Chapter 10: Dealing With Sunset

As Lily and her family returned home, Lily's mother stopped Lily to sit in the living room so that they could have a discussion.

"Are you sure you want to go back to school?" She asked worriedly, keeping her eyes on Lily's every reaction. 

"Yes, I have decided to go back now, I'm no longer taking a break for a year." Lily assured her with a firm smile. 

Lily's mother looked hesitant, glancing over at her husband who sat beside her. The two of them were well aware of how Lily was being treated at school, especially how Merissa was always using her to stay at the top of their class. It was clear that something needed to be done, but they didn't want to upset their daughter by intervening or even their bosses. 

Although she had initially been against Lily taking a break from school, after thinking about how the competition and Lily being back in school would benefit the wrong people, she had agreed to it without another argument and she even convinced her husband to do so. But now that Lily wants to go back, they have to make sure it wasn't due to the pressure from Merissa and her parents.

Her father sat up and gave her a scrutinizing gaze. "Have you made up your mind to go back now?" He asked and Lily nodded with a reassuring smile. 

"You have nothing to be worried about, I'm going to do my medical checks to make sure I'm fit enough to return and then get everything sorted out. You both know how much fashion designing means to me," she urged and her parents sighed.

"Fine, if you've made up your mind, we will support you!" Her mother agreed, knowing how stubborn Lily usually gets when she has decided on a thing. 

"And you have to be careful when you get back to school," her father added.

Lily stood up and hugged her parents, their worry for her brought a warm feeling in her heart, one she hadn't experienced since she lost her mother when she was still Victoria. 

"You have nothing to worry about, this time, I won't be easily bullied!"

{What is your plan now?} The system asked as Lily walked into her small room. 

Looking around, Lily scrunched up her nose, no matter how many days she had stayed in the room, she could not get used to the tight space and the shabbiness of the room.

"I want to make some money as soon as possible. I need money to do everything I plan to," she voiced out and changed out of her clothes into a more comfortable one. Since she had her bath before going to Merissa's house, she decided against having another to save her family from the extra expenses.

She pulled out her new computer and sat on the small reading table, after connecting to the internet she pulled up the hacker's website.

{Why are you here again? Aren't you meant to start learning for the competition?}

"Don't worry, this is all part of my plan," she said, flashing a grin. 

"I need money to register my company and pay my staff, and this is the perfect way to get it." 

Her eyes gleamed as she typed the name 'Dark Lord Chambers' into the search bar, and the website page for the company appeared on her screen. She felt a surge of triumph, her heart racing with anticipation. 

She noticed the notification signal on her profile and clicked on it. 'Congratulations, Dark Lord Sinful, you have levelled up and can now enjoy higher-level operations in the Dark Lord's chamber.' As she read the notification, her smile widened.

She remembered, that in her life as Victoria, she and some other high-ranking hackers in the country had worked towards this part of the website that allows the hackers to level up based on their skills and ratings.

Normally, it would take a regular hacker ten tasks to level up to stage 1 and then twenty tasks to the next. The reason why she had upgraded after just one task was due to the difficulty of the task. As she viewed her profile, she realised her icon had changed from plain grey to grey and black. 

On the website, there were seven levels, each represented by a different colour: Grey, Grey-and-black, White, White-and-black, Black, Red, and Gold. 

Grey was for beginners, and Grey-and-black for intermediate hackers.

White for advanced hackers and White-and-black for expert hackers.

Black for masters, Red for grandmasters, and Gold for grandmasters who had completed hundreds of millions worth of tasks. 

Each level came with its different perks and privileges, and Lily was determined to reach the top like in her previous life as Victoria.

Claiming her badge, she exited her profile page to see she had private messages. Opening them, she realised they were from other hackers from the Grey-and-black group. 

"Hey Sinful, welcome to the team!"

"How did you complete that task? Let's be friends!"

"I have a hard task I am dealing with and I would like you to join me, we will share the payment 50/50"

As she read through the messages, she remembered how it was in her last life and how people always seek for her collaboration. Just as she exited her private message interface, she got a new message from a hacker with a Black badge, seeing the name, her eyes dimmed with mischief and a smile appeared on her face.

Sunset: Hello Sinful. 

Sunset: I've been waiting for you to come online.

Sinful: Hello, Master Sunset, I've got some things going on in the outside world and I've barely had time to come in here. Is there a reason you are looking for me?

Sunset: You were the one who took the task assigned by the Alpha guy, weren't you?

Sinful: Yes, I wanted to see why it has been up for so long. I never knew I could get it done. Were you aiming for it? I'm sorry for taking it away.

The man on the other side narrowed his eyes at the screen and a smile appeared on his face as he noticed Sinful's attitude.

Sunset: You don't have to apologize, my team and I tried it but we couldn't fix it. It's totally your win.

Sinful: Oh! It was a fluke on my side.

Sunset: Stop being so modest. Anyway, I have a deal to make.

As Lily read the message, she chuckled darkly, thinking he hadn't changed. 

Sunset was a hacker she had come across in her life as Victoria, he had proposed a deal to her back then when she was still a starting hacker and told her they would work on it together and share the profit.

However, after they completed the task, he never paid her and instead, he took all the credit while tainting her reputation on the website. Remembering the issue from her previou life, she grinned evilly.

Sinful: I'm interested, let's talk about it!

Sunset grinned happily about the prey catching the bait. If the work succeeded, he would take all the credit like he always does and then if it failed, Sinful would have to take the blame while he kept his reputation on the website clean.

As he was about to type his next line, he noticed the new message from Sinful and his grin became even wider.

Sinful: I'm a newbie so Master Sunset would have to take care of me and don't mind my clumsiness.

Sunset: You have nothing to worry about, I will help you level up even faster.

Sunset: Here is the link to the job description, look it over and let's see what we can do.

He sent her an attachment containing pictures of several malfunctioning programs on a computer. 

Just with a glance, she found the problems but knowing the nature of the other person on the screen, she decided to play dumb.

Sinful: This looks like some virus contamination, do we have to install a stronger antivirus on the system?

Sunset rolled his eyes at her question, thinking, 'What a dumb newbie.'

'Since she would be taking the blame if it fails, it's better to compensate her earlier by teaching her some things.' he muttered and downed half a can of beer before focusing on the computer once again.

Sunset: It's not a virus, the malfunction is due to an error during the coding phase, we just need to find the errors and fix them.

Sinful: Oh! So that's it. Thank you for explaining, Master Sunset. Then should we begin now?

Sunset: Let us begin.

With the link provided to her, Lily logged in to the computer program and studied it before she began. Since she wanted to use the opportunity to repay Sunset for the crime he committed, she didn't attempt to help him correct the errors, instead, she identified the errors and planted several timer viruses in them.

The timer viruses are set for a particular time, once the time is set, they function normally until the timer goes off and when it does, they will start corrupting the whole system at a fast pace until everything crashes.

She sets the timer for a week, knowing that after the task, he would get promoted due to his profile showing that he only had one more task until he became a Red badge hacker. 

Sunset watched on the side with a smug smile as Sinful fixed the errors in the programme, he would fix the ones she had omitted and make sure that the ones she did were okay.

Once the whole error had been corrected, he messaged her again.

Sunset: You are efficient and fast. It doesn't feel like a newbie at all.

Lily sneered with a glint in her eyes.

Sinful: I am a newbie, how else will I still be in the second stage? It's just that my teacher is currently teaching us this part of the programme and the lesson is still fresh in my memory. Did I do good?

Sunset: You did great, once it has been tested, I will let you know and send you your payment.