While the two sisters were enjoying their warm daily life,
Meanwhile, on the second floor of an ordinary apartment in the Seventh District, in a room that had been remodeled into a private studio.
Hua Jianxi was curled up in a gaming chair. Her small feet in white stockings were casually crossed on the desk, while the edge of the table was piled with empty strawberry cream cups.
Three curved monitors on the desk displayed dense data streams. These streams flowed at a speed that ordinary human eyes could not catch.
She had a strawberry lollipop in her mouth, different from the usual green apple flavor. Her gray pupils were fixed on the scrolling data with the concentration of a large feline hunting its prey.
The Phantom Night Company database was being peeled away layer by layer like an onion.
“I’ll just see what you’ve all hidden!” she said in the same teasing tone she usually used with Zero.
The external firewall of Phantom Night Company was less than paper to her. She didn’t even use her ability. She stripped it clean in just three minutes.
However, the internal protection system was tightly wrapped. There were three layers of dynamic verification codes, two sets of data keys, and the most troublesome biometric verification.
If it were an ordinary hacker, they would have been stopped outside. But who was she, Hua Jianxi? She was no ordinary hacker.
「Frequency Dominator」.
That was her ability. She could interfere with any electronic frequency band. In her eyes, the encryption system of the firewall was just another type of frequency signal.
As long as it was a signal, it would be charmed by her, the “electronic siren,” and obediently obey her.
A string of virus code she had written earlier swam like a small fish in Phantom Night’s data ocean. It quietly bypassed layer after layer of defenses.
When it reached the most core part of the central database, the code fish stopped.
“Be good, wait a little longer. Mommy will open the door for you now.”
Hua Jianxi tapped on the keyboard lightly, humming a currently popular anime opening theme.
luv me~hate me~luv me~hate me~
The layers of dynamic verification codes and data keys had been easily cracked by her.
But for her, even the most troublesome biometric verification was a piece of cake.
She pulled the lollipop out of her mouth. She used the candy core to draw a heart on the touchpad in front of the desk.
Then she activated her ability to directly take over the signal transmission of the biometric verification module. The charmed module mistakenly identified the signal from the touchpad as the correct biometric signal.
A green icon indicating verification passed lit up on her computer screen.
“Done.”
Hua Jianxi put the lollipop back into her mouth. She began to seriously browse through Phantom Night’s core database.
Most of the database content was of no interest to her.
Things like financial reports, personnel files, and some procurement lists for ability equipment.
She quickly scanned through the files. She occasionally marked useful information.
Until an encrypted file marked 「Top Secret」 appeared in the center of her screen.
The filename was just a string: SIM-D 013.
Opening it revealed a project file. The title was in bold red font—「Divine Imitation Project」.
Seeing that name, Hua Jianxi bit down hard on her lollipop. She had heard some rumors about this project at Cradle. It seemed to be led by that person she absolutely hated. The file contained some experimental records.
After reading the entire file carefully, she summarized.
This so-called 「Divine Imitation Project」 was a plan to create disposable superhuman ability soldier.
It used the 「Ability Enhancement (Modified)」 booster, a batch of which had been destroyed by Zero previously, along with specially designed exoskeleton armor.
This could temporarily elevate the ability of normal low-level ability users to near S-Class levels. With the enhancement of the exoskeleton armor, they could possess combat power comparable to S-Class.
The side effects were severe. After the booster’s effect ended, it would almost completely burn out the user’s ability circuits. The exoskeleton armor connected to the nervous system would overload and damage the user’s nervous system.
Phantom Night Company seemed to have about eight sets of such exoskeleton armor.
If these eight sets of armor formed an armed squad and deployed indoors, eight near S-Class combatants would indeed be something to consider.
However, Hua Jianxi was not worried. She believed that for Zero, these eight hastily made pseudo S-Class were probably just small fry. After all, that girl could easily beat up the regular last seat of the Knights of the Round Table, 「Surtr」.
But what really worried her was that person she utterly loathed.
The fact that this project had fallen into Phantom Night’s hands indicated that the detestable person had likely also gotten involved in the Ye Family Incident.
What could the Ye Family have that would make that person intervene? After all, that person was an extreme opportunist.
Someday, she really needed to catch Lady Ye and ask properly.
After obtaining useful information, she cleaned up her intrusion traces. She confirmed there were no residues. She also left a small gift for Phantom Night Company—a prank virus that would automatically pop up a pink window with a cute pig when someone opened a document.
Then she packed the useful information into a compressed file. She dragged it into an encrypted communication app. She selected the contact labeled 「Cutest Zero」 and attached a selfie she had deliberately taken in a somewhat suggestive pose. In the message bar, she typed a line.
「A late-night special service for Zero~」
After doing all this, she sent the message to the contact labeled 「Cutest Zero」.
Just after she sent the message, her phone received an encrypted text from 「Cradle」.
The text was usually disguised as a spam message. Only senior members of 「Cradle」 could understand it.
This time, the text said that a Round Table Meeting would be convened at midnight. The host of this meeting was not the usual elusive first seat, but that person she hated the most—the fifth seat of the Round Table, 「Zeus」.
Therefore, this meeting did not require mandatory attendance from all seats. Only seven seats that currently had no tasks were invited.
If it were usual, Hua Jianxi would probably not attend. But now there was evidence that 「Zeus」 was likely getting involved in the Ye Family matter.
So she would rarely attend this meeting chaired by 「Zeus」 to see what that guy who always called himself a “god” wanted to do.