"My revenge is not quick but sure.
And slow like poison in the lines of code."
The night grew deeper, the atmosphere becoming quieter and more silent.
While most people were sound asleep on their soft beds, he was staring at his laptop screen, his fingers dancing across the keyboard, his breath quickening, his mind in turmoil.
Accompanied by the sound of keyboard clicks that sounded like an unquiet heartbeat.
The room was dark. Only the faint blue light from his old laptop screen glowed. On his screen, several terminal/command prompt windows were open with bright green text scrolling fast. Line after line of code and commands were executed without pause.
He knew one small mistake—a leaked IP, a mistyped command, or an active firewall—and all his traces could be tracked. But Recandra was no longer afraid. Not because he felt invincible, but because he had lost everything. And a person who has lost everything... has no limits in fighting back.
Suddenly, a notification appeared:
INTRUSION DETECTED - Your connection is being tracked. Disconnect now!
"Shit..."
He instantly stopped the connection to Kayla's server, severed all connections, and deleted his log traces.
But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his phone vibrated.
A message received from an unknown number:
"You think you're smart? This isn't a game, Candra. I know you're trying to access our data. Hack us one more time, and you won't live long."
Recandra fell silent. But instead of fear, his eyes grew sharper.
He let out a small laugh, then took out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter, inhaling deeply, then slowly exhaling.
"You think your threats will make me give in," Recandra thought.
Five minutes later, he tried again to hack the database belonging to Kayla and some core members of the Cakra gang. To hide his IP, he activated a VPN, this time using his own custom tools.
Which was a combination of a multi-layer VPN, Tor, and a proxy randomizer. He named it 'blackdom'. This time his digital footprint was harder to scramble because every fifteen seconds, blackdom automatically changed the connection route, while actively deleting his digital traces, starting from the nodes passed through, network logs—everything was cleared in milliseconds.
Recandra then began sending millions of anonymous files to weaken the target server. He also used a DDoS attack, flooding Kayla's computer with traffic which caused the defense system to start crippling.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Kayla was staring at her monitor screen which was being flooded with traffic and millions of anonymous files causing lag on the server. She began activating her system defenses, starting to trace the attacker's network and IP, but the IP kept changing, making it difficult to track the 'perpetrator'.
But she didn't give up; she activated her flagship program.
'Firewall protect', a defense program specially designed to handle problems like this. Furthermore, Firewall Protect, or FP as she abbreviated it, was also capable of learning and adapting to attacks. She also activated the 'NOS ATTACK' program, which functions to send counter-attacks while automatically deleting unknown data and traffic.
Two minutes later... Her FP and NA programs successfully traced the perpetrator's IP and managed to get their network into the perpetrator's server.
After that, Kayla began activating a deep network which caused her network to be untraceable and read by the system as 'normal network'.
Kayla then started placing a backdoor on the perpetrator's server. Then, Kayla contacted Ale, explained the situation, and asked him to join the attack. Ale, who immediately understood, also activated his computer, opening a prompt window and his go-to tools. With the backdoor access Kayla provided, he easily infiltrated Recandra's server. Ale quickly sent thousands of fake data in the form of files that would automatically download upon network detection.
Back to where Recandra's server was starting to look overwhelmed.
His laptop network suddenly lagged, then a notification suddenly appeared: ten thousand files successfully downloaded, instantly causing his laptop network to crash. Even so, he tried to trace the perpetrator, but the results were nil; he found no other networks or servers trying to enter his.
It seemed Recandra hadn't realized that the attackers had actually entered from within and deleted their digital traces while disguising their network to be identical to his.
Recandra hit the table hard, the thud echoing in the small room. His eyes stared intently at the screen, his jaw clenched. His laptop's CPU hissed with heat, the fan spinning at maximum, while notifications kept appearing:
"File unknown.exe detected."
"Connection error: System overload."
"Warning: Bandwidth spike abnormal."
He knew this wasn't just a normal crash. This was sabotage.
"This isn't a usual brute-force... someone is inside," he muttered softly. He immediately opened his root console and began analyzing incoming traffic. But the results were nil—all logs seemed clean. Too clean. As if... someone had deleted them before he could see.
Blackdom failed to detect this anomaly. That meant there was only one possibility:
"They have direct access to my server."
He immediately accessed Hardveil, his hidden backup program that only activates when the main system detects critical failure. Hardveil was the last defense: a living AI-based firewall, programmed to detect and counter intrusions based on signatures and logical patterns.
But as Hardveil began booting, a new notification appeared:
"Backdoor detected at Port 55391 - Origin Unknown"
"File infection tree: Source - FP_NA.inject.trace"
His eyes widened.
"FP_NA... Firewall Protect and NOS ATTACK? Kayla?"
He instantly remembered that attack style. Very distinct. Very structured.
And if Kayla was behind this... then Ale was also playing.
Suddenly, it all made sense.
"Clever," he said with a wry smile.
Meanwhile, at Kayla's base—she and Ale were exchanging data over an encrypted network. They were watching live as Recandra's system began to cripple.
"Ale, prepare the final payload. We end this tonight."
Ale nodded, typing the final command:
inject --silentrender /recandra/server/main/hardveil --overwrite --shutdown -force
But... suddenly the command was rejected.
Access Denied.
"What?" Ale repeated the command. Failed again.
Then, both their screens flickered.
"You think you got me? Cute." - R
Kayla instantly stood up from her chair. "No. No way..."
Recandra severed all networks. He knew there were too many open paths. He didn't need to fight on that server anymore.
On the screen of his backup laptop—which had never been connected to the internet—a prompt appeared that had just become active. Inside, a backup of all Blackdom activity was stored...
"Time to take back everything," Recandra said as he opened a small safe under the table. He took out an unlabeled black laptop and connected it to a network he hadn't used since he retired.
The battle laptop.
"If they want war... tonight we start."