Long Live Money in Anime Crossover

Originally, it should have contained all the data, all transaction records, and countless people's deposit and loan information. Modern banks naturally store the vast majority of accounts directly in data storage, rather than using paper ledgers. Otherwise, not to mention the workload of bank staff, the amount of paper ledgers generated every day would be endless, and there simply wouldn't be enough space to store them.

But now, the server, which should have been full of data related to everyone, is almost completely empty. The remaining data, when retrieved, turned out to be nothing more than accounts for ordinary people, amounting to three or five yuan.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that all the accounts of wealthy individuals, especially those exceeding a certain amount, had been silently erased from the server.

What's going on here? Is it the same method as the mysterious force that controlled the computer just now?

The young man hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation, but the bank manager who heard the news seemed to lose all his strength and collapsed to the ground.

"Gone...all gone..."

The young man was taken aback and subconsciously asked, "What's gone? Isn't it just the accounts that are gone?"

"It's not a problem with the accounts! It's a problem with the money, the money! If the money is gone, everyone's money is gone. The data in the bank has disappeared, and that data represents money!"

Author's Note:

Second update

101 What exactly happened?

After being reminded by the supervisor, the young employee finally realized what was going on.

It's gone, really all gone.

Everyone turned pale instantly; the problems they were facing were beyond their wildest imaginations.

It's gone, really gone. Although the server data within the banking system has disappeared, what has also disappeared at the same time is the money that had already been digitized.

This raises another question: what is money?

Is money gold or silver?

Is it paper money?

Or is it simply a few numbers in bank data in the digital age?

These are all forms of money, but here we are only referring to different types of currency. Shells, gold, and silver can serve as currency, as can paper money and coins. Even, as society develops, virtual digital information can act as currency.

The data stored in banks actually represents not only currency, but also the wealth of the vast majority of wealthy people in the entire Chinese Federation.

Now, the data in the bank has disappeared.

This means that even if you still have bank cards, passbooks, checks, and bonds, if the bank doesn't have the corresponding data when you bring them to the bank, then the bank cannot exchange them for paper money.

This is not a case of the bank defaulting on its debts.

For example, a bank card only stores your account identification information; all the data on your bank card is stored by the bank. In contrast, at least an outdated passbook shows the amount of your deposit, but even without the data to back it up, the bank still won't recognize your passbook.

In this situation, even if a bank has money, it would never entrust it to someone whose information cannot be verified.

Moreover, compared to the amount of paper money held in banks, the amount of money stored in banks is several times greater than the actual amount of paper money. After all, a vast amount of wealth is always stored and untapped in banks, and the amount of money actually circulating in society is far less than the wealth of society.

Now that data has disappeared, the wealth of society seems to be measured only in paper money. Whoever owns more paper money has more money, and whoever uses more digital currency has more wealth evaporate.

This is the real reason why the bank manager shouted that everything was gone.

"director!"

But at this crucial moment, the young man stood up again and said, "We...we have a physical backup!"

The young man's words struck the manager like a thunderbolt. He jumped to his feet, his face beaming with elation, and exclaimed, "That's right! We have backups! We have backups! Although it's a physical backup performed once a week, which can only restore the data to its state a week ago... at least this way, most people's wealth will be back!"

"That's right, a backup!"

A group of people shouted excitedly. Compared to other banks, Suzhou Bank in Nanjing is relatively cautious and has always had the habit of backing up data once a week.

However, even a weekly backup is criticized by many in the banking industry, who consider it completely useless. This is because such backups cannot be real-time, and financial data is constantly changing. Even if a problem occurs, can this data still serve as evidence?

The manager, currently struggling to move the hard drive array containing data backed up a week ago with his team, was seething with rage, wishing he could chop those idiots to pieces. If only they had known, they should have backed up every day—no, every hour! Otherwise, they wouldn't be in this mess now.

The supervisor dared not even think about how they would die. If there were indeed a large number of errors in the data, causing the wealth of many powerful people to evaporate, that evaporated money would be enough to kill these people a hundred thousand times over.

"Don't be nervous, everyone, don't be nervous. We'll start restoring the data now. Everyone, think about it, think about whether we've made any mistakes. This is our last resort, and we absolutely cannot afford to make any errors."

The supervisor's face turned ashen. Once the hard drive array was connected to the bank's main server, the empty server could be restored to its state as it was a week ago.

However, given the magnitude of the issue, his hands trembled, and he hesitated to press the confirm button.

Everyone is trying their best to think about where there might be any oversights.

The young man's eyes were bloodshot, and he was desperately trying to think. He didn't want his life to be ruined by this trivial matter.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him.

"networking!"

Everyone stared at him in surprise, and the young man continued, "Manager, network connection! There's been network instability all day, and afterwards all our computers and the server started having problems. Could it be due to the network connection?"

The supervisor's eyes lit up, and he said, "Yes, networked! It has to be networked! Everyone, get to it and cut off the external network. I want our server to be completely disconnected from any network!"

"And manager, since the server data has already been wiped clean, why don't we take out the spare hard drive, replace the server's hard drive with the new one, and reinstall the system? That way, we'll be absolutely sure of everything!"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

The supervisor's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and he said, "This will definitely be foolproof, absolutely foolproof!"

These people are not yet aware of viruses and hackers, but they have done everything they can to take all necessary precautions.

Soon, the main server, whose hard drive had been replaced, was restarted, and the system was reinstalled using a freshly opened system disc. Faced with a server that was almost brand new, the supervisor finally made up his mind and began copying the data.

As the data gradually recovered, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They had finally managed to salvage the last bit of their foundation, hadn't they?

Unfortunately, reality seemed destined to leave them in despair. Just as they were hoping the data could be reconstructed, a small data file in the computer motherboard's BIOS was injected into the computer's hard drive and entered the memory due to the server's startup. It then began to run and perform a self-test.

It turns out that viruses can be stored not only on hard drives, memory, and networks, but even in the tiny BIOS on the motherboard used to store information.

And this is the last gift that Momo prepared for the people of this world.

As long as the motherboard is not replaced, the BIOS virus will persist and enter the system upon system startup. Even reinstalling the system or replacing the hard drive will not solve the problem.

The Momo virus usually operates quietly, but it only begins to run when it performs a self-check and detects that the computer's network is interrupted and all other viruses have been cleared.

Moreover, compared to the volatile and savage nature of its siblings, this virus behaves like an elegant gentleman. All it does is destroy the structure of all data files, turning them into a pile of useless gibberish.

Furthermore, it doesn't just work on computers; it can also infect any device connected to a computer, corrupting all files within it.

This is the quietest and most elegant virus. Unless Momo points out its existence, its appearance is a revolutionary blow to the world.

So, the managers, who had just been holding onto hope, let out a desperate roar after opening the data file and seeing a jumble of garbled characters.

However, something even more despairing happened next: their last hope, their only physical data backup, had also turned into complete gibberish.

……

The same thing is happening not only in the banking industry, but in all the affected industries.

The manufacturing industry has come to a standstill because they have lost their blueprints and plans, unless they can rewrite the original plans from scratch.

The telecommunications industry has come to a standstill because the exchange of communication data is entirely computer-controlled, unless computers are discarded and manual wiring is resumed.

With the transportation sector at a standstill, highways are relatively okay, but trains are a mode of transport that heavily relies on scheduling. After all, there's only one railway track, and a scheduling error could absolutely lead to rear-end collisions, or even head-on collisions. Without proper scheduling, trains can only crawl along the tracks at a snail's pace.

Even if one or two percent of people in these industries make backups out of caution, the result is the same as what just happened at the headquarters of Suzhou Bank: the only backup was turned into a jumble of gibberish.

It can be said that the industry and commerce of the entire Chinese Empire almost came to a standstill in an instant. The only ones that were not affected were probably the farmers who were still cultivating the land and rarely used electricity.

Moreover, this was before the massive banking disaster broke out. But just imagine the uproar that would erupt when the wealthy in the Chinese Empire found out that all their money had vanished.

The only computers that were not connected to any network at all were probably the very few that were not affected. Perhaps after this incident, the awareness of cybersecurity in both the Chinese Empire and the world will increase dramatically.

Unfortunately, that's a matter for the future. At least for now, the Chinese Empire has poured cold water on the world, making them realize the importance of cybersecurity. It has also put the Thirteen Allied Forces, a regular army of 300,000 men, in an extremely embarrassing situation, after they had originally vowed to take Luoyang with overwhelming force and teach the emperor a lesson.

How embarrassed were they?

Just look at Cao Yuanming's ashen face to know what's going on.

Inside his tent, a dozen flashlights hung overhead—a rather luxurious form of lighting. In contrast, the encampment of 150,000 troops was mostly pitch black.

Shine a dozen flashlights on him, Cao Yuanming's face was deathly pale, as if devoid of any color. Beside him stood officers, looking utterly bewildered. Just a short while ago they were advancing triumphantly, how could everything have fallen into chaos in such a short time?

Unfortunately, their expressions only fueled Cao Yuanming's anger. He grabbed a flickering flashlight, slammed it to the ground, and roared, "Damn it! Can someone tell me what's going on?!"

102 That night, we looked up at the starry sky.

Cao Yuanming certainly had reason to ask that question.

This morning he was chatting enthusiastically with his men, discussing how to proceed after taking Luoyang.

Their thirteen armies could not possibly march together as one, but instead split into several routes to encircle Luoyang from the opposite direction, following the various external passages of Luoyang.

This is naturally inseparable from Luoyang's topography. In this world and in Mo Mo's previous life, Luoyang was chosen as the capital many times in history, and there are naturally inevitable reasons for this.

Geographically, Luoyang has always been a strategic stronghold and transportation hub. Its transportation hub status determined its economic position, thus leading to its designation as the capital, while its strategic location ensured its excellent defensive value.

Cao Yuanming, who was determined to be the first to capture Luoyang, single-handedly seized the offensive route through the plains northeast of Luoyang. This area was largely flat, and to attack Luoyang from here, one had to either cross the Yellow River or pass through Hulao Pass.

Here we must mention why Luoyang was easy to defend and difficult to attack in ancient times, because Luoyang was practically a natural fortress.

To the north of Luoyang lies the Yellow River, while to the south and west are continuous mountain ranges. Although the river to the west opened up a passage to Luoyang, it also created the conditions for building Hangu Pass. To the east, there is the formidable Hulao Pass, bordered by the Yellow River to the north and high mountains to the south. The saying "one man can hold the pass against ten thousand" refers to this Hulao Pass.

However, in modern times, Hulao Pass has lost its original significance. Cao Yuanming, who came from afar, naturally did not choose the troublesome matter of crossing the Yellow River. Instead, he led 150,000 troops directly from Xingyang to Hulao Pass.

As for the remaining twelve routes, they could only be forced to advance from other directions. They were naturally dissatisfied, but they wouldn't complain. After all, Cao Yuanming had 150,000 troops, half of the allied forces, and no one was foolish enough to compete with Cao Yuanming for the mission to attack Luoyang.

Anyway, everyone can see clearly that Cao Yuanming is destined to become the prime minister who holds the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords. This time, everyone is just here to fill in the gaps and gain some merit.

Cao Yuanming thought so too. He didn't think this war would be troublesome. Even if the 30,000 Imperial Guards in Luoyang were to fight to the death, it would only take a little effort.

During the day today, he also took a helicopter and saw the Hulao Pass in the distance.

He only watched from a distance and didn't dare to get close. After all, there would definitely still be troops stationed at Hulao Pass, and he didn't want to get close and be shot down by anti-aircraft guns.

However, he was already quite satisfied with this. Hulao Pass was so close, how could Luoyang be far away?

However, as the day passed and everything that happened next made him realize that even if he crossed Hulao Pass, Luoyang still seemed far away.

Momo used a virus to paralyze the entire Chinese Empire's industry and commerce, and this paralysis immediately affected Cao Yuanming's 150,000-strong army.

Although the 150,000-strong army has been assembled, various preparations and supplies still need to be transported quickly. In particular, temporary small mobile Sakura Stone power generation devices are indispensable in order to ensure the normal operation of their mechanized forces.

Don't forget, the 150,000 regular mechanized troops, including airplanes, tanks, armored vehicles, cars, and all kinds of mechanical equipment, are all electric!

If it is an internal combustion engine device, then in order to resupply these devices, all you need to do is carry various types of fuel.