Chapter 37: Ceding Territory and Paying Indemnities, the Opponent Begs for Mercy
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Staring at the website that had been blacked out on the screen, Chen Fan was amused to the point of anger for a moment.
To be honest, he had anticipated all sorts of moves from his opponent.
What he had not expected was that, driven to desperation, the other side would choose the most contemptible method of all:
Hiring someone to hack his website.
Chen Fan had seen far too many such filthy business tactics in his previous life. He had long since grown accustomed to them.
He was not particularly angry, only somewhat wistful.
As expected, commercial competition in the year 2000 was no different from that a decade or two later.
It was all life and death, with every possible means brought to bear.
In a fit of rage, his opponent had directly brought in a hacker.
Chen Fan, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief.
Since they had been shameless first, he could hardly be blamed for what came next.
After all, if the contest was about throwing money into advertising, Chen Fan was no match for them.
But if it was a contest of computer skills, Chen Fan believed that, in this era, he was no weaker than those hackers by much.
He first got up and discussed the matter with Zhou Honghai.
When Zhou Honghai heard that Chen Fan needed a quiet environment and a dedicated computer, he decisively gave up the office beside them.
Chen Fan had no time for formalities. He hurried into the office alone and opened a web browser.
Zhou Honghai glanced inside from the doorway. Seeing Chen Fan’s fingers flying across the keyboard, he was intensely curious, but did not step closer to watch.
Since Chen Fan had specifically come to the office, whatever he was doing was clearly somewhat private, and he did not want anyone looking over his shoulder.
Zhou Honghai had enough social awareness to understand that.
He closed the door and left. Chen Fan, meanwhile, quickly went online and opened several forums.
There was no time to create his own specialized tools, so Chen Fan simply logged on to several hacker forums and downloaded a few small utilities.
He then began tracing the connection to his opponent’s Easy Domain Network.
A dozen minutes later, the official Easy Domain Network website was hacked and became inaccessible.
Chen Fan also took the opportunity to reach the administrator’s backend and view some of its data.
As it turned out, after days of influence from paid online agitators, Easy Domain Network’s traffic had plummeted. Its number of daily users had not increased at all; instead, it had been steadily declining.
Even some of its longtime followers had been frightened away by the forum’s foul atmosphere, leaving the site altogether and fleeing to Domain Name Network.
Seeing the figures, Chen Fan could not help laughing inwardly.
No wonder his opponent had panicked.
They were nearly unable to hold on.
At that moment, the warning system on the computer began to sound.
The hacker hired by his opponent had come knocking.
The corner of Chen Fan’s mouth lifted.
“Perfect timing. Let’s see what you’re capable of.”
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The two sides traded attacks and defenses. At first, the other party attacked while Chen Fan defended. Yet after ten whole minutes, the hacker still had not managed to breach Domain Name Network’s firewall.
Then it was Chen Fan’s turn to attack while the other side defended.
Chen Fan needed only three minutes to break through the opponent’s defenses with ease and seize administrator privileges over the forum.
He had even come within a hair’s breadth of tracing the connection back to the hacker’s identity.
But at the final moment, Chen Fan stopped and withdrew of his own accord.
The hacker on the other end had probably broken into a cold sweat by then.
Chen Fan had originally intended to teach him a small lesson and let the matter end there.
Unexpectedly, the hacker came looking for him again and even left behind a specially encrypted QQ number.
After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Fan chose to add him using a new QQ account he had registered earlier.
The other party’s QQ nickname was Northern Frontier Swordsman, and it was also a five-digit QQ number.
Chen Fan’s QQ account was named Drunk on a Pillow of Clear Breeze, and it still used the most basic avatar provided by QQ.
The moment they became friends, the other party sent him a message.
“Master?”
Chen Fan frowned and sent back a question mark.
Drunk on a Pillow of Clear Breeze: “?”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “Thank you, Master, for sparing me.”
Chen Fan understood that he was referring to the fact that Chen Fan had been able to uncover his identity earlier but had stopped in time.
The man had also mistaken him for a true hacker master hidden somewhere on the Internet.
After thinking it over, Chen Fan decided that this might be an opportunity.
Perhaps he could extract some information from the other party.
Drunk on a Pillow of Clear Breeze: “Are you the founder of Easy Domain Network?”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “No, no. The owner of Easy Domain Network paid me to do this.”
“He gave me ten thousand yuan to hack Domain Name Network.”
Chen Fan was speechless.
The man had spilled everything already? Chen Fan had barely even started asking.
Apparently, their brief exchange had left quite an impression on him.
Drunk on a Pillow of Clear Breeze: “Master, may I ask whether you are the founder of Domain Name Network?”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “No comment!”
Drunk on a Pillow of Clear Breeze: “Understood, understood. I was being nosy.”
Chen Fan suddenly grew curious. “You failed to complete the job. How are you going to explain that to him?”
Northern Frontier Swordsman merely chuckled.
“Before I started, I made it clear to him that my assignment was to hack Domain Name Network. It did not include helping him protect Easy Domain Network…”
Chen Fan was caught between laughter and tears.
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “Master, I truly admire your skill. Would you take me on as your apprentice?”
Chen Fan replied decisively, “Sorry, I’m not interested.”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “Then… if we get the chance in the future, could we continue exchanging ideas?”
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This time, Chen Fan did not reply immediately. Instead, he stared at the other party’s avatar for several seconds, lost in thought.
Only then did he type his answer.
“All right. But I can’t guarantee that I’ll reply every time.”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “Understood, understood. Masters are always mysterious.”
Well, Chen Fan had not needed to say a word. The other side had already helped establish his mysterious persona for him.
Just as Chen Fan was preparing to close the chat window, Northern Frontier Swordsman suddenly sent another message.
“Master, do you know the founder of Domain Name Network?”
Chen Fan sent back another question mark.
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “It’s like this. The founder of Easy Domain Network contacted me just now and said he wants to make peace.”
“He admitted defeat and wants to reconcile. He’s asking the hacker to spare him.”
Chen Fan laughed.
“He was the one who launched the attack, and now he’s the one asking for peace. Does he really think things are that simple?”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “Actually, I think he was simply driven to desperation.”
“Master, if you can get in touch with the founder of Domain Name Network, please tell him that the other side is willing to make peace.”
“And as long as he promises never to use hackers for attacks again, the other side is willing to offer compensation for what happened.”
Chen Fan immediately became interested.
“What kind of compensation?”
Northern Frontier Swordsman: “A cash transfer of ten thousand yuan.”
“As long as both sides promise not to use hackers against each other again and instead compete fairly, he is willing to transfer the money immediately.”
Ten thousand yuan.
For Chen Fan at that moment, it was indeed a considerable fortune.
Still, Chen Fan was not entirely satisfied.
To avoid exposing his identity, he typed back:
“I’m only responsible for passing along the message. Whether it succeeds or not is none of my concern.”
“Wait.”
With that, the avatar went dark.
Chen Fan deliberately delayed for more than ten minutes before sending a message to Northern Frontier Lone Wolf.
“The other side agrees. But the compensation is insufficient.”
“At least fifty thousand yuan, as compensation for maintaining the website this time.”
“And both sides must promise to compete fairly in the future and stop using hackers to attack each other.”
Northern Frontier Lone Wolf: “…”
“I’ll go ask.”
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