Chapter 5: Critical Intelligence (Please Bookmark, Vote for Recommendation)_1

Jiang Yu thought it over and decided to try his luck with a lottery draw, though he didn't know what he could win—if it was even a tenth as useful as the items in the store, it would be great!

While resting on a stone bench, he used his consciousness to activate the lottery feature.

He spent 100 Deception Points and the electronic lottery machine started spinning, with balls clattering inside; finally, a ball rolled out from the bottom of the machine.

Jiang Yu quickly went to check the writing on the ball, only to find it read "Thank You for Your Patronage"!

Damn, there's even a "Thank You for Your Patronage" notice? This seemed just like a sketchy merchant's lottery event!

But he couldn't resist and tried again, only to get the same result: Thank You for Your Patronage!

Jiang Yu was not ready to give up and used his final chance to draw.

This time, he wasn't disappointed; he won: "One-time calculation of Sophon's surveillance downtime."

Jiang Yu treasured the prize like a precious find, feeling more and more that the Mianbirén Shop was indeed a golden finger specially tailored for wallfacers.

It could not only infiltrate Sophon's surveillance system but also calculate the downtime of Sophon's monitoring.

Then, based on the prize he had won, Jiang Yu speculated that the number of Sophons was not high, and there were even periods when his surveillance wasn't active!

This also confirmed a previous guess that Jiang Yu had, even though Sophon could move at the speed of light and theoretically appear anywhere on Earth within the same second.

After all, it was an intelligent computer, and the amount of information it could receive and process was limited; it couldn't possibly monitor everyone in the world.

Moreover, it appeared that Sophon's monitoring was limited to certain important individuals, and since it also had to work on destroying the beliefs of scientists, it must be overwhelmed, hence the downtime.

Jiang Yu thought about meeting Da Shi again in the afternoon and felt that checking the downtime of Sophon would be useful—he could at least know which things he should say and which he shouldn't, not having to beat around the bush like last time.

So he immediately used the calculation opportunity he had just won and a line of text appeared in his mind:

"You are currently in a downtime period, which will last until 3 PM this afternoon. However, during this period, if you encounter another person under Sophon's surveillance, you will be back under Sophon's watch; if you leave the person being monitored by Sophon, the downtime continues."

Jiang Yu took out his phone and checked the time; it was just past nine in the morning, and Sophon monitored him less often than he had imagined.

Before, he didn't know whether Sophon was there or not, so every day when Jiang Yu woke up, he had to assume Sophon's presence.

Such a life was somewhat exhausting; since the moment he decided to infiltrate ETO, Jiang Yu felt like he was acting every moment, only adapting to this lifestyle in the past two days.

Having rested enough, Jiang Yu got up to finish up the remaining chores, to free up the afternoon for meeting Shi Qiang.

While wiping a pavilion, he glimpsed from the corner of his eye Ye Wenjie coming downstairs, carrying a cloth bag as if she was going to buy groceries again.

Jiang Yu pretended not to see and continued cleaning the pavilion; since he hadn't received any Deception Points from Ye Wenjie in the last few days, he remained enough restraint to avoid initiating contact with her.

At the same time, over the past few days, he became familiar with some elders who liked playing poker and chess—an excellent cover for his surveillance of Ye Wenjie.

Jiang Yu also had a second layer of consideration; most people in the faculty residential area knew each other, and a new face could easily attract attention.

So playing cards with the old men also allowed him to acquire information indirectly.

The card-playing elders weren't out yet, and the students working for their work-study program served as Jiang Yu's cover.

Just as Ye Wenjie stepped downstairs, Jiang Yu noticed something was off about her today; she was clutching her chest and walking unsteadily.

Ye Wenjie quickly reached for the cloth bag, apparently to grab some medicine, but before she could take it out, she staggered and sat down on the ground.

Jiang Yu hurried over, "Professor Ye!"

As he said this, he opened the cloth bag to get the medicine, but in addition to a bottle of medicine, there were also three letters inside.

Jiang Yu suddenly realized—he had been wondering all week why there hadn't been any suspicious characters in the neighborhood. As the nominal Commander of ETO and the actual leader of the Redemptionist faction, how was Ye Wenjie communicating with her subordinates?

According to Kong Xiang, Ye Wenjie's home phone was being tapped, and she didn't have a computer at home, nor a way to access the internet.

But to command so many scholars within the Redemptionist faction, Ye Wenjie would always need to issue some orders, wouldn't she?

Now Jiang Yu understood; Ye Wenjie was using the most primitive method of communication with her subordinates—letters.

Of course, these letters were not necessarily meant to be mailed; it was very possible that they were handed out at the highly trafficked vegetable market.

Pretending not to see the letters, Jiang Yu quickly took out the medicine and fed it to Ye Wenjie, "Do you need me to call 120 [emergency services]?"

Ye Wenjie shook her head with difficulty, "Just help me to the pavilion to sit for a bit."

Jiang Yu did as told, helping Ye Wenjie to the pavilion. After sitting for a while, her complexion indeed improved greatly.

Ye Wenjie smiled, "Thank you, young man. You've been here for several days, but I still don't know your name."

"Jiang Yu," he replied. "Professor Ye, just call me Xiaoyu."

"Thank you so much for today, Xiaoyu. Come to my house for dinner tomorrow night; consider it my way of saying thanks."

Jiang Yu replied politely, "It was nothing, Professor Ye, don't worry about it."

Then he asked, "What happened to you just now?"

"Ah, it's an old ailment," Ye Wenjie began to chat with Jiang Yu, "Are you a local?"

Regarding his personal information, Jiang Yu answered truthfully.

After talking about Jiang Yu's parents and grandparents, the thought finally appeared in his mind: Deception Points from Ye Wenjie +1.

Jiang Yu breathed a sigh of relief internally, glad he had managed to deceive the old lady.

After chatting for over twenty minutes, Ye Wenjie's spirits had picked up considerably, and she stood up to continue to the vegetable market.

Before leaving, Ye Wenjie invited Jiang Yu again to have dinner at her place the next evening. Seeing that Ye Wenjie was sincerely inviting him, Jiang Yu accepted the invitation.

Jiang Yu then focused on finishing up the rest of the cleaning before heading to the library. After confirming no one was following him, he went to Kong Xiang's office.

He knew that he could only obtain details about the Poison Apple Project through Kong Xiang and that information about Ye Wenjie would make Kong Xiang trust him more.

After hearing Jiang Yu's report, Kong Xiang exclaimed, "Indeed, the experienced are more cunning! I will have others follow Ye Wenjie in the next few days to confirm the veracity of this information."

Then he smiled, "I didn't expect you to make progress so quickly. Dining at Ye Wenjie's house is a great opportunity; make sure you handle it well!"

Jiang Yu nodded, "I will."