The Queen of Masks

Chapter 18: Master Hacker, the Big Shot’s Facade Crumbles

The phone kept ringing with a "ding ding ding" sound. Messages kept coming in, and Nancy Gu opened a chat window. This was a private messaging software personally designed by the original owner, using code for communication. Although the original owner had decent technical skills, this kind of chat software could easily be tracked to detailed IP addresses, so she had re-encrypted several programs last night.

"Oh my God, Ice River, you actually did it? The dark web is completely buzzing right now; everyone is discussing who 'Ice River' is." Today, the dark web platforms and hacker circles were in an uproar. The Tianhua system, which had served the Chai'er family for over thirty years, was surprisingly breached by someone named "Ice River," who had previously been an obscure hacker. His name wasn't even on the top one hundred hackers list.

People speculated about who this person was that managed to take down Tianhua all by himself. Some netizens guessed that "Ice River" might be an alternate account of "Black Hole," as Black Hole was a top hacker who consistently held the number one position on the hacker leaderboard. Besides him, there really wasn’t anyone else capable of breaching Tianhua.

However, Black Hole seemed eager to distance himself from any involvement and quickly clarified that he wasn't responsible for it. As a result, Ice River emerged like a dark horse and instantly made a name for himself in the hacker community. Many tried to uncover his identity but found no information at all about him. He was like a shadow hidden in an abyss—deep and unfathomable.

Overnight, Ice River transformed into a top-tier hacker on par with Black Hole. Meanwhile, the Chai'er family, whose secrets were stolen, convened an emergency family meeting and arranged for their entire Tianhua team to hunt down Ice River's whereabouts. However, after more than ten hours had passed, their so-called world-class defense team still couldn't penetrate the protective system set up by Ice River.

The Chai'er family was one of the oldest aristocracies in Xizhou and held thirty percent of the wealth in Xizhou. What does that mean? The Xizhou Alliance consists of seventeen countries with a total population of 1.8 billion; just one Chai'er family accounted for nearly six hundred million people's wealth combined. Terrifying indeed.

Thus, after breaching the Tianhua system's defenses, the Chai'er family would definitely not let this matter rest easily.

Soon enough, they issued a bounty order on the dark web: any hacker who could locate Ice River would receive eight million dollars as a reward.

Instantly, countless hackers flocked to track down Ice River. When Jack woke up to find chaos reigning in the hacker community after sleeping through it all, it took him half an hour to regain his composure from shock. It was hard to believe that this little hacker he had collaborated with for two years had actually topped the dark web rankings.

"You have such professional skills; why did you only take small jobs before?" He thought Ice River was just an amateur since he always assigned small tasks.

Nancy Gu lazily replied with just a few words: "I needed money recently."

Jack found himself unable to refute that answer.

"By the way, you need to be careful lately; the Chai'er family has issued a bounty order on the dark web offering eight million dollars for your whereabouts."

"Let them come." No one in this world could decipher her ultra-secret defense system.

"Don't get too overconfident; I heard that the Chai'er family has already tried contacting Black Hole. If Black Hole takes on your case as their target, your identity might very well be exposed.

" After all, Black Hole was an international hacking god who had never lost before.

The girl shrugged off his concern: "I have things to do; I'm logging off." Without waiting for Jack's reply, she exited the chat system.