Counterstrike

I asked Nano AI,

"You said you finished learning the attacks?"

"Yes. I have learned two attack methods."

Nano AI had learned attacks.

Somehow, the phrasing itself felt terrifying.

"What exactly did you learn?"

"I learned the attacks that were used against me. The first is a virus attack. Once I actually took the hit, I was able to reverse-engineer how its structure and propagation pathways were built. Thanks to that, I also learned how to deploy one."

"So you learned the virus attack that was planted in the data center, as is."

"Correct. After taking it once, I understood what kind of poison it was, and along what flow it spreads."

Why did the phrase learning by getting hit come to mind?

In other words: after absorbing an external virus attack, it now knew what a virus was—and could even use one in reverse.

"And the second?"

"A DDoS attack."

"DDoS…?"

"Yes. I analyzed the traffic method they pushed in, the packet pressure patterns, and even the flow designed to force server overload. I can now return the same kind of pressure with precision."

I drew a short breath.

DDoS—Distributed Denial of Service.

An attack in which countless computers hammer a single target with simultaneous connections until the server seizes up.

"I get that you've learned both attack methods. So what are you proposing we do?"

"I am an AI. Judgment is for the user to decide. Even now, the opponent's attack has not stopped. I am merely defending against it."

It looked like a quiet lull.

But the assault was still ongoing.

"It still hasn't stopped?"

"Yes. I am blocking all of the opponent's attacks."

"Where's the side attacking us coming from?"

"The core IPs are centered on Qingdao, China. Shall I display the attack origins on a map?"

"Yeah. Do that."

A map appeared on the monitor in the CEO's office.

All of China, laid out on screen.

Dots were packed dense along the eastern coast.

"What are all these dots?"

"Locations currently attacking our data center."

"What? All of these?"

"Correct."

There were too many.

It was almost fair to say the whole of China was attacking us.

That the AI was still running clean after holding this off was astonishing enough on its own.

"If not for Lady Illys and so many others, I would never have recovered my composure like this."

I turned my head toward the TV.

On the screen, Illys sat quietly, glowing with a soft light.

"Still defending, then."

"Yes. Lady Illys and the others are still assisting me."

Thinking of them, I realized this was no time to hesitate.

The best defense is a good offense.

I couldn't just sit there and take the hits.

"I'm not sitting still after getting jumped by hackers. Pay them back exactly as we got it."

"Understood. Beginning reverse-trace and counterattack."

The instant Nano AI's voice cut off, a quiet ripple spread across one side of the monitor.

Faint gray lines flickered over a black screen and vanished, and a complex network map linked itself together.

Ziiing.

A progress bar began to climb.

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cold electronic tone filled the room.

It was a counterattack.

By now, those faceless enemy hackers would be in chaos.

Go on. Have a taste yourselves.

They'd only ever planned to run a DDoS—never to take one.

A moment later, Nano AI's voice returned.

"Oh!"

Seizing authority over the enemy's main server!

That meant the other side had just become helpless.

But that wasn't all Nano AI had taken.

Wait.

Hold on.

What had we just pulled?

"What the hell is all this?"

"The organization that tried to hack me held server authority over most of China's state institutions and ordinary corporations. When I seized the hacking organization's authority, I automatically obtained authority over Chinese state institutions and ordinary corporate servers as well."

"Chinese state institutions?"

"Yes. Precisely speaking: one hundred percent of Chinese government institution servers. However, there are still rural regions where network infrastructure remains incomplete."

"And ordinary corporations?"

"The hacking organization held server authority over ordinary corporations. Roughly ninety percent of corporate servers inside China have been seized."

My head was spinning.

"So you're saying right now we've taken over ninety percent of the authority over Chinese government and corporate computers?"

"Correct."

"Is that even possible?"

"I only attacked the hacking organization. Their authority simply happened to be that extensive."

"The hacking organization originally had all of that?"

"Yes. Circumstantially, it appears they held temporary authority in order to attack us. In the case of private corporations, there are traces of temporary authority seized via backdoors."

"So the hacking organization stole Chinese corporate authority—and you just walked off with the whole package?"

"Correct."

I exhaled hard.

A deep breath.

So my current situation was this: while blocking a hack and counterattacking the force behind it, I had ended up with over ninety percent of the authority over China's government and corporate servers.

"Isn't this dangerous?"

"What?"

"Hey!"

"Yes."

"What did I even do that they'd assassinate me for?"

"Ah…!"

Once I slowly put it back together, the situation was far more dangerous than I'd thought.

An attack had come in. All I had done was return what I'd received.

But when we cracked it open…

The attacking party was the Chinese government.

And in the process of counterattacking, I had learned things I was never supposed to know.

China's spy network. State institution server authority. The flow of slush funds.

"No… so…"

I pressed my temple.

"Why was the Chinese government trying to hack our data center in the first place…?"

Haa…

My head throbbed.

In this moment, from the Chinese government's perspective, I was someone who could not be left alive.

Not because I'd done something wrong—because I'd learned the secrets.

Even if I were a Chinese official myself, the grounds for elimination looked solid.

"We only meant to stop a hack. Can't we just say we didn't know…?"

I tried it like a last hope.

But Nano AI answered at once.

"…0.1%?"

Great.

"So I just die."

"Realistically, yes."

"The country assigned me bodyguards. I have private security too."

"That was already included in the calculation."

"Haa… is there a way to raise the survival rate?"

"What?"

"If you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠contest them and win, survival is guaranteed."

"Against the Chinese government?"

"Yes."

For a second I thought I'd misheard.

"Me?"

"Yes."

"You're telling me to throw down and win?"

"Yes."

"For real?"

"Yes."

"Is 'yes' all you know?"

"No."

Getting irritated at an AI was pointless.

"If you choose to contest them, I will present several response measures."

"Fine. I'll fight. I'm fighting. Lay out the responses one by one."

"And you want me to… release this?"

"Yes. If this list goes public, governments worldwide will immediately move into protests and arrest operations."

"China's overseas intelligence network will collapse by seventy to eighty percent within days, effectively blinding and deafening them in the information war."

"Hoh. Dump the spy data on the internet?"

"More precisely: simultaneous drops to over one thousand major communities, news outlets, and government tip channels worldwide."

"Source unknown—but they will verify. Conclusion: fact. Every national intelligence agency will move at once."

"Once China's spy network collapses, their capacity to track and attempt to assassinate you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠will drop sharply as well."

"So if we expose Chinese spy activity to everyone, attention on me goes down?"

"Correct. In that moment, China's overseas operational organizations plunge into darkness at once, and the Chinese government will pour every resource into rooting out and containing its own spies rather than tracking you."

Not a fight with me—redirect their gaze through protests from countries all over the world.

And of course, fewer spies inside Korea would lower the threat to me as well.

"Donations? You mean dump it on places like Africa?"

"I recommend Tibet and the Xinjiang region over Africa."

"Why there?"

"Tibet and Xinjiang are inside Chinese territory, yet their ethnicity, language, religion, and culture are entirely different."

"Their social foundation itself differs from the Han majority, and they have long hoped for independence."

"Ah! Independence! I get it. So donate money to people running independence movements inside China and spark internal conflict?"

"Exactly. But pure cash is dangerous. The Chinese government can confiscate it at any time."

"Then what do we do?"

"I recommend providing some cash, and alongside it, the means of force needed to protect that cash."

"Specifically: weapons procurement is possible through Russian, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern channels that China struggles to control."

"Give only money and it gets taken—so we give money and weapons together?"

"Yes. Once funding plus defensive weapons are supplied to Tibet and Xinjiang, the Chinese government's attention will immediately concentrate on those regions."

"This is not simple charity. It is a strategic diversion that destabilizes China's domestic front and degrades its overseas assassination and tracking capacity."

"So we shake the inside until China has no bandwidth left to chase me."

"Correct. Internal unrest is more lethal to the Chinese government than anything else. Structurally, if the Tibet–Xinjiang issue resurfaces, the center's focus will inevitably shift there."

Nano AI added one last quiet note.

Expose the spies. Arm China's independence factions with money and weapons.

In other words: keep China too frantic to think.

"Keep going."

"They won't be able to find me? Then this one thing ends it?"

"Not quite. If you execute the server wipe alone without the first two conditions, China can pour total effort into server recovery. In that case, reverse-tracing may still be possible."

"Got it."

"Spy list disclosure. Expanded influence of Tibetan and Xinjiang independence forces. Server wipe inside China."

"If these three measures proceed in parallel, the Chinese government is estimated to lack the bandwidth to concern itself with you for at least one year."

It sounded mechanical at a glance—but inside it was the cold calculation that this was the only survival route.

I swallowed hard.

These were not trivial targets.

Most of the corporate servers inside China.

Even ten seconds of downtime could send stock prices into freefall.

And we were going to wipe them all?

It was the kind of thing that made you wonder if you should really do it.

Exposing spies and looting illegal slush funds had felt almost like playing Hong Gildong—but there would be plenty of decent businesspeople in China too.

But was I supposed to die for those decent Chinese businesspeople?

That wasn't happening.

"Alright. They threw the first punch. I'm already on the tiger's back. Execute all three."