Volume 1, Chapter 47: Why Didn't You Say It Wasn't Necessary Earlier?

Hearing this, several technical backbones also nodded successively.

"Indeed, it is the first time I have ever heard of someone having a computer firewall written directly into the hardware. Could this kid just be bluffing while knowing nothing about it?"

"Are you kidding me? Wasting everyone's time like this, he is a total layman. Lacking even the most basic computer common sense, how dare he make such grand boasts in front of Elder Long? Isn't this just humiliating President Ning?"

Several employees lowered their heads and whispered among themselves.

Chen Kaige's triumph grew even more intense.

Indeed, what Fang Mo said sounded just like some country bumpkin who had never even touched a computer in his life. Chen Kaige refused to believe for a second that Fang Mo possessed any real capability.

Countless gazes directed at Ning Yuelan were filled with sympathy. The husband President Ning had found turned out to be a person like this?

How pathetic could he be?

Not only was he of no help to President Ning's career, but he also loved to talk big.

Not only was he completely unreliable, but he also acted like a complete clown.

Even Ning Yuelan's secretary shared similar thoughts, inevitably feeling somewhat disappointed in President Ning's taste.

Almost no one in the room believed that the young man could accomplish anything, even after his computer was retrieved.

Just then, the items were finally delivered into Fang Mo's hands.

"Young Master Fang, here is your computer. We have replaced both the monitor with a brand-new one and assembled the motherboard along with several hard drives for you. We booted it up; it runs smoothly with no operational issues whatsoever."

Hearing this, Fang Mo nodded.

"Thank you for your hard work!"

Ning Shiyu couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat for Fang Mo.

"Sis, is he actually going to pull this off or not?"

"Whether he can or not, why don't you try it out with him yourself?"

Ning Yuelan crossed her arms, acting the most calm of anyone present as one of the central figures.

What!?

Try it out?

Wait, big sis, what kind of strange things are you saying?

Ning Shiyu's pretty face blushed. "Sis, what time is it, and you're still in the mood to joke around? I'm asking you seriously, does Fang Mo actually understand computers?"

Ning Yuelan shrugged her delicate shoulders.

"Who knows? But I always feel that given my husband's personality, he wouldn't fight a battle he isn't prepared to win."

Intuition?

Ning Shiyu slapped her forehead and silently began to pray for the young man in her heart.

Fang Mo, I hope you can step up today; otherwise, the one who will lose face is my big sis.

Ding-dong—

Fang Mo requested a data cable and casually connected his own laptop to one of the computers nearby.

Witnessing Fang Mo's clumsy movements, even Elder Long couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"He can't even find the USB port, yet he has the nerve to claim he can resolve this virus intrusion crisis?"

Chen Kaige was in a fantastic mood. Imagining that this arrogant, overconfident bumpkin was about to be dumped by Ning Yuelan, a flash of smug superiority crossed his face.

"Pfft,哈哈哈, grandstanding has its limits. Dawdling around like this is just wasting President Ning's time. Do you even understand computers at all?"

"If you don't understand them, hurry up and divorce Yuelan. Don't waste each other's time; you two simply belong to different worlds."

Hearing this, countless people on the scene shook their heads, feeling that Fang Mo had brought this upon himself by being far too overconfident.

Ning Shiyu's heart leaped into her throat, and she once again broke out in a cold sweat for Fang Mo.

"Hey, this kid connected the two computers and just stopped moving. What on earth is he doing?"

"Crap, is he seriously planning to play us for fools just to show off?"

"President Ning, time is precious. We don't have time to watch Mr. Fang waste it here..."

Time ticked away second by second. Ever since plugging in the ports of the two computers, Fang Mo hadn't performed a single operation.

This stunt made it look as though he was explicitly telling everyone: I am just toying with you.

The key executives of the Ning Group, who had initially held a sliver of expectation that President Ning's husband might possess some hidden genius, also sighed in disappointment.

"Kid, you've been given more than enough time. Have you played enough?"

Chen Kaige licked his lips and stepped forward.

At that moment, Fang Mo, who had remained motionless all this while, slowly raised his head. "What's the rush? Hasn't it already been taken care of? Check for yourselves—data transmission has been completely and unilaterally interrupted, and the firewalls across all computers in the Ning Group have now been iterated by me."

Pfft—

"Iterated?"

"Just sitting here with two computers plugged into each other counts as an iteration?"

"Do you take us for three-year-olds?"

Chen Kaige was the first to laugh out loud, making it clear he didn't believe a word of it.

Of course, it wasn't just Chen Kaige who disbelieved; even Ning Shiyu rolled her eyes furiously. Big brother, if you're going to put on an act, at least try to make it convincing, won't you?

With your attitude of total resignation, who on earth is going to believe you?

Fang Mo pointed at the computer. "Just because I didn't do anything doesn't mean I couldn't use shortcut keys during boot-up to synchronize my firewall with the Ning Group's servers."

"Keep pretending, go ahead and pretend. Kid, I've seen plenty of clueless blowhards like you—little capability and a huge temper. You really thought we'd believe you..."

Before Chen Kaige could finish his sentence, a technical backbone of the Ning Group suddenly stared at the computer screen and gasped in disbelief.

"Oh my god!"

"It's upgraded! The firewall really has been upgraded."

"The invading hackers have been kicked out, all cloud data has been preserved, and the stolen data has been intercepted."

Boom—

What!?

As soon as these words were spoken, countless people were struck with utter shock.

Chen Kaige's and Elder Long's expressions altered drastically.

"How is this possible?"

"How could a mere firewall achieve something like this?"

It completely subverted their understanding.

Elder Long's face shifted between green and red, disbelief flashing deep within his eyes.

The next moment, the technical backbone who spoke first dropped another bombshell.

"Not only that, but the firewall is actually counter-tracking the opponent's location. There's a chance we might even pinpoint the other party's IP address and recover our losses."

"Good grief, what kind of software is this? This... this completely shatters everything I know!"

What the hell?

It could even counter-track the hackers' location?

What kind of firewall was this terrifying?

Elder Long's eyes widened. The rest of the technical staff who heard this also exchanged glances, their faces plastered with shock.

They had never heard of a mere firewall having so many functions!

"Impossible!"

Elder Long roared furiously, then heavily slammed his backside down in front of a computer.

"This is impossible. For a mere firewall to resolve a hacker intrusion and simultaneously counter-intercept data to pinpoint the opponent's IP—I have never heard of such a scenario, nor have I ever witnessed it."

Yet, about thirty seconds later.

Elder Long threw his head back with a thoroughly dejected expression.

"This..."

Seeing Elder Long reduced to such a state, nearly everyone present believed it by more than half.

Suppressing his emotions, Chen Kaige gritted his teeth and asked Elder Long, "Elder Long, is what he said true?"

"Yes."

Elder Long stopped putting up a front, instead casting a tangled and complicated glance at Fang Mo.

"I have never seen a firewall like this before, but it's true. All cloud data has been intercepted, and the entire server network of the Ning Group has been upgraded to a system I've never laid eyes on."

"In other words, the hacker intrusion crisis facing the Ning Group has been resolved."

Boom—

Hearing this, Chen Kaige's facial muscles twitched violently.

How could this happen?

A trace of astonishment flashed across Ning Yuelan's beautiful peach-blossom eyes as she cast another lingering, intrigued look at the little fellow.

Fang Mo maintained a calm expression as he tinkered with his own computer, looking as though he hadn't just been locking horns and matching wits with Chen Kaige and the others.

Right at that moment, the technician who had spoken up earlier suddenly exclaimed,

"Found it! I was wondering why the enemy's attacks were so untraceable—it turns out the issue originated internally. The location tracking shows that one of our own computers had a virus implanted directly into the hardware."

With that, the technician walked straight over to a computer, and sure enough, found a USB flash drive plugged into it.

Swish!

Upon hearing this, Ning Yuelan narrowed her eyes, her lovely peach-blossom eyes flashing with a dangerous curve.

"So the problem actually came from within our own ranks."

"Whose computer is this?"

Thud—

Hearing this, the knees of one of the technical backbones suddenly went weak, and he collapsed straight to the floor on his knees.

"President Ning, I'm sorry, I was momentarily blinded by greed, I shouldn't have colluded with Chen..."

Slap—

Before he could finish, Chen Kaige's expression changed dramatically. He lunged forward and delivered a vicious kick straight to the technician's face.

"You worthless dog, President Ning has been so good to all of you, and this is how you repay Yuelan?"

"As a technical backbone of the Ning Group, you actually used a virus to steal company data. Do you have any idea how much loss and impact this would cause to the Ning Group if something went wrong?"

"I'm sorry, Yuelan, I simply couldn't bear to watch such a betrayal by one of our own cause losses to the company. If you trust me, leave this traitor to me. I will definitely squeeze some answers out of his mouth before handing him over to the public security bureau..."

After several heavy kicks from Chen Kaige, the technician's face was covered in blood, and three of his teeth were knocked out.

He curled up on the ground, trembling all over.

Clearly, he was far too terrified, and extracting any useful information in this state would be harder than scaling the heavens.

Seeing this, Ning Yuelan let out a cold laugh.

"President Chen's habit of overstepping his bounds is becoming increasingly skillful."

Chen Kaige's heart skipped a beat.

Ning Yuelan was no fool; naturally, she could read between the lines and spot the clues.

At this thought, Chen Kaige cast a venomous glare back at the unbothered Fang Mo. If it weren't for this kid meddling, he would have successfully tricked Ning Yuelan into sharing the cloud data today.

Once that happened, the merger of the two companies would be a done deal.

Unless Ning Yuelan decided to abandon the Ning Group entirely, sooner or later she would end up as Chen Kaige's plaything.

Man proposes, heaven disposes; who could have anticipated that Fang Mo would crash the party as such an unexpected wrench in the works.

"President Ning jokes. The Chen and Ning families share many years of friendship, and I simply couldn't stand the sight of such a traitor, which is why I couldn't help stepping in..."

Chen Kaige pretended not to hear the biting sarcasm in Ning Yuelan's tone.

The woman waved her hand dismissively. "I will handle the traitors of the Ning Group myself; I won't trouble President Chen. Someone, drag him away."

"Oh right, now that the matter is settled, shouldn't President Chen fulfill your wager?"

Fulfill the wager?

Chen Kaige's expression stalled.

Only then did he recall the bet he had made with Fang Mo in front of everyone earlier.

"Yuelan, isn't that going a bit too far?"

Chen Kaige squeezed out an awkward, bitter smile.

Slap—

Ning Yuelan suddenly lashed out, raising her fair hand to deliver a sharp slap.

"Going too far? Since when has the business of the Ning Group been any of your Chen family's concern? When you were being so aggressive toward my husband just now, why didn't you say it was going too far?"

Five distinct fingerprints instantly bloomed across Chen Kaige's face.

Ning Huarong wanted to step forward and say something, but was discouraged by Ning Yuelan's icy glare.

The atmosphere instantly grew tense and bristling.

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

Walking along the path, Shen Changqing would nod or greet familiar faces as he met them.

Regardless of who it was, however, no one wore any surplus expression on their faces, as if they were indifferent to everything.

To this, Shen Changqing had long since grown accustomed.

Because this was the Demon Suppression Office, an institution dedicated to maintaining stability in the Great Qin Empire. Its primary duty was to slay ominous ghosts and demons, though it naturally handled some sideline duties as well.

It could be said that every single person in the Demon Suppression Office had countless drops of blood staining their hands.

When a person witnessed life and death often enough, they naturally grew indifferent to many things.

When he first arrived in this world, Shen Changqing had found it somewhat difficult to adapt, but over time, he had simply gotten used to it.

The Demon Suppression Office was vast.

Those who could remain within the Demon Suppression Office were either formidable experts of immense strength or individuals with the potential to become such experts.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter category.

Within the Demon Suppression Office, professions were divided into two main categories: Guardians and Exorcists.

Anyone who entered the Demon Suppression Office started from the lowest tier of Exorcist,

and then climbed the ranks step by step, ultimately hoping to become a Guardian.

Shen Changqing's predecessor had been a probationary exorcist within the Demon Suppression Office—the very lowest rank among exorcists.

Carrying the memories of his predecessor, he was intimately familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Office.

Without taking too much time, Shen Changqing stopped in front of a pavilion.

Unlike the rest of the Demon Suppression Office, which reeked of a chilling aura of slaughter, this pavilion stood out like a crane among chickens, presenting a rare tranquility amidst the bloody backdrop of the Demon Suppression Office.

At this moment, the doors of the pavilion stood wide open, with people occasionally walking in and out.

Shen Changqing merely hesitated for a moment before stepping inside.

Entering the pavilion, the environment changed abruptly.

A fragrance of ink mixed with a faint, underlying scent of blood wafted over him, causing his brows to knit instinctively before relaxing just as quickly.

The scent of blood clinging to everyone in the Demon Suppression Office was virtually impossible to wash away completely.