Chapter 12 Our Strength and Weakness

The late-night snack has arrived.

Tan Fu's noodles come in a small bowl, thin and soft, soaking in a light broth.

Although the soup was light, it was extremely fragrant and tempting, and the side dishes were colorful, making it both beautiful and plentiful.

The tray was handed to Qi An, who was then able to step into the bright crystal house.

The people behind the surveillance cameras were intently watching the images on the screen.

The crystal house is exquisitely furnished, with a small cherry wood table, soft, cloud-like bedding, and piles of picture books, dolls, building blocks, and puzzles.

There were also many cameras inside the house, some obvious and some hidden.

Even though the overly bright lights in the room were dimmed to a yellowish hue, and the small dining table was moved to a corner piled with clutter, the people monitoring the situation could still see Tan Fu's every expression and every movement clearly.

There are almost no blind spots; even if Qi An were sitting right across from him, he couldn't be blocked.

However, none of these are the main points. The main point is that everyone saw that Qi An created a very warm and welcoming dining environment.

Tan Fu's unpredictable mood swings continued, and he almost overturned the tray when Qi An was moving the chair.

But after much effort, she finally sat down opposite Qi An.

Although he turned the dish over, he picked up the noodles and ate a couple of bites.

The most nerve-wracking part has arrived. In the monitoring room, there are two... three people. There is also a man around 30 years old with a rather handsome and sharp appearance. He is the inner guard captain and also the security director of "Star Fortress".

Two more people from the cybersecurity department arrived at the door.

Liu Ye, one of the young men, had so much sleep in his eyes that they were almost completely covered. He just glanced casually into the room through the guards and the glass door.

Upon seeing a strange woman in Tan Fu's bedroom, he immediately became more alert and looked on with interest.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen.

Qi An's voice came from the speakers: "The control unit has a camera, you must have seen it on the battlefield. All my comrades like my purification."

My purification will help people drive away fear and pain, and bring them peace.

Do you have trouble falling asleep?

We can bet that if my purification doesn't help you fall asleep, you can pull me around like a little bear, and I won't fight back!

Tan Fu looked at the little bear that looked like a tattered sack in the corner, tilted his head, and was clearly interested.

It would be abnormal if she wasn't interested; someone in the monitoring room rolled their eyes.

"You really dare to make such a boast. If you don't achieve your goal, are you just going to watch you get tormented by this little madwoman?"

Inside the Crystal House, Qi An sat down on the sofa. Tan Fu stood for a moment and then walked over and sat down beside her.

Everyone in the monitoring room sat up straight and saw two snow-white hands clasped together.

Tan Fu seemed to widen his eyes in surprise.

For two minutes, Tan Fu did not resist and just sat there stiffly.

Qi An reached out his other hand and gently stroked Tan Fu's hair.

Tan Fu's body slowly softened, his chin rested on Qi An's shoulder, then quickly slid down, resting his head on Qi An's legs, curled up on the sofa, and fell asleep.

She was truly asleep. The restless, fiery red flame under the high-definition camera transformed into a soft, red cloud, expanding and contracting, her breathing rhythm faint yet even.

The Crystal House seemed to have fallen from the ethereal heavens back to the ground, sinking into a solid silence.

The room was quiet, and the monitoring room was silent for a moment, but then a burst of cheers erupted!

Tan Fu hasn't slept well for two months. Sleeping pills are harmful to the body and brain, so it's not good to give them to her every day.

Now, finally!!

"This new purification technician is quite capable." A smile crept across the sharp-looking face of the safety supervisor.

Lan Jiarou finally let out a breath, leaned back in her chair, and couldn't help but laugh:

"This is the one I found!"

"Manager Lan has great foresight and a keen eye for talent!" Liu Ye shouted, pressing his ear against the glass door.

Little monster... no, little girl Tan Fu, if you can sleep well tonight, you can go to work tomorrow morning!

Now that she can work, won't we programmers finally get a good night's sleep?

Liu Ye was overjoyed and couldn't help but glance at the woman in the surveillance footage again.

The woman lowered her eyes and gently stroked the bandages on the arm of the girl in her arms.

Liu Ye was slightly taken aback.

This purifier is quite pretty!

......

Everyone slept well that night, except for those who still had to be on duty.

Tan Fu slept a full, deep, and sweet sleep, and was still a little dazed when he woke up.

She stared blankly at Qi An, who was lying on the edge of her bed, her gaze complex for a long time, until Qi An also woke up and someone came to the outside of the glass window.

A mental massage and a dreamless night's sleep calmed the unruly girl down.

She lingered in bed a little longer, but after being urged by Lan Jiarou, she washed up. Instead of getting angry and kicking her out, she ate breakfast with Qi An.

Accompanied by a large group of guards, Tan Fu went to her workroom.

Deep underground, inside an alloy door equipped with a bio-intelligent lock, in a vast and frighteningly cold gray space, a small black soft chair sits in the middle.

The girl sat on a soft chair and put on a neural access device that resembled a helmet.

The helmet was aesthetically pleasing, with a pure black streamlined shape. Thin, snake-like fiber optic nerve lines extended from the interface between the back of the head and the top. Bright red, eerie green, and dark blue light flowed and flickered at the top, making it look like a "nerve crown".

Behind the flower crown is an even larger flower crown... it should be called a "flower wall"!

That's a host array wall, huge and tall, its roar is as powerful as a tidal wave, or like a hymn to the mountains and the sea!

For whom should we offer our praise? Only for the girl wearing the "crown".

Qi An also had his own seat, in a corner of this cold, gray hall.

During the mission, she was Tan Fu's personal purifier. After Tan Fu entered the network, she had to pay close attention to her pollution level and mental state.

Qi An heard the combined announcements from the Cyber ​​Security Department and a cold, electronic voice:

[Clone ID 0324 activated.]

Login node: C-07.

Access level: A.

Objective: Screen all abnormal data streams within the ε14 to θ03 link segment; state synchronization in progress...

Tan Fu, welcome back.

Qi An gazed at the person in the center of the light for a long time.

The light seemed to distort the scene before her, and she saw the memories she had seen during the purification last night.

It is also a non-invasive neural interface device, neither new nor old, which was curiously held and played with by a 10-year-old girl.

"Brother, what's this?" she asked the man in front of the computer.

The man, busy working overtime, gave a perfunctory reply: "Anyway, it's not a toy, put it down!"

The little girl pouted, wanting to put it down, but ultimately couldn't resist her curiosity and put the soft hat on her head.

She's a very clever child. She found the switch while playing with it and pressed it after putting it on.

In an instant, an electric current surged through her brain, and a ghostly light flickered! The girl felt as if her soul had left her body, or as if she had suddenly fallen into deep water; everything turned cold and dark, and she was isolated from the world.

She didn't know how long it took her to break free from that state, like bursting out of the water and entering the Milky Way!

The little girl entered the galaxy of data.

The space was a boundless blackness, with clusters of light swirling like nebulae.

The little girl had no idea where she was or what was going on.

She was instinctively afraid because of her ignorance, but also inexplicably curious and excited by that sense of freedom!

She couldn't resist swimming toward the nearest ball of light.

She approached without any hindrance, was enveloped in a tunnel of light, and fell into another world.

Suddenly, scenery appeared before my eyes.

It was a room viewed from above. The little girl saw the top of her brother's head and herself, with her eyes closed, slumped in a small chair!

Is this how silly she looks when she's dozing off? Not only does she look a little silly, she's practically falling off the bed in her sleep!

Seeing that the body was about to slide off the chair, the little girl, afraid of getting hurt, rushed forward!

Instead of rushing out and hitting herself, she jumped into another ball of light.

She was getting a little out of control; she couldn't quite grasp her direction, feeling dazed and confused, and involuntarily bumping and jumping around.

Chaos erupted in the room as well, with a spark bursting from the exposed wire of the camera and a string of gibberish appearing on the log that the girl's brother had only half-read!

The man was stunned. Before he could even read the garbled text, the screen went blue, and the computer emitted a humming sound as if it was overwhelmed!

He was startled and stood up, only to realize that his younger sister was about to fall off the chair.

That doesn't seem to be the main point. The main point is that the younger sister is still wearing a neural access device, which is clearly on and connected to his computer!

A cliché beginning, a cliché ending, Qi An thought.

She heard the hunchbacked man's voice on the radio:

[Detecting the new data clone number 0325, recording its movement path...]

Tan Shou, Tan Fu's older brother.

He handed her over to the state.

She became a very, very important person to the country. As Tan Fu's only guardian, she rose from a low-level information security engineer to a supervisor at Xing Lei.

What does he have to be so dejected about?

Who was that颓废 (颓废 means decadent, dispirited, or颓废) and exhausted look, the one that he had burned himself out for work, for whom was he showing it? To his own conscience?

He was heartbroken over his disobedient sister, his sister imprisoned in a cage.

He was a man who "sacrificed his own family for the greater good," and he had every right to be decadent and in pain!

Tan Fu, seated in the black armchair, frowned. The electronic announcement read: "[Error communication protocol detected. Contaminated data detected. Cleaning in progress.]"

Qi An sat up straight, staring intently at Tan Fu's expression.

Tan Fu's second recollection is monotonous and tedious, yet thrilling.

Last year's Northwest War and this spring's attack wave saw mountains and seas of contaminated data flooding the network, attacking various important relay nodes.

Like a worm that devours the universe, it constantly self-replicates and multiplies infinitely.

The defense AI dares not confront it head-on, and the engineers' repair efforts simply cannot keep up with the speed at which the system crashes.

What can we rely on? We can only rely on Tan Fuye's infinitely replicated clones.

She used her clones to pounce on every node and every important terminal, fighting the worms.

If the clone is corrupted, then sever it.

Sever a part of your spirit, a part of your soul, many parts of your spirit, many parts of your soul!

Many "I"s have died in the past, and many more "I"s will die in the future. A person who is not even 18 years old has already tasted the fear of death hundreds of times.

How could she not go crazy?