Sunlight poured over Cloudbridge's Upper Sector—clean streets, tall towers, and hundreds of surveillance drones buzzing like flies.
Rael stood in a coffee shop across the street from VegaCorp Labs—a fortress of glass and metal that held the target.
Mission 2: Retrieve Quantum Core Drive Location: VegaCorp R&D Lab, 18th floor Security: Grade A+ Time Limit: 30 minutes Bonus: No alert triggers
Ash leaned on the table beside him, sipping espresso.
"You're seriously robbing a tech titan in broad daylight?"
Rael smirked. "They won't even know I was there."
Step One: Access the Building
Ash looped the nearby surveillance for 60 seconds.
Rael walked through the front door dressed in a courier uniform, holding a fake delivery box rigged with a signal scrambler.
"Delivery for Dr. Lin."
Security scanned the box. Green light. He was in.
Step Two: Bypass the Lab Floor
VegaCorp's elevators had retina and passkey locks. Rael took the service stairs.
System Skill Activated: Tech Spoof (Lv. 1)– Temporarily bypasses fingerprint and digital lock systems– Duration: 15 seconds
18 floors.
15 minutes left.
He reached the R&D section. Two guards. No alarms.
Rael threw a noise disruptor down the hall. Both guards left to check.
He moved.
Step Three: Grab the Core
Inside a glass vault sat the Quantum Core Drive—small, silver, and glowing.
A 5-layer security ring circled it. Lasers. Drones. Sensors.
Hack Module Initiated– Cracking sequence: 3 phases– Remaining time: 9 minutes
Phase 1… success.Phase 2… partial breach.Alarm halfway triggered.
Ash's voice crackled in. "You've got 90 seconds before backup's on you!"
Rael took a breath and pressed forward.
Phase 3—manual override. He cut the final lock by hand.
Core Acquired
He bolted.
Step Four: Exit Clean
Back in the stairwell, a guard spotted him.
"Hey! You—!"
Rael slid a flashbang down the steps. Boom. Light. Screams.
Down four floors. Into a storage chute. Rolled into the alley behind VegaCorp.
Time Left: 1:32 Alert Trigger: 0% Mission Complete Rewards:– Quantum Core Drive– Skill Upgrade: Tech Spoof (Lv. 2)– Selene Zhu Favor +15– VegaCorp Hostility: +30%
Later that night…
Selene met Rael in a rooftop bar. She wore a dark dress, hair up, wine glass in hand.
"Not bad," she said, eyes glinting. "Maybe you are more than just bold talk."
Rael leaned on the railing. "What's the third job?"
She smiled like a queen about to drop a guillotine.
"You'll be stealing something no one dares touch."
"What?"
"My name," she whispered. "You're going to wipe my past."