Meanwhile…
After washing up and taking a shower, Chu Tian returned to his bedroom.
He refreshed the forum post he had made earlier and froze.
Holy crap!
In just thirty minutes, the post had exploded with over two hundred replies.
It's blowing up this fast?
Loud Fart Doesn't Stink : Amazing. Looks like another hidden expert has stepped out of the shadows.
Robust Donkey Body : Hey OP, is your program legit? It says my girlfriend's registered for hotel rooms over a hundred times. Dude, please reply. I think I've been totally played. This has to be a bug, right?
Self-hanging Southwest Branch : Just checked my bro's girlfriend's records 37 hotel stays in six months. Problem is, none of them were with my bro. LOL.
Your Daddy's Your Daddy : orz. Cross-referenced my own records every single one matched. OP's definitely the real deal.
Grass Under The Osmanthus Tree : Guru, is your software accurate? Please reply this is urgent. I'm about to get engaged, but I just found hotel logs that weren't with me. I'm freaking out.
Hong Kong Fat Fish : I feel bad for you all. My partner's record is totally clean.
What The Hell You Looking At: Don't celebrate too soon. Could be your partner used someone else's ID.
Tolford Gunitsky : Damn it! The girl I've been chasing for half a year stayed at hotels eight times last month! Screw her!
Kindergarten Gang Leader : Guru! Are you accepting disciples? I want to learn from you! Please teach me!
Chu Tian couldn't stop grinning. He hadn't expected this level of response his software was hotter than he imagined.
Out of curiosity, he opened the backend to check usage stats.
His eyes widened again.
Holy shit!
1,018 uses?!
He was stunned.
There were only about 200 replies, so he figured the software had been used maybe a couple hundred times. But over a thousand uses in just half an hour? That meant the majority of users hadn't even commented.
He did some quick mental math.
1,018 uses at $7 USD each…
He whipped out his phone and opened his e-wallet app.
$7,471 USD.
He stared at the number in disbelief.
Just an hour ago, he had only $200 in there. Now? Over $7,400.
The money was pouring in ridiculously fast.
And this was just the beginning.
The Hacker's Forum had around 300,000 registered users, with about 50,000 active daily. If even a fraction of them used his tool…
His heartbeat accelerated. It was hard to breathe. He shut his eyes, took a few deep breaths, then laughed.
"The 21st century really is a time when skill is king. Damn it really pays to have real talent."
Suddenly, he paused. His eyes narrowed.
Someone was tracking him.
He smirked. "Interesting. Let's play."
Fingers flying across the keyboard, Chu Tian dug in.
Ten minutes later, he stared at his screen.
"So it's you... 'Bright Moon Illuminating A Big Bed.' I should've guessed."
The admin of the Hacker's Forum. A legendary hacker. Rarely appeared, almost never posted. Occasionally pinned educational threads about cybersecurity, but that was it.
Chu Tian had been on the forum for three years and had seen countless users try (and fail) to uncover the admin's identity.
Not anymore.
Real name: Wang Xiaofeng.
Male. 34 years old.
Wang Xiaofeng was still trying to track him completely unaware that he was being watched.
Chu Tian smirked and opened a black terminal window.
A Handsome Guy Who's Unwilling To Reveal His Identity : "Hey, forum admin, tired yet? Why are you tracking me?"
Meanwhile…
In a dimly lit room, a man was using three computers at once. When suddenly a black message box popped up on his screen, he froze.
"No way… he breached my custom firewall? And there was no trace of an intrusion at all?!"
Shocked, he typed back:
Wang Xiaofeng : "You're good, bro. You actually hacked into my system."
A Handsome Guy Who's Unwilling To Reveal His Identity : "Just okay. Wang Xiaofeng, stop tracking me. You won't catch me."
Wang Xiaofeng's eyes widened.
What the hell?! He even got my name?!
Wang Xiaofeng : "You're incredible. But let's have a proper match. Don't delete your post. I will find you."
A Handsome Guy Who's Unwilling To Reveal His Identity : "Sure. I'll be waiting."
Before he could respond, the black dialog vanished.
Wang Xiaofeng stared at the screen, the corners of his lips curling into a smile.
"Confident, huh?"
He licked his lips, eyes burning with excitement, and resumed typing furiously.
Chapter 4
Inside the rental apartment, after finishing the conversation with Wang Xiaofeng, Chu Tian closed the Hacker's Forum webpage. He leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.
There was simply no need for him to be on guard.
Chu Tian admitted Wang Xiaofeng was a pro hacker his homemade firewall proved that much. But even so, the gap between their skills was enormous. In fact, Chu Tian was so confident that he believed *all* the pro hackers on the forum combined still couldn't track him.
Compared to Wang Xiaofeng, Chu Tian was far more puzzled about how he'd suddenly gained such extraordinary computer skills. After racking his brain, his thoughts settled on one person:
His "classmate", Yang Rong.
Chu Tian carefully retraced his evening. Nothing unusual had happened except helping Yang Rong remove a computer virus. More importantly, he distinctly remembered his abilities manifesting after she called him an "expert hacker."
Could Yang Rong be the reason?
A chill crept down Chu Tian's spine as he recalled the web novels he'd ghostwritten. Was Yang Rong like one of those protagonists blessed with a supernatural ability?
'Word-realization?' he wondered. 'Whatever she says… becomes true?'
But that couldn't be.
They'd been classmates for half a semester, and Chu Tian knew her fairly well. Yang Rong wasn't strikingly beautiful, but she had a warm demeanor and a down-to-earth personality. When he'd questioned her earlier, her confusion seemed genuine. She clearly hadn't noticed any change in him.
'Does she not know about her own ability?' he mused. 'Or is her simplicity just an act?'
Yet that didn't add up either. If she were secretly shrewd, why help him? They were just classmates not close enough for her to casually gift him a skill that could set him up for life. This wasn't a favor; it was a destiny-altering boon.
'Did she… fall for me?'
No. Yang Rong had a boyfriend a high school sweetheart. Though they attended different universities, they called each other daily. Chu Tian had overheard enough to know their relationship was strong.
'Maybe she pitied me?' he thought. 'Saw how hard I was struggling and decided to help?'
Questions swarmed his mind, each circling back to Yang Rong. He considered calling her but glanced at the clock past midnight. She'd be asleep.
'Forget it. I'll ask her tomorrow.'
If Yang Rong did have a word-realization ability… the implications were terrifying.
With that, Chu Tian shut down his computer and collapsed into bed.
---
Early the next morning – 6:30 AM
After his routine, Chu Tian booted up his computer and froze.
82,118 uses?!
His hotel registry tool had been accessed over 82,000 times in less than eight hours. The Hacker's Forum had only 50,000 daily users. How was this possible?
Frowning, Chu Tian's fingers flew across the keyboard. Ten minutes later, he slumped back, speechless.
At first, he'd suspected Wang Xiaofeng of tampering with the numbers. But the hacker was still futilely trying to track him—and hadn't breached the program.
The real culprit? Profit-seeking middlemen.
Dozens of users had run repeated searches, reselling the service. One IP a high schooler named Li Xuan had used it 170 times. Chu Tian traced him to multiple online groups where Li Xuan charged peers $12 per search, keeping $4.50 for himself and sending $7.50 to Chu Tian's payment link.
Li Xuan wasn't alone. Others had done the same, racking up hundreds of searches.
"Damn," Chu Tian muttered, rubbing his chin. "I never imagined the forum had so many entrepreneurs. They're reselling my work?"
He'd written the tool, but he hadn't foreseen this gray-market hustle. No wonder the usage was astronomical.
'Business opportunities really are everywhere.'