Chapter 71: The Genius Hacker’s Aether Editing
Meng Huaifeng posed the question, his Imaginary Energy rapidly depleting as it continuously searched the surrounding world for information related to the Stellar Core.
His Art of Heavenly Inquiry did not directly obtain answers from the universe or The Erudition; it was not that overpowered. Instead, it treated the planet beneath his feet as a server, with the answers limited to information that had ever occurred or existed on this planet. From the perspective of the universe, this answer might not even be correct.
Of course, as he became stronger, the scope of this server would expand to a small galaxy, a large galaxy, or even the Galaxy and the universe.
Meng Huaifeng suddenly frowned; Realm Splitting emitted various chaotic and false information, constantly interfering with his search, causing a sharp increase in Imaginary Energy consumption.
……
On a snow mountain five kilometers away, a phantasm wearing a purple short jacket and a silver ponytail was bored playing a game—it was the Stellar Core Hunter Silver Wolf.
“According to the new script Elio gave this morning, the system time is 11:23:45. I need to stop the newly joined male Passenger from doing what he wants to do. Hmm, there’s still ten minutes; I can play one more round of the game.” Silver Wolf muttered.
“Da da da~”
In the intense and thrilling shooting game, a pop-up window suddenly appeared from the top of the screen. Silver Wolf reacted too slowly and clicked on it directly. By the time she hurriedly switched back to the game, her game interface had turned gray.
“Damn it! Didn’t I disable the pop-up function for all kinds of software? How did it pop up?” Silver Wolf said somewhat annoyed.
She glanced at the popped-up thing and planned to uninstall the software that caused it, but after accidentally catching sight of the title, Silver Wolf couldn’t help but feel a bit interested.
A Xing’s Pioneer Journey in the New World? That was worth a good look.
Two minutes later, Silver Wolf expressionlessly uninstalled the video software, then pursed her lips and ‘pa pa pa’ typed on the virtual keyboard, her fingers blurring into afterimages.
She was going to delete this evil video!
Five minutes.
Six minutes.
Cold sweat appeared on Silver Wolf’s forehead. Damn it, why couldn’t she delete it? Could it be the work of some genius?
It was just a prank video—did it really warrant a genius personally stepping in?
Thinking of the recent geniuses who had wronged her, only that one would be so petty.
Herta, I’ll remember you. Once this script is done, I’ll go mess with your Herta Space Station!
“Little Wolf, what are you doing? Time’s almost up.” A gentle big-sister voice sounded in Silver Wolf’s ear.
“Nothing, I know.” Silver Wolf put away the virtual keyboard and turned her gaze toward the distant Pioneer Squad.
“I really don’t know what tricks that new Passenger has that require you, a genius hacker, to single-handedly counter him the whole time.” Kafka’s voice continued in Silver Wolf’s ear.
“We’ll know soon.”
“Then do your best, Great Love Wolf Venerable.”
“Mm… huh?”
Silver Wolf felt a chill rush straight to her bones, then spread through her limbs, making every hair on her body stand on end. An unprecedented sense of social death left Silver Wolf momentarily flustered and dazed.
“Time’s up.” Kafka lightly nudged Silver Wolf.
Silver Wolf’s phantasm staggered a bit. She forcefully suppressed the embarrassment of curling her toes, pulled down the glasses on her forehead, and put on a cold little face, pretending to immerse herself in the task.
In Silver Wolf’s eyes, the real world seemed to turn into a digital world, with countless data streams flowing before her.
Silver Wolf’s specialty, Aether Editing, could edit reality, while Meng Huaifeng’s Art of Heavenly Inquiry obtained answers based on the real world.
Silver Wolf looked toward the Pioneer Squad and saw countless data streams emanating from the new Passenger named Meng Huaifeng. Silver Wolf immediately decoded the information in these data streams.
He wanted to directly find the Stellar Core’s location?
That wouldn’t do!
Without contact with the natives, without deeply understanding their resistance and suffering, how could A Xing comprehend the will of Preservation?
Silver Wolf manipulated the data streams to precisely intercept all the data streams emitted by Meng Huaifeng, without missing a single bit.
Meng Huaifeng’s frown deepened. He could still filter out the chaotic information from Realm Splitting before, but now there was no progress at all, not even any feedback.
Could that Stellar Core absorb hidden data?
As a Stellar Core capable of creating Memory Shadows, it wasn’t impossible.
Meng Huaifeng had no other options and could only increase the search speed, further accelerating the consumption of Imaginary Energy.
“Hm? Just increasing the quantity of data streams? No technical content at all. I get it—he’s just a noob wielding a standard software template. It’s overkill for a genius hacker like me to deal with him.”
“But apart from me, no one else in the Stellar Core Hunters could stop you.”
Silver Wolf saw through Meng Huaifeng’s tricks at a glance and decided to let this noob properly feel a senior’s care.
So Silver Wolf stopped merely intercepting the data streams and instead edited some false information, sending it back to Meng Huaifeng.
Meng Huaifeng’s expression gradually relaxed. He was getting information again; he should soon obtain the Stellar Core’s exact location.
“Hm, is his Imaginary Energy almost depleted? Then this game should end.” Silver Wolf issued the final ultimatum.
Finally, success.
Meng Huaifeng opened his somewhat pale eyes. He hadn’t expected using the Art of Heavenly Inquiry to search for the Stellar Core’s trail to be so exhausting.
The moment he ended the Art of Heavenly Inquiry, Stelle suddenly blanked out and murmured in a daze: “Birds… why do they fly?”
“???” Welt abruptly turned to Stelle, his widened eyes full of disbelief.
Stelle’s expression suddenly became impassioned: “Because they must fly to the horizon, or they can’t escape their predetermined doom!”
Veins bulged on Welt’s hand gripping the cane, clearly suppressing his emotions with great effort.
“A Xing, why did you suddenly say that?” March 7th asked puzzled.
Stelle returned to normal, scratched her head, and said: “I don’t know. These words just popped into my head; they felt cool, so I said them.”
“Uncle Yang, why are you looking at me like that? You don’t want to hit me, do you?” Stelle keenly sensed the pressure coming from Welt, stepped back, and asked vigilantly.
“Ahem, no, how could I?” Welt dry-coughed a few times, gradually reining in his intimidating aura, and looked at Meng Huaifeng with slightly unkind eyes: “This is the so-called Forbidden Knowledge?”
“That was all Aha’s doing; don’t ask me, I don’t know.” Meng Huaifeng hurriedly shifted the blame.
What kind of Forbidden Knowledge was this? It was clearly just a socially mortifying little secret.
“Doesn’t seem like much? Anyway, whatever—where’s the Stellar Core?” March 7th asked impatiently.
“Get ready to set off. I’m going to whack the Stellar Core hard with a stick. As something the same as the one in my body, it actually specializes in bad deeds—it’s an embarrassment to Stellar Cores.” Stelle excitedly condemned.
