Chapter 168

Anthony paused, fingers hovering over the keyboard. “Alright, let’s talk about what I need,” he typed out and hit send.
Almost immediately, a red message flashed across the screen.
Message failed. You aren’t on the recipient’s friend list…
Anthony’s lips curled into a small, interested smile. Now he was really curious about Nine. Who exactly was this person, and just how good were they? He switched to another program and tried to break into her system through the friend request channel.
Meanwhile, in another room, Charlotte was slouched against her headboard, half- focused on her game. Suddenly a notification popped up, and her whole screen glitched. She lost the match in an instant.
What is wrong with this guy? Didn’t I say no work stuff at night? She groaned, hating people who just refused to listen.
For a second, her thumb hovered above the screen, her face stormy. A few silent beats passed before she muttered under her breath, voice cold and sharp. “Idiot.”
Without a second thought, she rejected the friend request. Who gets this hung up over some crappy system in the middle of the night?
She tried to push her irritation aside and restarted her game. Not even a minute in, as she peeked out from behind a bush, another friend request popped up. Her connection immediately lagged.
Her health dropped to zero. Dead. Again.
She’d been playing less than a minute and had already died twice.
The chat exploded.
Did I just see Colossus die twice in two minutes?
No, you’re not seeing things. Colossus really did get killed.
There’s only one explanation when a legend with a 99.99% win rate gets wiped out twice. Someone hacked Colossus.
Agreed.
Whoever hacked our idol’s account is dead meat.
Everyone, go off.
The chat was a mess of messages, all defending Colossus and going after the supposed hacker.
Charlotte’s irritation was boiling over. She grabbed her phone and typed, “Pausing for thirty minutes.”
Back on Anthony’s end, he saw the friend request rejected again. His eyes narrowed and asly grin pulled at tirs tips. The last couple of tries had been enough to lock down Nine’s IP address. Astoria,
He kept working, determined to get a more exact location. The more mysterious
Nine seemed, the more he wanted to know.
Just as he started his next move, Charlotte’s tablet blared a firewall warning. A black skull flashed in the middle of her screen, pulsing like a threat.

Trying to track me? she thought, her gaze turning icy. Anger simmered beneath her calm expression, like a fuse burning down.
She leaned back, propped up her tablet, and started tapping in lines of code. She
fought back lazily, not even breaking a sweat.
First firewall, down. Location: Eldoria, Cabinda.
Nine’s in Cabinda? Anthony’s smile grew. If she was in Cabinda, that made things a lot simpler. He knew plenty of ways to handle someone who took his money and tried to mess around.
He picked up the pace, launching an attack on the next firewall.
Charlotte saw the alert for the first breach. Her eyes went cold, and her lips pressed into a hard, thin line. Now she was really getting angry.