The next morning, or noon to be exact, Iris woke up naturally when the bright rays of sunlight poured in the bedroom through the sheer curtains. She heard some rustling noises. When she turned, she saw her husband reading the local newspaper by the coffee table. He also heard her rising from the bed.
“Good morning, my beautiful wife,” he greeted with a big smile.
She responded with a big but still sleepy smile of her own. “Morning, husband.”
Just from his fresh appearance, she knew that he was already long done with his morning routine. Unlike her who had irregular schedule due to her showbiz work and companies, Jin Liwei was a creature of habit who preferred to eat, work and sleep at the same time every single day. Despite this, he was always willing to adjust his routine in order to match her schedule so that they could spend more time together. For that, she would always be grateful to him.
Later after lunch, a freshly showered Iris joined her husband for a relaxing walk around the scenic parts of the island. Everything was private so there was only the two of them besides the occasional local staff who would greet them with great enthusiasm.
Iris told Jin Liwei more about the hacker that she and their AI children battled late last night. She wasn’t able to tell him the specific details last night because of her exhaustion and sleepiness. Fortunately, he already knew most of them after Bacon and Ketchup gave him a summary of what happened. She only needed to fill in the gaps.
“The hacker is familiar to us,” she revealed.
His eyebrows lifted in question.
She told him about the opponent’s hacker name and when they first encountered him.
He scowled. “He’s that son of a bitch?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure that it’s him but there’s something a bit off. His techniques were a little more limited last night than the last time I battled against him. He was also slower in reacting. Maybe it’s because I was more aggressive this time in order to protect Ketchup and Bacon at the same time? Hmmm….”
Although he was filled with worry, he didn’t interrupt his wife while she analyzed the difference in the other hacker’s skills from the last time they faced off against him and from last night. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l. c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profiting from my hard work. Please support the original author, ArriaCross. Thank you! Also follow me on Instagram @arriacross]
“It feels as if…” Her eyes lit up as an idea entered her mind. “He had a more varied set of techniques the last time. The speed of his reaction was faster, too. What if…what if he wasn’t alone the last time we battled but was alone last night? If we go along with that angle, the whole situation makes so much sense! After all, it’s possible to have several people using a single hacker name.”
He thought about what she said and asked, “Do you mean something like your brother’s hacker team, ShaWn?”
“Exactly! They’re known in the hacker community as a single hacker but they’re actually a group working as one.”
His worry deepened. “Does that mean that we have to widen our scope of investigations regarding that hacker? Or if your analysis is correct, a group of hackers?”
She nodded. “Unfortunately, we have to do it. I’ve had some success digging up some small clues in the last few months. I know that ShaWn is also working on it but the clues they gathered aren’t any better than mine. Ketchup is also looking but only for superficial clues that ShaWn and I might miss. I’m not yet ready to allow her to dig for more sensitive clues. She might fall in danger again.
“As for Bacon, maybe this investigation is also part of his work at Shadow Winds. I’m not sure. I don’t really ask about the specific details of his work at my big brother’s group even though I know that child won’t hesitate to tell me everything.”
“I do,” he whispered, finally telling her the truth.
However, she missed this important admission because her mind was too focused on her current analysis. “I really suspect that there’s a more powerful hacker supporting the hacker we battled last night. I already shared this suspicion with you the first time we faced him if you remember.”
“En, I remember.”
She stopped under a nice shade of palm trees and sat on a huge boulder to rest. Jin Liwei sat beside her. Even though the sun was blazing high in the sky, it wasn’t too hot because of the cool breeze blowing directly from the ocean.
“There’s still so many things that I need to do,” she said. “I have to fortify both Ketchup and Bacon’s systems and train them through various simulations to handle similar attacks in the future on their own. This will increase their safety and give us more peace of mind.”
“Sounds good, love. But don’t do all these things at the same time. Space them out so you can get proper rest in between.”
“I know, darling,”
And that was what she did in the next couple of days. She started tweaking Ketchup and Bacon’s configurations to make their systems more efficient. In addition, she designed various simulations for the two AI children to undergo special training. Since the two had powerful self-learning functions, they didn’t need to repeat the same simulation for a second time. Iris only had to adjust the difficulty level a little bit each time and observe how they reacted in order to analyze the level of their improvements.
It was Bacon who showed the most improvement during the special training, mostly because he was an offence-oriented AI hacker. He performed very well in quickly defeating an enemy, but at the same time, he was also more vulnerable to counterattacks.
This was where Ketchup’s strength was extremely important. Not only did she have to defend both herself and her brother but also provide whatever necessary support Bacon needed in order to launch a successful attack. In this sense, she had a much more difficult job, albeit a slightly less glamourous one, than her brother. Thus, it was harder for her to train and her progress was slower.
