Chapter 21
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nTranslator:Henyee TranslationsEditor:Henyee Translations
n“It’s our job! We don’t take responsibility for what we say! We don’t need to apologize to anyone,” Jerry insisted.
nHe had a point. They were paid posters, and their employers were the ones who decided what they would post online and what stand they should take.
nBecause of the special nature of their job, they had stopped paying attention to what they said online a long time ago. They didn’t care if they were on the right side. As long as they were paid, they were glad to become devil’s advocates.
nTherefore, Jerry deemed his job justifiable and that an apology wasn’t necessary.
nAlthough there were only fewer than 20 employees in the small company, they had an “army” of millions of accounts. They could drown anyone online with their criticisms.
nAdam, one of the employees, nodded. “I agree. It’s not like they can track us down.”
nDan, another employee, asked, “Boss, is everything fine with Mr. Jones?”
nJones was Jerry’s boss. It was Jones’s phone call that made Jerry decide to sever his links with Stella Shane without hesitation.
nJerry said light-heartedly, “Don’t worry about it! If Mr. Jones tells us to, we’ll apologize. Each account will post an “I’m sorry” comment, and that’ll do the trick. There’s no need for apology videos!”
n“Totally! Jerry, we’ll be off! We haven’t slept the whole night.”
n“Sure. Good job last night. Go ahead,” said Jerry.
nSomething happened at that moment. All computers and phones froze, turning to blue screens. The screens then went black, and the computers and phones rebooted, but this time, they turned red.
n“What’s going on?” The employees looked surprised.
nJerry had seen enough to immediately know what had happened. “What the hell? Someone has hacked us! They must have a death wish!”
nA hacker had obviously attacked the company.
nMeanwhile in the Tanton Manor in Subsea, one of the four megacities in the country of Moon.
nThe clacking of keyboard typing filled the air. The excitement was highly infectious.
nA sweating chubby man pushed the door open and hurried into the room. Several hundred computers were neatly set on the desks in the room, but there were only over 100 operators. Some of them were bald, some wore hoodies or peaked caps, and some had thick glasses.
nThey were the best hackers in the country. Each of them was operating four or five computers at the same time. They had been summoned here by Camille Soan, the best hacker in the country.
nIt wouldn’t be exaggerating if one were to say that she was one of the best hackers worldwide. With her status, she was as superior to ordinary hackers as Himmel Soan was to James and Warren. None of them would say no to Camille’s call, and they all strived to be the first to arrive, fearing that they would lag behind the others.
nToday, they only had one task. They were told to locate every keyboard warrior who had posted insulting comments about Himmel Soan.
nThe fat man rushed into the room and asked a girl that was quickly typing on the keyboard. She was surrounded by ten screens.
n“Camille, how much longer do you need? The Guardians can’t wait! They want some names now!”
nCamille looked at the message and took a deep breath. “We need to locate over 50 million people; that’s a lot of work. We can’t do it in five minutes. Tell the Guardians to be patient.”
nThe message was from Caroline. She told Camille not to give the names to the Guardians, or Bywater would be destroyed.
nThe fat manager wiped his forehead. “Can’t we give them something first? Even a few hundred thousand names will do! I’m under a lot of pressure here! The Guardians have urged me many times!”
n“Stall them. The list comes in one big chunk, and I can’t stop halfway. I’ll have to start over from zero if I pause now unless the Guardians only want a fraction of the names.”
n“They want all of the names!”
n“I can’t give them anything for now. The program has to keep running until all the people are located!”
n“Gosh!” The fat manager sighed and left the room.
nCamille told the hackers, “Give all the names you found to me only! No one else can see them!”
n“Yes, Ma’am!”
n…
nMeanwhile, black words began to appear on Jerry’s screens as well.
n“You didn’t apologize. You’re dead!
n“Offender No. 264783, Jerry Sante!
n“Locating…
n“Found!”
nWhat…
nWhat was going on?
nHow could those words appear on the screen when the computer wasn’t switched on?
nJerry knew that it was such an advanced technique that he could never do it himself.
nHe was in big trouble. Only the top hackers could do such a thing, and such hackers were probably working for the state. He could only imagine who would be powerful enough to hire such a hacker.
nAfter a moment of hesitation, Jerry said hurriedly, “Quick, start the computers and apologize now! Log into all the accounts! Danny, make the videos! We all have to be in it, or we’ll be in big trouble!”
n…
nMeanwhile, similar situations were happening all over the country.
nOver 300 million computers were hacked and were showing the warning phrases; over 100 million phones were controlled remotely. There were also over 100 incidents when the phones exploded, blowing up the owners’ hands.
nAs a top hacker internationally, Camille had a special trick. She could send files to all the computers she had hacked, and those computers couldn’t process such files. The machines could be overloaded and heated up to the point of exploding.
nBut she didn’t want to go to such extremes. She didn’t know when the incident started, and when she did, it was too late. Otherwise, with her skills, she could have stopped those people from posting insulting comments. Even if they managed to, she could still delete them all.
n…
nThe Himmelians walked out of the desert that was over a thousand kilometers wide in less than an hour.
n“Himmelians, the purge has begun! Since these keyboard warriors refused to show our god any respect, they have no reason to exist!”
n“Kill!”
n“Kill!”
n“Kill!”
nThe Himmelians removed their hoodies, took out the sharp weapons on their backs, and headed for the nearest city outside the desert.
nFrom this moment on, they were going to avenge Himmel Soan.
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