On Monday, the second round of the 'Red Hacker Challenge' officially started. Similar to the previous round, there was also no time limit for this one. Participants could compete for 24 hours a day at any time, with an upper limit of 3 games per day. The only difference was that the challenge has changed from an individual level clearance to a team battle match.
Because Su Bei and Xu Yangyang both have classes during the day, they set their game time at night. After dinner, Su Bei ran back to her room, turned on the computer, logged into the backstage of the 'Red Hacker Challenge,' and opened the small chat group with her, Xu Yangyang, and brother [4v].
This group was originally called [Q, Handsome Yang, 4v's Group Chat], but later was changed by Xu Yangyang to [Great God Alliance], and finally changed again by brother 4v to [Point Reaper Alliance]. Their avatar was 'two angels fighting together with an extra pigeon.'
In the group, for the first time brother [4v] did not use his magical opening speech.
[4v]: Let me just say that our basic tactics remain unchanged.
[4v]: After the game starts, there will be 10 minutes of preparation time. During this time, I will build the frame for our security wall. You two can just watch on the sides. You may fix some basic data, but don't touch other things.
[4v]: After the battle officially starts, I will continue to improve our security wall, baby [Q], you directly attack the opponent's security wall, ok?
[Q]: Ok.
[Handsome Yang]: Wait, master v, then what should I do? You haven't arranged my role yet.
[4v]: If you don't tell, I forgot.
[4v]: You can adapt to the circumstances and do whatever you like.
[Handsome Yang]:???
[4v]: Watch on the side, and if there is anything you can do to help, you go. Meanwhile, you can also stare at the opponents so that they don't sneak in, understand?
[Handsome Yang]: Hehe, understand. Please rest assured, I will definitely be a good cheer.
[4v]: Time is limited, stop talking nonsense. If you are ready, let's start directly.
[Q]: Alright.
Su Bei clicked the [Prepare] button on the interface.
While waiting for the match, Su Bei's cell phone rang. It was a voice call. [vvvv] used his number to make a private call. Because it was a team battle, in order to facilitate communication, if the members of the same team were separated by physical distance, they could connect via voice call. Therefore, Su Bei was not surprised to receive a call from [vvvv] now.
Su Bei put on the headset, connected the call, and asked: "v?"
A young man's voice soon came from the headset: "It's me. How is your impression of hearing my voice for the first time? Surprised? Shocked? Overjoyed?"
Su Bei: "..."
No surprise, no overjoy—just a little impulse to punch somebody.
4v's voice was relatively mild, but also clear and a bit soft. If she should describe, it was probably similar to the voice of a 'kind big brother' in many people's minds.
Su Bei couldn't imagine if the other party used this voice to shout, "Darling, I need you!" or "Daddy, help me!" like their previous chat log. Merely having the thought was creepy enough to make her hair stand on end.
Before the goosebumps on her hands receded, Su Bei heard [4v] said: "Speaking of which, baby [Q], your voice is so cute, ah."
Su Bei's voice would make people felt soft and comfortable. It was fresh and a bit sweet.
4v: "Come on, how about you sing me a song to listen before the battle starts? Let me put on a request, just sing 'Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf.'"
Su Bei: "My dad is nearby."
4v: "F*ck!"
Through the headset, Su Bei seemed to hear someone choked on water, followed by a glass's sound hitting the floor.
4v: "Well, it was just a warm-up conversation. Don't mind, don't mind. Let's get down to business, you can just attack the opponents for a while, there is me in the base camp, you don't need to worry. We keep the call open, and if you have any problem, please said it at any time."
"Ok.", Su Bei replied. After a bit of confusion, she asked: "Then we should open a group voice chat and invite the Handsome Yang."
4v: "No need. Just let him be a passerby. Save us time from his trouble."
[4v] 's rejection was straightforward, but seemingly also made sense.
—
The matchmaking process finally gave them an opponent: Su Bei's team would fight against a team with 5 members. At the beginning of the game, during the 10 minutes preparation time, [4v] quickly established a rough frame for the security wall, then began to finish it. Ten minutes was too short to build a complete security wall. Therefore, many teams focused on the attack. In the 10 minutes, they would work together to create a simple defense wall and then commit a full attack once the battle began.
Such as the first team they met.
Once the battle started, all five people directly came to attack [4v] 's security wall. Their idea was very simple, as long as they managed to break through their opponent's security wall before Su Bei's team could do the same, they win. Therefore, the opposing team directly left an empty city for Su Bei. It was really an easy attack, and there was no 'plan' whatsoever. The security wall they built in just 10 minutes was too rough. When Su Bei attacked, she found no less than 10 bugs. The next second, the system prompted [Invasion Successful]. The whole process did not even exceed 30 seconds.
The moment they received the system prompt [End of Battle], not only the opposing team, but [4v] was also dumbfounded.
[4v]: The security wall he worked so hard to build has to leave the field before it came into use? He hasn't enjoyed the pleasure of abusing others, and it already a game over?
Although they won, why did he feel no joy?
In the group chat, Xu Yangyang has begun to lit the fireworks.
[Handsome Yang]: Wow, so cool! Win in mere seconds!
[4v]: My defense wall was built for vain.
[Q]: I didn't expect their tactics to be so miraculous. They didn't even leave a single guard.
[4v]: Come on, let's do the next round. I hope we won't meet another idiot this time.
—
Soon, they were matched with another team.
This time, the opponents were not as 'miraculous' as the previous one, but brother [4v] 's security wall still didn't have its debut.
It was another five-members team, but their strategy was obviously defensive after the game started. The opponent team left four people in their base as guards to improve their security wall. Only one person was arranged to carefully infiltrate Su Bei team's security wall.
However, before [4v] had time to show his might, the opponent team's weak attacker was hit by Xu Yangyang. On Su Bei's side, it took some effort to invade the other party's security system. But it was she who once again ended the game quickly.
—
The third game.
This time, [vvvv] who had held back for two battles did not wait for Xu Yangyang to move and directly settled the two attackers from the opposing team before running to destroy their camp with a storm-like momentum, even 2 seconds faster than Su Bei.
In three games, Su Bei's team won thrice in a row.
Meanwhile, in Xu family's villa.
[vvvv] calmly pushed his keyboard, massaged his neck, and threw a disdainful gaze towards the statistics displayed on his monitor while mumbling: "Today we really have a dog shit luck. Three chicken teams in a row."
'The Red Hacker Challenge' was not that easy, let alone the second round. They simply magically met inexperienced, weak teams three times in a row.
Meanwhile, in the next room, Xu Yangyang, who won three battles without effort thanks to the great gods, jumped on the bed with great excitement. After blowing more than 20 rainbow farts to god [Q] and master [v], he went on WeChat again to show off in front of Xie Minxuan, Du Yiming, and the others.
In the WeChat group:
[Xu Yangyang]: Ended the battles early today, come, let's have a game!
[Liu Kai]: Damn! The missing person appeared.
[Du Yiming]: Old Xu, how long have you been absent? Do you still remember how to play? Don't make us lose points.
[Xie Minxuan]: Let's do one round.
[Su Xiaobao]: You all play, I'm quitting.
Su Bei asked him to accompany her on night jogging.
By the way, Xu Yangyang didn't seem to know that the great god [Q] he kept talking about was Su Bei, right? That day, Su Xiaobao entered Su Bei's room when she was chatting with Xu Yangyang about the hacker contest, and realized that Su Bei was [Q].
This, it seemed that this guy still didn't know? Su Xiaobao smiled suddenly. He originally wanted to tell Xu Yangyang, but after second thought, he decided to not.
—
The next day when they arrived at school, Su Bei felt the classroom's atmosphere to be different: usually, it was pretty lively during the time before morning self-study period, but today the whole class seemed to be engulfed in a depressing mood.
The same was true for her deskmate Dong Wenqi, who was slumping on her table like an eggplant beaten by frost.
"What's the matter?" Su Bei sat down and asked in a low voice.
Dong Wenqi slowly turned her head at the speed of a 'zombie,' and said to Su Bei: "Let me tell you unfortunate news, this month's monthly exam will be held as scheduled."
Except for those who were natural academic winners, Weiming Middle School's monthly exam was definitely the nightmare of its students. This month's scheduled monthly exam was sandwiched between two events of school founding anniversary celebration and sports festival, with a pretty close interval between them. So the students initially speculated that the school would either postponed the exam or even cancel it directly. Who knew, just now the headteacher came to announced: this month's monthly exam would be held as usual, with the same schedule.
Su Bei: "Just because of this?"
Dong Wenqi: "What do you mean, 'just this'! Let me tell you, you never experienced it, so you don't know how terrible our school's monthly exam is."
Although it was a private school, the level of Weiming Middle School's exam definitely wasn't lower than public middle schools. But this wasn't the point. Most importantly, after each monthly exam, the school would post all the students' scores into several two-meter-high large display boards, and put them in the most conspicuous position at the school entrance, just like the honor roll of the college entrance examination.
The difference was that the background color of the first 100 top scores board was red, with peony, red ribbons, and doves decorating it. The next 500 top scores only had background color without decoration. Last, the names of those who scored lower would only be written with black inks on a simple white background, making people feel cold. Unfortunately, Dong Wenqi was the frequent scorers on the 'black ink on white background.'
"Su Bei, you never experienced it, so you don't know that kind of horror." Dong Wenqi didn't know that Su Bei had actually taken the last monthly exam as her school entrance test, so she thought that Su Bei had good luck last time. Because the school held the exam in advance due to some competition, when the twins were transferred here, the exam had just passed and they avoided it perfectly.
"Especially people on black and white lists like us, it's horrible." Dong Wenqi patted Su Bei on the back, with an expression of 'we are the comrades at the bottom of the abyss.'