The midnight hour hung silent over the villa district, punctuated only by the occasional soft arrival or departure of a car, and the distant, sporadic sound of a dog barking.

Wang Zhuo remained by the television in his study, watching a legal program focusing on high-tech crime—tonight’s feature was the investigation into a case of bank card fraud.

Recalling the time shortly after gaining his X-ray vision ability, when a curious glance into an ATM booth uncovered Cheng Tiankun’s high-tech criminal operation, leading to the assignment of a small subordinate to Ding Ren, Wang Zhuo couldn't help but smile knowingly. If he hadn’t spotted the hidden pinhole camera Cheng Tiankun had installed, that young man would surely have stolen the money, and who knew what consequences would have followed.

Frankly, the banking sector was truly "dog-shit." They disregarded customer safety and had never taken the initiative to upgrade magnetic stripe bank cards to chip cards. Despite the first chip card being issued in 1995, this technology, which could vastly enhance financial security for customers, was still not widely implemented.

Sometimes Wang Zhuo truly wanted to curse: these banks earn so much money every year—where the hell does it all go?

In the program, the methods used by the criminals were almost identical to what Cheng Tiankun had done back then. Since ATM skimming became a frequent target for criminals, that practically useless function was discontinued. Consequently, later offenders, lacking Cheng Tiankun’s initial convenience, devised many other strategies.

For instance, in a previous episode Wang Zhuo had watched, criminals worked as electronics repair technicians in shopping malls, installing devices capable of duplicating magnetic stripe card information onto the machines. In this current episode, the criminals outright contracted a restaurant, advertising a twenty percent discount for dining paid by card, luring customers to swipe. Simultaneously, they recorded the customers' magnetic stripe information while using a pinhole camera mounted above the card reader to film the entry of the PIN.

How simple was this process? Just import the recorded data from the machine into a computer, transfer it onto a blank magnetic card using a card writer, and then, using the PIN recorded by the camera, head to the bank to withdraw cash!

High-tech? The entire operation took just one minute!

As for the equipment needed for this process, the expert interviewed in the program casually remarked, "There are tons online; just search for it on Baidu and you’ll find it!"

Damn it! Wang Zhuo burst out laughing. Was this guy trying to advertise for Baidu?

As fate would have it, this was the premiere broadcast. Wang Zhuo immediately grabbed his computer and searched online, only to discover that the relevant Baidu Tieba forums had been shut down due to legal and regulatory reasons. It seemed Baidu knew this area was a major hotspot and had proactively served searchers the cold shoulder.

"Shameless Baidu, actually showing a moment of virtue?"

Wang Zhuo chuckled to himself. Can a dog ever change its habit of eating excrement? For the sake of profit, Baidu had reached an 'extreme level' of shamelessness; it could never be pure as a little white flower!

By this time, Wang Zhuo was far from the backward young man of three years ago, who knew nothing about computers, couldn't use a search engine, and typed with only two fingers. Moreover, he understood this rogue platform, Baidu, quite well. With a flick of his eye, he devised a new method.

This method was actually very simple and perhaps the most practical—one that all searchers used frequently. But despite its ease of execution, it was highly effective!

If searching for "card reader" yielded nothing, since the criminal in the program claimed you could find everything by searching on Baidu, Wang Zhuo refused to believe his intellect was inferior to that low-educated, clumsy criminal. He casually typed the three characters "Bank Card" into the search bar and hit enter.

Huh? This time he immediately found what he was looking for! It was effortlessly acquired! At the top of the search results page were three sponsored links, and in the right-side ad column, there were eight identical advertisements!

"Professional bank card processing, safety guaranteed, service hotline 400..."

"Professional bank cards, cash on delivery, brand new with no record."

"Selling, processing, bank cards with designated account names, complete opening data, cash on delivery for returning customers!"

"Selling bank cards, quality guaranteed, reliable and honest!"

Seeing this information, Wang Zhuo immediately felt a surge of disgust. Bank cards could be obtained simply by walking into a bank; there was absolutely no need to contact strangers online for processing services. Furthermore, selling bank cards was illegal. Many of these promotional links only provided a QQ contact number and were clearly not legitimate company operations; even a fool could see there was something fishy going on!

Although the ad content was somewhat ambiguous, Wang Zhuo knew that any ad appearing in the "Sponsored Links" section had paid Baidu money. That shameless Baidu—as long as you paid, they would promote almost anything, allowing you to sell even these illegal activities explicitly prohibited by the state. It was truly a fertile ground for nurturing crime!

He casually typed a space after "bank card" and entered "fraud." The results this time were largely the same as before. Wang Zhuo noticed that there were still advertisements selling bank cards, and at the very bottom of the page, there were three more sponsored links. It seemed Baidu spared no effort to make money, enveloping the entire computer screen with this criminal information.

"Ah-oh—"

As he browsed the webpage, Wang Zhuo's lips suddenly curved upwards into a playful smile, because in the related searches, he spotted entries for "Bank Card Skimmer," "Making Fake Bank Cards," and "Bank Card Information Collector!"

He clicked on "Making Fake Bank Cards," and the resulting ads were similar to those for "Bank Card." Dissatisfied with this result, Wang Zhuo clicked on "Bank Card Skimmer," but the outcome was unchanged. He retreated to the previous page and tried "Bank Card Information Collector."

The game was on!

[Omitted one thousand words below; the content is self-evident to all!]

As mentioned earlier, before his family fell into hard times due to the economic crisis, Wang Zhuo had been a bright, eager student whose grades were among the top in his class, earning the admiration of his teachers and the affection of female students.

This was partly due to Wang Zhuo's sharp intellect, but also because he was diligent, possessed a spirit of deep inquiry, and had ambition. He never stopped until he had thoroughly grasped anything he undertook.

This was similar to how he later earned money playing pool to cover household expenses, and how he diligently trained his body to transform from a frail little boy into an "action director." He consistently adhered to one principle: whatever he did, he had to do it well, do it perfectly.

Unconsciously, a pale, fish-belly white glow began to spread across the eastern sky, yet he remained invigorated, sitting at his computer, pursuing his research, which stemmed purely from hobby and curiosity.

Through these few hours of intense study, he had managed to grasp nearly everything concerning the methods for fraudulently withdrawing funds from bank cards and credit cards. He had even contacted several sellers of card readers, locating them via searches for "miniature magnetic stripe card collectors" and "bank card information collectors."

As for the card writing equipment, that was even simpler, truly fitting the description of "excellent quality and low price." A few hundred yuan could secure a device, and the experts were eager to promote them, even stating frankly that this machine could write to any magnetic stripe card, not just bank cards!

For Wang Zhuo, this was merely a game, much like staying up all night playing Jinyong Qunxia Zhuan until victory was declared—he won neither a house nor land, only the sheer joy of triumph.

Now, the game had reached its conclusion, yet Wang Zhuo couldn't feel happy. While his own businesses aimed to give back to society, contribute to the economy, and not burden the nation, this internet giant called Baidu—a platform capable of guiding and influencing Chinese online information—was engaged in petty thievery, providing a fertile ground for nurturing crime for a mere pittance in advertising fees.

When Wang Zhuo searched on Baidu for novels he frequently followed, pirated websites always ranked at the top, while legitimate sites that offered genuine reading and protected author rights were ranked lower, often pushed onto the second page. This was rumored to be Baidu's "protection fee" model: pay up, or we suppress you!

"There is no most shameless, only more shameless..."

He shook his head with a wry smile, adding, "Shamelessness has no end."

Setting the "game save file" aside, this game was over. The difficulty was surprisingly low, even lacking challenge. If he had continued, he would only need to place an order, then disguise the received equipment according to the seller's instructions, and he could begin robbing other people's savings!

After a moment of silent reflection, Wang Zhuo felt a sense of powerlessness, once again worrying about the future of this society. Beneath the surface appearance of prosperity lurked ever-increasing contradictions, much like this company named Baidu: peel back the bright exterior, and one finds not only healthy skin but also rotting decay.

Wang Zhuo didn't harbor grand ambitions, but at this moment, for the first time, he felt a powerful anticipation for Qin Xue’s ascent. "To change the environment around oneself, the best shortcut is to influence the person with the highest standing nearby." If Qin Xue could eventually reach the pinnacle of political power, then given Wang Zhuo's relationship with him, he truly might have a chance to contribute his small part, to alter phenomena he found unbearable and punish those who deserved it!

As dawn broke, the light in the study remained on.

Ning Yao, waking up to find herself alone, felt a slight coolness in the spot where Wang Zhuo should have been, and getting up out of curiosity, she left the room to look for him.

The Iveco van monitoring Wang Zhuo's villa remained in place, its body still covered with morning dew. The stout young man on duty inside was yawning repeatedly, while the others were sprawled out on thin ground cloths, looking disheveled.

For security reasons, this group was only conducting ultra-long-range surveillance outside the villa area. Given Wang Zhuo's somewhat sensitive status, they were unsure if he had any secret protectors lying in wait, so their operation remained conservative.

In fact, even they didn't know the exact purpose behind monitoring Wang Zhuo. Now, they could only watch his movements from afar every day, awaiting further instructions.