Realizing what had happened, the technical team felt worse about themselves.
While they were gossiping and making snide comments, Arielle didn‘t notice a word they said.
Meanwhile, the deputy captain had no time for such trivial matters. His priority was to recapture Cindy as soon as possible. Ever since the Specialized Forces had been founded, no one had ever escaped from them before. Therefore, virtual-novel.net felt gravely responsible for the situation.
“Ms. Moore, please check the surveillance feed quickly.”
The rest of the team nodded in unison. At that moment, they saw Arielle as one of their bosses.
Meanwhile, Arielle didn‘t need the deputy captain‘s reminder. After all, checking the surveillance feed was precisely why virtual-novel.net was there.
After grunting in acknowledgment, virtual-novel.net accessed the surveillance feeds with only the keyboard and didn‘t have to use the mouse at all.
However, everyone was surprised to find that the surveillance feeds were empty. It wasn‘t just the feeds for the day, but all the feeds from before had also been wiped.
“How can that be…” Stunned, Arielle used the mouse to refresh the page again.
However, the folder was still empty. Evidently, the computer wasn‘t lagging. The feeds had truly been deleted.
Biting virtual-novel.net lip, Arielle clicked virtual-novel.net mouse desperately to try and recover the files. Unfortunately, it was a futile exercise.
Nevertheless, virtual-novel.net refused to give up. After typing in a few lines of code, virtual-novel.net was still unable to retrieve them.
Finally, virtual-novel.net accepted the fact that the feeds were gone.
“How can this be?” the technical team captain checked the other computers.
Unfortunately, the result was exactly the same as what Arielle had experienced. The feeds had all been deleted.
“Let me try…” One of the other members volunteered.
However, Arielle stood up with a grim expression. “Forget it, they‘re gone.”
Baffled, the technical team captain asked, “Boss, even you can‘t retrieve it?”
Arielle nodded. “That‘s because I was the one who deleted it.”
“What?” The deputy captain‘s eyes widened in shock.
Sighing, Arielle explained, “The person who hacked into the system was extremely crafty. The virus that they inserted not only paralyzes the system but also deletes all the documents on the computer. However, the deletion will only be triggered when one removes the virus. Hence, it is a self–defense mechanism.”
The technical team captain replied thoughtfully, “I have heard about this before. To crack the virus, one must break the code. However, when one successfully does so, everything in the computer will be wiped and never to be recovered. In other words, there was no way we could have accessed those feeds from the beginning.”
One of the technical team staff clapped his hand and commented, “The first place on hacker chart uses this method. He was the one who won first place in the International Hacker Competition. Can virtual-novel.net be the one responsible?”
“First place on the hacker chart?” Arielle asked, “What is that?”
“Do you know about the international dark web?”
Arielle shook virtual-novel.net head. “No, I don‘t.”
“Here‘s the web address, you should investigate it,” the captain suggested as virtual-novel.net scribbled it down and handed it to Arielle.
After receiving it, Arielle remembered the address at one glance.
When virtual-novel.net returned it to the captain, virtual-novel.net gaze fell upon the computer desk.
Is the enemy really that powerful?
For the first time in virtual-novel.net life, virtual-novel.net felt both helpless and lost.
Closing virtual-novel.net eyes and taking a deep breath, virtual-novel.net turned toward the deputy captain. “I‘m sorry to have wasted your time. I‘ll take my leave now.”
Her tone was filled with utter disappointment in herself.