Chapter 8 — Methods for Finding Candidates
Merp felt an overwhelming sense of unfamiliarity toward this world. In many ways, it was vastly different from the one he had lived in before—yet in many aspects, it was also strikingly similar. He compared the two through the internet.
Thanks to his identity as an online novelist, he knew a little about many things—but none of it in depth. After all, he wrote fiction, not history or technology research. Novels didn't require proof; the author was God.
In novels, did historical accuracy matter? Not at all. Send the protagonist back in time, and everything could be changed.
In novels, did scientific rigor matter? Not at all. Introduce a system, and anything became possible.
If only he were the protagonist of a novel.
If that were the case, he would have directly transmigrated into someone like Tony Stark. Why him? Because he was a winner in life—genius inventor, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist—countless halos surrounded him. And by his side was Pepper Potts, tirelessly devoted.
Of course, he also perfectly embodied the saying "play with fire and get burned," constantly putting himself in life-threatening situations. But what did that matter? With transmigration and possession, all problems could be solved.
Unfortunately, Merp could only fantasize.
After quickly familiarizing himself with this world, he had a clearer understanding of its technological level. Compared to his previous life, it was indeed far more advanced. This pleased him greatly—only in such a world could he truly stir up chaos within the network.
"Not bad. Only a world like this can fully bring out my strengths. Now then, how do I select my people?"
Merp fell into deep thought once more. Thinking was the only thing he could do now. Finding such individuals through the internet was quite difficult—people rarely discussed robbing banks online.
"What about phones?"
In the end, that was the only method he could come up with.
"Although smartphones haven't appeared yet, mobile phones are already widely used. Motorola and Nokia exist here too—which makes sense. IBM also appears in the movies. Many aspects are highly similar, just with more advanced technology. So… can I use the telephone system to monitor the entire United States?"
Merp's ambition was not small—he actually wanted to monitor the entire country.
But how to do it required further investigation. Once again, he turned to the internet. Thanks to technological advancements, the U.S. telephone system had long been computerized, which made things much more convenient for him.
Whether landlines or mobile phones, signals were sent to local telephone companies or base stations, and then connected to establish calls. In theory, if one had control, a telephone company could monitor anyone's communication.
Because of this, Merp needed to choose a specific city for his robbery plan. Every city had its own telephone systems handling local calls, and monitoring the entire United States was beyond his current capability.
He could only monitor one city.
So he needed to choose his target.
That part was simple—he just had to search for the most advanced banks. The ones that relied heavily on computerized systems would be his targets. Of course, it would be best if they also had large cash reserves—after all, the bigger the haul, the better.
These kinds of banks were easy to find. A simple keyword search yielded immediate results.
And there were quite a lot of them.
However, they were also highly concentrated.
Manhattan, New York—this area housed a large number of banks, all equipped with cutting-edge systems, nearly the best available in this era.
"You really are a disaster-prone place… attacked countless times, destroyed countless times."
Merp found the result somewhat strange. It wasn't that other cities lacked advanced systems, but here they were far more concentrated, and the cash reserves were enormous.
Moreover, four of the six largest commercial banks in the United States had their headquarters in New York.
That was enough to tempt him.
Robbing a headquarters was unrealistic—that would be suicide. But robbing their branch banks? That was entirely feasible. Especially those branches equipped with the most advanced security systems—just looking at them made Merp salivate.
Now, all he needed to do was get to New York.
But how to get there was another problem.
Although Merp now had a basic understanding of computers, navigating through networks was still an issue. Once again, he set his sights on Paul—particularly his local IP address, which was easy to obtain.
But what about New York?
"The dumbest method would be to randomly search through the network, find data originating from New York, and then trace it back. Another option is to hope this fat guy has a chat friend in New York—then when he sends a message, I can follow the signal?"
Merp came up with two methods, though he wasn't certain either would work. After all, network signals weren't direct; they passed through servers. And once reaching a server, he wasn't entirely sure how to proceed.
"Fatty, I'm counting on you!"
To avoid getting lost, Merp chose the second method. Checking Paul's contact list was easy enough. Among the many chat contacts, there really was one marked as being from New York.
Jennifer.
Now he needed to verify it—but how?
"Checking the other party's IP address… that's a bit advanced. I'll need to study it. Ideally, I should be able to perform remote intrusion—that's a basic hacker technique. Let's see…"
Most things published online weren't particularly advanced, but some hackers would casually share small tricks. Whether they were useful or not, Merp couldn't be sure.
However, he had a massive advantage—he learned fast.
And applying what he learned was even easier.
In just a few seconds, he absorbed a large number of techniques. After comparing them, he found many redundant, some obscure. In the end, he chose a more common approach and directly sent out a command.
Network signals traveled quickly—this, he already understood.
They were electromagnetic signals, propagating at near light speed. However, interference could occur, so transmission speed was sometimes reduced to maintain stability.
Almost instantly, feedback returned.
"The other party isn't online?"
Merp felt a bit helpless. Among Paul's contacts, Jennifer was the only one marked as being from New York—and she wasn't even online.
There was nothing he could do.
Now, he had to learn how to wait.
And that was something he found extremely difficult to endure.
Waiting always felt endless.
To him, it was like every second stretched into an eternity.
"Under these conditions… would I go insane? Constantly waiting, waiting, waiting… and I'm alone here, with no one to talk to. In an environment like this, I might really lose my mind."
"Better to go online and learn something. I need to keep myself occupied."
Merp was deeply afraid of waiting.
If he were simply alone, he wouldn't mind—after all, as an online writer, he was used to solitude.
But this was different.
This was endless waiting.
And that, he could not endure.
Especially with his desperate desire to obtain a physical body—it made him feel as though every second counted.