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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 13: The Ghost's Key and the Innocent's Wall
I finally crawled out of that rundown motel, which reeked of cheap disinfectant and despair, like a maggot. It wasn't a sudden awakening or a moment of conscience; it was purely because if I didn't get out soon, I would either starve to death or be driven mad by my own fears.
"Node value zeroed out"… This cold death sentence hung over me like a guillotine, forcing me to step back into this perilous world to carry out a filthy task that could send me straight to hell.
Damn the lighthouse! Damn the Inceptor! Damn the Neural Interface!
I cursed every twisted individual involved with every foul word I could muster. Yet my body, like a wind-up puppet, mechanically prepared for the "Data Collection" mission targeting the innocent Zhang Wei.
East City XX Community. It looked like a decent middle-class neighborhood, with new buildings and green trees, though the old man at the security booth seemed even more listless than I was. I wrapped myself tightly in my only somewhat clean hoodie and wandered aimlessly along the streets surrounding the community, familiarizing myself with the terrain and searching for the best observation point. I couldn't get too close; who knew how many cameras were hidden in plain sight, not to mention that omnipresent "lighthouse" surveillance network?
I settled into a pastel-colored bubble tea shop across the street—using my last few bills hidden in my shoe in case of emergencies. I ordered a bland lemon water and huddled in a corner, pretending to scroll through my phone which had no signal, while my peripheral vision locked onto the beige residential building across the road—Building X, Unit X.
According to the information force-fed into my brain by the "Ghost Interface", Zhang Wei, male, thirty-five or thirty-six, a software tester at XX Technology, married with no children, lived an extremely regular life with hours from nine to five.
I needed to act like the sleaziest paparazzo, figuring out his routine and identifying the best "window" where his home Wi-Fi signal might leak. Then… like a pathetic sacrificial lamb, I would wait for that damned "Neural Interface" to activate its "Ghost Key".
Every second of waiting felt like torture. The bubble tea shop played sugary pop songs on repeat while a couple at the next table fed each other obliviously, laughing and playing around. All these warm scenes belonging to "normal humans" pricked at my nerves like needles, making me feel utterly out of place in this world—like a soul exiled to hell on earth, forced to plot a crime that could ruin another ordinary person's life.
What made Zhang Wei so special? Just because his company provided outsourced services for that damned "Singularity Project" ten years ago? That reason was absurd! Or did he harbor some secret within his computer or even within himself that he didn't even know about? Or… was he not as "ordinary" as described in the instructions?
Just after six-thirty in the evening, a figure appeared in my line of sight right on cue. Wearing glasses, dressed in a checkered shirt and jeans, carrying an old backpack and holding a bag clearly filled with fresh groceries from the supermarket. He walked with his head down, hurriedly moving forward with an expression drained by work. He looked exactly like the man in the photo. It had to be Zhang Wei.
He seemed… painfully ordinary. Just like one of countless indistinct background figures you encounter during your daily commute on the subway. This extreme ordinariness only intensified the venom of guilt coursing through me. Why me? Why was it my fate to tear away his peaceful life and drag him into this mess?
I forced myself to extinguish these untimely feelings of sympathy. Li Mo, you can barely save yourself; how can you afford to consider others? Survive first!
Around seven o'clock, I saw the lights turn on in Unit X Room XXX. A warm yellow glow spilled from the window, faintly revealing a man's silhouette moving inside. He was back. But strangely… there was only one shadow. Where was his wife? On a business trip? Or… was this intelligence itself flawed?
I left the milk tea shop and found a dark corner closer to Building X, obscured by a few half-dead trees and a row of shared bicycles. I squatted down like a hyena waiting for prey, or more accurately, like a hunting dog awaiting its master's command. I needed to find the best reception point for the Wi-Fi signal.
As I focused intently on the terrain, trying to determine which window appeared to have the weakest defenses, that cold, undeniable "stream of thought" invaded my mind again!
[Instruction: Target is in position. Initiate environmental signal detection. Please move slowly towards the area beneath the target unit's window, using the terrain for cover and maintaining absolute concealment.]
Here it comes! That damned "remote control"!
My body stiffened, every muscle feeling rusted. I suppressed the urge to bolt and the nausea churning in my stomach. Like a clumsy thief, I hunched over, pressed against the cold wall, using the shadows of flower beds and parked electric bikes to inch forward toward the illuminated windows of Unit X.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest, almost breaking free from its confines. The cold sweat in my palms soaked through my shirt. I felt as if countless eyes were watching me from the darkness. The dog-walking old man passing under the streetlight, a fleeting reflection from an upper window, even the stray cat lurking in the shadows—all felt like monitors from the Lighthouse Society.
[Instruction: Optimal signal reception area reached. Maintain current position. Initiate ‘Ghost Key’ protocol.]
“Ghost Key”... what an apt name!
In the next moment, beneath the skin on my left wrist, that strange sensation returned—like countless tiny ants crawling over me! It was stronger and clearer than before! At the same time, translucent, flickering virtual images resembling signal strength and data streams reappeared at the edges of my vision!
Holy crap! It’s happening again! AR visual overlay?! Directly projected onto my retina?!
I was so startled I nearly bit my tongue! I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream from this surreal experience.
Those virtual signal bars seemed alive, irregularly pulsing and searching. Faint instructions echoed in my mind as if conducting some remote debugging: “Move left… half a centimeter… angle… raise by one degree… interference source… evading… recalibrating…” I felt like a puppet controlled by invisible strings, stiffly and minutely adjusting my posture. It was as if I wasn’t stealing a password but participating in some sacrificial ritual, using my body as a medium to open the hellish gates to someone else’s privacy!
This process lasted about three or four minutes; each second felt like an eternity in hell. Just when I thought I might suffocate from sheer tension, that tingling sensation suddenly vanished. The virtual images at the edges of my vision faded away. A cold, mechanical confirmation sound echoed in my mind:
[Wi-Fi Password (WPA2-PSK): ZW1988lovehome confirmed captured. Password complexity: extremely low.]
ZW1988lovehome... Zhang Wei... 1988... love home... This password was painfully simple.
I... I actually did it? In this way, like a ghost, I stole the key to the digital world from a stranger's home?
A wave of immense humiliation and intense self-loathing engulfed me like a tsunami. I crouched in a dark, cold corner, feeling dirty and despicable, even my breath carried the stench of decay.
[Command: Password verification successful. Phase one task completed. Initiating Data Packet deep scan program. Remain in current position or move within a 50-meter safe radius, continuing the scan until task completion command is received. Estimated remaining time: 1.5-3.5 hours.]
What?! I have to stay here for another one and a half to three and a half hours?! Like some kind of pervert lurking under someone else's window?! And I have to keep that damn "scan program" running?!
I felt the last thread of my sanity about to snap!
Just then, the curtains in the room above suddenly opened a crack without warning!
My heart nearly stopped; I froze in place, scrambling back deeper into the shadows, not daring to breathe!
Had Zhang Wei discovered me?! Impossible! I was hidden so well!
I stared intensely at that crack, my eyes wide with fear. Cold sweat trickled down my forehead like a small stream.
Behind the crack, there was a vague silhouette.
But this time, I saw clearly! It was definitely not Zhang Wei!
The figure was dressed in a tailored black suit! Tall and poised, with movements that were sharp and practiced, the way he pulled back the curtains showed a trained vigilance! He seemed to glance quickly downwards before the curtains were drawn tightly shut again!
Moreover, just a second before the curtains closed, I thought I saw something very small and almost imperceptible on the inside of the window—a silver metallic piece shaped like some kind of insect? It flashed by!
My mind buzzed as if struck by a heavy hammer!
A black suit?! Trained?! A metallic insect piece on the inside of the window?!
This is not just an ordinary employee's home! Zhang Wei is definitely hiding something! There’s someone in his house who looks like an agent or an insider! What is that metal piece? A listening device? A signal transmitter?
The Lighthouse Society didn’t send me here to test me at all! They want to use me as a pawn, to exploit this Neural Interface to scan and detect a target hidden in Zhang Wei's home, a target they themselves cannot approach directly?!
I’ve become a tool for someone else’s agenda?! A mere pawn to test the waters?!
This realization struck me like lightning, cutting through all the fog! A wave of immense fear and anger at being used made me tremble!
[Warning: Node physiological indicators are spiking abnormally! Emotional fluctuations exceed safe thresholds! Initiating ‘Beta Wave Sedation’ protocol!]
The cold, unfeeling warning echoed in my mind again! Immediately, a stronger wave of dizziness and numbness washed over me than before! This time, it wasn’t just mental sluggishness; I felt a kind of emotional detachment!
Fear and anger didn’t vanish; they roared within me, but it was as if I were watching them through a thick layer of glass, unable to feel their impact. All that remained was a cold, eerie numbness, as if I were a mere observer. My thoughts felt soaked in preservative fluid, slow and sluggish, yet in some corner of my mind, a faint voice screamed: resist! Fight back! But my body, my nerves, even my emotions had been taken over by that damned interface!
I had completely… turned into a soulless shell.
I squatted like a lifeless statue in that dark corner reeking of garbage, allowing the invisible Ghost Key program to greedily siphon digital information from the mysterious room above through my defiled body like a bloodsucking worm.
The shadow of the mysterious figure in the black suit upstairs and the fleeting metallic insect at the window loomed over my forcibly "calm" mind like two new, darker enigmas casting ominous shadows.
This night felt longer than any other. How would I endure the next few hours in such a humiliating and numbed state?
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