Clack clack clack—fingers slammed the keyboard like torrential rain. The speed was beyond anything a normal person could keep up with. Even the computer seemed to protest.
In the corner, a pile of broken, person-height keyboards was stacked up. Every one of them was a pricey, high-end model. An ordinary hobbyist would think twice before buying one, but the owner of this room clearly didn't care at all.
There were no lights. The only glow came from several computer monitors, casting just enough light to make out the bare furnishings of the room. It looked shabby, like a poor man's setup—but the tech was top-of-the-line. This setup would make any expert drool. With the most luxurious hardware, custom-modified, this machine was an absolute monster.
And it was because of this machine that this young man became the most famous hacker in the world. No one knew his real name, but his codename was known to everyone in the hacking world—Neo.
This guy had just turned 20, and thanks to his nocturnal lifestyle, his skin was ghostly pale. He was extremely thin, his eyes deeply sunken from endless nights without sleep, and the dark circles under them were worse than a panda's. At the moment, he was licking his dry, colorless lips as his hands flew across the keyboard. His current target was the top-secret archive of the United States.
Firewall after firewall was torn down, proving Neo's dominance as the king of hackers. No one could stop him. He'd already cracked countless databases, and no one had even noticed. Like a mouse slipping into a granary, he could scoop up any classified info at any moment.
These databases included government agencies—like the Eye of God, S.H.I.E.L.D, and several well-known international corporations. He even hacked into personal files, like those of government officials and the Secretary of Defense.
This young man, whose IQ exceeded 600, and whose mastery of computers was beyond expert level, was now going all in against the hardest-to-crack secret archive in the United States. Bit by bit, he infiltrated the system, rewriting the firewalls without raising a single alarm.
Then—Neo got in. Every secret in America was now right in front of him.
The PRISM program, Area 51, the Freemasons—everything was there for him to see. But what fascinated him the most was Kaitou Kid.
To Neo, the world wasn't real. It was all just data. He believed that completely. A fake world, fake emotions, even a fake self—this reality was just a massive, well-designed program. But every program has bugs. And Neo's mission was to find the bugs in this world using his own skills.
After hacking countless databases and collecting massive amounts of information, Neo's research and calculations finally led him to the bug in the system: Kaitou Kid. That's right—Kid was the anomaly. He didn't belong in this world.
"Liu A'dou… Kaitou Kid!" In the classified archives, Neo read everything about wormholes and even found the Americans' reports on Kid. The data showed that Kid possessed abilities that completely shattered known logic. Finally, Neo could confirm it—Kid was Liu A'dou, and Liu A'dou was Kaitou Kid.
Neo had previously checked the timing of Kid's appearances and disappearances, cross-referencing them with others who vanished or showed up at the same time. Liu A'dou raised the most red flags. After digging into Liu A'dou's background, Neo immediately saw through the fake résumé.
He dug deeper and discovered that Liu A'dou, besides being a film director, was a powerful human who could go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. He found this by hacking into former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury's personal computer and reading his private memos.
But even that wasn't enough to connect Liu A'dou to Kaitou Kid, because Kid had never revealed his true strength publicly on Earth. Now, however, Neo was certain—Kid indeed possessed extraordinary combat power.
This was the first time anyone had connected Liu A'dou and Kaitou Kid.
Neo was convinced that Kid was the key to escaping this fake world. He was the bug in the system.
"Kaitou Kid, I'm going to expose your true identity and show the world that this fake world has no meaning. I'll lead everyone to the real world." Neo grinned, then his hands flew over the keyboard again. A detailed chain plan targeting Kid was born under his fingertips.
While Kid was still on Planet Einstein, a series of bad news hit him hard. First, all of Liu A'dou's accounts were frozen. The toy company was in trouble and urgently needed Liu A'dou to return to Earth to sort things out.
Chu Yuxuan had gone to the bank a few times but couldn't figure out what was going on. The bank claimed they had no record of any freeze. It was as if Liu A'dou's money had just vanished. Without funds to pay the manufacturers, "Toy Paradise" was on the verge of shutting down due to lack of capital.
Luckily, Chu Yuxuan was quick-witted. He accepted a huge batch of orders and scraped together just enough money to keep production going. But this was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. The profit wasn't enough to support the entire production and sales chain.
Chu Yuxuan hoped Liu A'dou could come back to Earth to deal with it. Kid didn't doubt him and rushed back immediately. After all, the toy company was something Liu A'dou had put real effort into. Though, he couldn't tell Chu Yuxuan that—being a hands-off boss and claiming he was dedicated… that was asking for lightning to strike.
It really had been a while since he'd handled Earth business. Liu A'dou changed into a suit and went to the bank, assuming it was just a system error or some clerical mistake. He brought all his IDs with him.
"You're Mr. Liu A'dou?" the bank manager asked.
"That's right, it's all there on the documents." Liu A'dou replied. "I just want to know what's wrong with my accounts. Why did all three of them have issues at the same time?"
"Please wait a moment, I'll go check. Just a moment, sir." The manager politely handed him a cup of coffee and stepped away to investigate.
"Well, at least the attitude's good," Liu A'dou thought. 'Guess I won't file a complaint.' In the U.S., it's common for people to have financial managers handling accounts, even filing taxes. But Liu A'dou, being a traditional Chinese man, never got used to hiring one. So Chu Yuxuan, his general manager, handled all the money.
Still, Liu A'dou never doubted Chu Yuxuan would steal from him. He knew Chu Yuxuan always put the country first and wouldn't pull anything shady. Besides, considering who Liu A'dou really was, it'd take serious guts to try that.
But the wait was dragging on. His coffee was nearly gone and the manager still hadn't returned. Liu A'dou started wondering if the bank's system had crashed or something.
Unfortunately, Liu A'dou had oversimplified things. During the investigation, the manager discovered that Liu A'dou was listed as a wanted criminal online—charged with tax evasion. So, being a good American citizen, the manager called the cops. That's what he was really waiting for.
Just as Liu A'dou was about to pour himself a second cup of coffee, the manager walked back in—with the police.
Without delay, the officers pulled out handcuffs and arrested him. "Liu A'dou, you're under arrest for tax evasion. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used as evidence in court. Please cooperate and come with us to the station."
"Uh… are you sure there's no mistake?" Liu A'dou was completely baffled.
"You're the legal representative of Toy Paradise, Mr. Liu A'dou, right?" the officer asked.
"Yeah."
"Then we've got the right guy. Please come with us." The officer pushed Liu A'dou toward the exit.
Liu A'dou was stunned. What the hell was going on? Chu Yuxuan always gave him the tax reports properly—how could this be tax evasion? This wasn't normal. Someone was clearly targeting him.
Once he figured that out, Liu A'dou laughed and said, "Hey, any chance I can wear a hood? I mean, I am kind of famous."