novelODS Chapter 301 Taking 3 Steps Towards a New World
Chapter 301 Taking 3 Steps Towards a New World
While Jiang Feng was locked in a fierce battle in the e-sports hotel, working on a top-secret aerospace project and making a final push for the 30 billion yuan target, thousands of miles away in Shenzhen, the lights of the Delta project team stayed on all night.
Yifeng sat in his familiar office chair, the clock on the wall just past midnight.
Ziying's things were still left in the office—a half-dead money tree on the corner of the desk, several unopened packets of instant coffee in the drawer, and a feng shui talisman pasted on the monitor frame.
Yi Feng glanced at the talisman, reached out and peeled it off, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.
Yifeng did not hold a celebration party, accept media interviews, or hold a meeting with the project team members after returning.
He is waiting.
Waiting for the confession that came out of the interrogation room.
The phone finally rang.
Ziying and Suming have already spoken. The evidence is conclusive; they have clearly revealed the list of corrupt internal personnel and the information about the external DMA cooperation team.
Yi Feng flipped through the confession page by page, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
The mess left by Su Ming and Zi Ying was far bigger than imagined.
Ziying and Suming had been working on the project for many years, and the extent of the corrosion far exceeded expectations.
Two core developers involved in the anti-fraud efforts were bribed, and backdoors were deliberately left at key junctures of the "Clean Internet" campaign.
An entire operations and review team was working together to sell "whitelists" and unban cheating software that had been banned for ten years in bulk.
The administration and outsourcing management have become like a sieve, with seven cases of illegally granting internal permissions to external personnel.
The art group is relatively clean, but the skills are too poor, so it basically needs to be rebuilt from scratch.
Without hesitation, Yi Feng compiled two lists overnight.
The first document is a blacklist. Each name on it is followed by specific details—time, place, and amount.
Cases with conclusive evidence will be directly transferred to the public security authorities for strict and severe punishment, handled officially. Cases with significant doubts but incomplete evidence will be suspended from duty for self-reflection and cooperation with the investigation.
He spoke with the general counsel on the phone:
"If he is ultimately proven innocent, the project team will apologize to him. But if he is proven innocent..."
Yifeng didn't finish his sentence, but TX's legal team understood immediately.
Nanshan Pizza Hut will show them what it means to "lose everything".
Tell him what "Nanshan Invincible" means.
This is the first blow TX Group has taken against internal corruption.
The higher authorities also supported him, with a clear stance: set an example, punish a group of people, and serve as a warning to others.
Those people's fate was sealed—corruption in their positions, financial losses, imprisonment, and a public announcement to the entire industry: they would never be hired again.
The second document is the whitelist.
The above are former colleagues who, during the "Clean Up the World" campaign, were ostracized, suppressed, and even forced to resign by Ziying and Suming because they refused to go along with the corrupt practices.
Some people were reassigned to peripheral projects and sat on the sidelines for half a year; some were isolated by the entire team; and some didn't even receive N+1 compensation when they resigned voluntarily.
Yifeng personally drafted a re-employment plan: the position would be retained with a promotion, the salary would be increased, and the previously deducted performance bonuses and rewards would be made up in one lump sum.
There are also clean elderly people who have persevered, and everyone receives promotions and rewards to varying degrees.
Some were promoted from P6 to P7, some received special bonuses from the group, and others were directly included in the core R&D team of the "Skynet" anti-cheating system.
While the internal purge is in full swing, a thousand miles away, another battle is unfolding simultaneously.
This is no longer something the project team can handle.
Ziying and Suming provided information about the DMA hardware team, which was located in Foshan, Dongguan, and Zhongshan in Guangdong Province, as well as Xiamen in Fujian Province and Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province.
Under the unified coordination of the Ministry of Public Security's Cyber Security Bureau, the Cyber Security Corps of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, the Cyber Security Protection Detachment of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Fujian Provincial Public Security Department, and other multi-province joint operations, a coordinated operation was launched overnight to apprehend the suspects.
The Delta Project team only sent technical personnel to be responsible for on-site verification of evidence, securing electronic data, and interpreting those complex game logs and encrypted communication records.
The real protagonists are the police officers in uniform.
This will be the largest and most successful special operation in Chinese history targeting the black market for game cheats.
For the police officers involved in the operation, this was not just an opportunity to make the news—it was a chance to receive a third-class merit or a second-class merit right in front of them!
Some of the police officers were even Delta Force players themselves, and their enthusiasm was extremely high. Before the operation began, a veteran officer posted in the group chat: "For Hafk!" The comments section was flooded with "For the GTI!" and "For Asara!"
"The ringleader of the DMA cheat team 'Ghost Workshop,' surnamed Zhao, has been arrested in Wenzhou."
"The DMA cheating team, 'Underground,' was busted in Xiamen. The ringleader, Qian, and three accomplices were apprehended. 127 DMA hardware boards and 23 computers used in the crimes were seized at the scene."
"The ringleader, surnamed Sun, who provided Bitcoin money laundering services to Ziying and Suming, was intercepted at Kunming Changshui Airport as he was about to leave the country."
One report after another flew to the task force like snowflakes.
One of the young detectives, Zhou Zheng, is a veteran Delta Force player with thousands of hours of experience; his ID is "Justice Execution."
Today he truly came to uphold justice! He was in charge of leading the team to arrest the underworld gang.
At the moment of closing in, he kicked open the door of a rented room in Xiamen, looked at the computer inside still running the cheat program, and sneered:
"Open? Keep opening. Every shot you fire is evidence."
The ringleader, surnamed Qian, collapsed to the ground, his face deathly pale: "Officer... I... I'm just a hardware seller..."
"Selling hardware?" Zhou Zheng squatted down, his tone carrying a hint of resentment that only gamers could understand.
"It was you bastards who locked my head up ten times last week in the top-secret aerospace operation, causing me to lose tens of millions. I remember it."
"Now, let's go."
He was impartial and ruthless.
……
Outside the window, it was almost dawn.
In an office at Zhejiang University of Commerce and Industry, Dean Han Qing stayed up all night.
He was very excited.
His proposal received unprecedentedly broad support, both from the public and from the players.
The controversy surrounding the Delta region has brought shame to society, especially since it has been brought abroad, prompting some people to reflect on their actions.
Last night, TX contacted him, offering to send someone to discuss the matter, clearly stating their willingness to fully support the legislation and provide a complete case library and industry data.
He never expected that he would encounter such a major event before retiring.
If it succeeds, his name will be etched into the annals of the history of Chinese video game development!
I glanced at the time; it was exactly five o'clock.
My phone vibrated; a message came that my DMA network connection had been compromised.
The old dean's eyes lit up, and he immediately dialed the phone numbers of several old friends in the legal profession.
The first call connected, and the other person mumbled sleepily, "Hey... Lao Han? So early in the morning..."
"Sleep for whoever you are!" Han Qing's voice boomed. "You old codger, you're not getting any sleep at your age, get up and get to work!"
"...Are you crazy?"
"I'm not crazy, I have an immense fortune to give you!"
"What?"
"Criminalizing cheating! Real criminal legislation! A lifetime's work!"
There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by the sound of blankets being pulled back: "...Are you serious?"
"When have I, Han Qing, ever joked about serious matters?"
"Shall I book my flight now?"
"No need to book plane tickets," Han Qing laughed heartily. "Let's call Lao Zhang, Lao Li, and Lao Wang, and come to Hangzhou together! It's on me, all you can eat with West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce!"
"...That fish didn't taste good."
"The fish isn't important," Han Qing said, standing by the window, looking at the gradually whitening horizon in the east, his eyes burning with the passion of a young man.
"The important thing is that we are going to do something that will go down in history together."
"From now on, cheating in video games will land you in jail."
"Every bullet you lock can be used as evidence in court."
Daylight has broken, but some things are just beginning.