Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 298: Chapter 288: New Method

Watching Hu Bin sit alone on the sofa with his head hung low, Tang Mo suddenly found it unbearable. She didn’t want the kindest man she had ever met to have to face something like this, even though she knew it was inevitable.

’Will today’s events make him lose all hope?’ Tang Mo felt that the real key to unlocking this world’s secrets lay in Hu Bin’s hands.

Wanting to ensure the world would change step-by-step according to plan, Tang Mo decided to comfort the man before her.

But just as Tang Mo started to get up, she saw Hu Bin had already raised his head. The dejection in his eyes was swept away, and he was once again filled with hope, as if nothing had happened at all.

”It’s okay. It was only twenty-some votes. The others aren’t in the wrong, either. I can’t just force my will on people. There must be another way. I’ll keep thinking.”

The speed at which he recovered from the setback surprised Tang Mo, but she quickly understood. This was what made Hu Bin different from everyone else in this world.

’He empathizes with everyone and everything, always looks for reasons within himself, and is able to truly consider things from others’ perspectives. If someone wasn’t born this way, they probably wouldn’t even dream of changing the world.’

”Xiao Fei, I know you majored in computer science in college. How are your hacking skills? Can you help me change an IP address?”

Mr. Hu quickly turned the conversation to Xiao Fei.

”This is my specialty. I’ve even won awards in computer security before. I just don’t know how advanced this world’s technology is. I’ll have to give it a try before I can say for sure.”

Xiao Fei had been interested in computers since he was a child and had a sharp mind for the subject.

Hiding an IP address would have been no problem at all for him in his former world, but here, there was no way to be sure how far computer technology had advanced.

”Alright, go give it a try. If you can successfully hide the address, then I think I have a way before Rule Day.”

Hu Bin’s tone was as positive as ever, as if he had truly found a solution.

’But what kind of solution could he possibly have?’

’They had only just arrived in this world. How could they change an order that had been maintained for so long in such a short amount of time?’

Even Tang Mo, who had always held a strange sense of confidence in Mr. Hu, was skeptical at this moment.

Wasting no time, Xiao Fei returned to his room as soon as Mr. Hu finished speaking and started tinkering with the system.

The computers in this world were indeed very different from those in their previous one, but the network systems were more or less the same.

In practice, the task was much harder than Xiao Fei had imagined. This world’s network system seemed to have a central control platform that connected every single computer system, like a giant spiderweb. If there was a problem with any single link, it would be instantly and clearly detected at the center.

It was like a string of light bulbs wired in series; it was difficult for any single link to escape detection.

But there was a solution to everything. To continue the analogy, if you wanted to hide one bulb in a series circuit, you just had to wire another bulb in parallel next to it. That way, even if you hid one of the bulbs, the entire string would continue to function without issue.

Since the overall operation was unaffected, it wouldn’t be easy to single out the hidden bulb. Even if it were possible, it would take a great deal of time.

Approaching the problem with this method, Xiao Fei created a new IP address on Mr. Hu’s system.

He tightly integrated the new IP address with the main system’s operations, allowing the original IP address to be temporarily hidden through some obfuscation methods.

Of course, this wasn’t a long-term solution, but it was worth a shot if they just wanted to slip by for a little while.

”Mr. Hu, what do you need a hidden IP address for?” Xiao Fei asked curiously after he finished setting everything up.

Tang Mo had her own theory. ’He probably wants to publish some inflammatory statements and get the people of this world to change their minds before Rule Day.’

In this world, which strove for absolute fairness, justice, and democracy, any form of coordinated messaging was forbidden. Everyone had to be an independent entity expressing only their own personal will.

Voter inducement was a very serious crime, one that carried a heavy penalty.

Tang Mo figured Hu Bin planned to use the hidden IP to address the public, promote his ideology, and change their established way of thinking.

But there were only a little more than ten days until Rule Day. If people’s minds were that easy to change, this world’s order wouldn’t have lasted for so long.

”Of course, I want to change all of their minds,” Mr. Hu said, ”but not by speaking out. I’m going to take a more... indirect approach.”

Clearly, Mr. Hu already had a plan in mind.

”I’m going to do a livestream.”

”A livestream?”

Tang Mo, Xiao Fei, and Xiao Mo shouted out almost in unison.

The shout was so loud it startled Bo Niou, who was resting off to the side.

”What are you all thinking? Of course I’m not going to stream myself. There’s nothing interesting about me. I’m going to stream *them*.”

Mr. Hu pointed a finger at the seedling in the flowerpot, then at Bo Niou lying nearby.

”Even though the rules in this world are decided by everyone, and most people voted that this world doesn’t need plants and animals, I’ve discovered that real human beings are still very happy when they see these things. If that weren’t true, those people wouldn’t have loved playing with Bo Niou so much, and they wouldn’t be fighting over the slots for Labor Day.

I’ve thought it over. As far as the system is concerned, Bo Niou has already been marked as euthanized. So, even if she appears on the livestream, the system will just register it as a new animal appearing in the world.”

Tang Mo nodded. She hadn’t expected Mr. Hu to have thought things through so thoroughly in such a short amount of time.

Although, even with a hidden IP address, once the system discovered the existence of a plant and a dog, it would do everything in its power to find them.

But Rule Day was only a little more than ten days away. As long as they could get this done before then, none of those problems would be problems anymore.

However, if they failed to change the rule in the end and were found, there was no telling what they would face.

After all, the Euthanasia Room could surely accommodate a few more people with no problem at all.

It seemed Mr. Hu was ready to burn his bridges.