NOVEL WEB Chapter 21: Does It Hurt?
Seeing that QS had placed a bet—over three million yuan at stake—Lu Ming curled his lips in disdain. Betting so much, did she really think she could win? Clearly, she had no idea who her opponent was. With a sneer, Lu Ming wagered all the money he had, a total of one hundred and twenty thousand yuan, on his own victory.
Qin Sheng accepted the challenge.
[Universe's Most Handsome: How about we change the rules? Let's take this battle into the real world. Do you dare?]
[QS: I'm game.]
[Universe's Most Handsome: You pick the battlefield.]
Qin Sheng thought for a moment and typed in the name of a company: "Longfei Group."
Longfei Group was a rival of HD Group, known for using underhanded tactics to sabotage HD. And HD Group was founded by none other than Fu Hanchuan.
[Universe's Most Handsome: OK, let's begin. Quick and decisive.]
The duel commenced. Qin Sheng's fingers flew over the keyboard, lines of code streaming across her screen as she launched her attack on Longfei Group's defenses. Lu Ming, for his part, focused intently on finding vulnerabilities in the system's security. He couldn't afford to underestimate QS, not this time.
Longfei Group had invested heavily in their system's defenses, making intrusion no easy feat. There were five layers of security, each equipped with monitoring functions. A single misstep would be detected instantly, and if the attack took too long, it would also attract attention.
Even Qin Sheng took two minutes to breach the first layer.
As she advanced, each layer became progressively more challenging.
Ten minutes in, Qin Sheng was already attacking the fourth layer of defenses.
Lu Ming, however, was still stuck on the second layer. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He stole a glance at Qin Sheng's position before quickly refocusing on his screen, his hands moving faster and faster over the keys.
Outside, the onlookers waited anxiously for the results. This time, they couldn't monitor the progress of the attack in real-time. They would only know the outcome when the duel was over.
"Who do you think will win?" one of them asked.
"It's got to be Handsome. He's been ranked eighth on the leaderboard for so long; you think he's just playing around?"
"But maybe don't get too cocky. Haven't you learned your lesson from being humiliated by QS over and over? That kid has a habit of hiding behind the screen, watching you guys talk, and then slapping you in the face. So, tell me, does your face still hurt? Because mine does, quite a bit."
The hackers were silent.
Their bodies tensed, and even the hands typing on keyboards froze for a moment. Quietly, they began deleting the messages they had just typed.
It seemed they might have gotten ahead of themselves again, what with Universe's Most Handsome coming out to challenge QS and all his bold talk.
Perhaps Universe's Most Handsome would lose after all; after all, QS had already beaten his record.
This time, no one dared to speak. They simply waited in silence for the outcome.
Meanwhile, Qin Sheng was just one step away from breaching the fifth layer. She glanced over at Universe's Most Handsome's position—he had only just escaped the third layer.
A slight smile tugged at Qin Sheng's lips as she paused and waited.
Lu Ming seemed increasingly frantic. His actions grew erratic, and his mind was consumed with the thought of the 120,000 yuan he had bet. If he lost, all the money he'd saved over the past three years would be gone. That money was his lifeline; he had planned to use it to build a top-of-the-line computer. If he lost, all his plans would go up in smoke.
Sweat dripped down his forehead and nose. His brows furrowed in concentration, his eyes glued to the code on his screen.
On her end, Qin Sheng calmly pressed the Enter key. All five layers of security had been breached. She entered Longfei Group's internal system and leisurely browsed around.
As she exited, Qin Sheng glanced at Universe's Most Handsome's position and raised an eyebrow.
With a playful tap of her finger on the mouse, she intentionally triggered his alarm system.
**(End of Chapter)**