Chapter 99 AI Virus
"Brother Lu, I got the information. He is a member of the Digital Life School. But he said he doesn't know where his superior is. Every order is given through that device."
Xu Yanbo walked out of the interrogation room quickly, his face still showing some tension. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his tone revealing a hint of helplessness.
Lu Mingfei sat aside, fiddling with the complicated device in his hands. The black metal shell was emitting a cold luster and the coordinates on the display were flickering faintly. At this time, they had returned to the Gabon base. After the militants were handed over to the interrogation experts, they finally got preliminary results.
"Well, the technical experts said that this device has a very high technical content and cannot be completely cracked in a short period of time. However, we have obtained a set of coordinates, which is one hundred kilometers away from here. The higher-ups ordered us to check it out, as there may be important clues hidden there."
Lu Mingfei nodded indifferently, his eyes fixed on the mysterious coordinates on the screen, his fingertips gently sliding across the metal shell of the device, his thoughts running fast in his mind, the light of the screen reflected on his face, making him look even colder.
"Let's go." Lu Mingfei's voice remained calm. He stood up and walked straight towards the armored vehicle. Xu Yanbo immediately followed behind him.
The other ranger members were already ready to go beside the armored vehicle. After checking their equipment, their faces were filled with seriousness and caution before the mission.
Since a large number of personnel have been withdrawn, the new soldiers are not very familiar with the surrounding environment and their efficiency in executing tasks is much lower than before. They are okay in defending the base, but some important tasks still have to be carried out by well-trained rangers like Lu Mingfei.
This will not only reduce casualties but also make the mission more efficient. Now the whole society is paying special attention to this terrorist attack, and they must bring the murderers behind it to justice as soon as possible.
"Why is the signal so bad here?" Lu Mingfei frowned and glanced at the navigation that flashed from time to time, his fingers tapping lightly on the steering wheel. Because he didn't know what kind of enemy he would face next, Lu Mingfei drove the car himself, as he was worried about leaving it to others.
"I remember that there are 7G base stations covering thousands of kilometers around the base. How could this happen?" Xu Yanbo looked out the window curiously. There was a vast expanse of yellow earth, and occasionally a few dilapidated huts passed by the field of vision. Every scene looked extremely desolate.
"The 7G base station here must have been smashed. No wonder the signal is so bad. Brother Lu, I see you don't surf the Internet much. I guess you don't know about the anti-intellectual remarks on the Internet now. They say that the 7G signal caused the crop failure."
"There's no such thing as a solar crisis, it's just an excuse for the coalition government to consolidate its power. They tell people not to wear sunglasses when going out on the street, and they say that believing in the sun will give you eternal life, and that it was the solar probe that triggered the solar helium flash..." Xu Yanbo shook his head helplessly, his tone filled with disbelief.
It’s not that Lu Mingfei doesn’t go online, he just rarely goes online. He has seen these comments, but he didn’t expect them to be so serious.
"Alas, recently they have started promoting that plan of a hundred years of happiness, demanding that the coalition government abandon all plans and distribute all resources equally to everyone so that everyone can live a happy life. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth fighting so hard for those coin-killing guys." There was a hint of melancholy in Xu Yanbo's voice. He folded his hands across his chest, leaned back in his chair, with a little confusion in his eyes.
Whenever this kid has nothing to do, he holds his phone and argues with other people online to vent his hormones that have nowhere to go, but every time he ends up being furious with the comments online.
"Okay, stop complaining. We're here. Everyone get ready to act." Lu Mingfei stopped the car. A dilapidated building not far away was the location of the coordinates.
Lu Mingfei stared at the dilapidated building through the car window. There was silence all around, as if this place had been forgotten for a long time. He quickly glanced at the surrounding environment and felt a little uneasy. This place was too desolate.
"Be careful, this place doesn't look empty." Lu Mingfei whispered with a hint of vigilance in his tone. He picked up his equipment, checked the battery of the stun gun, and looked at the flash grenades hanging around his waist to confirm that everything was ready.
The other rangers also jumped off the car quickly with clean and neat movements, picked up their weapons, and quickly dispersed to both sides of the car to ensure that all directions were covered.
Xu Yanbo raised his gun, aimed at a broken window of the small building, and whispered, "Brother Lu, do you want to send an unmanned detection vehicle in to investigate first? This place is a bit weird."
Lu Mingfei nodded, indicating that he could move. The unmanned detection vehicle is a small automatic reconnaissance device, somewhat like the remote control car that children play with, but it is equipped with a panoramic camera and detection sensors, and can perform remote detection in dangerous environments.
Xu Yanbo quickly took out an unmanned exploration vehicle from the back of the car and pressed the start button. The robot glided forward silently and quickly approached the small building.
On the screen, the picture sent back by the unmanned exploration vehicle was dim, but the outline of the interior of the small building could be vaguely seen. Lu Mingfei stared at the screen with a frown. The infrared images that kept jumping on the screen showed that there were multiple heat sources inside the small building.
"There are people inside." Lu Mingfei said in a deep voice, pointing at several vaguely moving red figures on the screen, "At least ten people, all gathered on the first floor, seeming to be guarding something."
Xu Yanbo nodded and quickly operated the unmanned vehicle to continue moving forward. However, just as the unmanned vehicle approached the gate, a sharp beep suddenly sounded, and then the picture on the screen went black instantly.
"They have jamming equipment!" Xu Yanbo slammed the car door, looking a little anxious, "We've been discovered!"
"Everyone, prepare for battle and act according to the plan." Lu Mingfei's voice was low and calm, and he quickly gave the order, "I will be responsible for attracting fire from the front, Xu Yanbo, you take two people to break in from the side."
After saying that, Lu Mingfei took the lead in pushing open the car door and quickly approached a broken wall in front of the small building. His movements were flexible and swift, like a cheetah moving in the night, extremely agile. He lay behind the wall, his eyes scanning every detail of the small building, searching for possible hidden enemies.
Xu Yanbo and two rangers went around from the side. Their footsteps were light and silent, and their figures almost completely blended into the surrounding shadows.
Although the training at the base had made them accustomed to high-intensity tasks, everyone's heart was still beating rapidly at this moment, and the tension in the night became increasingly oppressive.
The door frame robot was arranged to provide support not far away because the target was too large.
"Action." Lu Mingfei said into the microphone in his headset, then quickly stood up, aimed at the main entrance of the small building, and threw a flash bomb towards the crumbling wooden door.
"Bang!" The flash bomb exploded behind the door, and the strong light instantly filled the entire room. Accompanied by a loud bang, several panicked curses and the sound of a chair falling to the ground came from inside the house.
At this moment, Lu Mingfei had rushed to the door and fired his stun gun at the enemies in the house. Several muffled sounds were heard in the dim room. The militants obviously did not expect to be attacked. They frantically looked for cover, but before they could react, the Ranger Squad's bullets had suppressed them.
Among the ranger team, only Lu Mingfei had a stun gun, while the rest of the team had real guns because Lu Mingfei had to complete the most important mission of arresting people.
"There are two people on the left!" Xu Yanbo's voice came from the headset, followed by a series of rapid gunshots. The ranger team on the flank also quickly rushed into the small building and engaged in a fierce firefight with the militants in the house.
Sensing the exchange of fire, the door frame robot that was responding not far away immediately came to support.
Lu Mingfei moved swiftly, and each bullet hit the target accurately. His pupils glowed with a faint golden light. The Word Spirit Kamaitachi allowed him to clearly sense every hiding position of the enemy, and he could even hear their panicked breathing.
"I've solved three of them!" Xu Yanbo's voice came through the headset, "But there are still two!"
At this moment, a dull explosion suddenly came from the back of the room. The huge shock wave shattered the surrounding furniture and created countless cracks on the walls.
"They want to blow up the entire building!" Lu Mingfei's heart sank and he shouted, "Everyone evacuate! Be careful of the bomb!"
The Ranger team members responded quickly after hearing the order and retreated to a safe location without hesitation, avoiding the second explosion. At the moment they evacuated, the remaining militants in the house had already activated the self-destruct device, and the mines and explosives inside and outside the building began to gradually explode.
Bursts of explosions rang out in the dark night sky. The entire building was shaking in the flames and could collapse at any time. The Ranger team could only watch the militants and the building disappear in the sea of fire.
"Damn... the mission failed." Xu Yanbo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looking a little annoyed.
Lu Mingfei stood not far away, staring at the small building that had been engulfed in flames, his brows furrowed. It was obvious that the enemy was trying to cover up some important information and would rather destroy everything than let them get access to more intelligence.
“Let’s go back and analyze the data from that device. Maybe we can find other clues.” Lu Mingfei’s voice remained calm, but his heart was filled with pressure and doubts.
"Wait a minute..." Just when Lu Mingfei and his friends were about to return to the base, Lu Mingfei stopped. He always felt like he had missed something.
He returned to the small building where the flames were still burning, then closed his eyes. The kamaitachi unfolded again, and the details that had been ignored before began to be noticed by him again.
Some rustling sounds came from underground, accompanied by some subtle breathing sounds.
"There are still people underground! Everyone pay attention!" Lu Mingfei suddenly opened his eyes, a cold light flashed in his eyes. He had clearly sensed the movement coming from underground. It was the sound of several people whispering to each other, and it seemed that someone was moving something heavy quickly.
Obviously, these people are the enemies who survived the explosion just now, or in other words, they did not participate in the battle above at all, but have been hiding underground, waiting for an opportunity to escape.
The members of the Ranger Team immediately went on alert, quickly adjusted their positions, and blocked all exits around the small building. Xu Yanbo reacted the fastest. He swept his eyes around and quickly locked onto the ruins on one side of the small building. The ground there was slightly raised, which was obviously a passage to the underground entrance.
"Brother Lu, there's something wrong over there!" Xu Yanbo pointed at the ruins, quickly approached, and whispered, "It should lead to the underground."
Lu Mingfei nodded and walked quickly over to the ruins. He squatted down and lightly touched the ground with his fingers. He found a layer of steel plate hidden under the ruins. The surface was covered with thick dirt and dust, which was obviously to hide the entrance to the underground passage.
He carefully sensed the information fed back by the sickle weasel. There were at least three people underground. They were breathing rapidly and were obviously preparing to leave nervously. He didn't know if there were other exits here. He had to enter immediately.
"Xu Yanbo, prepare for blasting. We must open this entrance." Lu Mingfei said in a deep voice, quickly directing the team members to arrange tactics.
"Understood!" Xu Yanbo immediately took out several small blasting devices from his backpack and quickly attached them around the steel plate. His movements were clean and neat, without any delay.
"Be careful, don't blow up the passage." Lu Mingfei reminded in a low voice.
"Don't worry, Brother Lu, I know my limits." Xu Yanbo grinned, appearing confident.
With a dull explosion, a gap was blown open in the steel plate, revealing a narrow passage leading underground. Smoke filled the air, and the underground passage was faintly visible. There were even a few simple lighting bulbs hanging on the wall, emitting faint light.
"Follow me!" Lu Mingfei jumped down the passage without hesitation, as agile as a cheetah, holding the stun gun tightly in his hand, ready to deal with any emergency at any time.
The underground passage was very narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass through. The air was filled with a damp, musty smell, as well as the burning smell left over from the explosion.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the narrow passage. Lu Mingfei took every step carefully. He could sense that the heartbeats of three people in front of him were gradually speeding up. It was obvious that they had noticed their arrival.
"They are ahead, be careful, they may set a trap." Lu Mingfei whispered to his teammates through the headset.
At the end of the passage, a faint light could be seen. Lu Mingfei approached slowly along the wall. Through the half-open door, he saw three armed men hurriedly packing up some equipment and documents. There were also several computers on the ground that had not been completely turned off, and the screens showed the transmission records of a large amount of encrypted data.
"Do it." Lu Mingfei fixed his eyes and ordered in a low voice.
Following his orders, the Ranger Squad members quickly surrounded the enemy from both sides, and several electric beams instantly pierced through the darkness and hit the enemies in the house.
After a few muffled thuds, the militants fell to the ground before they could react, and the guns in their hands slipped with a crisp collision sound.
"Cleanup complete, all targets subdued." Xu Yanbo's voice came through the headset, with a hint of excitement, "We finally caught them this time!"
Lu Mingfei did not let down his guard. He walked into the house and quickly scanned the equipment and files abandoned by the militants. On the computer screens on the table, the progress bars of data transmission were decreasing rapidly. Obviously, they were trying to destroy all the data before retreating.
“Quick, disconnect all devices, we can’t let them destroy this data!” Lu Mingfei shouted suddenly, and quickly unplugged several transmission lines in an attempt to prevent the destruction of the data.
Xu Yanbo also quickly stepped forward to help, his fingers tapping quickly on the keyboard, "I'll try to recover these encrypted files and see if I can find any useful clues."
The progress bar on the screen gradually stopped under Lu Mingfei's operation, and the data transmission was successfully interrupted, but it was obvious that some files had been completely deleted.
"I tried my best to restore some of them, but some files have been damaged beyond repair." Xu Yanbo frowned and said, "But judging from these remaining files, it seems that there is a plan for a large military base behind it."
Lu Mingfei's eyes flickered on the screen and his brows furrowed more and more. He realized that the information contained in these files was far more than just a simple terrorist attack.
The data mentioned a lot of details about the construction of planetary engines, some confidential content that they had never mastered before, and even mentioned a list of secret supporters of the digital life plan from various countries.
"Take all the equipment and documents that can be taken away, let's go back to the base and thoroughly analyze the information." Lu Mingfei gave the order calmly, his eyes still fixed on the screen, his mind working rapidly.
The Ranger Team acted quickly and began packing all the equipment and documents they could carry. Their movements were skillful and orderly, without a trace of panic. Everyone knew that these devices might be the key to unlocking the truth of the whole incident.
However, just as they were packing up and preparing to evacuate, Xu Yanbo's face suddenly became anxious, his hands suddenly stopped on the keyboard, and a hint of fear flashed in his eyes.
"Damn it! Brother Lu and the others were not destroying files just now. Instead, they were releasing an electronic virus that is rapidly parasitizing servers around the world." Xu Yanbo's voice sounded a little anxious.
"Quick, stop these viruses from spreading!" Lu Mingfei ordered in a low voice, his tone full of urgency.
Xu Yanbo operated the keyboard quickly, but his fingers trembled slightly. The codes jumping on the screen became more and more complicated. The virus invaded at an alarming speed. Almost as soon as they blocked one place, the virus would move to another.
"This thing is too powerful!" Xu Yanbo began to sweat on his forehead. "They are not only infecting the server, but also actively looking for new paths. This is not like an ordinary hacker attack, but more like some kind of highly intelligent AI virus."
"Unplug the power!" In an emergency, Lu Mingfei pulled out his pistol, aimed at the power box next to him and shot. Soon the underground space became dark, and after a while several beams of flashlight lit up.
"It's too late, Brother Lu. Those viruses have spread to every corner of the world." Under the light of the flashlight, Xu Yanbo's face was a little pale. He majored in computer science when he was in military school, and he knew best how terrible those viruses were.
"Let's go back to the base and let professionals handle it." Lu Mingfei gave the order after a long silence. After all, it would be useless for them to be here now.
Soon, the Ranger Team returned to the armored vehicle with the information and the three militants who were stunned by the electric shock gun and drove towards the base.
On the way back to the Gabon base, the atmosphere in the car was even heavier than when we set out. In the dim compartment, only the light from the dashboard faintly illuminated everyone's tense faces. The armored vehicle's engine roared low, drowning out the sound of the wheels rolling over gravel.
Most of the team members were silent, their thoughts in confusion. Lu Mingfei sat in the driver's seat, his eyes fixed on the front, but his mind was still on what had just happened.
Xu Yanbo's words echoed in his ears. Those viruses, like an invisible net, spread across the globe in an instant. Lu Mingfei's fingers tapped unconsciously on the steering wheel, and his inner uneasiness gradually grew.
The silence in the car lasted for a while, and finally Xu Yanbo broke the depressing atmosphere. "Brother Lu, do you think these viruses can really be solved by the technical experts at the base?"
Lu Mingfei did not answer immediately. He just stared at the darkness ahead, as if trying to find the answer from the pitch-black night. After a few seconds, he whispered, "We have to trust them, but we must also prepare for the worst."
The armored vehicle was driving in the night, the scenery outside the window was blurry, the Gabon base in the distance was brightly lit, like an isolated island in the darkness, gradually, the outline of the base appeared in front, and the Ranger team finally returned to a relatively safe area.
After arriving at the base, Lu Mingfei led the team quickly into the command center. Their arrival caused quite a stir. The staff of various departments had already received the notification of their return, especially the technical team responsible for intelligence processing, who were anxiously waiting for the equipment and intelligence they would bring back.
"What is this?" A technician in a white coat frowned immediately when he saw the encryption device handed over by Xu Yanbo. He tapped the surface of the device lightly with his hand, and his expression became more solemn.
"What you brought back is not simple. The encryption algorithm on this device... is very rare." The technician immediately asked other people to come over and began to conduct more detailed inspection and analysis of the equipment.
Lu Mingfei stood aside, quietly observing all this. He did not participate in the technical discussion, but he could see that the faces of these technicians were getting uglier and uglier.
A few minutes later, an older technician came over, his face full of fatigue and heaviness. "Captain Lu, we have preliminarily analyzed the data of the equipment... The situation is not good. These viruses are not only attacking the server, they are also constantly learning and evolving."
"Evolution?" Lu Mingfei frowned, realizing the seriousness of the problem.
"Yes," the technician nodded. "These viruses seem to have some kind of self-replication and adaptability. They can adjust according to different network environments and even avoid some of our conventional firewalls and security programs. Their goal is not only to paralyze the system, but to occupy key infrastructure worldwide."
Lu Mingfei's heartbeat quickened. He was no longer an ordinary soldier. He had experienced too many unreasonable things over the years and was accustomed to facing uncontrollable situations. However, he felt powerless against this kind of technical invasion.
"So, how should we respond?" Lu Mingfei asked calmly.
The technician took a deep breath and replied, "We will build a defense system as soon as possible, but this will take time. If we cannot establish an effective defense before the virus spreads, the world's network systems and infrastructure will be affected, and it may even affect the construction and control systems of planetary engines."
Lu Mingfei pursed his lips tightly, his inner anxiety growing, but he knew that being anxious would be useless. "You guys act as soon as possible, we will protect the base and prevent any external attacks."
The technician nodded and immediately got down to work.
Lu Mingfei turned around and glanced at Xu Yanbo and the other Rangers. A firm look flashed in his eyes. "Every minute that follows is crucial. We must ensure that the base is not threatened by any external forces. We must remain alert and be ready for the next battle at any time."
The Gabon base once again entered a state of emergency alert.
(End of this chapter)
