"In three days, we'll fish it out."

Late that night, Li Xiao began building the entrapment environment.

She made a copy of all the programs for the cooling water control system and installed them on a completely isolated server. That server wasn't connected to any network or any real equipment; it was used solely for running simulations.

Then she began writing the simulation programs—simulating all parameter changes, all control commands, and all system responses during ignition.

Temperature, pressure, flow rate, valve opening—every piece of data had to be exactly the same as a real ignition.

Old Han and a few others helped her. When they were tired, they drank coffee; when they were sleepy, they took naps at their desks.

At four in the morning on the third day, the entrapment environment was completed.

Li Xiao looked at the virtual cooling water control system on the screen and whispered:

"Come on, let me see what you are."