Levi's eyes flew open with a start. His jaws tightened and he slowly removed his arm from Brooklyn's body, careful not to wake her up.[Some people were researching my father? How is he now?]Response came very quickly showing James was still awake.[Young man, I intensified the security around him so he is safe. As for those people, we haven't managed to find them but we are working on it]Levi was confused. He sat against the headboard and thought who it could be researching about his father.He didn't really remember much about his father's family so could it be someone from there? Why did they choose to only do their findings about his father now?Ding!His phone vibrated again and Brooklyn groaned again in complaint. She threw her hands around his waist and drew closer.Levi picked up his phone to check the notifications.He saw messages from the stock webpage, Dark Web and Twitter but just as he wanted to open one of the notifications—Ding!This time, it wasn't his phone. It wa
[Webpage Loading]Levi sipped his wine slowly as he twirled in the swiveling chair waiting for the desktop to load the Dark Web. It was almost a few minutes to the time stated for the tournament.He glanced at the balcony for a minute. Brooklyn was on the phone, her iPad and a stylus pen on the other hand as she jotted some things down. She looked serious but that wasn't what attracted his attention.It was the loose fitting shorts and matching top she was wearing which clung to her curves and accentuated the fact that there were no underwears underneath.His eyes darted to the bed which now had a new bedspread as the previous one had been stained."Great, she'll be the cherry on top of the icing," His eyes curved mischievously.If he wins this tournament, he'll be more than happy to have Brooklyn as his celebratory reward.Ding![You're finally here. Look, I entered our team into the contest]Valkyrie sent a screenshot and Levi almost facepalmed when he saw the name she had chosen fo
[Attention please, everyone. We can see there is a bit of an argument going on in the community chat box. If care is not taken, we might just decide to lock the chat box][There are guests all over the world watching us. It speak well of us to begin a conflict when the challenge has barely begun]The host's words disrupted the fight that was ongoing in the chat box.Levi directly exited the chat box and focused on the challenge.[I told you not to reply to them, didn't I? Don't diminish our reputation especially in front of people like DarkCipher]- Valkyrie added a tearful emoji to the message she sent to the group chat.Others raised a brow and Chubby sent a message.[Valkyrie, do you perhaps have a crush on Dark Cipher?]Levi's eyes curved mischievously and he waited for her response. He was already beginning to suspect this and Chubby only helped in voicing out his support.[What are you talking about? He's just my idol... Haha]One could feel the nervousness from her message and L
"Go ahead. I'll meet you. I just have to deal with something real quick," Levi stroked Brooklyn's hair and glanced in the direction of the desktop. She nodded, dropped her iPad and headed out when she suddenly cussed, "Shit..." She turned around and rushed to the bedside drawer. Levi looked at her for a minute wondering why she was panicking but he already put the headphones and just then, the host spoke, "We'll all just have to wait till the time for the challenge to elapse so other teams who have already gotten through to the next stage can take a break." "Great, my back is aching. Blackwing, you narcissistic rascal, you are back?" Valkyrie spoke when she saw that Levi was typing. [Yes but I'm going to log off now. I'll be back just in time] [Okay. I'll just log off then and study more codes. I assume, the challenge will only get harder from now on]- Slime sent a message and logged off almost immediately. [Great job... See you guys later]- Chubby didn't stay online for too lo
[Attention please! The next stage will commence immediately. The remaining eight hundred teams will be advancing to the second stage now] Levi sat back comfortably on the swiveling chair awaiting the host continuation. Ding! [Anyone made a wild guess at what the next challenge might be?]- Chubby sent a message to their group chat. [Who knows? I spent my break going through more tactics about firewalls. It's inevitable in this case]- Slime sounded impassive but he was also eagerly waiting on what the next challenge would be. [Same here. I'm a bit weak in the firewalls aspects so I tried to study some... Didn't expect it would be so difficult]- Valkyrie added a sticker that showed a girl collapsing from exhaustion. [Pfft!]- Chubby flooded the group chats with laughing emoticons and stickers. Levi shook his head helplessly at Valkyrie's words. Lazy thing... If you want to survive as a hacker, you need to know at least the basics in firewall tactics. [If you pay attention, you will
Levi's brows knitted as he watched the screen with a discerning look. The timer continually slowly counted down. His eyes flashed with realization and he had just adjusted his mic to say something when Chubby's voice came through, "I have an idea! We can all start sending random code to the virus. It might confuse it and slow it down, giving us time to get past it." "Sounds like a good idea. Let's get on with it. There are only four minutes left," Valkyrie drew her keyboard closer. Levi, seeing they agreed with it, didn't voice out his own opinions. As soon as they began to type furiously, he joined. Tap! Tap! Tap! Strings of code appeared on the screen as their fingers worked hastily across the screen. The spider seemed to pause for a moment, as if it was trying to make sense of the information it was receiving. "Good job Chubby!" Slime praised when he saw the spider paused movement. He attempted to move his icon forward to the finish line when— The spider started to move a
[Congratulations once again the Hacksmiths. The creator of that virus will specially have a word with you all after this challenge is over regardless of the results]The host sent another wave of shock across the tournament arena. Hackers who didn't even know about the Hacksmiths before began to click on the profiles of each team member to know who they were.The community chat of course was on fire.[What?! Is that the sound of my jaw breaking in the background?][Isn't that team the one that Blackwing belongs to? Oh my God!][Who would have thought— this is too shocking][I didn't want to say this earlier but now I'm not afraid, I'm officially a fan of the Hacksmiths especially Blackwing. He's so cool][Guys, I just created a betting poll. I drew up the list of leading teams. You can vote till your heart's content for your favorite teams. Note, this is only for the audience only. Participants of the tournament are not eligible to vote]The hacker that dropped this message added a l
The next day, just after breakfast, Levi opened the window's blinds to allow the rays of sunlight to illuminate the room.He picked up a piece of clothing Brooklyn must have dropped while rushing that morning and returned it to its original position.A little smile danced on his lips as he remembered how upset she had been because she missed the alarm due to their hectic tossing around in the bed.But that couldn't be compared to the horrific expression she had when she saw the long trail of hickeys he had left on her body in the most revealing spots.Once again, he was banned from touching her for a month. Pst! That's only her wishful thinking.Ding!Ding!His phone lit up with notifications. There were mails of the reports from his newly acquired print media companies back in San Jose but Brooklyn's message was what caught his eye.[The dinner is starting by 7 pm. The chauffeur will pick you up from home. Please be ready by then]He chuckled at the sticker she sent. It was of a doll