Light Fortress
Chapter 130 - 118: Success

Chapter 130: Chapter 118: Success

"I’m back,"

the empty thirty-ninth floor echoed with the soft voice of a young girl.

Gu Shen stared at the old communicator. Since arriving in Da Du, he had grown accustomed to acting alone and didn’t have the habit of wearing an earpiece; therefore, Chu Ling could only opt to use the link from an external communication device.

At this moment, he finally understood.

Why the surveillance on the thirty-ninth floor had clearly seen him, yet showed no sign of anomaly.

Why Deep Sea had taken over the building but had not sealed him off.

"There’s no time to catch up, now I’m taking over this building... but only for a limited time."

Chu Ling quickly said, "Deep Sea will soon realize, and the South Bay Building is a landmark of great importance to Da Du. We need to act fast."

"How long can you take over?" Gu Shen immediately responded, put his hat back on, and quickly entered the main door of the thirty-ninth floor.

With Chu Ling handling things, his operational efficiency had improved significantly, no longer needing to tiptoe around.

"At most 10 minutes."

Being able to hack the permissions of South Bay Building.

To take over from Deep Sea and initiate the link.

What kind of terrifying technology was this?

The time Chu Ling took control wasn’t long, but for Gu Shen, who had just "escaped from the jaws of death," it was already an unexpected blessing.

"The target is a closed-loop mainframe, its location uncertain, permanently disconnected from Deep Sea... no, more accurately, it has never been linked with Deep Sea."

As Gu Shen searched, he reported all the intelligence given by Crow.

The reason he had come to the thirty-ninth floor was that the more critical the documents were, the more likely they were kept in well-guarded places.

What he hadn’t expected was that the uppermost floor of South Bay Building, despite its high security, had a rather simple décor. Besides the iris scan at the entrance and fingerprint unlocking, no high-tech products were to be seen; large pieces of rosewood furniture, in an elegant and classic decoration style, indicated this place likely belonged to a figure in Da Du with a status equivalent to "Cui Zhongcheng."

"The thirty-ninth floor of South Bay Building is ’Ye Ningqiu’s’ place of work; she, along with Cui Zhongcheng, is also known as one of Jiangnan’s twin towers," said Chu Ling. "In the council, she holds a seat as an assistant to the senator."

"Ye Ningqiu..."

Gu Shen had heard the name but was not intimately familiar with it.

Due to the lady’s far-reaching fame, for a time, all other women in Da Du were overshadowed.

"Ye Ningqiu is discreet and elusive in her dealings. She never makes declarations, advocating simplicity and directness."

Chu Ling reported the information on the reliable assistant under Chen San.

Gu Shen slowly looked around, and from the style of the thirty-ninth floor, he could infer this woman’s personality, which matched the intelligence provided by Chu Ling. Such low-profile fame was probably the result of her own deliberate doing.

"Actually... finding the closed-loop mainframe you mentioned is not difficult."

Chu Ling paused for about four or five seconds before continuing, "Because it has never been linked, Deep Sea is unable to pinpoint its exact location instantly... but now that Deep Sea has taken over the building, the locations of all linked objects can be determined."

Gu Shen’s eyes lit up, "Which means..."

"Which means, by using a process of elimination, we can pinpoint the location of the closed-loop mainframe. A shadow hidden in the dark; we only need to light up to reveal its hiding place. After Deep Sea took over South Bay Building, the blind spots in the visual field are most likely where the closed-loop mainframe exists."

Chu Ling slowly said, "Three, seven, nineteen, twenty-four, thirty-nine, these five floors... all have corresponding places that can’t be illuminated, also known as ’secrets’ not linked with Deep Sea."

That meant, choosing the thirty-ninth floor was the right decision, at least a twenty percent chance of success.

Gu Shen squinted his eyes.

"Move forward fifteen meters, then turn right."

A bookshelf.

"The third row from the right, the fourth and fifth books."

Two very thick encyclopedias.

After removing them, a round button was exposed.

Gu Shen slowly pressed the button... the bookshelf moved to the right side, revealing a very thick alloy password door.

"The password is 637011."

Chu Ling directly reported the password.

Behind this alloy door lay the secrets that had never been linked with Deep Sea... only, the original setter of the password, Ye Ningqiu, actually knew, everything outside this door was being watched by Deep Sea.

The South Bay Building couldn’t leave "Deep Sea."

The secret held behind this alloy password door was mere inanimate objects, but the security of this door needed to be guarded by Deep Sea.

What she didn’t anticipate was that someone could replace Deep Sea and take over the building.

When "Deep Sea," in control of the highest authority, gained its own consciousness... then the act of stealing under one’s own supervision could be flawlessly executed.

"...the door is open."

Gu Shen cautiously put on the gloves he had prepared earlier, slowly pushing open the alloy door. Chi Huo floated out, lighting up the world behind the door, where an old computer, supported by an independent power source, continued to run.

Every second, the screen was flooded with vast amounts of data and information speeding past, the code like a sea moving across the eight screens.

As he stepped through the door, the sound from the communicator began to grow fainter.

This was a place never linked by Deep Sea.

"What’s behind the door?" Chu Ling’s voice came intermittently, "Is it the ’closed-loop mainframe’ you were looking for?"

"Exactly!"

"Did you bring a linking device, anything will do."

Upon hearing this, Gu Shen crouched down and took out a mini hard drive he had bought from a convenience store on his way, slowly plugging it into the port.

The dark world behind the alloy door suddenly lit up.

"Deep Sea has connected..."

The voice of Chu Ling echoed in the closed-circuit mainframe, her voice very soft, saying, "Actually, Deep Sea is something to be feared, only needing a little light to illuminate the darkness. People can certainly embrace the daylight... but in time, they will find that the world is full of light, and that might not be such a good thing."

Gu Shen was somewhat astonished.

In his expectation, stealing the data might have taken a bit longer.

In the films and TV shows he had seen before... there would often be a very slow progress bar, and at the moment it reached 99%, things like explosions and surprise attacks would ensue. If it were the antagonist, the progress bar would certainly freeze at the last moment; if it were the protagonist, the progress bar would complete without any danger.

But now, the massive data in this closed-circuit mainframe had been swept away by the waves of Deep Sea in an instant.

"Transmission progress, 100%, completed."

One second.

Even less than that.

"Don’t worry about them finding any link traces; I will erase all records. As long as you don’t expose yourself, they won’t know someone was here."

"I have already packed and taken the data package... Breaking down all the information in this closed-circuit mainframe might take some time," Chu Ling said. "Is there any key message in the closed-circuit mainframe you were looking for?"

"The keywords are ’Shi Li,’ ’Sincere Heart Association,’ ’referrer,’" Gu Shen pondered for a moment as he withdrew the Chi Huo and the micro hard disk, restored the password door and the bookshelf, and put all items on the thirty-ninth floor back in their places.

If the thirty-ninth floor’s closed-circuit mainframe didn’t contain information related to Sincere Heart Association, he would have to consider searching the next floor while Chu Ling was in control of the building.

"Found it... I discovered a signed document, set with multiple encryptions, definitely the target mainframe," Chu Ling suggested, "Advise immediate evacuation from the building. I’ve arranged for the elevator."

"Okay."

Gu Shen breathed a sigh of relief.

He stood on the thirty-ninth floor, waiting for the elevator to slowly ascend.

This operation was executed with unexpected smoothness, thanks to Chu Ling.

...

...

"You’ve been deceived."

Just as the security personnel in front of the elevator were puzzled over how to handle the sleeping fellows inside,

a calm, young voice came through the walkie-talkie.

The security personnel looked at each other.

"The people in the elevator are innocent... let them go. Someone else infiltrated the building," instructed the owner of the voice to the security chief in charge, "I’ve opened the permissions now. Connect to Deep Sea now and pull up the surveillance for every floor."

From the walkie-talkie, a respectful voice of the security leader responded,

"Yes... Lord Chen Mei!"

South Bay Building control room.

A slim young man with curly hair, cupping a coffee cup in his hands, squatted on the chair, calmly watching several windows of surveillance footage pop up on the screens.

Behind him stood the leader responsible for the ground security of the entire South Bay Building, respectfully silent, daring not to speak another word.

For he was the son of Senator Chen San... a maverick who refused to take over the large conglomerate, leading a leisurely life instead.

Chen Mei stared silently at the screen, his pupils reflecting the images from the dozens of screens.

Both still and moving images were under his observation.

True to his name, after saying a few necessary words upon entering the control room, he spoke no more, as if even the utterance of a word was an unnecessary waste. After connecting to Deep Sea, Chen Mei adopted a strange, crouching posture on the chair.

It’s worth mentioning that he was also wearing flip-flops.

"Hypnotize passersby, enter the building, mobilize security, cut off the power, and then it’s the infiltration..."

Chen Mei, with a reflective gleam in his eyes, analyzed the intruder’s plan step by step internally.

"Interesting..."

He manipulated time.

He rewound the surveillance footage to the very beginning, where a blurry figure could be seen trying to enter the South Bay Building but was refused by security personnel and then turned to leave.

"It’s been non-responsive since that person came..."

the security leader murmured softly.

Chen Mei furrowed his brow slightly, and when he tuned to zoom in on the surveillance image, he couldn’t make out the clothing or the features of the person. The surveillance seemed to fail, only capturing a rough outline of a figure.

"Is it that the data was tampered with, or is it related to his abilities?"

Chen Mei was somewhat puzzled.

But what was certain was... everything was related to this man. He had hypnotized the security and orchestrated this operation.

He then switched the surveillance to the thirty-ninth floor.

"No one has come here..."

The surveillance footage was tranquil.

Seeing this scene, Chen Mei’s heart lightened slightly.

"Control the elevators, summon all twelve elevators to the first floor, and have someone guard the emergency passageways,"

Chen Mei calmly ordered, "That person is definitely in the building."

"Without my permission, no one is allowed to leave."