No extreme physical punishments, no unnecessary interrogations.

Ethernet is all about being straightforward, presenting the most direct "punishment" results right in front of the people.

And this is enough to shock all those who disrespect Ethernet.

For hackers led by the Heaven-Stealing Squad, their most crucial asset is their brilliant minds.

All hackers take pride in their high IQs.

But now, Ethernet has taken away a good portion of their brains.

In the future, those part of the Heaven-Stealing Squad won't be able to meddle with any Hacker Chips, and might even struggle with basic arithmetic.

This is nothing short of an ultimate insult to hackers.

This is the prowess of Ethernet.

"Ugh, I'm overthinking."

Yun You shook her head.

She neither possessed godly hacker abilities nor had the rebellious streak of a hacker. Even if she wanted to provoke Ethernet, she probably wasn't qualified.

Besides, she didn't want to clash head-on with this giant. Pondering over it was indeed overthinking...and too early.

If there were to be a rebellion, now wasn't the time...

Thinking this, the girl pushed all sorts of miscellaneous thoughts to the back of her mind and began checking the surveillance devices she set up earlier.

The pinhole alarm sensor had not been triggered.

The tripwire trap still hung on the doors and windows.

Several metal locks bore no signs of tampering.

"Looks like no one has been here..."

Yun You let out a sigh of relief and proceeded to open the door, intending to leave.

But just as she opened the door, a fleeting glimpse of the screen on the doorknob caught her eye...

And that froze her on the spot.

Her home's main door used an electronic lock, which could be opened with a key or by inputting a code.

But usually, she didn't use the code to open the door, so the electronic lock had accumulated a thick layer of dust.

At least, it should have been that way.

But now...the dust on the lock showed traces of having been wiped.

And these marks did not exist four hours ago.

"Someone has been here!"

Yun You's pupils contracted as she quickly realized the issue.

This apartment belonged to an abandoned public area, and occasionally, drunk drifters would come up here causing a ruckus.

But they definitely wouldn't deliberately touch the electronic lock; even if they did, they wouldn't leave just such a slight trace.

Yun You had never systematically studied counter-surveillance courses, but having struggled to survive in Nest City for a whole year, she had a perception and vigilance stronger than most people.

"Perhaps 'he' hasn't left yet."

"Mustn't alert the enemy."

Thinking this, Yun You, after a brief deliberation, opened her door and pretended as if she just woke up from an afternoon nap, stretching lazily towards the afternoon sun.

"Uwah—"

She yawned and, while enjoying the sunlight, subtly turned her body to block the view of the balcony, then stealthily took down all the pinhole cameras on the balcony to examine them.

Upon closer inspection, she indeed spotted a problem.

The cameras appeared to be functioning normally on the surface, but in reality, their internal software had been hacked more than half an hour ago.

Which meant, for the past half hour, the pinhole cameras failed to record anything, let alone sound an alarm.

"This is the work of a hacker."

Yun You squinted her eyes, rubbing the camera in her hands continually.

If the dust wiped off the password lock screen could be deemed a misunderstanding, the fact that the camera was hacked was something no "accident" could explain.

In Nest City, where the Castle Law was prevalent, attempting to unlock a door or hack surveillance without the owner's consent was tantamount to declaring war.

The person who came was up to no good.

But Yun You couldn't fathom who would come to this wretched, destitute place looking for her with such inexplicable animosity at this time.

The Apprentice Death God? Impossible... they have erratic ways. If they intended to come in, they would have kicked the door down long ago. Why would they cautiously hack the surveillance and test the password?

That's not something they would do.

Could it be someone from the Insect Gang?

Also unlikely.

Not to mention if they were scared by Yun You hammering them earlier... It's worth noting, before leaving, the young girl left all the bar's and gang's funds with Kasidelle, not a penny left for those Insect Gang members.

Hiring a hacker is expensive. The Insect Gang members likely couldn't gather this sum in a short amount of time.

Would it be a thief or a down-and-out hacker? It doesn't seem plausible.

No matter how destitute a hacker might be, they wouldn't come to this slum to steal.

But if all these suspects are ruled out, then who could be the one hacking her cameras?

Yun You pondered, pretending nonchalance, she fetched some wet clothes from the washing machine and hung them in the corridor, secretly observing the corridor rooms while doing so.

On the top floor where the young girl lived, besides her own room, there were 3 other rooms.

Of these, the room adjacent to Yun You used to be occupied by a middle-aged man who wrote web novels.

Initially, he stayed home every day, earning just a few hundred yuan a month to barely sustain his life. But later, he was scorned by someone in a blind date, saying he wrote novels worse than delivering food... so he stopped updating and started delivering food, often disappearing for weeks.

The other two rooms closer to the corridor were the restrooms for the downstairs bar, dedicated to letting drunkards sleep off their hangovers.

Due to both the floor being too high and the absence of an elevator, these two rooms rarely had visitors.

After pondering for a moment, Yun You continued hanging the clothes, making her way to the room of that writer.

On the carpet at his room's entrance, the young girl indeed spotted a few faint footprints, from their size and shape, the owner should be an adult male.

"..."

Yun You remained silent.

Thinking briefly, she returned home, retrieved a pack of frozen dumplings she previously bought from a vending machine, and softly knocked on the writer's door.

"Uncle? Are you home?"

In a tender and sticky tone, Yun You said: "I saw you drinking heavily at the bar downstairs yesterday, not sure if you made it back home..."

"You never charged interest on the money you lent me before, I felt quite guilty... so I bought some dumplings."

"If you're home, please open the door. I've brought some dumplings for you to eat!"

"Uncle... Uncle?"

Yun You called out, not forgetting to curiously look towards the window, donning a face full of innocent charm.

Being so petite, she resembled a middle school student, and her voice was both soft and sweet, exuding politeness with no apparent faults.

Even to those familiar with her, she often seemed like a child.

This was Yun You's most natural disguise, and the "weapon" most capable of disarming others' guards, almost always effective when dealing with strangers.

She aimed to use this trick to get that door open.

And she succeeded.

When she called out "Uncle" for the third time, the door in front of her clicked open...

Then, a scruffy man with a tousled head peeked out from the room, sleepily gazing at the young girl.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.