Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
When he heard this “Governor” title, Huang Youliang instantly tensed up as his thoughts scattered. In a flash, his clothes were drenched in cold sweat, and he was so scared that he curled up on the ground and trembled all over. His face turned ashen at this intense sense of uneasiness, as if half his soul had fled his body.
“So? Are you familiar with this title of ‘Governor’ or not?” The Old Devil smiled coldly.
Actually, before Huang Youliang had been sent to the special prison cell, Songhai First Prison and Odd Zhuo had already started to weave a huge net. School would start up after the summer break, and Odd Zhuo had received a direct order from Secretary Sun Dakang to carry out a large-scale clean-up of the Internet during this time, in which they would punish criminals who spread unlawful information online.
So even if Bai Qiao and Jingke hadn’t discovered Huang Youliang and caught him, the General Administration of 100 Schools would have acted anyway.
None of them had discussed this operation prior to its launch, but their plans this time unexpectedly aligned.
Thus, after Huang Youliang’s arrest, Odd Zhuo promptly contacted Bai Qiao and Jingke to have them become part of the operation.
This operation to clean up the Internet wasn’t a simple one.
In the information age, cyber wars were the most complicated kind, since these “maggots” hiding behind the screen kept changing their IP addresses to make their locations hard to track down.
But as the leader directly in command of the operation, Odd Zhuo’s target this time was the leader behind the scenes who had an online water army of fifty million — the Governor of the Dark Network.
Based on what they currently knew from their investigation, this person’s cultivation wasn’t high, but he had gained a high ranking in the Dark Network due to this online water army; his codename was Governor.
“Do you know why you were arrested and sent here?” The Old Devil laughed, his gaze fixed on Huang Youliang. “I have no interest in the small fry outside, but you’ve made direct contact before with that Governor ranked seventh in the Dark Network, haven’t you, Mr Huang? I know you are a branch leader.”
Huang Youliang had a dismayed expression on his face; he hadn’t expected the Old Devil to find out even this about him.
The Old Devil raised his hand, and magic hit Huang Yuliang in between his eyebrows. Instantly, he actually heard the sound of a ticking clock in his brain.
“Tell us, how do you contact the Governor?” The Old Devil interrogated him. “The clock in your brain is a curse spell which will detonate once time is up. If you don’t talk before then, you won’t die, but your mind will be blown apart, and you can only live in a mental asylum and receive electrotherapy for the rest of your life…”
“I don’t know, I don’t know anything! Wuwuwu !” Huang Youliang wailed; he hadn’t cried even when his old mom died, and he never thought that a big man like him would be scared to tears.
“Crying counts as part of the time you have left.” The Old Devil smiled coldly.
Master of Immortal Mansion Cheng Yu smoothed things over. “Brother, if you have time to cry, you might as well come clean and tell us everything you know. Even if it’s just a little, we won’t blame you. Otherwise, we can only blow up your mind and deliver what’s left to the Military Law Bureau and forcibly extract your memories.”
“What you should know is that the Governor is the main target we want to capture. He’s very important for reducing our final sentences, and for yours as well.”
The Old Devil said expressionlessly, “You have thirty seconds left.”
Huang Youliang’s mind was blank; he had completely no idea what to say.
At that moment, the clock in his brain suddenly rang, which frightened him into instantly confessing. “I, I, I know! But even I very rarely have the chance to come in contact with the Governor. My status as group leader was something I bought… Also, every group is inspected on their performance! The Governor will only meet the leaders whose groups perform very well! Only they can meet the Governor!”
The Old Devil sneered again and pulled the clock hand in Huang Youliang’s brain back. “Hm, I’ll give you two more minutes. Tell us more about buying the group leader position. How much did you pay for it?”
“Five million… plus a villa in the countryside.” Huang Youliang trembled as he spoke.
“Then how much can you earn as a group leader?”
“There are up to five thousand people in a large group. As long as I run it well enough and attract a high volume of traffic, I can recover the costs in a year. The Governor pays us based on the number of hits we get. If you want to meet the Governor, you have to run the group well and produce good results, otherwise there’s no way you can meet him.”
“I can’t wait a year to produce good results!”
The Old Devil’s eyes darkened. “Forget it, hurry up and tell us what else you know!”
“The former administrator died from overwork, which allowed me to step into this opening and buy this position,” Huang Youliang said, both his hands raised in surrender.
“So you’re saying that you haven’t been a group leader for long?”
“Yes, it hasn’t even been two days…”
“The former leader died from overwork? Then how were you connected to the group before this?”
“I was an administrator in the group. When the group leader died, I bought his account and planned to use two identities in the group.”
“You, an administrator, dare to pretend to be the group leader?” The Old Devil was amused.
“No one has seen his appearance, and his account is now mine… We earn our bread and butter through the Internet; making money is our only concern. The number of people in his group has currently already reached five thousand, and each one of them is an elite. You can’t get this type of growth in just one or two years… To become a group leader, you have to take an assessment. If I didn’t buy this group leader status, I wouldn’t be able to pass the assessment at all.”
“What kind of assessment is it?”
Knowing that Huang Youliang was prepared to come clean, the Old Devil nodded and stopped the clock in his brain.
“An exam wouldn’t be a big deal, but the main thing is that we have to crossdress… But I’m too ugly!”
“Hm, indeed, you never had a chance.”
The Old Devil asked, “Let me ask you, before you were arrested, did you ever think about the hazards of creating a ruckus online?”
“No… we act as water army and trolls on online news websites. The only thing we risk are our words and we don’t spill blood. God knows why we’ve been targeted…”
“Good, well said. I have a rough idea of the situation. So what you’re saying is that the group members rounded up outside don’t actually know your identity as the group leader?”
“They definitely haven’t seen me before.”
“What are the conditions for setting up a group?”
“As long as you pass the group leader assessment, you can set up a group based on the area you’re in. To control the chat group, the group leader has to do it at a designated Internet cafe in that area.”
“Then for this group you bought, where is the Internet cafe which you have to go online at?”
“Crow County in Bao Bay. I bought the Bao Bay group leader position, and there’s only one Internet cafe there…”
“Very well.” The Old Devil nodded, then turned to look at Cheng Yu and Evil Sword God. “Old Cheng, Old Evil, how about we make a trip to Bao Bay’s Internet cafe?”
“Become group leader?”
“That’s right! Become group leader!”
