"Let''s head to the private lounge," Lue whispered, her eyes darting around cautiously. "Who knows where that old bastard from Sigma Network is hiding."


    Besides, Juniper had recently made a public appearance at a programmingpetition and could be easily recognized.


    "Alright." Juniper, however, was perfectly calm. Before leaving the main hall, she even stopped by the buffet table to grab a te of small cakes.


    ---


    Inside the room, Lue sat before a specially installed monitor, studying the crowd with her chin propped in her hand. "Juniper, who do you think is the leader of Sigma Network?"


    Juniper nced at the screen, a faint smile on her lips as she ate a piece of cake. "The leader of Sigma Network won''t be in that crowd."


    "How can you be so sure?" Lue turned, ready for a lesson.


    "Because, just like me, he''s afraid of a surprise attack." Juniper tossed her fork into the trash, wiped her fingers, and leaned back on the sofa with a yawn. "We''ll deal with it after thepetition."


    "We''re about to walk into a firefight and you can actually sleep?" Lue gave Juniper a silent thumbs-up before turning her full attention back to the monitor. "An old man, huh? Alright, I''ll focus on the older guys in the hall."


    As she scanned the room, a tall, imposing figure entered her field of vision. Unfortunately, the man was holding an umbre that obscured his entire face, revealing only his straight-backed silhouette.


    Lue frowned. *Why does that guy look a little like Juniper''s man?*


    She turned, about to point him out to Juniper, but stopped when she saw that Juniper was already asleep. She didn''t have the heart to wake her.


    Besides, Shanley was supposed to be at a business meeting; he shouldn''t be here. On top of that, entry required an invitation for a top-tier hacker. If Shanley were a hacker, Juniper would have known long ago. She was probably just overthinking it.


    With that, Lue dismissed the thought and went back to observing the old men in the hall.


    Meanwhile, in another room, Shanley was shrugging off his ck trench coat and instructing Felton to turn on the surveince feed.


    "There are too many people. It''s


    impossible to tell who Specter is at a nce Flint said, crouching in front of the monitor with a deep frown Boss, you''ve faced Specter before. Do you think you''d recognize them?"


    "If they were standing right in front of me, yes." Shanley sat on the sofa, crossing one long leg elegantly over the other His deep piercing e


    were fixed on the screen. "A man in his fifties, around five-foot-seven, with salt-and-pepper hair."


    He had no way of knowing that at the time of their encounter, Juniper had been roped into a costume party, dressed as an old man, when his forces hadunched a surprise attack. She''d had no time to change.


    "Understood, boss." With this clear description, Flint responded respectfully, "I''ll start filtering for men around fifty."


    "Good." Shanley nced at the time, intending to call Juniper, but then remembered she was likely taking her afternoon nap. He decided against it. Let her sleep.


    Thirty minutester, the World Hacker Competition officially kicked off.


    Fifty hackers from different


    countries and regions were participating, some representing


    the nations, otherspeting as * dividuals. The format was a free-for-all battle royale. All fifty hackers would enter a massive system simultaneously and fight until only one remained standing.


    Themand was given, and the hackers began logging into the system. Thest


    two to log in were "Specter" and "S," the leader of the Sigma Network.


    "Holy crap! The ultimate showdown."


    The whole ce erupted.