by <unknown>
“Let’s look for a place to stay first.”
Di Su Su and the gang were questioned by the locals, but she answered perfectly. They were just ‘wanderers that were migrating’ and ‘wanted to rest here for a while before moving off.’ Afterwards, they successfully checked in at one of the hotels in the town.
As soon as they entered the room, they immediately swept for monitoring cameras and bugs professionally. They started discussing their next steps after they made sure the room was safe.
“How should we proceed now?” Li Ya Lin curled her lips and gave Di Su Su a cold look.
Di Su Su was not in the mood to banter with Li Ya Lin. Her brows knitted together as she said in a serious tone, “People in the town are still suspicious of our identity. I think we should stay put.”
Han Xiao suddenly chimed in through the earpieces. “You guys had better act today.”
“Give me a good reason.” Di Su Su was slightly provoked.
“You guys are now foreign wanderers, so you should act your part. It is only normal to gather information about this place. It will actually look strange if you purposefully conceal yourselves, making others feel that you have an ulterior motive.”
Everyone looked at one another. “That seems like a good point.”
“…Let’s do what Han Xiao suggested.”
The town had many amenities, including entertainment facilities, casinos, a pharmacy, restaurants, and even places for one to release. As night fell, the team moved out in different groups and pretended to spend money, probe for intel, and gather information. However, they did not achieve any substantial success. The locals there were mostly ordinary wanderers, and they did not spot any people of interest.
“Our enemies must be hiding deeply. We probably won’t get anything through this method.” Qi Bai Jia’s expression was grave.
“Actually, I know a way.” Han Xiao smiled. He knew the specific spy that was station at this town. After ‘real’ players earned enough reputation from missions, they could choose to join the Germinal Organization through this NPC. By catching this NPC, they could get quite a lot of intel.
Han Xiao knew the exact coordinates of the Dark Crow Valley Base, but he was unsure of the specific military strength and defenses of the base. After ten long years, he only remembered a little information about the place. Furthermore, they were at the different point in time, so the changes would be different. It was essential for them to gather intel from the NPC.
“You guys should go to the southern part of town, where you will see a casino. There should be a bald-headed dude who knows the intel about the base.” Han Xiao was describing the spy from the Germinal Organization stationed at the town. Those ‘real’ players who were born at Dark Crow Forest Town could only join the Germinal Organization through this guy.
Everyone was shocked. Di Su Su frowned. “Where did you get this information from?”
“I have my ways.”
“What if the information is incorrect?” Di Su Su was adamant.
“Listen to him.” Qi Bai Jia spoke up for Han Xiao. Before the mission, higher ups had told him to trust his intel. This showed that the higher ups valued Han Xiao highly.
Di Su Su had to repress her suspicion and follow to the order. She took some agents to the small casino and looked for the person quietly. Without fail, they found the bald-headed guy, who was the banker of the casino.
“What should we do now? If we act rashly, we could alarm our enemies. He might have companions from the organization around him,” asked Di Su Su.
Han Xiao was speechless. “We’ve already found our target. Can’t you just be professional and do what you usually do?”
Di Su Su felt her chest tighten, enraged by his comment. But at the same time, she realized that she had asked a dumb question. She gathered her teammates to secretly surround the guy.
Han Xiao looked at the time. He got up and let Lin Yao take over his duty. He did not feel that he needed to supervise the actual execution. If they could not even catch the guy, those agents should just knock themselves out with a piece of tofu.
At the same time, Winna and her team of Hesla agents left for their objective after she gave Han Xiao a fierce glare.
Han Xiao did not plan to rest at the secret base. He went into the trunk of Big Black and started assessing the situation. Both operations are team-based. They will most likely complete them without any hiccups. I should be more concerned with my personal mission. I will need some handy tools in order to assassinate the sentry guards in the forest.
Han Xiao took out some spare parts and began working on his interface.
_____________
Do you wish to proceed with talent fusion?
(Basic Spatial Sensing + Basic Bio-engineering + Basic Mechanical Engineering)
This fusion will cost you 15,000 EXP.
_____________
Fusion Success!
Congratulations, you have invented [Miniature Biological Sensor (Spider)]!
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
…
Winna’s team sneaked among the trees silently as if they were hunters searching for prey in the dark forest. They were wearing camouflage suits and night-vision goggles.
The sentry guards were stationed right outside the base. One of the team members was a master in investigating trails. He could deduce the number of people that had walked past a location a day before based on the minimal evidence left behind.
He was called Magarnu, a tall Sharnuk. He was built like a small mountain, which made it hard to believe that he was extremely meticulous. He rubbed the soil between his fingertips, smelt it, and pondered for a few moments. “There was a man, weighing around 180 pounds, who walked past here in a northwestern direction seven hours ago.”
Winna did not doubt Magarnu’s deduction. She and her team walked carefully in that direction. Suddenly, they came to a halt. Night vision goggles showed a living entity on tree three hundred meters out.
“Search the surroundings!”
Winna kept a cool head and did not act prematurely. She instructed her team to search for any other sentry guards or surveillance devices in the surroundings. After about twenty minutes, they confirmed that they were safe.
Ye Fan gave the order through the radio. “Take him down!”
Winna activated her power, and immediately, a maroon energy trail flashed under her feet. She moved swiftly and quietly within a hundred-meter radius from the enemy. She always stayed in the blind spots of the enemy by using the trees to hide her body like a master-level assassin. She hopped onto a tree in a cat-like manner before summoning her maroon-colored energy. The energy allowed her to stick onto the tree branches, and she jumped constantly from tree to tree, quickly approaching the enemy.
The Germinal sentry guard felt a sudden gust of wind over his head. He looked up and saw a dark shadow accelerating toward him.
Chapter 75. Hacker |
Ten minutes later…
Snap!
Magarnu twisted the neck of the sentry guard.
They had already secured the information they wanted.
Winna’s voice blared out from the communication device. “From our preliminary reconnaissance activity, we discovered that the base has been divided into 6 high-alert regions. The level of defense gradually increases from the innermost to the outermost sectors. We are currently at the outermost region.
“Every high-alert region will have a sentry post manned by an officer and his troops. Based on our previous interrogation, officers have access to the intranet of the military base. Therefore, as long as we can arrive at the sentry post, we will be able to access the intranet and gather intelligence using the officer’s computer.
“This sentry guard revealed the exact position of the post. Let’s move out immediately!”
Ye Fan knew that even the slightest delay would change the outcome of the operation. There was a series of pro
tocols to follow for the shift-changing of the sentry guards in the next few hours; by then, other soldiers would discover the disappearance of the sentry guard who had been killed. However, their first priority was still to gather sufficient intelligence even if that risked revealing their positions, since ultimately, the enemy would realize the impending invasion by the Hesla military. They needed to find out the military strength and defenses at the Dark Crow Valley base.
If Winna managed to succeed, the agents of Division 13 hiding in Dark Crow Forest Town would fall into the precarious situation of revealing their positions to the enemy. The agents might even be caught before they made their moves.
Ye Fan analyzed the situation rationally and made the decision.
“Operation approved! Immediately head out to the enemy base.”
Winna nodded and disposed of the sentry guard’s body. She then led her teammates into the enemy base.
Ye Fan heaved a sigh of relief, and his eyes moved away from the screen. He glanced at the operations’ office of Division 13 and shook his head slightly. He did not know what his decision would bring, but he wanted the best for the mission. He would inform the department afterwards.
There were times when one had to take a leap of faith.
…
Before twilight, Winna and her team found the sentry post.
It was a shed camouflaged deep in the vegetation used by the hunters.
Quietly, the team moved closer to their target. Magarnu grabbed the sound-wave detector from his haversack and scanned the interior of the shed from outside. The results returned revealed three human targets: one lying on the sofa and two who seemed to be consuming their supper at the table.
Winna raised her hand and started the count.
Three, two, one! Winna leapt forward into the shed through the window. Her teammates followed behind.
The three enemy soldiers were shocked by the unexpected attack, and before they could retaliate, they were shot with the tranquilizers by the Hesla agents and collapsed onto the ground.
The Hesla agents then searched the shed and the clothing of the unconscious soldiers. They uncovered a hidden compartment behind the wall. The agents discovered that out of the three soldiers, one of them was an officer based on the identity card he carried.
“This is our target.” Winna grinned to herself. This officer by the name of Roman seemed to be the one in charge of the sentry post.
The agents tied Roman up and gave him an injection to wake him up. Magarnu then slapped Roman repeatedly to speed up the process. “Tell us the password to the safe if you want to live!”
Roman was scared to death by the troop of heavily armed agents and immediately confessed the password without any sign of hesitance.
After entering the password, the safe successfully opened, and a laptop could be seen. After turning on the laptop, a sign-in page appeared on the screen, and both the identity card and a verbal password were required to access the portal.
Roman was very cooperative, and the agents managed to access the portal with his account. Following the jingle, the words ‘Dang Dang Dang the Germinal assistant is at your service.’ flashed on the screen.
Startled, Ye Fan choked on his coffee.
All the agents had confused looks on their faces. No one could have imagined that the portal’s interface would look like that.
Ye Fan didn’t know what to say. “What a cute portal…”
A couple of menus appeared on the server, and due to the low rank of Roman, he could only access a few of them. Winnie found the page that displayed the daily activity log for the military base, and the team became really excited.
There must be important information hidden in the daily logs.
“Let me do it.” Ye Fan instructed Magarnu to plug the chip into the computer, which allowed Ye Fan’s computer to also access the server.
There was a look of seriousness on Ye Fan’s face, and his fingers started to punch the keyboard and input the codes like a butterfly dancing in the air.
Level 1 Firewall, hacked!
Level 2 Firewall, hacked!
Level 3 Firewall, hacked!
One-time-password, hacked!
Rights restrictions, hacked!
Ye Fan gave a slight smile. He was a seasoned hacker in Hesla with hundreds of viruses and bugs in his arsenal. Except for certain servers on the dark web, there was practically no server that could escape his attacks.
In less than three minutes, all the encrypted documents were decoded. At that point, the enemy technicians realized what was happening and started deleting the documents frantically while Ye Fan was copying the files.
In a brief moment, all the documents were deleted. Ye Fan’s computer was too slow and only managed to copy 28% of the documents. The more confidential documents were deleted first.
However, the copied documents contained sufficient intelligence, including defense blueprints, internal structure information, and the military strength of the base.
Ye Fan felt relieved. “Good job and well done! Now it’s time to return.”
The attempt to steal sensitive information about the Dark Crow Valley base would definitely heighten the security of the enemy. However, it was all worth it for the intelligence reports.
But despite the success, there was still a sense of unease in Ye Fan.
It seemed a little… too easy.
…
A member of staff from the central control room of the Dark Crow Valley base reported, “Sir, our external server was hacked.”
The assistant director of the military base was Ji Jie. He was a tall, lanky man with a sly appearance. He proceeded calmly to the screened and asked, “What data was stolen?”
“The daily activity logs, internal structure of the military base, the coordinates of the base, the sentry logs for the base…”
Even though so much critical information had been stolen by the hackers, there was no sign of panic within the base.
“Were the hackers actually from Hesla?”
“The bait is set; now, we are just waiting for the fish.” Ji Jie gave an eerie grin. He was like a hunter, excited to see the prey he had managed to trap.
Ji Jie went into the director’s office and reported the situation to Pan Kuang.
“Our external deceptive server was hacked. I presume the hackers to be from Hesla, and they will probably launch a military invasion soon.”
Pan Kuang was polishing his dark, long machete with his handkerchief. The machete had an icy cold blade and a thick body with its handle wrapped with strips of cloth. There were clear spots of dried blood on the cloth. The machete had been used to slay many enemies throughout the years.
Pan Kuang was fixated on polishing his blade. He then asked calmly, “What do you think we should do?”
Ji Jie cleared his throat and said, “Although the information stolen by the enemy is false, we have unfortunately revealed the existence of the base. Therefore, I hope that the chief can evacuate the base and bring along all necessary equipment and information. In addition, I also recommend that we deal a hard and decisive blow to the existing enemy forces.”
”Ok, just tell me when you need me to fight,” Pan Kuang replied.
Chapter 76. Abnormalities and Assassinations |
[Reconnaissance 1 completed, you gained 3,000 EXP]
Han Xiao was woken up by the pop-up message on the screen. He looked out of the car’s window to see it was twilight, and the sky was a grayish blue hue and was gradually getting brighter.
The previous night, Han Xiao had been busy creating new machines and only had two hours of sleep. He took out his water bottle and splashed the water onto his face. The cooling splashes refreshed his senses. Then, he went out of the storage and headed for the base.
Lin Yao had worked throughout the night, and she was exhausted. Qi Bai Jia was next in line for the shift, and he woke up from his nap on the couch.
“How was last night’s operation?” Han Xiao as
ked.
Lin Yao replied with fatigue, “The bald guy revealed the positions of his comrades to us in the forest, and we managed to apprehend them. Also, we discovered the exact location of the Dark Crow Valley base from the captives’ statements. However, our prisoners are low-ranking personnel, and therefore, they do not have the authority to access confidential files.”
Han Xiao nodded to himself. The outcome was what he expected.
“Is the operation team still in action?”
“Yes, the agents are all still hidden in the forest, waiting for new orders.”
“There is no point waiting in the forest. The agents should return,” said Han Xiao.
Qi Bai Jia, who was munching on his breakfast rations, blurted out, “Hey, I am supposed to be in-charge here.”
“Aren’t you in-charge because you are supposed to take the blame for all of us?” Han Xiao questioned.
Qi Bai Jia choked on his rations. He wanted to rebut Han Xiao but was interrupted by Ye Fan.
“Fellow agents of Division 13, our guys have successfully obtained critical intelligence of the Dark Crow Valley base.”
Qi Bai Jia was puzzled. In less than a day, the Hesla agents had managed to complete the mission. Their efficiency seemed too impressive to be true!
“You guys really secured information about the base?”
Ye Fan nodded in affirmation. “Winna captured an enemy officer. Our operation is done, and we are getting our agents back. After which, we will compile the gathered intelligence and pass the critical information to the military.”
Although it was claimed that the mission was completed, Han Xiao’s tablet indicated that [Reconnaissance 2] was not completed. He frowned and then questioned, “Can you ensure that the information we obtained is accurate and not fake. Also, can you explain the flow of events to us?”
“Of course,” Ye Fan and Winna briefly described the completed operation.