123: Chapter 123 The Emergence of the Traitor
At the same time that the "Prometheus" AI marked the name "Lin Mo" as a suspicious target, within the vast "Chasing Light Project" of the Dragon Kingdom, a discordant note was quietly corroding the solid defense line.
Wang Lei had once been an intermediate engineer in the "Golden Crow" fusion project team. He possessed a decent professional background, but was not considered top-tier in a team teeming with talent. He was narrow-minded and jealous, harboring resentment specifically toward colleagues who quickly achieved breakthroughs and gained favor by relying on technology provided by "Patriot X". What made it even harder for him to accept was that due to an operational error during a critical experiment that resulted in the destruction of a precious sample, he received internal disciplinary action from the project team and was transferred away from his core position to handle peripheral data organization work.
This feeling of being "marginalized" gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake. He felt his talents were unrecognized, believed his superiors were unfair, blamed others for all his mistakes, and his reverence for the "Chasing Light Project" and "Patriot X" gradually turned into twisted resentment.
His abnormal emotions and frequent complaints and inquiries about core news on the internal network had long been recorded by the security module of the "Weaving Net" AI and marked as a "person of interest". Because he had not yet engaged in any substantive leaks and his access to classified information was limited, Long Zhantian's department only placed him on an observation list and did not immediately take mandatory measures.
This tiny crack was keenly captured by his pervasive opponents.
The expert responsible for subversion within Craig's remnants locked onto Wang Lei through an extremely secretive channel disguised as an overseas academic exchange platform. They first played to his preferences, using the name of an "internationally top-tier energy research institution" to express "high appreciation" for some of the unremarkable papers Wang Lei had published in the past, and implicitly pointed out that he was "being suppressed" in his current environment.
With his vanity and dissatisfaction precisely provoked, Wang Lei quickly established contact with them. In exchange after exchange of encrypted communication, the other party's "understanding" and "appreciation" allowed him to find a long-lost sense of "validation". They began to proceed gradually, moving from asking about non-sensitive questions regarding the research atmosphere in the Dragon Kingdom to slowly transitioning into probing for the organizational structure of the "Chasing Light Project", and... whether he had heard of any particularly young or strangely behaving geniuses.
Wang Lei, whose mind had long been blinded by his emotions, saw his psychological defenses completely collapse under the temptation of the huge sums of money, generous overseas positions, and "academic freedom" promised by the other party. Although he had no direct contact with the core secrets of "Patriot X", based on what he had seen and heard within the project team and his deliberate inquiries, he provided a vague but extremely critical direction:
"I don't know the specifics... but the higher-ups, especially Old Chen and his team, seemed to pay special attention to a group of very young scholars during the early stages of verifying the technology, especially those with backgrounds in materials, physics, and aerospace. It's said they were doing some kind of... potential 'talent mapping' analysis? Maybe they wanted to find the source of the technology or those who could adapt to it?"
This piece of information was like lighting a faint navigation beacon in the fog!
When this intelligence was fed back through secret channels and cross-referenced with the "core candidate list" of hundreds of people, including "Lin Mo", screened out by the "Prometheus" AI, a shocking overlap emerged!
"Lin Mo", aerospace engineering major, young, recent abnormal behavior, suspicious procurement records, and his professional background completely matched the "key focus areas" mentioned by Wang Lei!
"Target match rate has risen sharply!" The "Prometheus" evaluation report coldly displayed, "The danger level of target 'Lin Mo' has been elevated from 'medium observation' to 'highly suspicious'! Recommendation: List as a priority investigation target!"
Wang Lei's betrayal, like a lethal venomous thorn, quietly pierced through the Dragon Kingdom's tight protective net, pushing the deeply hidden Lin Mo into the spotlight at the edge of the storm. And he himself was still immersed in the illusory dream of soon obtaining "freedom" and "recognition", completely unaware that he had committed an unforgivable crime, and even less aware of where the fuse he had lit was sizzling toward.