Chapter 102: Meeting Dark Star
After her dinner with Celina, Lily went back to a newly rented apartment close to the studio. With the studio enlargement, she cleared out the living area of the studio and made it into a large showroom for their products.
She had no intention to continue living in the school building, so she decided to rent a small apartment close to the studio and the academy to ease her mobility while also giving her some privacy.
Upon arrival, she showered before getting to work on the blueprints given to her by Bryan. Lily had been studying the blueprint since she had received it from him.
And the more she studied it, the more she realised she only knew a little about her mother and her work.
All the technology used in creating the vault was so advanced that it dwarfed all her experiences for both lifetimes.
She could understand why the system had insisted she learn something new if she wanted to tackle the vault. And although she had a lot on her hands, there was indeed a need to advance her knowledge.
Not only to be able to beat her competitors but also to get to know her mother better.
What secret was she hiding when she was alive?
Did she also have a system or a guide that helped her with such knowledge?Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
Was there a connection that couldn’t be spoken about?
All these bugged her as she stared blankly at the blueprint.
Heaving a long sigh, she took a sip of her steamy, hot coffee, knowing it would be a long night for her.
“Alrighty, I’m ready for the next stage,” she announced, and the system screen popped up with a book titled.
“Advance programming”
It was noon the following day when Lily finally stepped out of the system space after reading the whole advanced programming book.
She made herself something to eat, got a two-hour rest, and went back into the system space to put all she had read into practice.
While things for her were going smoothly, for some people, it was a bad day.
William, as usual, received a note from the usual sender; however, this time it wasn’t just a note sent to him. It was a video sent to the whole Hamilton family, including his father.
Henry walked into William’s office, his face red with anger and his chest heaving up and down as he slammed the door shut.
He glared at Williams angrily, while lifting his phone to show him the video that he got. “What the heck is this!” He demanded angrily.
“I also got the same message,” William replied calmly, burying his frustration at the back of his mind, knowing fully well that showing attitudes to his angry father would not end well for both of them, most especially in the situation they were in.
“I told you to find the source of this shit since the first day you got them! Why are we still receiving such messages?” Henry demanded and William sighed.
“I couldn’t find the source. I have tried multiple ways, but I couldn’t,” he replied. “Every time we check, it directs us to random places that always end up as dead ends,” he explained.
“Get some experts! Do I have to teach you everything about grinding?!” Henry exclaimed as he swiped off the document on the table.
“Are you a kid that must be spoon-fed everything?! He continued, “If you can’t handle it yourself?! Then get experts to do it for you!”
“There is no way they would not be found; except they are no more!”
“But what if they are?” William breathed out his thoughts. The same thought he had been having after he got the fifth picture of their little family dinner night.
“It might sound illogical, but we’ve been trying for months now and we still haven’t found anything, so what if? Just what if this is a dumb joke to get us all edgy?” he explained, and Henry frowned.
“You are suspecting Victoria is behind this?” He asked in disbelief, and William remained silent.
He scoffed and turned away as he began to laugh in annoyance. “What have you been reading or watching to make you think she is behind this?” He asked coldly.
“If she was this capable, it would not have taken her so long to find out about her mother’s death! You idiot!”
William remained silent as his father continued to barrage him with insults. His fist clenched while his eyes remained fixed on the computer screen that kept playing the video.
“What do we do?” He asked as Henry finally relaxed.
“We can’t do anything if we don’t find the person behind this. We have to continue looking,” Henry replied. “Your mother and sister are scared to even step out of the house after receiving this,” he breathed out in frustration.
“We don’t know what their next plan would be, and we can’t afford to have them go to the media. We don’t know how much more information they have on them; finding them right now is the only solution,” he said.
William hesitated as he grabbed his phone; his hands hovered over his best friend’s contact before finally clicking on the message. His eye scanned the last messages they had, and he let out a breath.
“I was recommended to a hacker by a friend. They died, the person is good, and they always get the job done,” he informed Henry, and Henry raised a brow.
“So get them to trace this fucker! What’s stopping you?” He demanded.
“The hacker is expensive; they recently got promoted to an S-level agent on the site, and we might not be able to get them to work for us,” he explained further.
“At least try it? We don’t lack money, and what’s a bit of money compared to getting rid of a threat to our lives?” Henry replied as he started towards the door. “Whatever amount they want, send it to them as long as they get the job done!”
With his father’s approval, Williams immediately logged into the site and searched Sinful profile. He noticed her icon was yellow, showing she was online but not active.
Deciding to take the chance, he sends a message.
On the other side, Lily, who had been practising the whole day while also earning some money by helping people solve some of the client’s minor problems, received a message from a new profile.
She raised a brow and clicked on the profile to reply to their message.
Dark Star: Hello, are you available to take a job?
Sinful: Hello, depending on the job description.
Dark Star: It’s something light for a start. Can you crack a coded device? Like a flash drive?
Sinful: I can.
Dark Star: How much will your charge be?
Sinful: You didn’t give enough information on the flash drive you needed to decode. Slightly secured one hour for five hundred thousand, mid-secured one go for two million, and highly secured ones, like this military type or A-class device ones, go for at least five million.
Lily raised a brow as she awaited the response from the other side. Seeing they were taking some time to reply, she decided to continue what she had been doing.
It wasn’t the first time a client had chickened out of a transaction due to the price tag, and she wasn’t so bothered about it.
However, as she was about to exit the chat, she noticed him typing and decided to wait.
Dark Star (attached photo) Where is the device? It doesn’t matter how much it costs as long as you can get it cracked in three days.
Lily let out a dark laugh, almost rolling in the system space as he saw the picture of the flash drive. She wiped the tears from her face and calmed herself.
Without needing to ask, she could already tell who was on the other side of the phone.
She let out a sinister grin and stretched as several evil plans came to fruition.
Sinful: Your charge will be seven million.
Dark Star: Alright, but you have to sign a contract that whatever is in there will not be leaked, and you will have to pay huge compensation if it gets leaked.
Sinful: That will be no problem. However, how do I know you won’t frame me up if it gets leaked from your end?
There was a short pause before he replied.
Dark Star: There won’t be any charges until it’s properly investigated.
Sinful: Alright then. Send in the contract, and I will have your work delivered as soon as possible.
While Williams went ahead to create the contract, Lily finished up with another client’s job and walked out of the system space to see it was evening.
Due to the time difference between the system space and the real world, Lily had been able to get more work covered.
Once she was done with dinner, she rechecked and noticed he had sent the contract, letting out a snicker at the content of the contract. She signed it and sent it back.
“Well, how should I start my comeback?” She muttered with a mischievous smile.