Back in his bedroom, he sat down in his chair and turned to his computer.
Desperate for quick cash, his only real option was to return to the hacking group he once join in college.
Well, calling them a group was putting it lightly. These weren't just hackers. They were professionals for hire, the kind who made corporations bleed for the right price.
Although what he was about to do was technically a crime, it still beat running around robbing banks. Sure, he could try trading, but he would probably bankrupt himself faster than the market could.
'If I'd known I'd get sent back, I would've spent my time memorizing the market.'
He flexed his fingers over the keyboard, the glow of the monitor reflecting in his eyes.
The so-called "unbreakable" site opened in front of him.
To the average user, it was nothing more than a blank login screen. But he knew better.
First, he masked his digital footprint with layers of decoys, scattering false signals across the network until it looked like a dozen people were logging in from different corners of the world.
Then he began probing the site, sending harmless requests, each one designed to reveal the tiniest crack in its armor.
Bit by bit, he pieced together its defenses—firewalls, filters, and barriers meant to frustrate anyone bold enough to try.
Warnings flashed on the screen, but he only smirked.
Every alert he triggered was another clue, showing him the structure hidden beneath. He adjusted his approach, reshaping the attack until, finally, the system faltered.
Lines of gibberish text streamed across his monitor, unfolding into access privileges.
A hidden page materialized—a black screen with a single message glowing in green letters:
"Welcome. You passed. Leave your contact."
Daniel leaned back in his chair, satisfied.
A minute later, he received a link message on his dummy social media account. It redirected him to an encrypted website.
Inside, ten users were already online.
=====
Anonymous #1: Welcome to the group, Number 11. We were shocked at how fast you bypassed our firewalls.
Anonymous #11: I got lucky.
He decided to stay low-key, knowing just how inflated the egos of these people were.
Anonymous #11: Do you have any contract for me ?
There was a brief pause before a DM popped up .
It laid out the objective along with the reward; One million yen. Not exactly a fortune, considering the minimum monthly wage hovered around 186,000 yen.
'Better than nothing, I guess. Besides, there's no honest job that would pay me this much for such an easy thing.
Reading through the description, he saw that the job was a simple information extraction from a specific phone. The file even included details like the person's email address, number, and other identifiers.
Anonymous #11: Consider it done.
=====
After closing the website, he turned to coding. It felt nostalgic—this had been his real passion back in college.
Within thirty minutes, he coded a phishing tool disguised as a corporate email.
Once opened, it would quietly slip past the phone's defenses, giving him remote access as if he were holding the device in his own hands.
Although phones were more secure than PCs, his coding expertise was anything but ordinary so it wont be an issue.
Hours passed and he finally got a ping. While the device was charging, he uploaded a clone of its data to the web, downloaded it onto his computer, and then erased every trace of his malware—free of charge.
But he didn't send it to his employer right away to avoid making it look too fast.
'Easy One million,' he chuckled to himself as he lay back on the bed.
The next morning, he wired through an anonymous exchange and transferred the money into a dummy account.
"Mom, I need to go out," he walked past her before she could respond.
On the street, he strolled until he reached a corner far from his address, where an ATM was sitting.
He slipped in his card, punched in his PIN, and tugged the brim of his cap lower, hiding his face for extra precaution.
The crisp 10,000 notes rested in a neat stack on his hand. It wasn't much compared to what he used to hold, but he was happy to get extra cash.
Over dinner, he told his parents he got a job online, so he would have an explanation once he started handing them cash.
His mother asked gently if it was difficult work, and he reassured her it was mostly just translation.
They accepted his explanation without pressing further.
Things were starting to fall into place, but he knew that what he had accomplished was just a drop in the ocean. If he really wanted to secure those resources, he would need at least a hundred million.