I closed my eyes, trying to block out the noise, but the words still lingered in my mind.
This is all my fault.
The room was silent except for the hum of machines, but a calm voice cut through the tension.
“Let’s pack up. We won’t make it to the dorms in time,” Krishika said firmly.
“But—” I started, only for her to interrupt, her voice steady and reassuring.
“Don’t worry. We still have some time. Look at the fifth monitor.” She pointed, her eyes sharp. “We haven’t lost our fifth heart yet. It’s safe. That means they couldn’t find the key. And trust me, they won’t. I dumped it across several subdirectories and locked it with a quantum algorithm. Breaking that isn’t easy, even for them.”
Her confidence steadied me—almost.
Before I could reply, Shura leaned back in his chair, his usual carefree tone masking a quiet determination.
“And don’t worry, man. I sent a pretty convincing phishing mail to one of their teammates. Now we just wait for the magic to happen.”
Bianca, sitting quietly at the edge of the table, finally spoke, though her voice wavered.
“I-I’ve figured out what happened,” she stammered, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I know how to reverse it. W-we’ll fix it first thing in the morning. So… cheer up, alright?”
I am not alone, not anymore. “Let’s get some rest then,” I said with a soft smile spreading across my face.
We left the lab and trudged to the dorms, exhausted but determined. Sleep came in fragments, my mind spinning with strategies, failures, and an unwavering resolve to turn things around.
----------------------------------------
By the time we were back in the lab, the tension was palpable. Bianca wasted no time, her voice steady despite the urgency in her tone.
“Here’s what happened,” she said, gesturing to a monitor. “They lured us into an empty file server honeypot. When we fell for it, they escalated by creating a second honeypot. This one mimics their real server but plants malware. When we opened it, the malware triggered a screen overlay, making our systems appear blank.”
Krishika frowned, leaning closer. “So… our systems aren’t damaged?”
Bianca shook her head. “No, it’s purely visual. The systems are still bootable—just hidden under the overlay. There’s no hardware damage.”
Shura let out a low whistle, visibly relieved. “Okay, so how do we get rid of it?”
Bianca held up a pen drive, her confidence growing. “This antivirus I wrote should clean the malware and remove the overlay. Give me a few minutes.”
As Bianca got to work, Shura’s phone buzzed. His eyes lit up as he checked the screen.
“They took the bait!” he shouted, grinning ear to ear.
His multi-layered phishing attack—a fake cosmetics site—had worked. Krishika’s OSINT exercise had provided the lead, and now, thanks to Shura, we had access to one of their teammate’s phones.
“We’re in,” Krishika confirmed, her voice calm but triumphant.
With the phone compromised, we activated its voice recorder. Within hours, we were listening in on their strategy meetings, uncovering their vulnerabilities. In just two days, we brought down three of their hearts.
It was almost too easy.
“Who knew a love for cosmetics could bring down a monstrous team,” Shura joked, smirking. “Girls are scary.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the smirk tugging at my lips.
----------------------------------------
By the fifth day, we’d decimated Team 1, leaving them teetering on the edge. But as the day unfolded, cracks began to form in our plans.
“Something’s off,” Bianca announced, her fingers flying across the keyboard. “I’m detecting traffic from a new source.”
“A new source?” Krishika echoed, her voice sharp.
“It must be another team,” I muttered, frustration creeping into my tone.
“What’s the plan, captain?” Shura asked, his usual grin replaced with a serious expression.
Krishika’s eyes narrowed, her mind clearly racing. “If they’re targeting both us and Team 1, we might be able to outlast them. But if it’s an all-out attack on us…” She trailed off, glancing at me.
“We’re not built for a 1v2 fight,” I said, finishing her thought. “Our defense is thin, and splitting focus could cost us everything.”
Krishika nodded sharply. “Then we don’t split. We go all in. If they’re gunning for us, we hit back harder.”
Her words were resolute, her confidence infectious.
Shura grinned. “Well, you heard the captain. Let’s show them what we’re made of.”
But deep down, I knew the odds weren’t in our favor. Yet, there was no room for doubt.
We can’t afford to lose.
We were barely holding the line, managing offense and defense on both fronts. The chaos was relentless, but slowly, we began to gain an upper hand over the opposing team. It felt like we might finally turn the tide.
And then—
“Another team is entering the battle!” Bianca’s voice broke through, her eyes glued to the screen.
“What?!” Krishika snapped, leaning forward, her expression hardening.
My frustration boiled over. “AAAH! What the hell is going on?! We don’t need another headache right now!” I shouted, slamming my hand on the desk.
Bianca quickly typed, her voice tense but steady. “It’s Team 6. I just confirmed their source traffic. That means…”
“That means all the surviving teams are now fighting in the same battlefield,” Krishika finished, her eyes narrowing.
Four teams. Ours, Team 1, Team 2, and Team 6. Every single one of us scrambling for control, fighting tooth and nail to survive.
“This just got a lot more complicated,” Shura muttered, his usual grin absent.
Krishika straightened, her commanding presence cutting through the panic. “Alright, listen up. This is no longer a two-front war—it’s a free-for-all. They’ll target whoever looks the weakest or most vulnerable. We cannot give them that chance.”
“What’s the plan, Captain?” I asked, forcing myself to focus despite the chaos spiraling around us.
Her lips pressed into a firm line. “We keep the pressure on Team 1. If we can take them down, it’ll reduce the threats we’re dealing with. Bianca, track Team 6’s activity and alert us if they shift focus toward us. Shura, get your phishing tools ready—if Team 6 is distracted, let’s see if we can exploit that.”
“And me?” I asked.
Krishika’s eyes locked with mine. “You’re on offense. Keep hammering Team 1’s weak points. Don’t let up. If we can knock them out, we’ll gain the breathing room we need.”
Her calm decisiveness steadied us. No matter how chaotic things got, she always found a way to cut through the noise.
“Let’s move!” she commanded.
"Yeaaaah" We shouted in unison
With renewed determination, we threw ourselves back into the fray.
Day 5 had dragged on without any eliminations. All four teams were going all out, pushing their limits, but no one managed to deliver a decisive blow. The tension in the air was suffocating, yet what gnawed at me the most wasn’t the stalemate—it was the silence.
No signs of double agents since our last encounter with Drimit. No cryptic messages, no betrayals surfacing. And then there was Shura’s cryptic comment. Something in return. Whatever he’d meant, we still had no clue what “that thing” was.
The clock ticked to 9:45 p.m., and network activity began winding down. The battlefield was quieting as the other teams likely decided to regroup and rest. It was the logical move, but I couldn’t shake the unease brewing inside me.
It seemed like the right time to ask, so I went for it. “So, what was that thing Drimit asked you for in return for doing our job, Shura?”
Shura’s expression shifted for the briefest moment before his usual carefree demeanor slid back into place. “Uhmm... it’s actually nothing to do with the team, to be honest, so you don’t have to dwell over it,” he replied casually, shrugging.
I narrowed my eyes, unconvinced, but before I could push further, Krishika chimed in with a sigh and a nonchalant shrug. “Well, if it’s not team-related, then I think you shouldn’t press, Vyom.”
I shot her a quick glare. “I didn’t press—at least not as much as I know you, witch,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” Krishika asked, her voice unnervingly soft yet carrying a distinct edge of menace. She turned her head just enough to give me a side look, her eyes glinting with a dangerous mix of curiosity and threat.
A cold shiver ran down my spine, and for a split second, I could almost see myself being dunked into a giant boiling pot. The imaginary bubbles popped around me as I scrambled to save myself.
“Oh! Nothing! Absolutely nothing!” I stammered, holding up my hands defensively. “As you say, Captain!”
Krishika raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, but she said nothing more. I could’ve sworn I heard Shura snickering in the background, but I wasn’t about to turn my attention away from Krishika to confirm it.
The moment passed, but the uneasy feeling lingered. Shura’s evasiveness and Krishika’s quick dismissal didn’t sit right with me. There was something about the way they both deflected that made me think there was more to it than they were letting on.
Still, I decided to let it go for now—partly because I didn’t want to push Shura too far, but mostly because Krishika’s gaze was still lingering on me, and I had no intention of testing her patience any further.
“Alright,” I muttered, forcing myself to relax. “If it’s personal, I’ll leave it alone. For now.”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Shura flashed me a grin, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Good choice, man. Now, can we all get some rest? Big day tomorrow.”
As he walked away, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was far from over. Whatever Shura was keeping to himself, it was only a matter of time before it came to light—and when it did, I had a gut feeling it wouldn’t be anything good.
For now, though, I’d take his advice. Tomorrow would be another battlefield, and we couldn’t afford to be anything less than ready.
----------------------------------------
The next morning, I entered the lab, expecting the usual chaos of systems booting up and the hum of activity. But something was off. Shura wasn’t around.
“Did you see Shura this morning?” I asked
Bianca shook her head, “No sign of him yet.” She seemed distracted, by something I couldn’t quite place.
Krishika, this morning said something like this “Vyom, I need you to push forward today. I’ve got something important to handle, and I’ll be there before six. The teachers agreed to let us put the competition on hold until then. But you’re on your own for now.”
I was thrilled about working solo, and wasn’t in the mood to question her.So, I just let it go with a lazy "Okay!" , and receive a good lecture for that response too....
“But... what kind of task could be so important that even the teachers are involved?” I spoke out loud with my chin resting on my frist.
Bianca hesitated before speaking, her gaze flicking to me as though she were unsure whether she should voice her concerns. “More than that,” she said slowly, “what task could be so important that both of them—Shura and Krishika—are on it?”
I frowned, trying to ignore the unease bubbling up inside me. “Well, we can’t dwell on it. Not until the competition’s over. We’ve got work to do, and whatever they’re dealing with... we’ll handle it when they get back.”
Bianca didn’t reply immediately, but I could sense her mind racing. After a beat, she sighed. “You’re right. I guess we’ll just have to wait.”
The silence stretched between us, and I could feel the weight of the situation pressing down. It wasn’t just about the competition anymore. There was something bigger lurking in the shadows. And whatever Krishika and Shura were working on was at the heart of it.
To break the tension, I glanced at Bianca and offered a small, somewhat awkward smile.But she just looked down , I was complete ignored.....
The silence between us stretched uncomfortably, and when she finally shifted, it was only to adjust her glasses, still not meeting my eyes. It stung, but I didn’t push further. Bianca had her own way of coping, and prying would only make things worse.
We poured ourselves into fortifying our defenses, working with an unspoken understanding that every second mattered. The rhythmic clacking of keyboards filled the room, broken only by the occasional beep of a system alert.
By the time I glanced at the clock, it was already 6 AM. My eyes burned from the strain, and my limbs felt heavy, but we’d made progress.
The door burst open, shattering the silence.
“Yo! Fellas, miss me?” Shura’s voice rang out, loud and unapologetic. He skidded across the floor in a dramatic slide, throwing his arms wide as though expecting applause.
I couldn’t help but shake my head, a faint smirk tugging at my lips. Typical Shura.
“Keep it down, idiot!” Krishika’s voice followed as she stepped into the room with her usual calm composure. She shot Shura a withering glare, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets.
Despite her scolding, there was an air of quiet confidence about her, the kind that seemed to center everyone in the room. Bianca even glanced up briefly before returning to her work, her posture visibly relaxing.
“Alright, team,” Krishika said, her voice cutting through the lingering fatigue in the air. “Let’s regroup. The final phase is starting soon, and I don’t need to remind you how much is at stake.”
We nodded and the attack-defense game resumed, and the intensity only grew. Every keystroke felt critical, every decision a potential turning point.
The battlefield was relentless, with no clear victor emerging. It was a grueling, toe-to-toe battle throughout Day 6. Each team fought like cornered animals, refusing to go down. The exhaustion weighed heavily, but none of us dared to show it.
When the clock finally signaled the end of the day, we slumped back in our chairs, too drained to even speak. The unspoken agreement to rest was palpable, and one by one, we retreated to our dorms.
----------------------------------------
Morning came too soon. We regrouped once again, battered but unyielding. The air was thick with tension, but there was also a quiet resolve in the room.
Krishika stood at the center of the table, her presence commanding. “Today is the final day,” she said, her voice carrying over the hum of the machines. “We’ve fought too hard to back down now. No way are we going home today. We will win this.”
Her words hung in the air, resonating with something deep inside each of us.
"Yeah!” Shura was the first to respond, pumping a fist into the air.
“Yeaaaahh!” we all echoed in unison, our voices loud and unwavering.
Bianca glanced around the table, her expression softening as she absorbed the energy of the group. For the first time in what felt like days, she offered a small smile. It was fleeting, but it was enough to tell me she was just as determined as the rest of us.
Krishika’s gaze swept across the room, her lips curling into a confident smirk. “Let’s make this day count.”
And with that, the final battle began.
“Bianca, monitor the incoming traffic. Shura, set up our phishing trap. Vyom—stay on offense. No mercy.” said Krishika with commanding voice.
“Got it!” I called back, already deep into analyzing Team 6’s infrastructure.
Bianca’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Their traffic patterns are shifting. Looks like Team 2 is gunning for us.”
“Team 2?” Shura muttered, glancing at his screen. “I was hoping Team 1 to attack first, but no matter, we just have to crush today!”
“Let them come,” Krishika said, her voice steady. “If they think we’re an easy target, we’ll make them regret it.”
I tuned them out, my focus narrowing on Team 1’s defense systems. Their firewalls were robust, layers of nested rules designed to detect and block even the subtlest intrusion attempts. But there was always a way in. Always.
“Vyom,” Krishika called, her voice sharp. “Status?”
“Probing their second firewall now,” I replied without looking up. “They’ve got deep packet inspection running, but their TLS fingerprinting is outdated. I’m injecting a forged handshake. Give me thirty seconds.”
Krishika nodded, her attention shifting to Bianca. “Update?”
Bianca’s voice wavered but didn’t falter. “Team 2 is launching a distributed DNS amplification attack on us. They’re flooding our network.”
“Mitigate it,” Krishika ordered. “Route the excess traffic through our decoy nodes and drop anything that matches their spoofed IPs.”
Bianca nodded, her glasses slipping down her nose as she worked. “On it. Deploying null routes now.”
The room buzzed with urgency as we worked in tandem, each of us locked in a battle on different fronts.
“Vyom!” Shura shouted, spinning his chair toward me. “I need access to Team 2’s subnet to launch the bait. Can you pivot through their DNS server?”
“Already on it.” My hands blurred over the keyboard, crafting a series of DNS tunneling requests. “Pivot established. You’re good to go.”
Shura grinned, his energy palpable. “Watch this.” He launched his phishing payload—a fake software update disguised as a critical patch.
“They’ll take the bait,” he said confidently. “They always do.”
Bianca’s voice broke through the chaos. “Their DNS attack is slowing. The decoy nodes are working.” She glanced at Krishika. “But Team 6 just entered the game. They’re targeting Team 1.”
Krishika’s eyes narrowed. “Perfect. Let them weaken each other. Vyom, accelerate your attack. We need to knock out Team 6 before Team 1 can claim the kill.”
I nodded, my heart pounding as I pushed forward. My injected handshake bypassed the firewall, granting me access to their internal network. From there, I found their control server—a sleek, fortified node surrounded by security measures.
“Found it,” I announced. “Their control server is using dynamic segmentation. I’ll have to spoof their admin credentials to get full access.”
“Do it,” Krishika said without hesitation.
I generated a crafted payload, using their admin’s hashed credentials that we’d intercepted earlier in the week. Injecting it into their session handler, I held my breath as the system processed the request.
“Access granted,” I said, exhaling sharply.
“Good,” Krishika replied. “Deploy the kill script and get out. We don’t need them tracing us.”
I nodded, running a script that would systematically dismantle their infrastructure—overloading their database queries, corrupting their logs, and locking their admin accounts.
“Team 6 is down,” Bianca confirmed, her voice breaking into a relieved laugh.
“Not yet,” Shura muttered, his grin fading. “Team 1 is sniffing around their wreckage. If they find traces of us—”
“They won’t,” Krishika cut in. “Vyom wiped everything, right?”
“Every log, every trace,” I assured her. “They’ll think Team 2 did it.”
“Good. Now we focus on Team 2.”
Bianca’s fingers flew over her keyboard, her eyes scanning server activities. “They’re shifting their attack to a low-and-slow approach. They’re using a botnet with randomized intervals to avoid detection.”
“Not for long,” I said, redirecting my attention to their network. “If we can isolate the C2 server, we can neutralize their entire botnet.”
“Do it,” Krishika ordered.
I worked quickly, analyzing their traffic patterns to identify the command-and-control server orchestrating the attack. Once I found it, I injected a malicious payload designed to overload its processing capabilities.
“Botnet neutralized,” I said, sitting back for a brief moment.
Krishika leaned forward, her eyes sharp as she studied the live telemetry from Team 2. “Now’s our chance. They’ve been pouring resources into that botnet attack, which means their defenses are stretched thin. Let’s hit them where it hurts.”
“On it,” I said, already scanning for vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.
Bianca adjusted her glasses, her voice calm but edged with urgency. “I’ve found a weak point in their load balancer. It’s outdated—doesn’t seem patched against the recent vulnerability.”
“That’s all I need.” My fingers danced over the keyboard, crafting an exploit to bypass their load balancer and infiltrate their application layer.
Shura leaned back, spinning a pen between his fingers. “Careful, Vyom. They’re aggressive, but they’re not stupid. If they catch you poking around, you’re toast. Well, we’re toast, but mostly you.”
“Appreciate the pep talk,” I muttered, focusing on my task. Within minutes, I gained access to their internal server logs and planted a stealthy Trojan horse in their main app server.
“They’ll think their system is still running fine,” I said, a grim satisfaction settling in, “but it’s already crumbling from the inside.”
Krishika’s gaze flicked toward Bianca. “Status on Team 2’s attack vectors?”
Bianca’s fingers flew over her console. “They’re not redirecting their efforts yet, but... wait.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “I’m seeing signs of recon activity. They might be trying to figure out who’s attacking them.”
“Let’s make it obvious,” Shura said, a devilish grin spreading across his face. He launched a decoy attack using spoofed packets, making it look like Team 1 was behind the infiltration.
“Shura, you’re evil,” I said, a laugh slipping out despite the tension.
“Strategic,” he corrected, tipping an imaginary hat.
Moments later, Team 2 retaliated against Team 1, their resources shifting visibly on the telemetry feed.
“Beautiful,” Krishika said, her calm tone laced with approval. “Now we apply pressure and let Team 1 handle the rest.”
I executed a buffer overflow attack on Team 2’s database server, crashing their primary authentication system.
“Critical failure,” Bianca reported, a rare smile tugging at her lips. “They’re scrambling to recover, but their users are locked out.”
“They won’t have time,” Krishika said. “Shura, keep the decoy active. Vyom, hammer their backups. Bianca, monitor their activity and alert us if they shift focus.”
“Got it.” I launched a ransomware payload against their backup servers, encrypting their data in seconds.
“Backup nodes down,” I reported.
Shura spun his chair dramatically. “And they’re toast!”
But Krishika wasn’t satisfied. “We need confirmation. If we leave them a sliver of a chance, it could backfire.”
I scanned their infrastructure one last time and spotted it—a hidden cluster behind an obfuscated IP range.
“They’ve got a secondary database cluster,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Their fallback for core systems.”
Krishika’s expression hardened. “Take it out. No mercy.”
With meticulous precision, I crafted a zero-day exploit targeting their cluster configuration, injecting a rootkit directly into the server’s kernel.
“Cluster compromised,” I said, exhaling deeply. “Their core systems are offline. And we get the key. They’re done.”
The intercom crackled to life, its voice sharp and clear, cutting through the tension in the air:
“Team 2 has been eliminated.”
The words hung in the room, heavy and surreal, like the calm before a storm. For a moment, no one moved. The hum of the monitors and the distant echo of typing from other teams were the only sounds.
Then the voice returned, carrying the weight of finality:
“Team 1 and Team 4 emerge victorious!”
The room erupted, breaking the silence in a cacophony of emotions.
Shura shot out of his chair, fists pumping the air as his chair spun wildly behind him. “WE DID IIIITT! YEEEEESS! THAT’S HOW YOU WIN!” he roared, his voice echoing off the walls. He looked at me, his grin stretching ear to ear. “Vyom, you mad genius! That was beautiful!”
I felt something crack inside me—a dam I hadn’t realized was there. Relief surged through me, sudden and overwhelming, like being pulled from a raging river onto solid ground. My breath hitched, and before I knew it, I was laughing—a sound raw and unrestrained.
“YEEEEESSSS! LET’S GOOOO!” My voice came out louder than I expected, but I didn’t care. I slammed my palms onto the desk, my body trembling as the tension of the past days finally melted away.
Krishika leaned back in her chair, her face lit with a rare, genuine smile. Her usual composure softened, and for a moment, she looked almost... proud. “We held the line,” she said, her voice calm but laced with quiet satisfaction. “And we made it count.”
Bianca sat frozen for a second, her wide eyes darting between us as if she couldn’t quite believe it. Slowly, a trembling smile broke through her usual hesitance. She covered her mouth with one hand, her glasses slipping slightly. “W-we… we actually did it,” she stammered, her voice quivering. “I—I didn’t think...” Her words trailed off, and she let out a shaky laugh.
Shura dropped into his chair with a dramatic flourish, still beaming. “Come on, Bianca! Don’t sound so shocked. Did you really think we’d lose with me around? I’m offended!” He wiped an imaginary tear from his cheek, grinning at her.
Bianca gave a quiet chuckle, adjusting her glasses with shaky fingers. “No, it’s not that, I just… it’s real now. It’s over.”
I turned to her, catching the subtle tremor in her voice, and gave her a reassuring nod. “We couldn’t have done it without you, Bianca. You nailed it.”
Her cheeks flushed pink as she nodded back, her small smile growing just a little steadier.
Krishika brought us back to focus, her voice commanding but warm. “Celebrate later. We still need to finalize our logs and confirm our position. But…” Her lips curved into another smile. “You’ve earned this.”
Shura leaned closer to me, his grin mischievous. “Hey, Vyom. What’s the plan for celebration? Pizza? Sparkling juice? Or both?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Let’s not jinx it, man. But yeah—pizza sounds good.”
As the adrenaline faded, a deep sense of satisfaction settled in. We had won. Against the odds, the stress, and the overwhelming competition—we had come out on top.
And no one could ever take that from us.