The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chang Sheng's seemingly casual glances were actually like the most sophisticated scanner, recording the most subtle fluctuations on every face—the contraction of pupils, the tightness of the corners of the mouth, the fine beads of sweat seeping from the forehead, and even the unconscious trembling of the fingertips.

Trust, something that is usually taken for granted, has now become the scarcest resource that must be verified.

The isolation and deep purification of the Yunshan system continues, and the counterattack against external public opinion has begun, but the internal cancer must be eliminated first. Yu Qing's expression was calm, but a cold flame burned deep in his eyes. He turned to Chang Sheng and nodded slightly.

Chang Sheng's holographic image became more solid, and his voice was clearly transmitted to the core management and security team through the independent internal channel of the Yunshan system: "Activate 'Scavenger' protocol. Level 1 silence."

The entire Shengtian headquarters seemed to be enveloped in an invisible field of silence. All non-essential internal network communications were temporarily frozen, access to physical areas was strictly redefined, and personnel movement was restricted.

Everyone remained near their initial location, awaiting instructions. This sudden "freeze" was itself a high-pressure test.

Security chief Kekin was pale. The activation of the dormant account came from his jurisdiction, and he was largely to blame.

He voluntarily handed over all his access keys and cooperated with the few humanoid guards sent by Chang Sheng, who were absolutely loyal and left over from the Yu Yunshan era (who were only loyal to the chairman and president and independent of the company's regular system), to conduct the investigation.

The investigation began with tracing the source of the data: Chang Sheng personally led a team of engineers he trusted implicitly to delve into the ocean of residual data from the contaminated parallel system and trace the activation of the "dormant account".

Although the enemy was cunning, using multiple layers of rampage and encryption, any digital activity would leave a ghostly mark in the face of the Yunshan system's powerful computing power and Chang Sheng's almost abnormal logical reasoning ability.

They discovered that the activation command did not originate directly from within, but was injected from the outside through an extremely covert data packet disguised as a routine system maintenance signal. However, the fact that this data packet could be successfully identified and executed indicated that there must have been an internal "handshake" signal response.

Tracing the source of this "handshake" signal is key.

Secondly, an analysis of personnel and behavior is conducted: Yu Qing, while stationed at the temporary command post, worked with Ya Shi to re-examine the list of all personnel who had access to the core security system.

Their recent behavioral patterns, communication records (including encrypted communications that were automatically backed up by the Yunshan system and that they thought had been deleted), financial status, and even psychological assessment reports were all included in the analysis.

At the same time, she noticed some extremely subtle anomalies with her unique female sensitivity: for example, a mid-level manager in charge of network monitoring had repeatedly entered the low-privilege area near the control room of the western air defense array under the pretext of "equipment debugging" during non-working hours a week before the attack. The log records seemed normal, but the frequency was abnormal.

For example, another data stream analyst recently had his family's medical account receive anonymous donations from overseas with no way of knowing the source, which happened to cover the cost of an extremely expensive gene therapy.

Clues are like scattered pearls; they need a thread to string them together.

Chang Sheng's team also made a breakthrough. They successfully stripped away a layer of redundant code in the evolutionary process of the "digital cancer cell" and found an extremely faint "marker" that was almost completely covered by self-replication.

This marker is not part of the attack code; rather, it is more like a debugging mark left unconsciously by a programmer, a personal style mark—a sequence of invalid data pulses at a specific frequency.

Chang Sheng recalled that about five years ago, the company had a brief contact with a genius but eccentric algorithm architect in the "Yadu" technology circle in the east. The architect's unconventional algorithm concept included a similar style of pulse sequence.

At the time, the idea was rejected by Shengtian because it was too radical and difficult to control. The architect then seemed to have disappeared.

Almost simultaneously, Ya Shi also focused her personnel analysis on three people: Ke Quan, the security director (whose motives may have been to cover up dereliction of duty or to be forced into it); Tian Dingke, the middle-level manager who frequently appeared near the air defense control zone; and Li Xiaowen, the data analyst whose family received unexplained donations.

The pressure is mounting. Externally, the sieges of the forest base and desert bunkers are being broadcast on the news, but they are encountering fierce resistance. The enemy's technical capabilities and weaponry far exceed expectations, clearly indicating they are not ordinary extremists. Internally, panic is running high; the longer the delay, the greater the uncertainty.

Yu Qing made a decision. He issued a brief instruction to the entire company through the Yunshan system: "All department heads, immediately go to the top-floor emergency conference room to attend an online meeting and compile a loss assessment report. Access authentication will be conducted solely through Yunshan biometric identification."

This is a trap.

The access point in the emergency conference room is secure, but the transmission of commands goes through a meticulously designed and extremely subtle "decoy channel"—this channel simulates a tiny vulnerability in a disconnected parallel system.

Only those with a guilty conscience and an eagerness to pass on information (such as verifying the authenticity of the meeting or reporting the situation) would attempt to access this "bait channel."

The meeting was about to begin. Holographic images of most of the responsible personnel appeared in the conference room. Chang Sheng monitored the "decoy channel." A few minutes later, an extremely secretive data stream attempting to send encrypted pulse signals was detected!

The signal source was instantly triangulated—it came from the floor where the data analysis and monitoring department was located!

The humanoid defense team immediately mobilized, silently and swiftly encircling the target area.

However, just as they were about to arrive, a violent explosion suddenly rang out in the area! This was followed by flames and thick smoke!

"Self-destruct device!" Chang Sheng's icy voice rang in Yu Qing and Ya Shi's ears. "The target has either discovered our tracking or received an order to eliminate us!"

In the chaos, the humanoid guards stormed into the burning office. They found Ke Quan lying beside his workstation, which was mostly destroyed. A piece of metal was embedded in his chest, and he was in critical condition.

Almost simultaneously, another team of humanoid guards who rushed to Li Xiaowen's residence reported that she had committed suicide in her residence. In her suicide note, she claimed that she was forced to disclose some non-critical data due to economic pressure, but denied participating in the main attack. Her words were full of fear and regret.

Both leads seemed to have gone cold. But Yu Qing and Chang Sheng both felt it was too much of a coincidence, as if it were a carefully orchestrated sacrifice to protect the king.

Chang Sheng re-examined the data transmitted from Ke Quan's explosion site. The explosion was violent, but it seemed to have intentionally avoided a small storage area on his personal terminal. The humanoid guards recovered a fragmented, repeatedly encrypted communication log from it.

Deciphering the code would take time. Meanwhile, the investigation into Tian Dingke continued. Although the primary suspect seemed to have shifted, Chang Sheng did not rule out the possibility that Tian Dingke was a more sophisticated mole. He retrieved all of Tian Dingke's recent biometric monitoring data (Shengtian maintained covert health and security monitoring of its senior management). The data showed that approximately 48 hours before the attack, Carson's heart rate and cortisol levels experienced an abnormal but brief spike, then returned to normal, only to surge again at the time of the attack.

This seemed tense, but Chang Sheng noticed that during that unusual peak, Tian Dingke was alone in his office, and the logs showed that he claimed to be “reviewing security reports.”

Chang Sheng authorized the use of a rarely employed technique—deep subconscious memory guidance. With Tian Dingke's complete cooperation and willingness, he was guided in an attempt to reconstruct whether he had encountered abnormal information or experienced subconscious manipulation during that abnormal peak period.

The guidance process was difficult and meticulous. Ultimately, with the help of technology, Tian Dingke vaguely recalled a fragment: that day he seemed to have received a communication; the other party's voice was distorted, but they used a nickname that only his deceased younger brother knew to address him.

The other party mentioned his daughter's specific address in a western city-state and implied that if he didn't "do him a favor," his daughter might encounter an "accident."

He then felt a strong wave of dizziness and confusion. He woke up a few minutes later and felt extremely tired. He thought it was due to work stress and did not investigate further.

“Mind interference technology…” Chang Sheng murmured, matching the evidence of the enemy’s crimes that he had previously released. “They briefly controlled him, used his privileges to set up a backdoor in that dormant account, and erased most of his explicit memories.”

Tian Dingke's suspicion has been greatly reduced; he was a victim, not a traitor. Therefore, the real mole, or rather, the one manipulating the mole, is likely of a higher rank and more covert.

At this time, progress was made in deciphering Ke Quan's communication logs.

The incomplete logs show that he had contacted an anonymous person and received instructions that were not direct attacks, but rather to "ensure that specific channels are open at specific times" and "observe and report the reactions of specific personnel."

One instruction is particularly crucial: "...The gift from the 'nest' has been delivered. Ensure the 'baby' receives and responds successfully." The "nest" likely refers to an enemy base, the "gift" to an attack program or data packet, and the "baby" to an inside agent or rendezvous point.

The log also mentions a precise time point: the moment the fake video was forcibly switched in front of the main holographic screen. The log records Ke Quan's actions: "Activate display protocol #7, source: backup entertainment server".

This was a backup entertainment server! Its security permissions were very low; it was typically only used to store promotional videos or employee entertainment videos, so checks were lax. An insider had pre-planted a fake video on it and set trigger conditions!

Chang Sheng immediately investigated all personnel who had access to or operated the backup entertainment server before or after the attack. The list was short. One name in particular made Chang Sheng and Yu Qing freeze in their tracks: You Qing, the deputy director of the Technical Support Department.

You Qing is a quiet, technically skilled, but almost unremarkable middle-aged man. He is a veteran of the company, responsible for maintaining many "unimportant" peripheral systems such as entertainment servers, and therefore has extensive but inconspicuous system access privileges.

More importantly, the investigation revealed that he studied and worked in East Asia for several years when he was young, specializing in neural networks and artificial intelligence interaction!

All the clues converged at this moment.

The humanoid guards rushed to You Qing's office and residence, but he seemed to have vanished into thin air. His residence was excessively clean, devoid of any personal belongings, as if no one had ever lived there. All records on his work terminal had been completely erased with the utmost professionalism.

But Chang Sheng was not giving up. He mobilized historical data from all the sensors inside the headquarters (including temperature, vibration, air flow, and even extremely weak electromagnetic fluctuations) and used supercomputing power to conduct retrospective analysis.

He discovered that, moments before the attack, an extremely weak, non-standard directional data transmission originated from You Qing's office and was directed towards a relay point outside headquarters. The structure of the transmitted data packet was highly similar to the initial core code segment of the "digital cancer cell."

You Qing was that "young bird," that internal relay point, and possibly even a co-designer of that "digital cancer cell"! He used his insignificant position and authority to lay down internal channels and may have personally sent the most critical attack data at the last moment.

Although You Qing escaped, the digital traces he left behind were enough for Chang Sheng to conduct in-depth investigations. By tracing his past online activities and fund flows, they discovered that he had a secret account that regularly received small remittances from multiple shell companies in the west.

The donations ultimately went to a notorious Western extremist group comprised of failed genetic modification attempts—the Brotherhood of Purification.

The organization has consistently promoted a technological hatred, particularly hostile to giants like Shengtian who push the boundaries of biology and artificial intelligence. They have the motivation and the technical capability (by recruiting some disillusioned scientists).

At a high-level meeting, Chang Sheng characterized the incident as a terrorist attack against Sheng Tian orchestrated by the "Purifying Brotherhood," and announced that all legal means would be used to hunt down the remaining members of the organization. Global public opinion largely accepted this explanation, given the clear chain of evidence and its alignment with common understanding.

However, in a top-secret internal report, Yu Qing, based on the analysis of Ya Shi and the Donghao organization's team, wrote down his doubts:
1. Technological gap: Investigations revealed that the "Purification Brotherhood's" previous attack methods leaned more towards physical destruction and cyber graffiti. The "digital cancer cells" and consciousness interference technology used this time are too advanced and ahead of their time, far exceeding their known capabilities.

2. Mismatch of resources: The resources required for the attack (funds, advanced equipment, personnel) are not something a suppressed, marginalized organization can easily raise.

3. You Qing's motives are questionable: Why would someone who has been working undercover in the company for many years and possesses superb skills pledge allegiance to an anti-technology extremist organization? This doesn't make sense.

4. Eastern Clues: You Qing's background in Yadu, the algorithm architect's pulse marking, and the maturity of consciousness interference technology (it is known that some laboratories in the East are leading in this field) all subtly point to a powerful and deeply hidden force in the Eastern region.

Moreover, at the height of the attack, several probe streams attempted to steal Shengtian's core patent data. Their coding style clearly showed the technological characteristics of a certain defense company in the East, and their methods were sophisticated, quite different from the frenzied attack style of the "Purifying Brotherhood".

5. Bunker Resistance: The bunkers in the western deserts possessed a level of resistance and equipment far superior to those in the forest bases. Satellite imagery shows that before the bunkers were breached, a few high-speed aircraft with a distinctly Eastern technological style escaped through hidden exits.

Yu Qing concluded that the "Pure World Brotherhood" was likely just a front, a carefully cultivated and exploited proxy. The real mastermind might be a powerful and treacherous force in the East.

Their goal is not only to destroy Shengtian, but also to seize Shengtian's core technologies, disrupt the global balance of power, and take the opportunity to test their own cutting-edge weapons and technologies in actual combat.

By using Western organizations as a vanguard, regardless of success or failure, they can remain hidden behind the fog and avoid direct conflict.

The truth has only been half revealed. The enemies in the open are about to be eliminated, while the shadowy figure remains hidden in the deep fog of the East. (End of Chapter)