Chapter 164: The Semi-Intelligent Computer Virus

In an internet cafe in Jiangnan City.

Lin Shu put down the mouse in her hand, took a chilled cola from the refrigerator, and hurried over to machine number 83. After giving the cola to the young man who was playing games, she ran back to the service counter and fixed her eyes on the computer screen.

She had been working here as a temporary employee for several months.

Lin Shu could think of very few ways to make money. The prize money from the Legion Ant Company Computer Program Design Competition was her only hope.

The reward rules for the Legion Ant Company Computer Design Competition had all been announced.

There was one first prize winner with a 2 million yuan reward, and the software purchase price would be separate. There were two second prize winners with an 800,000 yuan reward each, and five third prize winners with a 300,000 yuan reward each. The consolation prize was 10,000 yuan.

She only needed to be in the top eight to possibly win prize money, and then she would have funds for her brother’s medical treatment.

Ever since she decided to learn Chinese Character Programming Language, she had spent every day for the past few months immersed in the world of Chinese Character Programming Language.

Since her family did not have a computer, she could only work at an internet cafe to use their computers.

Because she was still a student, internet cafes were reluctant to hire her. After begging several places, the boss of this internet cafe agreed to let her stay and work part-time, doing hourly work.

It was not far from her school. Every day after school, she came here to help out. When it was busy, she topped up internet time and delivered drinks. Whenever she had a free moment, she sat in front of the computer to study Chinese Character Programming Language.

For this purpose, she had even joined a Chinese Character Programming Language group to learn from others’ experiences.

For the past few months, Lin Shu came here every day without fail, rain or shine, staying until 11 p.m. before going home. She had bought the updated Chinese Character Programming Language textbooks from Legion Ant Company. There were three sets in total, for which she spent her meager savings.

During class, she read books on Chinese Character Programming Language. After class, she came here to watch instructional videos and then practiced using the programming software.

She had watched the tutorials and videos released by Legion Ant Company at least five times over. Studying was exhausting, but a sense of hope in her heart kept her going. Only by persevering would her brother have a chance.

She was not confident about participating in the Legion Ant Company Computer Program Design Competition. To enter, she had to program a piece of software. In the discussion group, she saw that everyone else was preparing to participate as teams.

Several months of intense study, forgetting to eat and sleep, had turned her from a beginner in Chinese Character Programming Language into a relatively skilled expert.

On the computer screen now was the result of her efforts during this period.

Lines of Chinese Character Programming code, like ants, filled the compiler. Seeing the code on the screen, Lin Shu’s heart began to calm down, and she focused her attention on typing code.

She could not design large-scale games. She was currently designing an antivirus software, hoping it would succeed. As long as it succeeded and caught the attention of Legion Ant Company, she would have hope for her brother’s treatment.

Today was an important day.

The code she had written was about to take its initial form. As long as the prototype worked, and she kept improving it, this antivirus software would be her entry for the Legion Ant Company Chinese Character Programming Language Program Design Competition.

Two hours later, Lin Shu stopped what she was doing. After checking for errors and making corrections, she looked at the dense lines of code in the compiler and had a bad feeling.

For some reason, she felt nervous and jumpy. Maybe she was just too tense, Lin Shu comforted herself.

After saving the code, Lin Shu eagerly generated the application.

It was the weekend, and the internet cafe was quite busy, with many students among the customers. Aside from occasional customers coming to top up their accounts or buy drinks, no one paid attention to her at the counter. The net administrator next to her was also focused on playing with his phone.

At this moment, Lin Shu’s heart was in her throat. She moved the mouse over the application icon, and her heartbeat quickened. Finally, gritting her teeth, she double-clicked the application and tightly closed her eyes.

Time seemed to stand still. Lin Shu slowly opened her eyes and saw the empty desktop. She was stunned.

Gone?

Tap tap tap…

The next second, the internet cafe became noisy. All the computers, one after another, had their screens pop up. Those who were in the middle of gaming, at the most critical moment, saw their game screens vanish. People immediately jumped up from their seats.

“Net admin, what’s going on? What happened? Why did the game crash?”

“Darn it! We were in a ranked team match, about to destroy the enemy’s main crystal!”

“I was in the final circle in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds…”

“@￥%”

Various curses erupted. Throughout the entire internet cafe, everyone’s game interfaces had disappeared, and each person wore an angry expression.

“The icons are disappearing one by one. It seems like we got a virus.”

After that exclamation, everyone focused on their computer screens. Sure enough, the icons on the computer desktops were vanishing one by one. After all the icons disappeared, the screen froze, and the mouse couldn’t be moved either.

The net administrator who had been playing on his phone suddenly woke up. Flustered, he looked at the computer host and indeed saw the desktop icons disappearing one by one.

“Wait a moment, everyone. I’ll ask what’s going on.” The net administrator dialed a number while restarting the computer host.

However, as soon as the host started up, it was still the empty desktop without a single icon. Other computers also booted up to equally barren desktops; all the software had vanished.

Lin Shu looked at the only application left on her computer desktop—the antivirus program—her eyes filled with panic.

It seemed she had caused a huge disaster.

“Lin Shu, what is this software on your desktop?” The net administrator next to her, who had just come over to use Lin Shu’s computer to test the issue, immediately noticed the sole antivirus program on the desktop.

Outside the internet cafe, computers on the same server showed the same symptoms. This situation quickly spread to every corner of Jiangnan City.

Chen Mo was in the laboratory, synthesizing Room Temperature Superconducting Material.

For chip design, Ink Girl integrated chip design layouts from other companies. After continuous optimization, modification, and simulation over this period, running twenty-four hours a day, the layout design was now complete. The next step was to verify these chip designs.

Now that they had the Lithography Machine, other equipment was on the way. He didn’t need to worry about these matters; Zhao Min would arrange everything for him.

What he needed to do now was synthesize more Room Temperature Superconducting Material, purify Silicon-Carbon, and once all the equipment arrived, they could start making Superconducting Chips.

He no longer needed to worry about the Seismograph.

The domestic network of Seismographs was rapidly expanding. With state support, every batch of Seismographs produced was immediately sent to earthquake-prone, densely populated areas for installation.

During this time, they successfully predicted a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, giving timely warnings that resulted in no casualties and minimal damage.

With this successful prediction, the public had more confidence in the Seismograph and trusted it even more. Whenever a Seismograph arrived in a new location, it was greeted with enthusiastic welcomes.

For the domestic network, experts from the Academy of Sciences were specifically selecting sites and locations. These matters didn’t require their attention. All Legion Ant Company needed to do was produce Seismographs and ensure their quality.

As for international matters, they would first complete the domestic network before considering exporting Seismographs.

Just as Chen Mo was purifying Silicon-Carbon, Ink Girl’s voice interrupted his work. “Brother Mo, a new type of semi-intelligent computer virus has appeared in Jiangnan City.”

“What?”

Chen Mo stopped what he was doing.

A semi-intelligent computer virus? This was the first time he had heard of such a virus.

“A semi-intelligent computer virus has appeared in Jiangnan City. The virus was programmed using Chinese Character Programming Language,” Ink Girl said.

“Programmed with Chinese Character Programming Language? A semi-intelligent virus? What’s special about it?” Chen Mo was immediately intrigued by Ink Girl’s words.

“It has a small segment of program code that falls into the category of intelligent program code. The virus is a network virus. It was written incorrectly as an antivirus program code, unable to distinguish friend from foe, treating all software as viruses to scan and remove. Most importantly, it has a degree of intelligence and can automatically spread through the network, infecting computers in the regional network. It is a semi-intelligent virus. In just twenty minutes, nearly ten thousand computers in Jiangnan City have been infected by this virus.”

“It’s that serious?” Chen Mo was startled by the number, his expression turning serious. “Stop the virus from spreading. Pull up the information on the creator of this virus.”