Because Herta insisted on having him pick her up, Lucian teleported back and forth twice and brought her straight to Belobog from Herta Space Station.
Herta simply couldn't be bothered to travel that far herself, since with Lucian's teleportation abilities, he could just flash over, making things unbelievably convenient.
"Here it is—the super-intelligent firewall I made just for you." Herta handed Lucian a chip that looked small and delicate, full of high-tech vibes. "Just use any main control device as the core, and it'll work."
Not wasting time, Lucian immediately plugged it into the main control device in the Qlipoth Fort, and in that instant, it connected to every network on the entire planet.
Of course, at the moment, the only network on the planet was Belobog.
"Now, if anyone tries to hack this planet's network, they'll be intercepted, and an alarm will go off."
Herta straightened up with confidence, her expression making it clear she wanted Lucian to praise her.
"Yeah, not bad." Lucian nodded calmly. "Now I don't have to worry about the Stellaron Hunters coming to steal."
He pretended to feel reassured, but secretly, he was already using his phone to send Silver Wolf's virus program to his own network.
Just like when he hacked into the main account of the IPC before, Lucian used Absolute Hit to launch the virus, breaching Herta's super-intelligent firewall with ease.
"Duh, when Madam Herta gets involved, it's obviously just that easy." Herta said leisurely while stretching her body. "Besides, with me here personally, the Stellaron Hunters wouldn't dare to—"
*WEE-OOO-WEE-OOO-WEE-OOO—*
Suddenly, the main control device blared an alarm, cutting off Herta's words.
"WARNING! VIRUS DETECTED! NETWORK IS UNDER ATTACK!"
"WARNING! VIRUS DETECTED! NETWORK IS UNDER ATTACK!"
"WARNING! VIRUS DETECTED! NETWORK IS UNDER ATTACK!"
Herta froze on the spot, blinking in confusion.
What did this even mean?
Was her own creation embarrassing her on purpose?
Coincidence?
Or had it been planned all along?
Herta quickly glanced at Lucian, suspecting he was up to some trick to win their bet.
Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?
Right after the bet, things suddenly went wrong?
Only a fool wouldn't notice that!
"What are you looking at me for?" Lucian shrugged, looking completely innocent.
Herta thought about it for a moment and realized he had been right under her nose the whole time, without any chance to pull anything off.
In the end, she temporarily pushed her doubts aside, grabbed her mini computer, and started intercepting the virus herself.
*Clack!* *Clack!* *Clack!*
Herta typed on the keyboard at lightning speed.
Although she was not a hacker, her skills were still on par with the pros, which was what being a genius was all about.
"No way!"
However, the more Herta tried to fight the virus, the more shocked she became, since the hacker's virus acted like it was on drugs!
At this moment, she had already thrown every trick she had at it, but she still couldn't stop the virus from breaking in.
Herta was utterly surprised and dumbfounded.
Just who was this mysterious expert with such insane hacking skills?
No matter what she tried, she couldn't stop the virus's advance at all—there was just no way.
'I see... Looks like even the alarm is just a weakness left on purpose by the hacker...'
For a moment, Herta felt a sense of helpless despair.
'If that damn hacker actually got serious, my firewall probably wouldn't even have time to sound the alarm...'
'Damn it, our gap is just too big...'
It had been years since Herta last felt this way.
*Beep!*
Suddenly, every device—including Herta's mini-computer—went blue screen at the exact same time.
In the next moment, a chibi figure of Silver Wolf popped up on every screen and started dancing.
"Herta~"
"Herta~"
"LOLOLOLOLOL—"
All the electronic devices around them, as long as they could make noise, started blasting the same audio—even Lucian's phone was playing it.
"Silver Wolf..." Herta glared at the taunting chibi figure on her mini-computer screen, her face turning red with fury. "You damn brat are really something, aren't you..."
At this moment, as a nameless fury burned fiercely inside her, Herta couldn't help but think that the hacker had infiltrated from the very start, had known she would come to install a firewall, and had been waiting until right after it was set up just to humiliate her.
Herta clenched her fist, veins bulging on her forehead, looking like she was about to go on a rampage—but fortunately, after two deep breaths, she managed to calm herself down.
However, because the virus had broken through the firewall, it started attacking the network terminal.
Yet as Herta carefully observed its behavior, she realized that the virus itself wasn't actually that strong—in fact, it was quite ordinary, to the point that even her casually created antivirus program could've wiped it out automatically.
But if that were the case, then why had she been unable to stop its advance?
Just what was going on?
*Beep!*
A moment later, Silver Wolf's virus was wiped out completely, which was surprisingly effortless.
It was only natural.
In the first place, the virus's original purpose was just to break through Herta's firewall, not to actually destroy Jarilo-VI's network. Moreover, with Herta handling it personally, the virus was doomed to be eliminated quickly.
As a result, once the virus was gone, all the devices around returned to normal.
Lucian felt relieved that he had thought ahead.
Right after Silver Wolf sent the virus to his phone, he had her transfer the virus to another device somewhere else instead, then set it up so his phone would only have the right to send the virus.
Thanks to that, Lucian was nothing more than an innocent victim in Herta's eyes.
"Hmph, trying to piss me off on purpose? Fine, just you wait, you damn brat! I'll get the IPC to ban all your game accounts!"
Herta cursed at her mini computer, yelling at Silver Wolf and the mysterious expert helping behind her.
Needless to say, she had completely lost this round of cyberwarfare—and lost so badly at that.
Of course, she also had no more doubts about Lucian, given that he had been right beside her the whole time, not doing anything, not even touching his phone.
Besides, the virus, while not strong, was able to break through every new safety barrier she put up, which meant the hacker had to be fighting her in real time, so it could not possibly be Lucian.
However... didn't this mean Lucian won the bet?
No matter whether he was involved or not, she had indeed failed to stop the Stellaron Hunters from breaking in.
'Damn it!' Herta silently cursed in her heart. 'Just wait till I call for backup, let's see how many of you can handle it.'
Now that it had come to this, if she couldn't handle it alone, she would just find someone to help.
Screwllum, as an intellitron, was a master of network data, so if he helped, it would be a piece of cake.
As Herta was still grumbling with resentment, a phone suddenly appeared in front of her face before Lucian's voice sounded in her ear.
"Herta, can you check out this video for me? What's it about?" Lucian asked with a faint smile.
What else could it be?
Of course, it was the video of Herta making a vow on their bet.
If her firewall was truly breached by the Stellaron Hunters, she had to work for Lucian for free for a hundred years!
"Hmph, what are you so anxious about? It's not like I said I'd go back on my word." Herta turned away and huffed coldly. "You must be thrilled to have a genius like me working for you, right?"
"Of course I am." Lucian nodded, then chuckled. "Who wouldn't be happy to have a beautiful genius working for them for free?"
"What do you mean by free? Awful..." Herta grumbled again. "A hundred years means a hundred years—I'll keep my word. Come back to the space station with me, and I'll fulfill the bet right away."
Herta huffed, then stood up with a dark aura of resentment swirling around her.
It went without saying that she was really upset right now, which was only natural.
Someone she had never taken seriously had just embarrassed her in front of someone important and even taunted her directly to her face.
Who could stand that?
Let alone anyone else, someone as proud as Herta definitely couldn't.
It was just that her strong logic kept her from snapping.
"Oh? You're so straightforward?"
Lucian was a little surprised as he saw that Herta was actually being this straightforward about the bet.
He couldn't help but feel something off.
"Oh, right, you've got a Stellaron on you, right? Don't forget to bring it." Herta suddenly turned around and gave a cold smile. "Now, you're my bait to get at that little girl."
Upon hearing this, Lucian nodded calmly, but inwardly, he was complaining.
'She's using the mastermind as bait to catch the mastermind? If she ever finds out the truth, she'll probably lose her mind.'