The giant corporations that started from Night City

Chapter 493: Killer virus! Wallfacer plan! Information gap!
At first, Guo Zhengming was a little worried that he was driving too fast and Paul behind him would not be able to keep up with him. After all, the entire underground city's complex transportation network system is like a forest, and a car crash can be easy to occur if you are not careful.

Plus, his police hovercraft is better than ordinary hovercrafts, so Paul and his gang might be left behind by him.

However, when he looked back, he found that he was completely overthinking it. Paul's seemingly strange floating car was quite powerful and seemed to be equipped with some military weapon systems.

This made Guo Zhengming more curious about the other party's true identity. Were they really agents sent by Fleet International?

At this moment, the built-in AI of the transforming spacecraft is constantly simulating and planning a new route forward. Fortunately, the AI ​​Red Queen also recorded the map route here when collecting intelligence.

With the help of information provided by the AI ​​Red Queen, the transforming spacecraft can smoothly shuttle through the chaotic dungeon.

Not long after, Guo Zhengming finally brought Paul and others to another exit of the underground city. This was not an elevator passage, but a very long slope that led directly to the outside area.

Now there is no trouble that can stop Paul from leaving here. Even if Chieko wants to collapse this passage, it won't be so fast in a short time.

When Paul returned to the ground, the trauma team hovercraft sent by the Wasp had been waiting for a long time.

Paul quickly handed Agent Leon over to the arriving trauma team members, feeling relieved.

After watching Leon leave, Paul and the rest of the members stayed to continue their mission, but they were soon surrounded by Guo Zhengming and the police car behind him.

Obviously, the series of accidents and various incredibly advanced airships and equipment made the police here regard Paul and others as dangerous people.

Before they completely figure out the other party's true identity, they probably can't let down their guard against Paul and his group.

Agent K also raised his weapon with a wary look on his face, but Paul held it down, signaling him not to be nervous. If these people really had malicious intentions, they would have shot them long ago.

At this time, Guo Zhengming came over and reintroduced himself to Paul: "I am Guo Zhengming from the Digital Reality Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. As you can see, you are in big trouble."

"From now on you'll need our help to have a chance of surviving."

Paul looked at the policemen behind Guo Zhengming, then looked at him and asked, "Do you know what attacked us?"

Guo Zhengming nodded: "Killer 5.2 version of the computer network virus, ETO was once spread a century ago, and has undergone many mutations and upgrades since then."

"This is a highly targeted assassination virus that identifies the target person based on their identity information and then controls all available external hardware to carry out the murder."

"The specific situation is what you have seen today. It seems that everything is trying to attack you in every possible way, like a lingering spell."

"What surprised us is that the virus has developed to such an extent that our underground city is vulnerable to the Trisolarans."

Guo Zhengming laughed at himself.

"Didn't ETO disappear a long time ago? Why did it suddenly pop up again?" Paul frowned. If he thought about it carefully, ETO might have only been eliminated on the surface.

As long as the Trisolarans are willing, they can support another group of ETO organizations at any time.

"ETO has indeed disappeared, but who can say for sure whether organizations like this have completely disappeared."

Guo Zhengming shrugged. "In addition, killer viruses are quite popular in the online black market. Many people will buy these things to assassinate their enemies, so there are still many killer viruses hidden on the Internet."

"The virus program from a hundred years ago can still run smoothly today. Is your network defense system just for show?" Luke at the side couldn't help but complain.

Hearing this, Guo Zhengming looked at Luke with suspicion, as if he was looking at a little kid who knew nothing.

"Don't you know that our computer technology has long stopped improving? Network software from over a hundred years ago is still perfectly compatible today."

"When the killer virus first appeared, it killed many people, including a head of state. It was not until it was suppressed by antivirus software and firewalls that it was prevented from spreading on a large scale."

After Sophon locked down humanity's basic physical technology, even computer technology suffered. The current human technology tree is extremely biased.

Everyone felt very uncomfortable.

"You are very special. This version of the killer virus has never appeared before, and we just found out that its destructive power is so terrible."

This is why Paul and his crew were so unlucky throughout the entire process. Tomoko activated a hidden killer move, turning the entire dungeon into a weapon to kill them.

If Guo Zhengming had not appeared, this virus program would probably have turned the entire dungeon upside down until Paul and the others were completely killed.

"in addition……"

Guo Zhengming looked at the trauma team's hovercraft that had already taken off and said, "Your friend was attacked by a genetic missile, which was one of the assassination methods used by the ETO a hundred years ago."

"For ordinary people, it will only produce some mild flu symptoms, but for people with specific genes, the virus will activate the program and start producing deadly toxins, which are extremely lethal and strong."

Hearing this, Paul remembered the Scorpion Tailed Lion virus commonly used by giant corporations worldwide. The destructive power of that thing had once wiped out an entire civilized group.

If the Trisolarans really just wanted to exterminate humanity and occupy the Earth alone, then they would have all sorts of ways to do so.

But they did not do so, which shows that the Three-Body Civilization wants to enslave the people of Earth, just like humans treat rare animals that are about to become extinct.

"We once thought that the gene missiles and killer viruses had been destroyed and controlled long ago, but we didn't expect that some of the more deadly ones were still lurking until now."

Guo Zhengming sighed softly. This seemingly beautiful and stable human society is actually full of deadly dangers that can overturn everything in an instant.

All they can do is to live their life to the fullest.

Paul nodded thoughtfully. It was no wonder that the hibernators on the ground were unwilling to stay in the underground city.

They had experienced horrific incidents in which the ETO organization used killer viruses and gene missiles to kill other people.

In a highly densely populated city, rebellious electronic robots and the rapid spread of the virus are enough to kill more than 24% of the people within 90 hours.

They stayed in an area with few people and large areas, so at least they could still run a little and struggle for a while longer.

"The only thing we can be thankful for is that the ETO organization has been completely eliminated. They have not appeared in more than a hundred years. Even if there are other similar organizations, they cannot cause any trouble," said Guo Zhengming.

"The Trisolarans have given up on them and no longer need them to work hard for them."

Paul looked at the gray clouds in the sky, and suddenly a question occurred to him: how did Sophon obtain their genetic information? It was impossible for them to directly extract matter from their bodies.

When Paul expressed this doubt, Guo Zhengming looked at the three of them with the same look.

Because logically speaking, since they were targeted by the sophon, it was impossible for them to launch a genetic missile attack on only one person. The sophon, who could expand his own perspective to eleven dimensions, could easily understand all the genetic arrangements in a person's body, and could come up with a virus attack specifically targeting that person in a matter of minutes.

But the problem is that only Agent Leon was infected, and the other three were fine.

Before Guo Zhengming could say that he didn't know the problem either, Paul had already figured it out on his own.

His genes had long been transformed by spices and terazine into a form that the Trisolarans could not understand. There were midi-chlorians in Luke's body, which was also an existence that the Trisolarans could not understand.

Agent K is even more of a clone, and genetic missiles are meaningless to a bionic man.

After learning enough information from Guo Zhengming, Paul was about to leave, but was stopped by Guo Zhengming: "Now I hope you can confess some questions. This is a necessary procedure."

Guo Zhengming stared at the other person, and many possibilities emerged in his mind.

"What do you want to know?" Paul knew that what was coming would come. They were too conspicuous and would be exposed sooner or later.

"Who are you, what unit do you belong to, and what do you do? The more specific the better."

Guo Zhengming's tone became stern, as if he was interrogating a prisoner. His calm but sharp eyes seemed to penetrate Paul's heart.

"Don't try to hide anything. I can tell lies. The Trisolarans would never kill an ordinary person at all costs unless your existence poses a sufficient threat to them."

Seeing Guo Zhengming say this, Paul also waved his hand, asking Luke and Agent K to stay alert, and he simply had a good chat with the police officer.

"From what you said, the Trisolarans didn't just use these moves on us," Paul inquired in return.

"Yes."

Guo Zhengming nodded. "Two centuries ago, the United Nations proposed a Wallfacer Plan, which gave a few human elites extremely high powers and allowed them to formulate a development strategy to deceive the Trisolaran civilization."

"Using their inscrutable minds to gain advantages for humanity, these wallfacers have great power and can mobilize all of humanity's resources."

"Among the four wall-facers, there is a national leader, an outstanding scientist, a politician, and an ordinary university teacher."

"But unexpectedly, the Trisolarans have been chasing this seemingly ordinary university teacher. His name is Luo Ji. I just sent him to the ground to protect him, but I didn't expect that it would be your turn in the blink of an eye."

When he said this, Guo Zhengming had been wondering if the other person was the hidden wallfacer. After all, who could guarantee that there wouldn't be other wallfacers besides him?

Perhaps there are not only four wall-facers, there is also a fifth, a sixth, or even a seventh.

Although Guo Zhengming could not see what was so special about Luo Ji, a university teacher, the only thing he could be sure of was that anyone who could be hunted down by the Three-Body Civilization must be no simple person.

Maybe he is the key to defeating the Trisolarans.

The attack suffered by Paul and his team was even stronger than the one Luo Ji encountered, which must mean that they also posed a greater threat to the Three-Body Civilization.

At least that's what Guo Zhengming thinks.

"So you think we will be the Wallfacers?" Paul smiled. He thought he was about to be exposed, but he didn't expect the other party to take the initiative to give him a good cover identity.

This saves me a lot of trouble.

"I hope you are."

Guo Zhengming blinked and said, "I have investigated your files. Although I don't know if there is any fraud in them, the identity written on the surface is a hibernator."

"If you are a Wallfacer who came out of hibernation like Luo Ji, then I regret to inform you that the Wallfacer Project has been rejected by Fleet International."

"They believe that humans do not need to rely on conspiracies and intrigues, and can crush the Trisolaran civilization with just a huge interstellar fleet."

The huge...interstellar fleet, are you talking about the frigates on Jupiter?

Paul wanted to laugh. A civilization whose basic science and technology were locked down could make humans panic with just genetic missiles and killer viruses, and their every move for more than two hundred years was under the surveillance of Sophon.

How can such a civilization defeat the Trisolarans?

"Have you ever thought about this question? If these warships really have an effect on the Trisolarans, why don't they use the sophons to destroy the construction of the warships, but instead allow humans to build two thousand warships?"

Paul knew too well the fatal situation that human civilization was facing at the moment. The complete asymmetry of information and the huge gap in science and technology could not be bridged by the number of warships.

Information asymmetry is always the key to victory or defeat.

The reason why the cosmic giant always sends out an advance team to gather information every time it travels to a new universe is because it needs to collect as much intelligence as possible in order to make the correct strategic deployment.

If they just rely on brute force and mindless push and crush, then no matter how much wealth the giant global corporation has, it will not be enough for them to defeat it.

Sooner or later, the arrogant will suffer the consequences.

"Of course I have thought about this question, but what's the point? I am not the only one who can think of this. But apart from doing this, what other solutions do humans have?"

Guo Zhengming smiled dryly. He was just an ordinary policeman and had no way of interfering with the decision-making from above.

"Now can you tell me who you are?" Guo Zhengming turned the question back to the original point.

Paul and Guo Zhengming looked at each other in silence. He knew that he was under the surveillance of the Sophon team from all angles. Even if his lips moved slightly, the Trisolarans would detect his movements.

He was thinking about what he should do to gain the other party's trust without revealing his true identity.

This question is too difficult to answer.

Just when Paul was hesitant and wondering whether he should report the situation to Governor Leon first and then make a decision, Agent K, who had received the information, nodded to Paul.

The message Li Ang sent them contained only one word: "Yes."

Although doing so would easily cause Sophon to reversely locate the location of the Moon of War, Leon did not care, because the Doomsday War was about to begin and they would be exposed to the Trisolarans sooner or later.

Now Leon needs Paul to use his identity as the Wallfacer to quickly gain the trust of the people on Earth so that the giant company can take over the world later.

(End of this chapter)