Chapter 710 - 149: Contact

"Meng Wenyu, a Disciple from Immortal Fate Hall’s Yuanlai Tower and Inner Sect Reception, has checked in and is ready to serve."

About half an hour later, Zhang Deming’s Identity Jade Pendant vibrated. He opened the Light Curtain and saw this message from Qin Shizhong. ’The efficiency is quite high,’ he thought.

After seeing the message, Zhang Deming returned to the basement, opened his laptop, and clicked on the contact interface sent over from the Watch Tower.

A black, palm-sized box popped up.

The moment the box appeared, Zhang Deming froze.

’Not good!’

’Damn it, there’s a hacker from the Nest forces making trouble!’

Zhang Deming’s hands flew across the keyboard in a blur. He first rapidly constructed an onion-style virtual address to delay the trojan in the privately coded chat window from locking onto his location. Only then did Zhang Deming begin his counter-operation.

...

In the Immortal Fate Hall, three first mates, Captain Shang Tingjie, and the members of the main ship’s Rainbow Bridge council—nine people in total—were discussing how to proceed with the conference. They were talking about what difficulties they hadn’t overcome and what techniques they needed to covertly learn during their exchanges.

Suddenly, the badge on the chest of Yuu Guang, the first mate in charge of electronic information, began to flash.

All nine of them were startled. After a moment’s hesitation, First Mate Yuu Guang ripped the badge off his chest and pressed it onto the special glass table in front of them. The badge unfolded, extending into a Light Screen and a keyboard.

As he did so, he said, "Mysterious Man Number Three is connecting!"

Shang Tingjie’s expression shifted slightly. "Patch the feed through," he ordered.

Yuu Guang smiled faintly. "Hang on. I’ll use the trojan to pinpoint his location. Once we have some leverage on him, we won’t have to go through the trouble of contacting headquarters for every little thing."

"Otherwise, having to interact through both our headquarters for every minor issue is too troublesome, and things can easily get complicated."

Hearing this, Shang Tingjie hesitated for a moment before saying, "Then be careful. Don’t get exposed. Our Interstellar quantum communication isn’t mature yet. It has serious issues and is easily detectable."

Hongmeng currently lacks Celestial Universe signal stations. The information they were exchanging was being sent back to the Celestial Universe, which then relayed it to Zhang Deming. That was how their Interstellar communication worked!

"Don’t worry, boss. The Mysterious Man grew up in Hongmeng. Even if he learned some hacking skills..." Yuu Guang didn’t finish his sentence. His expression suddenly changed, because the first address he obtained was for another Sect—clearly a virtual address!

Quantum communication from a Quantum Notebook is different from traditional communication, which requires jumping between signal base stations. This means that when tracking someone, the so-called fake addresses are actually compromised machines—bots or zombie computers—used by the other party.

But quantum communication has no so-called base stations. It only needs a central station. With more advanced technology, two objects can even become directly quantum-entangled for same-frequency interaction, like the High Tier Array Cultivator products in Hongmeng today.

This is closer to metaphysics. The so-called fake address is created entirely through advanced manipulation, feeding you a false location. There are no bots serving as a foundation; it’s completely fabricated.

This distinction alone was enough to show the strength of the other party’s methods.

"What’s wrong?" a colleague beside him asked, seeing Yuu Guang’s stiff expression.

Yuu Guang had no time to answer. His movements grew faster and more frantic.

CRACK...

The keyboard that had extended from his badge suddenly shattered. The expressions of everyone present changed.

Then, on the uncracked Light Curtain, a simple line-art avatar of a person’s head began to loop. As the avatar’s mouth opened, a string of mechanical-sounding words came out.

"Hmph. What? You really think I wouldn’t dare to screw you over just because you’re the main force for this stage? How about you try me? Wanna bet if I have the guts to sell you all out?"

The nine of them froze. The other eight stared at Yuu Guang, whose forehead was now beaded with sweat. Yuu Guang immediately said to the avatar, "A misunderstanding! It’s a misunderstanding! Grabbing an IP from a chat window is just a professional habit. Surely you understand!"

"We all know what kind of people we’re dealing with here, so don’t try to fob me off with that excuse. For the sake of the plan, I’ll let it slide this time. This Interstellar communication is too unstable. Meet at the grass plot on the first floor of Yuanlai Tower in fifty-seven minutes and eighteen seconds."

POP...

As the voice finished speaking, the entire screen shattered, revealing the scorched badge once more.

The scene fell silent. The eight of them stared at Yuu Guang. After a long moment, Yuu Guang wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead and said with lingering fear, "A world-class hacker. He might even have a minor in information-type Magic, at least at the Second Circle or higher."

Shang Tingjie frowned. "Who helped him?"

Yuu Guang shook his head. "His methods are completely unfamiliar. He doesn’t match any of the currently famous Ten Heavenly Kings."

"Has the throne of the hacker world changed hands? How come we haven’t heard anything? No, wait—does this Mysterious Man Number Three have these skills himself, or does he know someone in the Federation’s hacker community?"

"Hasn’t he been in Hongmeng for decades? How would he know a hacker from the Celestial Universe?"

"Has some faction upgraded their quantum communication technology? To the point they can communicate long-distance for extended periods without being detected?" one of the first mates asked.

"I don’t know," said Yuu Guang. "All I know is that I’m completely outmatched."

"So, are we still going to the meeting?"

"Why wouldn’t we?" Shang Tingjie said. "This is a perfect chance to get a look at this mysterious Mysterious Man Number Three."

After he spoke, they all fell silent, staring at the completely ruined badge. Quantum communication in the Celestial Universe was still in its infancy. Therefore, anyone who could use code to attack the physical world and fry someone’s computer was a top-tier expert.