Silver Wolf Tried to Hack My System? A Counter-Hack Blue-Screened Her!

Silver Wolf's fingers blurred.

The Holographic Keyboard crackled beneath them.

More than a hundred pale-blue data screens sprang up around the VIP Lounge like an inverted lotus, enclosing her at its center.

This was no ordinary network intrusion.

This was Ether Editing.

Silver Wolf was trying to bypass the laws of physics and rewrite the defenses of the woman on the sofa into a heap of junk code.

Blue data poured out like a waterfall.

The streams wove into a vast net in midair and swept straight toward Su Chen's face.

Su Chen sat upright on the edge of the sofa.

His expression was cold as ice.

Inside, he was terrified.

He didn't know a damn thing about code.

Back when he played games at internet cafés, his only fix for a computer problem had been to unplug it and restart it.

Now, faced with a top-tier interstellar hacker attack, he couldn't even strike a defensive pose.

His right calf was still numb.

He had held it so rigidly to look imposing that the muscle had begun to cramp.

All Su Chen could do was dig his toes into the insoles of his high-heeled boots.

And keep that icy, trash-disdaining look on his face.

The blue data net struck the faint layer of golden light.

No explosion.

No shock wave.

It didn't stir so much as a breeze.

The data streams stopped in midair.

Like a fly that had slammed into reinforced glass, they flickered blue to no avail.

An emotionless mechanical voice rang out in Su Chen's mind.

[Ding.]

[Low-dimensional data intrusion detected.]

[Assessing threat level... Assessment complete: no threat.]

[System defense mechanism activated. Reverse tracing initiated.]

Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

He exhaled slowly, scattering the white steam above his teacup.

The Myriad Worlds Role-Playing System was a higher-dimensional creation.

Forget a Stellaron Hunter. Even if Nous personally laid the cables, the Aeon wouldn't hack into a system that didn't even obey the laws of the universe.

Su Chen set his cup back on the coffee table.

He shifted slightly, drawing his cramping right leg back half an inch.

The hem of his black-and-gold robe brushed the velvet carpet with a faint rustle.

He didn't have to do a thing. He could just watch.

"How is that possible?"

The fresh bubble Silver Wolf had blown popped with a snap.

Pink gum stuck to the tip of her nose, but she didn't bother wiping it off.

All ten fingers hammered the keyboard.

"It won't compile? A logic deadlock? What kind of firewall is this?"

The golden light hanging in midair suddenly flashed.

Just once.

The next instant, every data stream connecting Silver Wolf to it changed color.

Pale blue became an oppressive dark gold.

The dark-gold data surged back along the connection like a ruthless virus.

It moved too fast for the naked eye to follow.

"Warning! Core protocols compromised!"

Silver Wolf's main control panel flashed red.

Biting her lip, she frantically typed patch commands into the keyboard.

A fine sheen of cold sweat formed on her forehead.

It was useless.

The dark-gold data rolled through every Ether defense she prided herself on, crushing them like a steamroller.

Bang.

The leftmost Holographic Screen flickered twice, then turned solid blue.

A line of garbled text floated in the middle.

The blue screen of death.

Bang, bang, bang.

Like falling dominoes.

In a single second, all the screens floating around the VIP Lounge turned blue one after another.

Their eerie blue glow fell across Himeko's and Welt's stunned faces.

Silver Wolf's hands froze in midair.

With a dull pop, the holographic keyboard dissolved into scattered motes of light.

But the counterattack wasn't over.

The image on the sole remaining screen in front of her suddenly changed.

It switched to Silver Wolf's most treasured personal game account.

[Starcraft: Emperor of the Universe]

Level: 99 (max).

Premium star coins: 99,999,999.

Discontinued equipment: 412 pieces.

Silver Wolf watched in horror as the numbers plummeted.

Level 99 dropped to 50 in an instant.

Then to 10.

Finally, it stopped at 1.

Her premium star coins dwindled, that long string of nines turning into a big fat zero.

The discontinued equipment in her inventory vanished piece by piece.

Each loss came with a merciless system notification.

All gone.

Nothing remained. Not even a beginner's wooden sword.

Silver Wolf stared blankly at the zero on the screen.

Her arms fell limp at her sides.

Her lips began to tremble.

"My... limited-edition lightsaber."

Tears welled in her eyes, then spilled down her cheeks.

"All that grinding... I stayed up seventy-two hours to get that first-kill achievement..."

Her legs gave out, and she slumped onto the carpet.

Clutching her hair in both hands, she burst into loud sobs.

"Waaah! You deleted my save! You heartless monster!"

The girl's cries echoed through the VIP Lounge.

She sounded utterly devastated.

Su Chen sat on the sofa, his back ramrod straight.

Watching Silver Wolf roll around on the floor in tears, he felt a sudden pang of guilt.

Wiping a gaming addict's max-level account clean...

Wasn't that a little too cruel?

Kafka leaned against the metal doorframe, cold sweat dripping from her chin onto her white shirt.

The searing pain in her chest had yet to subside.

But what she had just seen set off the highest alarm in her mind.

This woman could turn even Ether Editing back on its user, then delete an account with pinpoint precision.

She wasn't just a monster in combat. She outclassed them in information warfare, too.

There was no place for someone like her in Elio's script.

If they stayed any longer, neither of them would make it out.

Enduring the tearing pain in her nerves, Kafka straightened up.

She grabbed Silver Wolf by the back of her jacket.

Then she hauled the sobbing girl up like a chick.

With her free left hand, she pulled a black metal sphere from her belt.

Her thumb flicked off the safety ring.

Kafka hurled the sphere at the floor.

Bang.

A thick cloud of purple smoke burst out.

Carrying an acrid stench and visual interference signals, it filled the entire doorway.

Welt immediately raised his cane and erected a gravity barrier before him.

It held back the spreading toxic smoke.

A few seconds later.

The space station's ventilation system kicked in, drawing away most of the purple smoke.

The doorway was empty.

The Stellaron Hunters had escaped.

All they left on the carpet was a flattened piece of pink bubble gum.

Su Chen didn't give chase.

In stilettos, he couldn't have run fast even if he'd wanted to.

Besides, his top priority was to keep up the aura of a mighty figure from the Divine Court.

The Empress remained seated on the sofa. Even her breathing hadn't changed.

The smoke had yet to clear completely.

A large communications screen on the side wall of the VIP Lounge suddenly flickered with static.

An electric hiss followed.

The image sharpened.

Herta's face filled the screen.

The girl from the Genius Society gripped the edges of the camera with both hands.

Her large eyes shone with almost manic fervor as she stared at the Empress on the sofa.

"Counter-tracking technology that can crush even the Stellaron Hunters..."

Herta's voice trembled with excitement.

"Name your price!"