In the computer room inside the space;
Zhao Meilin sits poised before a wall of flat-screen monitors, their glow casting fractured light across her sharp features. Her fingers dance over the keypad with surgical precision, each keystroke a scalpel slicing through layers of digital reality. Lines of code surge across the screens like waves, some in Mandarin, others in encrypted glyphs known only to the underworld's elite.
Every few minutes, the monitors flicker, shifting from surveillance feeds to algorithmic overlays, then to identity matrices. She doesn't blink. Her focus is absolute.
Then; success.
Mu Sheng and Ye Wanei's assassin profiles dissolve like ash in the wind. Their kill records, bounty tags, and biometric flags vanish, overwritten by pristine identities: as entrepreneurs. The transformation is seamless, elegant, irreversible.
Zhao Meilin leans back, a ghost of a smile tugging at her lips. "You're ghosts now," she murmurs. "No one hunts what doesn't exist."
Arranging the IDs and household registrations set to arrive the day after tomorrow, Zhao Meilin doesn't stop there. With clinical precision, she prepares bank cards for herself, Mu Sheng, and Ye Wanei, each one a symbol of status, wealth, and power.
But Zhao Meilin doesn't just apply for them. She infiltrates the bank's digital vault, bypassing layers of encrypted security like a ghost slipping through walls. Within minutes, her name is embedded in the registry of three elite financial tiers:
The first is a platinum card which is mostly owned by people who have tens of Million; while the second card is a silver card which is owned by someone who has hundreds of Million in asset; and the third is a diamond card which is possessed by people who have tens of billion.
She claims all three.
For Mu Sheng and Ye Wanei, she arranges matching platinum and silver cards, enough to shield them, elevate them, and ensure they can walk through the world with the same untouchable aura she's crafting for herself.
Yet one card remains beyond reach.
The Gold Black Card. A mythic tier. Owned by only twelve individuals in all of Country Z; titans of industry, heirs to empires, and a few who grace the global rich lists. These cardholders aren't just wealthy; they're under constant government surveillance, protected like national treasures. To hack into that echelon would be more than reckless; it would be suicidal.
Zhao Meilin stares at the encrypted firewall guarding the Gold Black registry. Her fingers hover over the keys, then slowly withdraw.
"Not yet."
She leans back, eyes gleaming with quiet fire.
"I won't steal my way into that list. I'll earn it. And when I do, it won't be a hacked name in a database, it'll be carved in gold, backed by power no one can erase."
She makes the vow not as a thief, but as a future sovereign.
After finishing her work, Zhao Meilin doesn't log off. Her fingers hover over the keyboard, her mind still burning with curiosity. She dives deeper, past the polished interfaces and encrypted vaults, into the digital underbelly of the world she's been reborn into.
And then she finds it.
The Dark Web.
A hidden realm pulsing with encrypted codes, anonymous avatars, and untraceable transactions. It's a place where the rich post missions with obscene monetary rewards, and hackers; ghosts of the system, compete to complete them. Reputation here is currency. Skill is power.
Zhao Meilin registers herself under a new codename:
The Flame Queen.
A name born of fire, rebirth, and the promise of domination.
She explores the labyrinthine corridors of the web, decoding its culture, its hierarchy, its silent wars. Then she stumbles upon the Mission and Competition Board, a digital colosseum where hackers prove their worth.
At the top of the board, glowing in crimson font, is a challenge issued by a legend:
The Black Emperor.
The most feared and revered hacker in the world. His name alone sends ripples through the underground.
Challenge: Break through ten layers of firewall within five hours of registration.
Reward: 10 Million Yuan.
Status: Open.
Participants: 5.
Zhao Meilin's eyes narrow. She needs money. She needs recognition. And more than anything, she wants to measure herself against the best.
She clicks Register.
Instantly, the chatroom linked to the challenge lights up.
[ZeroByte]: Who's this? A fresh account?
[CrypticFox]: LOL. "Flame Queen"? Sounds like a cosplay name.
[Null]: She's gonna crash at layer two.
[IronRoot]: Five hours? She won't last five minutes.
Zhao Meilin ignores them. Her screen shifts. The first firewall rises before her—an intricate lattice of shifting code and adaptive encryption.
She breathes in. And begins.
At 00 minutes, 47 seconds, Layer One collapses.
At 01 minutes, 03 seconds, Layer Two disintegrates.
At 02 minutes, 45 seconds, Layer Three folds like paper.
The chatroom goes silent.
[ZeroByte]: Wait…
[CrypticFox]: Is she… scripting this live?
[Null]: No way. That's custom code. She's building it on the fly.
At 04 minutes, 22 seconds, Layer Four falls.
At 06 minutes, 01 seconds, Layer Five.
At 09 minutes, 44 seconds, Layer Six.
Meanwhile, in the capital city,
The Shen Corporation wasn't merely a business—it was the invisible architecture of power in the capital. Founded by the Shen family, its reach extended across three domains: the gleaming towers of global finance, the polished corridors of government, and the blood-soaked alleys of the underworld. Politicians owed their rise to Shen patronage, intelligence agencies operated under quiet Shen oversight, and the city's criminal elite bowed to the family's unspoken rule. At the heart of this triad stood Shen Yuxuan—the 20 years old heir to both the corporate empire and the underworld dynasty. Ruthlessly intelligent, devastatingly wealthy, and cloaked in charm, he was the capital's most elusive bachelor. But behind closed doors, in encrypted networks and digital battlegrounds, he was known by another name: Black Emperor. A codename feared and revered in the hacker world. No one outside his inner circle knew the truth. To the public, he was a visionary CEO. To his enemies, a ghost. To his subordinates, a sovereign. And to the digital world, a legend whose identity remained untraceable.
Inside the topmost floor, the air is cold, clinical, and charged with power. The walls are lined with digital maps, surveillance feeds, and encrypted data streams. No one enters this sanctum without permission; Shen Corporation, where Shen Yuxuansits at the helm.
He's reviewing a new AI-driven security protocol when the silence breaks.
The door slams open.
Lin Jing , codename GhostBlade, strides in—his most trusted hacker, a man who once took down a foreign intelligence firewall in under ten minutes. His loyalty is absolute. His skill, unmatched.
"Yuxuan," Lin says, breathless. "We have a situation."
Shen Yuxuan doesn't look up. "If it's about the South Korean breach, I already handled it."
"No. It's your personal firewall challenge. Someone just registered. Codename: Flame Queen." Lin Jing exclaims still shock.
Shen Yuxuan's fingers pause mid-keystroke.
"Another rookie?"
Lin Jing throws a tablet onto the desk. "She's already at Layer Seven. It's been less than ten minutes."
Lin Jing really can't accept this. Even he himself took more than 3 hours to completely break through all the 10 layers; and here someone newly registered is able to break the sixth layer in less than 10 minutes. He really can't accept this.
Shen Yuxuan's gaze lifts slowly. His eyes—cold, calculating—lock onto the screen.
"Show me."
The tablet streams live footage from the challenge server. He watches as Flame Queen dismantles Layer Eight with surgical precision.
"She's not using prebuilt scripts," Shen Yuxuan mutters. "She's building custom code. On the fly."
Shen Yuxuan leans back, the shadows of the room folding around him like a cloak.
"That's impossible." Lin Jing grumles.
At 12 minutes, 47 seconds, Layer Nine collapses.
Lin Jing's voice drops. "She's about to breach the final layer."
Shen Yuxuan's jaw tightens. His firewall isn't just a test—it's a digital fortress built from quantum encryption and adaptive AI. No one has ever broken it brfore 3 hours..
Until now.
At 14 minutes, 59 seconds, the final layer falls.
The system flashes:
Challenge Completed.
Reward Transferred.
Winner: Flame Queen.
The room goes silent.
Shen Yuxuan stands, the weight of his empire behind every movement. He walks to the window, looking out over the city he owns.
"Find her," he says quietly. "I want everything. IP traces. Code signatures. Psychological profile."
Lin Jing hesitates. "You think she's a threat?"
Shen Yuxuan's voice is calm, but laced with something darker.
"No. I think she's an opportunity."
He turns back to the screen, watching the name Flame Queen flicker like fire.
"And I don't let fire burn without mastering it."