Pretend to Be a Senior Hacker, Please! 1

"I think it depends on Nightingale's judgment," Terrence gazed at Yisi; he could see that the tip of his nose was red, and his eyes had some moisture in them as if Yisi had just secretly cried,

"come on, take it easy; Nightingale will take care of everything; she will make a rational decision in the best interest of the Federation's judgment."

Yisi nodded; he knew that Nightingale was a powerful AI and that the human emotions Nightingale had shown earlier were merely her disguise.

"Nightingale, do you have the results of your processing yet?" Terrence stood up suddenly; he looked a little emotional, like an addict manipulated by instinct, his fingers dug into the pocket of his police uniform trousers, fumbling for something.

"If your nicotine hunger has returned, I suggest you go outside the interrogation room and deal with it first." Nightingale said, "As for the 'outcome of the treatment of the stowaway JI Yisi,' I still need to gather some data before I can give a final opinion on the treatment."

"Thanks, I'll go and have a cigarette then." As if he were a secondary school student who had heard the school bell, Terrence first glanced at Yisi, signaling him to cooperate with the Nightingale's questioning. He shoved a stick of electronic atomizer into his mouth and walked briskly towards the interrogation room.

It turned out that in the future world, there was also a problem with nicotine addiction.

This Senior Inspector Terrence-Lawrence, who looked far more decent than the addicts on Earth, could be a police officer even with such poor self-control?

Just as Yisi wondered, Nightingale's voice rang out again.

"JI Yisi, is it true that you will not consider describing the landscape of Whitefall City to me? Perhaps it would amuse me, and perhaps it would be the only way you could change your fate of being deported."

Nightingale said, her tone relaxed and utterly devoid of the seriousness she had just felt in front of Terrence.

"Sorry, I'm not very good at descriptions and metaphors," Yisi said dryly; firstly, he knew nothing about Whitefall City, and secondly, he knew very clearly that Nightingale was joking with himself.

I have to be wary of the AI's emotion module, Yisi thought to himself; maybe this was part of the code the Nightingale's designers had written in advance, like, to keep the suspects from getting too uptight at critical moments or something, thus making them spill more details.

"Okay, it's no big deal," Nightingale said. If Nightingale could have a body, Yisi felt like she might be shrugging her shoulders at the moment to express her feelings of regret.

"Do you have any more questions, Yisi," Nightingale added after a half minute of silence.

"I'm curious as to why only you and Mr. Lawrence are interrogating me; it's not very professional; I would have thought a stowaway like me would be worthy of a joint multi-departmental interrogation."

Yisi remembered that in previous episodes of the simulator walkthrough, he was interrogated jointly by multiple departments. Still, he met no one this time, except for this severely nicotine-addicted Officer Lawrence, and only a psychotic-like intelligent program Nightingale was interrogating him.

Yisi certainly didn't think the life simulator had tricked him; he was now incredibly curious about what had caused this change.

"Originally, you would have been interrogated jointly by multiple departments, but a large number of police officers were pulled away to participate in temporary training a few hours ago, so not many officers are currently qualified to interrogate you."

Nightingale said, "It's all such a coincidence that you're lucky that you only have to face Senior Inspector Lawrence and myself at the moment."

"It seems I really am 'lucky.'" Yisi used a heavier tone when he said lucky, which gave him a grumbling tone.

Unfortunately, Nightingale was an AI, and she couldn't grasp the subtle difference between such tones; she just assumed it was Yisi being sentimental.

"Perhaps you could talk to me casually before Senior Inspector Lawrence returns to the interrogation room." Nightingale said, "I need to gather more information from you that will support the conclusions of my judgment."

"What can I do to get a job offer to stay in Manyo City in a situation like the one I'm in." Yisi's tone was sincere, like that of an ordinary young man seriously seeking advice.

"I'm afraid you'll have no choice but to cooperate with the police." Nightingale said, her tone smooth and almost emotionless, as it had been earlier when she had prompted Officer Lawrence to "no gambling here."

"Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?" Yisi restrained his excitement like a drowning man finally clutching a life preserver; his tone was sincere and eager, "Please tell me, it's important to me."

"To give you a few hints, as you mentioned before, we are currently fighting a cross-regional smuggling chain."

Nightingale didn't continue, but Yisi fully understood her words' deeper meaning: to work with the police, betray the Dragon Tiger Gang, and help them break up the gang's smuggling network.

Just then, Yisi noticed that the mission had changed:

["Cat Catches the Rat" Current Progress: 0% → 5%]

"Yes, I know that. As long as you don't send me back to Whitefall City," Yisi said after biting her lip and pretending to think about it for a long time.

Just as Yisi expressed her desire to cooperate with the police department, Officer Lawrence, who had just gone out for a cigarette, pushed open the door to the interrogation room, "Looks like you guys are getting somewhere with your chat."

It turned out that the entire conversation Yisi had just had with Nightingale was under his close scrutiny.

"So ... you're spying on me?" Yisi's eyes were filled with disbelief, part of his acting skills, "You and Nightingale discussed this and tried to trick me?!"

The electronic atomizer in Lawrence's hand was still lit; he was indeed nicotine dependent. It was confirmed that Lawrence was out smoking, and it was also confirmed that he was spying on Yisi's conversation with Nightingale.

"Don't be offended, Mr. Ji; it's just a common interrogation technique; after all, people tend to trust artificial bits of intelligence more. They have no emotions and never say ambiguous perfunctory things." Lawrence explained.

"...Okay, tell me, what do you want me to do?" Yisi feigned dismay, knowing deep down that he couldn't show too much positive emotion at this point; it would reveal his true intentions.

[Cat Catches the Rat' Current Progress: 5% → 8%]

Yisi held back his joy; it was all going too well, much easier than he had expected.

"Well, let's see ..." Lawrence put away his electronic cigarette lighter behind the cover of his messy stubble. He looked thoughtful; he was really thinking, "Nightingale, what do you think? "

In the Cyber world, where AI has somehow become an extension of the human brain, Lawrence embodies this laziness to the fullest.

"We could mold him into a hacker for Dragon-Tiger gang, an advanced hacker." Nightingale's tone suddenly becomes very relaxed; after all, hackers are the field, and group Nightingale knows best, and no one knows hackers better than she.

Yisi felt fireworks exploding in his mind as he remembered his complex identity: he was simultaneously working for the Dragon-Tiger Gang, the Dark Blue Free Army, and the Federation. And he happened to be a senior hacker in the Dragon-Tiger Gang!

Wasn't what Nightingale said one of the true identities that Yisi currently needed to hide? How could there be such a coincidence?

"You're an artificial intelligence major, and programming is one of your compulsory courses, isn't it?" Lawrence asked.

Yisi nodded; Lawrence was absolutely right. The Artificial Intelligence major and programming were closely linked.

"We need you to be a nail in the coffin of the Dragon-Tiger gang; you need to be firmly planted in the heart of it." Lawrence finally smiled, that disheveled air swept away, and he looked like a general with a lot of planning and self-confidence.