September 10th, late at night, 22:01.
Leon Chen was dreaming about his childhood when suddenly a rapid knock on the door woke him up.
"Open up, open up!"
Groggy and tired, Leon Chen rubbed his eyes as his roommates woke up one by one, cursing.
"Who the hell is banging on the door in the middle of the night?"
"Can't a guy get some sleep?"
John Wu, the dorm leader, climbed down from his bed and opened the door. Standing there was a senior student, Henry Sun, who lived in room 302. Leon Chen remembered that Henry Sun was quite skilled in computers.
When Henry Sun became a top member of the university's largest computer club, the four of them were green with envy and treated him to a big meal.
Michael Fang e, who was about to swear at whoever disturbed their sleep, was startled to see Henry Sun.
" Henry Sun, what brings you here?"
"Get up, you bunch of slackers! Get ready for a battle!" Henry Sun shouted.
"A world war?" The group was still half-asleep.
"Damn it, US hackers are retaliating! The president of the computer club has called everyone with computer skills to the multimedia building immediately! I'm here to inform you. Hurry up, or by morning our national network will be covered with the US flag!"
Leon Chen and his three roommates were stunned.
US hackers retaliating?
They quickly got dressed and ran outside, only to see the entire dorm building lit up with students, disheveled and rushing downstairs like mad.
It looked like a hundred-meter dash.
Some clueless students grumbled, but when they heard about the hacker attack, they were just as startled.
In dorm room 502, only Daniel Zhang was part of the computer club, but given the urgency, all computer science students were rushing over. One guy even ran in just his underwear, clutching his laptop, earning thumbs-up from his peers.
Unfazed, the guy shouted while running, "Beat the US hackers! Go!"
His infectious enthusiasm spurred everyone else to shout along.
With such a grand commotion, the girls' dormitory lights were also on, and even students from other departments lit up their rooms. Once they heard the news, everyone was eager to help.
It was an incredible sight.
This was the spirit of university life, a time when one could fully express their youthful passion.
The Huahai University multimedia network building had twelve floors, more than half of which were computer rooms, housing over a thousand computers. At 22:08, just seven minutes after the call to action, the building was already packed.
Daniel Zhang, being part of the computer club, found a seat. Leon Chen, Michael Fang, and the others, not being club members, stood by, watching.
"The club president has pre-installed attack programs on the computers. Like the 2001 hacker war, we must attack the US network with all our might to ensure our network remains functional!"
The speaker was a tall young man, speaking with fervor. Daniel Zhang introduced him as Felix Gao, a highly skilled protector of the computer club.
"The president has teamed up with the top hackers in the country to counter the American assault. We must ensure the security of our defense network!"
"Even the president is struggling?" Daniel Zhang muttered.
At that moment, a commotion arose at the entrance.
An elderly man with kind eyes appeared, accompanied by several groggy and exhausted school officials, including the head of the computer science department.
Seeing the old man, the students were shocked.
It was the president of Huahai University!
"Don't worry, students. I've been informed of the situation by Grace Wang. The school will fully support you in this hacker battle, let them know we're no pushovers!" The old president clenched his fists. The head of instruction instinctively clapped but, seeing the students' focus on their screens, awkwardly stopped.
"That legendary Huahai beauty Grace Wang really knows how to pull strings, getting the president to open the multimedia rooms at this hour," Michael Fang said in amazement.
The surrounding students nodded in agreement.
This was no time to think about the campus beauty, so everyone returned their focus to the computers.
The network was extremely sluggish, with actions that usually took a second now taking ten. Massive DOS attacks from across the Pacific were flooding the military, and corporate websites, with Huahai University as a prime target.
In response, the Huahai University was bombarding American networks with vast amounts of junk data.
The atmosphere in the multimedia room was tense and oppressive. Everyone's eyes were glued to the screens, watching the rapidly moving data.
Previously, Leon Chen would have been clueless about such things. But now, with his Data Manipulation ability, even though he was still a bit slow on these topics, his mind retained a deep understanding of them.
Leon Chen frowned. Things were looking bad.
Huahai University was at a severe disadvantage.
In the 2001 hacker war, although the Chinese hackers ultimately triumphed by modifying the White House website and raising the flag, everyone knew that the victory came from a rare human wave tactic. Despite capturing 92 American websites, over 600 Chinese sites were compromised, including major ones.
This time, Chinese hackers were again using human wave tactics, flooding US networks with data. However, the American hackers were well-prepared. Their "denial of service" attacks were overwhelming, drowning out Chinese data streams.
"Damn it, they must be using supercomputers," someone cursed as their computer got hacked.
No one paid him any attention; their hearts were in their throats.
Even if the Americans were using supercomputers, they couldn't afford to lose.
"I suspect this hacker attack was prompted by the government," Leon Chen muttered grimly.
"What? Leon Chen, what do you mean?" Michael Fang asked, surprised.
Leon Chen didn't answer, keeping his eyes on the screen.
He had just read "AI" recently, and a few passages stood out. The fifth-generation computer Turing's data was broken down into biomolecular structures, giving it artificial consciousness, or "machine logic." These intelligent data had assimilation capabilities, meaning if China repeated the human wave tactic, the AI could assimilate and turn it against them.
This hacker war wasn't looking good.
Leon Chen gritted his teeth. If only he could use Data Manipulation now, he could clear the massive data attack from across the Pacific in a second.