?Chapter 1142:


    Minutes ticked away as Elena cycled through every method she knew. After a quarter of an hour, only thirty percent of the defenses had been decrypted.


    Panic nipped at her resolve. Time was bleeding away. Switching tactics, she pulled out her ck phone and opened the Pantheon group chat. “Anyone avable right now?”


    A reply appeared instantly. SecondBest was quick on the draw. “I’m free. What’s up, El?”


    Avo’s name popped up a heartbeatter. “Count me in too.”


    Without hesitation, Elena dropped the firewall’s IP address into the chat. “Get this open in ten minutes or less.”


    Avo wasted no time with pleasantries. “Understood. Leave it to me.”


    While Avo worked, SecondBest eyed the address, a sense of recognition gnawing at him.


    Elsewhere, inside the royal pce of Yoswye, Lance Schneider, known online as SecondBest, stared in disbelief at the address on his screen. Curiosity pushed him to poke at the firewall, but the moment he broke through, realization hit hard. “No way!” This was thework location tied to his country’s military base!


    Lance stared at the screen, eyes nearly bulging with shock. What on earth would drive El to break into the firewall of his country’s military base? Without hesitation, he pulled up El’s private chat and started typing, “El, are you in Yoswye right now?”


    A momentter, he continued, “Did somebody in Yoswye tick you off? Seriously, why did you go after the military base?” Every word showed just how baffled he was.


    Elena read his messages but had no intention of taking any risk of exposing her identity, so she didn’t answer his questions at all. Instead, she wrote back, “And how exactly did you figure out I’m hacking into the Yoswye militarywork?”


    Quick to reply, Lance typed, “Why wouldn’t I know? I am from Yoswye.” A flicker of surprise crossed Elena’s face. She hadn’t expected SecondBest to be a native of Yoswye.


    Everyone in the group chat had always kept things online. No one had ever met up, and personal details stayed private.


    After years of chatting, Elena had never tried to dig into anyone’s real-life info. Their backgrounds had always been a mystery to her. Only now did she realize SecondBest was from Yoswye.


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    She typed a response: “No harm intended, just saving a friend.”


    Finally, Lance rxed a little. As long as El wasn’t targeting anyone out of spite, it was okay. But if El really intended to take down the military’s defenses, should he try to stop her?


    After pondering for a moment, he realized that even if he wanted to stop her, he wasn’t that skilled. Trying was pointless. Since El was helping someone out, there was nothingplicated about that. He texted, “Let me handle this. I built that firewall myself, you know.”


    Elena raised an eyebrow. Building security for the Yoswye military base wasn’t exactly something ordinary people did. Clearly, SecondBest was more important than he let on.


    Lance’s amazement grew as he watched El effortlessly break through half the encryption. El’s reputation was no exaggeration. She really was a legend in the hacking world.


    Layer uponyer of security programs—over a hundred and eighty—had taken Lance years to develop. In the space of a few minutes, El managed to break through half of them like it was nothing. He had always thought he was a genius until he met Elena. Byparison, his skills seemed embarrassingly basic. Among all the hackers he had ever encountered, no one even came close to El’s talent.


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