Chapter 217 Online National War
Across the ocean, in the heart of Victoria's Dek State, Mr. Box gently patted the aging monitor on his desk. The screen flickered to life, displaying the international assassin rankings.
Conflicting emotions washed over him – anticipation, anxiety, and a strange sense of sorrow.
Yesterday, he had unleashed the full might of the Card Club upon Paul Three. 26 assassins, including the formidable Chain Bridge and Invictus, had gone to Veridiania with orders to eliminate the target.
He had expected casualties, of course. Paul Three was no pushover. But the sheer scale of the operation, the combined might of his assassins... surely, it was enough.
As he waited for Kofi's confirmation, he couldn't help but feel a morbid curiosity.
'How many of them had been lost in the pursuit of Paul Three?'
He scrolled through the rankings, his heart sinking with each passing name.
Spade 3... gone.
Club J... eliminated.
Diamond 10... terminated.
A pang of grief struck him, sharp and unexpected. He had trained these assassins, nurtured their talents, treated them like his own flesh and blood. And now they were gone, erased from the rankings as if they never existed.
Three down. Not good, but not unexpected.
Then, his blood ran cold.
Club 4... vanished.
Heart 8... erased.
Diamond 10... another one gone.
And then, ten more Card Club assassins also blinked out of existence one after another.
he panicked, his heart pounding as his vision blurred at the edges.
"No, no, no..." he gasped, clutching at his chest.
"Fifteen... sixteen... seventeen..." he counted desperately.
Half the webpage was now blank, a digital graveyard of his fallen assassins.
He scrambled for the small ceramic bottle he kept hidden in his desk drawer, knocking over stacks of files and a half-eaten sandwich in his haste.
Heart pills. He needed them now, more than ever.
He swallowed a handful, the bitter taste doing little to calm the raging storm within him.
He forced himself to look back at the screen.
All 26 A-level assassins... gone. Wiped out.
"Damn you, Paul Three!" he roared, his voice hoarse with fury and despair. "You've destroyed everything!"
Just then, the old telegraph machine on his desk sputtered to life. It was Kofi, with a message confirming his worst fears.
[Mr. Box... terrible news... our assassins... neutralized... Veridiania police...]
[Explain yourself, Kofi!] Mr. Box hammered back, his rage overriding his fear. [How did he survive? How is this possible?]
[We... underestimated him.] Kofi's reply came, hesitant and fragmented. [He anticipated our attack... neutralized our agents before they could gather...]
[Impossible!] Mr. Box spat. [Our communication network is impenetrable. How could he have known?]
Silence.
[What about Chain Bridge? Invictus?] Mr. Box pressed, his voice trembling with hope and dread.
[They... acted independently... no news yet... but they will succeed... they always do...]
Mr. Box clung to those words like a lifeline. Chain Bridge and Invictus were his finest creations, being the result of years of training and experimentation. If anyone could finish the job, it was them.
[Contact the factory.] he ordered, his voice regaining its usual steely edge. [We need fresh blood. This isn't over, not by a long shot.]
[Sir... perhaps... the Jokers...]
[Absolutely not!] Mr. Box thundered. [One is a loose cannon, while the other wants a sacrifice I'm not willing to make. We have time, Kofi. Time to regroup, rebuild, and make Paul Three pay for what he's done.]
Meanwhile, deep within Victoria's integrated missile defense command center, chaos reigned.
For the past twenty hours, Commander Trollope and his team had been held hostage by an unseen force, their systems compromised by a ghost in the machine.
Technicians and experts had been flown in, their faces pale with awe and terror. They had never encountered anything like it. The intruder, whoever they were, operated with terrifying skill and precision, their every move showing their skills in the digital realm.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over.
The radar screens, which had been displaying a cryptic message for hours, flickered back to life.
"Commander! We're back online! The intruder... they're gone!"
Commander Trollope, who was on the verge of breaking down, slumped back in his chair as his body trembled with exhaustion.
He had barely a moment to catch his breath when a phone on his desk rang It was a direct line to the office of the General of the Army.
"Trollope," a voice boomed, cold and sharp. "You're lucky to be alive. One more security breach like that, and you'd be court-martialed."
"Sir, I... I assure you, we're doing everything we can to track down this Baul Four," Trollope stammered, his voice stressed.
"Baul Four?" the voice scoffed. "You imbecile! It's 'Paul Four,' Veridianian phonetics. He's one of theirs."
Trollope's blood ran cold. Veridiania? That technologically backward nation? It was unthinkable.
"But... Sir... how is that possible?"
"How, indeed?" the voice mused, a hint of grudging respect in his tone. "He infiltrated our most secure systems, held us hostage for 23 hours, and vanished without a trace. He's good, Trollope. Damn good."
"We'll find him, Sir. I'll personally lead the hunt."
"Find him? You couldn't even find your own reflection in a mirror, Trollope. No; we need a different approach. We need to draw him out."
"Sir?"
"I've authorized the Pentagon to assemble a team; 168 of the most skilled hackers in Victoria. We're going to launch a counteroffensive, Trollope. A full-scale cyber assault on Veridiania's network."
"Sir, that's... that's an act of war!"
"It's a calculated risk, Trollope. One we have to take. We cripple their infrastructure, sow chaos and confusion... and then, when this 'Paul Four' reveals himself to defend his precious homeland, we'll be waiting."
Then, the line was cut off.
Commander Trollope stared at the phone, his mind reeling.
'A full-scale cyberwar against Veridiania? This is madness.'
But as the initial shock wore off, grim determination ignited within him. He had been humiliated, outmaneuvered, made to look like a fool.
This time, he would be ready for his revenge.
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