Psychics don't die from gunfire

Chapter 885 Severing the Dragon Vein
Resettlement area, Mangxing Plain.

Just as he left silently, Song Shi returned stealthily, without attracting attention. He was like a nail, or more accurately, a heavy steel monument cast in molten iron, anchoring a corner of the Eastern Continent Republic.

This made the latter extremely wary.

A fifth-ring [True Spirit] possesses such immense deterrent power. Even without taking any action, they can still bring a significant strategic advantage.

Not to mention, there is Song Shi, the fifth ring member who sits at the second-highest level and is widely recognized as having the potential to be a god.

The opponent already has three fifth-ring warriors under their command. Such a terrifying record would be considered top-tier even during the First Seven Earth War.

If it is said that one cannot tolerate another snoring while lying on one's bed, then the Eastern Continent Republic today is right next to a half-erupted active volcano, which could erupt at any moment.

In the simply styled meeting room, seven or eight people were gathered around a table.

"War is information war!" A man wearing an armored helmet slammed his hand on the table and said in a deep voice, "If we just set foot on the mainland of the Eastern Continent Republic like this, under the [Surveillance Network], we'll be like blind men touching an elephant, while they'll have it all figured out!"

"Nobody said we should just crash into it."

Before he could finish speaking, someone interrupted. It was a cybernetically enhanced human whose modifications were visibly excessive. His tactical suit was stretched taut, making him look like a small tank. He said in a deep voice, "Don't forget the legacy we inherited from the Corporate Alliance—electronic warfare. When has the Corporate Alliance ever been afraid of anyone?"

"Inheritance? Where is the inheritance, please?"

Immediately, a sneer rang out from the other side. Without even looking up, he stared at the map of the Eastern Continent Republic on the table and chuckled, "Zero Degree Network is certainly invincible, and the Dust Contract Generation is indeed unparalleled in strength, but didn't those corporate bastards rather destroy everything and leave behind very little?"

"What the hell are we going to do?" His tone was clearly annoyed. "Are we going to have to turn around and hire those hackers again?"

The Enterprise Alliance is unparalleled in Terra in fields such as networking, electronic information, and artificial intelligence, with only the Academic Council coming close in comparison.

It has both a structured training system within a larger corporate framework and a vibrant atmosphere conducive to unbridled growth. Whether you're a cybersecurity expert aiming for great success, a hacker seeking a similar career path, or a cyber detective just looking to make a living, you can find your own niche in this world.

Then the business alliance sent it.

The New Order Federation, upon taking power, naturally could not tolerate the absurdities of the past and severely punished various online heroes. However, the problem lies in this: the Singularity technology, "overwriting the underlying reality."

Desheng open-sourced it, ushering in the "post-Abyss Era." Now, any skilled or experienced network expert possesses this singularity technology.

The demons, needless to say, are purely enhancements, and even non-psychic hackers can gain an advantage through the shallower layers of the Abyss. Furthermore, since its open-source release, the collective effort has been immense, with almost everyone tirelessly contributing their opinions on "base reality overwriting," attempting customization, improvement, and refinement, thus opening up new technological directions.

This gave the online heroes, led by the Abyss Lord, the power to negotiate.

In terms of raw power, even if the former were doubled, the New Order Federation could easily crush them. But hackers have never been interested in raw power; they compete on soft power! It's a contest of who can hide better and who can play dirty tricks better!

In terms of electronic warfare, the New Order Federation has limited resources, at least until the next batch of native elites are trained.

The "Nightmare" VE and the "Proposed Super Artificial Intelligence" textile machine are not maintaining the upper limit of controlling the whole situation and handling every detail, but rather the lower limit that makes those abyss lords hesitate to act.

So far, a stalemate has been reached between the two sides. The New Order Federation is at a loss as to where to start, while hackers and others are equally wary. Topics such as "using 'base reality overwrite' in the city center" are off-limits and cannot be touched. Even the various illegal activities that were once commonplace have become much more subdued.

It can be described as a pull and a tug.

The person who said this was a direct descendant of the National Security Bureau, who had always deeply abhorred these destabilizing illegal elements, especially given the current lack of effective countermeasures. "The topic of electronic warfare has been discussed many times recently. I'd like to bring up something else."

Just then, another person spoke up; it was one of the military advisors of this expeditionary force. He appeared to be the oldest among the crowd, his thick white beard having a plastic-like texture as it twitched: "The war against the Eastern Continent Republic must be swift; we absolutely cannot be dragged into a quagmire. The home-field advantage of the [Surveillance Network] is too great; the further we go, the more transparent we become to the enemy."

“I don’t think this is ‘something else,’ it’s the same thing.”

The first person to speak nodded to the old man in respect. The old man was a veteran from the Enlightened Era, who had distinguished himself in the branch and was later transferred to headquarters. His ability and seniority were beyond doubt: "If we don't find a way to deal with the [Surveillance Network], then progress will not be fast no matter what."

"Unless we call for a 'magnetic railgun swarm' to bombard them continuously for a month." He shrugged and joked, "Or perhaps our 'Southern Dipper' lord?"

“This is without even considering the Imperial front,” one person said in a deep voice.

"The Vanpusta Empire has slowed down its actions recently. According to the intelligence department, this is because an event strongly related to 'disaster realms' and 'calamities' has broken out in their country, which has distracted them to some extent."

The person who answered tapped the table: "So, we'll put the Empire's situation on hold for now."

"—Your Excellency, Supreme Executive Committee Member."

He looked toward the head of the meeting room, where Song Shi sat, tilting his head and patiently observing the discussion.

"May I offer my opinion?"

"Go ahead and tell me." Hearing this, Song Shi straightened his posture: "You're the technical consultant; you're the authority on this."

This man is also a decorated figure. He once infiltrated the Enlightenment organization, disguised himself as an employee of the giant corporation [Zero Degree Networks], and climbed his way up to a mid-level management position. Now, he has been dispatched to this expeditionary force as a network technology consultant.

"The Eastern Continent Republic's surveillance network covers the entire territory, from multi-orbit satellites to the prosthetic eyes of any individual, including the nanomachines inside every citizen's body. Therefore, it is closely related to the Eastern Continent Republic and is known as the 'artificial dragon vein,' making it extremely troublesome."

The technical consultant explained in detail: "But its underlying architecture is still a very large network domain, which requires data exchange, computing pools, storage devices, and ultra-high-speed fiber optic networks."

"To solve these problems, the Eastern Continent Republic has deployed a large number of distributed nodes throughout the country. These nodes support the Surveillance Network day and night through a unified data format and exchange protocol."

"If you want to take down the [surveillance network] at the network level, frankly, even Ms. VE would face a lot of difficulties, right?"

"Heh." The VE projection on the other end curled its lip.

"Located within the territory of the Eastern Continent Republic, the [Surveillance Network] is indeed virtually impenetrable, but what if we change our perspective? What if we don't just focus on the network level?"

"What do you mean?" Song Shi became interested.

"We'll switch directly to the physical level, change all the targets to those distributed nodes, and blow them all up."

His eyes were piercing, and his face showed a fierce expression.

"—Sever the dragon vein!"

(End of this chapter)