Chapter 117
The technician sighed.
"This is the fifth time you've asked in such a short period."
"Data recovery takes time. I need to identify the root cause first."
Simon Lowell immediately fell silent.
"Take your time. I won't disturb you."
He stole a glance at Professor Alexander Laurent.
His stomach was in knots.
He was terrified the professor would blame Lillian Lopez.
Simon moved closer to Alexander.
He lowered his voice.
"Professor, I was right there when the system shut down."
"Sophia definitely didn't do it on purpose."
"She hadn't slept for two days working on the data entry…"
Alexander rubbed his temples.
"I won't jump to conclusions before the investigation is complete."
He didn't favor anyone.
He only trusted evidence.
Simon wanted to argue further.
Zoe Langley subtly tugged his sleeve.
She signaled for him to stop.
Professor Laurent was always fair.
He would never wrong an innocent person.
Simon pressed his lips together.
He said nothing more.
Ten minutes later.
The technician stood up.
"It was a virus."
"The data… is essentially unrecoverable."
A heavy silence fell over the group.
They had suspected it.
But hearing it confirmed was still hard to accept.
Alexander's brow furrowed deeply.
"The lab is completely signal-shielded. The USB drives are specially encrypted."
"Where could the virus have come from?"
The technician shook his head.
"There are many potential carriers."
"The monitoring system, the access control recognition… any could be a medium."
Lillian bit her lip.
"How long will it take to trace the virus source?"
"That's hard to say. It depends on the specifics."
Zoe asked urgently.
"Is there really no way to save the data?"
The technician was helpless.
"The motherboard is damaged. The data can't be extracted."
Zoe refused to give up.
"No hope at all?"
Thinking of all their hard work going to waste.
Her chest felt tight.
Lillian began to sob quietly.
"It's all my fault… I shouldn't have only kept one backup…"
Zoe fell silent.
Quincy Evans sighed.
Simon also frowned deeply.
Alexander suddenly remembered something.
"It was connected to my work computer on Friday."
The technician's eyes lit up.
"Is there a data transfer record?"
Alexander nodded.
"Yes."
"Excellent! We can attempt a path recovery!"
Half an hour later.
Two-thirds of the data was successfully restored.
The group breathed a small sigh of relief.
Zoe hesitated.
"What about the remaining third?"
Sophia Sullivan spoke softly.
"If it's recent data, there might be a way."
Zoe pressed her.
"What way?"
Sophia explained.
"The lab uses a local area network."
"But the storage software is a Sun terminal."
"They added an AI recording function six months ago."
The computer technician suddenly understood.
"You mean the cloud AI backup?"
Everyone looked blank.
This was outside their area of expertise.
Alexander pondered.
"Sun's AI function isn't fully developed yet."
"It requires precise keyword searches."
"You'd need to remember at least one-tenth of the data."
Simon sucked in a breath.
"One-tenth… that's like three sets of experimental data!"
Quincy shook his head.
"That's too difficult."
"Who would memorize that stuff?"
Lillian scoffed.
"Pointless suggestion."
"No one could possibly remember that."
"Some people just love to show off…"
Sophia said calmly.
"Perhaps I can try."
Simon's eyes widened.
"You? You remember it?"
"You weren't even involved in the project!"
Lillian said disdainfully.
"Bragging without thinking!"
Zoe said worriedly.
"Sophia, the data is very complex…"
Alexander's gaze was gentle.
"Are you sure you want to try?"
Sophia nodded.
Alexander asked softly.
"How did you come across it?"
Sophia looked at Lillian.
Lillian immediately bristled.
"Why are you looking at me!"
Sophia hesitated for a moment.
"At noon, the day before yesterday."
"A report had fallen on the floor by Lab Station Three."
"It even had a footprint on it."
"I thought it was scrap paper…"
Lab Station Three was Lillian's assigned area.
All group reports were compiled and entered by her.