I Have Infinite Skill Points

Following his GPS, Wang Lan quickly navigated the bustling streets of Suzhou City on his electric scooter. The Suzhou branch of Penguin Corporation was located in the Eastern Heaven Gate commercial district, not too far from Wang Lan's Xinyu Building.

While chatting with Jiang Xinyu, Wang Lan suddenly realized a loophole in the Tianjian Bureau's surveillance network. The Bureau had only monitored Chang Yu's phone and the people she contacted, but what era was this? It was the information age, the internet age.

In the internet age, there were numerous ways spies could contact each other: visiting certain websites, browsing specific posts, communicating with particular individuals, or making certain statements. And contact might not necessarily be interactive.

What if Chang Yu didn't initiate contact but passively received information? If so, the channels through which she could obtain information were vast. She could open a forum, scroll through posts, and potentially receive instructions from a specific entry.

Currently, the internet in Jade Country was practically monopolized by Penguin Corporation. This was why Wang Lan had come to Penguin Corporation. The broadband they used was Penguin's, the search engine was Penguin's, and even the chat tools were Penguin's.

Arriving at the entrance of Penguin Corporation, Wang Lan saw that the lights in its fifteen-story standalone office building were still blazing.

"Hello sir, may I help you?" The security guard at the door stopped Wang Lan.

Wang Lan didn't hesitate, pulling out his Tianjian Bureau ID. "Tianjian Bureau investigation. Please contact the person in charge of the Suzhou City branch of Penguin Corporation. Thank you."

The citizens of Jade Country might never have seen a Tianjian Bureau warrior, but they had almost certainly heard of the Bureau's renown. Many jokes and stories about the Tianjian Bureau circulated both online and by word of mouth. Some respectfully called them special agents; others, more irreverently, referred to them as 'the relevant department.' In any case, when comedians joked about 'someone coming to check the water meter,' they were usually referring to the Tianjian Bureau.

The security guard's expression changed instantly. After carefully examining Wang Lan's ID, he quickly made a phone call. Soon after, a portly, balding middle-aged man hurried out from the lobby of the office building.

"May I ask if you are a senior official from the Tianjian Bureau?"

"Are you the person in charge of Penguin Corporation?"

"I am the CEO of the Suzhou City branch. Sir, please come inside. May I ask, has Penguin Corporation committed some offense?" the CEO asked cautiously while leading the way.

Although people might joke about the Tianjian Bureau, when they were actually 'having their water meter checked,' they were genuinely anxious. Besides, minor issues would, at most, involve police visits. For the Tianjian Bureau to show up, it had to be something significant.

"No, I need Penguin Corporation to help me investigate some information. After all, Penguin Corporation's cloud contains data on almost everyone. This shouldn't be too much trouble for you, right?"

"Not a problem, not a problem at all," the middle-aged man quickly agreed. As long as the company hadn't committed an offense, he was relieved. His posture straightened, and his voice naturally became more relaxed.

"It's so late, and your company's employees are still working overtime?"

"Isn't this typical for programmers? They burn the midnight oil while they're young. That's just how it is in this industry. Sir, this way, please."

"Please, don't call me 'Sir'; I'm not used to it. My name is Wang Lan; just call me Wang Lan. And don't call me Little Wang, especially not with any diminutive suffixes."

"Haha... Brother Wang Lan, you have quite the sense of humor. This way, please. This is our data analysis department. Their responsibility is to analyze data traffic to adjust its distribution. Oh, and they're also responsible for targeted user recommendations. Essentially, all aggregated internet data flows here. Mr. Lou, could you come over for a moment?"

From the office, another middle-aged man, also with male-pattern baldness, stood up and hurried over. "Mr. Jin, you called me?"

"This is Wang Lan from the Tianjian Bureau. He needs your cooperation for an investigation. Whatever he asks, just cooperate fully. Pause what you're working on; it can wait."

"Alright. Hello, Chief Wang."

"Hello, Mr. Lou. Just call me Wang Lan. I need you to extract someone's internet data from the past six months. Chang Yu, ID number *********, phone number *******."

"Okay! Please wait a moment!"

Wang Lan sat beside Mr. Lou, watching his fingers fly across the keyboard with lightning speed. Soon, a progress bar appeared and began to advance. After about half an hour, the data download was complete.

"Done!"

"In the last six months, what has her online activity been like?"

"Very low. Almost no activity. Her ID says she's only twenty-four? For a girl her age, one week's data usage would typically exceed her usage over the past six months."

"Was her data usage like this before?"

"Hmm... let me check."

After another flurry of keystrokes, the results came up in about ten minutes.

"Starting from March, her data usage plummeted. Before that, her data consumption level was fairly average. Since then, she seems to have rarely gone online. Her main data consumption in the past six months has been downloading ten movies."

"Compile a list of the forums and websites she frequently visited."

"Okay! Hmm, her interests are quite unique. A young woman who likes to browse military forums and visit the National Bureau of Statistics website to check data... This is usually something only people in social sciences or military enthusiasts would follow."

"I need a computer. I want to look through the web pages she browsed."

Wang Lan sat beside Head Lou and used a laptop to go through every website Chang Yu had visited. Fortunately, Chang Yu hadn't browsed much, but it still took Wang Lan nearly two hours to review everything.

"From March until now, has she interacted with anyone online?"

"Yes! There's interaction on her Penguin account. But it's all things like greeting messages and some forwarded messages. She hardly ever posts status updates or comments online... This person... she's too much of a recluse, isn't she? It's hard to believe for such a beautiful girl. Usually, it's middle-aged or elderly people who aren't tech-savvy who are like this."

"Can you covertly log into her Penguin account? I want to see her interaction messages and who she has been interacting with."

"Okay. I'll sync it to your computer." As Head Lou spoke, he quickly worked on his terminal, and soon, a web interface for a Penguin account popped up on Wang Lan's screen.

"I'll list the recent contacts..."

For nearly seven months, Chang Yu's external contact had been practically non-existent. She hardly chatted with anyone online, didn't post status updates, share her thoughts, or her moods. It was as if she were living in a bygone era, completely out of sync with the current times.

The first few contacts seemed to be her suitors; some invited her to dinner, others for outings. But she hadn't replied to any of them. One person, driven to frustration by Chang Yu's cold attitude, sent a questioning message and was blocked after just one sentence.

All Wang Lan could think was, 'You're lucky to be alive. If Chang Yu had actually agreed, you'd probably be knocking on death's door.'

As he scrolled down, a contact suddenly caught Wang Lan's eye. This contact had sent Chang Yu advertising messages—each one a lengthy spiel of at least a thousand characters, with much of the content repeated. There were more than ten such ads, all sent by this person. Chang Yu had neither responded to them nor blocked the sender. This very fact made Wang Lan suspicious.

Who in their right mind would tolerate such lengthy, rambling advertisements? Most people would block the sender after the first one, so how could she have accepted so many? Furthermore, these rambling ads also contained some meaningless numbers. The numbers weren't phone numbers, nor were they verification codes or anything of the sort.

"Check when this person became friends with Chang Yu."

"Okay! It was April 1st."

"April? That was after Chang Yu's data usage plummeted?"

"That's right!"

"Who initiated the friend request?"

"The other party sent the request, and Chang Yu accepted."

"Covertly log into this person's account from the backend!" Wang Lan ordered, a sharp glint in his eyes.

"Okay!"

A moment later, another web-based Penguin account interface appeared on Wang Lan's computer. This account had pitifully few friends: only thirty in total, with just twelve contacts in the last six months. Wang Lan opened the contact's chat interface. It was all the same: streams of advertising messages sent to those individuals. And none of these twelve people had blocked this account either.

"Covertly log into the Penguin accounts of these twelve people!"

"Okay!"

"Check the network data usage status of these twelve individuals. Are they practically offline, similar to Chang Yu?"

Head Lou was now quite excited. He had a gut feeling he was involved in something incredibly thrilling and significant, like decrypting something layer by layer, peeling back a mysterious veil. Even though he still had no idea what Wang Lan was investigating, he just had this strong intuition.

"Young Brother Wang Lan, you guessed right. All twelve of these individuals have virtually no data usage. The time frames vary, though. The most recent one started two months ago, while the one who's been inactive the longest has been practically offline since last year."

"Check their data usage patterns. See if there are any commonalities with Chang Yu."

"There are! They all pay close attention to military affairs and current political events. When they go online, it's basically to check national developments and see if any new military weaponry has emerged."

"Looks like I was right!" At this point, Wang Lan was almost certain that his flash of inspiration, his guess, had been completely validated.

He took out his phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, Director Wang!"

"Wang Lan, what time is it... What's the matter?"

"I might have found them."

"Found them? Who?"

"The Demon Clan spy group, including Chang Yu."

CLATTER—

A dull thud came from the other end of the phone, followed by a sharp, grating intake of breath.

"Director Wang, are you alright?"

"Say that again! What did you find?" Wang Qianfeng's voice suddenly boomed from the other end.

"I said I might have found the identities of the Demon Clan spy group, including Chang Yu."

"Where are you right now?"

"At the Suzhou City branch of Penguin Corporation."

"Don't go anywhere. I'm on my way."

After hanging up, Wang Lan continued to examine the data on these twelve individuals. The true identity of the person sending messages to Chang Yu was also easily traceable through the account: Qin Jiaqing, male, sixty years old. Based on data flow analysis, this Qin Jiaqing was likely the leader of this fourteen-person cell. He issued orders to the others in the guise of advertising messages. Although these messages hadn't been decrypted yet, Wang Lan was confident it wouldn't be a challenge for the Tianjian Bureau.

The remaining members included both men and women, their identities completely unrelated. There were chefs, programmers, engineers, and so on.