Gamers Are Fierce

"In the sky..."

The wizards from the Social Security Agency exchanged glances. One of them frowned and said, "You tried to hack the Jet Propulsion Laboratory this morning and got caught, didn't you?

Why didn't you mention this suspicion when we first contacted you?"

"Because at the time, I wasn't clear about the connection between the emailer and you."

Li Ang couldn't admit he forgot,

He replied calmly, "At that time, I was just curious about investigating the emailer, not intending to risk my life.

Especially after hearing you claim that the emailer had been infiltrating the automated decision-making system for years,

I became more suspicious that there was a deep state or some other hidden force within the United States behind the emailer.

If even the Social Security Agency was unaware of that force, and I foolishly voiced my suspicion, I would likely be silenced..."

Li Ang handed over the Advanced Research Projects Agency's password key to the security gate leading to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's servers. During the brief moment the security gate was verifying the key, he added:

"So it's better to take things step by step and enter the Coastal Wizard Association's data world base. Just throw in something to give you an explanation.

However..."

Li Ang looked at the slowly opening security gate and said helplessly, "Now that I'm exposed at Merlin's place, the data person, as Merlin's accomplice, must also know about me,

and is probably investigating my real name as we speak.

If I don't help you catch him, even if I want to retreat into seclusion,

the bounty hunters sent by the emailer might find me in the mountains,

or I might be blown to pieces by drones he sends.

Therefore, you must ensure that after all this is over, you can guarantee my safety, pardon all my previous crimes, and ultimately provide me with a brain-machine interface device and a standard computer."

Li Ang stared at the wizard who spoke earlier, knowing full well that these wizards likely carried video communication programs that allowed the true authorities in the Washington underground command center to watch.

After a five-second pause,

the wizard nodded, "We guarantee that your demands will be met—as long as you help us locate the emailer and sign several non-disclosure agreements.

As for the brain-machine interface device...we can provide it, but supervision is necessary."

"Alright then, happy cooperation."

The security gate of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory finally opened, and Li Ang strode inside.

The place looked the same as he saw this morning, with a metallic brushed floor that was smooth and sturdy,

and a ceiling height of ten meters.

All around were cabinet-shaped servers, with robots representing diagnostic maintenance and antivirus programs moving through the aisles between the cabinets.

When Li Ang last approached the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's perimeter, he was ambushed by the Social Security Agency,

which increased the power of the antivirus programs and tightened his computing power and bandwidth, causing his abilities to plummet. He had no choice but to escape through the exit channel.

But now, with processors provided by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Li Ang felt more powerful than ever,

and stood in the center of the building, waving for the Social Security Agency's wizards to step back,

as his alchemically repaired white coat billowed fiercely without wind,

and from beneath the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat, a multitude of hair-thin plant fibers poured forth.

Sustained by an immense supply of spiritual power, the plant fibers pierced through the skin, interweaving and entangling with each other, converging into hundreds of vines.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

A massive number of vines burst forth, piercing through all the cabinet-like servers in the building,

and with a flash of electric light, the vines grew wild and rapidly expanded inside the servers,

covering the floor, walls, and ceiling with lush and dense plants.

The Social Security Agency's wizards stood on what was the only patch of clean ground,

watching the dense vines moving snake-like along the ground, instinctively taking a half-step back, gathering together.

They were also wizards, but no matter what, they couldn't achieve the same feat—excessively accepting data suggestions and receiving information stimuli would overwhelm their brains, at the least ejecting them from the data world, at worst causing a brain crash, leading to a coma in the real world,

only the most powerful and talented wizards could draw upon sufficient subconsciousness to instinctively handle data feedback tasks.

Information...

A vast amount of dense information unfolded before Li Ang,

allowing him to see the blueprints of the Transitch Exoplanet Survey Satellite, detailed down to every rivet;

to see all the information relayed back by spacecraft and satellites, including astronauts' medical records, planetary photos, and lunar soil analysis reports;

to see every confidential project managed by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration—including but not limited to the positions of every military satellite, the operational principles of the Zeus system...

Green data continually flowed through Li Ang's eyes as he exhaled a breath of turbid air, his brain feeling like it had gone through an unprecedented hangover, painful and chilly.

No results.

Li Ang had searched through every backup of information relayed by spacecraft, finding no signs of tampering or suspicious points,

and suspecting that the emailer was operating far from Earth's orbit,

he had even painstakingly sifted through NASA's communications satellites launched for the Mars colonization plan, finding nothing there either.

"He's not here."

Li Ang stood in the center of the hall, his voice booming like thunder, "I need higher access, Russia, Europe, Japan...

I need access to their spacecraft, rockets, and space stations."

The noise generated by the servers running at high speed roared like thunder,

and the wizards from the Social Security Agency covered their ears, shouting, "Impossible, that would be considered military aggression, provoking war..."

Before the voice died away, a few of the cabinet-like servers in the corner of the building suddenly exploded,

the shockwave shredding the nearby vines,

flames shot into the sky, triggering automatic foam sprinkler systems.

"That was..."

The suited wizard from the Social Security Agency took a deep breath, the voice from his earpiece quickly relaying the situation.

[Zeus] the Near-Earth Orbit Military Satellite Laser Strike System's military satellite suffered a physical layer attack not long ago—

The near-Earth orbit communications satellites originally belonging to Venezuela, turned direction, emitting electromagnetic waves to interfere with multiple Zeus system satellites targeting Venezuela in the real world.

Those near-Earth orbit communications satellites emitted electromagnetic waves with much less power than the Zeus system's lasers, with durations ranging from only a few seconds to a few dozen minutes,

but enough to temporarily paralyze the Zeus system, preventing it from receiving any commands from ground control centers.

It was mentioned earlier that in the international society of this fictional world, aside from nuclear weapons, a sort of 'space-based weapon deterrence' had been achieved.

Entities possessing space-based weapons could, at the near-Earth orbit level,

obliterate all mid-to-long range missiles launched from the surface,

by reducing the power, increasing the accuracy, and using multiple multi-angle laser generators,

a hypersonic jet, speeding through the skies, could easily be shattered—a tremendously powerful processor is installed in each Zeus space-based satellite, capable of autonomously calculating target trajectories.

Theoretically, a Zeus space-based satellite could even smash the coffee cup in the hand of a person walking down the street, without harming that individual in any way.

It is precisely for this reason that [nuclear weapon deterrence] and [space-based weapon deterrence] have achieved a kind of tacit balance among one another, with the latter being of a higher grade than the former, enveloping the former.

Whoever possesses more numerous and more precise space-based weapons could comprehensively lock down the other's nuclear arsenal,

And if the space-based weapons are lost, then one will fall into an absolute predicament of being unable to counter nuclear attacks.

Compared with the missile silos buried in mountain bases on the ground,

the space-based weapons satellites flying in near-earth orbit, belonging to different countries, are like elegant dancers, roaming the dance floor, meeting each other every day,

and every encounter means the space-based weapon satellites can destroy each other,

and could trigger a full-scale nuclear war at any moment.

"No!"

The wizard from the Social Security Agency felt a cold wave surge from his soles to his entire body, reaching his head.

The mail person took action, swift and electrifying.

Two Zeus space-based satellites of the United States were out of control again,

The international news website was instantly hijacked by virus programs sent from Venezuela's communication satellite,

news about the United States Zeus system's loss of control directly occupied the front page headlines.

The feeling of fear during the Cuban missile crisis surged again in the hearts of Washington's big figures,

they felt as if a sharp sword was horizontally positioned at their throats, ready to gently slide and slit their throats at any time.

"He's coming!"

Li Ang's expression changed dramatically, Jet Propulsion Laboratory's servers exploded in sequence, communication satellites lost connection one after another,

phones were cut off, networks went offline, television suspended, websites ceased to function,

the entire United States was like a high-speed train suddenly crashed into a roadside utility pole, falling into stagnation.

The big figures in Washington's underground command center felt like giant blind, having lost the inflow of information.

"Give me DARPA's access! Let me invade other countries' aerospace agencies! Otherwise, we're all going to die!"

Jet Propulsion Laboratory had turned into a sea of fire, Li Ang shouted toward the bewildered Social Security Agency wizards,

his vines constantly bursting, and he didn't even know where the enemy was or how they were attacking.

"Here!"

The suited wizard pulled out a rectangular black card from his pocket and threw it toward Li Ang.

The card rotated silently in midair, drawing an arc, and was eventually caught steadily by Li Ang.

Got it...

A barely noticeable smile appeared on Li Ang's lips, plant fibers pierced into the card, recklessly extracting the password keys within.

"Hiss..."

Li Ang shivered all over, he could feel the building opening its doors wide for him,

the supercomputers used by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, the data processing centers across states, tens of thousands of medium and small processors, all at his disposal.

On the data world level, the vines around him expanded exponentially, pouring out from Jet Propulsion Laboratory's door like a torrent, flowing towards other areas of DARPA,

scavenging computing power, commandeering resources,

just like the giant tree in the British fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk," growing rapidly.

Soon, the vines of flesh and Lord of the Swamp, relying on DARPA's computational strength and bandwidth support, broke through DARPA's constraints.

A giant vine tree broke out of the ground, blasted through the building's ceiling, extended upwards all the way.

Li Ang stood atop the tree, climbing rapidly as the tree itself did.

The gale whistled past his ears, the vertical distance to the clouds continuously lessening,

he looked down, watching the data world's light networks, fortresses, cities, dense and insignificant like ant nests.

Is this the power belonging to a true deity beyond demigods...

Li Ang took a deep breath, clearing his mind from the intoxication of immense power.

This is merely the data world, not reality, not the real truth.

Let us return to the mission now...

He silently clenched his fist, the reindeer skull imprint on the back of his hand burst forth with glorious light.

The vine tree like the World Tree grew swiftly along the light network, aggressively conquering territories.

The computing resources from the east and west coasts, the entire North America gradually fell under Li Ang's domain.

If the information received when taking over Jet Propulsion Laboratory was a flood,

then at this moment, taking over North America's computing resources, the information received,

would be a thousand meters high sea wave, visible clearly from space.

Immense and unimaginably fragmented real-time data flowed along thick vines, toward the central Li Ang,

Pain,

Extreme pain coursed through his body,

Li Ang felt his consciousness being stretched and elongated, squeezed, flattened, cut and fragmented,

The severe pain reached extreme points far beyond anything encountered during psychic abilities training.

Filtering... Redundant... Data...

Li Ang's subconscious fought back vigorously, turning meaningless data into white noise not directly leading to the brain,

combined with millions of individual mini-processors,

finally, inch by inch, calming the massive fragments of data before the overwhelmingly gigantic wave crashed down.

"..."

The few seconds felt like an entire century had passed,

Li Ang lifted his head, closed his eyes, exhaled.

His awareness had never been so clear, standing at the pinnacle of the world, overlooking everything on the North American continent.

Every vehicle's traffic information,

The trajectory of every US Dollar within the banking network,

The data traces of every connected computer,

Everything, everything was under control.

The light network was his circulatory system, the data monitoring programs and real-world surveillance cameras were his senses, the robots in fully automated factories were his active limbs.

Even a deity could be nothing more.

Li Ang stepped forward, his Divine Thoughts like lightning, connecting through dense international lines and communication satellites to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australian continent.

Across the universe, no worthy opponent could be found,

The automated security programs of other continents were easily suppressed and subverted by Li Ang,

and those wizards urgently tasked to confront him,

were also directly overwhelmed and suppressed by Li Ang's massive computing power — they didn't even have time to receive compute power and bandwidth support,

before being booted out of the network like ephemeral insects by Li Ang.

At this moment, Li Ang ascended to become the God of The World.