Chapter 322: Don't Say What Shouldn't Be Said!
After changing his phone, Morgan dialed the White House's emergency contact number.
After reporting the emergency code, he went through nearly 10 hours of twists and turns before finally contacting the President himself!
"Yes, Your Excellency! The opponent's information warfare capability is clearly superior to ours, and all current network-based communication methods are no longer reliable.
Yes! I won't let her escape!"
"Very good, keep it up."
In the famous Oval Office of the White House early in the morning, the President, with three fingers, picked up an antique Ericsson bought overnight from a second-hand electronics store by his staff, and gently placed it on the table.
"It's nothing serious, just a little hacker trick! If the other side thinks they can win by such means, then I truly feel sorry for them!"
He said to the aides standing in the room.
Morgan's car sped into the Cambridge area, and soon, a suspicious target was found near Sister Xue's house.
"Mr. Morgan, the driver and passenger of that car both appear to be Asian!"
"Stop them!"
"But—."
"Listen to me, stop them immediately!"
Ye Xing's car was pulled over.
In fact, with the driving skills he honed on Li Star, he could have easily avoided this stop.
However, the mission he received before departure was not to engage in conflict, and if the other party made the first move, to try not to resist.
Trust the organization!
This stop was within expectations.
"You two, hands up! Get out of the car!"
Ye Xing and Sister Xue complied.
"Ha!"
Morgan, full of vigor, walked up to Ye Xing and looked him up and down.
A subordinate handed him the passport just searched from Ye Xing's person.
"Chinese, indeed! Hahaha! Congratulations, you have just triggered the most serious and egregious diplomatic incident since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries!"
"What are you babbling about?"
Sister Xue translated it for Ye Xing.
Ye Xing shook his head expressionlessly: "Listen, the worst was the one in Yugoslavia in 1999. I wasn't even born then, but I remember it."
"What did you say?"
Sister Xue acted as translator again, but Morgan still couldn't understand.
He was 35 that year, but he didn't remember the incident at all.
"Stop your damn nonsense! Take him away!"
Having completed the mission, Morgan immediately reported the good news.
"Hmm~ Now we have the initiative, and I believe the other side will call us soon. Well done, Manager Morgan!" The President praised him highly.
A few minutes later, a military officer carrying a laptop walked into the Oval Office.
"Mr. President, we received a network communication request, presumed to be from the other side—but it's definitely not a dedicated line."
"Broadcast it publicly!"
The President was slightly displeased that it wasn't a dedicated line, but he was very confident.
"Here?"
The officer looked at the circle of aides around him.
"Yes! Right here! Broadcast it!"
The communication connected, and the other party's meaning was very clear.
"Release my people, and this matter can be considered as never having happened."
The President smiled, looked at his aides, and shrugged.
"Gentlemen, would you like to express an opinion?"
The aides also shrugged, indicating, 'You're the boss, you call the shots!'
"Good!"
The President thought, 'How sensible!'
He leaned forward, his mouth close to the laptop.
"No! Absolutely not!
"Your people have made contact with terrorists within our borders. This behavior makes him a potential terrorist, and we absolutely do not negotiate with terrorists! We..."
Beep beep beep "F*ck, I just—he actually dared to hang up on me? Me?!"
At this moment, the officer looked up.
"I'm sorry, Mr. President, it seems there was a mistake just now. The signal is not from across the ocean—"
"Then where is it from?"
"We can't trace the physical address right now, it's like it's coming from within our system—"
"What do you mean? Are you saying I was just talking to a ghost in the computer?"
"No, I mean—"
The officer pointed upwards.
"F*ck!"
The President finally understood.
He immediately moved away from the laptop, as if the thing could take his life at any moment.
Lu Yuan didn't waste words with the other party.
What's your standing, to negotiate with me?
Get your position straight, don't be so self-important, okay!
In short, it seems the other side wants to play hard, so let's bring out the heavy artillery!
Like most countries in the real world, Milligan is highly dependent on computer networks.
And for Earth's cyberspace, the computer array formed by player stasis pods can launch completely undefendable attacks.
There is definitely no network cable or wireless connection between the two, so Lu Yuan is currently unsure of the specific principle of this attack.
However, if he let his imagination run wild and made a guess, he speculated that for the real Earth, this attack was a true "dimensional reduction strike."
The player stasis pods likely "injected" information directly into Earth's computer chips from a higher spatial dimension.
Because of this, whether it's the internet or an intranet, or even a standalone computer physically disconnected from the network, it makes no difference to him.
All can be invaded!
Of course, this hacker invasion still has limitations.
Firstly, it has a specific direction. It can only invade from the 'Star Sea' universe to the 'real' universe, and cannot invade other computer hardware in the 'Star Sea' universe.
Secondly, the "high-dimensional channel" has an "observation range" and an "action range."
The observation range is large enough to cover the entire Earth, allowing Lu Yuan to monitor global networks.
But the "action range" is limited. When transmitting information or matter to Earth, it's like activating a "high-dimensional tweezer," and its coverage does not exceed a single city.
This means Lu Yuan cannot attack all nodes within a country's internet at the same time.
But the good news is, he doesn't need to do that at all.
Humans are actually similar to Gaia Zerg; in a network, some server nodes are far more important than others.
Attacking these important servers is enough.
In the Oval Office, everyone was silent.
If the "opponent" could effortlessly push a communication into the most heavily defended network fortress, then they could already anticipate what would happen next.
Thump thump thump thump!
Urgent footsteps came from outside the door, and two Department of Defense personnel pushed the door open.
"Mr. President, we just lost contact with the North American Aerospace Defense Command! We can no longer warn against enemy intercontinental missiles; it's as if that place suddenly disappeared!"
"Lost contact with Pearl Harbor Base!"
"Lost contact with Frankfurt!"
"Lost contact with Guam!"
"Lost contact with Diego Garcia!"
Shocking news came one after another.
"At this rate, all our overseas bases will lose contact within an hour! If the enemy launches an attack during this time..."
"Our defense system is being dismembered! Mr. President!"
"Calm down!" the President roared, "Everyone calm down first!"
"Our world is material; the other side cannot cause real physical damage here, so our military armaments are still intact. No need to be nervous!"
Hearing him say this, the crowd calmed down slightly.
Yes, maybe this is all just a show, don't be bluffed! Those military bases are still there!
As expected of the President!
"Now the network is no longer trustworthy, and submarine optical cables have become decorations, but we can still use satellites for manual communication. The human brain cannot be invaded, nor can relatively low-tech signal transceivers, like old-fashioned mobile phones!"
The President conveyed important instructions.
"Yes, yes—the President is brilliant!"
Just as a group of aides began to flatter him, a technical military officer, with a bitter face, stepped forward.
"Our spy satellites and military communication satellites have just been invaded, and subsequently collectively performed an orbital maneuver. The remaining fuel is no longer enough to return to their original orbits, and they will fall into the atmosphere and burn up within one to two days—"
"What?!"
"How many were affected?"
"About a quarter, 246, Mr. President! The number is still rising rapidly!"
"Then quickly shut down the rest! Perform physical isolation!"
"I'm afraid it's not that easy—"
"Alright—then—that's okay too!
The President raised a hand.
"We have the ability to replenish these satellites in a short time. At that time, we just need to modify their design and switch to more primitive but more reliable radio command control!"
The Secretary of Defense nodded.
"Yes, such modifications can be made to new satellites relatively quickly. But what if our ballistic missile nuclear submarines also lose contact next?"
It still doesn't matter! They need to be concealed underwater anyway, and they have strong independent combat capabilities. The other side won't steal the nuclear missiles on them! I still say, our world is material, and the internet, like those media, is a virtual force that cannot change the comparison of material strength!"
The Secretary of Defense coughed twice.
"No—you misunderstood. My point is, what if the attacking party intercepts our communications to the nuclear submarine fleet,
And then transmits false nuclear launch commands to the submarines?"
He tried his best to avoid using the term "alien civilization."
For the first time, a look of terror appeared on the President's face.
All-out nuclear strike? On the homeland?!
Cold sweat began to seep from his forehead.
"No! It won't happen! Those sailors are well-trained and at least know they shouldn't launch nuclear missiles at the Milligan homeland!"
Although he insisted on it verbally, he was actually a bit nervous.
"You agree, right? It shouldn't happen, right?"
The aides remained silent.
Targets in other states, probably not, but Washington D.C., especially near the White House—
Hard to say!
Maybe the soldiers are just waiting for a reason.
"Sh*t! Come on, everyone think together, where might the opponent's next round of attack target? We need to disconnect the servers from the internet and power in advance to prevent losses!"
These top decision-makers immediately began to think, and it didn't take long for them to come up with answers.
Even the President himself understood.
"Oh—God! My money!!"
New York Stock Exchange,
After the stock market opened, all the traders looked up at the unprecedented and unannounced straight line dive as if watching the end of the world.
The decline of all major indices first rose slightly in 5 minutes, then turned downwards, with the decline approaching 7%. Many individual stock prices were cut at the knee, or even at the ankle.
"Oh my god!"
A trader knelt on the ground on the spot, clutching his head in pain.
"Someone tell me, what on earth happened?!"
"Quant! It's quant! All the quants have gone mad!!"
Countless quantitative trading accounts were performing stock operations at a speed that humans could neither react to nor easily stop.
And unlike previous algorithms that pursued maximum returns.
At this moment, these most basic artificial intelligences were actually pursuing the maximization of client losses, starting to chase highs recklessly, and then dumping and selling!
And their "victims" surprisingly did not include ordinary investors, but were all tycoons involved in politics, or simply accounts managed by congressmen.
This triggered an even larger scale of panic selling, just like the tragic replay of Galan's foreign exchange earlier.
"Quick, call! Tell them to disconnect all servers! This is an order from the Department of Defense, hurry, hurry, hurry!"
"But the phone isn't working!"
"Then run over and pull the network cable! F*ck it!"
To grab network speed, most quantitative trading servers are near Wall Street.
"What's the use? At this rate, I think what needs to be shut down is the stock exchange!"
Lu Yuan actually didn't want things to go this far.
Such a large-scale stock market turmoil in Milligan is enough to affect every other country, making global investors disheartened.
But the losses of the investors, he can slowly "repair" later; while the hundreds of billions of dollars that just evaporated from the politicians' accounts are truly gone.
"Ah! It has fallen to the point where the secondary market has completely circuit-broken! Excellent!!!"
"Phew~~~ Saved my life."
Finally, the spectacle of a stock market circuit breaker reappeared after many years.
The traders breathed a sigh of relief,
But what about tomorrow? Either the market closes, or today's nightmare happens again.
In the Oval Office, the President received a call on his old smartphone. He got up and walked to the curtains, lowering his head,
And clicked to answer with a solemn expression.
The caller was the representative of the so-called Deep State.
The loss of contact with military bases, the fall of spy satellites, and even the loss of contact with ballistic missile nuclear submarines on duty with nuclear warheads, none of these truly made these people nervous.
But when they heard that all their money was going to be gone, and it would be difficult to earn money again in the future, they instantly became anxious.
This, this truly would not do!
"Yes—this, we can agree on this point."
The President hung up the phone and saw a text message arrive, the number displayed as +0.
【Return my people, or all of this will not stop】
The President turned around, sighed helplessly and sadly, and looked at his subordinates.
"Gentlemen, our Milligan is a powerful modern country, and modernity—means that without the network, stock markets, foreign exchange markets, as well as futures and bond trading, are all out of the question! This loss, we absolutely cannot bear!"
"Yes, yes!"
The subordinates nodded like pounding garlic, their hearts bleeding.
"Good! Then it seems we have no choice but to release the people!"
Ten minutes later, CIA agents from Boston, along with the FBI, arrived at the gate of the NSA branch and shouted into a loudspeaker.
The other party refused to release Ye Xing and Sister Xue.
"Morgan! Release the people! This is the President's order!"
"Oh, come on, it's the President again?!"
Morgan was on the verge of madness.
"It's all fake! Haven't you idiots realized it yet?! It's all fake news concocted by aliens!"
"Calm down, this time it's real! Take a call on your old phone, or use the landline in the building, it's fine!
The President will speak with you personally!"
"No!! The aliens must have found a way to invade digital and analog signals! Maybe you yourselves are aliens, lizard people! Oh~ you know very well, lizard people are not just conspiracy theories and urban legends, they are the true masters of the Deep State and the circumcised ones!"
It's over.
The CIA agents quickly called their director to report the situation.
"...Yes! The other party refused to cooperate, and his mental state is unstable, posing a risk of leaking major top-secret intelligence to the media or the public."
Just 10 seconds later, the Deep State's kill order was issued.
"Shoot him!"
"Received! Go, go, go!"
Fully armed agents stormed into the building and quickly and mercilessly riddled Morgan with bullets.
Morgan fell into a pool of blood, his expression one of disbelief.
His colleagues, seeing this, quickly raised their hands in surrender.
"Don't get excited! Brothers!"
What is happening?!
Why did they suddenly open fire? So cruel to their own people?
These people must be crazy.—
Subsequently, CIA agents entered the underground area, found Ye Xing and Sister Xue locked in a cell, and with grim faces, unlocked their hands.
"You are free. Please—leave this country as soon as possible!"