Chapter 444 - We do not accept your surrender! (1/2)
Chapter 444: We do not accept your surrender!
Afternoon.
Work had ended at the Internet Surveillance Bureau.
”It's time to call it a day. Everyone has worked hard for the past two days. Go home and rest well now.” Dong Zhiqiang came into the office to announced an early release for today. Then, he went to look for Zhang Ye and laughed as he said, ”Teacher Zhang, you may go back too. You don't need to report here anymore starting tomorrow. The matter you are a.s.sisting us with has already been approved and with the Panda Burning Incense incident, the top management won't be asking about you anymore.”
The reason he was here was only symbolic and right now, he had completed what he was needed here for.
Zhang Ye smiled, ”Sure, let me treat everyone to dinner.”
Dong Zhiqiang did not accept and said, ”How is that alright?”
Zhang Ye stood up and said, ”Although it's not even been two days, I feel that I've been very welcome here. Now that I'm leaving, I definitely need to buy everyone dinner.”
Fang Xiaoshui, who was already very hungry, said, ”Ah ha, if Teacher Zhang says so, then I won't refuse.”
Meng Yi also chirped, ”Teacher Zhang is rich, we don't need to help him save.”
”Right, choose anywhere you’d like.” Zhang Ye gave a wave of his hands, full of generosity.
Dong Zhiqiang did not refuse or say much. He instructed two people to stay stay on duty as the rest marched out of their office with Fan Yingyun following behind too.
The snow had not stopped, but had lightened.
As tiny snowflakes drifted down, some falling onto their faces. It was a soothing feeling.
Fang Xiaoshui was still in her police uniform. It was not known what the rules were for the Internet Surveillance Bureau, but Meng Yi and Zhang Er were also in their uniforms, while the rest were in casual clothes. Amongst all of them, Fan Yingyun was the most striking and stood out from the rest. A short haired beauty in a police uniform. As they walked through the street, she attracted a number of gazes from pa.s.sers-by, with a very high head-turning rate. Several students who were on the streets trying to light some firecrackers stopped when they saw Fan Yingyun, as they all looked over at her.
Fan Yingyun just looked straight ahead as she stepped on the soft snow covered streets in her leather boots. It made a crunching sound with each step she took.
”We've finally finished our work.” Zhang Er said.
Meng Yi said, ”Today's such a day of relief.”
An old cyber-police said, ”Yea, those Koreans have finally been dealt with.”
Fang Xiaoshui said as she walked, ”This incident blew up. I wonder how much they’ll lose economically, hundreds of millions in US dollars at least, I would a.s.sume?”
”Hundreds of millions? That might not be right.” Dong Zhiqiang was also more relaxed and less uptight since he was out of uniform. He casually mentioned, ”An estimate of a few billion is already on the low side, do you know what age this is? It is the age of the modern internet. Who doesn't use a computer? Which company doesn't need computers? If it were personal losses, it might still be OK. At most you'd lose some data and have some delays. but to those corporations and the government, this virus infection would be considered a disaster for them. If they carry on allowing the Panda Burning Incense to wreak havoc like this, if the Korean authorities do not quickly resolve this issue, the Korean economy might even be set back by several months! Just think about that, how could it be just losses in the hundreds of millions?”
Fan Yingyun interrupted, ”Are there any leads on that '2'?”
Dong Zhiqiang shook his head, ”No, there's no sign of him at all. We only know that he is a Chinese citizen and has pretty good literary skills. As for his gender.....that's also unclear. He was very covert in what he did and his technical skills are very high too. There was not a lead that we could follow. The leaders have already had a meeting and I understand that they have discussed about '2' already. I'm guessing that '2' will be our mission for the next few days and our objective is to find him. Even if he did not cause our nation much damage, he did cause quite ma.s.sive hysteria around the world. He targeted the Korean internet and destroyed it, causing great economic losses. That in itself is already considered an act of terrorism. A dangerous person like that who can easily destroy 20-30% of computers in a country, not only is he Chinese, but he might also be living within China? Who's not to be fearful of him! That's '2' is a ticking time bomb!”
Zhang Ye looked at the snow, not saying a word at all.
The Internet Surveillance Bureau people were discussing, even the pa.s.sers-by were doing the same.
A couple, who was walking towards them, just discussed this matter too.
”I heard that slightly less than half of all the computers in Korea have been infected by a virus!”
”How can that be? That's too many.”
”It's true. Didn't you watch the news? It's already been reported.”
”Ah? That serious?”
”Seems like it. There aren't even many computers that can even use the internet in Korea right now. I spoke on the phone with one of my friends who is studying in Korea and he's telling me that Korea is in a state of chaos right now. There are so many people who can't get online, from internet cafes, shops, education sectors, and many corporations have all stopped work. They have all been affected by the Panda Burning Incense virus. The author of that virus appears to be a Chinese citizen.”
”What a fierce person!”
”Haha, that's great! That bunch of Koreans should have already been taught a lesson long ago! They attacked our websites without any good reason? And even stole and took over our celebrity accounts? Let's see if they still dare to come now! Having been taught such a b.l.o.o.d.y lesson, I think they would want to take a detour the next time they see us! The Sino-Korean hacker war seems to be a joke now. A war, my a.s.s! We just had one hacker represent our country and it was enough to wipe all of them out! It wasn’t even a battle! It was a ma.s.sacre!”
”My hero.”
”My hero too! When I have the chance, I want to brush up on my computer skills too. If I can have just 0.1% of the skills of '2', I would be happy enough, and if there's another hacking battle in the future, I want to take part too! Glory for our country!”
This was how a majority of people felt.
By now, all of society was discussing the Panda Burning Incense virus.
”We're here.” Dong Zhiqiang pointed to the front.
Zhang Ye saw the place and smiled, ”You're helping me to save money, aren't you?”
Dong Zhiqiang chuckled, ”As long as it's delicious, the price doesn't matter. We usually come here to eat anyway and it's quite good. The taste is just right.”
The restaurant wasn't big, about a 100 meters square. It was a Shabu-shabu house.
When everyone saw the place, they felt the hunger coming on. After entering, they immediately ordered some dishes without holding back.
”I want a plate of mutton!”
”Give us five plates, there are so many of us.”
”I want two plates of fatty beef and a plate of prawns!”
”I want tofu. Oh right, it's a cold day today. Teacher Zhang, you want some Erguotou?”
Meng Yi had just finished asking when Fan Yingyun interrupted, ”Teacher Zhang drove here today, why would you ask him if he wanted Erguotou? You have such low awareness.”
Meng Yi, ”.....Hai, I forgot.”
Zhang Ye laughed, ”It's alright, I'll have some.”
Fan Yingyun waved her hands, ”Forget that. You should just have warm water.” As she said so, she stared at the male waiter, who was stealing glimpses of her, ”What are you looking at me for, pour us some water.”
The waiter was startled, thinking that this beauty was really too fierce. He hurriedly said, ”Ah, OK, OK.” and reactively poured the water for Fan Yingyun.
But Fan Yingyun pointed, ”Pour it for Teacher Zhang first.”
”Uh, OK.” the waiter obeyed her.
”Hey, thanks.” Zhang Ye held his cup up as he said to the waiter and also, Fan Yingyun.
Everyone from the Internet Surveillance Bureau's First Department who looked at how thoughtful Fan Yingyun was towards Zhang Ye felt rather uncomfortable at her new found politeness. You're so good to Teacher Zhang, but so terrible to everyone else. Isn't this some sort of discrimination!? But thinking about it, Teacher Zhang Ye was definitely more talented and on a different level with them computer ”brutes”, so they didn't feel too bad anyway.
The dishes were served.
Everyone started eating.
There was a news broadcast on television which was fixed overhead.
”According to reports, the Panda Burning Incense virus infection is spreading further in Korea and has affected more and more users. We interviewed a member of the China Malware Protection Center and understand that this is a worm virus, but not the usual ones that we have encountered in the past. It is a very destructive virus and spreads very quickly. What's even more alarming is that this worm virus has as many as 100 variants now. It can be considered as the most destructive worm in the history of worm viruses. Just based on the number of systems it has infected already puts it in unprecedented territory!”
Panda Burning Incense!
Panda Burning Incense!
The entire world was frowning because of it!
The media, the news, online, all of them were reporting about it!
Halfway through the meal, Dong Zhiqiang's cellphone rang. From his expression when he answered the call, it was probably a leader from the Internet Surveillance Bureau or Public Security Department calling ”Yes, yes...I understand. I will return immediately!” He hung up and stuffed a few more pieces of mutton into his mouth, ”We have to go! We can't go home as we just received new orders. The Panda Burning Incense has appeared in a northeastern province and there's a small scale invasion of the systems there. Upper management has issued an emergency notice for us at the Internet Surveillance Bureau to go back to help control the situation. We cannot have a repeat of what happened in Korea happening here!”
Zhang Er said, ”It's only a few hundred computers, isn't that making a mountain out of a molehill?”
Dong Zhiqiang looked at him, ”This is the Panda Burning Incense virus we’re talking about. If it spreads, are you intending to watch our nation become the next Korea?”
When they all heard these words, all of them panicked!
That's right!
Even if '2' had configured the virus to only attack Korean language based systems, it was still the Panda Burning Incense virus they were talking about. A worm virus that had crippled the Korean internet!
”Teacher Zhang, you should be going home already.”