On the other side of the city, Calvin emerged from the bar, started the rented hover car and headed toward the nearest arsenal.
Halfway there, he spotted two people sprinting wildly along the roadside. He stopped and honked the horn. After exchanging a quick look with them, Calvin immediately called out, “Are the braised pork ribs served in the cafeteria on the seventh of every month any good?”
The person opposite him was panting heavily. After staring blankly for two seconds, they answered indignantly, “I’ve never managed to get any! All I know is that the smoked fish they serve that day is way too salty!”
Calvin opened the car door. “You’re one of us. Get in!”
Once the hover car was overloaded and there was no room for a fourth person, Calvin yanked the control lever hard.
The hover car shot forward like an arrow.
The person who had complained about the smoked fish spoke up. “When I received the commander’s message, I was soaking in a hot bath. I threw on my clothes and ran straight out and I hadn’t even washed all the soap bubbles off my body. The rebel army must be causing trouble again. They interrupted my bath!”
Another person also spoke. “According to the order, we’re supposed to go to the arsenal first and then to the stellar class missile storage site. This time, whatever is happening, it’s going to be big.”
“I’m guessing everyone who hasn’t returned to their ships yet is probably sprinting through the night right now.” Calvin sounded proud. “I’m different. I have a car.”
Once they reached the armory, the three of them stopped making small talk. The communicators built into their personal terminals were linked directly to their auditory nerves and an electronic voice was already analyzing the details of the mission.
At the same time, based on their respective military ranks, a temporary commander for the operation was determined within thirty seconds.
Under the cover of night, everyone lined up and swiftly retrieved their weapons from the opened armory. Apart from the heavy sound of their footsteps, there was complete silence, without even the slightest trace of unnecessary noise.
It had been an extremely sudden mission yet the Expeditionary Army displayed an exceptionally high level of discipline and professionalism.
Inside the hotel room, the originally scattered points of light on the map had already gathered into seven groups, each moving in an orderly fashion according to the instructions.
Lu Fenghan asked Pojun, “What’s the situation on the other side?”
Red points of light appeared on the map. Pojun answered, “The enemy is currently heading toward the coordinates. Based on their current speed, they will make contact with our forces at the first set of coordinates in seventeen minutes.”
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Lu Fenghan crossed the room in two steps and opened it. Three people carrying small optical computers entered. The moment they came inside, all three simultaneously raised their hands in a military salute toward Lu Fenghan, their backs and shoulders held perfectly straight.
Qi Yan also turned his head, not expecting to see Ye Pei.
Ye Pei saw Qi Yan as well and blinked at him in greeting. Only after Lu Fenghan said, “Thank you for your hard work,” did she lower her hand.
She had sprinted all the way here. Although her physical fitness had improved considerably since her time at Turan, her lungs and windpipe still felt as though they were being torn apart. Even her voice was slightly hoarse when she finally spoke.
Ye Pei had only recently joined the Expeditionary Army and did not really understand what had happened. However, receiving an emergency order during her leave was already enough to indicate the severity of the situation.
Her eyes involuntarily wandered over Lu Fenghan, who looked cold and solemn. After taking off his military uniform and changing into a gray windbreaker, Lu Fenghan did not seem much different from the man she had known on Leto.
Even now, she still found it difficult to believe that Qi Yan’s bodyguard, the man with the surname Lu, was actually the commander in chief of the Expeditionary Army!
She and Mondrian had both firmly believed that the commander had spent so long concealing his identity on Leto because he was carrying out some mysterious mission that could not be spoken of, or because he had some particular objective to accomplish and therefore could not reveal his whereabouts!
While all sorts of thoughts raced chaotically through her mind, Lu Fenghan pointed at her. “Give the small optical computer to Qi Yan.” Then he instructed the other two, “Stand by and follow Qi Yan’s orders.”
The room, which had not been particularly large to begin with, immediately felt even more cramped with three additional people inside.
Qi Yan found a table and placed Ye Pei’s small optical computer on it. He turned it on and, following the route he and Pojun had worked out through their analysis, bypassed the outer layers and entered the internal system of Miknuo Star’s key verification system.
The three people from Ye Pei’s group stood behind Qi Yan. They watched as he entered commands one after another with flying fingers, as though he did not need to think at all. The character strings displayed across the screen refreshed at an increasingly rapid pace.
Apart from Ye Pei, the other two had both served in the technical department for more than three years. Naturally, they could tell where Qi Yan was headed and they suddenly realized just how astonishing his abilities were.
However, neither of them dared to ask any questions. They simply followed Lu Fenghan’s orders and stood quietly to the side, waiting.
In the end, it was Ye Pei who asked, “Qi Yan, are you currently…?”
Qi Yan was dividing his attention between two things at once as he answered, “The rebel army has allied itself with interstellar pirates and plans to hijack this planet. After negotiating with Odin, they will directly detonate forty two stellar grade missiles.”
Although Ye Pei had already become completely accustomed to the concise and efficient commands and exchanges within the Expeditionary Army, the information contained in those words still left her stunned where she stood. Her mind became a complete mess and it took her quite some time to sort everything out.
Qi Yan estimated that she had probably managed to digest the news, so he continued, “Communications outside the planet have been cut off, so we cannot contact the command ship. The General is already intercepting the enemy’s operation. I am intercepting the security key system they are attempting to crack for the stellar grade missiles.”
Ye Pei nodded.
She went over Qi Yan’s words in her mind several more times before finally understanding the current situation completely.
She opened her mouth, wanting to ask whether there was anything she could do to help but when she saw the concentrated look in Qi Yan’s eyes as he stared at the screen, the faint light casting a layer of coolness over the side of his face, she instinctively decided not to make a sound and disturb him.
At that moment, there was an inexplicable quality about Qi Yan that made people feel calm and inspired an unquestioning sense of trust.
Although intercepting an enemy’s attempt to crack the security key system of stellar grade missiles sounded extremely difficult and the psychological pressure he was undoubtedly under had to be enormous, she simply felt that this was something Qi Yan would not be defeated by.
At that moment, Qi Yan was hiding behind the “door,” observing the movements on the other side.
It was not long before a sensing program he had set up was triggered.
Qi Yan told Lu Fenghan, “The enemy has already entered.”
The interstellar pirate on the other side was highly experienced. When infiltrating the security key system, he had not left behind a single “tail,” nor had he triggered even one alarm. If Qi Yan had not set up a sensing program in advance, there would have been no way to detect his presence.
“Pojun, I’ll send you the data generated when the other side triggered my sensing program. Analyze it as quickly as possible and determine his location while he still hasn’t discovered my presence.”
Pojun’s voice sounded. “Understood.”
Instead, the three people from the technical department were startled by the sudden voice. Once they realized that it was the artificial intelligence that had been moving around the command ship recently, their professional instincts were immediately aroused and they subconsciously wanted to investigate exactly what was going on with this artificial intelligence.
Just as Qi Yan had predicted, the other side had something resembling a blocker capable of severing the connection between the key and the security system. In this way, even when the number of key verification attempts exceeded two, the security system would not activate.
Very soon, faced with an unknown “keyhole,” the other side began attempting to match a “key.”
The program being used was a forward verification system. In other words, when the specific format of the key was unknown, the opposing program would first try a combination such as “3m7Scβ.” If the verification failed, it would then follow the logic programmed into the system and attempt to verify whether “3m7Scγ” was correct.
Under these circumstances, what Qi Yan could do was to wait until the program had finished verifying “3m7Scβ” and had begun verifying “3m7Scγ,” then change the correct key to “3m7Scβ.”
The opposing program ran extremely quickly. If there were a total of one hundred possible key combinations, then by the time it was verifying the ninety first combination, the first eighty of the ninety combinations it had already verified would have re entered the verification sequence.
Then, when the ninety first key was being verified, Qi Yan had to change the key to one of the keys between the eighty first and ninetieth groups.
As a result, no matter how the other side carried out its verification, it would never be able to match the correct key to the correct keyhole.
That was simply because, under Qi Yan’s control, the keyhole itself was constantly changing.
Ye Pei did not know exactly what method Qi Yan was using. All she could see was the strings of garbled looking key characters flashing across the screen, streams of information pouring into her eyes like a waterfall, while Qi Yan would enter a string of characters into a long, rectangular blank field.
At the same time, in the square window at the bottom right corner, the message “Key Error” kept appearing again and again, constantly indicating that the key on the other side was incorrect.
The most experienced technician among the three spoke in a low voice, “This… this is incredible! It’s practically all based on his memory. He has to find the appropriate key from those fleeting ‘garbled characters’ flashing past his eyes and enter it into that box!”
He explained it to the two juniors beside him. “It’s similar to having 1, 2, 3 and 4 form a cycle. When the other side thinks the key is 3 or 4, Qi Yan changes the key to 2. When the other side thinks the key is 4 or 1, Qi Yan changes it to 3. When the other side thinks it’s 1 or 2, Qi Yan changes it to 4. That way, the other side will always be wrong!”
Just then, Qi Yan spoke.
“This optical computer can’t hold out any longer. Ye Pei, help me change to another one!”
Ye Pei immediately answered. She took the optical computer from the senior technician’s hands, quickly powered it on, connected it to her own and placed it beside Qi Yan.
Then, taking advantage of the gap of less than five seconds, Qi Yan transferred everything over to the new optical computer. At almost the exact same moment, just as Qi Yan had predicted, Ye Pei’s optical computer emitted a sharp “zzzt”
Because the computational load had become too great, the internal optical modulator had burned out completely and the screen instantly went black.
Only at that moment did Ye Pei clearly realize just how enormous the flow of information Qi Yan was dealing with truly was!
None of the three people said another word, afraid that even the slightest disturbance would interfere with Qi Yan.
Inside the narrow room, the only sounds were Lu Fenghan continually issuing commands to Pojun based on the changing battle situation and Pojun relaying those commands to the communicators built into everyone’s personal terminals.
As the seconds and minutes passed, a layer of cold sweat had already formed across Qi Yan’s smooth forehead. Because his attention was so intensely concentrated, he blinked only a handful of times and his eyes had gradually become bloodshot.
Ye Pei anxiously dug her fingertips into the back of the chair but she bit down on her lower lip and did not dare make a sound.
“Ye Pei, change to another one.”
Qi Yan’s voice was slightly hoarse when he spoke.
Ye Pei startled, not daring to waste a moment. She immediately placed the third optical computer beside Qi Yan.
The second optical computer that had just been replaced suffered the same fate as the first. Its optical modulator had also burned out and the smell of something scorched gradually spread through the air.
Qi Yan’s temples were tightly drawn and his eyes were stabbing with pain. It felt as though steel needles had been driven violently into both sides of his head, then twisted hard twice for good measure. Because his brain was operating under excessive heat and strain, he even experienced the strange sensation of being so exhausted that he felt nauseous.
At that moment, Pojun reported, “Based on the data you provided, we have determined the location of the enemy’s codebreaker.”
At the same time, the coordinates appeared on the map.
Lu Fenghan gave the order in a deep voice. “Have the personnel waiting nearby move immediately. Once they see this person, kill them on the spot!”
Pojun replied, “Understood, General.”
Qi Yan’s fingers did not stop moving. He lightly bit down on his lower lip, using the sharp pain to maintain complete clarity of mind.
The only thing worth being thankful for was that the other side was using forward cyclic verification. He had already memorized every key he had entered, so at this point, he merely had to repeat them in sequence.
There was a knock at the door.
Ye Pei hurried over to open it and ushered two members of the technical department inside. Without waiting for Qi Yan to ask, she first took out one of their small optical computers and placed it nearby as a backup, then briefly explained the current situation to them.
Sure enough, less than two minutes later, Qi Yan spoke again.
“Ye Pei, change to another one.”
Ye Pei replaced it efficiently.
The smell of something scorched grew even stronger, the third optical computer had already burned out.
Meanwhile, the cold sweat on Qi Yan’s forehead flowed past the corner of his eye and trickled downward. His already pale, cold white skin had become almost the color of frost and there was barely any color left in his lips either.
Ye Pei could not help looking toward the illuminated map in the room, secretly growing more anxious.
Completely unaware of the emotions of those around him, Qi Yan’s head throbbed with a sharp, stabbing pain. He continued mechanically judging and entering the keys, his knuckles aching so badly that he had already lost most of the sensation in them.
Just then, the program on the other side, which had never stopped running, suddenly came to a halt.
The characters on the screen were like a waterfall splashing through the air before suddenly freezing in place. There was no longer any change.
In the square window at the bottom right corner, the message finally stopped on the four characters: “Key Error.”
Qi Yan’s fingers froze in midair.
The next second, Lu Fenghan’s voice sounded.
“The codebreaker has been killed!”
Ye Pei’s fingers clenched abruptly before immediately relaxing again. “Killed? Does that mean the stellar grade missiles no longer have any chance of exploding?”
Pojun answered the question. “Miss Ye Pei, for the time being, things are as you have imagined.”
Qi Yan closed his stinging, aching eyes. After taking a moment to recover, he finally turned his head toward Lu Fenghan.
Beside him were three small optical computers that had already been burned out.
Lu Fenghan understood what Qi Yan meant. He also noticed the dampness at Qi Yan’s temples and the frosty pallor of his face.
He did not hesitate to praise him. “Our Qi Yan is really amazing.”
His voice was low and gentle.
There was none of the cold hardness it carried when he issued commands and a trace of concern could easily be caught in the depths of his eyes.
The fingers resting on Qi Yan’s lap moved slightly. His face still pale, he deliberately shifted his gaze away from Lu Fenghan’s and answered as calmly as he could, “Mm.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
A wild translator appears! Their weakness: coffee. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 50 · I am Pojun.Chapter 51 · Unable to deceive oneselfChapter 52 · Resurrected from the deadChapter 53 · Hello, General!Chapter 54 · My hand is injured.Chapter 55 · Come to my place.Chapter 56 · First VictoryChapter 57 · Self-introductionChapter 58 · Never changedChapter 59 · One reasonChapter 60 · Gentle and restrainedChapter 61 · Only you are allowed.Chapter 62 · To the Souls of the FallenChapter 63 · His reliefChapter 64 · His ambitionChapter 65 · Date TimeChapter 66 Part 1 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 66 Part 2 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 67 · Did not leaveChapter 68 · Perceiving EmotionsChapter 69 · My own effortsChapter 70 · Bright FlameChapter 71 · Dress codeChapter 72 · Take me with you!Chapter 73 · MirageChapter 74 · I’m used to it.