67: Chapter 67 First Blood: Counter-Hunt Spy Network
The initial success of the "Mozi Network" did not just mean the establishment of an information channel that could not be pried into; more importantly, it meant that the Dragon Country's intelligence agencies had, for the first time, mastered an absolutely secure command weapon. While the "Ghost" of the Pretty Country was still fruitlessly battering the Dragon Country's power grid barriers—which had already "shrunk back" but were still based on classic defenses—Long Zhantian had already turned his gaze toward the real threats hidden in the shadows.
With the help of the newly established experimental link of the "Mozi Network" connecting the Jingcheng headquarters with several key regional safe houses, a precision counter-espionage operation codenamed "Scavenger" quietly unfolded.
Inside the operation headquarters, the large screen in front of Long Zhantian no longer displayed chaotic network attack data. Instead, it showed a clear topology map composed of countless light spots and connecting lines—this was a relationship map of the enemy's spy network lurking in the Dragon Country, drawn by the "S.H.I.E.L.D." through years of operation combined with the latest intelligence. Several light spots flashing red were precisely the "Deep Divers" and key nodes activated by the "Shadow" group in an attempt to cooperate with the "Dragon Slaying" plan and the "Ghost Protocol" actions.
In the past, coordinating such large-scale, multi-regional synchronous arrests was a major challenge due to the security and immediacy of communication. Any slight oversight could alert the enemy and lead to total failure. But now, the situation was completely different.
Long Zhantian picked up the communicator connected to the "Mozi Network" quantum encryption channel. Through the principle of quantum entanglement, his voice was instantly, losslessly, and absolutely securely transmitted to the ears of the operation group leaders scattered across the country, with no possibility of interception or eavesdropping.
"All teams attention, Operation 'Scavenger', begin."
"Team One, target 'Mole', located in the Shanghai financial district, authorized for arrest."
"Team Two, target 'Nightingale', located at a research institute in Jiangcheng, control their communication equipment and perform a secret arrest."
"Team Three, target 'Postman', cut off all their communication channels with overseas, implement surveillance, and play the long game."
"..."
The commands were concise and clear, delivered through the undecipherable quantum channel. Simultaneously, with the supercomputing assistance of the upgraded "Weaving Net" AI and the "fuxi machine" prototype, the tracking and analysis of the residual "Shadow Demon" virus behavior also reverse-locked several IP addresses with abnormally frequent contact with overseas command centers. These addresses perfectly overlapped with the light spots on the topology map.
The operation was launched simultaneously at midnight.
In Shanghai, a high-level executive of a multinational corporation (codename "Mole") who was receiving instructions through an encrypted channel in a luxury apartment had his door silently broken open. Several members of the operation team appeared like divine soldiers from the sky, subduing him before he even had time to trigger an alarm. The computer on his desk, which was attempting to analyze the cause of the Dragon Country's power grid's "abnormal silence," was seized on the spot.
In Jiangcheng, near a national defense research institute, a seemingly ordinary newsstand owner (codename "Nightingale") was quickly controlled by the lurking operation team while receiving an instruction from an "academic broker" to inquire about "young researchers." The high-speed transmission equipment hidden in a secret compartment of the newsstand didn't even have time to be turned off.
In more than twenty key cities across the country, similar scenes played out at the same time. The inescapable net laid by Long Zhantian, under the precise command of the "Mozi Network," suddenly closed with unprecedented efficiency and stealth!
At the CIA headquarters in the Pretty Country, several monitoring screens in front of the "Shadow" group leader turned into static or displayed "signal lost" within just ten minutes. Those "eyes and ears" he had spent years or even over a decade painstakingly cultivating and planting were severed at the root like by an invisible sharp blade, losing contact instantly!
"What's going on?! What happened?!" he roared frantically into the communicator, but received no response. A bone-chilling cold rose from the soles of his feet. The Dragon Country's counterattack this time was too fast, too precise, and too ruthless! It was so fast they had no time to react, so precise it was as if the other party held a complete list, and so ruthless that it directly destroyed their intelligence network in more than half of the Dragon Country!
He slumped in his chair, his face ashen. He knew that the "Ghost Protocol" had not only failed to paralyze the Dragon Country's power grid but had instead exposed and ruined their most precious intelligence assets in the Dragon Country. Before the "Dragon Slaying" plan could truly begin, it had already become blind and deaf!
Long Zhantian looked at the light spots on the screen that were turning from red to green, representing that the targets had been cleared or controlled. There was no expression on his cold face. He spoke into the quantum communicator and gave the final command:
"Clean the scene, erase all traces. Record this operation as the first successful real-combat test case of the 'Mozi Network'."
He put down the communicator, his gaze sharp. This was only the first blood, a clean liquidation of the shadows of the old era by the Dragon Country after mastering higher-dimensional technology. He believed that as the "Mozi Network" continued to expand and the "fuxi machine" grew more powerful, all those demons and monsters hiding in the deeper depths would have nowhere to hide under the light of quantum.