"Whoa!"
Searing flames surged towards her. Staring at the iron fist inches away, Silver Wolf was terrified.
Curious about the bounty notice, she had ignored the warnings and approached the Scrapheap. The first thing she saw upon arrival were members of the Slag Gang being sent flying, along with the fragmented remnants of Aether Editing constructs used by hackers for attacks.
Before she could even greet the big guy, he charged at her with lightning speed. Of course, Silver Wolf snapped back to reality mid-charge and tried to resist using Aether Editing, but against this opponent, it was like hitting a steel plate. Vector manipulation failed, kinetic energy editing failed, spatial coordinates undetected... WTF, why can't the spatial coordinates be detected and analyzed?!
As Miss Silver Wolf stared dumbfounded at the series of error messages, cursing internally and thinking her legendary hacker career was over before it even truly began, the unstoppable Iron Cavalry soldier halted right before her face.
The terrifying force of the punch sent Silver Wolf's hair and her single ponytail flying backward violently.
"Eh?"
I'm still alive? Not turned into Silver Wolf paste as she had imagined, Silver Wolf opened her eyes, marveling at the silver armor inches away.
The latter, [Firefly], aka Jiang Qiao, glanced with some surprise at the scantily clad, yet familiar girl before him.
"Silver Wolf."
"Huh? You know me?" Silver Wolf pointed at herself, surprised and baffled. She thought she was just a fast-food joint employee; she hadn't expected this strange tin man to call out her name instantly.
Hearing this, the expression of [Firefly] inside SAM turned slightly complex.
Well, she's a well-known actress under miHoYo's banner, after all.
Especially considering how her Quantum Battleship general solution core was hyped to the heavens for a time, only to be power-crept almost to the level of old man Jing Yuan later on, it was hard not to leave a deep impression.
"Whoa... How did you manage to piss them off?"
Silver Wolf, receiving no reply, didn't mind. Instead, she clicked her tongue in amazement, looking at the slowly approaching, clearly hostile figures.
"As you can see, this seems to be their turf. But their attitude was rather poor, so I tidied the place up a bit."
"Well, that's good then. You've done a public service." Seeing the scorched, flattened ground all around, Silver Wolf praised him. The gangs entrenched in a place like the Scrapheap were definitely not good people.
Take this Slag Gang, for example. They were notorious for their evil deeds, doing everything imaginable. Besides collecting protection fees, things like human trafficking and selling illegal drugs were child's play for them.
Just like their name suggested, they were utter 'slag'.
"This isn't the place to talk. Let's find somewhere else. Do you have a suitable spot?"
"Are you serious? We literally just met, and you almost punched my lights out a second ago! Don't talk to me like we're old buddies..." Silver Wolf was astonished, then annoyed. But after sensing something, she nodded resignedly and sighed.
"Fine, follow me. Brace yourself! Might get a little dizzy."
The scantily clad girl tapped the air a few times, and then, the two figures vanished from their spot.
The Slag Gang members rushed forward, only to find empty air, completely dumbfounded.
What stunned them even more was that, just moments later, the sky filled with swarms of floating security drones.
The piercing, harsh red lights and blaring alarms were extremely unsettling, especially when aimed at by those high-tech thermal and particle weapons. The sight sent shivers down the spines of the Slag Gang members.
Some of them wanted to step forward and say something. After all, as the largest gang in the Scrapheap, the Slag Gang actually had certain connections and mutually beneficial dealings with the officials.
A portion of the 'profits' squeezed from this place was funneled into the city.
From that perspective, they were on the same side.
At least, that's what the Slag Gang members thought.
However, while they thought so, the upper-class elites clearly didn't share that view.
Annoyed after receiving news that the target had disappeared, the elites vented their anger on these dregs among the poor.
Following orders, the security drones opened fire immediately.
Losing some dogs might happen, but what did it matter?
To Punklorde's elite upper echelons, groups like the Slag Gang were merely dogs they kept.
Just by flashing some cash, there were plenty of others in the lower strata eager to take their place.
Meanwhile, in the impoverished district far from the Scrapheap, within the fast-food restaurant where Silver Wolf had been staying, the two figures materialized.
"Sigh... Didn't expect to be back so soon. If the boss sees me, she'll definitely laugh her head off."
Silver Wolf saw the old, familiar fast-food sign and sighed helplessly, unable to resist complaining, "It's all your fault, really... Why did I bring a weirdo like you back here?"
"Mm, should I apologize?"
"Skip it. I didn't go through all that trouble bringing you back from the Scrapheap for an apology," Silver Wolf retorted grumpily, then pushed the door open. "Mmm... Looks like the boss is asleep. Come on in."
"I need to deal with something first."
With that, Silver Wolf found a seat and started furiously typing on a virtual screen.
"So... who exactly are you? The elite bigwigs of Punklorde are going crazy looking for you right now."
Strings of data flowed, making her sigh. "Those guys are tracking the data trail we left earlier, attacking like mad."
"Did I cause trouble for you?"
"A little bit, yeah. But whatever. Let me see who these guys are..."
"Top-ranked hackers on the bounty list? Hacker teams working for Punklorde's high command? And the Neon City network surveillance department? Geez, did they all show up at once?" Silver Wolf clicked her tongue in amazement while looking at the gathered information and IP sources, unable to suppress a grin of excitement.
"This is the first time I'm facing such a huge scene."
Simple words, yet on Punklorde's network at this moment, an unprecedented war seemed to be unfolding.
Punklorde's official forces, comprising over 60% of the planet's entire hacker strength—tens, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of hackers—were now attempting to track Silver Wolf based on the traces she left behind, triggering a massive cyber warfare battle of offense and defense.
Faced with this, Silver Wolf felt no fear, only excitement.
She had never been one to shy away from trouble. Compared to that, a dull, boring life was probably far more terrifying.
And compared to her previous experience as a fast-food employee, challenging more than half of Punklorde's hackers single-handedly like this was incredibly thrilling, like playing an exhilarating high-difficulty game.
One wrong move, and she'd fall into peril.
So tense it felt like every pore was breathing... This stimulating feeling of facing a challenge brought a faint blush to the girl's pretty cheeks.
Beside her, Jiang Qiao [Firefly] observed the hacker girl through SAM's visor with his blue-purple eyes.
The armor's advanced visual observation function allowed him to clearly see the beads of sweat on her forehead and the skin exposed by her light clothing.
"Looks like you've run into some trouble."
"Hmph, as if," Silver Wolf stubbornly snorted, unwilling to admit she was in a predicament.
But even if she wouldn't admit it, it was indeed a fact.
After all, she was facing more than half of Punklorde.
If this were the future Silver Wolf, the Stellaron Hunter famed throughout the stars, she might just scoff dismissively—Punklorde? Just a game I've already beaten.
But the current Silver Wolf didn't possess that kind of capital yet.
Even though she undeniably possessed astonishing talent—unlike those hackers who had studied for ages, she was merely a game-obsessed fast-food employee, a hacker novice unable to access Punklorde's true knowledge.
Having only just cleared the 'fast-food restaurant' game and wanting to move on to the next, being thrust into this 'demon lord script where the whole world is your enemy' was perhaps a bit too advanced for Silver Wolf.
"Need help?"
The voice reaching her ears was no longer the monotonous, cold mechanical tone, but a somewhat gentle girlish voice. Silver Wolf, currently entangled in a fierce battle with those hackers on the Aether Network, heard this and wanted to retort irritably:
"What help could you possibly offer? Stay out of it!"
After all, battles between Punklorde hackers weren't something that could be solved with crude "pew pew pew" like before. But suddenly realizing the voice sounded different, she turned her head. What met her eyes was a silver-haired girl wearing a simple cyan dress, her hair tied back. 'She' smiled at Silver Wolf, causing the latter to subconsciously freeze for a moment.
Not captivatingly beautiful, exactly, but... it somehow made her heart flutter... Silver Wolf wasn't sure what it was; she had never felt anything like it before.
However, snapping back to reality, Silver Wolf broke free from the strange feeling, looking flustered and annoyed, her cheeks puffing out slightly:
"Ah, no... You distracted me! Those guys have almost broken through the last hundred thousand firewalls I set up, okay!"
She couldn't help but complain.
Already at a disadvantage due to her lack of experience compared to those veterans, getting distracted by looking at someone for a dozen seconds meant she hadn't been focused on the network. During that time, her defenses were mostly on autopilot, relying on her 'team' (likely automated scripts) to barely hold on. Now, trying to rebuild the defensive layers was almost too late.
"No, no... Can't get caught here. Otherwise, knowing those Neon City types, they'll definitely make a big mess here..."
"We need to move, now! To the next location. The defenses I left behind can hold for another two or three minutes," Silver Wolf muttered nervously, standing up. After glancing at [Jiang Firefly], despite her curiosity, she rationally understood the situation and urged her on.
She cared a lot about this fast-food shop and its owner. Because of that, Silver Wolf definitely didn't want to see the Punklorde City Security Force's floating drones surrounding the place.
"It doesn't have to be that troublesome. Let me help you~"
The silver-haired girl smiled, her pretty face radiating composure.
This annoyed Silver Wolf, even though she liked the look.
Seriously, what can you, a tin can, do to help me?
Pew pew pew? While a direct confrontation with the Neon City elites sounded interesting, Silver Wolf knew her own limitations.
She wasn't exactly stellar in direct combat.
Besides, if a fight broke out in this fast-food shop, winning would be no different from losing.
"Forget it, let's just go. If the boss wakes up and sees the shop surrounded by those Punklorde masters' security drones, she'll strangle me!"
"Let's go..."
Silver Wolf tapped the air, intending to initiate another transfer, simultaneously erasing their traces here and redirecting attention elsewhere to buy time for her next cyber battle.
However, her hand was grasped.
"What are you doing..."
Silver Wolf didn't pay much mind to the warm feeling enveloping her palm, just confusion.
Aether Transfer didn't require holding hands...
Huh?
Suddenly, as if struck by electricity, surprise and trance flickered across Silver Wolf's pretty face.
...What is this?
Looking directly at the silver-haired girl facing her, inches away, meeting that smile.
Silver Wolf felt a strange power, utterly bewildered... yet inexplicably reassured. At the same time, a flicker of 'pride' surfaced within her.
Silver Wolf was actually quite unwilling to accept this failure; she had always been competitive.
Of course, she couldn't blame her failure on someone else's 'charm'. Even without that distraction, she would have only lasted a few dozen more minutes at most; the outcome wouldn't have changed.
But still, she didn't want to lose... especially not at the 'game' she prided herself on most.
However...
With this strange power, maybe... she could win?
The thought formed in Silver Wolf's mind.
And the silver-haired girl, [Firefly], offered her encouragement with a smile:
"Take this power, and go."
"You will definitely win. Because... you are Silver Wolf." (Or are you Silver Wolf because You will definitely win?)
Strange encouragement.
Why would I definitely win just because I'm Silver Wolf?
Anyone else might have questioned this, puzzled.
But not Silver Wolf.
After all, she was just that proud.
And therefore...
Silver Wolf, you will definitely win.
Words that might sound like pressure to others instead made Silver Wolf happy.
Because, having been just a fast-food employee until now...
No one had ever said anything like that to her.
Such recognition.
Until the appearance of this girl she had never met before.