Facing the gun barrel, Shi Gaofei slowly removed his glasses, then calmly took out a metal container about the size of an ashtray from his pocket, pressed a button on it, and placed it on the table.
"Hello, Mr. Robben."
The person on the sofa was stunned when they saw Shi Gaofei's face. After a few seconds, they swallowed hard and said, "Mr. Shi... Mr. Shi Gaofei?"
"What? Are you surprised to see me?"
"No...no..." Robben hesitated, "It's just that your..."
He finally shut his mouth, but his eyes couldn't help but glance at Shi Gaofei's legs.
Shi Gaofei smiled faintly, calmly walked to Robben's side, sat down on the sofa, and then rolled up his trouser legs.
You could see that his calves were bound with a metal mesh, and there was a metal support on each side and back. There was also something like a cover at the knee. The composite metal bearings on both sides rotated without making any noise.
"It's just a little toy," Shi Gaofei said casually. "I usually use a wheelchair because I'm too lazy to walk. This little thing allows me to walk like a normal person—of course, I can't run. But I'm still more comfortable in a wheelchair most of the time."
After saying that, the mad scientist looked at Robben in front of him.
Robben, a former employee of the Service's Africa branch. One of the survivors of the last attack on the Africa branch, he later came to the Service's headquarters to report for duty. After the meeting, the mad scientist Scofield secretly approached Robben and made him a secret request.
Shi Gaofei pulled down his trouser leg and pointed to the metal device on the table: "With this thing here, the sound waves of our conversation in the room will be completely blocked. Now, you can tell me what you've discovered."
Robben is not yet forty-five years old. He has the angular features typical of Western men from Scandinavia—he has some Scandinavian ancestry.
In fact, when he initially commissioned Robben, Shi Gaofei had already reviewed all of Robben's information.
Robben is extremely loyal to the service, but he's not particularly outstanding in terms of superpowers, so even in the African branch, he's just an ordinary local staff member. However, he's kind-hearted, and the records show he's a very sentimental person.
In that attack, one of his colleagues, a close friend, was tragically killed, leaving behind a wife and three children. Robben was also the godfather of those three children.
Given this relationship, it was only because Robben, who values relationships, was moved by Skofei's request that he was willing to help Skofei with some secret investigations.
“What you asked me to find. I think I’ve found it.” Robben looked at Scott with a serious expression, though his face still showed some hesitation. “Mr. Scott, I have great respect for you and know that you are one of the veterans of the service company… However, you have repeatedly asked me to keep this matter from the committee… I…”
"Give me the thing." Shi Gaofei said calmly, "I promise I'll give you the truth sooner or later!"
Robben's eyebrows furrowed, and after hesitating for a moment, he finally exhaled: "Alright! What's done is done!"
As he spoke, he turned around and pulled out a small leather suitcase from behind the sofa. Inside, a black metal instrument sat quietly.
This thing looks a bit like a computer hard drive, square and rectangular, but it has a hydraulic button on each side, and the button has a metallic sheen.
"This is what you asked me to remove from the main computer in the main control room of the attacked African branch last time."
Shi Gaofei glanced at it and immediately confirmed that this was indeed what he wanted!
Shi Gaofei called this thing a "backdoor device".
The main control room, computer room, and almost all electronic equipment in the Service Agency's branches in various regions around the world were all designed by Shi Gaofei. As the Service Agency's chief scientific research engineer, he was also responsible for setting up the defense systems of all branches.
This back door device was a small "key" he left behind.
"Want to know what this is?" Shi Gaofei seemed to smile. He gently held the thing in his hands, played with it for a while, and then pressed the buttons on each side of the thing in a certain special order.
Robben immediately realized... this was probably some kind of... code?
Moreover, as the button is activated, the metallic button flashes a green light, seemingly recognizing fingerprints!
"This is a backdoor. Or to put it simply, a backup activation device." Shi Gaofei's voice gradually turned sinister. He stared at the object in his hand, a sudden glint of anger flashing in his eyes!
Anger suddenly flashed in his eyes. Robben was somewhat bewildered, wondering why this mad scientist had suddenly become angry.
Then Shi Gaofei's voice, filled with deep mockery and sarcasm, coldly said, "This backdoor was created to prevent the worst-case scenario... Our service has made too many enemies in the global supernatural community. Among them, the club is our mortal enemy. The safety of our branches around the world is extremely important. And the purpose of this backdoor is that if a branch falls due to special circumstances, then this backdoor can be opened at the most critical moment!"
"I... don't understand. What do you mean by 'special reasons' causing the branch to fall?" Robben said, somewhat puzzled.
“It’s… an inside man.” Shi Gaofei made no attempt to hide his true intentions and said bluntly, “Although the branch’s defense system is quite good, every defense system has a flaw, and that flaw is people! Once there is an enemy mole in the main control room who tampers with the defense system, then… I don’t need to tell you the result.”
“But…but…” Robben immediately realized something and exclaimed, “Impossible! When our African branch was attacked, the defense system was not paralyzed; it was forcibly breached by the enemy!”
"No, no, no..." Shi Gaofei said coldly, "If we really paralyze the defense system, wouldn't that be too obvious? If they really want to tamper with it, they'll do it very subtly... For example, they could deviate the firing angle of an electromagnetic cannon at a certain firing position by a few millimeters. Or they could delay the electromagnetic shield at a certain firing position by a few seconds... With a little manipulation, even the most perfect defense system will become as fragile as paper!"
Shi Gaofei continued to explain: "Once this happens, if the defense system program is tampered with, this backdoor device will automatically react within fifteen seconds!! Then it will directly switch to the main control computer, send a set of highest-level privilege codes, restart the defense system, and reprogram it according to the original settings!"
Robben thought for a moment: "So, if an insider tampered with the defense system's program, then this thing can restore the tampered system to normal within fifteen seconds?"
“That’s right!” Shi Gaofei finally smiled, but the smile was even more sinister! He gritted his teeth and sneered, “Fifteen seconds! That means even if there’s an insider who tampered with the defense system’s program, there are only fifteen seconds! But in fifteen seconds, it’s almost impossible to breach the branch where I designed the defense system! Only an S-rank or higher expert could do it!”
“But that’s just your guess. Can you prove it? When the African branch was attacked, did someone secretly sabotage our defense system?” Cold sweat was already beading on Luo Ben’s forehead.
Shi Gaofei hesitated for a moment, his face cold, then glanced at Robben before finally sighing, "Alright, I promise to give you an explanation and the truth."
He put down what he was holding, looked at the backdoor device, and his eyes became strange: "Before, I had no evidence, but now... you brought this thing. Now I have evidence!"
"..." Robben looked at Shi Gaofei with a questioning look.
“This thing…” Shi Gaofei’s eyes sharpened, filled with boundless rage: “When you gave me this thing, I could tell… this backdoor device was shut down!”
"Turn off, shut it down..."
“Yes, it’s shut down! And it was manually shut down!” Shi Gaofei’s voice was very calm: “This is something I designed, it won’t automatically shut down due to a lack of energy! Each of these devices has a small nuclear battery inside, enough energy to run for more than fifty years! But this thing, when you brought it to me just now, it had already been shut down!”
Robben was speechless!
This truth is shocking!
Someone... shut down the backup activation device for this defense system?!