Chapter 201
Reginald looked at her expression, the curve of his lips deepening, his voice softening even further.
"Come on, just one day. You're so busy you don't even eat properly. You should take a break. Besides, I promise I'll make sure you have fun. I won't let you go hungry, and I won't let you get bored. Just think of it as keeping me company, okay?"
Lucinda looked at those overly expectant eyes on the screen and suddenly felt like this man was completely different from when she'd first met him.
The man who'd walked through the research institute hallways with an aura so cold he seemed like the grim reaper—was he really the same person now softly asking "okay?" just to get her to go to a water park with him?
She couldn't help it. The corner of her mouth curved, and she sighed. "Fine. What time?"
Reginald's eyes lit up instantly. "Ten o'clock. I'll pick you up. I've already prepared a swimsuit for you, and I've got sunscreen too. You just need to show up."
"Got it." Lucinda nodded, then added, "Don't you still have work to finish tonight? Hurry up and get it done so you can sleep early."
"Okay." He agreed, but he didn't hang up right away. His gaze lingered on the screen with a reluctant, dawdling energy. "But I don't really want to hang up yet…"
Lucinda looked at him without saying anything, but the curve of her lips deepened.
Reginald stared at her for several seconds, but in the end, he suppressed that bit of greed. His voice carried a trace of satisfied softness. "Alright, you sleep. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
The screen went dark.
Reginald set his phone on the desk, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long breath.
He sat there smiling for two seconds, then lowered his head, opened the stack of documents on his desk, and his gaze sharpened with focus once more.
If he was going to spend the whole day with her tomorrow, he had to finish all this work tonight.
In the same building, Lucinda also hadn't gone to sleep.
She opened her laptop. When the screen lit up, several unclosed windows were still on the desktop.
She moved the mouse and clicked on the research project management system page.
Project Name: [New Electric Energy Storage Module Development.]
Status: [In Progress.]
Below was a line in red: [Insufficient Funding. Budget Increase Recommended.]
She scrolled down through the project records. This initiative had already consumed a significant amount of money since its inception. Material procurement and experimental equipment setup alone had burned through nearly eighty percent of the budget.
But now, progress had stalled at the final critical stage. Continuous investment was needed to achieve a breakthrough.
The financial summary in the lower right corner showed that the current balance was insufficient to sustain next month's experimental operations.
She calculated the shortfall. At least two hundred million dollars.
Her account didn't have that much.
She did have other channels to move money, but those funds all had specific purposes and flows. They couldn't be touched lightly.
And Project Two's development had reached the most critical stage. If funding was cut off now, all previous investments would go down the drain.
She leaned back in her chair, her gaze resting on the screen, silent for a few seconds.
Then she opened another page.
Dungeon Hire.
The wildest black-hat hacker exchange in the underground world.
The interface was crude, like a relic from the last century—dark green code background, not even a decent logo.
But everyone in this circle knew: all the jobs that couldn't see the light of day eventually flowed here.
Lucinda's finger slid across the touchpad. The page refreshed, and rows of task listings appeared.
She scanned quickly.
Data theft. System infiltration. Vulnerability mining. Encryption cracking.
Prices ranged from tens of thousands to tens of millions. Each one cleanly and efficiently listed requirements and compensation, with no extra words.
She skipped over the ordinary jobs. Her gaze stopped on the top entry.
Task Number: [K-07.]
Issuer: [Anonymous.]
Objective: [Modify master key permissions in a multinational corporation's core system.]
Requirements: [Modify the single-transaction fund limit in the internal approval system from the original setting to one billion dollars. Operation window: 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM. Must leave no trace.]
Compensation: [Fifty million dollars, after tax.]
Lucinda's gaze lingered on that line of numbers for two seconds.
Fifty million dollars.
Still a ways off from two hundred million, but it would at least cover a quarter of the gap.
She scrolled down. The task details included an encrypted log.
One glance told her the system's defense level was exceptionally high. Conventional methods wouldn't get in.
But its underlying logic…
She narrowed her eyes slightly. She recognized it immediately—it was a framework she was familiar with.
She was about to click "Accept" when she noticed a tiny note in the issuer information column: [This task has had three previous acceptors who failed. Task reopened.]
In other words, three people before her had already crashed and burned.
Lucinda didn't hesitate. She clicked "Accept."
A confirmation box popped up: [Confirm acceptance of Task K-07? Upon acceptance, must be completed within 24 hours. Failure to do so will result in deduction of credit points.]
She clicked confirm.
The page jumped to an encrypted communication window. The other side automatically sent a system message: [Task locked. Target system entry data has been sent to your private mailbox.]
Operation Window: [Tonight, 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM. Good luck.]
She closed the window, opened her email, downloaded the encrypted attachment, and extracted it. A complex system topology diagram appeared on the screen.
She leaned back in her chair and studied the diagram for a while, then picked up a pen from the desk and sketched a few lines on a sticky note, marking the locations of several key nodes.
The difficulty was high, but it wasn't impossible.
It just required a little time.
At the same moment, on the other end of Starlight City, the lights in the study at the Lancaster Estate burned bright.
Reginald was processing the last few documents when a new email notification popped up in the lower right corner of his screen.
He clicked it open. The sender was a system notification from Dungeon Hire.
[Your posted Task K-07 has a new acceptor.]
Acceptor Code Name: [RuinCipher.]
Status: [Task in Progress.]
Reginald's gaze landed on that code name. His eyes narrowed slightly.
"RuinCipher."
He picked up the coffee beside him, took a sip, and couldn't help but smile.
What an arrogant name.
Three people before had failed, and this one still dared to accept it. Either their skills were genuinely solid, or they were a rookie who didn't know any better.
He set down the cup and typed a line: [Task confirmed. Complete within 24 hours. Compensation will be paid as agreed.]
After sending the message, he closed the email and returned to the documents in front of him.
At 2:17 AM, on the screen in front of Lucinda, the first layer of encryption had been cracked open just a sliver.
Her fingers moved quickly, typing line after line of commands at breakneck speed.
At 3:40 AM, a brief logic loophole appeared in the second-layer firewall. She practically threaded the modification command through that gap.
At 4:00 AM sharp, the system prompted: [Modification complete. Logs cleared. Exit path hidden.]
She leaned back in her chair and let out a long breath.
She switched the screen back to Dungeon Hire and clicked "Completed" on the task page.
Less than three minutes later, a message popped up: [Task verification passed. Compensation of fifty million dollars has been transferred to your anonymous account within three minutes.]
She glanced at the message without replying, stretched, and closed the page entirely.
The sky outside the window had already begun to lighten. She shut down the computer, pulled back the covers, and lay down. Just before closing her eyes, she glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand.