Chapter 139

Claire’s computer suddenly started beeping. She opened her eyes right away, fully alert.

“They actually showed up,” she muttered, a spark of excitement in her voice.

Without missing a beat, Claire jumped back into action, launching another round of tracking and counterattacks. On the other side, the hacker realized he’d been spotted.

“Where the hell did that guy find such a skilled hacker?” he grumbled, fingers flying over his keyboard as he tried to keep up with Claire.

They battled it out online, both sides relentless. The rush had Claire grinning. She glanced over at Dane. “Can you get me a milk tea p>

She rattled off her usual order, barely pausing to breathe. Dane stared at her, completely thrown off. “Uh… how do I even order that? What app am I supposed to use? Where do I send it p>

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help. He’d just never done it before.

Claire frowned, not in the mood for distractions. “Just go to the front desk and find Greenie. Give him some cash and ask him to grab my usual milk tea. He knows what I like p>

Dane hesitated, but when he saw how focused Claire was, he realized he couldn’t really say no. This whole mess was partly his fault anyway. So he got up and headed out.

Ten minutes later, Claire finally broke through. The enemy’s server was toast, their computer completely fried. She even left a cheeky animation: one stick figure running away, waving a finger, while another stick figure gave chase with a giant cleaver.

Above them, she wrote in Chinese: Come and get me, loser!

The hacker on the other end stared at the screen, totally confused. He didn’t speak a word of Chinese. So he called over his partner, Floyd, who was also a hacker- just not nearly as good.

Floyd read the message and nearly burst out laughing. Which big shot from Solenia was messing with them today?

Elvis, the lead hacker, was getting impatient. “You’ve been staring at that for ages. What does it say? Is it some kind of code? Are they trying to provoke me p>

Floyd snapped back to attention. “Sorry, Elvis. It’s not a code. It’s just a taunt. They’re basically daring you to catch them p>

But in Floyd’s head, he was thinking, You really think you can catch someone who just wrecked your server?

Elvis frowned. “And what about the last word? What’s ‘hundan’ supposed to mean p>

“It’s like… ‘guy’ or ‘dude’ in English,” Floyd said, deciding not to give him the full translation.

Elvis didn’t look convinced, but he squared his shoulders. “It’s definitely

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a challenge. I’m going to catch hacker, no matter what p>

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He glanced at Floyd for backup. “Right p>

Floyd just nodded, forcing a smile. “Yeah, whatever you say.” There’s no way you’re catching them, he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Claire was done for the day. She sipped her milk tea, humming softly, clearly in a great mood.

Dane had never tried milk tea before. He’d always avoided sweet drinks. But Greenie, knowing Claire’s taste, had bought two cups just in case.

Claire noticed Dane wasn’t drinking his. “You’re not even going to try it p>

Dane looked a little skeptical. “Is it actually good p>

Claire took a big sip, finishing off a chewy boba pearl. “Of course! Milk tea makes everything better. Come on, try it p>

He took a cautious sip. It wasn’t too sweet, just right, thanks to Greenie knowing what Claire liked. The taste was fine, but he didn’t really get the hype..

MS

Claire leaned back, enjoying her drink. “How are you getting home later p>

“I’ll just call a cab,” Dane replied. There were always taxis around, even up here in the mountains.

He hadn’t expected to run into that group today. All he’d wanted was to take care of some business and bring Baldrick to Apex. He never imagined they’d get followed at the Way here