Chapter 3: The Digital Quest
Below the exposed IP was a grimy little community that couldn’t be pinpointed to a specific household, but there was only one entrance to the sole parking lot. Coiley stared at the surveillance of this entrance, trying to find someone with a similar build to the man in the original video. After three days, she didn’t see anyone as tall as the one-meter-nine fat man in the video, but a skinny guy who was about one meter seventy caught her attention. He seemed strange to her. After repeated viewing, she finally noticed some dark shadows behind him and his peculiar way of walking, taking particularly small steps.
Coiley took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on the screen as if she could see through the pixels to the truth behind them. She began to apply her professional skills, using advanced image processing software to extract more information from the blurred figure. Her fingers danced rapidly over the keyboard, each command a challenge to the unknown.
She first tried to enhance the contrast and clarity of the image, hoping to capture more features of the man. As the image gradually became clearer, Coiley’s brow furrowed even tighter. She noticed that the man seemed to deliberately avoid the camera, cleverly using the surrounding environment to conceal his identity each time he appeared.
Coiley did not give up. She turned to analyze other elements in the video, such as the background vehicles, road signs, and even weather changes. She believed that these seemingly insignificant details could be the key to solving the puzzle. Her intuition told her that this man was not just an ordinary passerby; he might be planning something significant.
As the investigation deepened, Coiley discovered some unusual access logs, indicating that someone had remotely accessed her computer! Her computer contained a lot of personal information, including group photos, ID photos, and graduation photos from her university days. She felt scared, and her intuition told her that these activities were intricately linked to the man in the video. Was it safe to stop? She asked herself, but no, stopping would only lead to more women dying. She continued to trace the origins of these activities, trying to uncover the secret network hidden in the digital world with her own efforts.
Coiley knew that her investigation had touched upon a huge conspiracy, and she herself might have become a part of it. Her heart raced, but she did not back down. She was determined to reveal the truth, even if it meant facing unprecedented danger.
For a while after that, Coiley didn’t see the man again, and she was about to give up when the access trace appeared once more.
