Chapter 79

Holding Sun Shijia's phone, Su Peng flipped through his QQ chat history, but the more he looked, the more he felt something was off.

Sun Shijia's QQ level was only level 3. Su Peng checked the registration time, which was about a week before he joined the company. There weren't many friends, all placed in the 'My Friends' category, with roughly fifty people.

However, when Su Peng opened the QQ and checked the chat records of a few friends, he immediately noticed something was wrong. Among the dozen or so friends he checked, none had any chat records. At most, there were simple messages like "Hello" or "Are you there?" which didn't resemble a normal person's QQ at all.

A normal person's QQ, even with minimal chatting, would have a few close friends. But on this phone, Su Peng hadn't found any of Sun Shijia's acquaintances yet.

"It looks like... he registered this QQ after preparing to join the company, and the friends were randomly added?" Su Peng thought as he fiddled with the phone.

This could be considered as the chat records being on the computer, but Sun Shijia had already joined the VIP membership, which allowed offline chat history. However, there was still no information. Su Peng checked the time when these friends were added in the system information, and they were all added the day before he joined the company.

These were minor details that wouldn't normally raise Su Peng's suspicions, but when he opened the QQ friend information that was just sent to Sun Shijia, he found something even more unusual.

Su Peng discovered that this friend named 'Xiao Xiao' was the only one with two pages of chat records, and had been added half a month earlier than the other friends.

Earlier, this friend 'Xiao Xiao' had sent Sun Shijia the message: "Attack on Titan Episode 14 is updated online at 10 PM."

Su Peng recalled that although he didn't pay much attention to ACG, he knew that 'Attack on Titan' was a popular anime recently. Su Peng had watched the first two episodes, which had a good atmosphere, but he stopped after the weekly updates.

At first glance, this message seemed like a reminder from a friend who shared the same interest in anime. But as Su Peng scrolled back, he found it increasingly strange.

July 13th

Carnival: "School Days Episode 9 is updated at 9:30 PM, on A site."

Xiao Xiao: "Got it."

July 19th

Carnival: "I miss you, give me a kiss."

Xiao Xiao: "...Stop joking, Attack on Titan Episode 11 is updated at 9:30 PM."

July 22nd

Carnival: "Attack on Titan Episode 6 is updated at 10:30 PM, on A site."

Xiao Xiao: "Got it."

August 3rd

Xiao Xiao: "I miss you."

Carnival: "School Days Episode 1 is updated at 9:30 PM, on A site."

Just now

Carnival: "I miss you."

Xiao Xiao: "Attack on Titan Episode 14 is updated online at 10 PM."

This chat record on Sun Shijia's phone seemed to be from a girlfriend or someone with similar interests, sending anime update reminders. However, it made Su Peng frown.

Su Peng, in his free time, enjoyed watching documentaries or reading more specialized books. He had once been interested in secret codes used during enemy occupations and had watched some special documentaries. He remembered that during World War II, British spies used daily trading bulletins to pass secret messages. In the underground party during the Japanese occupation, there were also members who worked in cinemas and used movie schedules to pass special codes.

Additionally, Su Peng had obtained some special books from his third uncle, which were about code-breaking. They mentioned some patterns.

Now, looking at Sun Shijia's seemingly ordinary chat records, Su Peng had a feeling that this wasn't just casual chatting but rather a prearranged special message.

For example, the messages Sun Shijia sent to Xiao Xiao all included "A site," while Xiao Xiao didn't mention it. This could reflect Sun Shijia's state, perhaps indicating that "A site" meant "safe"?

While Su Peng was thinking, he suddenly heard someone bump into someone else behind him. The person said "Sorry," and Su Peng immediately recognized it as Sun Shijia's voice.

Without showing any emotion, Su Peng closed Sun Shijia's phone and placed it on the coffee table, pretending to drink beer. Sun Shijia then walked over from behind.

"Brother Su... you're still here. This is your phone, right? I think I took it by mistake," Sun Shijia said, holding a phone and shaking it. His face was flushed, either from drinking or some emotional波动.

"Ah, I heard a message on your phone and picked it up, only to realize you had the wrong one. I just noticed and was about to find you," Su Peng nodded and said.

"Is that so... hehe, our phones are all the same, issued by the company. It's easy to take the wrong one if you're not careful," Sun Shijia laughed, scratched his head, and put Su Peng's phone back on the table, taking his own.

"Right, be more careful next time. Maybe tie a phone strap or something," Su Peng said casually. Sun Shijia nodded and said, "Alright, Brother Su, you continue to have fun. I'm going back."

"Me too, I'll be back soon," Su Peng said. Sun Shijia nodded and left with his phone.

Su Peng slightly turned his head and watched Sun Shijia leave, his perception of him changing.

Su Peng had always thought of Sun Shijia as a naive student, somewhat immature, not very experienced, and easily influenced, so he hadn't paid much attention to him.

But the information on the phone had raised Su Peng's alert. Perhaps, this was just a layer of disguise for this young man?

Was he, like Lei Ming or Su Peng himself, hiding another identity?

Su Peng couldn't help but have serious doubts.

Not to act on such suspicions wasn't Su Peng's style. He finished his last sip of beer, picked up his phone, and walked to his room.

Soon, Su Peng returned to his room, turned on his computer, and searched for "Attack on Titan Episode 14, A site."

The search results quickly returned, and Su Peng saw: "Attack on Titan Episode 14, AGFUN Danmaku Network."

"Danmaku Network?" Su Peng frowned and looked up AGFUN on Google.

The results quickly returned, and Su Peng learned that a Danmaku Network was a website where messages appear on the screen while watching videos, and AGFUN was one of the two major anime Danmaku websites in the country.

Su Peng understood and clicked into the AGFUN website, thinking for a moment, and searched for "School Days Episode 1."

Three pages of search results appeared, but Su Peng didn't find anything unusual.

Frowning, Su Peng opened Google and searched for "ACFUN, School Days Episode 1, Carnival." Soon, some search results appeared.

"Indeed, I found you..." Su Peng saw that the second result on Google was a video, posted by someone named Carnival, who was likely Sun Shijia himself.

Su Peng clicked on it.

"The video you searched for does not exist or has been deleted by the uploader or administrator." Su Peng saw an error message.

Although he didn't see the video, Su Peng wasn't discouraged. He had already guessed that the video might have been deleted. Google's search mechanism captures a snapshot of each new webpage a few minutes after it's created, so this was just a trace left behind.

However, this information wasn't meaningless. Su Peng at least knew that Sun Shijia had indeed posted such a video.

Checking the time, it was already 9:40 PM. Su Peng thought for a moment, left the computer, and took out his own phone from his jacket.

Su Peng's phone was quite advanced, almost as powerful as an iPad, with several apps he had written and obtained from special channels. He opened one of them.

The phone, which had no signal, suddenly showed a search for nearby Wi-Fi networks. Soon, several usernames appeared.

"Searching for nearby Wi-Fi users: 08153, 08154, 08152, 08151, 08155..." Su Peng's phone screen displayed these network users.

"Great... the dormitory area indeed uses wireless routers. Now, I just need the user password... My room number is 08152, and Sun Shijia's room, two doors down, should be 08155. If I can crack his Wi-Fi password, I can log into the network."

Su Peng thought and then opened another app on his phone.

This app was purchased from a highly skilled hacker and was a powerful tool for piggybacking on Wi-Fi networks. It was perfect for this situation. He selected the 08155 user's Wi-Fi network.

After a minute of cracking, Su Peng's phone connected to the 08155 user's network.

Without pausing, Su Peng used another app to trace online activity. He entered a search keyword and began to track the cookies of the websites Sun Shijia was logged into.

After about seven or eight minutes, the spyware returned results.

"AGFUN... USER: 56214532S... MM: 56741369SSJ"

Among the lines of digits, this information was displayed.

"Found the password..." Su Peng thought.

Checking the time, it was exactly 10:00 PM.

The spyware then displayed another password: "MM: 532136SLS."

Su Peng searched the website, and soon, a video appeared: "Attack on Titan Episode 14," created by Carnival, with a password.

Su Peng smiled, quickly registered on the AGFUN website, set up full-site invisibility, and opened the video, using the password he had obtained to enter the video, which was likely created by Sun Shijia.

In the video, Su Peng found that only two people were online, using the Danmaku chat.

"Information about Fu Kang in real life has been found. He is confirmed dead, with a large hole in the back of his head from an arrow, consistent with the information we previously obtained."

"Is that so..."

"I'm a bit scared now, afraid that one day I might die in the game, and in reality, I might..."

"Remember your identity, and the event will end soon."

"I know... The bureau is about to take action, right? Please hurry."

"Understood, this week is your rest day. Can we meet?"

"No... I've found some clues. Lei Ming in the company is suspicious. I just started to approach him..."

"Maybe I can gain his trust."

"Be careful. Remember, your mission is to bring out as many game consoles as possible."

"I understand... By the way, check out that Su Peng. I think he suspects Lei Ming, and maybe even me..."

The Danmaku chat on the anime video showed this conversation... Su Peng's frown deepened...