Aiden Pearce

After witnessing the murder on the street, Harry had remained near the ctOS server in the Loop Line District.

The man responsible for that street killing was Aiden Pearce, the protagonist of Watchdog.

This was what happened: the unfortunate victim had received a call ordering him to intimidate Aiden's sister. Aiden, who had once lost family because of himself, immediately flew into a rage and launched a daytime manhunt on the spot.

It had to be said that hackers in this city really were like people with superpowers. Even after killing someone, they could still shake off police pursuit in full view of everyone and slip away.

Aiden, having killed the unlucky man, needed to find out who had ordered the intimidation of his sister. To do that, he needed the hacker organization DedSec to break into the ctOS server in the Loop Line District—this place.

Harry set down his black tea. Leining had found the target.

Although Harry did not possess miraculous hacking skills or ctOS access privileges, Leining could directly take over electronic devices and did not need software to control the hardware.

It was just that Osborn's power grid in Chicago had yet to be fully deployed, so Leining could not control Chicago the way he controlled the New York power grid.

The server was heavily guarded, most of them mercenaries hired by Bloom Company at great expense. These mercenaries were mostly ruthless killers with blood on their hands.

Just as Aiden was cautiously searching for an opening, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Aiden Pearce."

Aiden's pupils contracted sharply. Without a second thought, he swung his Baton at Harry, but the move that had never failed him before suddenly fell flat.

Harry easily caught Aiden's Baton.

"Harry Osborn?" After seeing who it was, Aiden called out Harry's name.

"That's right. Not bad moves, but I'm not here to arrest you. I'm here to help you."

Aiden pulled back his Baton, his gaze shifting as he sized Harry up.

"Although I don't know how you know my name, I have urgent business. If you don't want to get hurt—"

Before Aiden could finish, Harry snatched the Baton from his hand, moving so quickly that Aiden did not even have time to react.

The Baton gradually warped in Harry's hand before finally being crushed into a lump of scrap.

"There's a pretty good café over there..."

Even after witnessing that, Aiden still had no intention of going with Harry. He secretly worked his phone, trying to open the air valve behind Harry...

"Mr. Pearce, don't waste your effort. Why don't you see whether your phone still works?" Harry spread his hands.

Aiden stared blankly at his phone. The screen displayed nothing but the emoticon "(°-°)".

"See? I told you I mean no harm. Since you already know I'm Harry Osborn, if you have any brains, you should sit down and talk with me."

Aiden was somewhat helpless. At the moment, this really was the only option.

"I'll be direct. I want to hire you to work for me," Harry said, getting straight to the point.

"Sorry, but I'm not taking jobs right now. I'm dealing with personal matters." Aiden shook his head.

"Don't you want to hear what it is first?" Harry was not in a hurry. Aiden would definitely accept in the end.

"I intend to go after Bloom Company."

Aiden froze.

"Although I need to hack into ctOS and use its functions, that doesn't mean I want to bring down Bloom." Aiden shook his head.

"No. You need to go after Bloom Company too."

Aiden said nothing, quietly listening as Harry continued.

"I know who you are and what you've done. During a job involving dirty money from a bank, you saw strange footage in ctOS and got yourself into trouble. When they sent people after you, your niece died because of it. And now, because of you again, someone has called to threaten your sister."

Aiden narrowed his eyes. His personal information did not exist in ctOS. In other words, he was theoretically Translucent in this city.

How did Harry know so much?

"Now you need ctOS data to help you trace who made that call, which is why you came to the ctOS server in the Loop Line District. You planned to help that hacker group break into ctOS. I know all of that."

"Look, practically everything you've run into has been connected to ctOS. And as for me, the reason I want to buy that company is also because of this system. Yet because of this system, they refuse to sell."

"Don't you think there's some secret hidden behind this system?"

"That sounds like something those DedSec people would say. You should ask them to work for you." Aiden shook his head.

"They lack decisive means and the ability to follow through. Besides, you need me too."

"Bullshit." Aiden was clearly a loner. If he could handle something himself, he would never rely on anyone else.

"You may be a tough guy, charging mercenaries with nothing but a lousy gun, but have you thought about your sister and nephew?"

Harry had raised the crucial point and gestured for the waiter to bring another cup of tea.

Aiden fell into thought.

Indeed, he could charge through a hail of bullets and get into gunfights, but his family could not. There was already precedent for that—his niece had died that way.

An open attack was easy to avoid, but hidden arrows were hard to defend against.

"You can protect my family?" Aiden finally relented.

"Of course. I'll send them to New York. If you watch the news, you should know how much influence Osborn has in New York."

Aiden's hesitation did not escape Harry's notice. He had thought Aiden was about to agree, but instead, Aiden shook his head.

"I don't trust you. How can I be sure you won't use them as hostages?"

Aiden was clearly being extremely cautious, but if Harry had wanted to deal with him, the storefront would have been swarming with Police by now!

Still, it was hardly enough to make a hacker trust him with mere words. That did not surprise Harry.

But, as expected, someone would soon kidnap Aiden's sister. When that happened, he would naturally come knocking again.

"Fine, but my offer still stands. Also, you can go straight into that area. Their leader is already working for me."

Harry pulled out his phone and spoke into it:

"Give us a wave from over there. In a moment, make a little room for this gentleman in the baseball cap. You don't see him, understood?"

The mercenaries outside waved in this direction, signaling that they had heard him.

Aiden looked at the mercenaries, then at Harry, and felt rather miserable.

Harry spread his hands.

Weren't mercenaries just working for money? Some might have a little professional integrity, but these guys with stains all over their records? Throw them a bit of cash, and wouldn't they obediently switch sides?

Aiden followed the path the mercenaries had cleared and walked right in.

Recruiting this protagonist could wait for now. There were still a few other talented people here worth recruiting.

For example, ctOS's two developers.