Chapter 231: Special Forces Surveillance Upgrade Battle: Invisible Ink Secret Map

Zhao Jianguo stared at the anti‑tracking protocol activation key on the Screen, his finger hovering in the air without pressing. The "long‑distance call" outside the door still echoed in the Courtyard, and he wasn't in a hurry. In the lower‑right corner of the system, another System Prompt popped up: 【Detected new access point added to local monitoring network, signal band abnormal】.

He squinted, pulled the backend log out to browse. In last night's monitoring records, during the Special Forces wiring time slot there were three disconnections, each two seconds, spaced exactly the equipment's self‑check cycle. He noted the timestamps on paper and casually pushed the photolithography machine blueprint at the desk corner further inside.

In less than half an hour, a military‑green Jeep arrived at the Courtyard Gate. Two uniformed men carried a box into the Courtyard, followed by a middle‑aged man. That man stood upright, walked without swaying his shoulders, and upon entering scanned the eaves and Electric Wire. Zhao Jianguo saw from the window him take out a small device and tap his own window twice.

"Newcomer." He knew it in his heart.

At three PM, the Special Forces' new equipment was installed. Four cameras pointed respectively at the Laboratory doors and windows, the file cabinet, and the Main Control Console; the wiring ran through an independent Electric Box. The middle‑aged man stood in the Courtyard centre for a while, then turned and left without a word.

Zhao Jianguo waited until they were far away, then pulled up the Sign‑in Interface. He hadn't signed in today, so he clicked it. The system popped up an option: 【Chemical Materials Science Fragment·Can Synthesize Invisible Ink (requires 100 points)】.

He didn't hesitate, exchanged directly.

The material package delivered to his hand was a small iron box; opening it revealed two glass tubes, one with white paste, one with transparent liquid. The instructions read: After mixing, write; invisible at room temperature, reveals when heated, lasts thirty seconds.

He tried, drew an arrow on waste paper and saw nothing. He used a lighter to bake it for five seconds; the arrow slowly turned red, then vanished.

"Alright." He nodded.

At eight PM, he spread out the real design drawing, dipped a brush in the Invisible Ink, and lightly marked several Key Parameters. To outsiders it looked like mere correction marks; only he knew those numbers were the revised focal‑length algorithm. After writing he washed the brush three times, even disassembling the tip to clean it.

The next morning he went to the Laboratory as usual. Passing the monitoring room he found the door open, the middle‑aged man sitting inside, staring at six Screens. Zhao Jianguo nodded at him; the other only lifted his eyelid slightly.

At lunch He Yushui didn't come. He gnawed a mantou alone, heard Footsteps outside. Looking up, it was the on‑duty Special Forces member Xiao Li.

"Engineer Zhao, the Team Leader wants you to go over."

Zhao Jianguo wiped his mouth and left.

In the monitoring room the middle‑aged man pointed at the main screen: "What did you write on the drawing at 4:17 PM yesterday?"

The Screen was replaying yesterday's footage. He saw himself moving a pen back and forth on the paper, looking like erasing mistakes.

"Just changed the data." Zhao Jianguo said, "Miscalculated, rewrote it."

"Why did you mark so many times?"

"The pen was lousy, the ink dried fast."

The middle‑aged man stared at him for five seconds, said nothing. The technician beside him whispered: "The image recognition system reported suspicious behavior, but didn't extract any text."

"Keep watching." the middle‑aged man said.

Zhao Jianguo walked out, slipped his hand into his pocket, his palm a bit damp.

On the third night at eleven PM he stayed in the Laboratory sorting data. Near midnight the lights flickered once. He looked up at the ceiling; the old problem of unstable voltage flared again.

He was about to Standing Up to check the circuit when urgent Footsteps came from outside. Then the Laboratory door was pushed open, Xiao Li, face tense: "Engineer Zhao! The monitoring feed has a problem!"

Zhao Jianguo ran to the monitoring room. The main Screen showed static, then recovered, but the playback window was playing a segment—the scene of him writing two nights ago, and those Invisible Marks were suddenly clear, as if scanned by infrared.

"That's impossible." the technician stared at the display, "We never enabled the rewind function."

The middle‑aged man's face darkened: "Who operated the Terminal?"

No one responded.

Zhao Jianguo reached for the mouse, pulled up the backend process. He instantly saw the unfamiliar code—masquerading as a system log update program, actually copying all image caches. He calmly noted the IP address range, which was an overseas node inaccessible from within the country.

"Probably the voltage fluctuation triggered an automatic backup." he said, "Your system is too sensitive; a little shake makes it jump."

The middle‑aged man frowned: "We have no automatic backup function."

Zhao Jianguo feigned surprise: "Then maybe it's hardware failure? How about adding a voltage stabilizer?"

The technician checked the power module, nodded: "Possible."

The middle‑aged man watched the Screen a while longer, finally said: "Schedule maintenance tomorrow; re‑inspect all wiring."

Zhao Jianguo nodded, turned and left.

Back in the Laboratory he immediately locked the door, opened his personal Terminal to connect to the intranet. Just as he entered the clear command, the Screen suddenly warped, a blurry human silhouette emerged from the Data Stream.

"Zhao Jianguo." the voice crackled, "Be careful… your equipment… has been reverse‑monitored… this isn't an internal operation…"

He recognized it. It was Chen Jianguo's projection.

"How did you know this?" he asked.

"Time's short… they've already locked three nodes… the next is you…" before the image collapsed, the Screen returned to normal.

Zhao Jianguo sat on the Chair unmoving. Seconds later the system popped up a red prompt box:

【Detected unauthorized cross‑temporal data reading behavior】

【Temporal confrontation level raised to B rank】

【Reward granted: Anti‑reconnaissance set】

An equipment list appeared: a gray Coat, surface with fine granular texture, can interfere with optical capture; a watch‑sized device that can generate a dynamic interference field; and an ear‑stud‑shaped thing, description reads "Consciousness Shield".

He clicked to receive. The items appeared on the desk.

He first picked up the Coat and put it on. The fabric hugging his body, the room temperature seemed to drop a degree. He fastened the watch‑sized device on his wrist; its screen lit up, showing "Shield active". He tried to open the monitoring APP, his image turned into static snow‑flake noise.

"Interesting."

He walked to the window, looked at the camera on the opposite roof. He slid a finger across the watch dial. In the monitoring room his feed suddenly froze, stuck in place.

"Can fool the machine." he whispered.

Next was transmission testing. He placed a paper containing a secret map into the file cabinet, set it to automatically retrieve and view once per hour. The system prompted: "Behavior pattern match successful, disguise pass probability 91%."

He sighed in relief.

At two AM he was about to shut down and rest, when the door was knocked again. This time it was Xiao Li.

"Engineer Zhao, the Team Leader wants you there immediately."

"What now?"

"He said… you disappeared from the monitoring feed."

Zhao Jianguo opened the door, saw Xiao Li's face pale.

"Ten minutes ago, your feed suddenly vanished. Not a black screen, but… as if it never existed. The Team Leader says it's either you tampered or the system broke."

Zhao Jianguo smiled faintly: "What can I do? I'm not a monitoring repairman."

"But he doesn't believe it." Xiao Li lowered his voice, "He said, you either go explain now, or tomorrow the whole team will come in for a thorough inspection."

Zhao Jianguo stood at the doorway without moving. He lowered his head to glance at his watch; the interference field was still running. He touched his ear again, the ear stud still not worn.

"All right." He said, "I'll go with you."

The two walked in the courtyard. The streetlights cast a dim yellow glow, tree shadows lay across the ground. Zhao Jianguo suddenly stopped.

"Xiao Li, tell the truth, does your team leader pay special attention to my every move?"

Xiao Li froze: "This… I can't say."

"He's not staring at the equipment." Zhao Jianguo looked at him, "It's a person."

Xiao Li lowered his head, didn't respond.

Zhao Jianguo slipped his hand into his pocket and quietly pressed another button on his watch. The interference field instantly expanded, covering the entire corridor.

They reached the door of the monitoring room. The door was open; a middle-aged man sat inside, six screens before him showing only snow.

He jumped to his feet: "What's going on?"

Zhao Jianguo stood at the doorway, voice calm: "I said, the system is unstable."

The middle-aged man stared fixedly at him: "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything." Zhao Jianguo spread his hands, "I've been with Xiao Li the whole time, ask him."

Xiao Li stammered: "Yes… yes, Team Leader, we've been together all along."

The middle-aged man didn't believe him, but had no evidence. He waved Xiao Li off to check the wiring, then turned to Zhao Jianguo and said: "Tomorrow technical staff will come to upgrade the firewall; all electronic equipment must undergo inspection."

"No problem." Zhao Jianguo nodded, "Just cooperating with the work."

He turned to leave, suddenly heard the middle-aged man ask: "Who exactly are you?"

Zhao Jianguo stopped, looked back at him: "I'm just a tech guy, wanting to live a decent life."

Having said that, he walked out the door.

A night breeze blew over; he raised his hand to touch the ear stud, giving it a light press.

The light inside flickered once.

He stood in the courtyard, looking toward the monitoring room. All six screens went dark.