I’m Really a Superstar

Afternoon.

Past 2PM.

It was a time when people easily doze off. After having their fill and working for half a day, the colleagues at the Internet Surveillance Bureau were yawning. Then, they forcefully carried on working. Some made a cup of coffee or tea, while others slacked off and browse the internet to chat to refresh themselves.

"So tired."

"Me too. I slept very late last night."

"Sigh, to work overtime over the new year. I wonder which year I’ll be able to take a break."

"Look at all the other public servants, they are all enjoying themselves."

Some of them grumbled, but did whatever work had to be done.

Only Fan Yingyun was an exception. She too appeared tired. After a few yawns, she slowly clicked on the mouse a few times, seemingly closing her game. She then lifted her butt and walked to a sofa in the corner of the office. She sat down, leaned to a side, and with that prepared for an afternoon nap. She ignored the odd gazes from her colleagues and even got a little blanket to cover her legs from the side. She then began to sleep soundly. From how prepared she did it, the blanket must have been prepared beforehand. This was definitely not the first time. She was clearly a maverick.

Fang Xiaoshui seethed.

Meng Yi also looked unhappily at Fan Yingyun.

"As always, Officer Fan is so free." Meng Yi said in a sour tone.

"We cannot compare to her." Fang Xiaoshui also envied Fan Yingyun. To be able to play games and sleep whenever she wanted. What sort of good life was she leading?

A youth said, "The leader has favorites, so what can you do?"

"Keep it down. If you let her hear it, an argument will definitely happen again. Counting each and everyone of us in this office, together with those who didn\'t work overtime, who can beat her in a verbal match?" The old cyber-policeman said.

"I keep thinking that Officer Fan didn’t teach internet technology classes in university in the past. Don\'t you see how she doesn\'t know a thing? I think she taught language classes. That mouth of hers probably can be matched only by Teacher Zhang Ye. Ah, cough, cough. Teacher Zhang, I didn\'t mean anything by that. I wasn\'t talking bad about you." Fang Xiaoshui said without thinking as she rattled on. Upon realizing that Zhang Ye was beside her, she hurriedly apologized.

Zhang Ye shook his hand with a smile, indicating that it was fine.

Suddenly, Meng Yi let out a cry. "Central TV\'s official website has been hacked?"

"Ah? That can\'t be?" Fang Xiaoshui hurried over to the computer and hit a few keystrokes rapidly.

A few cyber-policemen beside them also began working diligently. "In the corporate cooperation last month, didn\'t the fourth department secure seven loopholes in Central TV and other official websites? They even oversaw the change of new servers. There shouldn\'t be any problems. Typical hackers shouldn\'t be able to enter it!"

Fang Xiaoshui was momentarily stunned. "It really has been hacked!"

At this moment, Central TV\'s official website could not be opened anymore. The moment they entered, there was a picture. There were many Chinese words pasted on it, but they were not fluent. One could tell at a glance that they were machine translated!

Pig!

Go to hell!

Hahaha!

The screen were full of these!

Everyone\'s faces changed. "Hackers!"

Fang Xiaoshui was in charge of internet security. "How do we handle this?"

The old policeman said, "This isn\'t the responsibility of our department. Let\'s watch and see first?"

Their department was in charge of serious crimes. This sort of internet surveillance was the responsibility of other departments, so without the leader\'s instructions, they could not handle it.

Zhang Ye also noticed it. He immediately opened Central TV\'s website and his face sunk. Without question, those that would target Central TV\'s website at this time had to be Korean. The news regarding Lee Anson had probably caused quite a stir in Korea, and now, from the looks of it, even hackers had made their move?

This was clearly revenge!

This revenge was targeted at China!

Fan Yingyun was still sleeping. Even while asleep, she appeared like she was in a terrible mood, so no one dared to wake her up, nor did anyone do so. This person couldn\'t even produce a table of values, so how could they expect her to do anything?

"Has it been restored?"

"Not yet."

"How long has it been? Has Central TV not responded?"

"That\'s right. What happened to the technicians? Did they all go home for the new year?"

"It was a warning from the information department. The fourth department definitely knows about it. Why hasn\'t anything happening yet? Have we regained root access and restored the websites?"

The door opened!

Dong Zhiqiang pushed through the door forcefully. "Everyone stop whatever you’re doing. Prepare to work since something has just happened!" He looked extremely tensed!

Fang Xiaoshui, "About Central TV\'s website?"

Dong Zhiqiang hurriedly said, "Yes, prepare the division of labor and prepare to go to battle!"

Meng Yi wondered out aloud, "Isn\'t that under the jurisdiction of the state-owned website\'s security of the fourth department? Why are we being assigned this task?"

Dong Zhiqiang took a deep breath and said through gritted teeth. "In the past five minutes, Central TV, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Energy, the Education Bureau, and Civil Affairs, and even our Ministry of Public Security have all been hacked! The information department is now in a mess. There\'s no time to even send out warnings, and they are all in chaos! Everyone in the fourth department has been wiped out! All of their personal computers have been invaded by trojan horses! It was not planted ahead of time, but when they were vying for root access with them, their IPs were exposed. As such, all the machines in the fourth department are down! Thankfully, a few offices here have independent internet access, or we too would have been taken down!"

"What?"

"Our website has been hacked too?"

"That can\'t be! Who has that much skill?"

Everyone checked in disbelief, and indeed, even their Public Security website was filled with abusive curses. The other party was too insolent!

Dong Zhiqiang exclaimed, "What are you lazing around for!? Begin working! The hackers we are facing this time is a team! And their skill is very high! It\'s different from the past! Make sure you are alert! The leaders above us are already raging! Whatever it takes, we must regain control of the major and sensitive websites!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

Everyone in the First Department began working!

Dong Zhiqiang also noticed the sleeping Fan Yingyun, but ignored her. He then began to take command. Fang Xiaoshui was an expert in terms of security, so Dong Zhiqiang stood behind her. "Are you confident?"

Fang Xiaoshui said, "Just a bunch of dogs and cats."

Dong Zhiqiang patted her shoulder. "Alright, as long as you are confident." He also felt confident. His subordinates were elites in internet surveillance.

Fang Xiaoshui began her attack and rapidly tapped on her keyboard. She charged straight into the Public Security\'s official informative website. "There are two bugs." After looking at the event logs and the present situation, Fang Xiaoshui had an idea. She had already begun facing off the enemy!

A girl, who was in charge of policing the internet, came forward to learn from her. Her domain expertise was in other aspects of network security, and not invasion and defense, so she couldn\'t help.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ye also stood beside Dong Zhiqiang and watched Fang Xiaoshui\'s screen.

Keying in commands?

Were they trying to wrestle for control?

Retrieve the administrator\'s password?

In the past, Zhang Ye would clearly not understand any of this, but now, after he ate 11 Network Technology Experience Book, he could tell at a glance what Fang Xiaoshui was doing. He could also subconsciously understand Fang Xiaoshui\'s intentions. The reason was simple. Previously, Zhang Ye had drawn 200 books of Computer Programming Skills Experience Book. He did not know how high his standard was, as he had not had any hands-on practice, but based on feelings, he believed that his skills were much higher than Fang Xiaoshui’s. As for how much so, he had no idea.

No good!

The other side was very formidable!

Oh, there was no chance of winning a fight two against one!

The next moment, Fang Xiaoshui shouted with a tightened expression, "Zhang Er! Help me!"

A junior cyber-policeman was stunned as he quickly disconnected from this targeted website and went over to help. He said nervously, "Sister Fang, is the other party that formidable?"

Fang Xiaoshui said with a black face, "They are all experts! Both of them! It\'s a trap! They are deliberately luring us over! The two of them set an ambush for us!"

Meng Yi shouted from his side, "I just took down a website and am restoring it!" But just as he spoke, he said in shock, "Oh no! I lost admin rights again!"

Another cyber-policeman shouted, "F**k! What sort of people are they!? They are so ruthless! My computer has BSOD-ed*! It won’t even move" He hurriedly switched to a computer beside him and turned it on.

Dong Zhiqiang\'s face was turning ugly!

Their First Department had been exchanging fire for about twenty minutes, but they only managed to regain control of three websites. They did not manage to trace the hackers. Whenever the other party saw the situation turn bad, they would escape, leaving no traces behind. As for the other seven websites that were under their control, they were surprised that they could not wrestle them back. They were clearly elites in the Internet Surveillance Bureau, and this was their homeground, yet they were only handed poor results!

Complete defeat!

It was undoubtedly a terrible defeat!

Dong Zhiqiang burst into a fit of rage, "What are you doing!? You can\'t even settle this?"

Fang Xiaoshui said with a grievance, "Director Dong, they have too many people on their side. For us, we have to face two or three per person, and at times five. Sometimes, we can win back admin rights, but they will occasionally wheel around and hit back. Furthermore, they are very skilled!"

Meng Yi also explained, "They have dozens on their side! The battle lines are constantly changing. Attacking is simpler than defense. If they change the battleground, we aren’t able to react in time. We can only chase after their tails. We have too few people too, so we definitely are on the passive side. This bunch of people have many experts too!"

Dong Zhiqiang shouted, "Don\'t give me excuses. The higher-ups do not want to hear this! What I want are results!" Saying that, he began making phone calls. He summoned everyone from the First Department back, halting all their holidays!

At this moment, Zhang Ye spoke, "Everyone, why don\'t I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Fan Yingyun woke up from the sofa. "What\'s the matter, why is it so noisy?" After a yawn, she loosened her neck and sat up from the sofa.

Fang Xiaoshui said grudgingly, "You sure slept soundly! More than ten official state-owned websites are now controlled by a bunch of Korean IPs! So many people are working hard for so long, yet we haven\'t been able to wrestle control back! Forget it, it\'s useless telling you so much. You can\'t even prepare a job report!"

The others ignored Fan Yingyun.

They could only wait for the rest of their colleagues from the First Department, or gather the remaining technical colleagues from other departments in the Internet Surveillance Bureau, so as to attempt at chasing the hackers away.

Upon hearing this, Fan Yingyun surprisingly did not scold Fang Xiaoshui. Instead, she briskly walked over to her computer and sat down. After a few glances at her screen, the side of her eyes twitched. Without a word, she opened her purse and took out a USB drive and inserted it into her computer. With a few clicks of her mouse, she seemed to open up some software or program. She then said, "Don\'t mess things up for me. All accounts on the website, get away from me!"

Meng Yi said, "We mess things up?"

A female cyber-policewoman said, "You are the one who shouldn\'t be messing things up for us!"

"What are you doing?" Fang Xiaoshui said, "If we were to disconnect, who will catch them? If they escape, then there will be other websites that will suffer!" With her being distracted, she could no longer defend her side. Fang Xiaoshui hurriedly went back to being engaged with three hackers.

Dong Zhiqiang also looked towards Fan Yingyun. "You finally want to join in?" The moment he said those words, Old Dong found it humorous. Having joined his unit for a few months, they had never seen Officer Fan work once. She could not do a thing, nor did she know her thing. What was the situation now? This was a large scale IP attack from overseas never seen in years. You wouldn\'t be able to handle it. "At this time, don\'t mess things for us!"

Fan Yingyun did not even look at them. As she operated the keyboard, she said, "Let me repeat myself. All those IPs, who have entered the intruded websites, stay away from me! I won\'t care if you’re friendly or not!"

Then everyone was stunned, including Zhang Ye!

It was not because of Officer Fan\'s words, but because of her actions. The speed at which she typed on the keyboard was faster than anyone present! And it was not just a bit faster! They could see Fan Yingyun\'s hands \'flying\' over the keyboard. As for what she was inputting, no one could tell!

Fang Xiaoshui said, "This..."

Zhang Ye also narrowed his eyes.

Fan Yingyun did not have the time to care about them. Without blinking her eyes, she began to constantly drum out commands, with a very cold face.

Following that, people kept hearing Fan Yingyun mutter to herself.

"Central TV, OK."

"Public Security, OK."

"Civil Affairs, OK."

"SARFT, OK."

Meng Yi couldn\'t understand. "What do you mean OK?"

Then a female cyber-policewoman shouted, "Ah! My account in the Football Association was kicked out by someone! I was trying to gain root access, why did another one come? Root access is now being controlled by a person called FAN!"

Before she could finish her sentence, she heard Fan Yingyun said, "Football Association, OK."

The female cyber-policewoman said in shock, "What? It, it was you?"

Fan Yingyun said calmly as she kept issuing out commands, "I told all of you to get lost. You didn\'t listen to me, so who is to blame? How would I know if you’re friend or foe?"

The others were also dumbfounded. "It was really you?"

Dong Zhiqiang was stunned. He immediately checked the websites that Fan Yingyun marked OK. The moment he saw it, he was dumbfounded. Central TV, Civil Affairs, SARFT, which were websites the bunch of them failed to regain control of, had all been restored!

"Holy shit!" Many people shouted!

Meng Yi hurriedly ran behind Fan Yingyun and looked at her computer. He realized Fan Yingyun was issuing commands at a typing speed so fast that he could not even see them clearly. Occasionally, he could see some of the commands that she issued, but most of the time, he couldn\'t understand them. OC? What command was this? Packet attack? Or was it a data bait?

Fang Xiaoshui and company also slowly gathered around!

"I can\'t see it clearly!"

"What is this? Is this seizing control?"

"No, this shouldn\'t be. This is...tracking? What the heck! Why are three terminal windows open? And what was that last command? Why haven\'t I ever heard of it?"

"What are you doing? Why are you entering from port 15? Ah? Ah! So there’s a hole in this port!? This loophole has never been published!"

Everyone was surprised!

Fan Yingyun said with a frown, "Stop hanging around me like houseflies!"

The moment they heard this, they subconsciously dispersed. Even the leader, Dong Zhiqiang, left.

Only Zhang Ye stood behind Fan Yingyun with amazement and interest. Fan Yingyun would occasionally take a glance behind, but did not say a word. She continued her operation.

This was Zhang Ye\'s privilege. Officer Fan was relatively polite only to Zhang Ye.

......

On the other side.

In a particular chatting tool in Korea.

"No good! I can\'t get it back!"

"I\'ve been kicked out too!"

"I can\'t enter! The hole from before has been plugged!"

"Who the f**k is it?"

"No good, we might have been traced! I\'m leaving first!"

The avatars of the people, who organized the attack of Chinese websites, began to dim. One of them was called "Yin". Some of them would say bye before disconnecting, but "Yin" did not even say a word and went offline!

59-V: "What happened to Yin?"

JIN: "He cut the internet himself."

When many of them heard it, they drew a gasp!

Cutting the internet meant cutting one\'s own network cable. This action might seem normal to people and appeared nothing special, but to a hacker, this was the final form of defense against a hacker. It was only a desperate last resort when there was no other option. Similarly, it was a form of humiliation, a form of surrendering!

59-V: "Ying got taken out?"

JIN did not answer.

He was the leader for this operation. Many of them were calling out to him.

"What do we do?"

"God JIN?"

"Where\'s Lord God JIN?"

"How do we attack now? We have lost root access!"

"Who is that FAN person!? I\'ve never heard of him. There was such an expert in China? Could it be any of the top ten ranked hackers in China that appeared in another persona?"

"JIN? JIN?"

After a few more minutes, JIN spoke. "Disperse first! Everyone disperse! I just clashed with that person! That person is not someone any of you can handle! 59-V! Come over and meet him!"

59-V: "Alright!"

When the others saw this, they also obediently retreated!

It needed two of Korea\'s top hackers, 59-V and JIN, to face with that person? And it was unknown who would win? These words gave many of them shivers!

FAN?

FAN?

Who the hell is this?

......

The leaders came.

It was the bunch of people who had come to inspect that morning.

One of them was about to speak, but Vice Chief Zhao stopped him, hushing him with a hand gesture.

In the beginning, Fan Yingyun was only operating the computer with a single hand, and did not slow down that much. Surprisingly, her other hand raised as she took out a pen and began scribbling on a piece of paper. As she operated the computer, she wrote. Finally, her hand left the keyboard and tore off the piece of paper and threw it behind. "The main websites that have been invaded are cleared. Check the IPs of these hackers. One of them is inside China, in a university campus. I won\'t be surprised if it\'s a young exchange student from Korea. Also there are these Korean IPs. As for the rest, I didn\'t manage to find them. The two bastards keep circling around me, and one of them is called JIN. He is quite skilled. He came back after I kicked him out. Later on, I temporarily fixed the vulnerability loophole he used, preventing him from entering. He finally escaped, and the rest have also dispersed."

After everyone heard this, they stared at her with ambiguous expressions!

Dong Zhiqiang asked, "Are you sure that these are their actual IPs? These hackers are all very crafty. It wouldn\'t be surprising for them to use other zombie IPs as bait."

Vice Chief Zhao did not have such doubts, and in fact, did not seem surprised. He said, "How many hackers were there this time?"

Fan Yingyun said, "A few dozen I guess. They were all nobodies. Only three of them had skills that barely made it. I managed to catch one of them. It\'s all written, take a look yourself."

Barely make it?

This was called barely making it?

Fang Xiaoshui and Meng Yi felt faint. They had spent all their efforts but failed to chase them all away. Instead, one of them got hit by a virus. Two of them even lost to the other party in a direct clash. Could it be that in your eyes, most hackers were nothing?

Fang Xiaoshui was confirming off to the side and finally confirmed whatever Fan Yingyun had said. They had regained control of all the websites. The websites had been restored, and those invaders had all disappeared. There was no trace of further attacks. This made her alarmed. She did not know how Officer Fan managed to do what so many cyber-police could not do alone! She could clash with dozens and still have more to spare?

One of them was named JIN?

Wasn\'t that one of the top ten hackers in Korea?

Dong Zhiqiang and the other colleagues of the First Department were stunned. They looked at Fan Yingyun\'s face with amazement. It was as if this was the first time they had seen her!

Meng Yi was completely convinced and said to Fan Yingyun, "Officer Fan..Teacher Fan, Sis Fan, what did you teach at People\'s Public Security University of China last time?" He had changed his form of address. In the past, he had always stuck with Officer Fan.

Fan Yingyun said without even looking at them, "Vulnerability rules, system invasion, logical operations, trojan horses and virus theory, assembly language, programming design, and methods courses. Many of them."

Holy sh*t!

What sort of classes were these?

That sounded awesome! And many of those classes were things they had never heard of before!

A cyber-policewoman was stunned. "Other than learning assembly language and programming design, why have I never learned any of these other courses? Network technology in college teaches this?"

A leader behind Vice Chief Zhao quickly interrupted. "No, Teacher Fan only teaches programming language classes in university. Don\'t listen to her blabber."

Fan Yingyun could not help but laugh as she said, "Teachers nowadays can choose what they teach. Students nowadays also have the choice of what classes they want to attend, so whatever you learn is shit. Things that really involve various technical levels, such as this kind of hiding one\'s traces, is not something you can learn! I only teach programming languages, but what I think I can teach, I\'ll teach them to my students bit by bit, then..."

Fang Xiaoshui asked, "Then?"

Everyone listened intently.

Fan Yingyun pointed to her feet, "Then I was fired. Now, I\'m just cruising along here with all you bunch of smatterers with barely passable technical knowhow in this crappy unit!"

They were elites of the Internet Surveillance Bureau!

But they were scolded as smatterers?

The junior leader said, "Yingyun!"

Fan Yingyun said, "Isn\'t it true? I am a person who speaks my mind. If you don\'t like hearing that, hurry up and fire me!"

Vice Chief Zhao chuckled and said, "You are a professional the Chief and I went through great lengths and abused connections just to get you here. How can we let you off like that? Take a look. You have managed to flex your muscles this time. Your value is not limited to a platform of teaching and education. It can still be reflected elsewhere. Our Internet Surveillance Bureau is especially suited for you to play to your strengths?"

Fan Yingyun sneered, "What strengths do I have? I don\'t have a single strength."

Vice Chief Zhao was neither angry nor irritated as he said, "That\'s precisely your strength. As you do not lack in any skills, and your basic knowledge is much more solid than anyone in network technology, and more encompassing. Other security experts or hackers all have their strengths, and would be persistent in their research in their domain of expertise. No one is all-rounded. For example, today\'s JIN may be a top hacker, but from the information we have, he never dabbles in virus-like programs, and is weak at security defenses. As for website invasion techniques, there\'s no need to talk about it. He\'s good at port sniffing, email, as well as writing phishing scripts for invasion. Other network technology personnel are the same. Only you are that exception. What they know, you know too. What they do not know, you still know. If this domain is split into majors and minors, then you are definitely a major\'s professional teacher. In terms of fundamental knowledge, no one can beat you!"

Fan Yingyun waved her hand. "Old Zhao, stop flattering me. There are so many teachers in network technology in college. I think you should hire someone better."

Vice Chief Zhao said, "They are only good at one or two professional classes, and mostly follow teaching material. Their hands-on capacity might not compare to a self-taught hacker. They can\'t compare with you. Teacher Fan, help us for another few years. Although network security is pretty good these days, it can\'t prevent some hackers who want to cause trouble. If we meet another large scale invasion or hacker experts, our Internet Surveillance Bureau would be many in number that lack experience. There\'s no way to improve themselves. As a teacher, as their senior, sister, you should lead them. Leading them for a few years would do. If a few years pass, and you still do not want to deal with internet surveillance, then go ahead and tell me. I\'ll definitely let you go. Also, the Chief and I can personally write a recommendation for you to return to People\'s Public Security University of China!"

Fan Yingyun leered at him. "You said it yourself."

"Hur Hur, I\'ve said it and everyone here is a witness." Vice Chief Zhao guaranteed and then looked to Dong Zhiqiang. "Director Dong, do you understand what I meant this morning? We, higher-ups are taking good care of your First Department. If it were a useless idler, would we have sent her here? Teacher Fan seldom works because the work you do is not in her domain of expertise. If you still have problems with that, I can transfer Teacher Fan away. I believe Old Yan and Old Xu from the second and fourth department would definitely scramble to get their hands on her."

Dong Zhiqiang turned anxious. "Don\'t do that Leader, I don\'t have any problems! Officer Fan has to stay with us in the First Department! I\'ll fight anyone who tries to grab her from me!" He had a huge turn in attitude!

Editor note: To those who don’t know what BSOD stands for, it mean Blue Screen of Death, which means a critical process has shut down. A critical process is something that a computer needs to run, such as System32 DLL files, boot files, etc.