Survive in Azure Files

Although Utahara was traveling with me, the rumor that the Ministry of Truth was full of weirdos, each with their own unique personality, made me think of Gehenna, and I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

We can only hope that the people in the Ministry of Truth can be more pleasant to talk to.

However, I soon realized that my worries might be unnecessary.

After turning a corner, I saw a girl leaning against a wall, playing with her phone. After hearing footsteps, she looked up at us, then put away her phone and walked over:

"Utahara-san, I've been waiting for you for a long time. And...are you Xia Lai's teacher?"

I realized that the girl in front of me with short dark blue hair, yellow-green eyes, a pair of blue-rimmed glasses, a simple yellow rabbit head-shaped hairpin in her hair, and a cute yellow cartoon rabbit plush doll hanging on her waist bag was a member of the Ministry of Truth.

Judging from her attitude of waiting outside, she is at least willing to respect me, Lie Geyuan or both of us. This is already a strong guarantee for successfully submitting the commission.

I felt relieved, nodded and smiled, "Yes, it's me. Nice to meet you. Thank you for your guidance."

"No, it's me here, and I need your help. I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Chihiro Kagami, the deputy director of the Ministry of Truth."

Chihiro's expression and tone were rather cold, but her attitude seemed quite proper.

At this time, Utahara spoke:

"Well, I'll be leaving now. I have to rush an order from a client tonight, and Hibiki and Kotoli are waiting for me to come back."

"Well, thank you so much today." I think it's very kind of Ge Yuan to take time out of his busy schedule to accompany me here.

Qianxun also nodded: "I will treat the teacher well, goodbye."

Maybe he was really in a hurry, because Ge Yuan's pace when he went back was obviously a few points higher than when he came.

Of course, another possibility is not ruled out.

After Utahara left, Chihiro looked at me again and said, "Well, teacher, let's go in and talk."

So Qianxun led me to the door of the activity room, pulled the handle, and pushed the door open.

Boom boom~!

Colorful ribbons were flying all over the sky, sprinkling on Chihiro's head and shoulders.

I was standing behind Chihiro and couldn't see her expression at the moment, but from the cold tone of her voice, I could roughly imagine it.

"…What are you guys doing?"

The girl who was hiding behind the door and setting off fireworks complained in surprise: "Ah! Senior, how come you are the first one to come in!"

Chihiro brushed off the ribbons on her body and said angrily, "Who else did you want to do this to? The teacher you first met?"

"Of course! In order to welcome Xia Lai's teacher, we must show the greatest enthusiasm of our Ministry of Truth! Senior Qing and Senior Xiaoyu think so too, right? Yeah?"

The response was two whistles.

"That's enough! And this is the computer room, Maki, who allowed you to bring in the ribbons and fireworks?" Chihiro scolded me for a few words, then turned back and apologized to me, "I'm sorry, teacher, these kids embarrassed you."

I shook my head and said sincerely, "I think being energetic is a good thing."

It's better to welcome me warmly than to resist me coldly.

Just as Chihiro showed a faint smile on her face, the girl pulling the fireworks tube spoke again:

“Senior, stop blocking the door, hurry up and let the teacher in so we can see… Aaaaaaah! Senior, senior, I was wrong!”

Chihiro, who could no longer bear it, walked into the activity room in two or three steps, pinched the face of the red-haired girl who was speaking and pulled her to the sides.

And I followed her, closed the door, and looked around.

The interior of the Ministry of Truth's club activity room was decorated just like a computer room, with tables and walls filled with display screens that displayed a large amount of data in real time for unknown purposes, which was quite consistent with my stereotype of hackers.

But except for Qianxun, at least in their current attire, none of the other members look very hacker-

The girl who was being punished by having her face pinched by Chihiro was a girl with a red bun, wearing sunglasses with star-shaped frames on her face and a fancy pointed hat on her head, looking like a party queen.

The other two girls, one with white hair and the other with blond hair, were sitting on chairs, also wearing sunglasses and pointed hats. They were each holding a banner with the cursive words "Welcome Teacher Xia Lai to the Ministry of Truth" graffitied on it, and each had a whistle in their mouth.

beep—

As the blond girl blew, the whistle suddenly stretched out while making a sharp sound, and then quickly retracted.

Chihiro turned around angrily: "Xiaoyu! Qing! You two too!"

Are we really going to hold a welcome party?

Even I was speechless for a moment.

But at least, I have a preliminary understanding of the friendly attitude of the Ministry of Truth.

Chapter 79: Something I Determined to Be Intolerable

After some twists and turns, Qianxun finally suppressed all the troublesome members and ordered them to pack up all the party props.

Before I get into the main topic of my visit to the Ministry of Truth, it is reasonable for me to get to know the other students in the Ministry of Truth first.

"I'm Maki Kotome, and my hobby is street graffiti!"

The first person to introduce herself was the girl who had just hidden behind the door and was about to launch a surprise attack on me, but accidentally injured Chihiro and was scolded. There were a few spots of paint on her school uniform, which also indirectly confirmed her hobby.

Judging from her words and actions, Maki is a straightforward, action-oriented person who doesn't care about details. She also has a petite and cute appearance.

Her hair was crimson like a flame, and she had two lively buns on her head. Her bright blue eyes were full of smiles, and she looked me up and down with great interest:

"Hmm... As expected of Xia Lai's teacher who has caused a lot of discussion on the Internet, you look very fashionable. Are you interested in art?"

This is the first time I heard someone use this word to describe me, and I was a little surprised.

After all, I usually wear the same old Chalais uniforms. I have never put much thought into this aspect, and I have always believed that I have nothing to do with so-called fashion.

It might be because Xia Lai's uniform itself is quite good. But it might also be that the uniform was originally ordinary, but it became special because it was passed on to me.

I personally prefer the latter.

Next came a girl with silver hair, green eyes, and gentle features:

"Nice to meet you, teacher. I'm Xiao Gouqing, an engineer from the Ministry of Truth. Thank you for your guidance."

Qing's tone and intonation are as gentle as her appearance and expression.

A black cross-shaped hairpin was pinned to her slightly curly hair. Her white school uniform was specially lengthened, like a windbreaker, and she wore a simple, slightly longer black sweatshirt underneath.

In sharp contrast to this is what Qing is wearing on the lower half of her body.

Maybe she was still wearing shorts, but they were so short that they were completely covered by the hem of the sweatshirt, so that in terms of visual effect, a pair of dazzling white legs were directly connected to the bottom of the black sweatshirt, which made people want to explore.

I really want to lift it up with my own hands and see with my own eyes whether Qing is wearing shorts or not.

Finally, there is a girl with light blonde hair, light purple eyes, and headphones hanging around her neck. She looks harmless:

"Millennium Institute of Technology, Otonose Tama."

Her tone was cold and her words were concise. If I hadn't seen her blowing the whistle earlier, my first impression of Xiao Yulan might have been that she was difficult to approach.

As for now, I just think Xiaoyu is introverted, dull, taciturn, and a little unsocial.

I secretly sighed, these three girls and Chihiro are obviously lovely and good children, I don’t know how they got the reputation of being all weird.

Anyway, after I briefly met everyone in the Ministry of Truth, Chihiro said:

"Teacher, I haven't had time to ask you yet, what are you doing here at the Ministry of Truth today?"

Finally getting to the point, I couldn't wait to take out the phone that was infected with the Trojan virus and handed it to Qianxun who was in the lead:

"I would like to ask you to help me find the hacker who spread this virus."

Qianxun looked at the content on the phone and frowned slightly: "Telecom blackmail?"

“Well, this is the cell phone of one of my students.”

"I understand. Then, this commission will be accepted by our Ministry of Truth."

Without any hesitation, Qianxun immediately agreed to the commission, and without even asking for compensation, she handed the phone to the members beside her and then explained everyone's tasks:

"Qing, the algorithm for deciphering the virus is now in your hands. Xiaoyu, prepare to track the source of the virus and try to locate the target. Maki, go check the relevant information of the bank card that received the payment."

The girls from the Ministry of Truth each took their orders, and soon began to perform dazzling operations on the computers.

However, Chihiro, the deputy director, did not join in. Instead, she continued to sit in her original position and spoke to me:

"Teacher, I have a question for you."

“Please feel free to ask.”

Qianxun nodded slightly: "Okay. What I want to know is that the amount of money the prisoner extorted is not that large. Why did you specifically send a commission to the Ministry of Truth for such a small matter? Was it out of indignation? Or...?"

This question surprised me a little. I didn't know what the girl in front of me was thinking when she asked me this question.

But there was nothing to hide.

"The owner of this phone is not well off financially and has been working part-time to support herself with her studies. Therefore, I will not forgive the villain who used despicable means to make her cry."

I omitted the irrelevant details and gave a brief summary, then added: "Moreover, if the criminal is not brought to justice as soon as possible, more students will fall into the same trap in the future. I will never tolerate such a thing."

"That's right..."

Qianxun stared at me thoughtfully, took a deep breath, and said to me solemnly: "Then, the Ministry of Truth will not charge any compensation for this commission."

I was stunned for a moment: "...Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, how should I put it..." A smile suddenly bloomed on the indifferent face of the blue-haired girl, just like the beginning of melting ice and snow, "We definitely cannot tolerate such things. So, this time we will do it as a volunteer activity."

In other words, I have to owe a favor again.

But if the target is a beautiful girl who has a sense of justice, sticks to principles, and I am also interested in her, then I will be happy with it.

So I didn’t refuse: “Thank you very much.”

"It doesn't matter. This is the duty of our Ministry of Truth."

Qianxun stood up as she spoke. "Well, I'll go over and help too. Please wait for a moment, it shouldn't take long. After all, they are still using crude methods like bank card transfers, and most likely they don't even know how to use cryptocurrency. The virus interface is also visibly crude."

The understated and confident words from the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Truth and a veteran white hat hacker easily infected me.

At this time, just as Chihiro said, the other members of the Ministry of Truth had achieved results in such a short time.

"Senior! I found out that it is an anonymous bank card issued by a black market bank. There is no way to find the account holder's information."

Maki said regretfully.

"Oh. It's okay," Chihiro explained to me, "I expected this from the beginning. I just wanted to make sure whether the criminal was stupid enough to be stupider than this."

However, Xiaoyu also said to this side: "Senior Qianxun, there is no way to find the server."

Qianxun frowned again: "You can't even track Xiaoyu? How strange, according to common sense, the criminal's hiding skills shouldn't be so powerful."

"No, it's not that it's hidden too well to be tracked." Xiaoyu paused, with a hint of doubt in her tone, "It's more like the server has been disconnected... No, there's no trace of it ever existing. Could it be that it doesn't exist at all?"

Qianxun's expression fluctuated slightly: "...Huh? Where did the device download the public key from? Where does it send the data information?"

Even I, who knew almost nothing about network security, had noticed that the development of things seemed to have deviated from Qianxun's initial expectations.

"Well, I have a problem here too."

Qing raised her left hand and said hesitantly, "Hmm... this doesn't seem to be a ransomware virus."

Chihiro was silent for a moment before she asked in the same hesitant tone, "...What?"

"I checked and the files were not encrypted, but all gone. From being clean to only having a forced black screen with specific text displayed, could it be that they formatted it directly and then reinstalled the system?"

I suddenly remembered that according to Xiaokong, the phone had a black screen for unknown reason at the beginning and couldn't be turned on no matter what.

So, Chihiro fell into complete silence, with a troubled expression, as if she was brainstorming.

After a long time, she finally spoke with difficulty:

"In other words, this is not extortion, but pure fraud. Sigh... Did I underestimate the other party, or did I overestimate him?"

The girls in the Ministry of Truth looked at each other, and a complex emotion of sudden enlightenment and disbelief could be seen on each of their faces.

I was the only one who didn't understand the situation and was completely excluded.

I was about to speak, but I stopped myself. Finally, I couldn't help myself and asked cautiously, "Well... So, what's the situation now?"

"Oh, teacher, I'm sorry. Let me explain it to you."

As the deputy minister of the Ministry of Truth, Qianxun took it upon herself to review the situation for me, using a method that even laymen could understand:

"To put it simply, it's a lie to expose your information if you don't send money, and it's also a lie to restore your phone to its original state if you send money. The virus used by the criminal deletes all the data in the device and changes it to a state where it can only display a text message asking for money to be transferred. At the same time, the original data cannot be restored."