A man dressed in black clothing was there, his legs set on a desk as if he were some kind of delinquent. He was turning around in the revolving chair he was sitting in nonchalantly, clearly not showing any respect to the others in the room.
He was wearing a cap that covered half of his face, only revealing his sharp nose and thin lips.
He was, in fact, the one and only idol to many within the IT field, the five-year consecutive champion of the Global Hackers Union competition, one of the two legendary figures amongst all hackers – Vernom.
"Please wait just a little bit longer, Mr. Vernom! Mr. Moran will be right with you any time now!"
"You must be tired from all this waiting! Here, let me give you a massage!"
Having been given the honor to meet their idol, many employees from the technical department were gushing over Vernom, with some even asking for photographs and signatures. It was quite the desperate sight.
"Don't you all have work to do?!" Jack was the first to witness this, and felt like he was about to explode. from rage.
The moment the employees sensed the strong aura radiating from Ace, all of them bolted back to their seats.
"Sorry for making you wait, Mr. Vernom. Mr. Moran is here now. Mr. Moran, this is the renowned hacker, Mr. Vernom." Jack stood in the middle of the two, introducing them to each other carefully as he didn't dare to offend either of them.
Vernom, however, was still leaning back against the chair casually. He didn't seem like he intended to greet Ace at all, let alone shake his hand out of courtesy.
He cocked his head, smirking lightly as he looked Ace up and down.
The CEO was sizing the other man up as well, all while looming over the arrogant hacker.
Vernom chuckled to himself and sneered, "So you're Ace Moran. Aren't you the guy that's being cussed out all over the internet? You know… as the jerk who got his mistress pregnant and ditched his wife?"
Everyone gasped the moment he said those words.
Standing next to Ace, Joanna couldn't help but think, 'This Vernom guy's personality is just like his code. Does he enjoy attacking others or something?'
"Hahaha, good joke, Mr. Vernom!" Jack laughed nervously to ease the tension in the atmosphere, all while glancing at Ace worriedly.
Ace, however, ignored the remark and asked him bluntly, "Can you really find out who Cyber Queen is?"
"Are you doubting my capabilities?" Vernom seemed angry, jumping up from the chair to meet Ace's eye. "I wouldn't have come to you if I wasn't confident I could do it."
After that, he quickly typed out a string of code on the computer behind him.
"This is a tracking software that took me three whole days to make. It can track down the virus that hacked into your system, and reveal the personal information of the person who created it."
Still typing on his keyboard, Vernom seemed extremely excited, as if he were playing a game. "As soon as I activate it, all of Cyber Queen's information will be on display within fifteen minutes!"
For the past few years, there were only two legends within the hacking field. One was Vernom, who specialized in offense, while the other was Cyber Queen, who specialized in defense. The two had always been rivals, especially since they always tied in every competition they entered.
However, five years ago, Cyber Queen managed to win against Vernom by a slight margin, but after that, they completely disappeared. From then on, everyone viewed Cyber Queen as the top hacker in the field. Eventually, the rumors spread further, describing the two as the 'Bonnie and Clyde' of hackers.
With that, Vernom started to develop an interest in Cyber Queen, and swore to track her down, no matter what it took.
Ace, on the other hand, wasn't quite as knowledgeable when it came to softwares. Hence, he stared at the computer screen, and spoke in his usual cold tone, "Do it."
However, Vernom didn't do as told, his expression rather haughty. "Why should I follow your orders?"
"Jack, transfer two hundred and fifty million dollars to him."
"Pfft, don't make me laugh! What kind of hacker out there lacks that kind of money?"
"What do you want then?" Ace looked upset, his patience wearing thin.
'This Vernom guy might be a pain, but if he can find out who Cyber Queen is, he'd really live up to his title.' He thought.
"It's simple," Vernom replied. "If I really am able to track them down, you should use your power and status, as a Moran, to make them announce to the whole world that they admit defeat to me. Oh, and make them call me Daddy Vernom while they're at it. I want it broadcast on every single television out there too!"
'I'm excited just thinking about it.' The hacker thought to himself smugly.
Joanna, who was still standing next to them, couldn't help but roll her eyes. 'How childish! I heard Vernom was quite handsome, with a tall and muscular figure… He was basically a mysterious dark prince from what people described. I mean, sure, he's tall, handsome, and probably muscular… but what happened to being a mysterious dark prince?'
"Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom," Joanna said as she slipped out of the office quietly.
'So you want me to call you Daddy, huh? Just wait till I show you who Mommy is!'
"Okay, it's a deal." Ace's icy gaze was fixed on the 'Run' button on the screen. "Go ahead."
"Awesome!" Vernom clicked on the button without thinking twice.
Everyone held their breath, and all eyes were focused on the monitor screen. Some of Cyber Queen's fans *clenched their fists, their hearts pounding in excitement.
"Almost there! Almost there!"
"The identity of the mysterious legendary hacker Cyber Queen is going to be exposed!"
Fifteen minutes seemed to fly by. Everyone started counting down.
*10, 9, 8, 7…"
At that moment, Joanna nonchalantly returned to the scene.
"Aren't you done yet?" She asked mockingly as she watched Vernom, who was frowning deeply. "Are you sure you can do it? I think there's some errors in your code. If it turns out that you've been chasing your own tail this whole time, aren't you worried that you'll have to call someone Daddy instead?"
"What does a woman like you know about coding? All you know how to do is clean up garbage."
Vernom was so full of disdain for Joanna that he didn't even bother to look at her. He despised women like her who were not willing to leave their cheating husbands, but instead tried to compromise in every way just to remain with them. She had no brains, no self-respect, and no talents to speak of. How could someone like that know anything about coding?
The crowd also believed that Joanna was speaking nonsense. Vernom's codes had always been flawless, so there was simply no way that there could be anything wrong with them.
"3! 2! 1!"
The long-awaited moment finally arrived. Anytime now, once the program finished running, the information everyone wanted to see would be displayed on the screen. The screen flashed, and everyone watched closely.
"But that…"
The whole room instantly fell silent as soon as they saw that the picture displayed on the screen was of Vernom himself.
The room erupted into chaos. Vernom had just shot himself in the foot!
"See?" Joanna crowed triumphantly. "I was right! There really was something wrong with your codes!"
She stifled a smile and patted Vernom's shoulder before saying sweetly, "No matter how high you think you've climbed, there's always a higher mountain out there, young man. That's why you shouldn't be so arrogant."
"Impossible!" Vernom burst out, eyes wide in shock. "Absolutely impossible! There's no way I made a mistake in my codes! I've spent three long days and nights on this… There simply can't be any problem with it!"
He opened up the back end and went through it again and again, but still could not find any problems anywhere.
"This is exactly why you shouldn't go around telling people to call you Daddy!" Joanna added gleefully." Since It's clear that your skills aren't up to par, the best thing to do is just own up to the fact that you've lost."
Joanna's words felt like little daggers piercing through Vernom's heart, but he could not think of any words to throw back at her since his mind was focused on finding the bugs in the program.
Ace pursed his thin lips. He was not paying any attention to Vernom's blunder at all. Instead, he was staring at Joanna shrewdly.
Why was this woman acting all cocky, he wondered. Even if it was true that there were some issues with the codes, why was she so smug about it?
"Looks like the so-called legendary hacker turned out to be mediocre," he said finally. "You're just wasting my time."
He glanced at his watch and made for the exit.
Everyone in the IT Department was disappointed in Vernom as well. It appeared that legends and icons really only existed in the realm of imagination. As soon as they came in contact with reality, their whole facade would crumble.
"Wait!" Vernom shouted suddenly. He had finally returned to the real world. "I've found the source of the problem."
Ace raised his brows and motioned for him to keep talking.
"The only reason it went wrong was because the target had decoded the logic of my codes and launched. a targeted systematic counterattack, replacing the result retrieved by the program with a
picture of myself."
Seeing how the others in the room were confused by his words, he explained, "In other words, Cyber Queen, the person we've been searching for, is in this room, because only the people in this room have seen my coding composition."
"Which means," Vernom continued, "that anyone who left this room while the program was running is a prime suspect!"
Everyone in the room exchanged looks with each other.
"But apart from Mrs. Moran, everyone else stayed here the whole time… No one else left the room!"