Chapter 353 - 295: Z: They want war, then give them war

Or perhaps...

A terrible thought occurred to Chu Bamboo. But he took a deep breath, forcing the doubt down. This wasn’t the time to dwell on it. He said calmly, "Z, based on the available information! Give me the absolute safest... plan for Hodges and me to get to Nanmo."

After a brief silence, Z spoke. "Latest updated war module, activating now! Permission from Mother has been granted! Now requesting permission from Father..."

"..." Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched, but he nodded quickly.

"Father has consented!" Z paused briefly, its tone completely different from before. "Commencing official activation."

"Beginning indiscriminate intrusion! Commencing target acquisition... Successfully detected 3,400 hackable targets in the vicinity! Seventy percent are surveillance devices, the remainder are operable machinery... Initiating trojan intrusion on surrounding mobile phones to monitor information!"

"Successfully injected trojan virus into the mobile phones of FBI members... A certain level of eavesdropping and location tracking is now possible. However, only thirty percent of active FBI members’ phones were successfully infiltrated due to security vulnerabilities! Please do not fully trust the location data..."

At this point, it wasn’t just Hodges; even Chu Bamboo himself was thinking: "???"

A moment later, Chu Bamboo stared, dumbfounded, as a Tesla electric car pulled up in front of him and its door smoothly swung open. "Father, please get in!"

Chu Bamboo glanced at the driver’s seat. ’Right, no one there... It looks like it drove here completely on its own! Based on what I know, Tesla’s self-driving feature shouldn’t be this advanced... So, did Z hack the autopilot?’

Chu Bamboo pulled Hodges into the Tesla. Only after the car started moving did it belatedly dawn on him—’Wait, those several thousand hackable targets Z mentioned... that remaining thirty percent... don’t tell me it’s all kinds of electric cars?!’

’You didn’t just take control of this one Tesla... According to the data Z revealed earlier, this is a network of nearly a thousand electric cars...’

’Holy hack!’

He took a few deep breaths.

"...You’re something else."

Chu Bamboo had already figured it out. This war module most likely came with the Hive, but... this was a little too terrifying!

’War... war!’ In its current state, Z had clearly cast aside all the human morals and legal shackles that Zhao Shao had worked so hard to design for it... It had become a complete outlaw...

But after a moment’s thought, Chu Bamboo felt a sense of relief, even though he couldn’t quite figure out how Z had managed to do all this—

’Does it even have enough processing power to hack so many electronic devices? And how long did it take you to breach all this... you even specifically planted trojan viruses to exploit vulnerabilities in the FBI members’ phones! To do all that... it only took ten-odd minutes?!’

’Besides, this is the White-headed Eagle’s turf. How on earth did you manipulate the computing power to pull off so many incredible feats? With such a large-scale transfer of data and processing power, wouldn’t anyone on White-headed Eagle’s home ground have noticed something unusual...’

’But considering this is future technology, it should be... perfectly normal... right?’

’I still don’t get it!’

Chu Bamboo mulled it over and over, ultimately suspecting, ’Could it be that the Hive actually fought the White-headed Eagle once in the future? Maybe its core programming already has an Engraving of many of this old rival’s weaknesses... so now... hmm.’

’If I’d known, I would have asked Nuwa what the global situation was like in that timeline!’ Chu Bamboo complained internally, but he wasn’t too upset. It was a good thing that the Hive had this residual data.

Rubbing his temples, Chu Bamboo glanced at Hodges beside him, who was constantly wiping away sweat. Hodges’s teeth were chattering. "...What are you looking at me for! We have to run! If we get caught this time... we’d be lucky to just get thrown in prison!"

"You didn’t actually steal some classified information, did you? Wait... that Disguise Skill you just used? Don’t tell me Martial Arts are real! What the hell is this world... Does that mean the legendary Dragon Team actually exists?!" Hodges began to question his life. "You must really be an Official!"

"Oh, right, right, Martial Arts are real!" Chu Bamboo nodded perfunctorily, also complaining internally. ’The Dragon Team? What era is that from? Hodges, really...’

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Chu Bamboo’s mind. He realized something, and his expression changed. "This won’t work! If we just keep running..."

Chu Bamboo hadn’t forgotten that they were up against Celestial Net!

Yes, Z had indeed seized the initiative for now, but if he assumed the situation was under his control because of it... Chu Bamboo keenly sensed that he would end up paying a heavy price for that mistake!

Moreover, Chu Bamboo was still trying to figure out what had prompted the other side to act so differently from the previous timeline... He had to be extra cautious and prepare for the worst.

Chu Bamboo thought for a moment, a plan gradually forming in his mind. He asked solemnly, "Z, monitor the vicinity. Are there any gang boss hideouts or anything like that around here..."

"Commencing search..." Z’s tone of voice was different now. If before it had a trace of gentleness, now it was stern and decisive. Even if the pitch was identical, the feeling it gave off was completely different...

Compared to the Jiangnan maiden from before, the current Z was more like a battle-hardened female soldier stepping off the battlefield!

"Targets matching Father’s description have been detected... a total of seventeen! Display all targets?"

Chu Bamboo’s expression was a bit odd. He hadn’t expected that in the White-headed Eagle’s territory... a casual search could turn up seventeen of them? ’What a chaotic place!’

While marveling at this, Chu Bamboo carefully chose his words. "Pick one. A hideout of a lone gang boss, with just two or three people... Preferably, the hideout should have plenty of water, food, and all sorts of weapons! And money, gold, that kind of thing! And it has to be near us... drive there immediately."

"Target locked... target confirmed! Executing command!"

Then, a map with detailed coordinates appeared on Chu Bamboo’s phone screen—it was a villa about a kilometer away from him!

In the next breath, a small video window popped up in the top-left corner of the screen. It was surveillance footage from inside a room.

Two burly Black men and several naked white women were tangled together, all of them fast asleep and snoring... The room was a complete mess, evidence of a wild night. They had clearly just finished a party and were most likely high on something...

Chu Bamboo: "..."

’Gotta say, that’s the White-headed Eagle for you.’

’Still, these gang bosses are pretty brazen... to get up to this kind of stuff right under a camera...’