Chapter 141: Uninvited

After Feng Yan and the others returned to the Dragon Chant Research Institute, the interior entered a state even more tense than during wartime.

Feng Yan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor conference room in the newly completed command center, holding a cup of tea that had long since gone cold.

Outside the window, the main building of the research institute was brightly lit in the night, and further away, the tower crane lights of the phase-three expansion project dotted the foothills like stars.

On the holographic screen in the conference room, news summaries from major global media over the past forty-eight hours were scrolling at ten times speed.

"'Jing'an' mech footage continues to ferment, global tech circles fall into divisive discussion."

The headline of "Europa Defense Weekly" was accompanied by a blurred but still shocking silhouette of the mech.

"Anonymous experts claim Longguo's mech technology is at least a decade ahead of publicly known tech, potentially triggering a new round of arms race."

Next to a report from "Global Tech Observer", a Western former military officer with his face pixelated was waving his arms in front of the camera.

"Technology proliferation risk theory heats up; Eagle Country leads calls for establishing an 'International Regulatory Framework for Emerging Strategic Technologies'." The news anchor on Eagle Country National Television spoke in a serious tone.

"We cannot repeat the chaotic situation before the formulation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

Wang Hao sat by the conference table with his legs crossed, fingers swiping on a tablet, chewing gum:

"Yo, these people react quite fast. Our mechs have only been out for a few days, and they're already drafting a regulatory framework?"

"Expected." Chen Guang didn't even look up as he processed the data stream in front of him.

He pulled up a pie chart and projected it onto the main screen:

"It is worth noting that in seventeen percent of deep technical discussion threads,"

"speculative analysis has appeared regarding specific technical details such as 'Dragon Scale armor material composition', 'energy shield working principle', and 'laser weapon cooling system'."

"The accuracy of some of these guesses... is abnormally high."

The atmosphere in the conference room tightened slightly.

Li Yang put down the structural diagram in his hand: "You mean, someone is already trying to reverse-engineer our technology?"

"More than that." Chen Guang pushed up his glasses.

"'Torch Dragon' has captured at least seven directional electronic reconnaissance signals from different sources, continuously attempting to penetrate the research institute's external network firewall over the past forty-eight hours."

"The methods are professional, with jump servers distributed across seventeen countries, but the final instruction flow points to three known intelligence agency-associated IP segments."

Zhao Kaiyuan looked up from the energy monitoring terminal, his brow slightly furrowed: "I have abnormalities here too."

"The distributed energy pipeline network outside the base has had thirty-seven weak abnormal fluctuations in the past twenty-four hours."

"Each lasted no more than 0.3 seconds, the energy loss is negligible, but the fluctuation pattern does not match any known equipment startup or testing process."

He pulled up a waveform chart: "Look here, these fluctuations are like... someone is using extremely low-power equipment to tentatively tap into our energy network to steal electricity."

"Not large-scale theft, more like testing access points and acquiring power grid characteristic data."

Feng Yan turned around, his gaze sweeping over the team members: "In other words, we have upgraded from being 'watched' to being 'probed'."

"And probed from multiple dimensions simultaneously," Chen Guang added.

"Network penetration, technical analysis, physical reconnaissance. The opponent is very cautious and very professional."

Just then, the door to the conference room was gently pushed open.

Zhao Fusheng — Zhao Gong — walked in wearing a pair of slightly faded work clothes, holding an old-fashioned leather notebook.

His expression was more serious than usual, his brows locked in a frown.

"Old Zhao, you're here." Feng Yan motioned for him to sit down. "Are there results from the material audit?"

Zhao Gong didn't sit, but walked straight to the conference table and spread out the notebook.

Inside were densely recorded handwritten numbers, codes, and sketches, the handwriting as neat as print.

"At the special materials laboratory, Li Kui and I checked all the inbound and outbound records from last month." Zhao Gong's voice was low and steady.

"We found a problem."

He flipped to one of the pages, his finger pointing to a line of records:

"The Z-7 special sound-dampening carbon fiber used for the 'Dragon Scale' armor edge coating has a monthly planned consumption of twelve kilograms, but the actual amount collected was 15.3 kilograms."

Wang Hao blinked: "Collected three kilograms extra? Maybe it's experimental loss or backup material."

"If it were ordinary material, it's possible." Zhao Gong shook his head.

"But Z-7 carbon fiber is different. The preparation process for this stuff is extremely complex, the yield is low, and currently only three laboratories in the country can produce it in small batches."

"Our monthly quota is a fixed fifteen kilograms, not a gram more."

He paused and flipped to the next page: "What's even stranger is that this extra three kilograms was collected through seven separate instances."

"Each collection amount was between four hundred and five hundred grams, just under the exemption limit for 'experimental supplement applications'."

"The reasons for collection were 'coating process optimization test', 'new adhesive adaptation experiment', etc., which look reasonable."

Li Yang sat up straight: "Separate collections, avoiding approval... this doesn't look like normal research behavior."

"It certainly doesn't." Zhao Gong sneered.

"Li Kui and I pulled the experimental records corresponding to these seven collections."

"In four of them, the signatures and handwriting in the logbook don't match;"

"Twice, the so-called 'experiment' wasn't even scheduled on the laboratory's calendar;"

"And once, the 'new adhesive adaptation' claimed by the collector actually used an old formula that had already been phased out three months ago."

Chen Guang's fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard:

"'Torch Dragon', pull all electronic records, access control data, and surveillance clips related to Z-7 carbon fiber in the special materials laboratory for cross-comparison."

A few seconds later, data began to scroll on the main screen.

"The seven collection times occurred on different working days within the past thirty-four days," Chen Guang interpreted the data.

"The collector was assistant researcher Zhang Mingyuan in all cases, with a B-level authorization, which complies with regulations."

"But surveillance shows that during five of the collections, Zhang Mingyuan himself was conducting routine experiments in other areas, with at least fifteen minutes of overlap that cannot be explained."

"What about access control records?" Feng Yan asked.

"The access card records for the material room corresponding to the seven collections... were indeed Zhang Mingyuan's work card." Chen Guang paused.

"But 'Torch Dragon's' biometric comparison found that during three of the card swipes, the face features captured by the access control camera had only a 73% match with the archives of Zhang Mingyuan."

"It falls into the 'suspicious but not conclusive' range."

Zhao Gong took a small sealed bag out of his pocket and placed it on the table. Inside were a few extremely fine black fibers, matte under the light.

"This was found this afternoon in the corner of the material room's waste recycling bin," Zhao Gong said.

"Under normal circumstances, experimental waste of Z-7 carbon fiber must be incinerated and is absolutely not allowed to be discarded at will."

"I checked the cross-section of this batch of fibers — it's not the standard cross-section produced by experimental cutting, but... traces of artificial tearing."

He raised his eyes, his gaze sharp: "Someone is using the name of experiments to steal Z-7 carbon fiber in small, frequent amounts."

"Taking only a little bit each time, mixed in with normal loss, it's very hard to be discovered."

"But it adds up — this lost three kilograms is enough for someone to do a lot of things."

The conference room fell into a brief silence.

Wang Hao blew a bubble, which popped with a "pop": "Good heavens, an inside job? Playing 'Infernal Affairs' with us here?"

"Not just an inside job." Feng Yan walked slowly to the main seat at the conference table.

"Z-7 carbon fiber is one of the core materials for the 'Dragon Scale' armor's acoustic stealth."

"The opponent is willing to risk exposure to get this, which shows their goal is already very clear — they are willing to pay any price to crack our armor technology."

He looked at Chen Guang: "Where is Zhang Mingyuan now?"

"Clocked out fifteen minutes ago, current location shows he is in the employee dormitory area." The synthesized voice of "Torch Dragon" replied. "Do you need to take action?"

"No." Feng Yan shook his head. "Catching him now would at most catch a small pawn who was bought off."

"We need to know who is behind him, where the materials were sent, and what else they want to get."

He looked around at everyone: "From today on, Dragon Chant enters 'Fortress State'."

"All external communications will be secondary encrypted, the internal network will start a whitelist system, and all non-essential ports will be closed."

"Chen Guang, raise the priority of 'Torch Dragon's' active defense network upgrade to the highest."

"Already doing it." Chen Guang nodded. "'Silent Wall' full-band electromagnetic monitoring module will go online in two hours."

"Kaiyuan, install harmonic analysis and abnormal injection detection devices on the energy pipeline network. I want to know where every kilowatt-hour of electricity goes."

"Understood, the hardware can be deployed tonight."

"Li Yang, change the daily patrol routes of the guard team to a random dynamic mode, and increase the density of 'Insect' reconnaissance unit deployment in key areas."

"Received."

Feng Yan finally looked at Zhao Gong: "Old Zhao, you are the anchor for material safety."

"I need you and Li Kui to continue digging deep, to figure out how much stuff they've stolen and what else they plan to steal."

"But remember — don't alert the enemy."

Zhao Gong closed his notebook and nodded slightly: "I know what to do."

"No matter how clever the methods of these material thieves are, they will always leave traces in the process details."

"They think taking the fibers is enough? The real trick is how to turn these fibers into armor."

A curve appeared at the corner of his mouth, the unique confidence of an old craftsman facing counterfeiters.

"I will prepare some... special 'samples' for them."

The meeting ended, and everyone dispersed.

Feng Yan remained alone in the conference room, watching the deepening night outside the window.

The overwhelming victory on the plateau had indeed attracted covetous eyes as expected.

It was just unexpected that the opponent's actions would be so fast and so precise.

He pulled up the internal address book and found Zhang Mingyuan's file.

Twenty-six years old, Master's degree in Materials Science, employed for a year and a half, good work performance, no bad records.

A very ordinary background, a very standard resume.

What made him choose betrayal?

Money? Threats? Or some kind of carefully packaged "ideal"?

Feng Yan closed the file, his gaze turning toward the brightly lit special materials laboratory building in the distance.

There, Zhao Gong and Li Kui should have already started setting their "traps".

And at the same moment, at the top of a civilian communication base station three kilometers away from the Dragon Chant Research Institute, inside a black box disguised as a signal amplifier, a storage chip the size of a fingernail...

... was sending compressed and encrypted electromagnetic signal fragments captured over the past two hours at extremely low power to a satellite relay station located in international waters.

After the signal was sent, the micro high-temperature ablation device inside the box activated, melting the chip and circuit board into a lump of unrecognizable charcoal.

The night wind blew through the base station, taking away the last trace of heat.

As if nothing had ever happened. ===== CHAPTER 142 =====