22: Chapter 22 You call this a confession?

The evening rush hour in Yanjing City was, by its very nature, a race against time for millions of people.

But at this moment, the race turned into a disaster.

Piercing screeching of brakes rose and fell in every corner of the city, and countless vehicles seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, instantly bunching up together.

The traffic lights, which usually alternated between red, yellow, and green, seemed to have caught a virus, and all at once, they turned a glaring pink.

Those originally circular indicator lights were surprisingly reconfigured by countless LED pixels, eerily forming pulsing pink hearts one after another.

The intersections were in complete chaos. Traffic streams going straight, turning left, and turning right lost the guidance of the rules, tangling together like headless flies. Buses lay horizontally in the middle of the roads, private cars were pushed onto sidewalks, and electric scooters were toppled all over the ground.

"Beep—! Beep-beep—!" The entire city was drowned out by the sound of anxious honking.

Meanwhile, on the giant LED advertising screen in the city center known as the "Eye of Asia," the evening news broadcast came to an abrupt halt.

The screen flashed, and a huge avatar of a two-dimensional cute girl popped up. Immediately after, a pink dialogue box occupying half the screen appeared, with the text written in that non-mainstream "Martian" script:

[Su Su, be my girlfriend! I want to make this city stop for you and let tens of millions of people witness my love for you! ( ｡ ♦ ‿ ♦ ｡ )]

This line of text not only appeared on the big screen but also simultaneously hijacked subway TVs, shopping mall exterior projections, and even the scrolling displays on taxi roof lights.

For a moment, all of Yanjing City seemed to be submerged by this vulgar pink torrent.

In a rental apartment in an old residential complex in Chaoyang District.

The heavy curtains were drawn tightly, and the room was filled with the smell of spoiled instant noodles and stale cigarette smoke. In the dim space, only the six monitors hanging on the wall emitted a ghostly blue light.

A skinny young man with greasy, matted hair, wearing a T-shirt printed with an anime wife, sat cross-legged in a gaming chair. His fingers tapped on the mechanical Keyboard, creating a blur, and his face wore a nearly pathological, fanatical smile.

"This is the power of a god... Hahahaha!"

Chen Xiaobei watched the city, which had become a complete mess in the surveillance footage, without realizing at all that this was a disaster; instead, he felt like a Dominator of all living beings, a god.

"Possessing the [Divine-Grade Hacker System], this online world is just my backyard. Firewalls? They are a joke. Su Su will surely be moved; what woman could refuse such a love that topples cities?"

He picked up the happy water on the table, took a gulp, let out a loud burp, and stared hazily at the social media account avatar named "Su Su" on the screen.

"Just wait, in five more minutes, the entire city's power System will also flicker for you. I will make the whole of Yanjing City turn into a love letter in Morse code for you!"

Meanwhile, at the command hall of the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs.

Red alarm lights spun crazily, and the piercing buzzing sound was maddening.

"Report! The third layer of the firewall has been breached!"

"The phones at the Traffic Management Bureau are blowing up! Control of the city-wide traffic lights has been lost! We can't cut the power; the other party has locked the underlying logic!"

"Subway Line 3 signal failure, trains have performed emergency braking, and thousands of people are trapped in the tunnel!"

The head of the Technical Division was sweating profusely, his fingers tapping rapidly on the Keyboard, but the screen only showed rows of error code.

He looked up in despair: "Team Leader Gu, the other party is not an ordinary hacker! His code has self-repairing functions, and it's even... even alive! Our tracking program was devoured as soon as it was released!"

On the command console in the center of the hall, Gu Changan watched the main screen with an expressionless face.

On the screen, that huge pink heart was still pulsing tirelessly, and paired with that cringey confession line, it appeared exceptionally ironic.

Gu Changan's gaze shifted downward, landing on another split-screen. It was a traffic surveillance feed showing an ambulance with flashing blue lights stuck at an intersection; no matter how much the driver honked, the cars in front could not move.

"Romantic?" Gu Changan sneered, his voice betraying no joy or anger, yet it instantly quieted the panicked technicians around him.

"To satisfy his own pathetic vanity, he has dragged millions of people along with him, blocked life-saving channels, and caused massive public property damage."

He straightened his uniform collar, his eyes as cold as if he were looking at a corpse.

"This is not romance; this is anti-humanity. This is a serious crime of destroying transportation facilities, a crime of destroying computer information Systems, and a crime of endangering public safety."

Gu Changan walked to the console and reached out to press the Enter key that was flashing error messages.

"Since he thinks there are no police in the online world, then I will let him see what it means for the net of justice to be wide-meshed yet inescapable."

He silently recited in his heart: "System, redeem [All-Knowing Eye · Network Traceability Module]."

[Ding! Consumed 2000 Law Enforcement Points.]

[Network Traceability Module loaded.]

[Taking over local area network permissions... Reverse-parsing virus logic... Locking onto the attack source...]

A stream of pale blue data flashed across Gu Changan's eyes instantly.

In his eyes, those eerie codes scurrying across the screen were no longer invincible monsters, but clearly visible traces of the crime. Just like footprints left by a thief in the snow, no matter how they were covered up, the direction pointed to the same destination.

"Initiate reverse tracking."

Gu Changan's finger lightly tapped on the virtual Keyboard.

Inside the rental apartment. Chen Xiaobei was preparing to carry out the next step—hacking the entire city's power grid.

Suddenly, a striking red warning box popped up on the main screen in the center before him.

[Warning! Encountered reverse scanning from an unknown source!]

[Firewall is being dismantled... First layer failed... Second layer failed...]

"What the hell?!" Chen Xiaobei was so scared that the happy water in his hand spilled onto his crotch. He sat up straight abruptly, a trace of disdain appearing on his face: "Those cyber police again? They really won't give up. I have a virtual IP protected by the System, jumping through zombie networks tens of thousands of times; even the Pentagon wouldn't be able to catch me!"

"System! Activate Divine-Grade stealth mode! Burn the other party's computer for me!"

His ten fingers flew, tapping out strings of attack commands sufficient to destroy a banking System.

However. No matter how he attacked, those commands were like mud cows entering the sea, failing to stir up even the slightest ripple.

Instead, the red progress bar on his screen, like a countdown to death, moved unswervingly toward 100%.

[Locking onto physical address...]

[Locking range: Yanjing City...]

[Locking range: Chaoyang District...]

"No... This is impossible!" Chen Xiaobei panicked. Since obtaining the System, he had always walked sideways in the online world; when had he ever encountered such a tough opponent?

He frantically unplugged the network cable and even cut the power directly.

But eerily, even after unplugging the power cord, those few monitors were still lit! That red progress bar was still moving!

[Locking range: Xingfu Li Residential Complex... Building 4...]

"How can this be?! It can run even without power?!" Chen Xiaobei was so scared that he fell from his chair onto the floor, his face as pale as paper. His hacking skills, which he was so proud of, appeared so powerless at this moment.

This was no cyber police; this was clearly an existence of a higher dimension than his System!

Inside the Bureau of Anomalies hall. Gu Changan looked at the coordinates finally fixed on the screen, the corners of his mouth curling into a mocking arc.

[Lock successful]

[Target location: Room 404, Unit 2, Building 4, Xingfu Li Residential Complex, Chaoyang District, Yanjing City.]

[Suspect identity: Chen Xiaobei, male, 24 years old, unemployed.]