I Really Was a Hacker Before!

"Elysia..." Lin Li called out softly, "Was that person just now very strong?"

"Of course, he's strong. Little Li just arrived and doesn't know his identity." Elysia opened her phone to look at the map and started walking to the left.

"He's the captain of the Third Special Squad, Heng, currently the strongest soldier in Flame-Moth."

"Eh... He's actually that strong? Then how did you two meet? Didn't you just arrive here not too long ago?"

"Oh, Little Li doesn't need to ask about that." Elysia smiled mysteriously, stopping the topic. "Little Li also heard Heng talking about the commission, so..."

"One hundred thousand!" Lin Li shouted excitedly.

"Don't get so worked up." Elysia said with a hint of helplessness and doting in her eyes, "Is Little Li planning to take this commission?"

"Will you be with me?" Lin Li asked calmly after composing herself.

"Mhm, I'm Little Li's now, of course I'll be with you," Elysia replied.

"..." Lin Li rolled her eyes. "Then I'll take it."

"But you haven't even read what the commission is about. What if it's not suitable for you?"

"Don't I still have you?" Lin Li said, then suddenly realized what she had said, her pretty face flushing slightly.

"..."

Elysia was stunned for a few seconds upon hearing this, and a smile gradually spread across her lips.

"I really didn't expect Little Li to say something like that," Elysia said with a smile in her eyes. "I'm very happy, Little Li. To think you already consider me someone so important, I..."

"Stop! Don't say any more!" Lin Li lowered her head even further.

"..."

The smile in Elysia's eyes grew stronger, and she suddenly pulled Lin Li into her arms.

"What are you doing?" Lin Li asked indignantly.

"Can Little Li look back?" Elysia didn't answer.

"Tch, what's there to see..."

Lin Li's voice abruptly cut off. Then, as if nothing had happened, she turned her head back and continued walking with her head down.

Seeing this, Elysia stroked her hair and said with a smile:

"You can't keep walking with your head down like this. There are plenty of streetlights here, you know?"

"Hmph, none of your business..."

Lin Li said, then after thinking for a moment, she added:

"You have to pay me to pat my head."

"..."

Elysia withdrew her other hand and sighed.

What a little money grubber.

Flame-Moth was vast, incredibly vast. It took the two of them a full half hour to walk from where they met Heng to the commission reception area.

At first glance, there wasn't a soul in sight.

But this was normal. Most of the people who came here were captains of ordinary squads. New recruits rarely came here to look at commissions... some didn't even know this place existed.

Elysia scanned the board and found only one commission posted a day ago. The others were at least several weeks old and offered very little reward.

"Hmm... let me see." Elysia clicked on the commission, narrowed her eyes, and leaned closer to the screen to read it carefully.

"..."

After a while, she withdrew her gaze, having a general understanding of the situation.

"What did it say? The font is too small, it's not meant for people to read!" Lin Li mumbled. "That hundred thousand is quite eye-catching though, you can see it at a glance."

"Pfft..."

For some reason, every time Elysia heard Lin Li's money-grubbing remarks, she felt like laughing.

"Simply put, Flame-Moth was subjected to a cyberattack a few days ago. The attacker was very skilled, and Flame-Moth spent several days trying to track them down, only knowing they were on the Mu Continent. So, they posted a commission, probably hoping that someone among the soldiers who is skilled in this area would take it," Elysia explained. "But I don't know much about computers, so this commission might not be suitable..."

"I can do it!" As soon as Lin Li heard about the cyberattack, she knew her past hacking knowledge could finally be put to use!

Come on, does anyone really think I was just playing around when I stayed home all the time? I learned so many coding languages.

"Hm?" Elysia was surprised by Lin Li's statement and wasn't sure what to think.

As far as she knew, computers were incredibly difficult to learn, their complexity rivaling... well, she couldn't even think of a good comparison.

"Is Little Li serious?"

"What else? Why would I lie to you? Are you going to mess with my hundred thousand yuan?" Lin Li retorted, her hand moving swiftly to click the "accept" button.

However, there were still a series of identity information entries to be filled out.

"..."

Lin Li silently retreated to the back and then pushed Elysia forward.

"You take it."

"...Alright."

She still had some doubts about whether Lin Li truly understood this field. After all, the cybersecurity personnel she'd seen at the upper-level base had extremely sparse hair.

But Lin Li showed no signs of hair loss, and she was so young...

Elysia had already decided to find someone to help later.

Elysia entered her information, which included a field for weight. She glanced at Lin Li and, seeing that the other girl wasn't looking, breathed a sigh of relief. She entered a number and quickly clicked submit.

"There, I've accepted the request." Elysia took Lin Li's hand again and said, "This commission is for one week, meaning we have to find the culprit who attacked the Flame-Moth network within this time."

"Then let's go now, hurry, hurry," Lin Li urged. "We'll go to the... place that was attacked first, and then you can just watch my performance."

"..."

Seeing Lin Li so eager, Elysia couldn't do anything. She had originally planned to give Lin Li a tour of the entire Flame-Moth.

After all, the other girl had only recently woken up and should get familiar with the place first.

"Hey, don't space out! That 100,000 will be snatched by someone else soon!" Lin Li pointed into the distance, where a small team was walking towards them, and said urgently.

"Mhm, let's go then."

Elysia sighed.

She hadn't even figured out who to ask for help.

It took another hour, and it was almost noon when Elysia finally led Lin Li to the Flame-Moth's high-level meeting place.

It was a circular building with a dome on top, resembling a religious cathedral.

The building was constructed with the Flame-Moth's standard dark blue and black bricks, though they appeared to be made of steel, judging by the reflections on the outer walls.

It looked impenetrable.

But no wall is completely airtight. Even with strong physical defenses, they were still vulnerable to high-level hackers... Of course, if the conference room had no network access, then there would be nothing to fear.

As they reached the building's main entrance, Lin Li suddenly stopped. Elysia had no choice but to stop as well.

She looked at Lin Li, who was also looking at her. "Elysia, you haven't been thinking about letting someone else help with this request the whole way here, have you?"

"Uh... Little Li is very smart..." Elysia, seeing she'd been found out, didn't hide it and told the truth.

"Smart my foot. You've been looking at your phone the whole time. I saw you scrolling through your contacts," Lin Li said, rolling her eyes. This was already the umpteenth time she'd rolled her eyes today.

It was always because of Elysia.

"I'm telling you the truth, I used to be a hacker too."

"So Little Li is that amazing?" Elysia's beautiful eyes widened slightly, a hint of disbelief in them.

"Hmph, of course. Do you think I'm just a useless person?" Lin Li's lips curved into a smug smile when she saw Elysia's surprise, her eyebrows slightly raised. "So when we get to that place later, I don't want to hear you questioning me at all, understand?"

"...Mhm, I definitely won't."

Seeing Lin Li's serious expression, Elysia also became serious.

Although Lin Li's face, combined with that expression, was inexplicably cute... or perhaps incongruous?

She had never thought of Little Li as useless. She didn't understand why Little Li would say that about herself. Little Li had saved her life; she couldn't love her enough...

Yes, she seemed to have already fallen in love.

"What are you spacing out for? Let's go. Don't we need to swipe our access cards here? You do it."

"Okay~"

In a small room inside the building, a group of technicians with nearly all their hair gone were frantically typing on their keyboards. The narrow space was filled with the incessant sound of clattering keys.

On rows of computer screens, except for one unoccupied computer, all the others displayed complex code interfaces that made one's head spin.

A man wearing gold-rimmed glasses paced back and forth, occasionally glancing at his watch and the computer screens of his colleagues.

"Haven't you found anything yet?" a refined man with gold-rimmed glasses asked, frowning. "It's been two days, and all you know is that the target is on the Mu Continent? No other information at all?"

"..."

Not a single person present dared to speak.

It was true that their skills were lacking, and they couldn't argue.

"Found it!"

Suddenly, someone shouted excitedly. The refined man's eyes lit up, and he walked over to the person's computer, asking, "Where?"

"The location shows... the Far East... Wait, there's also some text."

The man adjusted his glasses and leaned closer to the screen, trying to decipher the characters. Unexpectedly, a giant spider suddenly appeared on the screen, its eight legs gripping the display firmly, spitting silk from its abdomen.

"Holy crap!"

The man was startled and quickly recoiled.

The spider silk on the screen formed a sentence.

...YOU'VE BEEN TRICKED

"..."

Seeing this sentence, the man froze for two seconds. After reacting, he cursed loudly:

"Damn it, all of you, search for me! If there's no result by the end of today, you can all get lost!"

After speaking, the man glared fiercely at everyone, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses that had almost fallen off from the shock, and walked towards the door.

But at this moment, a voice from the doorway stopped him.

"Elysia, why are you so angry? Do you need any help?"

As soon as the voice fell, a girl with pink hair, pulling a girl dressed entirely in white, walked in.

"...Elysia, what are you doing here?"

The man called Er calmed down and asked.

He looked at Lin Li, who was standing behind Elysia, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Lin Li? So she's awake. It seems I don't need to visit her personally.

"Of course, I'm here to help you solve the problem!" Elysia said with a smile, pulling Lin Li to an unused computer.

The computer had also been infiltrated.

Lin Li sat down directly.

The people on her left and right frowned when they saw her, not knowing what this unfamiliar girl intended to do.

Although Elysia was a little nervous, she remembered what Lin Li had said at the door earlier and didn't stop her. Otherwise, her heart would still be hanging.

But then, Lin Li's series of operations completely put her worried heart at ease.

Her fair and slender fingers danced skillfully on the keyboard, closing one window after another, and typing line after line of code.

During this time, the computer even blue-screened, but Lin Li fixed it with just a few taps of her keyboard.

(The author has never been a hacker, so this description is purely based on stereotypes.)

Elysia's emotions went from surprise to shock, and finally to joy.

Little Li actually knows how to do this!

A smile gradually appeared on her face, growing wider and wider.

Only when Lin Li stopped her actions did she compose herself.

She had been focused on watching Little Li the whole time and hadn't noticed that people had already surrounded her.

Even Er was staring at Lin Li with wide eyes.

"Hmm... the person's location is here, but I don't know where this is," Lin Li said, pointing to a string of addresses on the computer.

"Mu Continent, Yunyan Street, East District, Number 72."

The person sitting to Lin Li's left read it out softly.

Although the voice was not loud, everyone was amazed by Lin Li's operation, and the entire room was silent.

This string of addresses reached everyone's ears.

Elysia pulled Lin Li up from the seat, and then everyone else reacted.

"Wow, a young hero indeed, so easily..."

"Damn it, shut up! You bunch of useless trash." Er interrupted, glancing at the fat man who spoke, his tone unfriendly.

He looked at Elysia, or rather, at Lin Li behind her, his expression returning to normal, and said, "Are you sure it's this address?"

"Mm, I'm very capable," Lin Li replied.

She took out some tissues from Elysia's pocket and wiped her fingers.

Damn it, this broken keyboard is covered in oil, even worse than the internet cafe near her house that charges three yuan per hour.

However, the computer's performance was indeed top-notch, allowing her to input tracking formulas so smoothly. She knew that even her own computer would lag a bit when inputting code like this.

"Alright, thank you all for this. I'll find someone to catch him now."

"Whoa, wait a minute." Elysia quickly stopped Er as he reached for the walkie-talkie.

"What? Is there a problem?"

Elysia pondered for a moment and said, "Um... it's just... we actually came for this commission."

"What commission?" Er was stunned for a moment. He seemed to have guessed something and looked at the people behind him: "Did any of you damn people apply for this as a commission?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, everyone lowered their heads, not daring to make a sound.

Seeing this, Er understood what had happened. But with things as they were, he couldn't scold them further.

If Lin Li hadn't already solved the problem, he would have definitely made these useless people get lost.

A group of people who called themselves experts in the computer world actually needed to find outside help from the entire Flame-Moth for such a problem?

He turned his head and said to Elysia, "So you plan to find that person yourselves?"

"Mhm, mhm!" Elysia nodded.

"Do you need help?"

"No, I believe Little Li and I can handle it."

"..."

Er was silent for a moment before walking out of the small room. Elysia and Lin Li also followed him out.