Starting Cultivation in Wasteland-Chapter 664 - 534: Xiao Hu’s Revenge

The Customs Enforcement Division has been calling a deer a horse for a long time—if I say it's a rumor, then it's a rumor.

As for blocking news, that's even more commonplace; anyone with some insight within the Imperial knows about information monopoly.

So, there's nothing wrong with this suggestion, what if the other party knows Basam colluded with the Star Thief?

If you can promote it, I can block it; you don't hold the public discourse power, knowing more is useless!

During the initial media battle, the Customs Enforcement Division rubbed the Engineering College's face into the ground until a massive reversal happened.

But in the end, it was the Engineering College, part of the government system, so the Customs Enforcement Division didn't go too far.

Faced with a social force without even a name, the Customs Enforcement Division doesn't need to be lenient.

They could even insist that Basam and Elvin are not the same person, just that they look a bit alike.

These days, the truth doesn't matter; what matters is whose voice can reach further.

The average person won't spend money or effort verifying such an insignificant truth.

Even if one or two bored people specifically go to verify, it doesn't matter, just block them.

When this person spoke, he thought his logic was quite clear, but unexpectedly, the senior officials present were all silent.

He felt something was off, "Where did my logic go wrong?"

He didn't think his logic was incorrect, so he essentially asked everyone—I'm not wrong, why don't you support me?

"Blocking is simple," a senior official finally put down his watch, expressing impatience.

"Open the Data Department permissions, make a script with keywords… I've already blocked over three thousand messages."

This person is a tech expert, originally not interested in this kind of thing.

"You have no idea how many people are promoting this matter; next time there's trouble, there's no need to lose the central control, right..."

The former was unsatisfied, "That is still overall controllable; I know you've worked hard, can you let us discuss serious matters now?"

Meanwhile, Xiao Hu was complaining to Qu Jianlei, "I wrote over a dozen messages, all blocked, the Customs Enforcement Division is too much."

"Not surprising," Qu Jianlei remained calm, "Exposing a scandal isn't as easy as you think… Do you take this for Blue Star?"

Xiao Hu had done similar things on Blue Star a few times, and the results were decent, but that was because others saw his face!

The Big Head Butterfly spun around twice, "Why don't I use the Customs Enforcement Division's terminal to hijack Star No. 4's central control system?"

"Don't cause trouble," Qu Jianlei spoke impatiently; if I were willing to expose you, I would've done it already.

Then he realized a problem, "Over a dozen… how many more?"

"Over… two thousand more," Xiao Hu said timidly, "I was very careful to hide myself, otherwise, it would've been more."

"Over two thousand more, huh…" Qu Jianlei nodded, "Hmm, not bad, quite restrained."

"You're being sarcastic," Xiao Hu, despite having no independent awareness, could still understand the tone.

So it suggested again, "Why don't I go to the other three planets to help you promote it?"

"No need," Qu Jianlei shook his head, firmly refusing, "It's easier for you to be exposed when transmitting signals between stars."

Back then, when he contacted the Guard Captain on Star No. 3, it was interstellar information transmission too.

However, that was just private communication—this is about controlling public opinion, how could it be the same?

Xiao Hu hesitated before speaking, "Then the alien affairs, leave them to the archeology enthusiasts?"

Qu Jianlei wanted to spark a topic that wouldn't be blocked, definitely couldn't be limited to just Star No. 4; anyone who's dealt with traffic knows.

Qu Jianlei hadn't dealt with traffic, but he'd heard a lot about it.

He knew Star No. 4 was the eye of the public opinion storm, a key point of prevention, making it very difficult to do anything significant.

He did have a position at the Hoyel Mansion, but ultimately, he was just a second-in-command person.

Moreover, for this sort of thing, even the face of the first-in-command might not be able to fix it.

The unavoidable stories between the Customs Enforcement Division and the Star Thief—topics like this are truly lethal.

Qu Jianlei thought that Hoyel has done very well to maintain his position at the mansion for now.

One must be content, shouldn't assume others' help as a matter of course; who knows how much pressure they've already endured.

So the public opinion on Star No. 4, he must face it personally, and also try to protect Xiao Hu.

As for other planets, Star No. 3 is also managed by Xiao Hu.

Previously he stayed there for over a month, and Xiao Hu, out of boredom, captured too many zombie accounts, just right for use.

Activating the zombie accounts is easy; Xiao Hu started uploading information about Elvin.

The officials on Star No. 3 didn't react much to this, and the related information quickly exceeded ten thousand posts.

This scale should have already caught the attention of official public opinion monitoring personnel, yet there was still no response.

The reason is simple, though what the posts describe is a bit incredible, it all happened on Star No. 4.

They don't care about other people's children dying, the neighbor's matters, what does it have to do with my Star No. 3?

Until the information count exceeded thirty thousand, there finally were blocking and deletion actions, but not from the Planet Government.

"You finally showed up!" Big Head Butterfly rubbed its indistinguishable tiny hands, obviously excited.

"This time watch me handle you! Boss, can I operate?"

In excitement, it didn't call him master; it directly addressed him as boss.

"Is it the Customs Enforcement Division's artificial intelligence?" Qu Jianlei's mouth twitched slightly. "Then... remember to protect yourself."

He wasn't surprised by this situation; the government holds the management rights of online discourse on any planet.

Some major forces, such as corporations or families, can influence the government through various means.

Undeniably, even the strong military must exert pressure on the government to sway public opinion.

The Imperial might not understand the principle that "public opinion is a domain; if you don't occupy it, naturally someone will."

However, the government is deeply aware of the importance of public opinion and will not relinquish control.

Even the military must manage public opinion through the government, and the same goes for the Customs Enforcement Division.

Star No. 4 is the incident site; the Customs Enforcement Division can influence the government without issues.

Even with Hoyel as the second-in-command factor, it is ultimately a scandal on Star No. 4; spreading it is bad for everyone.

So the government can temporarily delegate some power to the Customs Enforcement Division.

But Star No. 3 is different; the Customs Enforcement Division wants to pressure the government, which is almost impossible.

——Wanting to stand up for the Customs Enforcement Division is understandable, but what does the event on Star No. 4 have to do with your Customs Enforcement Division on Star No. 3?

Therefore, the Customs Enforcement Division on Star No. 3 can only take matters into its own hands.

Their data center system wasn't compromised; artificial intelligence could be effectively used, so they actively took charge of managing public opinion.

This was infringing on the government's taboo, but given the circumstances, it was negotiable.

After all, the artificial intelligence of the Customs Enforcement Division comes from headquarters; its intelligence level is quite high, the government can pretend to be ignorant.

The small lake had been waiting for this guy; after swallowing some of its fragments, it had long desired revenge.

Qu Jianlei wanted to warn it not to push too hard, but he really had no place to interfere in the battles between artificial intelligences.

With Xiao Hu's character, it probably wouldn't fight unprepared, right? Then he could only remind it to be careful.

Big Head Butterfly dismissively replied, "Although my main body isn't there, that guy's main body isn't there either."

"It's just relying on superior computing power, bullying by force. This time I'll show it what hierarchical crushing means!"

The post-deletion and blocking operation on Star No. 3 lasted for about two hours, then... suddenly stopped!

The number of posts continued to increase, and the deleted and blocked posts resurfaced one by one.

Soon after, a piercing alarm sounded in the data control center of Star No. 3's Customs Enforcement Division headquarters.

"Alarm, alarm, activate full protection, activate full protection!"

"Carefully inspect incoming data, first send it to the buffer pool! Carefully inspect incoming data, first send it to the buffer pool!"

The maintenance officer on duty was a bit stunned, "What happened?"

The electronic synthesizer voice responded, "Some parts of the data were maliciously swallowed, preliminarily determined as non-friendly intelligent fragments!"

"Non-friendly intelligent fragments!" Upon hearing this, the maintenance officer was startled; he had never encountered such a situation.

But he understood what it meant, "Can the other party threaten you?"

The electronic synthesizer voice replied promptly, "The opponent's computing power is average, but highly targeted. It cannot be ruled out that a higher hierarchy is possible."

If Qu Jianlei heard this, he would probably sigh; this fellow's intelligence is clearly lower than Xiao Hu's.

Xiao Hu at least understands the importance of saving face, while this guy speaks truthfully without concealment.

The maintenance officer became anxious after hearing this, "Should we temporarily increase the external channel of the internal network?"

Increasing the external channel of the internal network essentially meant obtaining more support from the artificial intelligence's main body.

"Parallel execution is possible!" the electronic synthesizer voice responded, "Notify the main body to prepare for defense."

"Even the main body has to prepare for defense?" The maintenance officer's face turned pale upon hearing this, "Then I have to report."

In fact, the anomaly at the data center had already alerted the higher-ups of the Customs Enforcement Division.

After a simple discussion, everyone strictly adhered to the artificial intelligence's requirements for adjustments and continued reporting.

The main body reacted rather normally; after all, it was just a terminal on Star No. 3. If it truly couldn't handle it, it could be physically isolated.

Letting some "non-friendly intelligent fragments" pass isn't a problem; without computing power, they're like rootless grass.

A slight deficiency in computing power can be compensated by hierarchical advantage, but without computing power, it's doomed to be slowly devoured.

It's like an Extraordinary being dissected on an operating table; what can their abilities do then?

However, the main body remained cautious, fearing it couldn't digest the opponent's fragments.

The advantage of hierarchy is hard to explain clearly; what if the opponent mutates? The possibility of a dimension reduction attack objectively exists.

So it's imperative to retract comprehensively, then cautiously strike out, aiming to first capture some fragments of intelligent data.