Chapter 6: Let's Meet To Discuss

Lily stretched as she stood up from the bed, it's been three days since she broke through the firewall of Alpha's company. 

She had done nothing except read the books provided by the system and eat and sleep all those days. Her family had been so considerate of her condition that they never allowed her to leave her room except to walk around the house and stretch her body. 

The three days that followed were a whirlwind of new information for Lily. She learned techniques and approaches to programming and hacking that were beyond anything she'd ever seen on Earth. The concepts were strange, otherworldly, and seemingly from the future. Her brain was buzzing with new knowledge and possibilities. 

On the fourth day, she emerged from her room to find the house empty. A note from her mother on the kitchen counter informed her that she was back at work, and there was money for dinner. Opening the fridge, Lily found a breakfast and lunch prepared for her.

Victoria hummed in reply and warmed up the food as she returned to her room, "Lucky system?" She called out.

{I'm here, is there anything you need?} The system replied. 

"I've been curious about something," she started. 

{What are you curious about? If it's within my capacity, I would reply to you with my best capability,} the system explained.

"If you are a system created by a person, then how are you able to do soul transfer?" Victoria asked, these thoughts had bothered her even while she was in the hospital. 

She had tried suppressing her curiosity for so long, but after the knowledge acquired through the book provided by the system, she could no longer keep her inquisitiveness at bay. The knowledge was things that would take the current technological world decades to attain, no wonder the lucky system had called her hacking skills subpar. 

{Lady Victoria, I have no knowledge of my creator or why I was created. I am still trying to figure things out myself, which is why I need to level up as soon as possible,} the system explained sincerely. 

Victoria sighed regretfully and picked up her phone, determined to help the system regain its knowledge so she could meet the mastermind behind such an amazing creation. 

She logged in to the hacker's website and saw a friend request from the person who had listed the job of the firewall. 

She was about to reject the request when she reflected it was her fault for leaving for so long without a word after taking their job. She accepted the request and went back to fixing the loophole on the firewall. 

With her newly attained knowledge about hacking, programming and firewalls, fixing the mutated firewall was a breeze. She did not only fix the damaged firewall but also upgraded it according to the newly acquired technique from the system. 

{(Ding) Congratulations to the host for learning the basic hacking skills and acquiring 10 system upgrade points, please work harder to obtain more points.} The system notified as she finished fixing the firewall. 

Due to the upgrade that was made with her new knowledge, Victoria wrote out the procedures needed to follow, to activate the firewall smoothly. Once done, she did a double check to see if she had not left anything behind. After which she sent a message to the job lister.

Sinful: I have completed the firewall and also did an upgrade, have your team check it out and let me know how it runs. 

[File attached] Here is the procedure they would need to follow. You don't have to pay extra for the upgrade, I just wanted to check out a newly acquired technique.

Ted, who had been typing a long message on how to meet the hacker named Sinful saw the message and quickly deleted his draft while he replied.

Alpha: Okay, I will get back to you soon.

He stood up and ran to Mark's office excitedly, forgetting that his boss was in the middle of a business meeting with a partner. 

"President Mark, it has been fixed," he announced as he pushed open the door. Mark glared at him and quickly rounded up the meeting.

"Thank you for considering our proposal, we promise not to disappoint!" Miss Eve, the representative of the partner company said as they closed the deal with a handshake. 

As she left, Ted walked into Mark's office and opened the website on his computer to show Mark. The two read through the file and Mark ordered for the team of hackers to test it out. 

"President, the new firewall is so intricate, so well made."

"I can't imagine what master hacker did the upgrading, it's so good! It was made in a way that it can't be broken into!" The team of hackers were full of praise after testing it. 

"President, why don't you employ this person to work for us?" The team leader asked. 

He could tell after testing the new firewall that the upgrade was a new kind of technology, one that is so beautifully made. Bringing the person into their team would pave the way, not only for the company but for them as they would be able to learn from the hacker. 

Even though Mark had little knowledge of hacking, he was not an actual hacker and he wasn't able to identify the greatness of the new firewall at a go as Isaac did. Thinking he had gone past his boundaries to suggest that they should employ the hacker, the team leader, Isaac explained his reason.

"I have attained the highest level certificate in hacking and I've been in the industry for a long time, but if I was given this firewall to activate without the procedure attached to it, I wouldn't be able to activate it. The code used is so well made and without loopholes that could be exploited. I'm afraid the person who did it this time is an actual master, those who only come out to play once in a while. If we have them in our team, it will benefit the company a great deal." Upon hearing Isaac's explanation, Mark resolved to bring the hacker into their company. 

"Those kinds of people can't be forced though, so it is enough if they are willing to sell the technique to us and teach us how to properly use it," Isaac added. Mark nodded and sent them away before replying to Sinful message about the performance of the new firewall.

Alpha: It has been tested and I'm amazed at how smoothly it runs. I will make the payment immediately. 

Lily, who had gone to shower, didn't reply until thirty minutes later after receiving a credit alert from the bank. She logged in to the website once again. She gaped at the notification realising that it was double the agreed price. 

Sinful: I told you not to add more money, I was just testing my new coding technique. If it failed it would have been a huge loss to your company. 

Alpha: Since it worked, then you have every right to be paid. 

Sinful: Well, thank you then. I would like to work with you if you have any more jobs like this one in the future. I would love to help out, as long as you don't mind me testing my techniques on them.

Alpha: How about you work for my company as an exclusive hacker?

Sinful: I'm sorry but I would have to decline your offer as I'm only doing this as a side job. I have other things I'm doing. But you can always come to me for an upgrade and sort.

Alpha: What about selling this code to my company exclusively? I'm interested in it and I would like to buy the exclusive rights. 

Lily looked deep in thought as she deliberated on selling the code, from everything she had learned, she could make better ones in the future. So hoarding this is not needed but at the same time, she knew selling this to several other companies or publicly making it available would bring more benefits than giving one company an exclusive right to it. 

{Lady Victoria, you should consider selling it to him, trust me you won't regret it!} The system advised. 

"But then, I would have to meet them in person," Victoria argued. 

{Is that a bad thing?}

"Not entirely, but I'm not ready to be publicly known. If I want to build an empire that would suppress Hamilton, my father's company, then I would have to be careful about my image!" Victoria explained. 

{There are other ways you can hide your identity, we can explore those, besides you need money to build an empire and working with this Alpha guy will get you money in the fastest way.}

"Alright, we'll sell it."

Sinful: Are you sure you want an exclusive right to this code? It's only in the first phase and there is a potential for it to be upgraded in the future. And I'm not entirely sure the direction the upgrade would go yet. 

She was throwing down bait for them to know the value of her codes and pay a huge price for it. Mark, who had already been baited, replied almost immediately.

Alpha: Let's meet and discuss the deal. I would like to know the future plan of the code and how it can be applied. I promise I will deal sincerely.

Dornan's café, 5 pm. Private booth 01.

Sinful: Alright, I won't be late.