Chapter 1 Palace Flower Garden

The night was hazy. Xu Zhongsheng sat alone in the pavilion, a small charcoal stove glowing red in front of him.

In an environment devoid of any technological elements, the faint red light gave one the feeling of returning to ancient times.

*Di di.*

Suddenly, a small prompt sounded in his ear.

Xu Zhongsheng's expression remained unchanged. Still dressed in plain white, he raised his hand and placed a tea bag with a pre-determined ratio into a clay teapot. After adding water to the teapot, he gently placed it on the charcoal stove.

"Speak, what is it?" After finishing, he raised his head and lightly tapped three times in the air in front of him.

Immediately, a fan-shaped tea-colored light screen automatically appeared in the air before him.

The light screen was more than ten centimeters away from him, and a short-haired, sturdy man with a flustered expression appeared on it.

"Boss, the situation is not good!" the man said quickly. "Something happened! Just now, something just happened!"

"I've said it many times, remain calm and composed when things happen. Don't panic and lose your footing," Xu Zhongsheng said calmly, without moving at all.

"Speak. What major event is worth you disturbing me at this time?"

This time of day was when he cleansed his mind and body. He had made a rule that he should not be disturbed at this time unless it was extremely important.

But now, his subordinate Yu Wengang had forcibly contacted him, risking breaking the rules and angering him.

Clearly, what had just happened must be very serious.

"It's Tie Feng Group! The headquarters of Tie Feng Group was just stormed! Zheng Kai's son, Zheng Jiayu, was forcibly killed in front of a large group of people. Although I don't know how it was done, it's definitely a confirmed kill!" Yu Wengang said urgently.

"We just led those three Tie Feng Group guys over to let Syndra's people make contact, and this kind of situation immediately appears. This..." Yu Wengang himself couldn't believe it.

"The assassin faced dozens of gunmen, carried an interference grenade, and even had a half-cyborg rush up close. This kind of lineup couldn't stop him! He's too fierce! That guy is too fierce!"

When he spoke, his face was flushed red and his blood was surging. This was simply taking the head of the enemy general from an army!

"Can you confirm which side they're from?" Xu Zhongsheng asked calmly.

"No way. The other party has no markings on their body, and they don't look like a standard model of cyborg. It should be an experimental model from one of those special self-circulating cities," Yu Wengang replied.

"Self-circulating city? Syndra came from Bai Xing Ibese. Could it be Ibese's new model?" Xu Zhongsheng guessed.

"Boss, no. This... such a big thing happened, aren't you surprised?" Yu Wengang couldn't understand.

"Surprised about what? It has nothing to do with us," Xu Zhongsheng smiled, picked up a blood jade teacup, and carefully examined it under the moonlight, looking closely at the delicate blood-colored patterns and inscribed characters on it.

"Does anyone know what we did?" he said softly. "No."

"We didn't pay anything. We just simply guided the situation. Humans are creatures that will automatically do what you want them to do with just a little bit of effort. This is much easier to use than machine intelligence."

"Boss is amazing!" Yu Wengang immediately started flattering him.

Indeed, if it weren't for the cover of a powerful hacker like Xu Zhongsheng, their little tricks would easily be discovered by the authorities and other forces.

"What can be confirmed now is that the black-purple cyborg who did it has a strong defense, and his speed and strength amplification are average, but his own weapons are very sharp. They cut through almost anything they encounter," Yu Wengang quickly uploaded a short video.

The screen faced the Tie Feng Building.

With a loud bang, the door of the building was broken open, and a black figure rushed in, rampaging through the security net and patrol area.

Then, it slammed into the glass door of the entrance hall. The glass shattered into pieces.

The video ended there.

Xu Zhongsheng patiently squinted and watched it again and again. He even slowed down the speed to look at the details.

"Indeed, the armor and amplification are just so-so, a little stronger than a basic full cyborg. But the key isn't this. What weapons are those two golden daggers?"

"Not sure. After that, it's Tie Feng Group's internal signal shielding area," Yu Wengang replied. "This cyborg completely dealt with Zheng Jiayu on the thirty-fourth floor in just three minutes, and then retreated safely, disappearing into the suburban alleys before the official security department police cars arrived. From beginning to end, Tie Feng Group was like an undefended pushover, without even a trace of resistance!"

"It should be Li Chengyi who notified Syndra, and then Syndra mobilized this experimental model cyborg. I didn't expect Syndra to still have this kind of trump card in his hand after completely leaving the group."

Xu Zhongsheng's expression was calm as he carefully stared at the purplish-black armored monster.

"Perhaps, this guy will be a good knife... If used properly, he should be able to do a lot of things."

"By the way, what about Kong Sichen?" he suddenly asked.

"Most of the elite of Tie Feng's security department are outside handling the previous matter. Kong Sichen is also outside. If he had stayed at headquarters, there might have been a good show to watch," Yu Wengang realized and laughed.

"Kong Sichen has taken down many opponents for Tie Feng Group. This person is ruthless but lacks thoroughness. Now he should have received the news. Let's see the subsequent reactions of Zheng Kai and him," Xu Zhongsheng laughed.

"Maybe we can dig up some interesting things. During this sensitive period of the Federation's inspection..."

*Pu!*

Before he could finish laughing, the light screen in front of him instantly shattered. Yu Wengang's face flickered and twisted, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a strange smiling face drawn with white lines on a black background.

The smiling face only had eyes and a mouth, each composed of three white arcs.

Other than that, everything else was pitch black.

"**!!" The moment he saw the smiling face, Xu Zhongsheng, who had been unmoved and calm, slammed his hand on the railing, stood up, and his expression became uncontrolled.

"Night Laugh Virus!! Damn it! That Syndra actually put an automatically infectious Night Laugh Virus on that kid!!? What the hell is that thing!?"

As a type of computer virus, the Night Laugh Virus was well-known and famous in Bai Xing.

This thing caused trillions in losses to the entire Bai Xing in just one night.

It even left the ultra-powerful AI, an artificial intelligence called the Social Controller, helpless.

Later, it was the major consortiums that joined forces and sent out the strongest network security consultants, spending a full half month to completely eliminate all infected equipment except for samples of the Night Laugh Virus.

Therefore, only these consortium forces in Bai Xing have the means to deal with the Night Laugh Virus. And only they have specific samples left.

Everyone else, every other group, will be extremely miserable when they encounter this virus.

All infected computer equipment will experience a thousandfold increase in total calculations within seconds.

And then...

*Pu.*

The light screen in front of Xu Zhongsheng went out.

Leaving him sitting in his original position with an iron-blue face, motionless.

At this moment, centered on him, all the computers and chip intelligent devices in the entire palace flower garden emitted a faint wisp of green smoke.

Their chips were all burned out.

*

*

*

Hongjin Company.

Ah~~~

A company employee sitting in his seat yawned and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

*Dudu dudu.*

Suddenly, a subtle alarm sounded from the computer in front of him. The alarm was very short, and by the time he reacted, it had already stopped.

"What's wrong?" A female colleague next to him leaned over.

"It's nothing. Just now, our Brother Cheng asked me to help locate someone. It's a small matter," Eyestuff Bro said casually.

"No, I'm talking about the automatic trigger alarm just now," the female colleague said. "Isn't locating people what we do all day? What's with the automatic trigger alarm?"

"Who knows? Anyway, with the automatic defense program brought by the boss, nothing can go wrong," Eyestuff Bro said nonchalantly.

"Okay, well, that's true. It only triggered for a few seconds and then stopped. Probably some reckless hacker ran into our alarm point," the female colleague nodded in agreement, relaxing.

"It's us on duty together again tonight... do you want to... do something?" Eyestuff Bro suddenly raised his eyebrows and looked at the female colleague.

"You're so annoying~~~ All you ever think about is that kind of thing," the female colleague said coquettishly.

Under the night, two figures got up, moved closer, and slowly merged together...

*

*

*

Light rain drizzled. Two AM.

Outside the Sunshine Building of Tie Feng Group, police cars were still parked everywhere.

Dozens of officers from the official security department were scattered around the building.

In the air, there were also densely packed hundreds of armed drones, shining beams of searchlights, constantly flying around the building like a swarm of bees.

Kong Sichen stood with a gloomy face in the middle of a group of group employees. His 1.9-meter height was considered tall among the crowd.

Plus, he was constantly carrying a small black leather suitcase with the Feiyi logo clearly visible on it, which made people even more fearful.

A Zhixieshi (Mechanist), and one who had obtained the formal qualification to practice. Only such people were qualified to carry Feiyi at any time.

In Yiguo (Instrument Country), the control was much stricter than in other places, and large weapons like Feiyi were generally restricted with weapon modules to weaken their lethality, making it easier for the security department and the Federation to manage.

But even with the restrictions, the strength of a true Zhixieshi was far stronger than the so-called drone pilots.

Kong Sichen was burly, wearing a tight black-gray sweater that highlighted his strong chest muscles and broad shoulders.

He was not from Yiguo, but a Sutan (Sultan) citizen who had obtained permanent residency in Yiguo.

In Dimoon (Earth-Moon), although Yiguo was nominally the overlord of the planet, there were still many countries that were gradually challenging Yiguo with the secret support of Bai Xing.

The Sutan Federation was one of them, and the strongest of them.

One of the world's top ten most valuable commercial consortiums, the Vanquelande, was headquartered in Sutan.

"Brother Ding, my boss's son was in this district, in the most core area of the entire Suiyang, when someone broke into the headquarters and killed him alive.

Five minutes! He was killed in five minutes!

Is this what you call the place with the best security in the entire Suiyang? The so-called best is this kind of security??" Kong Sichen stared intently at a buzz-cut man standing next to a police car.

The man was wearing a tight-fitting black and red uniform, with a well-proportioned and powerful figure, and a narrow, dark red long sword on his back.

He was Ding Zaocheng, one of the two deputy directors of the Suiyang City Security Department, and a strong contender for the next director.

At the same time, he was also a member of the Federation, and like Kong Sichen, a Zhixieshi.

But the difference was that his strength and rank were higher than Kong Sichen's.