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

14:00 PM sharp.

As Xie Wang's words echoed, the atmosphere in the auditorium of Beijing Experimental Middle School instantly reached a boiling point.

On the judges' stand, the chief judge from the International Geek Alliance raised his right hand high and swung it down heavily:

"AWD Extreme Combat Mode - Officially Begins!"

The moment the words were spoken, the giant, ten-meter-high circular holographic projection screen in the center of the auditorium suddenly lit up.

The screen was split in two.

The left side represents Shadow; the right side represents Xie Wang.

Deep within their respective territories—that is the highest system privilege for both parties, the root key.

Whoever pulls out the other's flag first will be the sole survivor in this dark forest.

"Bang bang bang bang bang—!"

As soon as the match started, the sound of rapid keyboard typing came from Shadow's side.

This world champion chose the most extreme start!

"What is he doing?!"

In the VIP lounge backstage, Kang Ping stared intently at the screen: "Starting with an abandonment of all defensive resource allocation and concentrating 100% of computing power on the attack side? Insane!"

The 3D rendered images on the big screen gave everyone the most direct visual impact.

The red data stream representing Shadow did not build walls first as is the usual tactic; instead, it instantly transformed into an attack composed of millions of lines of malicious code!

That's Shadow's signature move—a polymorphic worm swarm.

They rushed towards Xie Wang with overwhelming force, like a flood bursting its banks.

"Warning! Warning! Our outer firewall is under high-frequency DDoS attack!"

"Port scanning frequency exceeds threshold! First layer of defense breached!"

Accompanied by the system's cold, electronically synthesized voice, Xie Wang's blue city wall began to flicker and tremble violently on the holographic screen.

One floor, two floors, three floors...

Under Shadow's relentless and frenzied attacks, large sections of the blue outer defensive network shattered.

The entire auditorium fell silent; everyone was overwhelmed by the ferocious onslaught.

Meanwhile, in the various live streams secretly promoted by Apocalypse, the chat was completely exploding.

"Holy crap! Is that hand speed even human?! Is Shadow going to take down Wang Shen in one fell swoop?!"

"We can't hold on! The blue team's defense is retreating too quickly! We haven't even managed to execute the counterattack code!"

The blue team's defenses are crumbling.

The red team has approached the blue team's core area, and only two underlying firewalls remain to reach the Root Flag.

However, in front of the competition stage.

Xie Wang didn't frantically type on the keyboard like Shadow did.

He even took a moment to open a bottle of mineral water on the table and took a sip.

Sitting in the first row below the stage, Su Qinghe remained calm.

Others might not understand, but she understood it perfectly.

"Xie Wang, what are you doing?" Shadow peered through the gap between the two computers at Xie Wang's nonchalant demeanor, a hint of anger at being slighted flashing in his eyes.

He sneered, and his fingers tapped faster again:

"Give up the fight? Your Chinese kung fu is utterly useless against real code. You're down to the last layer; get ready to be ridiculed by the entire internet!"

Xie Wang put down the mineral water bottle, glanced at him indifferently with his deep peach blossom eyes, and finally spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, but it was clearly transmitted throughout the entire venue through the microphone in front of him.

"Shadow".

Xie Wang sighed, his tone full of disdain:

"Your attack is logically redundant and utterly devoid of elegance."

"Arrogant!"

Shadow roared and slammed down the Enter key.

"boom--!"

On the big screen, Xie Wang's last line of defense is about to be breached!

The BGP hole was successfully utilized!

At that moment, the core of the blue team was completely exposed, and the Root Flag, which represented the highest level of authority, was within reach.

"We won!" The American exchange group behind Shadow erupted in a wild cheer.

The Chinese viewers in the live stream were plunged into a deathly despair.

Shadow wore a triumphant grin.

"X, it seems that what you mean by a few minutes is the time it takes for me to defeat you."

He raised his right hand, ready to press the Enter key that represented victory.

Goodbye, X.

"Yeah?"

The next second, something unexpected happened on the big screen!

"What?!" Shadow's hand, which was on the Enter key, froze.

He was horrified to discover that the firewalls he had just destroyed were not defense codes at all, but logic bombs deliberately scattered by Xie Wang!

Xie Wang exploited a vulnerability in the underlying BGP protocol.

"Since you enjoy attacking so much, then I'll return all your attacks to you."

"Warning! Reverse data flood detected!"

"Warning! Local root privileges are being tampered with!"

The alarm on Shadow's computer was screaming wildly, and the screen was flashing red lights. He desperately tried to disconnect.

But it was too late.

Completely destroying everything in its path.

Unstoppable momentum.

On the big screen, the red matrix collapsed in less than ten seconds.

"Bang."

The computer screen in front of Shadow went completely black.

The image on the large screen freezes.

The referee's decision echoed throughout the auditorium.

"The victor is Xie Wang."

"boom--!!!"

Three seconds later, the ceiling of the auditorium was almost blown off!

In the audience, countless Chinese students jumped up excitedly, waving their arms wildly, their eyes red with emotion.

The humiliation of being suppressed by Shadow these past few days was completely shattered at this moment, and I finally got my head held high!

Far away in Jiangcheng.

"yeah--!!!"

Shen Hao jumped three feet high, knocking over the desk in front of him. Old Li was so excited that he slammed his hand on the podium, sending his thermos flying.

"Good lad! You didn't let Jiangcheng No. 1 High School down! Well done!!!"

On the competition stage.

Shadow's hands fell limply to his sides, his face filled with disbelief:

"Impossible... This is impossible... How could you possibly have the energy to build a reverse honeypot under an attack of that intensity... Are you human or a monster...?"

His faith was utterly shattered at that moment.

……

however.

At this moment of revelry.

In a private room on the second floor of the auditorium.

Gu Nan looked down at Xie Wang, who was the center of attention in the arena.

When the reverse backflow attack method was displayed on the big screen.

"Click."

Gu Nan squeezed the delicate bone china coffee cup in his hand and cracked it.

The scalding coffee spilled out, burning his slender fingers red, but he seemed oblivious to the pain.

"Same architecture, same logic bomb..."

He stared intently at Xie Wang's retreating figure, a morbid excitement flickering in his eyes.

"It really is you, Xie Wang."