Vincent’s cold gaze immediately shifted toward Samuel as he commanded, “Locate the signal by any means necessary!”

“Understood!” Samuel responded.

Vincent turned, his eyes darkening as he stared at the sofa Katelyn had just been sitting on.

As soon as she left, TS’s signal mysteriously turned back on. Was it really a coincidence?

A sharp light flashed across Vincent’s expression.

At that moment, Jaxen burst into the room, laptop in hand, exclaiming with excitement, “Vincent, check this out! I’ve found TS! If the signal holds for just thirty more seconds, I’ll have the precise location.”

Vincent’s eyes narrowed as he quickly turned to view the screen.

Displayed on Jaxen’s laptop was a small map of Yata, highlighted by a blinking red dot.

Beside the map, a countdown timer was ticking down—twenty-eight seconds, twenty-seven seconds…

Vincent’s gaze sharpened as he coldly asked, “Have you been tracking TS’s location this whole time? When did you first notice the signal in Yata?”

Jaxen thought for a moment and then answered, “It started about a month ago. That’s around the time you called me to Yata, if I recall correctly.”

Confidence was evident in Jaxen’s voice as he said the last part.

Vincent remained silent.

The coincidences were piling up, and he was not one to believe in such things.

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The countdown reached its final ten seconds.

Everyone in the room held their breath, their eyes glued to the ticking timer.

With the impending confirmation of the location, they were on the verge of unveiling the mystery surrounding…

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two…

Just as the last second ticked away, the whole system abruptly went down!

The screen turned black, and alarms blared incessantly.

“Damn it!” Jaxen exclaimed, his expression turning stormy as he pounded the keyboard.

He quickly stopped, shaking his head in frustration.

“What happened?” Vincent inquired, his gaze fixed on Jaxen.

With a grave look, Jaxen answered, “It’s TS’s self-defense program. It immediately reacts when it detects an attempt to breach its firewall by launching a counteroffensive, hacking the assailant’s network.”

Vincent’s face tightened with concern as he looked at the screen now covered in static. “Is there no other way around?” he asked.

“Not a chance. His hacking capabilities outmatch mine. Breaking through his firewall is beyond me,” Jaxen sighed deeply.

“People often have a simplistic and incorrect view of hacking. They think it’s just about writing some code that anyone can manage. They don’t realize that, on the internet, if someone’s more skilled than you, there’s literally nothing you can do,” Jaxen explained all at once, then sighed again as he looked at his now-useless laptop. “I’ll have to start from scratch with a new system. This laptop’s done for,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent room, Katelyn was busy typing on her computer.

She had been trying to uncover the source of a bounty placed on her through the dark web.

Yet, no matter how diligently she tried to decode the identity of the issuer, she kept hitting dead ends. Gaining crucial information meant dismantling the entire dark web—an action that would make her an adversary to the whole world, and a risk she was not willing to take.

Katelyn had just finished enhancing the firewall she had set up. After stretching her shoulders, she looked at the screen displaying a list of IP addresses.

The list helped identify individuals who had recently attempted to track her down.

Interestingly, one of the signals originated from the room next door—it was Jaxen.

However, the strongest signal emanated from the east, specifically from the royal family.

A keen spark appeared in Katelyn’s eyes. What had she done to provoke the royal family?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Miss Bailey,” Jaxen called out.

Katelyn approached and opened the door to find Jaxen standing there with a friendly smile. “Could I use your laptop to set up a new system? My laptop just crashed.”

Katelyn gave one last glance at her laptop, which had completed its task, then carefully switched off the display before handing it over to him.

“Handle it carefully. It contains many of my design drafts,” she cautioned.

“No worries,” Jaxen assured her, flashing an “Okay” sign as he took the laptop to Vincent’s room. Newest update provided by find(?)ovel.net

Katelyn followed closely behind. Although she knew Jaxen was unlikely to notice the dual systems on her laptop, she preferred to keep a watchful eye on his actions.

Jaxen wasted no time diving into the task at hand, quickly getting to work on the laptop.

However, Katelyn’s eyes suddenly narrowed. While Jaxen busied himself with reprogramming, a stealthy virus had infiltrated the laptop’s system! This virus was so well-hidden that only an expert hacker could detect it.

Katelyn’s gaze fixed on Jaxen, her attention snapping to him as she prepared to take action.

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