The Omniscient

Chapter 12: Online Information

"Finally, I can be independent."

In the end, Huang Ji boarded the train bound for Shanghai.

Although school wouldn't start until September, Fan Lingli and Zheng Xuan had to return to work this week. So, on April 12th, the three of them headed to Shanghai together.

Since Huang Ji was going to attend school, they thought it best for him to get acclimated to city life early. They assumed he probably lacked basic social knowledge, so they planned for him to live in Shanghai for four months beforehand to familiarize himself.

Huang Ji, of course, wholeheartedly agreed. After all, he wasn’t here for school—he just wanted to leave his hometown.

"Let Huang Ji stay with you for now," Fan Lingli suggested to Zheng Xuan. "You’re usually free, so you can teach him a few things."

“Well…” Zheng Xuan hesitated. His real job was as a hacker, and while Huang Ji might seem mildly intellectually disabled, Zheng Xuan felt it would be inconvenient to have him around.

"Why don’t we rent him a place of his own?"

"How about I rent him the unit across the hall? I promise I’ll take good care of him," Zheng Xuan replied awkwardly.

Fan Lingli squinted at him. "What, got something to hide in your place? Or are you planning to bring other women over and don’t want him cramping your style?"

"Of course not! My apartment’s just too small, that’s all. Fine, fine, I’ll take care of him, okay?" Zheng Xuan conceded.

"His grandfather entrusted him to us, and the money too. You’d better take this seriously," Fan Lingli said firmly.

"Don’t worry," Zheng Xuan assured her, patting his chest.

Satisfied with his promise, Fan Lingli relaxed. Her own job kept her busy, while Zheng Xuan’s work was relatively laid-back, giving him more free time to look after Huang Ji.

Once they arrived in Shanghai, the two took Huang Ji out for a meal and helped him buy a phone and various living supplies.

After that, Zheng Xuan brought Huang Ji to his apartment.

The first thing Zheng Xuan did upon returning home was call his landlord and rent the unit across the hall for Huang Ji.

Thus, the two ended up living separately, each with their own private space.

Zheng Xuan didn’t explain his decision, but Huang Ji understood perfectly well.

It was simple: Zheng Xuan didn’t want anyone watching what he did in private. Zheng Xuan had his secrets—just as Huang Ji had his own. This arrangement suited Huang Ji just fine. Ŕ𝓪ΝóꞖÊs̩

"Did you notice that private kitchen downstairs?" Zheng Xuan said. "I usually have food delivered from there. You can too—just charge it to my account. But it’s better if you don’t wander around too much. Just come over to my place at mealtimes."

As Zheng Xuan rambled on, Huang Ji listened quietly before saying, "I saw a Xinhua Bookstore on the way up. I’d like to go check out some books."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Sure, I’ll go with you," Zheng Xuan offered, leading him downstairs.

The apartment was on a busy street, surrounded by restaurants, bookstores, and supermarkets.

At the bookstore, Huang Ji picked up a copy of One Hundred Thousand Whys and started reading.

Zheng Xuan chuckled and grabbed a book on economics.

But after half an hour, he lost patience. Meanwhile, Huang Ji hadn’t moved an inch, completely engrossed in the book.

“This guy doesn’t have a short attention span at all. In fact, his patience might be better than most people’s,” Zheng Xuan thought to himself. Then again, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that Huang Ji was simply zoning out.

Pacing back and forth, Zheng Xuan grew increasingly restless. Finally, he said, "Why not buy the books you like and read them at home?"

Huang Ji smiled. "I don’t know what I like yet."

"If you’ve got something to do, Brother Xuan, go ahead. I’ll be fine on my own."

Seeing how obedient Huang Ji was, and how unlikely he seemed to run off, Zheng Xuan thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright, I’ll head back upstairs. Make sure you’re back by dinnertime. Actually, forget it—I’ll come down to find you."

Huang Ji nodded, and after a few more reminders, Zheng Xuan left.

Once Zheng Xuan disappeared into the apartment building, Huang Ji set the book down and left the bookstore.

He walked to the metro station, studied the map for a moment, bought a ticket, and boarded a train without hesitation.

Zheng Xuan would never have guessed that Huang Ji would simply hop on a metro and leave.

At the Shanghai mail sorting center, Huang Ji needed to confirm if his money had arrived.

Before leaving his hometown, Huang Ji had taken some precautions. He had mailed a package containing the money ahead of time to the home of one of Zheng Xuan’s friends.

Of course, Huang Ji had no intention of letting that 3 million yuan actually reach a stranger’s house.

His plan was to intercept the package at the sorting center using his ID before it was delivered.

Even if Huang Ji missed the opportunity to retrieve the package, it wouldn’t matter. Zheng Xuan’s friend’s ID wouldn’t match the package, so it couldn’t be claimed. Eventually, the package would be returned to the sorting center, giving Huang Ji another chance.

For now, Huang Ji's goal was simple: retrieve the package from the sorting center before it was sent to its designated location.

"Wow, that was fast. It’s already here."

Once Huang Ji confirmed that his package had arrived, he promptly collected it.

At 70 pounds, carrying the box himself was too troublesome. He flagged down a taxi to transport it.

Of course, he didn’t bring it back to Zheng Xuan’s apartment. Instead, he directed the taxi to a high-rise apartment building in the eastern outskirts of Shanghai, where he had already arranged to meet a landlord for a viewing.

Huang Ji had no intention of being frugal. Without much haggling, he used cash to rent a four-bedroom, two-living-room apartment.

Once inside, Huang Ji opened the box, took out 200,000 yuan, and placed it in his backpack before heading out to shop.

His primary purchase was a computer. From his time with Zheng Xuan, Huang Ji had realized how incredibly useful these machines were in this era of the internet.

He bought an identical setup to Zheng Xuan’s, complete with fiber optic internet and a multifunctional printer.

After the delivery technician installed the printer, Huang Ji sat in front of the computer, a smile on his face.

"Sure enough, theory and practice are two different things…"

Excitedly, he took his seat at the desk, clumsily operating the mouse.

Though he had learned the basics about computers from Zheng Xuan, this was his first time actually using one. Naturally, his movements were those of a beginner.

"With a browser, I can access thousands of websites. Using a powerful search engine, I can retrieve anything I need. This is amazing..."

Like anyone experiencing the internet for the first time, Huang Ji explored with a sense of wonder and excitement.

News articles, opinions from strangers, and any text that piqued his interest—he wanted to absorb it all.

But for Huang Ji, his experience was unique. He could perceive the massive amount of hidden information lying beneath the surface of the internet’s visible data.

"Wow, the information is overwhelming..."

Just a slight deepening of his perception made his head spin. Quickly, he shut out most of it again.

"I’ll only dive deeper into topics that catch my interest."

Huang Ji opened Baidu and, typing one pinyin letter at a time, searched for "aliens."

The results were disappointing—movies, company names, and electronic products. Nothing related to what he wanted.

After some thought, he added "moon" to his query.

This time, he found more relevant results: claims about "aliens on the far side of the moon," "NASA astronauts witnessing UFOs during the moon landing," and "alien bases with docked spaceships on the far side of the moon."

UFO enthusiasts were discussing these topics on various forums and message boards.

Huang Ji read them with great interest—these were all new concepts to him.

"So, there are so many people like me who believe in aliens. Even without my abilities, they’ve managed to deduce the existence of extraterrestrials from tiny clues."

"Aliens have always been among us? That’s completely true!"

"There’s an alien base on the moon? While I know it’s not on the surface, but rather inside, there could have been surface activity in the past. So, NASA astronauts have already seen them? But… why did the schools never mention such things?"

Eager to learn more, Huang Ji clicked on the username of the forum post’s author to check their ID.

“NamekKejinren?”

Huang Ji blinked, and instantly, a flood of information about the ID poured into his mind:

• Registration location and associated ID.
• Current IP address.
• Login credentials.
• Previously used passwords.
• Active passwords.

Everything was laid bare before him.

Huang Ji could even perceive whether the account was currently online, the posts it had made, what content it had browsed, all login times, and every private message—read, unread, saved, or deleted.

It was worth noting that all this information was accurate, entirely independent of whether the website's servers retained the records.

Even posts that had been deleted, which the website itself could no longer access, were still available to Huang Ji. Anything that this "NamekKejinren" account had ever posted, browsed, or interacted with was retrievable through his Information Sense.

Huang Ji even knew that the user was currently online at an internet cafe called "Star Diamond" in Tianjin, sitting at computer #112, with a balance of 15 yuan remaining on their account.

In fact, this "NamekKejinren" hadn’t even registered the account with their own real ID—they had used someone else’s ID number they had randomly found online.

Yet, Huang Ji could perceive the real identity of the user and immediately noticed the mismatch between the ID used for registration and the actual account owner.

"My ability retrieves information from the very fabric of the universe... or perhaps this information inherently exists as part of reality itself. It doesn’t need a physical medium to be stored," Huang Ji thought.

"He didn’t register the account with his real identity, yet I can still find out who he is. If I were a cybersecurity expert, every hacker in the world would be behind bars."

Huang Ji’s interactions with Zheng Xuan had already given him some insights into the hacker world. He knew, for example, that Zheng Xuan had once hacked into the personal computer of the CEO of Wall Securities on Wall Street and uncovered evidence of financial fraud. With a simple threat—"I’m very close with the FBI"—Zheng Xuan had successfully extorted one million USD.

The money was sitting in a Morgan Bank account in the U.S., earning enough annual interest for Zheng Xuan to live a seemingly ordinary life in Shanghai without ever touching the principal.

The Wall Street tycoon had quietly paid up, knowing that even pursuing the hacker would cost more than the ransom itself. If the FBI had received the evidence and filed charges, the legal fees alone would exceed a million, and if convicted, the penalties would be fifty times that amount—plus jail time.

It was a stark reminder that skill is everything. Without technical prowess, even the "fat sheep" could devour the "wolf."

Now, during his very first venture online, Huang Ji realized that simply examining someone’s account allowed him to uncover their true identity and even locate their current whereabouts.

By tracking any account's activity, Huang Ji could identify where the user was browsing from if they were online. Even if the account was offline, he could see their last known login location.

This ability likely extended beyond normal accounts to include the anonymous traces left behind by hackers during their exploits.

Even in the rare scenario where a hacker left no trace, as long as they transmitted even a single character that Huang Ji could perceive, he could determine who had sent it.

Huang Ji quickly realized: he was the ultimate bane of hackers.

Network anonymity? Disguised information? Scrubbing traces? Proxy servers or botnets?

All meaningless.