Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

Justin originally wanted to drink some water while watching the show, but when he glanced at the "System Log" in the lower left corner of the screen, he spat out his saliva.

[Warning! The first layer of defense has collapsed!]

[Warning! IP tracking failed! The other party used a ghost server!]

[Warning! Second layer... Third layer... Fourth layer...]

In just thirty seconds! The nine-layer firewall, as if made of paper, broke through four layers in an instant!

"This is impossible!!" Justin's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his usual air of sophistication completely gone.

He lunged at the computer, trying to disconnect from the network and manually patch the vulnerabilities.

"Can you stop him?" Xie Wang asked, turning around and smiling at him as he typed code. "You're patching things too slowly; the logic is riddled with bugs."

"Fuck! Stop it!" Justin was sweating profusely, his fingers trembling as he typed the counter command.

They were trying to trace Xie Wang's attack path in an attempt to reverse-engineer the attack.

However, when he tried to access Xie Wang's data stream, he was horrified to discover that it wasn't a data stream at all; it was a tsunami.

Overwhelming amounts of junk data instantly filled his memory, and amidst this massive torrent of data, a magic knife pierced the very core of his system.

Director Yan watched in stunned silence. Although he didn't understand computers, he could tell that the foreign child was about to cry.

With only one minute remaining, the ninth layer of firewall is teetering on the brink of collapse.

Justin's fingers were already stiff.

He stared intently at the lines of strange, illegible code on the screen—

Extremely concise.

Not a single word wasted.

It even exploited a low-level CPU overflow vulnerability to bypass software defenses through hardware overload.

This style... this domineering and unreasonable violent aesthetic...

A name suddenly flashed through Justin's mind.

He frequents the international hacker forum DarkNet.

In the legends section of that forum, there was an ID—"X".

That mysterious person who paralyzed half the market overnight used this memory overflow strategy!

"Wait..." Justin's pupils contracted sharply, his voice trembling: "This architecture... this memory overflow attack..."

"Are you... are you X?"

Xie Wang's fingers paused slightly as he typed. But he didn't answer. Instead, a wicked smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"You just said that if we break through, we should also plant a virus, right?"

Xie Wang looked at Justin: "Well, I'm being polite, I won't get infected with the virus."

"I just... helped you overclock your computer."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Wang pressed the last Enter key.

Snapped!

The crisp sound echoed in the deathly silent conference room.

The next second, Justin's expensive silver ultrathin laptop suddenly emitted a piercing shriek—the sound of the cooling fan instantly reaching its maximum speed!

"Buzz—!!!"

"Game Over, Kid."

Immediately afterwards, a burnt smell wafted out from between the keyboard keys.

The screen flickered violently twice, then went completely black.

That computer... is smoking.

Xie Wang's last piece of code directly locked the CPU's temperature control protection, causing the CPU to run at full load instantly and burning through the motherboard!

A deathly silence.

Director Yan was so startled that he dropped his teacup: "This...this...why is it smoking?! Do we have to pay for this?!"

Xie Wang slowly straightened up, clapped his hands, as if he had just finished a trivial task:

"No need to pay, this is hardware aging. I just tested its performance limits." He turned to look at Justin, who was completely petrified, his tone relaxed:

"Looks like your computer isn't very good quality."

Justin slumped in his chair, staring at the piece of scrap metal in front of him, which was still emitting wisps of smoke.

Lost.

Not only were their defenses torn apart, but their weapons were also confiscated.

But there was no anger in his eyes.

Instead, a near-fanatical worship took hold.

As a tech geek, he knew all too well how terrifying that move was.

The ability to rewrite the underlying BIOS temperature control logic in minutes is something a high school student could never possess! Only the legendary X could do that!

"You are him... right?" Justin suddenly stood up, ignoring the computer, and looked at Xie Wang excitedly: "I've seen your code on the forum! That ghost protocol! Only you could write it like that!"

Xie Wang did not admit it.

She merely glanced at him indifferently: "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just an... ordinary high school student."

After saying that, he pulled up Su Qinghe, who had been watching from the sidelines: "Teacher Su, how was that? Did I embarrass you?"

"Wait! Please wait!"

Just as the two were about to leave, Austin and Justin, who had been so arrogant just moments before, rushed over and blocked the doorway.

This time, their faces were filled with deep awe.

Austin glanced at Su Qinghe with a complex expression, one of respect for a powerful figure.

Justin looked at Xie Wang like a devoted fan.

The two looked at each other, then took a deep breath and stood up straight.

He bowed deeply to Xie Wang and Su Qinghe.

"I'm sorry."

We were arrogant and ignorant.

Austin looked up, his face flushed, but his tone was sincere: "You are right. True talent lies not in equipment, but in the brain."

"I will honor my bet and issue a public apology online."

Justin was more direct. He pulled out his phone and looked at Xie Wang eagerly: "Master, could we add each other on WeChat? It's not to bother you... I genuinely want to ask a few questions! How did you manage that overflow command just now?"

Xie Wang stopped and looked at the two elites in front of him who had been completely defeated. He smiled but did not take out his phone.

"Forget about WeChat." Xie Wang waved his hand casually: "Want to learn? Go back and solidify your basics, don't spend all your time working on those fancy interfaces."

After saying that, he took Su Qinghe's hand and, amidst Director Yan's bewildered expression, walked gracefully out of the conference room.

【evening】

Xie Wang clicked on Austin's personal homepage.

"Hey, Teacher Su, it seems I underestimated their mental fortitude." Xie Wang handed his phone screen to Su Qinghe.

With text:

Today, in a small city in China called Jiangcheng, I learned a lesson.

"We were arrogant. We thought equipment and resources were everything. But two students, Xie Wang and Su Qinghe, showed us what true genius looks like."

I apologize for my rudeness.

The person named Justin also reposted this article, adding only one comment, which was even more shocking:

Justin_Code: "He destroyed my 9-layer firewall in 2 minutes and 18 seconds. And he burned my motherboard. Xie is a monster. Or a God."

Just as Su Qinghe was about to ask Xie Wang to put away his phone, her gaze suddenly froze on a new comment at the bottom of the screen.

"Wait... Xie Wang, look at this." Her tone turned serious as she tapped the screen: "This comment... it seems to be from your circle too?"

In that comment section filled with praise, one latest reply stood out from the crowd.

It was pushed to the top, and the number of likes skyrocketed.

ID: Shadow.

His IP address shows: Beijing.

This comment was written in English, and it exuded arrogance.

Shadow: "Using hardware overflow to burn the motherboard? Barbaric."

"Austin and Justin are a disgrace to St. Philip's. Losing to a local high schooler? Pathetic."

The comments didn't end there; another one followed immediately, directly tagging Xie Wang:

Shadow: "I am Shadow. Captain of the US National High School Team. Last year's IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics) Gold Medalist."

I am currently in Beijing for the 'Global Youth Elite Summit'.

It would be a pleasure to meet a worthy opponent. I formally invite you to a code duel.

No tricks, just pure logic. Let's have a gentleman's game.

"@XieWang, may I have the honor?"