Crimson Instinct

Chapter 150: Treading the dark waters of Internet (1)

*Xin Lei*

We gathered around the monitor where Qi Qiang was already talking to some of bro's staff. The screen showed a dark greyish background that looked similar to Google or Bing.

"The specialty of this software is that I would be completely undetected in the Dark Web. Of course, we have anonymity and secrecy there, but the people managing Tor relays are shrewd. Our location or IP address is not completely hidden there, so if the hackers want, they can tap into our details. On top of being connected to a VPN-"

"What is a VPN?" Bai Li asked.

"Virtual Private Network. It is used for safe browsing over the internet, especially when you are out on travel using public wifis. When your system is directly connected to the browser, the ISP - Internet Service Provider can see your real IP with which you are surfing the net. But VPN gives you a temporary IP address until you are connected with it, so you have privacy. Your movements on the Internet cannot be tracked.

All the activities are encoded and unreadable in transit. Your ISP cannot read your connections, and you can visit any website without your ISP knowing anything. So, of course, while surfing the Dark Web, VPN is a must. But I have also coded many configurations in my software that makes me able to visit any onion site without the owner of that site detecting my presence."

"Yes, sir." The officer said, "We have thoroughly tested it. The boy is a genius. We surfed in many dark websites, including somewhere the criminals are a part of, but it didn't trigger any red alarm. We entered and left without leaving any suspicions."

I was amazed and nodded in appreciation.

"That's great," Bro said.

I typed. "Wow bro, you praised him."

Bro shot a cold stare at me. "I appreciate true talent, unlike an airhead like you."

I pouted.

Qi Qiang typed a string of words on the screen and said, "This is the dark web."

I looked through it, and a particular ad caught my sight. I typed. "Is that a sale on electronics?"

I was dumbfounded. It looked like any other e-commerce website.

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He nodded. "You can shop in the dark web just like you can in a normal one. Look, there is even 50% off on smartphones and laptops. Obviously, 50% is a scam."

... Seriously? I thought only criminal activities took place here.

"But of course you can also find killers for murder on-demand and rapists on hire. Everything from drug pedaling, pornography to arms trafficking can be done through here."

I sighed.

Technology was supposed to be used for the betterment of society. But well, everything had its downside.

I typed. "How do these people pay?"

"Bitcoins or cryptocurrency. That is the virtual payment system they use."

Ah, I had heard of that.

Bai Li asked, "How do you go to FriendsChat from there?"

Qi Qiang said, "I will have to search a bit for that. It's not like the regular browser. You can just type the URL, or if you don't know, you can hit the search bar in Google to look up about it, and usually, the first link in search results is the correct URL. But on the dark web, we need to know the exact URL right down to its last decimal. It contains random characters and strings. It should be precise, and it ends with .onion extension. Let me find it."

Qi Qiang's finding meant that he was once again typing some indecipherable string of codes so fast on the black screen that it was barely readable. It was lightning fast. His finger movements seemed like he was typing on air.

"Hm. This is it. This is the FriendsChat homepage."

Liao Huifang said, "Yes, this is it. This is what I roughly saw on sis's phone."

Bai Li asked, "What does it open into?"

Qi Qiang said, "For that, I will have to log in and give some credentials. Well, I can create fake credentials, but if you know someone from here whose credentials we can use, it will be much easier to access his profile. We can also see who all he is friends with and the other members of this scam and all his chat history too."

I typed. "But, we don't know whose credentials to use."

Luo Zhiqiang said, "Duan Deming's. His code name is Neal. That may be the user name he may be using."

"What about Rodey?" Bai Li asked, "He is the right-hand man. We can get to know more information."

Qi, Qiang nodded. He typed Rodey in the username field, but it threw an error. He tried a bunch of times, but his account didn't open.

I typed. "Any problem?"

"There is no person as Rodey in FriendsChat."

Ah? This was shocking.

"How is this possible?" Bai Li said, "Rodey is an integral part of this gang and scam. Even in the Army, I came to know that he has very close connections with the boss. It is impossible that he doesn't have an account here. Did you try with all combinations?"

"Yes, big brother. If I have a hint of username, then it's easy to crack it and log in, but no matter what permutation and combination I used, he is not there. That only means that this Rodey guy isn't on FriendsChat."

That was indeed... unbelievable. Someone like Rodey wasn't a part of FriendsChat, yet he handled all the operations closely.

"This is strange" Bai Li seemed to be in deep thought. "If he is not in FriendsChat, then is the only responsible for bringing the victims to them?" He muttered to himself rather than speaking out loud.

Luo Zhiqiang said, "Then we can only use Neal."

Bro said, "But he is captured right now, and the gang surely knows about it. If they detect activity from his account when he is locked up and doesn't have access to any mobile or laptop, then they will get suspicious."

Qi Qiang shook his head. "Don't worry. They wouldn't find out. All of the sites in the dark web need credentials to go further, so I have already started a background job in the software that whatever I do here or with whoever's account will be undetectable and untraceable. They wouldn't sniff out anything."

Shi Ruiling nodded. "That's great, then."

Qi, Qiang nodded. He got back to work, and it didn't take much time before he cracked the password. As he signed in, we finally saw their site through which they carried out their vicious deals.

"It's kind of a chat forum. On the left side, we can see Neal's friend list, and on the main window, we see his chat history. If I go further up, then I can see thousands of chat records and with people having different usernames."

Duan Deming, aka Neal's chats, was visible in front of us. They were the same names as some of the women who called him out when they were tortured in the base.

"The last person he chatted with was - huh? Liao Chuntao?"

I widened my eyes.

Liao Huifang was dumbstruck as well.

Qi Qiang asked in shock. "Liao Huifang...your sis used her real name on the forum?"

Liao Huifang pursed her lips. "Sis really didn't know much about the Internet. She hardly had any social media accounts."

He slowly nodded.

As expected, the chat consisted of Duan Deming pretending to be sweet to Liao Chuntao and speaking all the flowery words that can move any woman's heart.

Considering Liao Chuntao, who was innocent about such intentions, it wasn't difficult for her to fall into the trap.

I peeked at Liao Huifang, and I felt her gaze dim as she looked at the screen.

Luo Zhiqiang cleared his throat, and she snapped out. She silently wiped the corner of her eye.

Bro said, "What else is there?"

"There is his friend list. Then in his transaction history, I can see some receipts of some private deals. There is a whole group having a long list of almost a hundred friends."

I typed. "Some of them would definitely be those men that were present on the base."

"It could be. There is Sufy, Forsaken, Jumpythreat, Melonmelon, and all kinds of names here. All their chat history more or less show the same things. With Sufy, it is different. He talks more about work. Like the last they talked about was someone about TroubledTeen. They were discussing how to bring him from outside of the hotpot restaurant in Andingzhen. This Sufy was supposed to wear a red dress and meet him in front of a bus stop."

I stiffened.

Outside the hotpot restaurant? Andingzhen? Woman in a red dress?

I quickly typed. "TroubledTeen must be Chu Jie! This is the same method with which he was kidnapped. Bai Li and I were there when it happened!"

Bai Li nodded. "Sufy is also the same name which we found in Gen Gen's base. What other names are there?"

Qi Qiang scrolled down.

"Bloodygame, Ilikeascars...oh, this one is interesting. One of the user names is CrimsonInstinct."