She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 821

"I'm pretty sure the second-ranked hacker in the world was a guy," Lucian remarked.

Quintin scoffed. "He retired. Was terrified you guys would take him out."

Loyce pulled up a chair. "I'll cover your backs."

"Not counting me in?" Lucian asked, raising an eyebrow.

She met his gaze. She had never actually seen him flex any coding skills before. But Quintin just chuckled. "Loyce, the boss might not type as fast as me, but his defense is rock solid. He'll definitely be useful."

Her lips curved into a confident smile. "Alright then. The two of us will be your impenetrable shield."

Breaching the Ocean Federation's national security grid required massive time and energy. As Quintin initiated the first wave of the attack, the playful banter vanished from the room. Everyone's expressions turned dead serious as they rapidly fired off commands without a second to lose.

The Ocean Federation's network was built by the top minds in the country, utilizing cutting-edge cryptography and hardware firewalls.

Quintin's initial probe was immediately intercepted. In a flash, the opposing side launched a fierce counterattack.

"Damn, they're fast!" Quintin yelled. His fingers blurred across the keyboard, hunting for protocol vulnerabilities and logic backdoors. Two other elite hackers worked in tandem beside him, clearing traces, generating interference, and creating a flood of fake data to mask their main strike.

However, the enemy held tight, constantly patching the breaches the moment they were torn open and quickly identifying the forged data streams.

"They must have a whole army of cybersecurity experts on the clock!" Quintin shouted, his eyes gleaming with adrenaline. "Now that's a challenge. I love it!"

Loyce and Lucian immediately constructed their rear defenses.

On the screen in front of her was the real-time status of the island's defense grid, alongside an early-warning system monitoring global electronic surveillance. She had to ensure their attack wouldn't be caught or traced back by a third party.

Lucian focused entirely on defensive counterstrikes. He built a dynamic, deceptive honeypot system, redirecting some of the Ocean Federation's automated retaliations straight into his traps. Without making a sound, he reverse-planted tracking malware to map out the habits and logic of their emergency response team.

Time ticked away under intense, suffocating pressure.

Outside the window, the sky shifted from pitch black to an inky blue, and slowly bled into a pale gray.

There were several close calls where the enemy's adaptive defense mechanisms almost locked down their virtual pathways. Each time, Quintin managed to avert disaster with near-instinctive, miraculous keystrokes, supported by the team's split-second strategy shifts.

As the hours dragged on, the initial thrill faded. They were vastly outnumbered. Quintin had to maintain absolute, hyper-focused concentration; any delay could mean catastrophic failure. Sweat soaked his hair. Exhaustion weighed heavily on everyone in the room, but no one stopped. No one even spoke. All communication shifted strictly to encrypted channels and pre-set commands.

Forrest Lonsdale, who knew nothing about hacking, could only stand by and watch the dizzying data scroll across the main screen.

Just as the first faint glimmer of morning light crested over the horizon, the grueling stalemate finally broke.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify