The dark web.
On an unknown forum.
A group of people logged onto their accounts and excitedly reported their results.
“Not bad!”
“Just some basic techniques, I think the page redirect was quite creative.”
“Forget about it, your photoshop skills are dog sh*t.”
“…”
Boss: “Quiet.”
Everyone in the chat quieted down as they waited for their leader to speak.
Boss: “The Chinese have clearly ignored our demands, while the White House has ignored our threats. It seems like our attacks haven’t affected them.”
“If that is the case, we should begin our second phase.”
Hunter: “I’m ready, Boss.”
Kid: “Haha, finally!”
Kid: “Lol, I’ve been wanting to attack Congress for a while now.”
Hunter: “The Congress and White House are two different things.”
Kid: “Who cares? They’re the same for me!”
Ghost: “Oh yeah, where is Lone Wolf? Didn’t he find that chief designer Academician Lu’s university and shut down their website?”
Kid: “Someone go find him.”
Dr. Z: “He’s not going to come. :p”
Suddenly, a new user appeared in the chat room.
The entire chatroom went silent.
A two-story house in Los Angeles.
A man in his thirties stared at his laptop screen.
Dr. Z?
Who is that?
Is that Lone Wolf’s second account?
But we said no duplicate accounts allowed in the group…
In the group chat.
Hunter: “Who are you?”
Ghost: “Is this someone’s second account?”
Kid: “Hey, bro, we use our main IDs to communicate. We’re going to kick you out, we’re not joking around.”
Dr. Z: “I am Dr. Z. Master gave me this ID, so this is my name. (๑•̀ᄇ•́) و✧”
Hunter: “…?”
Kid: “???”
The texting style of Dr. Z was a little weird.
These hackers had surfed the dark webs for many years, and they had seen many types of peculiar texting, but they had never seen someone use this kind of emoticons before.
They all knew this new guy was an expert.
None of them had doubts about this.
This guy was able to get into this dark web forum and gain access to Boss’ private chatroom. Either this was Boss himself or someone installed a backdoor into Boss’ server.
Who is this guy?!
The man in his thirties quickly stood up and placed his laptop aside. He then began typing on a PC keyboard.
His name was Mason, a low-level employee that worked at a Los Angeles software company. The only outstanding part about him was that he was the legendary dark web hacker—Boss!
As the leader of the Eagle Hunter group and a famous figure in the dark webs, his hacking skill was world-class.
This was one of the reasons he was responsible for managing the Eagle Hunter server.
Not only because they trusted his leadership, but they also trusted his skills.
But now, someone had broken through his server and entered a restricted chat room…
Mason checked the server and didn’t find any back doors. He had a serious look on his face, and he had a gut feeling that something was wrong.
It was too late to figure out how the other party gained access to his server. Instead, he went on his laptop and immediately typed.
Boss: “Everyone, leave this chatroom now. Begin the fourth phase. Long live Eagle Hunter!”
He was obviously not the only one that realized something was wrong.
After he sent out this message, the group members went offline one by one.
Even though these hackers usually didn’t follow strict rules, when it came to the safety of their own lives, they gladly listened to their leader…
Mason continued to type on his laptop.
Someone entered his encrypted chat room.
It was entirely possible that the attacker had gained access to his server and copied all of the data… including the chat records…
Mason began to sweat, and he started to get a little dizzy.
There was no point in unplugging the server. He had to find any evidence the attacker left, hack into the other party’s server, and delete all of the evidence.
The things in his server alone would be enough for him to stay in prison for a very long time…
Fortunately, the other party was stupid enough to send a message in the chatroom.
This was his opportunity!
Mason’s fingers danced on the keyboard as he desperately tried to salvage the situation. He suddenly saw that the user appeared in the chatroom again.
Dr. Z: “Um, I think you should just give up. Kicking me out of the chat room or hacking into my computer won’t do anything. (” ◔‸◔ ‘)”
Mason was startled. He looked around his room and locked eyes on another laptop sitting behind him.
His face turned white.
As expected, his worst nightmares came true.
For some reason, the laptop LED camera was shining red.
Due to work-related needs, that was his only laptop camera that wasn’t taped over…
Faced with a god-like enemy, Mason decided to give up.
He looked at the laptop and murmured, “How did you do it… How? I didn’t find any trace of your break-in. None of the alarms were set off… Are you even a human?”
It was almost like the attacker heard him.
Another message appeared in the chatroom.
Dr. Z: “Because your code is too weak, I just used your backup administrator account. (╯▽╰).”
Mason had a hysterical smile on his face, and it looked like he had aged ten years. He stared at the code on his screen silently.
There was no point in trying to fight back.
He took out a lighter and lit a cigarette.
He exhaled a ring of smoke.
“Is it too late to surrender?”
Dr. Z: “I don’t know, that depends on how fast the police are. ( ́◔‸◔ ‘)”