Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 488 - 435: Continuing the Secret Technique

Chapter 488: Chapter 435: Continuing the Secret Technique

Matrixes composed of countless pixels made up Todd’s chubby face, revealing the true visage of the strongest King of Hackers in history.

His heyday was decades ago, now old and frail, at the brink of life’s limit, Xu Yang thought to himself. This conference had a profound purpose, perhaps it was the critical opportunity for him to completely leave his physical form.

Xu Yang observed the other hackers.

The Hacker Legion harbored members of extraordinary strength, seasoned with experience and exceptional creativity, matching Todd in skill, but they caused no trouble, instead behaving orderly. After all, each hacker had to some extent learned from the technical documents left behind by Todd, and it was no exaggeration to call Todd the progenitor of all hackers.

Todd’s jovial avatar began to speak; his eyes were still kind and gentle, his face still plump, with only his mouth opening and closing, like a graduation project from someone three years into studying animation.

"Long time no see!" Todd’s words appeared in code form above his avatar, within a speech bubble similar to a dialogue box, accompanied by a "drip drip" notification sound, crisp and clear, instantly transporting people back to the early years of internet surfing, a retro chatroom atmosphere enveloping them.

"Welcome, everyone, to this conference," Todd released a second chat bubble, pushing the previous box aside, its transparency gradually increasing until it faded into nothingness, "As you’ve all noticed, this is the server of the deep web, anonymous network."

"I have already verified the unique keys of everyone present." Todd continued messaging, "We have successfully evaded agents and spies, meeting in this unmatched secret space. A gathering like this is probably unparalleled in history. I am moved—internet communication services saved human civilization, and the splendid financial activities also rely on a global web of network stations. We, roaming freely as hackers, our existence is reliant on the network, and the deep web anonymous network is the finest of all, let’s cheer for it!"

"Amazing!"

"Cool!"

"Long live the deep web anonymous network!"

"Glad to see you, pal." Bubbles of communication popped above everyone’s heads, and even though they were capable of transmitting hundreds of megabytes of information in a second, they still chose to communicate in this nostalgic way, a sign of respect for Todd.

The deep web anonymous network was of great significance; Xu Yang had initially found Matteo and taken on his first contract thanks to it, so he was well aware of its importance.

Before Todd continued, Xu Yang saw the whole virtual base come to life.

First hundreds, then thousands of microorganisms emerged from the hexagonal pebble piles of the Data Dunes, varying in size, some as small as mosquitoes, others as large as buildings and vehicles, their bodies shimmering with colorful mosaic textures, with strings of characters scrolling incessantly inside.

"Don’t worry, guys," Todd said, "these are the native inhabitants of the server, mostly comprised of information, partly wild digital life forms generated by rogue AI, and also individuals who have abandoned their flesh while using ’Digital Mind’, unable to resist the boundless chaos of the great numbers, they have also taken on this form, joining the chaotic symbols. Anyone who abuses the ’Digital Mind’ ends up like this."

This was the most astonishing scene Xu Yang had ever witnessed, with digital life forms of all sizes, their angular shapes allowing their data volumes to be discerned from their physiques.

The hackers conscientiously shifted their positions to avoid colliding with these digital life forms that drifted on the server disks; if devoured by their vast mouths, one would not die, but would certainly suffer personal information loss.

In an instant, Xu Yang made his way to another corner of the virtual space, and in the blink of an eye, he could no longer see the pink-haired girl from New Taixi State.

Observing carefully, he discovered a chasm at the center of the entire Data Dunes, tearing the server apart, extending to the bottomless night on both ends.

"I awakened them to give you a glimpse because these digital life forms are eroding the very foundations of the entire deep web anonymous network," Todd messaged. "Wherever they go, channels are blocked, archives disappear, those digital life forms with rudimentary consciousness devour other data to grow stronger, like a Slime Gel becoming bigger and bigger. The strongest among them are now threatening the very existence of the deep web anonymous network’s foundation."

Xu Yang looked to the bottom of the chasm, a sense of horror rising within him. An unprecedentedly large digital life form lay at the base, shapeless and formless, with various functions building its identifiable outer layer, like chaos itself, reminding Xu Yang of a sinister dark purple sun, ready to surge up and engulf everything.

A crisis was unfolding in the deep web anonymous network.

"If there were no deep web anonymous network—" Xu Yang sent his message, "the hackers would have nowhere to go."

"Indeed," Todd replied, "we are facing threats from two sides. On one hand, the establishment of the Helis Sea means that corporate internet will be impervious; on the other, the rampaging AI and wild digital life forms on the deep web anonymous network are eroding our darkest sanctuary. This conference is to address these two issues. Now, I want all the brave, brilliant hackers present to listen carefully to my perspectives."

"In this century," Todd continued, "elite hackers have constantly breached corporate security defenses. The advent of ’Digital Mind’ is like a double-edged sword; both cyber security and hackers use the extra computational power it offers to filter and decrypt patterns in data, mutually seeking vulnerabilities in the creation and cracking of encryption keys. Clearly, the hackers have the upper hand in this regard, prompting corporations to cease the training of Digital Mind Engineers, lest they fall into the dark side of Power."