This Taoist priest is so unprofessional!

"Hold!"

The fat man was so startled that he leaned back sharply, the wheels of his gaming chair scraping across the floor with a screeching sound.

He almost fell off the chair.

The red text on the screen disappeared, and the normal data interface returned to normal.

But that red dot also disappeared.

It's hidden even deeper now.

The fat man's chest heaved violently as he gasped for breath, his face deathly pale.

He looked at Zhang Chen, his previous nonchalance gone, replaced by deep horror.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

Zhang Chen's expression was equally grim. He replied in a deep voice, "An obsession that has been trapped for ten years."

As he spoke, he lit a cigarette and briefly recounted Song Wen's story.

The fat man stared at the screen, remaining silent for a long time.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and sat up straight again.

The fear in his eyes faded, replaced by a competitive and manic energy that had been ignited in a tech geek.

He stared at the seemingly calm data and said in a deep voice, "No, conventional methods won't work."

"This thing seems to be conscious; it's evading my tracking."

He raised his head, looked at Zhang Chen, and said, word by word.

"To find it, I need to enter its 'world'."

"Let's confront it head-on!"

The fat man took a deep breath, and the horror in his eyes was replaced by an excited tremor.

He suddenly stood up from his chair and paced back and forth in the cramped shop.

"No, I can't do it directly on my host machine."

"This thing is 'active,' just like a real virus; it can infect and remain dormant. If it's not cleaned properly, all my precious things in this house will be ruined."

Zhang Chen crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

"So what do you plan to do?"

"isolation."

The fat man's eyes gleamed with the light of a tech fanatic. He slapped his thigh as if he had made a momentous decision.

"I want to build it a 'sandbox,' a perfect cage physically isolated from the outside world!"

He acted immediately, dragging a heavy silver metal chassis out from under the shelf.

The computer case looked ordinary, even a bit old, but the numerous ports and ventilation holes on it indicated that it was no ordinary product.

"This is a server I bought before, with dual Xeon processors, specifically used for virtual environment testing."

As he spoke, the fat man deftly connected the wires with practiced ease.

He didn't connect the server to any network, and even used a separate UPS for power to ensure everything was in order.

"Create a virtual system and then copy all the data from that hard drive into it."

"In this virtual world, no matter how powerful it is, it can't escape my grasp."

"As long as it dares to move, its every move and every data request will be recorded by me. Let's see how it can hide now!"

The fat man's face radiated absolute confidence, a confidence born from his mastery of his field of expertise.

In his view, no matter how bizarre this thing is, it is ultimately just a piece of data.

As long as it's data, there's a logic to follow.

Anything with logic can be cracked.

Soon, a completely independent "sandbox" system was built.

The fat man connected the hard drive to the server, then sat down at his main console and remotely controlled it via a special data cable.

He checked all the parameters one last time and gave Zhang Chen and Wang Xiaoer an OK sign.

"Watch closely, now comes the moment to witness a miracle."

He pressed the Enter key.

Once the command is issued, the server begins reading hard drive data and simulating its operation in the virtual environment.

However, the scene of data refreshing like a waterfall that the fat man had envisioned did not occur.

Strange things happened.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

The server he had placed so much hope in suddenly emitted a sickening electrical crackling sound.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally sharp, like countless tiny needles piercing one's eardrum.

Immediately afterwards, several key indicator lights on the server chassis, which showed the server's status, began to flash wildly and erratically.

The entire system became extremely unstable, as if it were being subjected to some kind of unseen, intense electromagnetic interference.

"Damn it, this is a ghost!"

The fat man cursed, and the confidence on his face vanished instantly.

He immediately disconnected the remote connection and rushed to the server.

He unplugged the power cord, plugged it back in, checked the connection of every data cable, and even removed the side panel of the chassis to inspect the hardware inside.

The motherboard is working properly, the memory sticks are inserted firmly, and the CPU fan is spinning steadily.

No technical problems could be found in any of the hardware or wiring.

But as soon as I try to run anything on that hard drive, that damn electrical noise and the indicator light flashing will reappear.

Sweat beaded on the fat man's forehead as he irritably scratched his already messy hair.

"This is weird...this doesn't make sense!"

Zhang Chen had been observing silently for a long time before finally speaking slowly.

"It seems the problem isn't with your machine."

He walked over to the server and pointed to the old hard drive that was connected.

"It's probably a problem with this thing."

"The yin energy it emits is interfering with the normal operation of electronic components."

The fat man stopped moving, raised his head, and looked at Zhang Chen through his greasy glasses with the kind of look one would give a lunatic.

"Dude, stop messing around, okay? I'm annoyed right now."

"Yin energy? You're telling me that a materialistic circuit board is covered in idealistic yin energy?"

Zhang Chen ignored his sarcasm.

He turned to the side and slowly took out several yellow paper talismans from his tattered canvas bag.

The talisman paper was rough, and the cinnabar lines on it were drawn crookedly, looking like a child's scribbles.

Wang Xiaoer's eyelids twitched, thinking to himself that this guy finally didn't need to use those printed talismans anymore.

Zhang Chen ignored the fat man's eye-rolling that almost reached the sky, and his expression became serious.

He held a talisman in his hand, muttered some incantations, and then, with a "snap," stuck it onto the server's chassis.

The second one was pasted on the back of the monitor.

The third one, the fourth one...

The fat man crossed his arms, leaned against the table, and smirked, ready to watch a spectacular performance art piece.

"Master, this is unprofessional! Why don't you take out a peach wood sword and perform a shamanistic ritual? Sprinkle some black dog blood or something, wouldn't that be more effective?"

Before he could finish speaking, a miraculous scene unfolded.

The talismans that had just been pasted on seemed to be ignited by an invisible flame.

"call--"

Without fire or heat, the yellow talisman turned to ashes in an instant, visible to the naked eye.

A wisp of extremely thin, foul-smelling black smoke rose from the ashes of the talisman and quickly dissipated into the air.

Almost at the same time.

The sharp electrical hum from the server abruptly stopped.

All the wildly flashing indicator lights instantly returned to normal and rhythmic flashing.

The entire shop was so quiet that only the hum of the fans could be heard.

The system is stable!

The fat man's mocking smile froze instantly.

He stared wide-eyed at the server, his mouth agape, then at Zhang Chen, who remained completely calm and collected.

He reached out his trembling hand and carefully touched the server's cold metal casing, then touched the monitor.

everything is normal.

He muttered to himself, his voice filled with a shock that would overturn his worldview.

"Holy crap... a mystical firewall? A physical cheat code?"

"No... Daoist Master, are you serious?"