Rejecting Tsinghua and Peking Universities: I Will Lead Harbin Institute of Technology to World Lead

"Phase Two: Action!"

At Lin Feng's command, the data gates of the Longyuan base were flung open.

Complete topology maps of six spy networks, real-time coordinates of 739 high-confidence targets, and over 30,000 irrefutable chains of evidence were instantly transmitted through a quantum-encrypted channel to the command systems of seven core departments, including the National Security Bureau, the Public Security Bureau, and the military.

0.7 seconds after the data arrived, the first red command was issued from the Ministry of State Security's operations center.

"Swift and decisive action, to be executed immediately."

At 3:41 a.m., silent lightning flashed across the entire land of China.

In a Shanghai-based apartment building for a foreign company executive, the fingerprint lock was silently and forcibly bypassed using an electromagnetic pulse. Twelve black-clad special agents infiltrated the 27th floor like shadows. In the bedroom, a man with identities from three different countries, his wrists were locked in his sleep by cold handcuffs. A hidden safe by the bed opened automatically, revealing seven passports of different nationalities inside, clearly visible under the beam of a tactical flashlight.

In a top-floor office at Shenzhen Science and Technology Park, the technical director of a semiconductor company was destroying the last hard drive. Just as flames rose, the blast door was blasted open by a controlled demolition. Amidst the smoke, his hand, holding a lighter, froze in mid-air, watching helplessly as the hard drive was instantly sealed by special materials.

In a national key laboratory at a university in Chengdu, an associate professor was working overtime in the early hours of the morning, copying aerospace materials data. The moment the USB drive was inserted, all the lights in the lab turned on. The department head stood at the door with national security personnel, behind them were his research group students, their faces filled with shock.

Overnight, arrests were simultaneously carried out in 439 locations across 17 major cities.

There were no gunshots, no chases, no dramatic resistance. Faced with an information advantage that seemed to deliver a crushing blow, those shadows that had been lurking for three, five, or even ten years evaporated like morning dew in the sunlight.

Their meticulously constructed disguises, their extremely complex emergency procedures, and their supposedly flawless communication methods were as thin as cicada wings under Pangu's penetrating data gaze.

At dawn, the first batch of battle reports arrived at the Longyuan base.

On the holographic screen, red dots representing captured targets lit up like wildfire across the map of China. Only six green escape targets remained, all of whom were being tracked in real time—three had been intercepted at the airport, two had been apprehended at the border, and the last one had hidden in the mountains, but drone thermal imaging had already located his hiding cave.

"The success rate of the first round of arrests was 99.2%." Academician Zhou's voice trembled slightly. "We had no casualties, no firefights, and no target successfully destroyed core evidence."

Suppressed cheers erupted in the command center. Many people had tears in their eyes—they knew better than anyone that behind this calm battle report lay countless sleepless nights of blood and sweat.

Lin Feng raised his hand to lower his voice: "This is just the beginning."

He pulled up Pangu's real-time monitoring interface, where indigo data streamed like a surging river. "Those already apprehended are just the tip of the iceberg. Pangu detected that at least four deeper networks initiated emergency silence after the initial arrests. Now, it's time for us to outlast them in a test of patience."

Daylight breaks, and the city awakens.

At 10:00 AM, Lin Feng received the complete report for the first phase.

"Operation Thunder has concluded its first phase, with 733 targets apprehended. All 94 Class A targets have been captured, 239 of the 241 Class B targets have been apprehended, and 395 of the 398 Class C targets have been apprehended. The remaining five fugitives have been located and will all be brought to justice within three hours."

"A total of 2,147 pieces of equipment used for espionage were seized, and the total amount of classified documents and data in the fields of national defense, science and technology, and economy reached 8.3 TB. Preliminary estimates indicate that at least 12 channels for the transmission of foreign intelligence have been cut off, and potential economic losses of over 30 billion yuan have been avoided."

The report concludes with a bolded note: "All arrest operations resulted in the capture of both the suspect and the stolen goods; no target escaped; there were no incidents of violent resistance; and no civilians were accidentally injured."

Lin Feng projected the report onto the central screen.

"A successful first battle." He surveyed the hall. "But as I just said, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Pangu's deep scans reveal an even greater shadow beneath the surface."

He switched the screen, and four faintly visible network structure diagrams appeared on the holographic projection. Unlike the clear structures before, these network diagrams had blurry lines and flickering nodes, clearly indicating a state of high alert and silence.

"Next, we'll switch to a protracted war mode." Lin Feng's voice was calm. "Pangu, activate the deep-sea listening protocol. Priority adjustments: First, maintain real-time monitoring of the entire network; second, focus on analyzing the weak signal characteristics of the silent network; third, build a behavior prediction model to deduce its possible activity patterns."

"Command confirmed." Pangu's indigo phantom rippled slightly. "Deep-sea eavesdropping protocol activated. A preliminary behavioral profile database of the silent network is expected to be established within seventy-two hours."

In the following month, the Longyuan base entered a different rhythm.

Instead of swift and decisive raids, it's now about meticulous and sustained monitoring and analysis. Like the most patient fisherman, Pangu spreads its sensory network across every corner of the data ocean, capturing even the faintest ripples of signal.

In the first week, Pangu analyzed the historical communication data of over four hundred captured spies and deduced the communication protocol characteristics of seventeen foreign intelligence agencies. These characteristics were added to the surveillance database, raising its sensitivity level by three.

In the second week, the system detected three extremely covert probing communications. The signals lasted no more than 0.3 seconds and the encryption method was unprecedented. However, through multi-dimensional correlation analysis, Pangu pinpointed the physical locations of three suspected silent network activation nodes.

In the third week, the first counterattack arrived.

A previously monitored, silent node suddenly became active and sent a highly encrypted data packet overseas. Pangu intercepted the packet within 0.01 seconds and, without triggering the self-destruct mechanism, completed the reverse engineering of the encryption algorithm.

The contents of the data packet were alarming—it contained three progress reports on defense technology projects that had been marked as top secret, but the time of transmission indicated that they had been stolen before the projects were locked down.

"This is a test." The national security expert from the tactical application team said gravely. "They are testing whether we really have the capability to crack this level of encryption. At the same time, they are also warning us—they have more leverage."

Lin Feng looked at the decrypted documents with icy eyes: "Then let them know that all the chips will become a noose."

At the end of the fourth week, the battle results were updated again.

"Operation Thunder lasted for a month, resulting in the arrest of 1,743 spies, the dismantling of 27 spy networks, the seizure of over 5,000 pieces of equipment, and the recovery of estimated economic losses exceeding 80 billion yuan. Currently, the number of active spy signals detectable across the entire network has decreased by 97.3% compared to before the operation."

Academician Zhou's hands were trembling as he read out the data.

This is a record worthy of being recorded in history. But he immediately added: "However, Pangu's deep-sea surveillance revealed that at least three highly specialized covert networks remain completely silent, leaving no traceable digital evidence. These may be the trump cards of foreign intelligence agencies, activated only at the most critical moments."

Lin Feng nodded, not surprised by this.

Even the most powerful system cannot capture a ghost that doesn't use any digital means. But he was prepared.

"Initiate the second phase of Project Pure Land." He pulled up the new plan. "Since they've chosen to lie low offline, let's turn the entire real world into a transparent stage."

The solution page expands to show: Based on the Pangu behavior prediction model, a new generation of sensor networks will be deployed in more than 300 key areas across the country; the SkyNet system, satellite remote sensing, and IoT terminals will be integrated to build a unified physical space monitoring system; multi-dimensional feature modeling will be performed on key personnel, and their behavior patterns, social trajectories, and consumption habits will be included in the analysis scope even without the use of any electronic devices.

"This is not an invasion of privacy," Lin Feng explained to his team. "It's a reasonable protection for key areas and key personnel. Pangu Club strictly adheres to the legal framework, and all analysis results undergo three levels of manual review before being used as the basis for action."

He looked at the last few shadowy areas on the holographic map: "Those still lurking will either remain silent forever, becoming useless dead pieces; or they will be exposed immediately once they become active. And the purification of the cyber world..."

He switched the screen to display Pangu's speech monitoring interface.

Over the past month, the system has automatically identified and flagged more than 4.7 million pieces of online information that endanger national security, incite confrontation, or spread rumors. Among them, 170,000 pieces of high-risk information have been transferred to the Cyberspace Administration for processing, while medium- and low-risk information is controlled through methods such as algorithmic downgrading, traffic restriction, and the addition of fact-checking labels.

Cyberspace is being purified at a visible speed.

"Pangu's continuous monitoring will make everyone understand that the internet is not a lawless zone," Lin Feng said firmly. "Every byte carries responsibility; every click leaves a trace."

Six weeks later, Operation Thunder officially came to an end.

At the final high-level debriefing meeting, Elder Chen stared at the battle report, speechless for a long time. Finally, he uttered only one sentence: "We have finally shifted from passive defense to active protection."

Lin Feng did not attend the victory celebration banquet.

In the highest-level log at the Longyuan base, he quietly revoked all temporary privileges. At three in the morning, a black sedan without any markings drove out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' underground passage and merged into the traffic flow of Beijing.