Chapter 17

　　At Gu's high-level meeting room, Steve looked gloomy as he watched the symbols scroll up on the screen. 　　The person in charge of the technical department wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and as he spoke you could hear the dismay in his voice. "Sir, this is the version with the highest defensive performance that our technicians can make at this point. There is really no way to upgrade it in a short time." 　　Steve didn't speak, but glanced at the department manager next to him. 　　The manager's face was also a little pale. 　　"President, Director Huang didn't lie, everyone did their best." 　　Steve Gu sneered. 　　"So you want me to use a defensive system that can be easily breached and put it into the operation of the new product?" 　　Everyone fell silent. 　　Gu's is world-renowned for its information technology, and its mobile phones and computers account for more than 50% of the world's market share. 　　A new product line, computers and mobile phones that worked seamlessly together, was about to be released. The only thing that needs to be perfected at this point was the security system. 　　The atmosphere in the conference room was very tense. 　　At this moment, someone suddenly spoke. 　　"President, I have a suggestion." 　　Steve Gu stepped towards him. 　　He barked, "Say it!" 　　The young man gulped down his fear and began to speak. "We usually encounter powerful old men at the gambling table. If they encounter a skillful opponent, they may hire them and pay them a good amount of money to keep them in check. There is clearly at least one talented hacker involved here, and possibly a team. Why don't we hire them?” 　　“Let the hacker group be our technical consultant, not only to ensure the security of the system, but also as a gimmick to promote it, won’t that be the best of both worlds?" 　　Everyone's eyes brightened as soon as he said this. It sounded like a good plan! 　　But will the other party agree? 　　Everyone turned their attention to the President. 　　Steve tapped his fingertips on the desktop and was also thinking about the feasibility of this method. 　　After half a minute, he waved his hand. 　　"Contact them!" 　　"Yes." 　　The technician immediately sent word to the X Alliance through his contacts in the hacker community. 　　Antoinette was sitting there chatting with the Five Girls and Little Black. Suddenly, Haley Da's surprised voice rang out from the other room 　　"Boss, they sent us a message." 　　Antoinette Yun raised her eyebrows and walked in. 　　"What did they say?" 　　"They said they would hire us to be their company's general counsel, with an annual salary of 50 million!" 　　Haley did a little war-dance, then she pulled away and sat down in front of the computer. 　　She saw the dialog box on the screen, showing the other party's terms. 　　She had to admit, even in the top hacker circles, this offer was considered very favorable. It wasn’t the best offer they had gotten, but it was very good considering that it's just a consultant job after all. They didn’t even need to do the grunt work. 　　But Antoinette Yun wasn’t in it for the money. 50 Million was a huge amount but as they were the best hacker group in Pingcheng, she saw it as a sign of disrespect. 　　They were expecting her to bargain so they had offered a relatively small amount compared to the value of her work. 　　Antoinette didn't type, she picked a text preset and pressed enter. 　　Steve waited for a while, but frowned without waiting for the technician's reply. 　　"What now? What did they say?" 　　The expression on the IT personnel’s face looked strange. 　　No, he didn’t look frightened or worried. 　　Steve Gu realized that something was wrong and turned the computer screen to face him. 　　The text on the screen had been arranged to look like a picture, a sort of primitive emoji that kids before used. It was meant to make text messages more interesting. 　　His face instantly darkened upon seeing the image it formed. 　　A raised middle finger blinked on the screen, and there was a line of text below it. Balls deep in your mom but I aint your dad! 　　Shit! 　　"Find where it’s coming from!" 　　"Yes!" 　　And so, the meeting ended on a sour note for Steve Gu. The IT techs thought it was hilarious but did not dare to laugh in front of the President. 　　... 　　On the other side, everyone was in a celebratory mood. Antoinette was dragged out by Little Black to drink. 　　The X Alliance was made up of four girls. X stood for the X-Chromosome. One might ask, why just an X-Chromosome, why not two? 　　It was made up of Antoinette Yun, Haley Da, Little Black, and the Five Girls, who was born a biological male but who had very early in life decided that he was really a woman in a man’s body. 　　She had met them when she was sixteen. 　　The three were different from Antoinette in that they were all real orphans, with no family. They all happened to have a knack for computers and getting around security systems. All three were able to get scholarships to go to university. 　　They found themselves unable to make friends, and were ostracized by other students. 　　At first, everyone met on the Internet. Later, when they wanted to form a group, they met in person. 　　All three were surprised to discover that the young debutante Antoinette Yun was among them. Not only was she the youngest among them, she was also something of a minor celebrity in real life. 　　It just so happened that she was the most highly-skilled hacker in the group, perhaps due to her very early exposure. 　　Everyone had a lot of respect for her. She’s never let them down. 　　The X Alliance has retained their top spot as the most notorious hacker group, and it was because of her leadership.