DDT - Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Interstellar ABO (19)

When Chi Junluo woke up, it was already noon the next day. The environment on the Main Star was excellent. The sky was a beautiful azure, pristine and without a single blemish. Daylight streamed in through the large window of the rest area, illuminating the entire room.

The large bed in Yi Shuhan's rest area was comfortable but not overly soft, so after sleeping for so long, Chi Junluo felt no discomfort in her spine as she slowly sat up from under the covers.

The door to the rest area was shut tight, and the soundproofing was excellent; she couldn't hear any noise from outside. Chi Junluo gently rubbed her eyes and looked to her side. The blanket on the other half of the large bed was neatly laid out, showing no signs that anyone had slept there.

Had that Omega girl not come into the room to rest all night? Chi Junluo frowned slightly, not realizing that she was subconsciously worried about Yi Shuhan, who had worked through the night.

After washing up in the bathroom, Chi Junluo changed her clothes, picked up the silver-white mask from the bedside table, and put it on.

Yesterday, Yi Shuhan had explained that there were very few people in this research institute, especially in this lab. Without a prior appointment and her permission, no one else could enter. She could relax and look around the lab. The mask was just a tool to hide her identity; there was no need for Chi Junluo to keep it clamped on her head inside the lab.

Turning back to the bathroom, Chi Junluo adjusted her mask and clothes in front of the mirror. Until the hideous scars on her face had fully healed, it was better to keep the mask on. Although that Omega girl didn't seem to mind this body's appearance, she subconsciously wanted to cover up her imperfections, to present her best side.

Completely inexperienced in such matters, Chi Junluo failed to notice the strange feelings she was developing for that Omega girl.

After confirming that her appearance was in order, Chi Junluo cleared her throat lightly, left the bathroom, and walked to the door of the rest area. She gently touched the small screen next to the door, which resembled a switch, and the door slid open silently. It was quiet outside. The light-blocking panels on the lab's extremely high ceiling had been retracted, and golden light poured down from the glass roof, filling the entire lab.

The sound of machinery cutting and processing mecha wreckage, which she had overheard yesterday, was gone. The original body's scrapped mecha, which was still recognizable when it was first brought out, was now a pile of strange scrap metal in the center of the lab, dismantled beyond recognition by that amazing Omega girl.

Perhaps detecting signs of life, the robot assistant that had brought Chi Junluo food and drinks yesterday slowly floated over from a corner of the lab without making a sound.

The robot assistant projected a glowing screen in front of Chi Junluo, slightly larger than a light screen. It displayed a few friendly greetings, then asked if she needed a nutrient solution or a light meal at this suitable lunch hour. Finally, in the bottom right corner of the screen, there was a warm reminder: The master was very tired last night and is now resting. Please do not wake the master while touring the lab. Chi Junluo looked up at the robot's eyes. Their deep blue glow was less bright in the daylight, and it was impossible to tell if they held any emotion. Chi Junluo dismissed it as a result of watching too many strange robot movies in her original world. She blinked, ignoring her previous thought. There were several options on the light screen. She reached out and selected a light meal and a chilled drink. The robot assistant retracted the projected screen and went to the cold storage room to prepare her lunch.

Chi Junluo circled the mecha wreckage, subconsciously lightening her footsteps. Then, on the other side of the lab, she saw the Omega girl slumped over a giant control panel, resting.

Last night, after discovering the mecha had been tampered with, Yi Shuhan had decided to work through the night to track down the culprit.

From the incriminating video in the hands of the old men at the military headquarters to the two instances of tampering she found on Chi Chi's mecha yesterday, Yi Shuhan understood that the person behind this had prepared several backup plans. The overt killing move was the coordinated ambush by the accompanying soldiers, and the backup plans were the modified internal mecha sensors and the self-destruct program that would activate after the mecha sustained extensive damage.

Yi Shuhan didn't know if the person behind this had other schemes in store. So, before dawn, she meticulously inspected the dismantled mecha wreckage one more time. After finding nothing else suspicious, she left the pile of mecha parts, now dismantled beyond recognition, where Chi Junluo had seen them.

Perhaps because she was anxious and cared too much for Chi Junluo, Yi Shuhan wiped her face with an ice towel from the cold storage room and went directly to the control panel, intending to unmask the culprit in one go.

A long, long time ago, Yi Shuhan had carefully instructed Chi Chi that this mecha was specially developed for her. It was a high-end mecha superior to any other in the Alliance. This mecha could only be inspected and modified by her; no one else was allowed to touch the unique mecha she had developed for Chi Chi. This agreement had been in place for many years, and her Chi Chi had always taken it seriously. As the strongest Alpha in the Alliance, no one could get near her mecha without her permission. And as the most popular admiral in the Alliance, very few people in the military had the authority to command or coerce her.

If Chi Chi hadn't lost her memory, everything would be simple. If Chi Chi could just tell her who had used what excuse to access her mecha before this mission, she could immediately drag that scumbag out!

But Chi Chi had lost all her memories, and it seemed unlikely she would recover them anytime soon. Chi Chi's body hadn't fully healed, and the damage to her brain hadn't completely recovered either. She was absolutely unwilling to use any methods that might stimulate Chi Chi's memories; she could only rely on herself to investigate.

Yi Shuhan had never paid much attention to other soldiers' mechas. But ever since she started building mechas for Chi Chi, she had used the Yi Family's power to establish an independent mecha training base for her within the military. Chi Chi's mecha had always been parked there separately. The independent hangar had identity verification; in the early years, only Chi Chi and members of the Yi Family with special clearance could enter. In recent years, as Chi Chi's military rank soared, even fewer people set foot in her mecha hangar. Especially after her promotion to Admiral, it was no longer unusual for an admiral to have an independent mecha training ground. Therefore, the Yi Family's claim years ago that it was a testing base for new mecha models was initially met with probing from certain military personnel, but they were all invariably blocked by the Yi Family's imperious subordinates. Over time, seeing how frequently Chi's mecha was upgraded, no one doubted the truth of the Yi Family's cover story. Yi Shuhan had thought this matter was buried in the past, but she never expected that the Derian family and others would use it to slander the Yi Family this time. Yi Shuhan wasn't worried. Chi Chi was alive and well, not in any mortal danger. She had plenty of evidence to shut them up. Once she rooted out the group of troublemakers behind this, she would make sure to slap their foul faces until they swelled!

Although Yi Shuhan usually didn't care much about external affairs, she was extremely attentive to matters concerning Chi Chi. For the past few months, she had been immersed in researching space storage technology, but she had never forgotten about the regular updates, modifications, and inspections of Chi Chi's mecha. She remembered very clearly that she had performed the last modification on Chi Chi's mecha three months ago. At that time, she had conducted a complete diagnostic and evaluation. The mecha, after that modification and inspection, could operate perfectly for about another six months, maybe even longer. She had already started working on a new model. Once her space storage technology was finalized, she could devote all her energy to developing the new mecha. The mecha she had hastily taken with her in the space storage device when she went to find Chi Chi was an incomplete model. At the time, she just thought it could serve as a temporary replacement for Chi Chi in an emergency, but she hadn't expected that Chi Chi's body would be temporarily unable to pilot a mecha. After returning to the Main Star yesterday, she had Chi Chi place the unfinished mecha in the lab. Once all these miscellaneous matters were settled, she would build a new mecha for Chi Chi properly.

After that modification and inspection more than three months ago, she hadn't been back to Chi Chi's mecha training base. Logically, besides herself and Chi Chi, no one else should have been there. Before Chi Chi left this time, she had thought the Western Star Region wasn't too dangerous and hadn't secretly gone to see her off. Also, because the military had dispatched so few mecha soldiers this time, and there was nothing new or exciting to report about the Zerg in the west, no media mechas were following. It was even more impossible for her to disguise herself as a media mecha and secretly tag along like before.

The mecha would leave the hangar. Chi Chi wouldn't be in it before its departure, but she would board it in full view of the public afterward. Then, after the fans' send-off ceremony, she would depart directly from the military's launch track. If the person behind this wanted to make a move, their only chance would have been before the mecha left the hangar. They could only have done it from within Chi Chi's mecha training base in the military.

Chi Chi's mecha training base was initially built by the Yi Family. However, as Chi Chi's rank rose, the military later became involved in the base's internal renovations. To monitor Admiral Chi's activities, the military openly installed recording equipment inside the base. Therefore, Chi Chi's mecha base was monitored by dual recording systems from both the Yi Family and the military.

The surveillance coverage of both systems was identical. For convenience and speed, Yi Shuhan first used her authority to retrieve the recording data from the Yi Family's equipment in the mecha base. She packaged everything from the second she left the base after modifying and inspecting Chi Chi's mecha over three months ago until one second after Chi Chi's mecha left the hangar and sent it to her lab's control panel. The time span was quite long. Yi Shuhan quickly modified a video search program from the Star Network and loaded it onto the control panel. She entered her and Chi Chi's data into it. Once activated, the program would automatically capture images of any suspicious third person appearing in the recordings and swiftly retrieve that person's information from the military's vast database.

As soon as the massive amount of recording data finished transferring, Yi Shuhan immediately launched the search program. She had expected a long wait, but in less than a minute, the modified program had finished running. Yi Shuhan had just taken a sip of water and hadn't even had a chance to rest when she saw the result: no third party found.

Even with the advanced equipment in her lab, how could it possibly search through such a huge volume of video so quickly?

Yi Shuhan closed the program, opened the recording, and played it for a few minutes. She didn't find anything unusual. Suspicious, she dragged the progress bar further forward, only to find the entire screen was pitch black. She couldn't see anything.

Yi Shuhan dragged it forward a few more times, and it was all black screens. All the way to the end, it was just a black screen. Nothing was visible.

Heh.

Yi Shuhan sneered. It seemed the other party had quite a long reach, able to tamper with even the Yi Family's high-clearance recording data. Yi Shuhan's brow furrowed as she realized this matter was not so simple.

She directly opened the real-time surveillance feed from the equipment. It was still pitch black, but it didn't look like the connection was broken or the equipment was damaged. She manipulated the camera to pan around, and the familiar scene of the base appeared. The equipment was intact; someone had just turned the cameras to face the wall. All dozens of recording devices in the base had been turned to blind spots, and the single floating camera had lost its connection.

Could it be that someone from the Yi Family was involved in this incident?

The Yi Family's recording data was now useless. It hadn't even recorded the voices of anyone other than the two of them.

It seemed she could only work with the military's recording data.

All military data was on the military's internal network. She could use the Yi Family's password to log in, but that would inevitably alert the enemy. During such a sensitive time, someone was surely monitoring the internal network. Going in openly was not an option. Until everything came to light, the Yi Family could not make any unnecessary moves.

Going in through back channels, as she had before, would be more troublesome but much safer. As long as she was careful, with her skills, it was unlikely she would be discovered by the military.

Years ago, when she first hacked into the military's internal network, she had already complained about how poor its interception capabilities were. Because it lacked a challenge, she hadn't paid much attention to military affairs. Including the time a few days ago when she intercepted that deleted video from the internal network, today was her third time hacking into it.

If the people in the military's information department knew Yi Shuhan's thoughts, they would probably faint from anger. This was an internal network with stronger defenses than the Star Network, even more complex than the Star Network's dark web. Many hacking enthusiasts and criminals with unclear motives had attempted to breach the military's internal network, and all had failed without exception. Most of them had barely begun their attempt before triggering the internal network's defense alarms. The network's bots would trace the attack trajectory directly to the hacker's location, and the local police would receive a dispatch order. Then, the unlucky kid with subpar skills would be arrested. Over the years, the number of people who could come and go freely within the military's internal network was minuscule. Yi Shuhan was truly an exception in this era. The creative ideas and technological inspiration in her head had far surpassed this era, which already seemed advanced and developed in Chi Junluo's eyes.

Entering the internal network was just as smooth this time. Yi Shuhan quickly found her way to the military's surveillance section and located the split-screen for the recording equipment in Chi Chi's mecha training base in a separate partition. This time, she didn't rush to package and download all the footage. She first opened the real-time feed. The surveillance was operating perfectly; it hadn't been turned to blind spots like the Yi Family's equipment. From this, she deduced that the culprit didn't hold a particularly high position in the military and couldn't brazenly tamper with military equipment.

But when she scrolled back, it showed that the data had been deleted. They didn't have the ability to directly manipulate the equipment, but they could erase all traces afterward. Why did this method of destruction seem so similar to how the video of Admiral Chi's persecution was deleted from the internal network before?

Just a simple, crude deletion.

Just like before, she followed the trail of the deletion, but was unexpectedly blocked by a program.

This program had a certain degree of stealth. If she weren't so gifted, it would be easy to overlook it and trigger the interception program. She didn't have time to study the passive commands of this interception program; time was of the essence now. Every second counted.

Quickly finding a suitable path to bypass the interception program, Yi Shuhan spent the next two hours carefully circumventing nearly twenty large and small interception programs with bizarre commands. She finally traced it to an operating terminal. All the interception programs had been placed through this terminal, and the video data that should have been deleted and discarded in a hidden location had also been intercepted by this terminal and transferred over.

In this era, it was very difficult to completely erase something from the network. Many browsing traces or important video data often couldn't be truly deleted. So, many people could only do what this culprit did: set up as many interceptions as possible to lead anyone trying to trace the data to an empty area. Therefore, the reason many people couldn't find deleted information was simply that they were being deliberately blocked. The Star Network also had such a function. For all Star Network users, the "delete" or "incognito browsing" options could actually be traced. It was just that all the messy, useless information was thrown into the bottom-level trash heap, and the Star Network's interception programs protected their privacy. But if the Alliance required it, a person's past traces would be exposed without concealment. Of course, the likelihood of this happening was low. This method was generally used by the Alliance's top-tier families when trying to find an opponent's weakness, but since they were all top-tier families, they naturally wouldn't be careless about their Star Network interception, so the chances of success were generally low. Ordinary people would almost never encounter such a thing.

Now that she had traced it to this terminal that had privately intercepted all the information, the rest was much easier. Yi Shuhan unceremoniously copied all the data and information from the terminal. From her experience, this was just an ordinary light screen, the kind everyone in the Alliance had. The interception programs, however, were quite luxurious; it was clear a great deal of effort had been put into them.

In just a few minutes, all the content was in Yi Shuhan's hands. After leaving a small monitoring program in the terminal, Yi Shuhan disconnected.

The content copied from the terminal was neatly divided into different sections, offering a glimpse into the personality of the terminal's owner.

Under the video partition, there were standard sub-folders, as well as two with different names: one was "Trash," and the other was "Person to Acquire."

The "Trash" folder was a standard hidden file on a light screen. Yi Shuhan wasn't interested in who the terminal's owner wanted to "acquire." She directly opened the "Trash" folder. Inside was a dense collection of videos in recording format. She dragged all the videos out and checked them. They were indeed the military's recordings from Chi Chi's base, but the recordings weren't just from the last few months; they spanned nearly six or seven years.

Yi Shuhan selected the recordings from the time period she needed to check, activated her previous program, and began the search.

This set of recordings seemed to be complete and untouched. The program ran for about ten minutes, screening all the selected video data and extracting all the footage that included other people. Yi Shuhan issued a command to splice the several clips together, and the giant control panel began to play them.

The moment the mastermind appeared, Yi Shuhan froze in astonishment.

A familiar face appeared on the screen—the Yi Family's Alpha brother, whom her father had assigned to take care of her and who had followed her for many years.

Yi Wen.

Yi Wen was eight years older than Yi Shuhan. When Yi Shuhan was ten, her father, Yi Jun, had sent his favorite and most trusted subordinate to protect her.

Yi Wen was just like his name suggested: gentle and refined. He showed none of the arrogance typical of a highly talented Alpha genius. He seemed to possess a warm strength. As a proper guardian for the young mistress of the Yi Family's main branch, he always stood at the most appropriate distance from the Omega young mistress, never overstepping his bounds. He would also quietly accompany Yi Shuhan whenever she was lonely or wronged…

Yi Shuhan paused the video. The male Alpha on the screen with a fake smile looked nothing like the gentle big brother in her memory.

Steeling herself, she watched the rest. She saw that familiar stranger say something to Admiral Chi, then very naturally climb into Chi Chi's mecha, staying inside for about five minutes before coming out.

Finally, the two exchanged a simple farewell, and Yi Wen departed leisurely.

Yi Shuhan checked the time. It was the very day Chi Chi was tricked into departing and ambushed.

Yi Wen had silently followed her for many years and had never done anything out of line. She had trusted him very much. But now, this brother she had trusted for years had betrayed the Yi Family and colluded with other families to frame her most important person, Chi Chi, her lover.

Yi Shuhan unconsciously clenched her fists. Her gaze involuntarily shifted to the other, separately partitioned video section.

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