23: Chapter 23 Power Outage and Internet Cable Unplugging: Even Gods Would Kneel

Inside the rental apartment.

Chen Xiaobei stared at the address finally frozen on his screen; he was stunned for a moment, then let out a scoff of disdain.

"Found me? How interesting."

Far from feeling even a shred of fear, a look of morbid excitement appeared on his face.

So what if I've been found?

He was now a god of the digital world!

As long as there was an internet connection, he was invincible.

"Do you really think you can catch me just by finding my address? Too naive."

Chen Xiaobei licked his dry, cracked lips, his eyes glinting with a frenzied light.

He would make things even bigger, so big that they wouldn't have the time to bother with a "small-time hacker" like him.

"Isn't it just paralyzing the traffic? Small fry."

His fingers danced across the Keyboard once more; this time, his target was the Yanjing City financial data center.

"Since you want to play, I'll play a big game with you! I'll let you witness what the power of a god truly is!"

He intended to create an unprecedented financial storm, causing the banking System to collapse and evaporating the wealth of countless people in an instant.

By then, the entire state apparatus would be mobilized to save the market; who would have time to deal with him, the instigator?

Lines of lethal code formed at his fingertips, and a backdoor program capable of instantly transferring one billion in bank funds was ready.

A twisted smile hung on Chen Xiaobei's face as if he could already see the financial tycoons wailing and crying on tomorrow's news headlines.

He hovered his finger over the Enter key.

As long as he pressed it, he would be the god who could leverage the world!

However, the very instant his fingertip was about to touch the keycap,

"Snap!"

A soft click.

The entire world went black.

Not just the six monitors in front of him, but all light sources in the room extinguished at the same time.

The humming of the computer case fans ceased abruptly.

The air conditioner stopped blowing.

The entire room fell into a deathly silence and pure darkness, leaving only the faint glow of the city's neon lights filtering through the gaps in the curtains.

"Hmm?"

Chen Xiaobei's fingers froze in mid-air, the fanatical smile on his face instantly solidified.

"What's going on? A power outage?"

The first thought that popped into his mind was a common residential line fault.

Chen Xiaobei stood up from his gaming chair in a panic, fumbling in the darkness, trying to find his phone.

He tripped over a table leg and fell to the floor in a sorry state, letting out a pained "Ouch".

This god who could summon wind and rain in the digital world was as fragile as an infant in the darkness of reality.

He scrambled to the circuit breaker box on the wall, blindly pushing the switches up and pulling them down from memory.

It was useless.

There was no reaction at all.

He pressed himself against the door and looked out through the peephole.

The hallway was pitch black; even the emergency lights weren't on.

The entire building had lost power.

Below Building 4 of the Xingfuli residential complex.

Gu Changan casually tossed a pair of insulated cable cutters, still bearing fresh cut marks, into the toolbox held by his subordinate.

Behind him, several workers wearing State Grid uniforms had just climbed down from the utility pole and gave him an "OK" gesture.

All physical power supply lines to that unit building had been completely severed.

"For a god of the internet, without electricity, you're just an ordinary shut-in."

Gu Changan looked up at the pitch-black window upstairs and gave a cold order into his walkie-talkie.

"Communications team, you may begin."

"Received. The high-power signal jammer has been activated; all civilian radio signals within a 200-meter radius of the target area will be completely blocked."

"Very good."

Room 404.

Chen Xiaobei's heart beat faster and faster.

A large-scale power outage—this wasn't right.

He finally felt his phone on the floor and hurriedly lit up the screen.

No signal.

The grid in the top left corner of the screen representing signal strength was completely empty.

No 4G, no 5G; there wasn't even a 2G emergency call signal.

The Wi-Fi icon next to it also displayed a prominent 'X'.

He had been physically isolated from the entire world.

An unprecedented panic, like cold seawater, instantly engulfed him.

He subconsciously cried out in his heart.

"System! System! What's going on?!"

A faint blue light screen wavered into existence before his eyes, like a candle about to be extinguished.

The System was still there, but it only displayed a line of flashing red text.

[Warning: Connection timed out, unable to access network database.]

[Please check your network settings...]

Chen Xiaobei's heart skipped a beat.

His Divine-Grade hacker System, this Golden Finger he relied on to survive and which made him think he was the protagonist of the world, had turned into a piece of scrap metal in an environment without electricity or internet!

Just then.

"Zzzzt—"

A harsh microphone feedback noise came from downstairs.

Following that, a voice booming through a loudspeaker rudely pierced the night sky, echoing throughout the residential complex.

The sound quality was exactly like the loudspeakers in the vegetable market selling Chinese cabbage for two yuan a jin.

"Chen Xiaobei upstairs, listen up! You have been surrounded!"

"I am Gu Changan from the National Bureau of Abnormal Affairs!"

The voice wasn't loud, but it struck Chen Xiaobei's head like an iron hammer.

He shuddered, scrambling to hide behind the curtains, trembling.

In reality, he was just a social failure who didn't dare to speak to people.

Usually, he was a Keyboard warrior online, pointing out the faults of the world, but now, just hearing his name called out by a loudspeaker was enough to make him nearly wet his pants.

The physical presence of the state apparatus completely shattered all his psychological defenses.

"Your current actions are suspected of the crimes of illegal intrusion into a computer information System, destruction of transportation facilities, and destruction of power equipment!"

"According to preliminary estimates, the direct and indirect economic losses you have caused have already exceeded ten billion yuan!"

"Given the extreme severity of the case and the exceptionally negative social impact, it can already be classified as a crime of endangering public safety!"

"If you don't want a bullet, walk downstairs immediately with your hands on your head!"

The voice from the loudspeaker carried not a shred of emotion; every word turned into a provision of criminal law, pressing down on Chen Xiaobei until he couldn't breathe.

He peeked out through a gap in the curtains.

Downstairs, red and blue police lights flashed wildly, illuminating the entire building as if it were broad daylight.

Figures in black Special Police uniforms, armed with live ammunition, had already blocked all exits and entrances.

The dark muzzles of their guns seemed ready to spit fire at any moment.

It's over.

This was the only thought in Chen Xiaobei's mind.

The immense fear left his mind blank; the last remaining sliver of fantasy and unwillingness drove him to make a final struggle.

Hiding in the dark corner, he used all his strength to let out a hysterical scream.

"I'm not coming out! I didn't commit any crimes! I was just pursuing love!"

"I have the System! I am the male protagonist of this world! You can't catch me!"

"If you push me any further... if you push me any further, I'll hack your nuclear missile silos! I'll make the whole world go down with me!"

His roar echoed in the empty room, sounding so shrill, yet so powerless and ridiculous.