Chapter 101: Hacker Invasion

  Finding himself completely under someone else's surveillance, Pang Guang felt a chill run down his spine and slowly calmed down.

  "The camera, it must be the camera." Pang Guang was indeed not stupid and quickly came to his senses. He rushed to the back of the computer host, pulled out all the external devices in one go, and shouted at the air: "You damn well better not let me catch you, or I'll smash you into a pulp!"

  The system immediately popped up a system prompt box: "Kid, you're so funny, I'll give you the ID back, log in with your original password."

  "Damn it! " Pang Guang grabbed the mouse and was about to smash it at the prompt box, but he came to his senses before throwing it away. "If I break the computer, I won't be able to play anymore." Pang Guang was still fuming, but then he remembered that the prompt box said his ID had been returned to him, he didn't know if it was true or false.

  Pang Guang glanced at the camera, feeling uneasy, and deliberately turned it to face the snow-white wall. He quickly opened the game interface, rapidly inputting his ID number and password. As the scroll bar moved swiftly, the screen gradually unfolded, revealing a familiar game interface before Pang Guang's eyes. Pang Guang let out a sigh of relief and hastily opened the system settings to modify his password. The moment he did, he was stunned, his eyes wide with shock, his face pale with fright. The equipment warehouse was empty, without a doubt, all the equipment he had spent years cultivating had been stolen by that damned hacker just now.

  "Damn...it..." Pang Guang waved his hands, but didn't know how to vent the anger in his heart. He couldn't possibly hit the computer or punch the air, could he? Calming down, he carefully analyzed the situation and thought that it was probably a hacker who had invaded his computer, stolen his account and equipment, and even came back to tease him. This was really infuriating! It was like someone taking a dump on your head and then bending down with a wicked grin to ask: "Hey, is this warm enough for you?"

  "Ah…… Ah……" Pang Guang was excited again, and began to frantically search for keywords related to "hacker" on the search engine. What disappointed him was that although there were tens of millions of results, most of them were either incomprehensible or written by novices seeking help from more experienced people after being hacked. Most of these questions were followed by an "I want to answer" button and a large text input box. There were hardly any genuine helpful responses, and even if there were, they were just copied and pasted from elsewhere, containing useless and clichéd phrases.

  Pang Guang's mouse scrolled down page by page, and a big title caught his eye: "Hacker Tutorial from Beginner to Master". Below the title was a brief introduction: "Do you want to know their secrets? Do you want to come and go freely on their computer, just like controlling your own computer? In just ten days, you can transform into a mysterious hacker, without any computer knowledge..."

  "My god, no need for computer knowledge to become an expert in ten days? This is great! As long as I can catch those despicable guys, it's not just ten days, I'm willing to spend twenty days too!" Pang Guang hastily opened the title, but was disappointed to find that it was a certain online mall introducing a book about hacking for beginners. Holding back his temper, Pang Guang took a look at the introduction and found that the content of the book was simple and easy to understand from the table of contents and introduction. Below the directory were two lines of large explanations: "New Year's special offer, 50% off, limited to the first 99 customers..."

  "That's right, it's you." Pang Guang hastily placed an order and paid for the book. He was attracted by the catalog and introduction, and most importantly, he could enjoy a 10% discount. After placing the order, Pang Guang felt unsatisfied and joined many QQ groups with hacker-related names. These groups required authentication, so Pang Guang thought for a moment and wrote seriously, "I want to join the group to learn, please approve." Unexpectedly, several QQ groups really approved him. Pang Guang entered these groups for less than half an hour and soon became disappointed. These groups were all quiet with no one talking. One slightly active group was also chatting about unrelated things sporadically.

  "Damn it!" Pang Guang lingered in the QQ group for a while before closing the chat window. Just then, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number. Pang Guang answered the call, and the person on the other end asked him to go downstairs to receive a package. Pang Guang cursed again, "The logistics are so useless! Even if it's shipped from the Pacific Ocean, it shouldn't take more than a week!"

  Pang Guang rushed downstairs to pick up the express delivery and returned home. He immediately tore open the outer packaging, and inside was indeed the online purchase of "Hacker's Guide from Beginner to Master". Pang Guang flipped through it and muttered to himself several times: "Scammers! The introduction is written like a kindergarten math textbook, but the actual content is even more profound than calculus. Just looking at the beginning has already left me in a daze." Pang Guang casually threw the book aside, too lazy to continue reading.

  "Oh my god! I haven't even succeeded yet and I'm already dead, why is my hacking career so bumpy!" Pang Guang exaggeratedly shouted, and then dived back into the search engine, flipping through useful things page by page. Unknowingly, time had passed noon, and Pang Guang felt his stomach growling with hunger. He walked out of the room to take a look, only to find that the adults in the house still hadn't returned, and didn't know where they went, even at mealtime.

  As he passed by Lin Junyun's room, he glanced inside and saw Lin Junyun concentrating on making small ornaments. He walked in: "Wife, I'm hungry, there's no one at home to cook, let's go out and eat something!"

  "Alright!" Lin Junyun put down the thread in his hand: "Let's stop here for today, after dinner this afternoon you accompany me to go shopping."

  "How did you suddenly think of going shopping? I've never heard you mention this hobby before?"

  "Silly, there's that girl who doesn't like going shopping. In the past, either she didn't have time or she didn't have money, so she rarely went shopping."

  "You mean now you have both money and time."

  "Two things can't be reconciled." Lin Junyun said quietly: "The pressure is too great, I want to take a stroll and clear my mind. If you want to accompany me, then do so; if not, it doesn't matter, I'll just go by myself."

  Lin Junyun and Pang Guang casually ate something in a small restaurant, then went to the most prosperous commercial street in Dongcheng District together. The whole street was full of clothing stores, from low-end to mid-to-high-end clothes, everything was available, dazzling.

  The two of them strolled around for a while, feeling a bit tired, and sat down on the stone bench beside the commercial street to rest. As soon as Lin Junyun's buttocks touched the stone bench, he suddenly jumped up like he had been electrocuted and quickly walked towards a fashion store across from the bench, muttering to himself: "It's on sale! Great, I've wanted to buy a skirt from this brand for a long time, but it was too expensive."

  "What?" Pang Guang followed him in and saw a big sign hanging above the fashion store, swaying in the wind: Everything is discounted to clear stock.

  Pang Guang hadn't even stood up straight when Lin Junyun grabbed his hand and said, "Let's go, after the discount it's still unaffordable."

  "Nervous." Pang Guang turned around and looked at the dazzling array of women's clothing, then looked at Lin Junyun: "You suddenly ran away, I thought something had happened!"

  Lin Junyun smiled slightly: "Since I was young, my family was poor and couldn't afford new clothes. The clothes I wore were all handed down from my mother and altered by the tailor to fit me. I want to try what it's like to wear new clothes."

  "It's not that hard, just think about buying new clothes."

  Lin Junyun glanced at Pang Guang, "Forget it, I was just impulsive earlier. Actually, I have clothes to wear, and they're all high-end ones modified by my mom, no need to waste money."

  As they came out of the fashion store, Lin Junyun had lost interest and suggested going home to continue making handicrafts. Pang Guang agreed, but before they could leave, his mobile phone rang. He took it out and looked at it, immediately showing a troubled expression because the call was from Zhang Xiaoting, whom he had just seen that morning. It hadn't even been half a day since then, and now she was calling again - what could be the matter? He hesitated, looking at Lin Junyun uncertainly, unsure whether to answer or not.

  Lin Junyun smiled slightly, and from Pang Guang's expression, she could tell that it was Zhang Xiaoting who had called. So, being considerate, she said to Pang Guang: "You go ahead with your business, I'll head home first. Just remember our appointment for tonight." After saying this, she left.

  Pang Guang responded with a simple "uh-huh" and picked up the phone, saying "Xiao Ting, what's going on?"

  "Can't you find me for nothing?" Zhang Xiaoting's voice was very pleasant: "Where are you, do you have time to accompany me shopping?"

  "Go... go window shopping?" Pang Guang was confused, what's going on today, lining up to ask me to accompany them window shopping, damn it, have I become a gigolo or something?

  "What's wrong, don't you want to?"

  "No, no, I'm just strolling around," Pang Guang said, "Under the archway of Xin Street."

  "What a coincidence, I'm also around here. Stand still and don't move, I'll be right over." Zhang Xiaoting said, then hung up the phone.

  "Ah!" Pang Guang's mouth was agape, he really suspected that Zhang Xiaoting was intentionally following him. From morning till now, they bumped into each other while buying breakfast and even while strolling around the street.

  In the blink of an eye, Zhang Xiaoting had already gotten out of a sedan and was walking slowly towards Pang Guang's direction, although her face was completely covered by a silk scarf and oversized sunglasses, but Pang Guang could still tell that it was Zhang Xiaoting from her slender figure. At the same time, the sedan that Zhang Xiaoting had been riding in sped away in the direction that Lin Junyun had left in.

  "Kobayashi, Kobayashi." Lin Junyun was hurrying along with his head down when he suddenly heard someone calling from behind. He turned around to see Zhao Hankui calling out to him.

  She politely stopped and said: "Uncle, what a coincidence."

  Zhao Hangquan revealed a mature smile: "Hehe, yeah, where are you going? I'll give you a ride."

  "I'm going home, no need to bother, it's very close." Lin Junyun replied.

  "It's on the way, get in." Zhao Hankui smiled again: "Actually, I came specifically to find you."