23: Chapter 23: Peak Acting Skills, Fooling the Gatekeeper

Jianghai City TV Tower, First Floor Lobby.

The atmosphere was as oppressive as a sponge soaked through with water.

Dozens of SWAT officers armed with live ammunition fanned out, their dark muzzles vaguely locked onto every entrance and exit. Anti-explosion shields glinted with a faint metallic luster under the cold morning light; even a fly wanting to enter would have to flash a barcode on its wings first.

All staff members had to pass through three checkpoints to enter or exit: ID verification, facial recognition, and omnidirectional security screening.

Before this heavily guarded fortress, a blue cleaning cart with slightly wobbly wheels rattled over with a "creak, creak" sound.

Following behind the cart was a small old man wearing a rumpled blue jumpsuit.

His back was hunched as if he were carrying a large pot, and his hat brim was pulled extremely low. The half of his face that was visible was covered in greasy sweat stains. A large mole with black hair at the corner of his mouth twitched with his breath, looking quite revolting.

Qin Feng pushed the cart, his steps dragging and sluggish. In those eyes that Su Tang had specifically painted to look cloudy and dull, there was a sense of numbness and stagnation from being repeatedly battered by life.

"Halt!"

A SWAT officer abruptly raised his hand, blocking the way.

Qin Feng seemed to have the wits scared out of him by this shout; his whole body shuddered, and the cart nearly crashed into a nearby marble pillar.

"Wha... what's goin' on?"

Qin Feng pulled his neck in, a dialect heavy with the scent of suburban scallions rolling off his tongue. His hands subconsciously rubbed against his filthy pant legs as he looked at the fully armed SWAT officer with a mix of sycophancy and fear.

The officer frowned, his gaze scanning Qin Feng from head to toe like an X-ray.

Too ordinary.

He was so ordinary that he was like a rat in the city sewers—throw him into a crowd, and he would disappear instantly.

"Take off your hat. Look up," the officer said coldly.

Qin Feng hurriedly took off his hat, revealing a head of sparse, greasy hair with a pathetic hairline. He grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Officer, I'm just here to clear the drains. The boss said the upstairs is clogged and it's urgent."

The officer didn't speak, simply waving him through the security gate.

Qin Feng carried his filthy bucket and had just stepped through the gate.

---Beep!!!"

A sharp alarm instantly blared out.

In that moment, all the surrounding SWAT officers turned almost simultaneously. A dozen gazes pierced through like sharp swords, and the officer in charge of the check instantly placed his hand on his holster, his muscles tensing.

"Don't move! Put your hands up!"

The atmosphere instantly froze to the breaking point.

Qin Feng stood rooted to the spot, stunned for two seconds. Instead of panic, a trace of "here we go again" helplessness appeared on his face.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he slowly reached into his shirt.

"Slowly! Take it out!" the officer barked.

Qin Feng curled his lip and pulled a flat, paint-chipped metal flask from the inner pocket of his grease-stained jumpsuit.

He unscrewed the cap, tilted his head back, and took a large swig.

Gulp.

The scent of cheap Erguotou instantly diffused, making the officer's face turn green with disgust.

"I just brought a sip to perk me up..." Qin Feng let out an alcohol-scented burp, looking aggrieved. "That's not against the law, is it? These old legs of mine won't move without a couple of sips."

The officer was so repulsed by the smell that he took half a step back. His tensed nerves instantly relaxed, replaced by pure disdain.

A boozy, slovenly, subservient janitor uncle.

If this guy was the fierce bandit Qin Feng, then pigs could fly.

"Fine, fine, put it away!" The officer impatiently fanned his nose as if shooing away an annoying fly. "Get in there and work, don't wander around! And stay away from the bosses, you stink!"

"Eh! Yes, sir! Thank you, officer!"

Qin Feng bowed and scraped, tucked the flask back into his shirt, and put his dirty hat back on.

He pushed the creaking cleaning cart and shambled into the lobby.

The moment his back was to the officers and he stepped around the corner into the elevator bay...

The back of that wretched little old man with the lecherous face suddenly straightened.

His previously cloudy and dull eyes instantly cleared in the shadow cast by his hat brim, becoming as deep as a bottomless cold pool.

The sycophantic smile vanished, replaced by an extremely dangerous sense of amusement.

"This batch of SWAT officers isn't up to much."

Qin Feng offered a quiet critique in his mind.

---Ding---

The elevator doors opened.

Qin Feng pushed his cart inside. Before he could press the button for the top floor, he heard the hurried sound of high heels.

"Wait a moment!"

A well-manicured hand blocked the elevator door.

A woman in a professional suit with exquisite makeup stepped in.

Qin Feng recognized her.

The star of Jianghai TV, news anchor Fang Ruo.

Fang Ruo didn't even glance at the janitor in the corner. As she adjusted her perfectly styled hair in the mirror, she complained into her Bluetooth headset: "...I've really had it. The station actually made us prepare three sets of emergency scripts. Do you think that Qin Feng is crazy? Why throw away a good life just to cause such a scene..."

Qin Feng shrunk into the corner, head down, continuing to play his role as the janitor.

"Hey! You!"

Fang Ruo suddenly turned, her brow furrowed deep enough to crush a fly. She pointed at the control panel with her makeup bag. "Press the 18th floor for me. I'm so unlucky, stuck in an elevator with a pile of trash."

Qin Feng didn't say a word.

He extended a finger, which was stained with black residue—either engine oil or soy sauce.

He didn't press the 18th floor.

Instead, he directly pressed the button for the top floor—the 48th floor.

Fang Ruo was stunned. Just as she was about to snap at him, she caught Qin Feng's eyes as he looked up.

Two faces were reflected in the stainless steel mirror of the elevator.

One was exquisite yet arrogant.

One was greasy yet...

Fang Ruo's heart skipped a beat.

In that split second, she saw the eyes of that slovenly janitor through the mirror.

That was not an expression a low-level laborer should have.

Indifferent, mocking, and superior.

He was like a wolf in sheep's clothing, watching a chattering parrot before him with great interest.

But a second later, when Fang Ruo turned back in terror...

Qin Feng had already lowered his head again, returning to his timid state. "Sor... sorry, boss, my hand slipped. I'll press the 18th floor for you right now..."

Fang Ruo felt a bit dazed.

A hallucination?

Was that hair-raising gaze just a hallucination?

---Ding---

The 18th floor arrived.

Fang Ruo rushed out of the elevator as if escaping, not even daring to look back.

The elevator doors slowly closed.

Qin Feng watched the red numbers ticking upward, the fake mole at the corner of his mouth curling up slightly.

"Acting is quite the physical labor, too."

...

Top floor, Core Server Room.

This was the heart of all radio and television signals in Jianghai City.

Dozens of rows of black server racks were neatly arranged, indicator lights flashing in a dizzying array, while massive cooling fans emitted a low hum.

A technician in a white lab coat and thick glasses was hunched over a master control cabinet, sweating profusely from anxiety.

"Damn it! Why is it reporting an error again? Which signal source is having problems?"

The technician clutched at his thinning hair, looking at the string of red characters on the screen, feeling like he wanted to die.

Orders had come from above that the signal must be one hundred percent stable today. If anything went wrong, his career would be over.

Just then.

"Step aside."

A low, raspy voice that carried an unquestionable authority sounded behind him.

The technician jumped and looked back.

He saw a middle-aged man in a blue janitor's uniform and a baseball cap standing behind him.

He was still holding a filthy bucket.

"Who... who are you? Who let you in?" The technician pushed up his glasses, about to call security.

Qin Feng ignored his questioning.

He set the bucket down with a dull thud.

Then he strode to the cabinet, glanced at the code on the screen, and let out a cold laugh.

"The IPv6 link layer is clogged by a broadcast storm, and you're still checking the application layer?"

"This is like the sewer being blocked and instead of clearing the pipes, you're trying to wipe the toilet seat. Did you get your head stuck in a door?"

This single sentence left the technician completely dumbfounded.

IPv6? Link layer? Broadcast storm?

Were these words that should come out of a janitor's mouth?

Qin Feng didn't give him a chance to react.

He pulled a pair of white gloves (originally meant for cleaning toilets) from his pocket and put them on deliberately, his movements as elegant as if he were donning surgical gloves.

"Are you new? You haven't even figured out this archaic Cisco architecture?"

Qin Feng glanced at the technician sideways, his look of disappointment perfectly acted. "This is a ten-year-old system. The underlying logic uses ring network redundancy protocols. If you apply that patch, it's a miracle the whole ring network doesn't collapse."

The technician's mouth hung open, his glasses nearly sliding off.

An expert!

This was clearly a veteran expert!

"You... you are?" The technician's voice stammered.

"Who I am isn't important."

Qin Feng sighed, putting on an air of 'I knew this new batch was no good,' and shoved the technician aside. "What's important is that if the station manager finds out you useless lot can't even handle a hot-standby switchover, he'll have your hide."

The technician was pushed back a few steps, but he didn't dare get angry.

This presence! This professionalism!

This was definitely no ordinary janitor!

Could it be... the legendary special consultant hired by the main station who often goes on incognito inspections and likes to pretend to be a 'hidden master'?

"Ma... Master!" The technician's imagination went wild as he bowed ninety degrees, his face full of awe. "I was blind! Please... sorry to trouble you! I've been working on this broken system all morning and I'm at my wit's end!"

"Watch and learn."

Qin Feng sat in the expensive ergonomic chair.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard.

In that instant, the effects of the [Hacker Grandmaster] experience card were fully activated.

His fingers became a blur. The sound of keys being struck was as dense as rain, the pitter-patter rhythm making the technician's scalp tingle.

On the screen, those red error messages rapidly turned into lines of smooth green code, as if fearing this monarch.

"Is this... the strength of a god?"

The technician stood by, eyes welling with tears. "Even the force of his keystrokes is so rhythmic... too strong!"

He couldn't understand a thing Qin Feng was typing.

He just felt it was incredibly impressive.

In reality, Qin Feng was frantically inputting commands, bypassing firewalls and creating backdoors into the master control system.

"Where's the interface?" Qin Feng asked without looking back.

"He... here! Master, here is the core interface for physical isolation!" The technician eagerly pointed to a hidden USB port at the bottom of the cabinet. "Are you going to import a repair patch?"

"Yes."

Qin Feng pulled a black USB drive from his pocket.

It was something Pei Ji had sourced overnight, containing a "gift package" written by Gu Heng and encrypted by Alice.

Qin Feng gripped the USB drive, his eyes flickering imperceptibly.

"This patch is a bit large."

Qin Feng plugged the drive into the port and lightly patted the technician's shoulder, his tone meaningful. "It might make the whole system... restart for a moment."

"No problem! A restart fixes everything!" The technician nodded like a woodpecker.

Qin Feng smiled.

It was a brilliant smile, a kind smile.

He turned around, looking at the view of half of Jianghai City through the window, and lightly pressed the "Enter" key.

Snap.

The soft sound echoed in the empty server room.

The green code on the screen vanished instantly.

In its place was a slowly loading progress bar.

And above the progress bar, a pixel-art clown face with a weird smile flickered.

The technician froze.

"Ma... Master? The icon for this patch... why does it look a bit familiar?"

Qin Feng took off the dirty baseball cap and tossed it casually into a nearby trash can.

He pulled out the unfinished bottle of Erguotou and gave a distant toast to the screen.

Then.

Under the technician's horrified gaze, he slowly peeled off the fake black mole from his mouth.

"It's familiar for a reason."

Qin Feng turned his head. That handsome, cold face that thousands of police officers in the city hated to their cores was finally exposed under the lights.

He looked at the technician, who was now slumped on the floor in terror, and the corner of his mouth curled into an elegant arc.

"After all, this is the... meeting gift I'm giving to this city."

The progress bar reached 100%.

At this moment.

In thousands of households across Jianghai City, television screens suddenly went black.