You went on a blind date and presented an A-level wanted criminal as a meeting gift?

The next morning at seven o'clock.

When Lin Chen opened his eyes in Su Qingge's boudoir, there was no one beside him.

The blankets were folded neatly, and there was a shallow dent and a faint scent of shampoo on the pillow.

There was a glass of warm water and a sticky note on the bedside table.

Have breakfast in the front hall at eight o'clock. Your uncle has something for you. —Su

Her handwriting was strong and forceful, just like her personality; even writing a note looked like signing a search warrant.

Lin Chen drank the water, washed up, and went to the front hall.

Su Qingge was already sitting there, having changed into a dark gray business suit, and her long hair was tied back into a high ponytail.

When she saw Lin Chen walk in, she simply nodded, her expression as calm as if nothing had happened.

But the base of her ears was still red.

Lin Chen deliberately sat down next to her.

Su Qingge picked up the soy milk and took a sip, her eyes fixed ahead, but her peripheral vision kept wandering.

"Stop looking, you can't escape."

Lin Chen said in a low voice.

Su Qingge almost spat out her soy milk.

"Shut up."

She lowered her voice.

"Uncle is coming right away."

Lin Chen smiled, picked up his chopsticks, and took out a steamed bun.

Halfway through breakfast, Su Jianguo came over and handed Lin Chen a brown paper envelope.

There were two documents in the envelope.

Satellite map of the selection base and basic profiles of the fourteen candidates.

Lin Chen flipped through the files and memorized everyone's names and backgrounds.

As he put down the documents, he casually took out his phone and glanced at them.

An encrypted notification popped up on the screen.

The source was an automated monitoring crawler program he set up on the dark web.

This program continuously crawls new posts from major assassin forums on the dark web 24/7, and automatically pushes them whenever relevant keywords appear.

Lin Chen clicked on the push notification.

His web crawler intercepted and decrypted a dark web post that was encrypted with multiple layers of encryption.

The post was made six hours ago.

The post was concise: Target—Lin Chen. Reward—One billion US dollars. Mission description—Eliminate the target during the practical training exercise for the selection of national-level security advisors, and disguise it as an accident during the exercise.

The IP address of the posting account went through more than twenty layers of virtual stepping stones.

However, the post included a escrow address. Hitmen on the dark web are required to deposit their payments into a third-party escrow account to prove that the employer has the ability to pay.

One billion US dollars have been received.

Lin Chen chewed on his steamed bun, his expression unchanged.

A billion US dollars to buy his life.

It's not cheap either.

He put down his chopsticks and wiped his hands.

"Qingge, you go ahead and do your work. I need to use the internet."

Su Qingge glanced at him, didn't ask why, and got up and left.

Lin Chen returned to his guest room, locked the door, and turned on his laptop.

[God-level hacking skills] activated.

[God-level Internet Tracking Techniques] Activated.

He did not trace the IP address of the account that posted the message.

Tracking through more than twenty virtual springboards is time-consuming, and the other party's technical team is definitely monitoring in real time. Once they discover they are being tracked, they will immediately destroy the traces.

Lin Chen took a different path.

He was eyeing the list of escrow addresses.

One billion US dollars is no small amount.

In the underground economy of the dark web, this level of money flow leaves a traceable on-chain record across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges.

Lin Chen's fingers flew across the keyboard.

Eight minutes.

The source of funding has been locked.

The Sky Dome Group, through a third-tier shell company in the Cayman Islands, converted cryptocurrency into a dark web escrow via a private bank in Switzerland.

The Xiao family's fingerprints are on this chain.

The private bank account holder was an insignificant distant relative of the Xiao family.

The source of funding has been confirmed, but that's not what Lin Chen wants.

What he wants is to know who took the order.

The order-taking mechanism of the dark web assassin forum is anonymous, but the order taker needs to leave a communication node in the forum's encrypted mailbox so that the employer can contact them.

Lin Chen scrolled down into the replies to the post.

Within six hours of the post being published, three people had already accepted the order.

Three communication nodes.

[Mastered by a God-Level Actuary] Start Calculation.

He didn't directly hack into the communication nodes, as that would alert the enemy.

He used a more covert method: by analyzing the signal delay patterns of the three communication nodes, the differences in the versions of the encryption protocols, and the geographical distribution of the exit nodes used when connecting to the dark web, he deduced the physical locations of the three order takers accessing the network.

The first one is in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

The second one is in Haidian District of Beijing.

The third location was a business hotel less than three kilometers away from the selection base.

It's in place.

Lin Chen closed his eyes and tapped his fingers lightly on the table a few times.

The most reasonable cover for the three assassins to infiltrate the selection base is to work as staff members of the base, such as referees, security personnel, logistics staff, and medical staff. These positions require a large number of temporary staff to be transferred every year during the selection process.

He restarted his computer and hacked into the Beijing Municipal Transportation Administration's monitoring system in two minutes.

There is a security camera at the entrance to the underground parking lot of the business hotel.

Lin Chen retrieved the video footage from the past 48 hours and, combined with the check-in time window of the people who accepted the orders, identified three suspicious vehicles.

When the license plate numbers were entered into the public security system, two of the vehicles belonged to car rental companies, but the ID numbers corresponding to the rental information were fake.

But the facial photo taken when renting the car is real.

The third vehicle had a temporary pass for the selection base on it.

Pass number: SB-2024-0371.

Position: Base Medical Support Team, temporarily assigned military doctor.

Lin Chen stared at the screen, a slow smile creeping onto his lips.

He packed up the photos of the three people, their license plate numbers, and their travel permit information, and sent it to Ye Qingcheng.

A message was attached:

Keep an eye on these three people outside the base. Don't alert them; I'll need them if necessary.

Ye Qingcheng replied quickly:

【Received. Be careful.】

Then another message followed:

A billion? You're worth more than me.

Lin Chen smiled and shut down the computer.

He stood up, put on the specially made bulletproof underwear that was as thin as a cicada's wing, and wore an ordinary dark sweatshirt over it.

The titanium alloy rings on his left and right ring fingers pressed against his skin, the cool touch making him more focused.

At 2 p.m., Su Jianguo's car will take him to the selection base.

Lin Chen stretched his neck.

Hunting game.

interesting.

It all comes down to who is the hunter and who is the prey.

As he opened the door and walked out, he almost bumped into Su Rui, who was standing at the door.

Su Rui was dressed very formally, in a suit and tie, and his hair had been styled again.

But his expression was completely different from that of the arrogant young master from last night.

Hesitantly, with a conflicted feeling of not knowing how to start the conversation.

"Lin...Lin Chen."

"Um?"

Su Rui swallowed hard.

What happened yesterday... was my fault.

He bowed.

The angle wasn't large, but for someone from Su Rui's family background, it was already the limit.

"I can't be of much help with the selection this afternoon, but..."

He straightened up, revealing a rare expression that wasn't so infuriating.

"Here, take this."

He took a black metal card out of his pocket and handed it to Lin Chen.

"The addresses of the Su family's safe houses in various districts of Beijing and their emergency communication frequencies. These places can be used in case something happens at the base."

Lin Chen took the card, glanced at it, and put it in his pocket.

Thanks.

Su Rui nodded with a sigh of relief, then turned and left.

After taking a few steps, he stopped, turned around, and lowered his voice.

"Those people from the Xiao family are no good. Once you're in the base, don't turn your back to anyone you don't know."

After saying that, he left.

Lin Chen stood there watching his retreating figure, and thought for a moment.

This guy is a bit stupid, but he's not a bad person.

He glanced down at the black card in his pocket, then went back inside and placed it next to the titanium medical kit in a hidden pocket close to his body.

The medicine made by Jiang Tingxue, the emergency communication provided by Su Rui, the perimeter watched by Ye Qingcheng, and the company of Su Qingge by her side.

Lin Chen discovered something.

He was never fighting alone.

Outside the window, the sky over Beijing finally cleared up.

Sunlight streamed through gaps in the clouds, shining brightly on the gray tiles of the courtyard house.