Chapter 103 Graffiti - Hacker's Challenge [VIP]
Lin Chen squatted on the edge of the high-rise building, swinging his legs. Below him was the never-ending neon torrent of Punklord.
The huge holographic billboards are like colorful electronic monsters, taking light pollution to the extreme.
On this planet where the Internet is our second life and information bombardment is as natural as breathing, ordinary advertisements have long been reduced to background noise.
In order to compete for those few tenths of a second of attention, the advertising slogans are more exaggerated and shocking than each other, and they are just short of saying "You will regret it for the rest of your life if you don't watch it."
The huge, flashing slogan that seemed to carve "Come and see me" into the pixels was an insult to her intelligence.
[The most retro old-fashioned arcade! Face-to-face online operation! Experience the most exciting duel!]
"Do you think this is Pinocchio? Are there really people playing arcade games here? It's funny, right?" She curled her lips and pointed a finger at a huge sign next to her that promoted retro arcade games.
【Scan】Start!
On the retina interface, the structure and data flow of the light board are instantly clear.
【Reconstruction】Start!
Thoughts are like invisible carving knives that cut through the data layer.
Buzz!
The words on the sign rippled like water, instantly changing their appearance:
[Old, worn-out machines that no one wants to recycle are now being sold for profit? Hilarious! Anyone who goes there is a fool.]
The originally passionate and fiery music came to an abrupt end, replaced by a few harsh malfunction sound effects, and the light board flashed a few times in coordination, as if mocking.
"Perfect! Let me help you fight against false information." The player nodded with satisfaction, and like a lion patrolling its territory, his eyes swept towards the next prey.
[Super Sense Link! Experience the Real Five-Layer Dream!] → Tampered with to [Five-Layer Dream? Be careful not to wake up and become someone else's data packet! Try with caution!]
[Free access to Metadomain! A data surfing paradise!] → Sharp review: [Access to Metadomain is indeed free, but be careful of the subsequent charges, which may be so expensive that you'll want to format your data! Read the terms first and don't agree without thinking!]
[Aether Blade! The latest gear! Plug and play!] → Ruthless revelation: [Plug and play? Beware of newbies getting their heads burned if they plug in the wrong ports! Why didn't they mention that most ports aren't supported and require external components or modifications? Please only configure gear through legitimate channels!] The avatar beside him even cooperated, clutching his head in pain.
Players were having a blast, and wherever they went, the exaggerated advertising slogans showed their true colors and turned into sharp (and very damaging) player reviews.
Her nimble and petite figure shuttles through narrow maintenance passages, ventilation ducts, and even the supports of giant billboards, turning the billboards in the bustling streets of Punchloode into her complaint bulletin board.
Just as she was looking for her next target, her eyes were attracted by the colors on the wall deep in a quiet alley nearby.
Those weren't billboards, but three giant graphics spray-painted directly onto the metal walls.
One is an extremely delicate pixelated lotus, layer upon layer, each petal is composed of flowing, miniature 0s and 1s, exuding a tranquil and profound Zen feeling.
The other is much wilder, an abstract mechanical octopus made up of countless gears, circuits and flashing codes, its tentacles twisting and entwined, as if fighting against some invisible constraints.
There is also a surreal painting, which features several blurry, giant heads that seem to be a collage of facial features from different people, with empty eyes staring into the void. The background is a waterfall of colorful graffiti with blue, green and purple as the main colors.
These graffiti are obviously not advertisements, but more like a declaration, a kind of art, or... the favorite trick of the hackers in Punk Lord - a challenge!
The player's eyes lit up and he immediately moved closer to the pixel lotus.
【scanning】
The data streams pouring in are far more complex and sophisticated than a billboard. The code that makes up the petals is nested layer upon layer, forming a delicate logic lock.
【Analysis】
The progress bar climbed up to 15% with difficulty, and then got stuck. Core prompt: [Insufficient permissions, knowledge base missing].
The player frowned and switched to the mechanical octopus Doodle.
【scanning】
The violent data flow almost overwhelmed the interface, and the chaotic gear structure itself was a kind of dynamic encryption.
【Analysis】
The progress bar failed at 5%, with the core message: [The algorithm complexity exceeds the current processing capacity].
cut……!
The player did not give up and switched to the hyper-realistic face graffiti.
While I was still scanning, a pop-up window appeared: [Encryption level far beyond the current level (lv. 1) detected. Forcible parsing may cause core overload. Avoid.]
"Tsk." The player made a clear sound towards the wall in dissatisfaction.
Can't actually solve it? This is simply challenging the dignity of the players!
She raised her foot and gave it a gentle kick, making a dull clang. "Wait! I'll come back after I upgrade and tear you apart!"
The idea of not giving up prevailed.
The player decided to go for a "technical tour". If you don't know what's good for you, quickly bring over the Ether Editor!
She vented her dissatisfaction and quickly comforted herself.
Goal: Improve your [Ether Editing] level!
The player leaned over, and the next second, rushed out of the alley like a human cannonball and merged into the wider road below.
This place is more like the "Silicon Valley" of Punchlord, with various shops and studios on both sides of the street with signs such as "Geek Workshop", "Code Melting Pot" and "Algorithm Temple".
Through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, you can see the people inside staring intently at the floating operating interface, their fingers moving quickly in the air, manipulating complex data streams and virtual modeling.
The player is immediately drawn to a window.
Inside, a woman wearing a jacket covered with glowing circuit patterns and with fluorescent purple hair is building an extremely complex city model on a suspended three-dimensional sand table.
Countless data cables entwined and combined around her fingertips like living things, constructing a sophisticated transportation network and energy pipelines.
The player slipped in silently, like a curious cat, and got right behind the woman, his head almost between the floating sandbox and the operating interface, his blue eyes fixed on the dazzling code flow and modeling process without blinking.
"Hey! Little ghost!" The purple-haired woman was startled by the sudden breathing sound behind her. Her hands trembled and she almost crushed a newly built energy pipeline.
She turned around suddenly and saw a strange, overly focused child's face almost touching her work surface. "Stay away! This is not the place for you to play! Be careful of being blinded by the data stream!"
The player said "Oh" and slowly took a step back, but his eyes were still fixed on the sandbox.
The purple-haired woman looked at her for a moment, breathed a sigh of relief, and turned back to continue her modeling.
Just as she flicked her fingers in the air twice, she caught a glimpse of the little head coming back at an extremely smooth speed, even closer than before! She could even feel the other person's warm breath spraying on her operating interface!
"Hey! I'm talking to you! Don't you understand? Trade secrets! Do you even know what privacy is?!" The purple-haired woman turned around again, a little annoyed, and used her arm to fend off the player. "If you come this close again, I'll call security!"
The player was pushed away, and this time, instead of "oh", he let out an extremely clear and drawn-out "tsk——" with a blank expression.
The sound was particularly harsh in the quiet workshop.
The purple-haired woman froze instantly.
She slowly turned her head, her eyes wide as copper bells. "You... you just said 'tsk'?! Did I hear correctly? Are you looking down on me? You peeked at my work screen, and I warned you twice, and you still dare to look down on me?!"
The player blinked his blue eyes innocently and said calmly, "No, it's you who's the mean one."
"No tsk? My ears are fine!" The purple-haired woman pointed at her own ears and loudly retorted, "That 'tsk—' sound was so loud that it could be heard on the next street! That was absolutely contempt! Blatant contempt! Where do you come from, little brat? Do you know how to respect the fruits of others' labor?!"
The player curled his lips, as if he felt there was nothing to say to this "stingy" and "hard of hearing" adult.
She took one last glance at the complex city model, as if to memorize the structure, then turned decisively, took the spray paint she had just obtained from the purple-haired woman through [stealing], and jumped with a clear goal to the next window that looked more technologically advanced - there was a middle-aged man with a bad complexion, who was going crazy at a virtual engine that kept reporting errors and sparks flying.
The purple-haired woman watched the nimble little figure disappear through the doorway, stamping her feet in anger. "How ridiculous! Peeping and looking down on me! Are kids these days so arrogant?! The morale of Punklord is being corrupted by naughty kids like this!"
She angrily threw a series of completely unstructured punches at the air before returning to work, still fuming, muttering, "...When I finish building this model, I'll definitely go to the complaint section and hang you..."
The players have already forgotten the "little incident" just now.
She leaned over to the window of the middle-aged man with dark circles under his eyes, her blue eyes lit up again, staring at the sparking engine and the error codes on the screen.
[Scan] and [Analysis] operated silently, greedily absorbing every fragment of knowledge that could allow her to upgrade her "Ether Editing".
Upgrade! You must upgrade as soon as possible! Go back and tear down the graffiti that looks down on players!
Lin Chen was tormented by the extremely long experience bar that grew extremely slowly.
After several hours of intense observation of high-end technology, I only managed to increase [Scanning] and [Analysis] from 1.2% to 5.6%.
As for [Refactoring], there was no progress because there was no place to start...
The player learned his lesson and went to the nearest store to spend a huge amount of money to replace the basic version of the Ethereum cartridge with the [Ether Cartridge (Customized Edition)]!
To match the equipment, she also bought several communicators - and because it was in the game, she could even wear a communicator that connected to her nerves!
The player tried to use it, but was quickly defeated by the feeling as if his brain was invaded.
Communicators and the like are more comfortable when they are external...
She wandered to the hidden alley again and looked up at the encrypted graffiti. The colorful mechanical skeleton seemed to be burning and twisting silently.
"Wait for me." The player stood on tiptoe, patted the metal wall, and whispered to the graffiti, as if issuing a challenge.
Then she turned around and nimbly climbed to the middle of a nearby signal tower, finding a metal platform with a great view and some wind protection to sit on.
The etheric cartridge on her wrist glowed even brighter than before. The player decided to search the etheric network for any kind hackers willing to lend a hand—she wouldn't mind using simple tactics like [Subjugation] if necessary.
...By the way, can I use [Conquer] in the data space?
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