Ah Piao secretly sent a coded message to Old Dog before leaving, which Old Dog couldn't decipher for half a day. With few people on hand and no idea who could even read such a thing, he forwarded it to Ah Can.

Ah Can understood the nature and structure of the coded message but couldn't grasp its meaning. After a moment of deliberation, he forwarded it to Zi Ye: "Hey Sis, take some time to look at this for me." Zi Ye was busy repairing the command system.

Amidst her preoccupation, she glanced over, and upon seeing it, was immediately stunned. "When was this sent?" Ah Can guessed something was amiss and immediately pressed Old Dog for the exact time.

Zi Ye checked the time and breathed a small sigh of relief—it was half an hour ago. Without a word, she initiated a three-person call to Old Dog and Ah Can: "This is from Ah Piao.

He says the Federal hackers are currently withdrawing. Within the next two hours, their defenses will be lax.

We need to seize the opportunity to strike." Old Dog and Ah Can simultaneously checked their watches: "One and a half hours left!" Zi Ye said, "Brother Dog, you find someone for this task. I can't handle it." She felt the previous intrusion into the command system was just a probe, a reconnaissance move.

Otherwise, with the Joint Army assembling such a massive force, they wouldn't retreat after merely testing the waters. Zi Ye didn't fancy herself capable of juggling ten things at once.

Defending against intrusions on their side was already challenging enough; handling the system on the other side required a more specialized expert. However, to prevent further attacks on her command system while she was occupied, she instructed Old Dog to assign a hacker for escort duty as well.

Due to the intense fighting in recent days, everyone from Wolf's Den, including all the hackers within the legion, had been deployed to the front lines. Old Dog now ordered them pulled back from the front to the rear to infiltrate the Joint Army's command system.

Ah Piao’s intelligence was accurate. Indeed, the system's security measures were extremely weak at this time.

Odo was busy taking inventory of battle losses, replenishing supplies, and holding strategic meetings, so he completely failed to notice that the entire fleet's systems were being tampered with and thrown into disarray. It would be no exaggeration to call the hackers from Wolf's Den wolves.

Once they got close to the Joint Army's command system, their first move was to sever the connection between the Star Federation and Fia. The reason for this was simple: force them into internal conflict.

Next, they disconnected the Supreme Commander from the various small fleet commanders, and then severed the connections between the warships within the smaller fleets. Finally, they began establishing random, chaotic links.

They connected the Supreme Commander's system terminal to some random escort vessel, or linked the communication system of some Fia battleship to the secondary command system. They worked diligently for one hour and twenty-nine minutes, then dusted off their hands and finished.

Destruction is always far easier than reconstruction. The chaos they created in one hour would take them at least three times as long to restore piece by piece.

Having completed their task, they began to file out. Ah Can suddenly remembered something: "Did you destroy their backups?" Hacker Miao Qi immediately exclaimed, "Damn it, that's the crucial part." Otherwise, destroying whatever they could was pointless; the enemy could restore everything with a single click.

The few looked at each other. In the end, Miao Qi stayed behind to clean up the backups, while the rest went to sleep or returned to the battlefield.

The Star Federation's recovery speed, as Ah Piao predicted, would require two hours. Miao Qi hacked back in to erase the backups just as the Luoluo Bu brothers arrived.

The Luoluo Bu brothers were meticulous in their work, unlike Ah Piao’s trio who only focused on intrusion and ignored everything else. Of course, being brothers, their teamwork was seamless.

As soon as they arrived, the eldest brother checked the communication system, the second brother checked the command system, and the youngest began probing the disorganized fleet's defenses. Just as Miao Qi destroyed sixty percent of the backups, the Luoluo Bu brothers broke in.

Miao Qi instantly jumped up. Sixty percent destroyed, forty percent remained!

He hadn't even managed to erase his intrusion traces yet. Should he erase the traces first or finish destroying the backups?

Miao Qi's first instinct was to flee. But immediately, he corrected himself.

"Seriously, I'm a professional hacker with ethics and top-tier skills. Flee?

On what grounds!" He was determined to see whose skill was superior! A fighting spirit surged within Miao Qi.

Ignoring everything else, he began capturing zombie computers as decoys while simultaneously setting up obstacles for Luoluo Bu. He grinned inwardly: Let's play a level-clearing game; whoever wins, wins!

The Lake-Ah Piao-Bruton trio, who had replaced the Luoluo Bu brothers, simultaneously arrived outside the Cole Hotel at the nearby Golden River Hotel to begin their assignment. Monitoring a hotel was the most tedious job, the least "hacker-like" of all, but it came with no pressure.

With good food and wine served, they cooperated with the intelligence department, hacking into the hotel's interior to record everything they should see—and everything they shouldn't. In short, being a hacker was truly a wretched existence; they never got to be the main characters, constantly acting as temporary help for other departments.

Once the eight walls of the Cole Hotel descended, turning the interior into a besieged area, the show inside became truly spectacular. A staff member who had previously worked with Luoluo Bu beamed excitedly: "You're absolutely going to see incredible sights you could never see elsewhere.

Any single frame released could ruin someone's reputation." Lake glanced at him, found a comfortable spot, sat down, opened his light brain, and suspended the display screens one by one in his accustomed positions. He then got up to fetch a beer from the nearby refrigerator.

The staff member, rebuffed, tried to address Ah Piao, who pulled out a cigarette and offered him one. "Brother, have a smoke." The staff member's face darkened slightly.

"I don't smoke, and this isn't a smoking lounge. If you need a smoke, go outside." Ah Piao glanced inside, pinched the cigarette between his fingers, and said, "Fine, I'll finish it outside before coming back in." The staff member finally set his sights on Bruton, hoping someone would engage him in conversation.

Having accidentally seen too many secrets, he felt he would die from the pressure if he didn't vent. The previous Luoluo Bu brothers—sigh, speaking of them only brought tears.

Because even though the four of them worked in the same place, the Luoluo Bu brothers were family; they spoke in their hometown dialect while working, completely ignoring his existence. The staff member tearfully realized that if one of his clones were accidentally activated someday, it would surely be because his original self died from the inability to speak freely!

Fortunately, Bruton was normal. He walked over to the coffee machine, brewed a cup of coffee, and made one for the staff member too: "Brother, thanks for your hard work." The staff member was so moved he nearly wept.

The situation at the Cole Hotel was exquisitely delicate. With the hotel transformed into a siege zone, every sort of human demeanor was on display.

The happiest among them were the newlywed couple, Karlu and Ilia, who had just been married that day. Following the incident, amidst the panic and flight of the officiant, host, godfather, and guests, they quietly slipped into one of the hotel rooms in the chaos.

The room was fully equipped with surveillance, allowing them to watch every room and every person moving like headless flies. The wine cups did indeed contain poison—a new product from the Fia noble family, odorless and tasteless, with only mild toxicity, currently in the development phase, perfectly suited for testing the effects on these people.

Ilia nestled against Karlu like a delicate bird. Her elaborate gown, combined with her feigned fragile appearance, was frankly an eyesore, but what price happiness, right?

"Look," she pointed a slender finger at one of the screens, a cold smile playing on her lips, "there's an old saying: your position dictates your courage. The higher you sit, the smaller your nerve, tsk tsk, utterly terrified." Karlu smiled faintly: "Indeed.

We should really let those legion soldiers see their revered leaders in such a pathetic state. That coward’s timid display—where is the commanding presence and aura he usually projects?" The two burst into laughter.

They were certain that within this siege, they alone were the ultimate victors. Putting the surveillance aside, the room was quite tranquil.

As silence settled, Ilia's delicate fragrance drifted inevitably into his nostrils. Aside from the wall of surveillance screens, the suite itself was quite ideal.

A super-luxury presidential suite, complete with everything one could desire, especially a bed. He couldn't help but turn, embracing Ilia’s waist with one hand while facing her.

With his other hand, he lightly hooked her delicate chin, pecking her cheek: "Darling, you are truly thoughtful. Using our wedding to effectively place these military and political elites under house arrest—now let's see who dares oppose my proposal to depose that good-for-nothing drunkard of a President." "Hmph, have you forgotten who I am!" Ilia proudly lifted her chin, yielding slightly as she accepted Karlu’s kiss.

Karlu gazed at her enchanting face and suddenly found his restraint waning. A perfect time, a beautiful companion.

Shouldn't something be done? His body pressed close to Ilia’s, and he felt a rising warmth.

His grip tightened involuntarily as he lifted Ilia up and strode toward the inner door. Ilia grew anxious, reaching out to pat his chest, pouting: "Stop teasing me, my lord!" Karlu, tasting the sweetness, had no intention of letting go.

Holding her waist, he pressed his body towards hers. Ilia lacked the strength to stand firm, clutching his clothes, her voice trembling with feigned shyness, her eyes watery as she coquettishly pleaded, "Your Excellency the President, I am already yours; there’s no need to rush this moment." That delicate address, "Your Excellency the President," made Karlu’s bones melt; his eyes instantly brightened.

He swept Ilia up with a large hand: "Little darling, what did you just call me? Say it again for me to hear." Ilia shot Karlu a flirtatious glance, adopting a charmingly helpless posture, and repeatedly cooed submissively: "Your Excellency the President, Your Excellency the President, my husband, Your Excellency the President." "Hahahaha!" Karlu roared with laughter, instantly feeling as if he were already seated on the presidential throne, commanding the world.

The panicked legion leaders on the monitors transformed in his mind into subordinates bowing before him in fear. President—that had been his goal for his entire life!

-RS