Chapter 123
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
Chapter 123: The Sunflower Project
Through the Cyber Eye’s perception, the network here resembled a vast data skyscraper. The green corridors represented connection routes, while red ones indicated obstacles or traps. The obstacles were like piles of junk that could be easily bypassed, whereas the traps were mostly anti-hacker programs, appearing as red blocks scattered across the paths. As long as you didn’t touch them, there wouldn’t be any major issues.
MI6’s network architecture, like most critical organizations’ networks, was divided into inner and outer layers. The inner layer was physically isolated, theoretically impenetrable even by the Cyber Eye. But as fate would have it, such data centers often had multiple cameras installed to monitor internal conditions, and these cameras were connected to the external network for maintenance personnel to check. This was a necessary security measure, but it became the vulnerability through which Chaoyang could breach the physical isolation.
He only needed to enter a surveillance camera recording the data center through the external network, and then he would directly penetrate the closed network as if he was observing through “visual” intrusion.
Physical isolation was a theoretically an unassailable defense, so the storage devices in these data centers contained the most confidential documents. In fact, ecause of the extreme security, many documents were stored in plain text format, including the list of all personnel working for MI6.
Chaoyang searched using “Tyler” as a keyword, but found no record of Jason Tyler himself.
Could it be an alias? He rubbed his temples in frustration.
Of course, there was always the brute force method like comparing photos. Most employee’s profile included pictures; surely Tyler couldn’t have altered his entire face. The problem was that there were nearly four thousand records stored on the classified server. If he were to compare them one by one with his eyes, it would probably take three or four days..
With no alternative, Chaoyang called Luo Di again. “I’ve got good news and bad. Which one do you want first?”
“Hello… Are you okay?” came a brief, startled reply from the other end.
“Never better.”
“Geez, What’s with that greeting? Don’t start off by scaring me” Luo Di snapped. “Start with the bad.”
“The bad news is your overseas trip’s off. Tyler’s looking more suspicious by the minute. I just need that final piece of evidence to confirm his identity.”
“So it really was him!” Luo Di accepted the conclusion instantly. “I knew something was off… A successful businessman like him shouldn’t be acquainted with a drug lord like Wayne James.”
“You sound… rather pleased?”
“Another company owner is on the verge of being disgraced. Of course I’m happy. what’s the good news?”
“The good news is the mission rewards will come in sooner.”
“Tsk… Is that all you wanted to say?” Luo Di clicked her tongue.
“No, what I mainly wanted to ask if your team has any programming experts.” Chaoyang briefly explained his problem. “I need a program to automatically compare photos.”
“We do have a hacker who fits the bill, though I don’t know if she can meet your requirements.” The voice on the other side seemed to be moving. “How about this… You can ask her directly. Frey!”
A moment later, another woman answered the phone. “Hello, jefe(1)! I’m Frey. The big boss has already instructed me, you can ask me anything!”
Her voice brimmed with energy, carrying a Latin American accent that made it seem like she might break into a rap at any moment.
“…Can you write a photo comparison program?”
“Does the boss have a time limit, jefe?”
“As fast as possible, preferably today.”
“This…” Frey hesitated, a hint of difficulty in her voice. “I don’t have any ready-made solutions. Writing it is easy enough, but if you want it to be highly efficient, the AI would need time to learn. Without proper training, it might not even match human comparison. If you don’t mind, I could purchase a pre- trained program from the hacker market, or perhaps hack one from a Big Data Center… Of course, both methods carry some risk of data leakage.”
Big Data Center…?
Chaoyang’s heart stirred slightly. He suddenly thought of another candidate.
That person was Choi Jeon-eun.
He had observed every step of her investigation with Zhang Zhiyuan. Unlike Frey’s unorthodox methods, Choi Jeon-eun had legitimate access to police resources through internal channels.
But the problem lay in his identity…
He couldn’t exactly approach and ask her directly as the Paradise Host, could he?
“Then do you have any voice-changing software?”
“I do,” Frey replied promptly. “Not just voice modification – it can simulate someone’s entire persona, provided you have their audio recordings.”
“All right, then have Luo Di send me a copy.”
This was the awkward truth of relying on innate abilities, Chaoyang mused. His control over networks far surpassed any hacker, yet he couldn’t write even the simplest program.
The angel soon sent over the program, with a small line added at the bottom: “Do not use it for evil purposes.”
I’m not Feng Ge, I don’t have that much evil to do.
Chaoyang opened the software without hesitation. After fiddling with it for a while, he dialed Choi Jeon-eun’s number – having already confirmed that Zhang Zhiyuan wasn’t with her.
“Hello, are you busy? I need you to help me with something,” Chaoyang said in Officer Zhang’s voice.
“What’s up? It isn’t that you’re fixing your neighbor’s computer again, are you?”
The reality proved that Choi Jeon-eun hadn’t the slightest suspicion.
“Of course not. I want to compare some photos, you know, that kind of program that automatically matches real people with pictures. You should have one, right?”
“Of course! But we’re not with the International Criminal Police Department anymore. Why are you still doing verification work here?”
“I’m in a hurry. Can you just send it over first?”
“Fine. You owe me one again.”
Choi Jeon-eun quickly sent a message to Zhang Zhiyuan’s Weliao(2) account, and Chaoyang, who had been prepared, immediately intercepted it.
“This is a software interface. Just click it and upload the data directly.”
“It won’t leak any information, will it?”
“What are you thinking? This is police equipment.”
Indeed, she had a point. After using it, he’d delete all records… Yet, just to be safe, Chaoyang asked, “What if the person in the photo has had plastic surgery?”
“It can still identify them. This system’s been trained on trillions of data points. It analyzes based on facial bone structures. Unless their entire face is covered, even wearing a mask or hat won’t prevent recognition.”
With that reassurance, Chaoyang immediately sprang into action. First, he exported MI6 personnel data, then filtered out the photos. He uploaded these alongside multiple-angle shots of Tyler into the comparison program.
Thirty minutes later, the results appeared.
Surprisingly, Tyler himself still did not appear among them. However, Chaoyang did spot two other names: Diad Flynne and George Flynne. Their facial similarity scores stood at 78% and 86% respectively! Particularly with George Flynne, Chaoyang stared at his photo for quite some time, noticing he indeed bore a striking resemblance to Tyler.
The problem lay in their ages. Diad was born in 1921, George in 1950, while Tyler appeared to be no more than forty. There was a vast age gap between the three.
However, Chaoyang discovered something new.
While reviewing Diad and George’s files, he noticed both had participated in a top-secret project called the Sunflower Project.
Following this keyword, Chaoyang also located detailed documents about the Sunflower Project on MI6’s inner network. After a quick skim, he couldn’t help but marvel at Britain’s intelligence agency.
It turned out that this was an enormous project involving nearly three thousand people, established after World War II, and its very purpose was to ensure secrecy in the internet age!
(1) Jefe: Spanish for “boss,” reflecting Fréy’s Latino background
(2) Weiliao (微聊): Fictional instant messaging platform analogous to WeChat
