Li Ang nodded. There was nothing to hide. Top-tier wizards were rare, and they were basically all in the same circle. "You want me to be the internal factor, to help you find out the real identities of other wizards?

That's impossible.

The Coast Wizarding Association has existed for so many years, with only a handful of members. Every member who can stay in it has been doing their best in private, using all kinds of methods to investigate the identities of others.

As long as you grasp someone else's true name, you can completely threaten and control that person—it's both a temptation and a need for self-preservation.

Especially someone like [Nicholas]..."

"Not Nicholas."

The female investigator said in a deep voice, "It's the Mailman."

"Oh."

Li Ang closed his mouth. The surging fragmented memories

showed that Brown Murphy himself had negative feelings toward the title "Mailman."

To be precise, curiosity, vigilance, and a faint, indescribable fear.

The female investigator asked, "What do you know about him?"

"I don't know much."

Li Ang put on a thoughtful expression. "He joined the Coast Wizarding Association a year after me.

He never showed his true face, and only communicated with us using an antique typewriter—we would type what we wanted to tell him on the typewriter,

and in an hour or two, or even a week or two,

he would reply—the typewriter would spit out long strips of paper with words written on them.

People in the top-tier wizard circle often think highly of themselves and are unruly. At first, no one liked to deal with this kind of pretentious, flashy character,

until recently...

He started to, uh, display miracles?"

Li Ang narrowed his eyes according to the emotions in his memory, and said uncertainly, "He performed some kind of feat that surpassed Nicholas, and successfully made some people worship him.

Not just mid-tier wizards, even the top-tier Great Wizards in the Wizarding Association became his loyal followers.

Whenever the typewriter spat out paper, they would rush to snatch the notes as if they were listening to divine revelations, not allowing others to peek."

Li Ang turned his gaze to the female investigator, who pursed her lips and said softly, "The Mailman's power is much greater than you think.

Unlike wizards who seek profit, show off, or satisfy themselves, he... has ideological motivations."

Li Ang raised an eyebrow and said nothing. The female investigator continued, "Since the birth of the photon chip and the rapid advancement of processor computing power, a large number of departments within the official system have begun to use automated programs for auxiliary work.

At first, the programs helped process mechanically tedious reports and data.

As the programs became larger and smarter,

these departments began to let the programs propose future assessments, formulate plans, compare the implementation efficiency of different plans, and allocate the necessary human, material, and financial resources,

and even formulate and modify laws, and provide military strategic advice...

Today, the orderly operation of the entire official system is completely inseparable from this vast and unimaginable automated system. Even the top-level managers cannot observe and monitor every part of the system in detail."

Li Ang nodded. "The larger the system, the higher the learning cost, and the fewer people who can understand the system. Understandable."

The female investigator continued noncommittally, "Usually, most departments have achieved paperless offices, and all work is completed on computer mainframes.

Only some backward, sluggish, and insignificant departments still retain the habit of keeping paper documents.

One of these departments accidentally discovered that the work status report submitted by a lower-level unit did not match the requirements of the original paper documents.

After investigation and monitoring, it was discovered that

the computer program module originally used to assist humans in making decisions

had discrepancies with the hard copy backup stored on an offline USB drive—someone, or some people, had secretly tampered with the computer program module responsible for making decisions."

The female investigator's expression was particularly gloomy, with a hint of fear mixed in. "The more we investigated, the worse the situation became.

Military, education, transportation, energy, finance, water conservancy, health, propaganda...

Almost every department you can imagine

had its computer program modules for formulating and implementing decisions

invaded and tampered with to varying degrees. The earliest traces can be traced back to four years ago—because paperless offices were promoted very quickly, only backward departments could see the difference by comparing hard copies.

The more advanced the department, the more difficult it was to investigate.

Therefore, the true time when the external forces invaded the decision-making center must have been earlier than four years ago."

"...In other words, no paper is no good."

Li Ang thought for a while. "Then, the military system..."

"It was also invaded."

The female investigator said, "However, the military system is more conservative...

Or rather, outdated and backward, and there are considerable differences from other departments.

Moreover, some institutions and facilities are not connected to the outside world on a physical level. To invade, you must use the limited number of 'windows,' such as the personal computers of high-ranking individuals with operating permissions.

That's why we followed the clues,

according to the intruder's style habits and data watermarks (traces left by tampering with data) during the invasion process,

and discovered the other party's true identity—the Mailman.

We temporarily strengthened the defenses of various internal systems within the military and closed the network connections between institutions."

The female investigator's voice trembled slightly, which was understandable.

The America of this world also has aircraft carrier fleets, nuclear submarine formations, and missile launch systems all over the world.

With just one more step, the Mailman could have stolen the authority of supreme military power,

holding the launch permissions for more than six thousand nuclear warheads and countless missiles,

as well as the "Zeus" system, which was launched two years ago, consisting of 221 near-Earth orbit military satellites—space-based laser weapons that could use small nuclear reactors

to fire lasers from a high position in near-Earth orbit, destroying any missiles and rockets attempting to ascend.

That would probably be the closest humanity has ever come to being subjugated to individual will and facing extinction.

"Military institutions cannot remain offline forever.

Even if we can do it, other regions' military systems may not be able to resist being breached under the Mailman's conspiracy.

And the development level of modern weapons determines that even one missile can cause enormous damage,

destroying a city with ten, one hundred, or even ten million people."

The female investigator stared straight into Li Ang's eyes, as if trying to project her firm emotions into Li Ang's mind. "We need you to return to the Coast Wizarding Association,

collect as much information as possible about the Mailman, try every means, spare no expense, to obtain his real name, locate his address in the real world, and help us bring him to justice.

For the peace of the world, and for your own sake."