As Leon Chen had anticipated, this large-scale cyber invasion by American hackers was indeed instigated by the government.
With a nudge from the government, all American hackers banded together to form a group.
Although they couldn't publicly disclose America's classified military information or send command prompts across the national network like Leon Chen did, the Americans certainly wouldn't concede defeat easily. Their plan was even more insidious.
On September 10th, at 9:30 PM Red Nation time, American hackers officially declared cyber warfare on Chinese network.
Their clear intention was to dominate Chinese civilian network, with a maniacal plan to deface government, corporate, commercial, and educational websites by midnight.
On September 11th, as Chinese people woke up, they would find every website displaying the American flag and a humiliating message: "Remember this day with us!"
For this purpose, the Pentagon even mobilized parts of the fifth-generation Turing computer's data programs.
If the 2001 China-U.S. hacker war saw America compromise 600 websites, by tomorrow, Chinese compromised sites would be ten times that number.
Everything proceeded as planned.
Despite fierce resistance from Red Nation's hackers at 10 PM, the unprecedented government resources made the American hackers' victory merely a matter of time.
At the U.S. Cyber Warfare Office (UIEW) in the Pentagon, responsible for mobilizing government resources was General Dawson.
The computer data might have seemed dry, but it didn't dampen Dawson's anticipation as he received one good news after another.
"General, the number of compromised websites in Red Nation has surpassed 2,000," reported McRae, the chief cybersecurity expert, cautiously.
"And how is them reacting? Are they ready to retaliate?" General Dawson asked expressionlessly.
"There has been some resistance, but overall, we hold a significant advantage," McRae said, then added seriously, "Notably, among the resisting Red Nation hackers is one particularly skilled individual. She has not only stopped some of our attacks but also single-handedly retaliated against over 40 of our websites, including the CIA and the Federal Planning Bureau, leaving a black poker Q mark. In the first hacker war, they only managed to compromise 92 sites, and now this one person has taken out nearly half that number. It's clear that Red Nation's network capabilities have significantly improved, catching up to ours."
The general was taken aback. "This hacker sounds familiar."
"Yes, General. It's likely the same hacker known as Queen's, who invaded our North American Air Defense Command System a decade ago," McRae said gravely.
"The cold-hearted hacker who almost triggered World War III," General Dawson said, frowning. He still remembered that hacker's masterpiece, which exposed the entire U.S. strategic nuclear defense deployment, almost causing World War III.
Later, the U.S. spared no effort to find the hacker, who turned out to be from Red Nation. What kind of deal was made between the White House and Chinese central government remained unknown, but the incident was dismissed as a command error in North America.
"It shouldn't be her," McRae shook his head. "Queen's, a genius second only to Kevin Mitnick, couldn't have erased all traces of the attack." Being among the top cybersecurity experts, McRae was unwilling to admit it.
"And what about the Chinese government?" the general asked.
"No reaction," McRae said with a sneer. "Chinese government has always maintained a low profile. Unless it's a matter of national security, they would likely dismiss such incidents."
"A minor issue, huh?" The general smiled gravely.
"Continue the attack but slow the pace slightly, waiting for him to show up!" the general ordered.
"Understood."
…
September 10th, 11:30 PM
Three hours had passed since the American hackers' invasion began, and signs increasingly pointed to Red Nation's imminent defeat.
In those three hours, over 5,000 official websites across the continent were defaced, servers were slow or crashed. Besides overwhelming their websites, the Americans had deployed a virus called "Lover's Kiss," which was incredibly sophisticated. Not only did it infect networks on a massive scale, but it also camouflaged itself as patriotic Chinese data, using Chinese own junk scripts and virus tools to turn their computers into zombies.
Many lower-tier students in the multimedia building were immediately infected, losing control of their computers with no solution but to shut them down.
11:40 PM
Ninety percent of Chinese government websites were hacked, leaving only the National Education Network and the National Defense Network desperately resisting. All the top hackers were striving to protect the National Defense Ministry.
But the American hackers' unprecedented assault, multiplying their attacks exponentially, meant that the more websites they compromised, the stronger their data became.
The multimedia classroom was filled with groans of despair as students began to lose hope.
"We're doomed."
"We can't hold out."
"We're no match for them."
"It's over!"
Daniel Zhang, after a period of hard resistance, had his computer finally controlled and had no choice but to shut it down. Shaking his head, he said dejectedly, "Their resources are too powerful."
"God, please appear."
"Why hasn't that 'God' shown up yet? Damn it, is he really one of us?"
"Yeah, we're fighting with all we've got, and he's nowhere to be found."
The students were referring to the hacker who had previously issued a command across the national network. Since Leon Chen hadn't left a name, the students at Huahai University started calling him "God" after hearing about him in the lecture hall.
This defeat had them blaming this godlike hacker, and many had stopped fighting to flood the internet with data, all with one message.
"Summon God!!!"
The atmosphere was suffocatingly bleak.
The supervising teachers and the principal were left speechless. The old principal, feeling disappointed, was about to leave when he suddenly heard a thunderous voice of anger.
"What the hell are you all doing shouting for God? If I were him, seeing you all like this, I'd spit on you. Worthless!" It was an honest-looking young man speaking, but his voice carried an impressive force.
Him?
Leon Chen!!
Michael Fang, John Wu, and Daniel Zhang were shocked to see Leon Chen, usually so quiet, lose his temper for the first time.
"You're not God…" a student mumbled.
"Relying on someone else's charity is worthless." Seeing their earlier enthusiasm turn into such a pitiful sight, Leon Chen was furious.
Accepting failure was one thing, but he couldn't accept being defeated by oneself, a motto Leon Chen lived by. No wonder he was so angry.
"I don't believe in God. I believe in myself!!"
The entire classroom fell silent. The boys stared quietly, while the girls were surprised by Leon Chen's outburst.
The first to react was the student in the briefs, who suddenly shouted, "Damn it, he's right. Even if I die, I'll make them walk over my corpse first."
"Beat them! "
The multimedia classroom once again erupted in cheers.
The supervising teachers were dumbfounded, and the principal was amazed. "Do we really have such a student at our school? How come I never knew?"
"Uh…"
Leon Chen's roommates looked at him as if seeing him for the first time, laughing and patting his shoulder. "Leon, you've got it."
Leon Chen resumed his quiet demeanor as the others went back to fighting.
The Americans launched their final assault, and the Red Nation's Defense Ministry began seeing massive data alterations.
Though morale had returned, the resources were still unbalanced.
But their relentless effort bought them a final moment of time.
Dong dong dong…
The midnight bell tolled in the dark.
The time had come!!
Leon Chen's eyes flashed with data streams. Staring at Daniel Zhang's computer screen, he clenched his teeth and issued commands.
"Restore all altered data on Chinese websites!"
"Clear all attack commands from the American side!"
"Track the IP addresses of this attack and establish highest administrative authority!"
"I want to control all computers in America!!"