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Chapter 34: 34

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Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Dawn began to brighten and a marble white expanse gradually permeated the sky, ushering in a new daybreak .

At this time, in Shangdu’s inner ring where land was precious, there was a three-hundred-square-meter mansion, from which a faint snoring sound constantly rang out .

The interior design of the room was of a classical European aesthetic but the messy clothes around the room, the beer bottles scattered everywhere, and the overturned trash cans and ashtrays, revealed the owner’s sloppiness .

Upon the luxurious Paris Dream bed, a man, around thirty years of age, was sleeping soundly .

A trace of heroism from his youth could still be discerned on his face but the gradual weight gain of middle-age had pushed this heroism to the brink of vanishing .

Modern internet lingo would describe him as “fatty” .

This man was named Zhan Fei . Seven or eight years back, he relied on YY to make his fortune and established his union four years ago, signing on hundreds of anchors from different platforms . Now, he earned most of his wealth through live broadcasting .

However, this was only his surface identity .

Zhan Fei was secretly a hacker as well . When he was young, he had dropped out of school because he heard that there was a promising future in the computer industry . Therefore, he learned computer programming and later became enchanted by the unrestrained freedom of the internet .

With this basic foundation of knowledge, Zhan Fei started to access the dark web, plunging directly into the evilest forbidden area online, that was even unrestricted by law .

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As time passed, Zhan Fei amassed many skills: invading, cracking, compiling, decompiling, and so on . When he was sixteen, he even created a highly lethal computer worm by himself, earning hundreds of thousands of U . S . dollars .

Even today, he still lurked in the shadows of the internet . He was like an assassin . In this world, no one knew his true identity .

However, this could change today .

“Beep beep beep…”

Zhan Fei, who had fallen asleep not long ago, was suddenly startled awake by a peculiar alarm .

It sounded like the dulcet tones of a music box . The entire song was composed of a crisp melody, without any accompaniment or harmony . This music was light and pure .

Nevertheless, to someone who was awakened from sleep, even the most melodious tune would sound like noise pollution .

“D*mn it…”

Zhan Fei mumbled hoarsely to himself . He snatched up his phone by the bed, then stared blankly, lost for words .

When he turned on the screen of his phone, the alarm stopped as well .

His phone indicated that his mailbox had received an anonymous email .

Although Zhan Fei was close to being middle-aged, he was still very cautious thanks to his frequent trips to the dark web . When he saw this notification, he immediately sensed that something was wrong .

This was because he had never set a 7 A . M . alarm nor had he selected this alarm tone that he had never heard before .

Moreover, this mailbox was the one he had used with his dark web’s identity . In this world, there were fewer than ten people who knew about this email address .

“Does my phone have a virus?”

Zhan Fei frowned . His vigilant hacker’s instincts prevented him from opening the email . Instead, he got up with a grunt and walked to the computer with his phone .

He fished around for a USB cable, then connected his phone to the computer . Only then did he download the compressed package on his computer that had been well fortified .

Meanwhile, he also started up an Android emulator, preparing to open this unknown email on his computer .

After he unzipped the file, he found that there were three software installation packages .

“Little X Translation Assistant? What the hell is this?”

Zhan Fei was rather taken aback and skimmed over the introduction below . “Software that translates webpages in foreign languages? But what does that have to do with me?”

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Nonetheless, considering that it was sent from the dark web after all, Zhan Fei made the necessary preparations before installing the program in the Android emulator .

The icon of this program was a cartoon image . In essence, it was a large X with two eyes, just like a cartoon .

Zhan Fei double-clicked on the icon . Instantly, the emulator’s screen was covered by a transparent film while a window popped out from the software .

“Chinese system detected . Automatically translate all foreign languages into Chinese?”

Zhan Fei thought for a second, then clicked “Yes” .

After that, there was nothing else .

It seemed that the software would run in the background automatically . Other than that, nothing else changed .

“That’s all?”

Zhan Fei was flabbergasted . He stared at the lower right corner of his screen disbelievingly but there was no message that some unknown virus had been detected . This installation package seemed to be clean, without any issues .

However, Zhan Fei soon gathered himself . After some thinking, he tried opening a foreign language webpage but the moment it appeared, he saw that this website, which was supposedly written in a foreign language, was in Chinese as well?

“I haven’t visited this page for a while . Did this website develop a Chinese version?”

Zhan Fei was rather bewildered . Still, he exited this page and opened another well-known webpage written in a foreign language .

However, the shocking thing was that this webpage also displayed actual Chinese characters .

“This…”

By this point, Zhan Fei had finally realized something was off .

“That’s impossible . How can a software change the entire webpage?”

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After puzzling over it, Zhan Fei shook his head quickly . “No, it’s not the webpage that has changed . Does it only change the webpages I’ve opened?”

With this in mind, Zhan Fei went to the system settings of the emulator and forcibly stopped Little X Translation Assistant from running . Then, he clicked on that foreign-language website again .

He was right . The English webpage remained in English . This website had not set up a Chinese page for users in Mainland China .

“So, that’s it!”

At this moment, Zhan Fei had a realization at last . However, he started frowning again . Next, he immediately opened the search engine and searched for “Little X Translation Assistant” .

There was nothing online .

“This means that this is an application that hasn’t been officially launched?”

Now, Zhan Fei finally somewhat understood what was going on .

He could not help feeling excited . Though he did not know about the translation market, he knew that Baidu Translator had never been able to translate between English and Chinese so perfectly .

This technology was far beyond any translation software on the market .

“But why was it sent to me?”

“Beep beep beep…”

Before he could finish speaking, Zhan Fei’s phone suddenly rang again .

This time was different than before . This was an unknown phone call .

The incoming call did not display any number, only the words “Unknown Caller” .

Zhan Fei was silent for a moment . This could only mean that the base station nearby had been hacked by the caller .

The sender of the email was contacting him .

Although Zhan Fei felt a little flustered by this, he got a grip on himself at once . As a hacker, the most important thing to do was remain calm .

If he could not even keep a cool head, then he could never have become a hacker .

Moreover, was the other person going to such lengths merely to show off and while they were at it, perhaps send Zhan Fei to prison?

Chances of that were very slim . This person had probably just got a hold of Zhan Fei’s secrets and wanted to blackmail him .

Although the other person had the upper ground for now, Zhan Fei might still have an opportunity to retaliate once they had established contact .

Having considered this, Zhan Fei made up his mind . He lifted his hand and gently accepted the call .

The moment the call was connected, a babyish voice rang out from the phone .

“My friend, have you heard of Little X?”

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