"We've been deceived?" Zhang Xinyuan looked confused. "Why would you say that?"

Hazuki Kurozawa pointed to the screen of her laptop, showing a post on a forum. The post read:

"Information about the Hope Association"

Below the text were several photos of the base.

"Now, all it takes is a click of the mouse to post this thread."

"Don't do that." Zhang Xinyuan quickly stopped Hazuki Kurozawa. "Didn't the Association specify that we keep it secret? It's best not to disclose such matters to outsiders, especially on the internet."

"It's not a matter of whether we should or should not, but whether we can or cannot," Hazuki Kurozawa grabbed Zhang Xinyuan's wrist and placed his hand on the mouse. "Try to see if you can post this thread. If you can, delete it immediately."

Zhang Xinyuan felt strange and didn't understand what Hazuki Kurozawa was trying to do. But since they had reached this point, he could only do as she said. However...

Just as Zhang Xinyuan positioned the mouse over the "Publish" button, his fingers froze.

He couldn't press it. The mouse couldn't be pressed!

At that moment, his body became unresponsive!

Zhang Xinyuan glanced at Hazuki Kurozawa, then looked at his right hand. After a few seconds, he tremblingly let go of the mouse, switching to his left hand. The result was the same as his right hand.

"What's wrong with my hand?"

He looked at Hazuki Kurozawa with panic. "What's going on?"

Hazuki Kurozawa shook her head. "I'm not sure either. What I know is that now we are unable to leak any information about the Hope Association. If there's any violation, your body will immediately become unresponsive. It's like being cursed."

Zhang Xinyuan calmed himself down and thought for a moment before asking, "Could it be the Association's doing?"

"Most likely. Moreover, the curse was cast during the meeting. Thanks to the Association's generosity, new members wouldn't have any thoughts of betrayal, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to act on it. It's indeed an effective way to maintain secrecy."

"Well... how about I call Kana and ask what's really going on? What if there's some hidden situation that we misunderstood?"

"It's best not to do that."

"But..."

"I know you have a favorable impression of the president and others, but please analyze it rationally. Why would the Association help us? And even go so far as to give us money? Why do we deserve such treatment? Just because they are all good-hearted people? Think about it, is everything the president told you necessarily true?"

Hazuki Kurozawa's words plunged Zhang Xinyuan into a dilemma.

If it were any other young person, hearing malicious speculations about their idol or someone they liked would probably make them angry. But Zhang Xinyuan had long passed the impulsive age, and the hardships he had experienced over the years had made him aware that people have two sides.

He was truly grateful to the Hope Association, but that didn't mean everything they did was right.

"What if we find a place to hide first, and then clarify the situation online? If that doesn't work, we can just withdraw and figure out our own solution for Horror Novel Web," he tentatively proposed.

"Xinyuan-kun, do you remember that QQ group from before?"

"Yes, I do. Wasn't that group disbanded?"

"Yes, Miss Kana mentioned before that the group was encrypted and couldn't be searched by outsiders."

"That's true. What's the matter?"

"I conducted two experiments with that group. In the first experiment, I had my friend search for keywords and group numbers related to 'HOPE'. She couldn't find it through keyword search, but the group number search was successful. This means that anyone can find that group through a normal search. However, something strange happened next. My friend subconsciously ignored the group, thinking that the group number couldn't be found. It was only after I reminded her repeatedly that she realized the existence of that group."

At this point, Hazuki Kurozawa tapped on the keyboard.

"For the second experiment, after the group disbanded, I hacked into Tencent's backend to search for the code I implanted in that group before. Even if a group is disbanded and all data is deleted, using my previous tagging, the backend can still find traces, allowing me to know the creation and dissolution dates of the group. If my tags were cleared, I would also receive feedback, proving whether the Association's confidentiality measures were effective. However... there was no display of any results. What's even more bizarre is that my friend who had been in contact with the group also forgot about this matter, and all the screenshots I had of that group's pages disappeared from my hard drive."

"The group completely disappeared from this world. If we betray the association, will we also suddenly disappear?" Zhang Xinyuan felt fear, fear of the unknown.

"...You're quite skilled in computer technology. Did you study computer science?" He had to find another topic to buffer his emotions.

"No, actually I studied linguistics. Computer science is just a side interest." Heize Lianyue smiled and said, "Don't worry, at least we still have some leverage."

She clicked on the last disk and entered a password. Immediately, a window popped up with numerous folders filled with files, all with names in English and numbers.

"Miss Kena used my USB drive before because I had organized many electronic versions of authors' materials. I also added some small programs in there. Once the USB drive is connected to the computer and through the network, I can access the data on her computer. Although Miss Kena is more skilled in languages than me, she knows next to nothing about computer technology. Without her knowledge, I copied all the confidential files from her disk to my own. The files are encrypted with BitLocker, but it's relatively easy to crack given enough time."

At this point, Lianyue smiled, "Miss Kena is our breakthrough. As long as we use these confidential files as a shield to intimidate others, we can gain the power of speech, at least not be at the mercy of others. Now we just need to figure out how to eliminate the abnormalities in our bodies."

Zhang Xinyuan: "..."

"Do you have any questions?"

"No, it's just that I'm too shocked and don't know what to say." Zhang Xinyuan cleared his throat, "So what should we do now? Pretend to be clueless and make preparations in secret?"

"That's right. I alone have limited power; I need your help."

"Alright... I'll inform the other newcomers."

"No, you can't do that." Lianyue immediately dismissed Zhang Xinyuan's suggestion, "Among us... there might be moles, higher-ranked authors disguised as newcomers."

"Moles? How do you know I'm not one of them?"

"Because you're a realist author. Realist authors do have a much higher death rate compared to non-realist ones. The association hasn't lied about that, and you're also a newcomer, so the probability that you're a mole is the smallest."

"But... you haven't seen my author page, how do you know I'm not deceiving you? If I'm a non-realist author deliberately pretending to be a realist author, what will you do?" Zhang Xinyuan felt that since the association had a way to control others' bodies, setting up "moles" was unnecessary.

"Of course you can't deceive me because I personally saw your author page, which perfectly matches the one of 'The Ordinary's Autobiography.'" Lianyue smiled apologetically, clasping her hands together. "I'm sorry, Xinyuan-kun. I made some adjustments to your phone before, so I could see what you've been browsing in the background. Of course, I also saw the page of that website. I'll delete the program implanted in your phone now."

Some may argue that even so, it doesn't prove that Zhang Xinyuan is a newcomer realist author, because Zhang Xinyuan could create a replica website of Horror Novel Web to fake it. However, in that case, the counterfeit website would appear in screenshots or recordings. Josiah was able to determine that Xu Fang was an author using this method.

Lianyue also discovered this phenomenon through a series of experiments, and she also summarized a set of rules: when an author enters Horror Novel Web, if they don't focus their gaze on the webpage and don't touch their electronic devices, Horror Novel Web automatically disappears after one minute. If during this time someone touches the device, Horror Novel Web will disappear earlier. And if the information of Horror Novel Web is transmitted through live streaming and the delay exceeds one minute, the information cannot be received.

"If you want to see my website, just let me know directly, there's no need to go through all this trouble." Zhang Xinyuan was also speechless. Having his privacy stolen, normally he should be angry, but looking at Lianyue's apologetic gaze, he couldn't get mad.

"Oh well, as compensation, I'll let you see my author page too."

After deleting the programs in Zhang Xinyuan's phone, Heize Lianyue accessed her own Horror Novel Web. She handed the phone to Zhang Xinyuan and said, "This is my author information. You can take a photo to confirm if it's real."

Zhang Xinyuan took a photo of Lianyue's phone, and indeed, the photo showed something different from what he saw.

"Amazing, there is such a verification method."

"Do you see the text in Chinese or Japanese?" Lianyue asked.

"Chinese."

"What's the title of the book?"

"Genius Girl Xiaoling Transferred to a Magical World and Unexpectedly Encountered the Greatest Crisis for Humans."

Zhang Xinyuan remembered. He had seen this book before, with less than ten thousand characters written. It was probably a fantasy world story, but he didn't pay much attention to the content. He only knew that the protagonist wasn't called "Xiaoling" but had a very strange name.

"The translation is quite accurate. It's in Japanese here, but it becomes Chinese in your eyes... Why don't you touch my phone and see if you can control my page?"

Zhang Xinyuan did as instructed, but as soon as his fingertips touched the screen, the page disappeared.

"Uh... When other authors touch electronic devices, the website also disappears. So, it turns out that the creative rights of the website are in our own hands, and others cannot interfere."