Chapter 346 - Cyber Battle

It was only moments before the challenge got underway in the cavernous hall of Computing and IT Department, and more than a hundred grim faces were positioned in front of their computer stations. Some of the engineers were running through algorithms in their heads, while others had their eyes on Xiao Luo—who was calmly standing in front of his station without a care in the world. It was a battle for honor, no less, and success would redeem the engineers' reputation and proved that Xiao Luo was not the hacker, Mie, as claimed. The atmosphere was getting intense… even the directors and Ji Siying felt suffocated.

"You may begin!"

With that, Gu Zhanguo got the challenge underway.

The ambiance was immediately transformed as the hurried sound of hundreds of personnel scrambling into their seats resounded across the hall, quickly followed by the incessant clatter of keyboards.

Ji Siying had never interacted with the IT personnel before today, and while she had absolutely no familiarity with programming, she was impressed by what she saw. These engineers seemed to be working by rote, hitting the keys on their boards with speed and precision. They appeared very focused, and it was evident that they knew exactly what they had in mind, as lines of codes appeared on the blue screen at an incredible speed. Ji Siying estimated that a string of codes would be written every two seconds.

She simply could not believe the speed with which these engineers were churning out such a volume of codes, and began to wonder if they had mechanically-enhanced hands.

In her mind, Ji Siying saw the use of mechanical hands as the only logical explanation for typing with such precision and speed!

When she turned to see how Xiao Luo was doing, she found that he had only just begun taking his seat and appeared to have no urgency whatsoever. But in the next second, as Xiao Luo placed his hands on the keyboard, Ji Siying's eyes widened in astonishment, for Xiao Luo was furiously striking the keys with the nimbleness of a pianist as he typed the codes at speeds much faster than the IT engineers. Some lines of codes were keyed in at the rate of two lines a second, while others were even quicker at four or five lines a second.

Gu Zhan Guo and Dongfang Shuoyu were equally shocked at Xiao Luo's speed, but it did not surprise them that a top-notched hacker like him could achieve this.

Building a 64-bit attack and defense program…

Xiao Luo mused, and what he had in mind was a radical concept—a program that mirrored intrusive malware by rewriting its code and redirecting the virus to its source, thereby instantly changing defense into offense. He was now entirely focused on finishing up the codes for the program.

Team leader Zhou Yuhang and his engineers were equally focused, and their eyes did not once leave the computer screen in front of them. They were fighting for honor and would use all their knowledge and experience to defeat Xiao Luo.

The participants were given only five minutes to prepare themselves, and once that time passed, the real showdown would begin. A cyber battle was tactically different from an actual fight in that as long as a single virus struck successfully, the opponent's computer would be compromised, and the other party would immediately be defeated. Therefore, defensive systems were set up to deal with attacks, such as intrusion detection, active defense, and even access authentication requiring random key reconciliation.

As the team leader, Zhou Yuhang had his own set of core skills. He set up a "honeycomb system," which lured intruders to unknowingly step into his ambush. Once detected, he only needed to click a function key to immediately "kill" the attack launched by Xiao Luo. After completing the setup, he gave the other three team leaders a glance and made an 'OK' sign to signal that he was done. Now all they had to do was wait for the prey to fall into their trap.

The sullen faces of the team leaders finally showed some vigor, and they gazed toward Xiao Luo with expressions that could best be described as nasty and devious, somewhat like the look on the face of a molester just before ravishing a victim…

"Time's up!"

Gu Zhanguo shouted into the microphone the moment his stopwatch sounded.

"Attack!"

All four of the team leaders roared in unison, and their respective teams rallied to them, sending their attacks through cyberspace—they resembled a group of warriors with spears and swords, screaming and charging towards Xiao Luo.

The corners of Xiao Luo's mouth lifted into a smile. Against such an attack comprising of numerous hackers, he seemed to be like the Great Sage in the classic novel, Journey to the West, using monkey's hair to create countless friendly troops to defend himself. In this case, his friendly forces were, of course, viruses—he immediately hit the Enter key, and numerous viruses surged from his computer into cyberspace to swarm the IT engineers' machines. Xiao Luo's viruses almost seemed to be emitting a demonic screech as they raced toward their quarries.

Before long, both sides were battling it out on the server, as for this smokeless war, the server was the forward edge of battle!

"A piece of cake!"

Zhou Yuhang and the other three team leaders sneered contemptuously as their fingers continually tapped across the keyboard, and an antivirus program was activated in a few seconds. One could picture virus-swallowing behemoths in the virtual space of the network, gobbling up any virus within range, and then assimilating them, and just like the "event horizon" of a black hole, there was no escape.

Both sides were locked in a fierce battle, and the strain showed on their grim faces. Xiao Luo was much worse for wear, as he was one man facing the entire department of the nation's elite computing engineers. But Xiao Luo was resolved to not just win, but also defeat these engineers in a resounding victory.

"Old Li, what's wrong with you, why are you going against me?"

"What, weren't you the one who attacked me first? I thought it was a virus."

"What are you attacking my computer for, Brother Song?"

"That's impossible, I'm attacking Mie's computer."

Suddenly, the entire hall was in an uproar, as the IT engineers found themselves actually being attacked by one of their own.

Something is not right… what's going on?

Zhou Yuhang was suddenly alarmed and convinced that a counter-attack was being launched, he immediately checked his status.

He then realized what was happening—an active defense program installed in Xiao Luo's port was rewriting their intrusive malware and diverting all their attacks to the computer ports of their own colleagues—it was an immediate counter-offensive launched by Xiao Luo's program!

"Stop the attack!"

Zhou Yuhang immediately gave out the order to desist and consolidate.

Their indiscriminate attack would not achieve the desired outcome if allowed to continue, but instead, it would cause disarray among his own teammates.

Xiao Luo was calm as he continued refining his active defense program. He got the opening he had been waiting for, as the previous virus attack was just to buy him time to complete his application. Now that his active defense program had its full range of capabilities, it was time to deploy.

Ji Siying looked at Xiao Luo in awe, and as he sat in front of the computer fully engrossed in the battle, she found that he exuded a unique charm—he was mysterious, confident, and calm in times of crisis. She had already taken a liking for Xiao Luo since her mission in Luo Village, and at this moment, she just couldn't stop staring at him.

The chaos of the battle seemed to have died down, and some normalcy had returned. Only a few remaining viruses scoured the networks, like patrol ships, and no one cared to pay much attention to them.

Zhou Yuhang coordinated with the other three team leaders, and began a probing attack on Xiao Luo again, but gained no ground. The program protecting Xiao Luo's computer was impenetrable, as immovable as a mountain. In its current form, the program was only defending against unauthorized access, keeping the engineers' attack at bay.

"Fight it out with him!"

One of the team leaders lost his head and ordered a full assault, refusing to allow the status quo to persist and knowing that they would lose when the time was up.

Zhou Yuhang gritted his teeth and was the first to launch his attack.

The hundred or so engineers became boisterous as they concentrated their collective firepower on their target. They attacked with everything they had, continually typing out strings of codes, and launched a mad attack on Xiao Luo's program. It could be likened to a siege, with battering rams trying to breach gates, scaling ladders to go over the top of walls, and even artillery attacks… nothing was spared, and the enemy was intent on storming Xiao Luo's domain.

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