"Sounds like a n," his assistant said, taking a bite of a chicken drumstick and giving him a thumbs-up. "Go for it."
Three minutester, both the assistant and Kage were staring at a deadputer screen in awkward silence.
Three minutes. He had used every ounce of strength he possessed and had only survived for three minutes against Specter. Did they know how crushing that was for a seventeen-year-old kid like him?
"What kind of monster is Specter?" Kage mmed his hand on the table in frustration, then, a few secondster, picked up arge chicken drumstick and started eating with gusto. "Specter''s skills have improved a lot, but so has Sigma Network''s leader. I wonder how long this match willst."
Another two hours passed.
Lue had eaten her fill and fallen asleep on the sofa.
Felton and Flint were also struggling to stay awake, stifling yawns as they stared at Shanley''sputer screen. Specter was an incredibly tough opponent. No matter where the boss attacked, Specter mounted a perfect defense. But Specter wasn''t gaining any ground either he couldn''t breach the boss''s system. At this rate, they would likely be fighting until morning.
The spectators who had ced bets were also yawning continuously. It had been almost three hours. Even a pile of mud would have been sculpted into a work of art by now in the hands of these master hackers.
This had never happened before. How long was this going to take?
Four hourster, more than half of the audience had left, figuring the result might not even be decided by the time they woke up.
The organizers had never encountered such a situation either. Left with no choice, they made a voice call to each of the two leaders'' private rooms.
"Specter, excuse me, but how much longer do you anticipate this will go on?" the coordinator asked respectfully. He''d never seen apetitionst four or five hours without a winner.
"As long as I have snacks, I can go for two or three days," Juniper replied nonchntly, her fingers never ceasing their dance on the keyboard. "Lue, chestnuts."
"Coming right up." Lue immediately peeled one and popped it into Juniper''s mouth.
"Well, you see..." The coordinator wiped sweat from his brow, speaking tentatively "We''ve all witnessed your incredible skills But could you perhaps give us a definite end time for the match?"
They couldn''t just have the two of them battling it out for three days straight while the staff waited.
Juniper nced at the time. It was gettingte the old man had clearly been training; she couldn''t break through his defenses quickly.
Wasting more time here would
their assassination n. And if she
wasn''t back at the hotel in time, she wouldn''t be able to exin it to Shanley.
"Give me one more hour," Juniper said coldly.
"Excellent." After getting her response, the coordinator hurried to ask Shanley the same question.
"Fine," Shanley replied, a chilling, mesmerizing smile spreading across his handsome face. "One hour it is."
Perfect. Once this was over, the real battle would begin elsewhere.
An hourter, there was still no winner. For the first time in the history of the World Hacker Competition, there was no way determine a champion and runner-up. It was decided that a final, online rematch would be held the following weekend.
Juniper agreed readily. After all, it was far from certain if the leader of the Sigma
Network would still be in this world next weekend.
"Lue, get ready to move out." Juniper closed herptop and tossed it to a groggy Lue, then pulled out her phone.
"What are you doing?" Lue asked, yawning.
"Checking in." Juniper opened her chat with Shanley and typed a few words: [Just woke up. Was ying a game.]
Shanley replied almost instantly: [Good girl.]
After reading his message, Juniper shut her phone, adjusted her disguise, and walked out with her gun in hand.
Lue followed behind, staring at Juniper''s formidable figure. Good girl? She desperately wanted to take a picture of this moment and send it to Shanley.