Andromeda was furiously typing into the holographic keyboard in front of her. She was surrounded by layers and layers of holographic images — computer codes, AI assistants, graphic interpreters, and other incomprehensible hacking tools — some of the displays were concentrated so closely together that a fiery white orb was formed from the overlaid images. However, this didn’t matter to Andromeda, because she knew exactly what she was doing.

Even with her expertise and experience of illegal digital assaults, Andromeda was still awed by the complexity of ArtTech’s digital security. The attack would require so much flexibility, decision-making, and improvisation that an artificial intelligence hacking system would never be capable of handling. Despite how they flourished in the market and businesses, Ai systems after all were just machines, and they would never be able to handle complex human tasks like the ones Andromeda was performing right now. They were programmed by humans, and they would be enslaved by humans. Just like how the most brilliant CEO would still be under the control of the shareholders, AI systems would always be under human control.

Andromeda glanced at a hologram on her left. Her two AI assistants were malfunctioning, and this wasn’t the first time that it occurred. Every single AI system and digital weapon that was used to infiltrate the ArtTech system would eventually break down. At first, the hacker communities believed that it was just unforeseen bugs in their programs, but when the frequency of this increased, brilliant hackers like Andromeda realized that this wasn’t just a coincidence.

What a dirty move for ArtTech to do. As the biggest advocate for AirNet security, ArtTech ironically used viruses and worms as part of their own defense. These security viruses were disguised so well that no databases contained their records; even hackers’ forums had no knowledge of such things. Only a well experienced and abnormally intelligent hacker like Andromeda could discover traces of such weaponry.

Andromeda spent years trying to figure out a way to get past these security viruses, and her final conclusion was that it would be impossible. These viruses would forcibly download themselves to any foreign intruders, and they wouldn’t aim for immediate destruction at first. They scanned all the code and transmitted the memories to their mainframe computer, under which a digital immune system would record all variations of the intruder’s code. Then these information would be to for the periodical automated scans and defensive anti-virus programs.

The viruses would embed themselves in the intruders’ code and backtrace from the malware to its developer. Once reaching the developers, the viruses would immediately turn hostile and splice apart any code and interject incomprehensible strings, turning the source code files into complete trash.

Combatting ArtTech security was something of a whole new level. Andromeda performed some impressive assaults on other facilities before, such as infiltrating the government intelligence agency to gain the exact coordinates of where they stored the revolutionary technology that was capable of activating the Singularity. She also got into a news agency network and wrote the report on an abandoned missile silo that contained “crates of foreign currency”. She intentionally put in the coordinates of that location so that people would venture into that place, but she didn’t expect anything productive done by the normal civilians. The purpose of the report was just to create some public interferences against the government, and this would be needed for the latter steps of the plan to work.

The government files and news media network were nothing comparing to the ArtTech security. Through the years of experimentation, Andromeda understood that there was no way to defend against the security viruses of ArtTech, but there could be possible ways of sneaking past them.

Andromeda keyed in a series of commands, and she got into the computer of an ArtTech employee. Andromeda selected that employee carefully — he was careless, fallible, and rebellious against the strict ArtTech security regulations. In fact, the problem was that he was too intelligent. He travelled between the realms of software engineers and hackers, believing that his talent would grant him impunity from all the illicit activities he was doing.

However, going straight for his computer was too direct. She needed to infiltrate him as a person. Andromeda aimed for the weakest part of the man — in fact the weakest part of all human beings — desire and vanity. Andromeda staged a huge show. She intentionally walked into an alley notorious of crime, and she knew that her target would be walking on the street nearby. She feigned to be an ignorant little girl and carried a valuable handbag without paying too much attention. Just like predicted, a man pulled out a pistol on her and demanded the bag. Andromeda shed some tears and handed him the bag. She angled it so perfectly that when her target arrived she was just in his line of sight.

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However, that criminal wasn’t satisfied by the handbag alone. He stared at Andromeda’s bare shoulders and tight tube top and desired for something more. A bestial smile emerged on his face as he drew in closer on Andromeda, forcing her to the wall of the alley.

Andromeda looked panicked on the outside, though she had her calculations in mind perfectly already. She counted down in her head. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. And the criminal’s eyes went blank as his bodied fell heavily on the ground. Behind the criminal was Andromeda’s target with a lead pipe in his hand.

This would have ended as a textbook example of justice if that ArtTech employee had just accepted her gratitude and left, but through a series of Andromeda’s flirtatious expressions, the man decided to start a conversation with Andromeda. Andromeda intentionally let her tube top slid down a little bit before pulling it back up.

The man introduced himself as George and asked for Andromeda’s number. George told Andromeda a little bit about what she already knew about him. Then he offered to give her a ride home.

George seemed to have completely fallen under Andromeda’s enticing postures. Despite Andromeda’s choice of sitting at the backseat, he was still frequently glancing back at Andromeda from the rearview mirror in his car. It was also part of Andromeda’s plan, playing hard to get. She knew that this man would only vie for her if she presented herself as a difficult challenge.

The rest of the events unfolded exactly according to Andromeda’ mental script. The man asked if Andromeda had had dinner and mentioned casually that she could grab a drink at his house. Funny how this whole time the man thought that he was manipulating Andromeda. He probably thought that he had luckily ran into this situation and played the hero and saved the beauty and cleverly offered a gracious service and subtly influenced Andromeda step by step into staying over at his house.

All that Andromeda needed to do was reach George’s personal laptop, but she knew that it was inside his bedroom. She had to find a way to get into the bedroom without suffering her dignity. She could already sense George throwing her seductive glances and moving their conversation zone towards the bedroom. Under this situation, she had to do some more skilled acting.

They began taking each other’s clothes off as George pinned her to his bedroom wall and made out with her. George’s attention was so focused on Andromeda’s lips and body that he had neglected the fact that only one of Andromeda’s hand was on his hips. Andromeda’s other hand extended towards his laptop and attached a black minuscule sticker onto it. That sticker was custom made to have the same color and texture as George’s computer, and it would be impossible to notice it without paying extremely detailed attention. Inside the sticker was a series of microscopic circuits that would grant Andromeda access into the host device.

After attaching the sticker, Andromeda panted heavily and pushed George away from her a little bit. Since the job was done, she decided to not lose her dignity. She acted as a young girl who didn’t understand her own emotions, and she apologized to George, saying that she wasn’t ready and probably shouldn’t get to that stage. She looked so guilty and self-pitying on the outside that it would be impossible to refuse her request. Despite the inner frustration and the ten seconds of hesitation, George still maintained his gentleman composure on the outside and respected Andromeda’s decision. Andromeda pulled on her skinny ripped jeans and left George’s house into her pre-arranged taxi.

Looking back now, Andromeda was gracious of her decision. Although she could be extremely manipulative of others’ emotions, there was still a secret part in her heart where she still believed in fairy tales and prince charming. This was irrational, but this was hope.

A new prompt appeared on her screen, and she went back into the hacking process. She implanted her virus into George’s computer and entered ArtTech’s network as a friendly entity. However, George’s access level was extremely limited, so Andromeda didn’t have any chances to leave any malware inside the mainframe. However, the access level was enough to access the security footage.

Andromeda quickly located what she sought for — the security footage of the auditorium room for ArtTech’s conference. What happened was similar to what she predicted, but a lot more radical. She expected people to protest or shout in anger or maybe even brawl, but she didn’t expect it to turn into a bloodbath. More interestingly, ArtTech dedicated a lot of resources into rescuing the four VIPs while locking the other people in.

She quickly cut the footages and downloaded them onto her personal drive. She went through it once more. It shocked her how ArtTech would be ruthless enough to lock all these people in and have them murdering each other just to avoid the information going to the outer world. ArtTech would have achieved their goals, because except the four VIPs, all other members who attended the conference died from the violence.

Shame that ArtTech’s cruel plan of information restriction would fall apart because of her.

A new prompt message appeared on her screen, “Are you sure you want to publish the video files on AirNet?”

Andromeda clicked yes.

A minute later, the whole AirNet exploded with news reports on the ArtTech technology that would replace creative jobs and the bloody chaos in the ArtTech auditorium.