NOVPUBChapter 124: Chapter 123 Sunflower Project
Chapter 124 -123 Sunflower Project
Under the perception of Cyber Eye, the network here was like a spacious data mansion, where green passages represented connection lines, and red represented obstacles or traps. The obstacles were like piles of clutter that could be easily climbed over, whereas the traps were mostly anti-hacker programs, appearing on the road as red blocks that posed no big problem as long as they were not touched.
The network configuration of MI6, like most critical institutions, was divided into two layers, internal and external. The internal layer was physically isolated, and theoretically, even Cyber Eye could not penetrate it. However, it so happened that there would often be several cameras in such a server room to monitor whether everything inside was normal. And these cameras were connected to the external network, enabling maintenance personnel to check them, which was a necessary security measure but also became the loophole for Chaoyang to penetrate the physical isolation.
He merely needed to enter a camera that filmed the server room through the external network, and he could directly “see” into the closed network the camera was watching.
Physical isolation was theoretically an impenetrable defense, so the storages in these server rooms contained the most confidential files. Even because it was so secure, many files were stored in plaintext, including the complete list of all employees working for MI6.
Chaoyang used Tyler as a keyword to search but failed to find Jason Tyler himself.
Could it be a false name?
He scratched his aching head with some frustration.
Of course, there was another clumsy method, which was to compare photos. The personal profiles of the vast majority of employees included photographs, and it was unlikely that Tyler would have changed his facial features. The problem was that there were nearly four thousand people stored on the ultra-secret server. If one were to compare them with the naked eye, it would probably take three or four days to finish.
Chaoyang was left with no choice but to make a call, dialing Ailuodi’s number, “I have good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?”
“Hello… are you okay?” There seemed to be a pause on the other end.
“Very well.”
“Geez, don’t scare me like that when you start talking,” the girl complained, “I’ll listen to the bad news first.”
“The bad news is the trip abroad is canceled. Tyler’s suspicion is now enormous. I’m just one piece of evidence short of confirming his identity.”
“It really is him! I also had doubts about him… A successful entrepreneur who knows Wayne James, an international drug lord.” Ailuodi quickly accepted the conclusion.
“You sound… pretty happy?”
“Of course I’m happy, another business owner is about to be utterly disgraced. What’s the good news?”
“The good news, of course, is that the mission rewards will come faster.”
“Tsk… is that what you called to tell me?” Ailuodi smacked her lips.
“No, what I really wanted to ask was, do you have an expert in programming on your team?” Chaoyang briefly described his problem, “I need a program that automatically compares photos.”
“We do have a hacker, but I don’t know if she can meet your requirements.” It sounded like she started moving, “Here, just ask her yourself. Frey!”
A moment later, another woman took the call, “Hello, boss! My name is Frey, the boss told me about you, just ask whatever you need!”
Her voice was full of energy, with a hint of a Latin accent, as if she was ready to break into a rap at any moment.
“… Can you write a program to compare photos?”
“Does the boss have a deadline?”
“The sooner the better, ideally today.”
“That’s…” Frey hesitated, “I don’t have a ready-made one in hand. Writing it is easy, but if you want it to be a bit more efficient, the AI needs time to learn. Otherwise, the practicality won’t be any better than manual comparison. If you don’t mind, I can buy a trained program from the hacker market, or I could hack one from a big data center… Of course, these all come with a certain risk of data leaks.”
Big data center?
Chaoyang’s mind stirred slightly, and he suddenly thought of another candidate.
That was Cui Zhen’en.
During her pursuit with Zhang Zhiyuan, he had seen it all. Unlike Frey’s off-road style, Cui Zhen’en had internal channels to use police resources.
However, the issue was his identity…
He couldn’t possibly approach them directly using his identity as Paradise’s host, right?
“Do you have any software that can change voices?” he asked.
“I do have that,” Frey replied immediately. “Not only can it alter voices, but it can also simulate someone’s appearance, provided you have a recording of the person.”
“Okay, have Ailuodi send me a copy then.”
This was the awkward part about relying on abilities, Chaoyang thought; his control over the internet was far beyond any hacker, yet he couldn’t write the simplest program.
It didn’t take long for Angel to send the program over, with a small note added underneath: “Do not use for evil purposes.”
I’m not Feng Ge, and I don’t have so many evils to commit, Chaoyang thought dismissively as he opened the software and, after tinkering with it for a while, called Cui Zhen’en—having assured himself beforehand that Zhang Zhiyuan was not with the recipient.
“Hello, are you busy? I need a favor,” Chaoyang said in the voice of Detective Zhang.
“What’s up? You’re not fixing a neighbour’s computer again, are you?”
Cui Zhen’en evidently had no suspicions.
“Hardly. I want to compare a photo, you know, the type of program that automatically matches a real person with their picture. You have that, right?”
“Of course! But we’re not in Interpol anymore, why are you still verifying people’s identities over there?”
“I’m in a real hurry, can you just send it over and we can talk later?”
“Fine, you owe me one.”
Cui Zhen’en promptly sent a message to Zhang Zhiyuan’s WeChat, which Chaoyang, well-prepared, intercepted immediately.
“This is a software interface, just open it and upload your file,” Cui instructed.
“It’s secure, right?”
“What are you thinking? This is a tool used by the police,” Cui assured him.
That’s true, Chaoyang considered, once he finished operating the program, he could just delete the records… Just to be sure, he added, “What if the person in the photo has had plastic surgery?”
“They can still be recognized. This software has been trained with billions of data points, it identifies facial bone structures, so unless the entire face is covered, masks and hats won’t hide their identity,” Cui explained.
With that assurance, Chaoyang immediately got to work. He exported the employee data from MI6, selected the photos, and uploaded those along with multiple angles of Tyler’s photos into the comparison program.
Thirty minutes later, the program produced results.
To Chaoyang’s surprise, Tyler himself was still not listed among them, but he did spot two other names: Diad Flynn and George Flynn, with their feature similarity reaching 78% and 86%, respectively! Especially George Flynn, Chaoyang scrutinized his photo for a while and noticed he indeed bore a resemblance to Tyler.
The problem was, Diad was born in 1921 and George in 1950, while Tyler could be at most in his forties. The three had vastly different ages.
Yet Chaoyang discovered something new.
Reviewing the files of Diad and George, he noticed that both had been part of a top-secret project named the Sunflower Project.
Following this keyword, Chaoyang also found detailed files about the Sunflower Project on MI6’s internal server. After a brief review, he couldn’t help but admire the breadth of Britannia’s intelligence agency.
It turned out to be a massive project involving nearly three thousand people, born after World War II, with the sole purpose of keeping secrets safe in the age of the internet!
