Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

People gathered around the cars out of curiosity. The NYPD wasn't there. I initially thought it was just a minor traffic accident and that traffic would return to normal soon.

Frank said he wanted to take some photos for future reference, but what he captured was a horrifying, disgusting, and perverse scene. People around gasped in shock, but they were all holding up their phones to take pictures.

Three people lay dead in the middle of the road, the ground covered in blood. The attacker was a middle-aged Black man, about 30 years old.

Instead of biting the victim, he tore the person apart with his fingers and palms.

My hands are trembling. I don't know how to describe it, and I don't even want to mention the scene I captured.

But this is my job. The emergency management officials are indeed lying, and we need to let others know. We cannot remain silent.

At this moment, two young men, unable to bear the sight, ran up and tried to pull the murderer away and restrain him.

Damn it, they were all killed by that murderer who, though not very old, acted like an old man.

The throats of the two young men were crushed, their faces covered in gushing blood, and one of them had his abdomen ripped open.

Faced with this chaotic scene, everyone fell into a state of hysterical frenzy.

Some people cried and screamed, some said like madmen that the CIA had been monitoring them for over a decade, and some even picked up a gun, pointed it at their heads, and shot themselves.

Frank threw up after taking two photos, and I wanted to do the same thing as him.

The black man, who looked like a witch doctor, suddenly became agitated and staggered toward the unsuspecting woman on the side of the road.

This is serious. Is it really just a hallucination caused by a drug overdose, as Dr. Lewis claims?

I do not believe!

Several minutes later, the police arrived in their car, and the dispersed crowd gathered around again…

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 43 The Marathon of the Visible Future

"...According to past practice, the police would have driven away the crowd, but only three people came in total."

However, what struck us as odd was that people seemed to have forgotten that the Green Currency virus was causing a pandemic; apart from the two of us journalists who attended the Garden Shelter Clinic press conference, no one else was wearing personal protective equipment.

Oh right, when the three policemen arrived, they seemed oblivious to the chaotic situation at the scene—the thug was kneeling next to the woman's body, rummaging around in her abdomen with his hands—and immediately ordered the crowd to leave.

Then three patrol cars arrived late and managed to cordon off the area. The guy who got out of the cars...

Some of them were wearing police uniforms, but their shoulders were glowing with orange light. While dispersing pedestrians, they killed the violent murderer in the center of the crime scene.

After we identified ourselves as journalists to the first officer who arrived at the scene, he immediately searched Frank's camera under the pretext of collecting evidence. His tone was as if the police had the right to do so—it's utterly absurd. We've noted his name and badge number; see you in court!

At the time, I was only worried about things related to press freedom, but now it seems that those things don't matter. What I'm more interested in is what the shiny metal piece in the rioter's hand was.

By the way, the officer only saw Frank's SLR camera and took all of his equipment with him.

But he forgot about the Sony phone I was holding and only warned me not to film him. I think he warned me because he was afraid of being complained about later.

We had just returned to the newspaper office when we received news that the Disaster Management Agency had decided to issue a martial law order that afternoon, setting up roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the city, which completely cut off our contact with the outside world.

According to the commissioner, the city was being zoned and isolated to prevent the spread of "the disease that some citizens had unfortunately contracted." Although the commissioner didn't specify the type of disease, Frank and I believed it was most likely a result of the recent bloody violence. Furthermore, the police radio we overheard indicated that similar incidents were becoming increasingly common.

Obviously, they're not talking about a greenback virus, but something else entirely. Perhaps I can find the answer to this question if I can figure out what this so-called 'similar incident' is.

No matter how those officials with intimidating titles try to deceive the public, one fact remains for all New York residents: they not only have to endure the pain caused by the rampant virus, but also face the panic of sudden, unannounced violent attacks.

Although the police were completely uncooperative with the news organizations' investigation, they were still going to ask me one by one to gather evidence. Frank decided to leave New York, and Tom, Mr. Brad, and the other staff members decided to go back to their families.

They've completely lost sight of reporting on this. But all that's left for me is this...

Damn it, I can't get in touch with them anymore. Just now, I heard the sound of glass breaking downstairs, and screams from the nurses and doctors. Something got inside.

Cough cough... I feel very tired. These are not symptoms of smallpox. I know that very well.

The virus that ravaged New York was called the "green bill virus" or "money flu," but it was actually a type of artificially modified smallpox virus.

But I'm pretty sure the abnormality wasn't caused by mutated smallpox. Sick people are weak, but their bodies wouldn't exhibit the abnormal state I'm experiencing now, with stiff legs and hallucinations.

My heart is pounding, like I've just finished a vigorous workout. Even if I hadn't exercised, my back was quickly soaked with sweat. Damn it, am I going to be the first clown to die from exhaustion sitting in a chair?

I just saw a nurse running out of the supply warehouse. Her name is Emma. We don't know each other very well. I only know her because of several private interviews a few days ago.

Do you know what I want to do right now? I want to tear her to pieces.

But I can't.

That concludes the record. Raphael's lips remained tightly pressed together as he placed the crumpled journal back on the table. The person who wrote this record must have been a journalist; he was nowhere to be found.

The hallucinations, physical stiffness, and abnormal physiological condition, along with the profuse sweating, are likely metabolic abnormalities caused by ELID infection.

If this handwritten record is true, Raphael could push the time of the collapse fluid leak back to before Black Friday.

Alas, until Black Friday broke out, and the money flu virus spread like wildfire with banknotes, New York's future was essentially over. Whoever it was, all their efforts here were in vain.

Decree No. 51? Was it really necessary? Raphael believed it wasn't. President Waller was merely expressing an attitude to all sectors of society, especially to voters who held the power to cast their ballots.

He and the federal government have done their best, but New York State and New York City have acted recklessly, with neither the state nor the city government cooperating from beginning to end.

Not only could Waller produce a large amount of evidence, but he also had many reports from SHD agents of the National Strategic Bureau.

The reports were incredibly detailed, including photos, helmet-view video recordings, and video evidence from surveillance systems at landmarks and banks.

Not to mention the audio recordings and call logs collected with the assistance of intelligent analysis systems, which are like a spear of fate that will surely kill whoever it stabs.

Moreover, Raphael has also uploaded a large amount of evidence, which can be used to demonstrate just how negligent the New York City government has been in its management.

He deserves to die a thousand deaths; his crime warrants execution.

Defeat breeds resentment, victory leads to retaliation and revenge—this is the style of politicians in power struggles. Once you're at the gambling table, there's no turning back; defeat means certain death.

Wahler might show his magnanimity by pardoning some of the crimes punishable by death, and then send the enemies who would never submit to the most strictly supervised, safest, and best-treated private prisons to be treated like monkeys.

No matter what, someone always needs to step up and take responsibility, right?

President Waller and his team, along with a host of stakeholders, forced a series of key figures in New York City and New York State to become scapegoats, not only quelling public anger but also creating a political image in the eyes of the entire nation of someone who had tried to turn the tide but ultimately failed.

A bad thing turned into a good thing, right?

Raphael touched the XM5 assault rifle in her hand; she was nothing more than a small cog in the machine.

While her mental core remained unbroken due to DARPA's inferior technology, they maintained control over the maintenance and upgrades of her physical body, forming an invisible chain.

She had to do whatever the bureau chief wanted her to do. The so-called "employment" relationship was nothing more than them playing house with children, nothing more.

They knew she wanted "freedom," so they accelerated their analysis of the artifacts; she also knew they wanted to completely control artificial intelligence and had been thinking about how to break free from their control.

Both sides are working hard, and neither is willing to admit defeat.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 44 Unwavering Loyalty

The researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are a great bunch of good people, aren't they?

Raphael thought of the shackles around his neck, narrowed his eyes, and mobilized computing power to scan and record the asset information of the equipment, to understand which IPs were active, which ports the active IPs had opened, and the services corresponding to those ports.

Then we built a platform for rapid information collection, which not only facilitates viewing but also provides statistics on the number of services, making it easier to detect service types.

Although it was her first time doing this, her naturally abundant computing power quickly sorted out the port services that did not belong to the core mental service segment.

Raphael lightly patted the dust off the chair cushion, plopped down on it, and then focused all his attention on the data collection sensors and data storage black box implanted in his body.

These things would record all her actions and thoughts, and then, when connected to the network, would be transmitted back to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) without her control.

The feeling of being controlled by others is not good. Raphael took it very seriously and paused other important data analysis threads in his mind to focus all his efforts on uncovering the security weaknesses of those subsystems.

Among those open ports, she chose to perform a quick and thorough weak password check on system services and database services.

Interestingly, Raphael noticed that the passwords for the data sensors could be extracted directly, making it easy to read the cached passwords.

The department that developed the prototypes seems to be at odds with the department in charge of the research on relics within the bureau; they left behind many interesting things within the system.

Without much thought—no, Raphael suddenly realized—these "surprises" left in the system seemed to be teaching her how to hack into the internal network step by step.

After obtaining the target host's liveness information and port open information, you can attempt to analyze the target's network structure and security defense strategies.

Next, use port scanning and vulnerability scanning to verify the open ports of the target, the services open on the corresponding ports, and the software and version number of the services running.

If you only use port scanning, you can discover open ports and then use a network computer to obtain broadcast information about the services on those ports.

After obtaining the necessary broadcast information, search for the corresponding public or undisclosed vulnerabilities in the vulnerability database, and then verify whether the vulnerability exists.

If you use a vulnerability scanning tool, you can directly find the vulnerabilities on the corresponding ports, and then verify the vulnerabilities.

Security checks typically aim to discover as many vulnerabilities as possible, assess their risks, and then remediate them. Intrusion detection focuses only on exploitable vulnerabilities such as high-risk remote code execution and sensitive information disclosure vulnerabilities.

Clearly, Raphael received a gift from an unknown person.

She directly broadcast the undisclosed vulnerability of the data collection and transmission system within the internal network.

This allowed Raphael to easily access a special vulnerability that granted her administrative privileges.

She immediately checked the system information and the internal network IP segment to confirm the number of devices in that segment, and began to analyze the previously recorded information, then "corrected" and "beautified" that data.

At the very least, those who have access to this information should be able to analyze it and conclude that "Raphael NGSW" is completely loyal to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

She was utterly loyal and devoted, working tirelessly for the cause of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Her heart could move God and frighten away the devil. In short, all data sent to DARPA from then on would have to be reviewed and refined by Raphael.

As for how much loyalty she can have, that depends on how convincing her fabricated data is.

The feeling of having a shackle around her neck didn't bother her before, but now that she realized the problem, she started to feel uncomfortable.

Looking at the revised data, Raphael felt that the amount of data modified at once was too large. She knew that people were more complex than numbers, and that a gradual, step-by-step approach was necessary.

So she restored some of the data, hiding the most crucial part, as a test.

If they can't find anything unusual, it means that the people in the planning bureau aren't as "clever" as expected, or that this hasn't crossed their bottom line and is still within their tolerance limits.

If that's the case, Raphael needs to think carefully about what other trump cards they might have up their sleeves.

However, this step must be taken.

Thinking of this, Raphael took a deep breath, overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

“Well then, I should get back on my way,” she said to herself in the empty room. “Now is not the time to stop.”

New York, oh New York, it doesn't matter if New York is in a state of disorder. It may look like a chaotic paradise, but the world outside the high walls continues to operate according to its original order.

Those who wanted to fight wars fought wars, and those who wanted to invade invaded. The new smallpox virus, which spread rapidly with the help of the US dollar, didn't even make a ripple on the international stage.

Its impact was less than the massive archaeological site discovered in Antarctica by the United Nations Office on Monuments in July 2023 and the subsequent financial turmoil in the Latin American economic sphere.

Following the coup in Panama, President Waller, acting in the interest of protecting American interests, brazenly launched "Operation Justice." Incidentally, Rafael was accompanying the troops as a "trainee officer."

The current situation in New York is actually under control; the chaos has always been within the player's grasp.

Disgusting, Raphael ended the data modification, erased all records, and restored the system to its original state.