First of all, next time we meet, make sure to greet me properly. If you dare to lay a hand on me again, I'll truly go against you all.
In Night City, you guys at Internet Supervision should take it easy; otherwise, if you die, no one will bury you."
Mercer's figure vanished instantly, leaving only a soybean smiley face icon stamped on the ground, causing the two immobilized Internet Supervision agents to look at each other in dismay.
"Damn... This is bad. Since when did Night City get such a master?"
David's data face was full of frustration.
Zack sighed, with half of his body still buried in the trap program, now putting all his effort into trying to crack it.
Though he couldn't find any vulnerabilities or good methods, by utilizing server power, he could still violently rescue himself, especially when Mercer soon stopped supplying the program with server power, causing the data black hole to disappear immediately.
"That guy is ruthless, to be honest, not our match—can't even use server power. The opponent directly targets program vulnerabilities.
The server power was used to the maximum by me, yet I still couldn't find any loopholes in this program. I had to try using server power to counterbalance... But the opponent doesn't give us the chance to compete in server power.
What do you think?"
Zack looked at David.
David pondered for a moment, then said, "Report it. This guy must have a small, no, I think it's a medium-sized server providing him with power support.
His thinking speed is too fast; I suspect even with server power aiding us, our thinking speed doesn't reach half of his. This level of accelerated thinking can't solely rely on one's brain power.
From electricity usage and recent server equipment purchases, see if we can find any clues.
This guy should be new to Night City. This low latency isn't like pulling a dedicated line from elsewhere.
In short... it looks like we're adding a new name to our internal wanted list.
What do you plan to call him?"
"Smiling Monster?" Zack glanced down at the soybean smiley on the ground that seemed to be mocking him.
"That works." David said helplessly, "These newbie hackers, how come each one is so lawless? It's almost 2072, and they still dare to jump around like this."
"Alright, the subsequent actions should follow the old rules and be handed over to someone else; our skills aren't enough... Don't worry, even that bullish Lark was dealt with in the end, right?
Let them investigate offline, what danger level do you plan to give on the network?"
Zack asked.
David thought for a moment: "Highest level, report to headquarters. This kind of person needs to be registered early."
"Tsk tsk, how many years has it been since there's been such a fierce hacker? We're really unlucky; luckily the opponent was decent enough not to roast us."
After Zack spoke, David shrugged, also showing a relieved expression, the two exchanged glances, checked with server power to ensure no back door was left, and then logged off simultaneously.
Ten minutes later, the public network wanted list in Night City silently appeared with a smiley icon.
[Wanted: Smiling Monster.]
[Gender: Most likely male]
[Identity: Unknown]
[Age: Unknown]
[Appearance: Wears a ghastly smile face mask, height approximately that of an average adult male, no special markers. (See attached picture)]
[Crime Record: Hacked into Twist Street's 'Spring Night' Sex Doll Club server, used Magic Puppet Program to kill twenty-three citizens of Night City, overclocked the server causing a fire, resulting in significant property damage.
Assaulted Internet Supervision, causing them mental trauma...]
[Warning Statement: This person is extremely dangerous, possesses advanced Magic Puppet Programs capable of locking networks and obstructing disconnections, suspected to have medium to large server power support. If encountered in Cyberspace, it's advised to disconnect immediately to avoid.
[Danger Level: Extremely High (Emphasized in bold).]