Free Web NovelChapter 105: Chapter 100: Social Engineering
In an abandoned building across from Hospital Street, dozens of people were gathered.
None of them were wearing protective suits or masks.
Because they were all Infected with the Blood Plague.
Red spots were visible on each person’s neck and shoulders.
Their eyes were all filled with a mix of anger, despair, and ferocity.
A man with a buzz cut stood before them, a savage look on his face as he spoke. "Everyone knows! Some people have antibodies, and their serum can save the lives of the Infected! But those pigs from the Administration didn’t tell any of us! Why should we have to wait to die just because we’re infected, while they get to use the serum?"
"I have one question for you all!" the man shouted. "In that hospital right across the street, the pigs just brought in a woman. She’s probably one of the ones with antibodies. There are only a few guards at the entrance, and there are dozens of us. Do you dare to follow me and storm the damn place?"
"Fuck! We’re all gonna die anyway, what’s there to be afraid of?"
"That’s right. We Infected are finished within 24 hours. At this point, what have we got to lose?"
"Forget a few guards with guns. Even if they parked planes and tanks at the door, I’d still charge! Getting shot to death is better than dying by bursting open from this plague!"
The crowd of Infected was in an uproar; not a single person objected.
Many of them had originally been staying in a Gathering Point, but they were kicked out after others discovered they were infected.
Some tried to seek help from the authorities, but the officials tactfully informed them they couldn’t be saved. They could only help them carry out Anle, allowing them to pass without pain.
Some agreed, but many more refused!
Even knowing they would burst open and die within 24 hours, how many would dare to end their own lives beforehand? Even if it was Anle, it was still death!
Faced with the high wall of death, not many people would willingly crash into it.
So, a portion of these Infected used local forums and other channels to contact each other and gather.
Others shunned them, but there was no animosity among themselves. They were all Infected, so who were they to despise each other?
After gathering, someone proposed doing something shocking and outrageous before they all died from the plague, which drew a lot of agreement. But soon, someone learned of the antibody serum’s existence through a relative.
This person’s relative had a son who worked for the Emergency Management Administration as a frontline operative, so he knew about it. The relative, wanting to show off, told this person.
Shocked and enraged, the person revealed the news to this group of Infected.
Upon learning this, the crowd, amidst their anger, saw a glimmer of hope for survival—if they could get an injection of the serum, they could live!
So, the group split up, staking out various hospitals in the city, hoping to get lucky and find something. Unexpectedly, they hit the jackpot today: a woman suspected of having antibodies was brought into a hospital.
The lookout immediately called the others, and soon, dozens of Infected had all gathered here.
"Good, since everyone’s got guts, there’s nothing more to say! I—"
The leader with the buzz cut was mid-sentence when he suddenly vomited blood. Then, blood started pouring from his eyes and ears.
Everyone else was stunned. The man himself froze for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh. "Just when we finally found some hope, and yet..."
SPLAT!
Before he could finish his sentence, he burst open from the plague, collapsing to the ground, dead.
The few people standing near him were spattered with blood, but they just wiped it off casually.
Just then, another person stepped forward. "You all saw that. Time waits for no one. We have to act now."
Without a doubt, when a group’s goal is so completely unified, even if the leader dies, a new one will immediately emerge.
In fact, the man’s death only further ignited the crowd’s ferocity and impatience. They didn’t want to delay for another second, because no one knew if they would be the next to burst open and die.
「Hospital Entrance.」
A few members of the armed squad, dressed in protective suits, were chatting with each other.
"Any plans for after the ’rules’ end?"
"What plans could we have? Just follow orders."
"If you look at the time, shouldn’t we be due for a rotation soon?"
"Not necessarily... Don’t forget we’ve lost quite a few people over the last few rounds of ’rules.’ They’ve even been recruiting from the civilian population recently."
"Yeah, I heard that from the guys in training. They said a lot of new recruits are at the range practicing their shooting every day."
As they were talking, something was suddenly thrown from a distance.
CLANG.
The object landed not far from them. They turned to look and saw what appeared to be a metal lighter.
They looked in the direction it was thrown from and saw a hooded figure standing not far from the hospital’s guard post, their hands pressed together.
"Detonate!"
BOOM!!!
The lighter instantly exploded. Metal fragments shot out, immediately wounding one person and piercing the protective suits of several others!
’An attack?!’
The members of the armed squad were shocked. They never imagined someone would dare to attack them while they were armed. They quickly raised their guns to return fire.
However, this guy with the Detonating Metal ability was just a distraction. As the lighter exploded, dozens of people charged out from the other side, screaming as they rushed forward!
Some of them used items, while those without threw rocks and glass bottles.
The squad members, not expecting a sudden mob attack, were caught off guard. Two were immediately knocked to the ground by thrown objects. The remaining three quickly fell back while shooting, and one of them urgently notified their teammates inside the hospital.
Muzzles flashed, and the dozen or so people at the front immediately fell, killed on the spot. Those behind them seized the opportunity to close the distance. The hooded man who had thrown and detonated the lighter took a handful of small Steel Balls from his pocket, scattered them, and once again pressed his hands together.
"Detonate!"
POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP!
All the Steel Balls exploded. The three remaining squad members cried out in pain as they were injured. The other Infected seized the chance to swarm them, knocking the three down and seizing their firearms.
Having successfully taken down the five combat personnel guarding the main gate, the Infected’s morale soared. They all looked at the hooded man, showering him with praise.
"You’re a fucking legend, man! That was all thanks to your ability!"
"The ability to detonate metal objects... with a power that amazing, how come you never joined an official department? What were you thinking, man?"
The hooded man smiled weakly. "I can only detonate small metal objects right now, and my Psychic Power capacity isn’t very high. Those two detonations just about used it all up."
"Alright, we’ve taken care of the guys at the door, but there are definitely more inside! And they must have called for backup. We need to take down the ones inside and get that woman’s serum, fast!"
...
"...Are you serious?"
After seven or eight straight hours of fighting, the young hacker in the dimly lit room was at his wit’s end.
He never imagined that he would spend so much time on this crappy little website, using every trick and tool in his arsenal, and still fail to crack it.
No matter how he tried to penetrate or intrude, the result was always either a failed injection or an inability to locate the IP address.
Now, the crude interface of the "Ascender’s Home" website on his computer screen seemed to be mocking his incompetence.
"You’ve got to be kidding me..." The young man stared with bloodshot eyes. "A little website made from a drag-and-drop template has stronger defenses than a major corporation’s?"
’From a technical standpoint, this was completely illogical.’
The young man recalled a post he’d seen earlier, where the site admin claimed his website "would never be tracked or hacked." He’d thought it was laughable at the time, but now it seemed there was really something to it.
’At the very least, the fact that even a top-tier hacker like him couldn’t break in after trying everything proved that the site’s security was no small matter.’
’He considered himself to be in the top tier of hackers worldwide, with no more than a double-digit number of people more skilled than him. If a system could defend against him, it could defend against the vast majority of cyberattacks in the world.’
’This shouldn’t be possible... A small website like this... could it be using some kind of special technology?’ freewebnøvel.com
The young hacker couldn’t figure it out for the life of him. Finally, he decided to use his trump card.
He logged into the account he had registered on the site and, in the "General Chat" section, made the very first post on the board.
*Wow, this site is really well-made! Hey Admin, can I add you as a friend to chat?*
This trump card was social engineering.
The legendary hacker the young man admired most, once ranked number one in the world, had performed his masterpiece—infiltrating the Soloma Empire’s national security agency—not through a cyberattack, but through a physical one!
That’s right. The legend first spent several months plotting to meet the deputy head of security at the agency, and even started a romantic relationship with her. Using this relationship, he got inside the agency as a security employee.
Then, using his position as a security employee, he moved cautiously, step by step, searching for vulnerabilities from within the agency. During this process, he married the deputy head of security, who even bore him a child... After a full four years, he finally found an internal vulnerability, obtained the master key, and completed his total infiltration and compromise of the security agency.
When the case became public, it shocked the entire cybersecurity world. While the legendary hacker was thrown in jail by the Soloma Empire, he also taught every hacker a lesson:
If you’ve exhausted all online methods and still can’t breach a security system, then you might as well try to breach it offline through social engineering. Because every system ultimately relies on people, and people have weaknesses. Crack the person at the critical node, and you’ve cracked the system.
Now, this young hacker intended to pay homage to his idol by cracking the site’s admin to obtain the key to cracking the site itself.
At the same time, in his own shelter, Guan Tong received a notification from the website. He saw that someone with the registered nickname "Mask" had made a post, and he was even a little touched.
’His website had been online for over ten hours, and someone had finally made the first post!’
Looking at the post’s title, he clicked on it and replied, "Thanks for the approval. Let’s just chat here in the forum."
Not even a few seconds after he replied, the other person replied back.
Mask: "Sounds good! I’ve done a bit of research into building websites myself, so I was hoping to discuss some technical questions with you, Admin."
’Technical questions...’
Guan Tong thought to himself that he didn’t have any technical skills; the website was basically set up with the help of AI tools.
’But being that blunt would undoubtedly damage the website’s credibility.’
’If users saw the admin admit the site was made with AI and a template, their first reaction would be that it’s unreliable. Once they get the impression it’s unreliable, how could they ever believe the site is completely secure?’
He thought for a moment and replied, "The technology I use is very special."
On the other end, the young hacker’s eyes lit up when he saw the reply.
’Just as I thought! I knew he was using some special technology! I really want to know what it is...’
Suppressing his intense curiosity, he replied, "I wonder what kind of technology it is? Could you reveal a little bit, Admin?"
Admin: "That’s not convenient."
"...I knew it."
The young hacker knew it wouldn’t be that easy to pry the information out of him. He thought for a moment and came up with another idea.
Mask: "Alright. By the way, the UI on your site seems a bit crude, Admin. I happen to be good at that sort of thing and was hoping I could help you optimize it. Would that be okay?"
Guan Tong narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw this reply from "Mask."
’Offering help out of the blue... Who in their right mind would want to optimize someone else’s website interface? That’s a ton of work.’
’This guy isn’t trying to phish for my tech, is he? The problem is, I don’t have any tech... The untraceable, unhackable network is just a built-in feature of the shelter...’
As this thought crossed Guan Tong’s mind, he mused, ’Well, this could work. If you want to do free labor for me, why would I refuse?’
Admin: "How do you plan on optimizing it?"
Mask: "Simple! I’ll make a one-click optimization package and send it to you, Admin. All you have to do is load it onto your website!"
Admin: "Okay."
"I’m in!" The young hacker rejoiced as he read the admin’s reply. ’I’ll stuff a few Trojan horses into the optimization package. If they go unnoticed, I should be able to get in from the inside.’
