Chapter 31: Analysis, Trojan Horse!

Simple hunting bounties only offer single-digit points. Given that a mid-level hunter requires 100 points, one would need to complete at least 20 bounties. Even at a pace of five a day, that would still take four days. And that is assuming bounties of the difficulty level of clearing out a stronghold. A typical novice hunter could never accept such tasks from the start. After all, this isn't a game with health bars; getting hit in a vital spot actually means death. Therefore, everyone starts with entry-level bounties, which require even more time. Someone like Chen Ze, for instance, might not be able to finish a job like clearing out an abandoned parking lot without taking any damage. Most people spend a significant amount of time hunting individual raiders to earn the points needed to rank up, yet Su Cheng managed to earn over two hundred points in just two days.

Su Cheng did not leave immediately. Instead, he went back into the supermarket and filled a bag with as many supplies as he could. This place was stocked with high-quality food and goods meant for the wealthy. Since things were chaotic inside anyway, he might as well take the opportunity to bring more back. After visiting the waste treatment plant to collect his rewards, he returned home.

"Damn, you're back. You were gone for so long, I thought you went off to pick up girls again," Brainless said, getting up from the sofa.

"I haven't been open for business these past few days, and you've practically rotted away playing games all day." Su Cheng laid out all his rewards: eight vials of mid-level nutrient solution, one set each of E-grade and D-grade mechanical prosthetics, a 50% off coupon for high-level nutrient solution, and 2,000 Union Credits already deposited directly onto his hunter card, ready for use.

He immediately activated his Dimensional Pupils to synthesize and upgrade them. In the end, he obtained one vial of D-grade enhancement serum, which was perfect to use in conjunction with the Type-C advanced enhancement serum. The interval for the second dose was five days.

"I wanted to do something, but what could I do? But let me tell you, I beat the 'Big Head' boss! Haha, how about that? I'm pretty good, right?" Brainless pointed at the monitor with pride.

Su Cheng put his things away and glanced at the screen. "Actually, I could have beaten that ages ago." With that, he took out his hunter card and searched for the keyword "Evil." There were many results, and he began to examine them immediately.

Brainless sat back down and continued, "You're all talk. I even beat Guangzhi, and now I'm fighting the White-Clad Scholar. Oh no! I'm dying! Guangzhi, save me!"

"Sigh..."

Su Cheng sighed; there was no information regarding the "Evil" raiders. The only lead was that one hunting bounty, which, while not mentioning the organization "Evil" by name, included relevant images. However, viewing the full contents required high-level hunter clearance.

The Black Market. Su Cheng thought for a moment, "I'll go check it out tonight." Remi’s status was clearly unusual; she definitely knew more. The Black Market was an underground mall located in the inner city of the ruins. It sold everything that couldn't be sold openly. In theory, they had everything—it just cost much more than the usual price.

"Damn, you're going out again? There are a lot of wounded people coming in, and I can't handle them all," Brainless said, tilting his head toward Su Cheng, who was heading for the door. "You sent them, but my hands aren't that nimble."

"Keep the door locked."

Su Cheng rode his bike from the back entrance toward the Ancient City. Once he arrived, he parked and opened his chip communication. "I'm downstairs. Which floor are you on?"

"So fast? You didn't even give me a heads-up. Go to the rooftop."

Closing the connection, Su Cheng glanced at the guards nearby and walked straight past them to the stairs. This time, they didn't follow. Soon, Yang Siqi walked onto the rooftop, wearing a blue and white JK uniform, sucking on a lollipop, and carrying a pink bag slung across her shoulder.

"I scolded you earlier, you aren't going to hit me, are you?" She blinked her large eyes, her cautious expression making Su Cheng laugh helplessly. This was the first time they had met in person. He hadn't expected someone so fierce over the phone to be so timid in reality.

Su Cheng pretended to think about it. "Depends. If you don't behave, maybe."

"Tch, we're in a partnership—we're allies, so you can't hit me." Yang Siqi walked up to Su Cheng and held out her prosthetic hand. "The chip."

It was a B-grade combat prosthetic! Although it was only one hand—the other was biological—this was definitely not something a poor person from the outskirts could afford or even obtain.

Su Cheng handed her the metal fragment. "Can you find information about that raider on this?"

Yang Siqi pulled a palm-sized computer from her bag. "Probably not. What's downloaded on here isn't his consciousness, but a program—a program I've never seen before."

As she spoke, she pulled a cable from her prosthetic palm, connected it to the computer, and inserted the metal fragment. Watching her skilled movements, Su Cheng frowned, recalling the strange raiders he encountered today. "The raiders I met today were like zombies from old-world movies, and they seemed to be under control. Does this have anything to do with that?"

Yang Siqi glanced at him and crunched down on her lollipop. "Hmm, it's highly likely it's related to this program. Slurp..."

"..." Su Cheng was speechless.

Seeing his reaction, Yang Siqi held out her lollipop. "Want some? This is a rare treat."

Su Cheng shook his head. "No thanks." He had just brought a whole pile back from the supermarket.

"Tch." Yang Siqi curled her lip and rolled the lollipop around with her tongue. "I suspect this might be a Trojan horse program. I never imagined someone would install this in their own backup photonic brain."

"A Trojan horse?"

"Exactly." Yang Siqi operated the computer rapidly. "Good thing it’s me. Most people wouldn't dare connect to this directly. This metal fragment contains the 'Black Death' virus! And this Trojan is also very dangerous. I'm currently parsing it."

On the computer screen, countless lines of code flashed by at high speed. About five minutes later, "This is incredible!" Yang Siqi exclaimed in surprise. "It actually took this long to parse! My computer is the latest Type-749 quantum handheld!"

She shook her head in amazement and pulled a new metal fragment from her pocket, handing it to Su Cheng. "Here. Don't connect directly to the raiders; the Black Death virus will infect it. If you use it again, you'll be infected too, and even your biological body will turn into a maniac."

Su Cheng took the fragment and pressed it behind his ear. "Do you have any more? Give me a few more."

An external brain-machine interface should also be a piece of technology. If he synthesized and upgraded it, he wondered what he would get. A hacker was a mysterious existence; if he could acquire more hacking equipment to synthesize, who knows what he might obtain!

Yang Siqi asked curiously, "One is enough. Why do you need so many?"

Su Cheng shrugged. "If you don't have any, forget it. I thought you had plenty. It seems this metal fragment is hard to make, even for you."

"Who said I don't have any!" Yang Siqi wrinkled her nose. "I have plenty. I'll give you a few in a bit. Tch, these are just little trinkets. You country bumpkin, you've seen nothing."

"Alright, parsing complete!" She pulled out the metal fragment and reviewed the parsed file. "My god!? There’s something like this in here!? If this is true, doesn't that mean those raiders are basically an army? How could something like this even exist?!"