"A curse?" Tang Ranno frowned slightly. "How do you know?"
Li Ang didn't waste any more words and turned the tablet around to show Tang Ranno.
On the tablet screen was the image of the green mirror he had captured with the digital cara.
In the image, Xia Junqiang, wearing a plaid shirt, was sitting in front of his computer desk, browsing the GitHub webpage on a desktop computer. His ordinary, unremarkable, and dull face reflected the dim light of the computer screen.
The digital cara's high resolution allowed Tang Ranno to zoom in several tis, and he could even see the sweat on Xia Junqiang's worryingly receding forehead.
"Xia Junqiang is an unemployed programr. According to his citizen information, six months ago, he was forcibly fired by the boss of the IT company he had served for six years, and he wasn't given any compensation. Xia Junqiang applied to the labor dispute arbitration committee for arbitration. After submitting a written application, it was only a few days ago that he received compensation equivalent to two months' salary."
Li Ang said, "You also saw it in Xia Junqiang's dying mories just now, didn't you? He was shown browsing the 996.ICU project on the GitHub platform, then broke into a residential house, killed two people, and finally returned to his rented room where he was dried into a husk. There's sothing off about the 996.ICU project he was viewing."
As an open-source repository and version control system, GitHub has more than 9 million developer users. With more and more applications moving to the cloud, GitHub has beco the preferred platform for managing software developnt and discovering existing code.
In other words, the vast majority of programrs in the world can't do without GitHub, this "social network" and "communist-nature open-source repository."
996.ICU, on the other hand, was a project spontaneously uploaded by programrs about half a year ago. It refers to a work schedule of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, with the implication that getting sick ans ending up in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).
At first, 996.ICU was a self-deprecating joke among programrs, urging them to value their lives and be cautious about overti and staying up late. Unexpectedly, more and more people starred the project, making it the fastest-rising star-count project on GitHub. Its essence changed from self-deprecation to an open opposition to the "996 work schedule"—an established norm in the country—a sort of "programrs' uprising."
Labor laws stipulate that the average weekly working hours should not exceed 44 hours, yet the working hours of the 996 work schedule are at least 72 hours a week. This clearly violates relevant laws, but it has been widely implented as an established norm by major companies.
As ti went on, programrs began to expose and criticize the inhumane working systems of major companies, and many well-known Internet companies were listed on the 996.ICU page.
"You're saying," Tang Ranno pinched his chin with his finger and asked softly, "did the task target start harboring the idea to commit murder after browsing the related webpage?"
"Exactly." Li Ang nodded. "I entered the geographical location and house number of the residence Xia Junqiang broke into and found the hoowner's information in the citizen information system. She is a 26-year-old young woman, unmarried, who used to be a hotel employee. She cos from an ordinary family, dropped out of high school, and worked in Yin City. Her bank card information shows nothing unusual in the past. Until a year ago, her bank card started showing a steady stream of peculiar amounts of money, from an extra 7,000 per month to 8,000, and then to an extra 10,000 to 20,000. Six months ago, an amount of over 700,000 appeared on her card, with which she paid the down paynt for that ordinary residence."
"Hmm...." Tang Ranno narrowed his eyes. "...Did this murdered woman know Xia Junqiang?"
"Unfortunately, they didn't know each other." Li Ang shook his head. "However, she did know the forr boss of Xia Junqiang's company, a married middle-aged man nad Ji Tongqian. For the past year, they had often been seen together at hotels. Ji Tongqian transferred money to her account every month and even paid over seven hundred thousand for her house's down paynt six months ago. They had the relationship of a kept mistress and a married older man."
Having said that, Li Ang glanced at Tang Ranno, who was frowning in silence, and smiled. "Why would an ordinary programr who quit his job half a year ago want to kill his forr boss?
"I was quite curious about this, so I used the corporate credit information system to look up Ji Tongqian's IT company. I found that the company had a high rate of employee turnover, and occasionally, posts would appear on forums where employees complained about the company's harsh overti policies.
"Clearly, this IT company is the kind of small to dium-sized enterprise with low pay, high workload, mandatory overti, chaotic managent, and nepotism. Ji Tongqian, as the company boss, was extrely strict, demanding his employees work intense overti while being unwilling to grant raises or provide adequate overti compensation. This caused significant grievances."
Tang Ranno nodded. "Heartless capitalists and exploited coders."
"Exactly." Li Ang smiled. "Xia Junqiang had outstanding academic achievents in high school and college. During his ti studying computer science in Yin City, he and his team even won awards at the ACM-ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest. Logically, he should have been in a higher position, not just a developer in an ordinary IT company—this was probably because he fell seriously ill during college and desperately needed money after recovering.
"Anyway, he completely fell out with the company half a year ago (likely over resisting overti or sothing similar) and was forcibly fired. Afterward, he applied for labor arbitration with the labor dispute arbitration committee. He heard nothing back for a long ti and only received his compensation a few days ago.
"And not long after receiving the compensation, he committed a ho invasion and killed his forr boss."
"..." Tang Ranno hesitated for a mont and said, "Based on this information alone, this coder's ho invasion doesn't appear to be directly related to any supernatural factors. Killing his forr boss could be explained as a pure labor dispute. For instance, Ji Tongqian had money but simply didn't want to provide compensation. Perhaps he even verbally abused Xia Junqiang, hurling personal insults when he ca to demand his pay, ultimately leading to the incident."
Tang Ranno, who disguised himself as a model, possessed an intellect far sharper than his handso appearance suggested—no player who survived past Level 10 was a fool.
"I thought so too, before," Li Ang chuckled. He interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on the backs of his hands. "That is, until I further enhanced the image and saw the specific content of the 996.ICU page Xia Junqiang was viewing that day."
He swiped on the tablet screen and zood in further on the green mirror image.
Tang Ranno subconsciously looked down and slightly lowered his sunglasses.
On Xia Junqiang's computer screen, it wasn't just the GitHub 996.ICU project. To be precise, under the 996.ICU project, it was a programr uprising initiative called the 'Anti-996 License.'
The instant he saw the screen clearly, Tang Ranno felt a wave of nausea, as if his brain was being pierced by steel needles.
This was... the Cognitive Bias Curse from occult rituals, powerful enough to completely overturn one's cognition, insidiously capable of transforming the victim's outlook on life, worldview, and value systems.
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