Gamers Are Fierce

"I really should have immigrated earlier."

Thomas's voice was incredibly weak, "The rebellious armed forces have blockaded my city,

the ports, highways, and flights are all shut down,

there are checkpoints on the coastlines and small roads everywhere.

I originally thought this was just a coincidence,

but after discovering that Ohm was missing, I realized this is a trap.

A trap targeting wizards.

If the Mailer truly wants to rule the world through data and information systems,

then us who are unruly, most powerful, and most likely to discover him, are undoubtedly obstacles on his path—he doesn't need many people to share power with him.

Ohm is already dead, the Mailer is starting to command armed forces, searching the district where I am located, and it probably won't be long before they reach my area."

Thomas slowly exhaled a turbid breath: "I can't contact the United States' intelligence agencies; he must have already controlled the surveillance satellites in low Earth orbit, infiltrating every corner of Venezuela.

As soon as the US intelligence agency agents are deployed to take me to a safe house, he will instantly lock onto my location,

and might even launch missiles to destroy the street I'm on, just to silence me.

Also, I can't confirm the extent of the Mailer's infiltration of the US intelligence agencies—perhaps the Mailer himself is a member within the agency, or a shadow system behind an entire revolving door,

they are unwilling to see the decline of US hegemony and secretly subvert other forces with malice.

Maybe it's all to bait me, he's waiting for me to panic and walk into his trap.

Right now, my only way is to find his true name before he finds me,

to threaten him with his true identity.

However...

If you're hearing this message, it means my plan has failed.

My end is self-evident."

Thomas smiled bitterly: "My old friend, now you have three choices.

The first choice is to sit in your seat and pretend nothing happened. After the recording ends, leave the castle, get ready to hide, and inform different countries' intelligence agencies,

let them increase their efforts to track the Mailer's whereabouts—Venezuela is relatively poor and backward, strategically insignificant on the international stage,

and the turmoil happening here is clearly an experiment, a large-scale attempt to subvert other political entities.

A wizard far away in a foreign land, without even lifting a finger, can make automated decision systems in all regions of the world work for him,

this fear will certainly make intelligence agencies of all countries move quickly.

And as long as the message is spread widely enough, even if the Mailer is backed by the US Social Security Administration or other departments, they must account to other shocked political entities.

Completely stop the Mailer's plan, or trigger World War III...

The likelihood of the latter is smaller. After all, the United States' 'Zeus' system (a near-Earth orbit military satellite capable of firing lasers to destroy intercontinental missiles) is not the only one internationally.

Even if a world war breaks out, there won't be intercontinental nuclear missiles flying everywhere,

instead, it would become a traditional war of conventional armies on land, sea, and air.

The second choice is to stop planar walking, completely abandon brain-computer interface devices.

Quietly enjoy the rest of your life, watch the Mailer's mad actions coldly.

Your whereabouts haven't been completely exposed yet, the Mailer hasn't found your true name either,

moving into a secluded, completely offline mountain forest with your savings now, you might not even know what's happened if World War III passes without nuclear missiles.

And the third choice..."

Thomas's typically flippant voice suddenly turned serious, "After leaving this message, I will begin attempting to seize control of several giant computers in South America,

if the plan goes smoothly, I can steadily take over the giant computers, first begin cleansing the data centers in various regions of South America—the Mailer always controls Venezuela's automated decision systems,

he needs to hide his whereabouts while calling a large number of processors to compute, facilitating his adjustment of automated decision systems,

then he definitely wouldn't set the computing location far away; it must be near mainland South America,

or else the cross-country transmission bandwidth would be too obvious.

Top wizards, like you and me, would quickly find out.

If the major data centers in South America aren't found, then I will start inspecting the low Earth orbit communication satellites one by one."

There was a hint of his characteristic cunning in Thomas's voice, "this is also my overt scheme,

whether the plan to find the Mailer succeeds or not, I will start my sabotage on the data level.

When you hear this message,

if there's news in the real world about [South American data centers being invaded by wizards],

then it proves my speculation is correct, the Mailer or at least his calculating program is hidden inside the data center.

I will have a final showdown with him.

If there isn't any news about the "South American Data Center invasion" in the real world,

then my speculation is equally correct, and the sender is hiding in the data center, just that his power far exceeds mine,

able to completely restrain me before I start the destruction.

If there is news of "South American Data Center invasion" but no news of "Low-earth orbit communications satellite being invaded by wizard" in the real world,

it proves the sender is hiding inside the communications satellite."

Thomas finished this convoluted speculation, which sounded like a tongue twister, and said deeply, "I may not be able to defeat the sender, but I can at least severely injure him or leave marks at the battlefield center.

You can go to the battlefield center to look for clues.

The sender, no matter how powerful, won't risk complete exposure at this stage by destroying the data center or the communications satellite—he might not even have that capability.

In short,

the choice to confront him is yours.

My message is finished, remember to delete the dialogue records of the castle attendant program, good luck, my friend."

With the sound of a "beep," the message playback program embedded in the chessboard automatically formatted,

Li Ang picked up the last black piece and slowly reclined toward the chair.

He could hear Merlin and Ohm, not far behind, still like salesmen,

promoting their "great venture" with the sender.

If Thomas wasn't lying, then Ohm, standing there with a naive smile, was already an empty shell...

During Li Ang's chess game time, Merlin and the others hadn't looked over,

and the typewriter sat well on the table, showing no sign of typing automatically.

"..."

Li Ang rubbed the dragon's beard on the mask, his brain racing,

distinguishing truth from falsehood, calculating risks, assessing gains and losses.

His impression of Thomas was entirely from Brown Murphy's memory,

but listening to the half-playful, half-heavy voice in the message,

Thomas's round black-and-white face (Thomas's virtual world image being that classic children's animation train) slowly appeared in front of him, incredibly clear.

"Hoo..."

Li Ang exhaled a turbid breath, threw the piece casually on the table, snapped his fingers, and the chessboard disappeared.

He turned his head left and right, like being bored due to Thomas's long absence.

After waiting for a moment, he slapped his thigh and stood up from the sofa, heading towards the castle door.

"Sammaster, leaving so early today?"

Standing not far away, Merlin waved at Li Ang with a smile, "Not staying? There's a party tonight."

"Not today."

Li Ang waved his hand, walked straight to the castle's main door, and pushed it open.

Leaving the Coastal Wizard Association's stronghold was much easier than coming in,

the complexity of the transparent stairway decreased greatly, Li Ang stepped on the suspended staircase at a leisurely pace, crossing the canyon to the opposite side of the rift.

The cricket transformed by the female investigator lay obediently on a tree trunk, motionless, fearing to trigger automated program attacks around her—her talent for moving in the data space was simply average,

being "killed" by program attacks was minor,

catching the attention of other wizards or even the sender was major.

Seeing Li Ang finally walk out of the old castle, the antennae on the cricket's head twitched,

Li Ang's palm subtly hooked, and the cricket immediately jumped off the bark, landing in Li Ang's palm.

The cricket said nervously: "How did it go, any news about the sender?"

Li Ang didn't rush to answer, quickly passing through the entire rainforest, away from the Coastal Wizard Association's range.

As the distance widened, the rainforest gradually disappeared, turning into a normal barren landscape,

Li Ang, while striding towards the fiber optic network, told of Thomas's message at a rapid pace.

Thomas's speculation about the recent upheaval in Venezuela being manipulated,

greatly shocked the female investigator and her affiliated social security agency; for several minutes, the cricket seemed to turn into a statue, motionless.

The sender's plan isn't just to usurp power in the United States; he even wants vertical governance of the entire world,

Having a population of thirty-one million, Venezuela is merely a small piece of territory for him at the beginning.

Li Ang paid no heed to the stunned cricket,

at this time, the female investigator, and even her superiors' authority was surely insufficient, and the news would undoubtedly be escalated up the chain,

although the United States' decision-making system has always been slow and lazy, concerning life and death, their actions, slow or not, must speed up.

Soon, the cricket's antennae twitched,

the voice of the female investigator carried a trace of barely perceptible fear, her tone now notably more calm and polite, "What do you want to do?"

"Give me control over the entire federal data system, let me control all federal data computing centers, give me access to confidential intranets including the military systems, let me retrieve all outdated data."

Li Ang's tone was flat, as if he were talking about having fried rice for dinner tonight,

"Impossible."

The female investigator refused directly without a second thought, "One mailman is already enough trouble, we don't need a second one."

The wizards' talent for data manipulation is supernatural power,

The computing power possessed by the wizard is the upper limit of the total amount of supernatural power,

The bandwidth mastered by the wizard is the output efficiency of supernatural power.

Allowing Li Ang access to the data system, granting him all permissions,

means Li Ang could see at a glance all the secrets accumulated by the federal data systems over decades,

from small matters like an individual or a group's embezzlement and bribery,

to large matters like confidential military action records or missile base locations.

"You have guns pointed at my head in the real world, don't you? If I'm not mistaken, you've also stationed snipers in the houses near the community."

Li Ang said helplessly, "If I make any moves, you can easily shoot me."

"Your application will not be approved."

The female investigator's voice steadied again,

The wizard's methods are numerous and complex, Li Ang could easily carry out countless dangerous actions in the brief time he has control of the permissions.

Leaking secrets and letting adversary forces know the United States' military deployments are the lightest matters,

If he seizes the chance to hack the military system and launch missiles—even successfully launching just one or two—it could result in the century's greatest man-made disaster,

Uh... not counting the previous Venezuelan upheaval.

"But we can give you other help."

The cricket said, "Where are you headed now?"

"Venezuela."

Li Ang's words were clean and crisp, he extended his hand, touched the outer side of the fiber optic tunnel, and his figure instantly vanished.

————

The feeling of traversing the fiber optic tunnel is somewhat similar to the transport in the Killing Field System,

The next second, Li Ang leapt out of the tunnel and arrived at Venezuela's network node.

The image here resembles that of a modern city,

there are towering skyscrapers (large data centers),

as well as scattered bungalows (medium and small enterprise servers),

with some automatic programs patrolling the streets.

In fact, there was no news in the real world today about the [South American Data Center being invaded by a wizard],

but it doesn't mean Thomas was wrong.

Li Ang hovered in midair, intangible and weightless divine power poured out vigorously around him,

shining like sunlight over the city surface.

The skyscrapers transformed from large data centers immediately showed flaws,

their surfaces melting like wax to reveal a ravaged core.

Last night, there was a great battle here, with both sides being apex wizards, but one side clearly had superior computing power, not only wiping out the opponent but also had residual strength to maintain an illusion of normalcy...

"Detection of foreign invasion program.

Strategy: Eliminate."

The automatic program machines on the ground, their eyes turning from black to red, charged at Li Ang without any hesitation,

At the same time, the city outskirts rapidly raised a dark canopy, covering the entire network node.

This is a trap.

The thought flashed through Li Ang's mind instantly, as green data flowed in his hand, forming a Tyrant Halberd,

sweeping it away, shattering a large amount of charging antivirus programs.

Bang, bang, bang.

The Colt Revolver fired continuously, each shot clearing more than ten antivirus programs.

The script world doesn't require power suppression,

Li Ang easily cleared the obstacles and rushed towards the most broken data center.

Suddenly, a fierce wind arose,

Li Ang's pupils contracted, his foot stomped heavily on the steps formed by the [Cloud Ascending Ladder], twisting his waist with an odd angle contrary to intuition towards the back,

while grasping the Tyrant Halberd to block in front.

Boom!!!

A giant fireball, twenty meters in diameter, appeared out of nowhere and instantly engulfed Li Ang's figure,

the explosion's flames shot towards the sky.

After a few seconds, the flames dissipated,

Li Ang landed at the edge of the data center's ruins, his white coat was torn and tattered, full of scorch marks.

"..."

Li Ang remained silent, tapping his chest lightly with his palm, activating Alchemy to let the Dragon Head Mask and white coat regrow.

He was ambushed,

The ambusher was none other than Merlin, slowly descending from a great distance.

"Sammaster, Sammaster."

Merlin holding a magic wand, shaking his head, slowly descended onto the top of a skyscraper, sighed, "Why are you so stubborn?

You reject the chance to rise above others, insisting on opposing us."

"You followed me?"

Li Ang glanced at his palm, the green cricket incarnated by the female investigator had not endured the fireball impact and had already dissipated,

looking up again, the dark canopy had already enveloped the entire network node,

rendering the heavenly satellite-like stars representing communication satellites invisible.

The area had been sealed off.

Well, since the mailman can manipulate Venezuela's armed forces, sending troops to directly take over the data center in the real world is no big deal.

"Followed?"

Merlin shook his head, "Your skills aren't as strong as you think, and I'm not as weak as you believe.

Thomas thought he was great, but ultimately, he died in my hands.

With his nature, he couldn't have no backup plans.

After playing a game of chess with the automated program he left behind, you left the castle—such behavior is too obvious.

You rushed."

"Were you the one who fought him yesterday? When you say dead, do you mean in the data world or the real world?"

Li Ang frowned, "Hold on, you should know that Ohm, who cooperated with the mailman first,

died in the real world of Venezuela, right?

The mailman wants to rule the world, and for that, he needs to eliminate the senior wizards who threaten him one by one.

First Ohm, then Thomas, and finally me.

Cooperating with him is tantamount to bargaining with a tiger..."

As if not hearing Li Ang's words, Merlin remained expressionless and spoke as if to himself, "I'll give you one last chance, agree to cooperate with us, and I can spare you.

If you disagree, I'll kill you, then find out your true name,

and finally, kill you again in the real world."

"You know."

A glimmer sparked in Li Ang's eyes, "You know Ohm and Thomas are already dead, and you don't care at all...

What did the mailman offer you?

No, considering your nature,

anything the mailman promises wouldn't matter in the face of death.

You are convinced the mailman can't touch you,

does that mean you have a real-world partnership with the mailman? Have you discovered his true name? Or are you the mailman?"

"Sigh..."

Li Ang's self-questioning attitude made Merlin sigh deeply, holding the wooden magic wand tightly, murmuring, "If you don't wish to cooperate, then die."

Thud.

The wooden long stick was stomped heavily atop the building,

The server originally belonging to a Venezuelan company was instantly commandeered by Merlin, providing massive computing power.

From the soil emerged a vast amount of Tree Men, waving their branch hands and moving their steps, surging towards Li Ang.