Chapter 5

Zhang Qiu quickly unplugged the network cable, his heart racing so fast it felt like it was in his throat. He thought to himself, "Now it should be fine, right?" However, the moment he unplugged the cable, the computer went black and restarted. Immediately after, an unusual noise came from the hard drive, followed by a smell of burning.

"Damn, not possible, the hard drive is broken? This hacker is too sharp!" Zhang Qiu was astonished.

Today, Zhang Qiu had intended to crack the latest private photo album of the school beauty, Lin Lai. Unexpectedly, just as he had finished debugging the hacking software and was about to launch the attack, a stream of information traced back to him and took control of his computer.

When Zhang Qiu realized something was wrong and unplugged the network cable, it was already too late. His machine had already restarted and performed a low-level format. A low-level format is an operation usually done only when a hard drive is manufactured. Now, applying it to a computer in use was already quite malicious.

During the low-level format, the computer restarted again, interrupting the process. This caused a physical collision between the read/write head and the disk, damaging the hard drive.

Zhang Qiu was not a real computer hacker; he just had a bit of interest in computer technology. He usually liked to browse hacker forums that could be accessed through search engines. Real hacker forums never openly appeared; the ones you could find through Baidu were just fake hacker websites designed to trick newbies into registering to earn traffic.

Therefore, his skills did not improve much from studying on these hacker websites. From freshman to senior year, he only knew how to use some simple hacking software.

Being able to use these software already put him ahead of many people. So, he used the hacking software to repeatedly crack the private photo albums of Lin Lai, whom he had long admired. Of course, these albums did not contain anything scandalous, just some unpublished life photos.

Recently, the school beauty posted on her space about a set of bikini photos she had taken. At the same time, a new private photo album appeared on Lin Lai's space. Zhang Qiu, who had succeeded multiple times, naturally could not resist and went to crack it.

Who would have thought that there was a real hacker on the other side, who instantly broke through Zhang Qiu's defenses and even damaged his computer.

Sighing in frustration, he tried to reinstall the system, but it was already unoperable. Zhang Qiu was certain that the hard drive was indeed damaged and felt a bit bitter: "Do I have to spend money to fix it?"

His family's financial situation was not good, and they did not allow him to buy luxury items like a computer. The computer he had now was a second-hand laptop he had saved up for two years, starting from his freshman year, by cutting back on his allowance. The entire computer cost only 700 yuan, and its performance was probably inferior to some better smartphones.

It was Saturday, and even as a boarding student, he could still leave the school. Zhang Qiu quickly went to a computer market near the school and found the store where he had bought his computer. The store was run by his acquaintance, Sun Shan, the same Sun Shan as in "falling short of Sun Shan," which was easy to remember.

When Zhang Qiu arrived at Sun Shan's store, Sun Shan was idle and greeted him with a smile, "Qiu, why did you bring your computer over today?"

"The hard drive is broken, Sun Shan, can you check if anything else is wrong?" Zhang Qiu replied with a bitter smile.

To his surprise, Sun Shan teased him, "You must have downloaded too many videos! Share some good links with me!"

"Go away, do you think everyone is as perverted as you? I broke it while learning. Help me check it quickly, I need to use it." Zhang Qiu said. He was not very introverted in front of true friends.

"Learning? Learning how to make love, right?" Sun Shan continued to tease, but he took Zhang Qiu's laptop and immediately started to disassemble it.

Zhang Qiu pursed his lips and gave Sun Shan a "too lazy to deal with you" look, saying nothing more.

Sun Shan, an experienced technician, quickly opened the case and did a quick check.

"You're lucky, only the hard drive is broken," Sun Shan said.

"That's good. Do you have any second-hand hard drives? I need one to get by, as long as it works. I don't have any other requirements, the cheaper the better."

Sun Shan replied, "I just received a 60GB hard drive this morning. Although it has been used for five to six years, I personally tested it and found no bad sectors. It should last at least a year or two. If you want it, it's 50 yuan."

"50 yuan? Okay, I'll take it. 60GB is enough for me, and I don't download videos. Sun Shan, can you install it for me?" Zhang Qiu decided without haggling.

So, Sun Shan took out a yellowed hard drive and installed it for Zhang Qiu. "You know how to install the system, so I won't do it for you." He handed the old hard drive to Zhang Qiu and said, "Take it as a keepsake."

"Thanks, Sun Shan. I have the original system, so I won't trouble you. Since you tested it, I'm completely reassured." Zhang Qiu paid 50 yuan and left with his laptop and the broken hard drive.

Back in the dorm, Zhang Qiu took out a USB drive with the original system he had burned and started to install it. The original system would not automatically format the hard drive and could retain the original files, so he did not have to worry about data loss when reinstalling the system.

However, since the hard drive was second-hand, Zhang Qiu was afraid that some residual files might affect the system's performance, so he formatted it once before installing the system.

When the system installation entered the automated process, Zhang Qiu did not stay to watch the progress bar but went to do laundry.

While Zhang Qiu was away from the computer, a series of strange messages appeared on the system installation screen.

"Detected suitable host..."

"Unpacking installation package..."

"Program automatically installing..."

"Program verification..."

"Installation complete..."

These five messages flashed by in less than a second, while the system installation progress bar was still slowly moving.

When Zhang Qiu returned from doing laundry, the system installation progress bar had just finished.

He unplugged the USB drive, restarted the computer twice, and the system was finally installed. Upon entering the desktop and seeing the familiar interface, Zhang Qiu was delighted that his computer was working again.

However, he soon noticed an unusual icon on the familiar interface—Super Beauty Finder.

After installing the original system, the desktop usually only had a Recycle Bin. Other icons needed to be set up manually. Now, there were two icons on the desktop: the Recycle Bin and the mysterious "Super Beauty Finder."

"What is this? I formatted the hard drive, so how could there be residual files?" Since the system did not have such an icon, it must be a residual file. What kind of file could remain after formatting? Zhang Qiu opened it out of curiosity.

No window popped up, but the program had already started because a line of floating text appeared on the system desktop.

"Welcome to Super Beauty Finder. You can use this program to discover, meet, and obtain beautiful women. Completing tasks can earn you skills, items, and various surprises. Do you want to activate the trial version?"

Then, a window popped up on the desktop with "Yes" and "No" options.

At that moment, Zhang Qiu was startled. "What is this? It looks so high-end!" So he clicked "No."

"Damn! I clicked the wrong one in excitement!" Zhang Qiu slapped his thigh and was about to open it again when a dialog box suddenly appeared on the screen.

"Clicking 'No' shows integrity. System activated. Official activation task: Touch Lin Lai's buttocks (for more than 10 seconds). Task reward: Proficiency in Kicking and Punching (Provincial level). New user activation special reward: One lucky draw."

"Damn, this is too perverted! I won't do such a dishonorable thing!" Zhang Qiu cursed. He had just praised the system for being upright, but then it gave him such a perverted task. Wasn't this encouraging crime?

After cursing, Zhang Qiu was about to delete the icon. In fact, this was what all the people who had encountered Super Beauty Finder before him did after reaching this step.

But just as he was about to delete it, he changed his mind. "Forget it, I'll keep it for now. It's a great topic for imagination!"

Yes, imagining a beautiful woman also requires a topic. Otherwise, various erotic stories wouldn't be so popular. A rich topic makes the imagined world more enjoyable.

Next, Zhang Qiu activated the system, installed the hacking software from the USB drive, and started to crack the Wi-Fi in the nearby teacher's building.

High school is not like university; it does not provide internet access to student dormitories. Some strict high schools even prohibit mobile phones. If you don't use some unconventional methods, you can't go online.

After going online, Zhang Qiu first downloaded an antivirus software and started a full scan. While the scan was running, he browsed the school's Baidu Tieba. When he reached the top post on the Su Xian No. 1 High School Tieba, it immediately caught his attention.

A user with the ID "Xian Lai Qing Shen" posted: "The kid whose hard drive broke, pay attention!"

At first glance, this ID seemed like a regular fan of the game "Xian Jian." However, this ID was created three years before the release of the album "Xian Lai Qing Shen." It was rumored that this ID belonged to the school beauty, Lin Lai, so everything it said was closely watched, especially by male students.

Such a clearly provocative post, allegedly from the school beauty, was hard to ignore, so the Tieba moderators immediately pinned it to the top.

Zhang Qiu clicked into the post and immediately became angry. "Damn! You broke my hard drive with your hacking, and now you want to ruin my reputation. Since you won't let me off, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

As soon as he finished reading the post, the task issued by Super Beauty Finder suddenly came to mind.