When they passed through layer upon layer of checkpoints.
The two of them followed the guide. They watched as he kept passing through password - protected doors, which required either a password input, or fingerprint and iris scans.
As the last door opened, this time the leading official didn't go in. Instead, he made a “please” gesture. The two exchanged a glance, nodded, and walked in.
As soon as they stepped in, the door “whooshed” shut. They looked back for a moment, then calmly continued walking through the long corridor until they reached the center of the room.
The new president was already waiting. Seeing them come over, he immediately stepped forward. After shaking hands with Huo Cheng, he looked behind him and asked, “Who is this?”
“As I mentioned to you before, my assistant,” Huo Cheng replied casually, seemingly not paying much attention to this question.
“Good day, Mr. President,” the assistant behind him greeted obediently, bowing his head.
The president nodded.
Huo Cheng then looked around the room. Except for a conference table in the middle, there wasn't even a computer.
With a puzzled look on his face, he asked, “Is this the place...”
“No, there's another level,” the president said with a smile. Then he turned around and walked towards an unremarkable corner.
The president pressed a button, and a facial recognition device popped out. After scanning his face, the heavy door “clicked” open.
“Haha, the security awareness of Country G is really good!” Huo Cheng complimented.
The president shook his head modestly. “It's nothing. After all, this is the most confidential place. If it isn't well - protected, can the country be secure?”
Huo Cheng raised his eyebrows but didn't comment. He followed the president in.
There were real secrets behind this door. Silver was almost the main color of this large - scale venue. Many people were coming and going, sitting seriously in front of their computers or dealing with documents. Even those who passed by casually seemed not to notice the president. They were truly treated as if they didn't exist.
Perhaps noticing the confusion of Huo Cheng and his assistant, the president kindly explained, “It's my privilege for them. Here, they don't need to follow any authority or rules.”
Although he said so, Huo Cheng saw that those people were almost constantly busy with their work, and none of them seemed to be slacking off.
It seemed that there must be a complete set of internal rules here.
The president led them around and finally they reached a place. Several people were busy working, and they didn't seem different from others.
The president introduced, “This is the base of our country's economic restart plan. All the members of this small team are the most outstanding young people in this field in Country G. If you wish, you can have the permission to visit here throughout this project.”
Just then, the official who had led them in earlier came in from behind, carrying some food boxes. He said to them, “If you don't mind, you can watch our simulation plan and have something to eat at the same time.”
The president stood with his hands behind his back, looked at Huo Cheng, thought for a while, and then nodded. “Okay, you in the project team should take good care of them. The plan should meet their satisfaction. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” several people replied in unison.
After the president left, the official said to Huo Cheng, “Mr. Huo, please wait here for a while. The plan still needs a little improvement. It will take about ten - odd minutes.”
“Don't be in a hurry,” Huo Cheng said. Just as he finished speaking, he felt someone tugging at him from behind.
He turned around and asked, “What's up?”
“Keep your voice down!” YA made a shushing gesture. He looked at the people behind Huo Cheng who were all burying their heads in work. No one around them noticed him.
He pulled Huo Cheng aside and whispered, “Do you know that only the president of Country G can enter here without being monitored?”
Huo Cheng looked around for surveillance cameras but didn't notice any difference. He shook his head. “I don't know.”
The negative answer didn't seem to dampen his mood. He continued, “Here, except for the president who can enter without being monitored, each person has someone corresponding to them to monitor all their actions. And since we just came in with the president, no one is monitoring us for now.”
He hooked the corner of his mouth into a smile, squinted his eyes, and said, “If you want to do something bad, do it quickly and as soon as possible.”
It was the first time Huo Cheng had heard this news, and he still couldn't even confirm if it was true or false. Most importantly, he hadn't planned for a quick operation. It was too dangerous.
Hearing the last sentence, his vigilance deepened. Huo Cheng retorted, “What bad thing?”
This stunned the other person. “Chen Fang” blinked. Although the two looked very similar, Huo Cheng knew that Chen Fang would never have such a personality. The two had completely different temperaments.
“Then what did you come in for?” he retorted. Then he looked around again. As if he saw something, his eyes lit up. “Anyway, I came in to do something bad. I won't waste such a good opportunity.”
He turned his head quickly and said, “I have to go do my own thing. If anyone asks about me, just say I've gone to the toilet.”
Huo Cheng watched as the person left without looking back. By the time he reached out to pull him, it was already too late. There were people beside him getting ready to show him the plan. So he simply sat down in one of the many empty seats.
Not long after, the project official came over with the plan.
“Please take a look, Mr. Huo.”
Huo Cheng raised his head. He pretended to be concentrating, but in fact, he was absent - minded while flipping through the plan. After a short while, he looked up and found that the official was still nervously staring at the plan. He said, “I've read the first few pages. There are a few points that don't match my ideas. I'll mark them first. You can start making the changes!”
All the people in the project team were nervously staring at Huo Cheng. After he said this, they actually felt relieved.
So Huo Cheng continued to read. Whenever he found something he was not satisfied with, he marked it, and they immediately made the changes. The efficiency was quite high.
Soon, he had flipped through the whole plan. Looking at the busy people, the words of “Chen Fang” echoed in his mind. On an impulse, he simply got up and left.
As he walked, he found that he seemed to be invisible to them. A plan gradually formed in his mind. He simply turned left and right and finally reached the International Department.
There, perhaps because there was no work to do, there was not a single person.
There were only a few computers still on.
He glanced at the surveillance camera in the distance and murmured, “No one is monitoring?”
It seemed like an affirmation and also like a self - talk. But his actions were quicker than his thoughts. Huo Cheng had already sat down in front of the computer and started browsing the international news of Country G.
There wasn't much news. It was all in plain sight. Huo Cheng quickly found the news he was looking for.
He clicked on the original published document and simply pressed the delete button.
Unexpectedly, it showed “No deletion permission”.
No matter how he operated, the “Deletion failed” prompt always showed in front of him. Even when he introduced a virus, he was still powerless.
Looking at the time, Huo Cheng knew that the time he had estimated was almost up.
Soon, the people from the project team would come to look for him. By then, the best opportunity would be gone.
He tried all kinds of hacking techniques with his hands, but he was still unable to do anything. It could only be said that the anti - attack measures of that software were beyond his capabilities.
A thin layer of sweat appeared on Huo Cheng's face. Time was passing by second by second.
Was he going to fail at the last moment?