★ Fresh Premise: A gripping thriller set in the background of the dark web, featuring highly controversial criminal elements that will spark discussions.
★ Dual Narrative: The story unfolds through two parallel perspectives—a police investigation and a vigilante’s pursuit—enhancing both immersion and suspense.
★ Riveting Plot: Packed with transnational crime, brotherly vendettas, and tangled romances, the story delivers relentless twists and turns.

An ordinary guy accidentally dragged into an international conspiracy.
A college girl targeted by the dark web.
A cop severely wounded right after taking the case.
A Southeast Asian warlord forced to bargain with the devil.
An invisible hand pulling the strings of their fates.
What connects these seemingly unrelated lives?
Can they escape their tragic destinies?

The dark web runs deeper than you dare to imagine.
How much evil lurks unseen in this underground world?

An ordinary young man with nothing special about him.
A college girl from a second-tier university.
Yet both have simultaneously attracted the attention of Chinese police and an international crime syndicate. How did this happen?
A pair of hostages with no apparent ransom value.
A kidnapping case that makes no sense at all.
What twisted logic lies behind it?

This novel follows Zhu Taixing, an average young man, and Wu Wanqiao, an unremarkable college student, as they accidentally become entangled in a transnational kidnapping scheme—putting them on the radar of both Chinese authorities and a global criminal network. As the story unfolds, readers are pulled into the shadowy underworld of the dark web, where illegal organ trafficking, elite hacking, and information security breaches converge into a labyrinth of modern crime.

Iron plate barbecue downstairs, real name Wang Zheng, male, from Leting, Hebei. Resides in Beijing. He served as the editor in chief of CCTV's "Super Interview" program. Currently, he is engaged in film and television editing and review work. In his spare time, He focuses on writing novels and film reviews. His novel "Hidden World" has received high praise from renowned film and television producer Cao Qiye (representative works "Wolf Smoke in Beiping", "One Hundred Years of Rongbaozhai", "Bright Sword Iron Blood Military Soul") and renowned screenwriter and writer Yan Zhi (representative works "Wolf Smoke Everywhere", "Fox Step Spy Shadow", "Love, Love").

Prologue /001
Chapter 1 The Dark Web /004
Chapter 2 The Task Force /014
Chapter 3 Escape /027
Chapter 4 The Chess Game /039
Chapter 5 The Truth /050
Chapter 6 The Hacker /060
Chapter 7 The Past /078
Chapter 8 The Hunt /090
Chapter 9 The Kidnapping /101
Chapter 10 The Counterattack /109
Chapter 11 The Website /113
Chapter 12 The Deal /124
Chapter 13 Black Swan /150
Chapter 14 Dilemma /177
Chapter 15 The Weakness /183
Chapter 16 Back Then /199
Chapter 17 The Backup Plan /206
Chapter 18 Guning Street /222
Chapter 19 Bitcoin and Blockchain /236
Chapter 20 Life and Death /249
Chapter 21 The Accident /260

Prologue

"Welcome to the free world! Here, even God stops at the gates!"
The basic principle of web crawlers is to simulate HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) requests to targeted websites and extract valuable information from the server's returned source code. Ordinary crawling techniques cannot index dark web data. To locate the dark web platform "Hades" (meaning "Underworld"), Yang Yi developed a specialized dark web crawler unlike conventional ones. It could mine data from dark web databases, expanding information coverage to ultimately pinpoint Hades.
Upon accessing Hades, the webpage spiraled out of control—her mouse froze, keyboard became unresponsive, and the computer refused to reboot. Yang Yi realized she'd been compromised. If she didn't cut the power immediately, all her data would be hijacked.
The lights in her room suddenly went dark, though the circuit breaker remained untouched.
Just as Yang Yi exhaled in relief, something felt wrong again. Footsteps outside tightened her nerves. Could Hades' administrators have reacted this quickly? Impossible! Was she overthinking, or—? As she cautiously drew her gun and edged along the wall toward the door, the window shattered from outside, and the door was violently kicked open...

For months, Ward 310 had been guarded by police officers working in rotating 24-hour shifts. Only doctors and nurses who passed both facial recognition and work badge verification were allowed to enter.
Only those medical staff who had been inside Ward 310 knew the truth - since the police post was established, there had never actually been any patient in the ward. When they first started cooperating with the police, influenced by crime dramas, these medical personnel carrying medical equipment and medicines in and out of the ward were highly enthusiastic and cooperative. After half a month, they grew weary. No one expected the police to make the fake act more realistic than reality itself. Besides the mandatory daily ID checks, all medicines brought into the ward had to be specialized drugs for critically ill patients, and medicines taken out had to show signs of being used. The police gave the medical staff the distinct impression that there really was a critically ill patient in the ward.
What the medical staff found hardest to accept was that every time they left the ward, the officers on duty would ask about the patient's condition. They had to provide detailed updates on the patient's recovery progress, with different answers required every day, which severely tested these earnest and simple-minded medical workers.
After one month, all medical personnel involved in Ward 310's "treatment" felt they had fallen ill - with the illness originating from Ward 310 itself. They were told there was a patient in the ward, yet they never actually saw one. Was there really a patient? Or were they, these white-coated medical workers, the real patients? They harbored such doubts more than once, even considering making appointments with the psychiatry department to examine themselves.

As Xiao Le stepped out of the autopsy room, fresh air hit his face but his guts churned violently. The image of Yang Yi's mutilated corpse kept magnifying in his mind until he could no longer control himself and vomited profusely. Having worked at the Municipal Criminal Investigation Division for over three years and solved numerous cases big and small under his mentor Zhou Cha's guidance, this was Xiao Le's first experience of life-and-death separation between comrades. If his mentor survived, could he bear the fact that his girlfriend had died horribly at home? Xiao Le worried deeply.
Zhou Cha had been discovered by a resident taking out trash in the morning, lying unconscious by the stairwell garbage bin, having lost too much blood.
Not long after the special task force targeting the dark web "Hades" was established, team leader Zhou Cha was severely injured, and technical team expert Yang Yi was brutally murdered at home. This put tremendous pressure on deputy team leader Zhang Zuotian. Whether out of professional duty or personal feelings, Zhou Cha absolutely could not die. Zhang Zuotian, who had maintained clean hands throughout his career, pulled strings for the first time to ensure his valued colleague received the best possible treatment. Through Zhang's efforts and organizational support, numerous nationally renowned neurology, neurosurgery and orthopedics experts put aside their work and rushed to Hanjiang Provincial People's Hospital.
The assembled expert doctors, with their years of medical experience and multiple meticulously prepared emergency plans developed overnight, gave all colleagues concerned about Zhou Cha's condition some confidence. After eight hours of surgery, not a single expert dared promise Zhang Zuotian that Zhou Cha would definitely wake up. In fact, during the rescue operation, while the experts didn't voice it, they each had their private thoughts: if this policeman lived to see tomorrow's sun, it would already be a miracle. It wasn't a question of their skills - Zhou Cha had been brought to the hospital too late, having missed the golden rescue window.

The sky was overcast, with residents of Moko City complaining about the persistently gloomy weather, when a miracle occurred.
"The key..."
These were the first words Zhou Cha uttered upon waking.
Before anyone could understand, Zhou Cha continued: "Yang Yi... how... how..."
Before finishing, he fell unconscious again.
With leaders from Hanjiang's public security system present, no one understood what "mi yao" meant.
Among the colleagues present, only Zhou Cha's apprentice Xiao Le, who had worked with him the longest, might know. All eyes turned to Xiao Le for explanation.
With so many superiors present, Xiao Le's voice trembled slightly as he swallowed hard: "Master might be saying he was drugged with some kind of narcotic..."
Had Zhou Cha been conscious, he would have surely scolded Xiao Le for his stupidity. It wasn't "mi yao" (narcotic) but "mi yue" (encryption key). Without absolute certainty, Zhou Cha wouldn't have mustered his last strength to say "encryption key." By saying it, he meant to give his colleagues a crucial investigative direction regarding the dark web Hades. Knowing Yang Yi's capabilities as he did, Zhou Cha was certain that unless she had intentionally exposed herself to obtain critical intelligence, someone of her computer skills would never have been detected.
"After all this time working under Zhou Cha, you've learned nothing! Not narcotic - encryption key! Zhou Cha and Yang Yi must have discovered critical clues to cracking Hades!" Zhang Zuotian was clearly dissatisfied with Xiao Le's answer.
Medical staff continued their daily rotations in Ward 310 until three months later, when Zhou Cha, having recovered from his injuries, returned to duty, at which point the police finally withdrew from the ward.
Dean Fu personally spoke with the medical staff, assigning them new tasks and helping them gradually emerge from their self-doubt. What these medical personnel never knew was that they had indeed participated in a major police operation - during this period, plainclothes officers had actually been protecting them on their commutes and even at home.

Within the territory controlled by the Fifth Special Zone's Free People's Army, a special visitor arrived. From the moment this visitor entered headquarters, chief bodyguard Ming Ze took an instant dislike to him. Having served Peng Sihai for eleven years, Ming Ze could count on one hand the people in all of Shan State who dared ignore his presence.
Were it not for Commander Peng Sihai's strict orders, Ming Ze would have already riddled the man with bullets. In Ming Ze's view, while the M Federation Republic might rank second, their Free People's Army were the true rulers here. It didn't matter if you were a soldier from some major power or a terrorist from the Middle East - none of that carried weight in the M Federation Republic. Weren't the Americans powerful? Yet even they had gotten bogged down here years ago.
After several hours with the meeting room door remaining shut, Ming Ze grew anxious. A veteran of countless battles who had faced bullets whizzing past his eyes and between his legs, he now felt more nervous than ever during those moments. Having campaigned north and south with Peng Sihai, while officially serving as his bodyguard, Ming Ze privately shared a father-son bond with the commander. Peng Sihai's daughter Peng Lingling was Ming Ze's age, and Ming Ze believed that having taken bullets for Peng Sihai, even if he proposed to Lingling, the commander wouldn't object.
Could the commander be in danger? As chief bodyguard, Ming Ze felt compelled to verify Peng Sihai's safety. Just as he debated whether to barge in, the meeting room door opened.
Normally, Peng Sihai would escort guests to the door and see them off. Seeing the visitor emerge alone, Ming Ze rushed into the room in panic.
In the past, entering without permission would earn him anything from Peng Sihai's curses to twenty lashes that left his back bleeding. But this time, finding Peng Sihai standing perfectly fine with his hands behind his back gazing out the window, Ming Ze felt momentary panic before reassuring himself that as long as the commander was safe, he would accept any punishment.
Before Ming Ze could explain his intrusion, Peng Sihai spoke without reproach, uttering just four words: "The times are changing."
Why would the commander say the times were changing? Ming Ze couldn't comprehend it.