Chapter 618 - 389: Fourth Gear Overload
New Moon City, Heaven-Reaching Tower.
Zhao Yiming had already received the message sent back by Zhou Hanyan, which included images and data scanned with his prosthetic eye.
There was now a complete chain of evidence proving Luo’s covert betrayal.
The next step was simple; once he informed headquarters of the situation, the tables would turn!
Exposing such a significant insider, let alone any other accolades, he would easily become the greatest hero of the company in recent decades, and a position among the top management at headquarters would be within easy reach!
If Zhou Hanyan wrapped up perfectly on his end and caught Fenrir, turning one success into another, even a seat on the Supreme Board would no longer be a dream!
In this situation, Zhao Yiming couldn’t imagine how he could lose!
Unable to contain his frenzy and excitement, he immediately attached the relevant evidence to the email, typed in the headquarters’ email address, and hit send!
Under his expectant gaze, the ring icon indicating processing spun for a while.
Then, a prompt suddenly popped up:
[Network connection error, please resend the email]
"Damn this *civilization’s quantum*!" Seeing the network connection broken icon at the bottom right of the screen, Zhao Yiming cursed and wished he could kill the entire family of the network engineer.
He frantically pressed the resend button while pulling out his phone to make a call, intending to report to headquarters ahead of time.
However, as soon as the call was dialed, he heard a cold prompt from the receiver:
[Sorry, you are currently out of the service area, please try again later]
Zhao Yiming’s face changed instantly.
Ever since Fenrir breached Heaven-Reaching Tower, the fiber optic hardware in the building was damaged and still undergoing repairs, making network instability a common occurrence.
But the mobile signal was public and had nothing to do with Heaven-Reaching Tower, never having been affected by Fenrir’s attack, so disconnection was extremely rare.
Even if it was unlucky, encountering a public signal outage that coincided with an internal network malfunction at Heaven-Reaching Tower? What were the odds?
In this digital age, where information transmission seems highly developed, and electronic data could reach places hundreds of kilometers away in a few milliseconds, it seemed as if the entire world had become unified.
Yet when electronic signals vanish, a person becomes an isolated island, completely cut off from the outside world, unable to make any sound.
While Zhao Yiming was perplexed, he suddenly noticed a detail: the built-in camera above his laptop was emitting a faint red light, indicating it was turned on.
He was certain that he hadn’t activated the camera himself, and given the protection level of this computer, it should be impossible for an ordinary hacker to breach it.
Considering the current situation, there was only one person who had both the motive and the ability to stop him from sending the email.
Zhao Yiming stared angrily at the laptop camera and, through gritted teeth, unwillingly uttered a name: "Qi Ling?"
The built-in speaker didn’t respond, but Zhao Yiming knew the other party could hear.
His eyes burned with fury as he practically shouted, "You ungrateful little brat! I was the one who personally recruited you into the company, taught you the most profound hacking knowledge, and now you’re using what you learned here against me?!"
"Ungrateful creature, eating my food, using my resources, spending my money... you even ate three boxes of my ice cream while I just went next door for a meeting!"
Cursing as he went on, perhaps realizing that such a shrew-like scolding could never break Qi Ling’s defenses, Zhao Yiming calmed down a bit and said ominously, "You’re colluding with Luo, aren’t you? Haha, did you forget that you have the Silencer in you? Violating would be a certain death!"
"This game Luo is playing has already been cracked by me, she’s sure to lose, there’s no need for you to struggle with her any longer. Join me again now, and I promise, I’ll have Zhou Hanyan spare Su Mo, and I’ll continue to give you the antidote."
"I know you little lunatic aren’t afraid to die, but you wouldn’t want Su Mo to be heartbroken over you, would you?"
After Zhao Yiming finished speaking, there was still no response from the laptop.
Suddenly, he realized what the problem was.
In his understanding, Su Mo valued his companions and would never mess around with Qi Ling’s life.
So as long as he held Qi Ling, he figured he had Su Mo’s soft spot, ensuring obedience.
But now, with Su Mo out of control and daring to take risks, it didn’t mean he had abandoned Qi Ling or was gambling with Qi Ling’s life.
The logic was precisely the opposite: only when Qi Ling’s life was not at risk would Su Mo dare to break free.
In other words, the Silencer poison in Qi Ling had already dissipated!
The issue followed: when was the poison neutralized?
Had that engineer named Future developed an antidote? Impossible.
The Edge lacked the necessary technology and materials; such a deficiency couldn’t be compensated with personal knowledge alone.
Yet Su Mo must have obtained an antidote for Qi Ling to dare stand against the company.
Recalling the events from a while back, a terrifying answer surfaced in Zhao Yiming’s mind.
His eyes widened to the size of saucers as he exclaimed in shock, "Did you have the pieces in play when Fenrir attacked Heaven-Reaching Tower?!"
Finally, a sudden change struck: the computer screen began to flicker wildly, displaying all sorts of garbled and unrecognizable symbols, with the host emitting a low, harsh alarm sound, as if wailing its last lament.
The phone, too, was invaded, its familiar icons and text vanished without a trace, turning entirely blank, flickering white and dark.
An electronic virus ran rampant in the digital world, destroying all the video and data sent back by Zhou Hanyan, drowning out all evidence of Luo’s betrayal and the Edge’s clandestine assistance.