Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 160 Taking the Bait (Twelfth Update)

Invisible data pulses continuously broadcast Chen Yu's carefully prepared information to the chaotic realm outside the wall through the channels constructed by the Black Wall Protocol.

This signal leverages the omnipresence of the Great Firewall to ensure its content can penetrate every corner of the network, whether inside or outside the firewall.

Chen Yu did not expect an immediate response.

He knew perfectly well that both the process of transmitting information and the decision-making process after the target received the information required time.

Therefore, after setting up automatic loop playback of the signal, he reinvested the main computing resources into in-depth analysis of the divine data and continuous optimization of the dimension transmitter, keeping only a low-power background process.

This process silently monitors two things: any subtle changes in the network environment surrounding the workshop, and the real-time data from the living culture chamber that preserves Barthes's body.

Time passed peacefully as we waited.

The calendar turned silently, and after the upheaval at Arasaka Tower, Night City fell into an unprecedented, suffocating silence.

This silence is not the absence of sound, but rather the loss of its former "vitality"—the ceaseless pulse of the city driven by countless ambitions, deals, conflicts, and conspiracies.

The raging fire and violent explosions of Arasaka Tower, along with the unstoppable advance of Mann's squad, which resembled a natural disaster, were like a bucket of ice water poured over the head of this city of desire.

Everyone was frightened.

Major companies fell into an unusual silence.

On the one hand, they were pleased to see their rival, Arasaka, suffer such a heavy blow; on the other hand, they were deeply shocked by the weapons and combat capabilities displayed by the Mann squad, which were completely beyond the current level of technology.

Military technology and biotechnology giants held an emergency top-level security meeting, not to discuss how to divide the power vacuum left by Arasaka, but to prioritize assessing the threat level of this unknown force.

Their usual methods of intimidation and intrigue seemed pale and laughable in the face of the absolute power displayed by that small team.

Before fully understanding the situation, no company dared to make any rash moves, fearing they would become the next target.

Street gangs have also become much less aggressive.

The once bustling conflict zone has become quiet, and those lawless cyberpunks seem to have learned the meaning of "caution" overnight.

The Valentino Gang, the Animal Gang, the Vortex Gang... Whether they are traditional family-run gangs or fanatical groups that glorify violence, their leaders have all issued similar orders: keep a low profile in the near future and avoid any actions that may cause friction with that "Monster Squad" and its related forces.

Weapons capable of instantly vaporizing armored vehicles and tearing streets apart with a single shot rendered their smart guns and rocket launchers laughable toys.

Even the news media have lost their former enthusiasm.

Although images of the explosion and fire at Arasaka Tower had already spread throughout the city, subsequent reports were unusually restrained.

No expert dared to draw a conclusion easily, and no media dared to delve into the truth behind it. All reports remained at the level of describing established facts, filled with uncertainty and even a hint of fear.

They realized that this incident had gone beyond their ability to hype and control.

Night City seemed to have been put on pause. The surface order was barely maintained by the NCPD and corporate security, but beneath this fragile calm lay a deeper unease and suspicion.

Everyone is watching and waiting, trying to glean a clue about the future from this eerie silence.

This city, accustomed to chaos and noise, fell into collective silence for the first time due to pure, incomprehensible violence.
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A few days later, Chen Yu was performing a comparative calculation of the fundamental physics constants of the local world and the Warhammer world. At that moment, a background process that had been in standby mode triggered a low-priority alert.

The alarm originated from the subroutine responsible for monitoring the workshop's external network environment.

Data shows that an extremely hidden and unfamiliar data stream is attempting to penetrate the outermost layer of network defenses in the abandoned town workshop.

This data stream did not originate from any known company or organization; its coding style and intrusion methods exude an ancient and sophisticated style, quite unlike common contemporary cyberattack patterns.

Instead of resorting to brute force, it moved like a slippery snake, quietly infiltrating along the gaps in civilian data networks, trying to find an overlooked vulnerability.

Its objectives are clear, its actions are clearly probing, and every touch on the firewall is extremely slight, as if it is carefully assessing the strength and reaction mechanism of this barrier.

This cautious and sophisticated approach, along with the unique characteristics revealed in its technical approach that were so different from those of the present era, immediately made Chen Yu realize that this was no ordinary hacker or corporate security department's probe.

This was exactly the signal he had been waiting for—something had received his broadcast and been attracted to it.

It came from outside the black wall.

Chen Yu's crimson optical lens focused slightly, and the computing power allocation on the main control panel was instantly readjusted.

A significant amount of resources were freed up from other tasks and quickly devoted to the comprehensive analysis and tracking of this intrusive data stream.

Instead of immediately taking strong countermeasures to expel or eliminate them, he acted like a patient observer, building a solid and airtight logical firewall to steadily block the other party's attempts to infiltrate.

He wanted to see things more clearly: How long would this "visitor" try? What methods would it use? What could its behavior patterns reveal?
The firewall logs clearly record every contact attempt.

After encountering this invisible wall, the opponent did not give up, but began to change their strategy.

It tested various protocol vulnerabilities, simulated several legitimate access requests, and even attempted to disguise itself as a harmless background data stream.

However, all these efforts failed to make substantial progress in the face of Chen Yu's defense system, which was built upon knowledge far beyond what was available at the time.

The intrusion was effectively blocked at the perimeter.

Inside the workshop, only the low hum of the equipment and the steady, monotonous ticking of the heart rate monitor in the culture chamber remained.

But in that invisible digital realm, a silent, tentative confrontation has already begun.

Chen Yu's massive body remained still in front of the control panel; all the intense battles took place at the ever-changing data level.

The bait has taken effect; now, he needs to determine exactly what has taken the bait and what it will do next.

(End of this chapter)