Chapter 174: Close Combat is a Man’s Excitement

Did Xiao Yu understand computers? Let’s just say he was a Hacker Expert—courtesy of the system.

Why didn’t he use this ability from the start? Well, Xiao Yu didn’t expect the assassin group to be this cunning. 

Breaking into a dark web network was incredibly difficult and couldn’t be done quickly. With only twenty-five days to solve the case, Xiao Yu couldn’t afford to waste time on such a complex task.

But the cunning and caution of these assassins exceeded his expectations. 

Now, the only option left was to use the most direct and forceful method: break into the dark web and trace the assassin group from there.

How would they find them? 

Even if the assassins used software to stay hidden, they would still leave traces on the dark web. The trick was tracking those traces down. However, there was no guarantee the assassin group hadn’t used even more secretive methods.

So, what exactly was the dark web? 

In simple terms, it was a branch of the deep web. The way it worked was that when User A visited Website B, the data had to pass through a series of encrypted relay nodes before reaching its destination. This made tracking and tracing the source extremely difficult.

The dark web had some very distinct characteristics. It was easy to access, highly anonymous, hard to monitor, and posed serious risks—making it a hotbed for criminal activity. In more extreme cases, it could even serve as a tool in geopolitical conflicts, used for espionage, infiltration, or even destabilization efforts. Spies and other special agents often had a knack for navigating the dark web.

***

In a high-rise building, Xiao Yu sat in front of a computer. Surrounding him were four young men, each looking like they belonged in different worlds. 

One like a nerd, another like a student, one like an online troll, and the last like a wannabe tough guy. But these four were legitimate cybersecurity experts, skilled in computing, and had been sent over by Wang Dong from headquarters in the middle of the night.

There’s a type of harm that doesn’t draw blood but is still deadly—that’s the realm of computers, networks, and hackers.

No, the four young men were all red hackers.

But right now, the way they were looking at Xiao Yu was as if they were staring at a deity.

Twenty minutes earlier, Xiao Yu had given them a little demonstration of his computer and network skills. It wasn’t like Xiao Yu wanted to show off. But with these four young guys being top-notch computer experts, if he didn’t establish his authority, how could he expect to lead them?

And it wasn’t just the four of them who were impressed. Wang Dong was equally floored. The way he was looking at Xiao Yu now was reminiscent of their first encounter. Like he was staring at some kind of monster. 

In Wang Dong’s eyes, Xiao Yu had already transcended normal human capabilities.

With terrifying intelligence and an unmatched ability to deduce, Wang Dong knew he didn’t stand a chance against Xiao Yu in a battle of wits. Even if you tied ten of him together, they wouldn’t be enough for Xiao Yu to even break a sweat.

But… this monster of a person didn’t just know hypnosis—now he was a network genius too?

The fact that he had managed to win over four top-notch tech experts. Making them practically bow down to him, was beyond comprehension. 

‘You tech geeks, do you even care about how us regular folks feel?’

Facing Xiao Yu, Wang Dong couldn’t shake the feeling that his sole purpose in this world was just to be a bystander. 

Though he couldn’t pin down Xiao Yu’s exact IQ, one thing was certain. Xiao Yu was a human-shaped anomaly.

***

“Let’s work together and take down this dark web!”

Xiao Yu glanced at the four young men beside him.

“This…” 

The young men all had a constipated look on their faces.

Could the dark web even be attacked and taken down?

The answer was yes. The dark web wasn’t impervious to attacks. But the identities on it were always concealed.

That was why it was so difficult to know who the founders were, and even harder to catch them.

Suppose one dark web was taken down—if the founder, or rather the administrator, wasn’t caught, a new dark web would pop up soon after.

Take the Silk Road, the largest dark web site in the world, for example. It was shut down in 2003, but just a few months later, Silk Road 2.0 emerged.

Fortunately, the police had infiltrated the dark web, and a year later, they managed to capture the founder of the Silk Road.

Even though the dark web hid a lot of evil—like the infamous Red Room mentioned in dark web horror stories, which turned out to be a real, terrifying thing—there still wasn’t a perfect way to combat it.

Was there really no way? 

Xiao Yu didn’t think so. 

With the four computer network experts by his side, he had a good sense of where his system’s ability, Hacker Expert, stood.

To put it in perspective, if Xiao Yu claimed to be the second-best in computer and network technology, there wouldn’t be many people who would dare claim to be the first.

“Remember, I’m not after the founders. I’m after that server.” Xiao Yu placed his hands on the keyboard. “I want every trace and piece of information from every dark web user on that server. Got it?”

“Got it!” The four young men nodded heavily, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Not having to catch the founders but just find the server? That was much simpler. 

These days, dark web servers were typically hosted on virtual hosts, cloud hosts, cloud servers, or offshore servers. They were cheap, convenient, and secure, making it easy to set up dark web services.

The downside was that they were not as secure as personally hosted servers. They were more likely to be exposed. The upside was that since they were not personal servers, even if the server was exposed, it was hard to catch the person behind it.

As for personally hosted dark web servers, they were indeed more secure. But if someone managed to track you down through the network, you were done for.

For an entire week, Xiao Yu and the four young hackers ate, slept, and worked in the same room. To say it was intense would be an understatement. Keyboards had been pounded on so hard they probably needed replacing.

Finally, on the eighth day, Xiao Yu’s bloodshot eyes lit up as he sighed in relief. 

“Found it!”

How did they manage to locate the dark web server? 

Through passive attack techniques. 

This method didn’t interfere with the dark web’s communication process but instead analyzed and compared the data flow within the dark web. By doing this, they could deduce the topological relationships between various nodes in the dark web.

But what seemed like a straightforward yet incredibly complex attack method had taken a cheat-enhanced transmigrator and four computer experts over seven days to crack. That was how formidable the dark web truly was.

“Leave the rest to you,” Xiao Yu said, stepping away from the keyboard and looking at Wang Dong.

With those words, he immediately fell asleep, completely exhausted. He slept for a full day and night.

When Xiao Yu finally woke up, Wang Dong was standing over him, handing him a USB drive.

“Ha,” Xiao Yu chuckled as he got up, taking the USB in his hand.

It was time to have some fun with those assassins, up close and personal.

Because close combat—that was where the real excitement was for a man.