Preparation complete.
She put on a black baseball cap and pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt, her entire figure seemingly melting into the shadows.
"Aunt Sarah, have a good dream."
Alice glanced back at the sleeping Sarah, a curve without any trace of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
"I'll be back soon."
Long Island, Justin Hammer's private mansion.
The mansion occupied a vast area; the European-style stone pillars and marble carvings appeared solemn and oppressive in the torrential rain.
Inside the study, the luxurious crystal chandelier emitted a warm yellow glow, but it couldn't light up the gloom in Justin Hammer's heart.
He was wearing a deep purple silk bathrobe, the collar open, revealing a hairy chest.
He held a martini in his hand, pacing back and forth in the study on the expensive Persian rug, his steps erratic, showing his extreme inner agitation.
"Refund, refund? Is this the brand reputation of The Continental? Is this the so-called industry benchmark?"
Hammer roared at the encrypted phone. Due to his extreme anger, his face, which was otherwise decent, now looked somewhat twisted, and spittle sprayed all over the table.
"I paid so many gold coins, I strictly followed your incredibly tedious rules, and yet you actually failed!"
The front desk of The Continental on the other end of the line seemed to say some PR jargon about a mission assessment error.
The veins on Hammer's forehead throbbed violently, as if they were about to burst.
"I don't care about any assessment; I only see the result. Those two women are still alive, and they've very likely already guessed it was me."
He hung up the phone fiercely and, in a fit of rage, smashed the custom-made satellite phone into the expensive leather sofa, as if that phone were Alice's head.
"A bunch of posturing cleaners, and what 'The High Table'? I think they're just a bunch of rats who take money and don't deliver!"
Hammer snorted coldly, picked up the glass, and downed the spicy martini in one gulp.
The cold liquid didn't suppress the evil fire in his heart; instead, it made him even more agitated.
As the helmsman of Hammer Industries, he was accustomed to plundering, accustomed to controlling everything.
The price of Umbrella Biotech's t-1 essence on the black market had skyrocketed to the heavens.
Several generals in the Military had privately hinted to him that if Hammer Industries could get that formula, next year's orders would be his.
He had to get that core formula.
Sarah Mason, that short-sighted, stupid woman, actually refused his offer and even dared to team up with that madman Osborn to counterattack him.
"Since conventional means don't work, and since The High Table is unreliable, then I'll find even more extreme madmen."
Hammer took a deep breath, trying to calm his heartbeat.
He walked to the safe in the corner, entered a complex password, and turned the alloy dial.
"Click."
The safe opened. There was no cash inside, only a black mobile phone without any logo, looking like a product of the last century.
This phone was something he had bought from a dark web broker for a massive intelligence fee.
It was said that this phone could contact a group of people who could truly rewrite destiny.
He dialed the number hidden deep within the onion network.
The call connected, and an aged yet dignified voice came from the other side, carrying a sense of decay that seemed to have seen through the secular World.
"Hello, are you interested in doing business?"
Hammer sat back in his large executive chair, regaining that arrogant tone of a client.
"The Continental messed up. I want to see if you are really as legendary as they say, capable of gripping the throat of destiny from a thousand meters away."
"The Continental failed?" The voice on the other side was silent for a moment. There wasn't much surprise in the tone, but rather a hint of playfulness, "That might be the guidance of destiny. Sometimes, the loom also wants to personally harvest some special souls."
"I don't care about any destiny or any loom. I just want results." Hammer tapped his fingers impatiently on the desk, making a clattering sound, "Double the price. I want that girl named Alice, and her meddlesome Nurse aunt, dead tonight. I want them to die a miserable death, so miserable that no one will ever dare to refuse Hammer Industries again."
"As you wish, Mr. Hammer. Destiny has already begun weaving their shrouds."
Hanging up the phone, Hammer finally let out a long sigh of relief, in a great mood.
The torrential rain was the best cover.
It could wash away gunpowder smoke, bloodstains, and footsteps.
Alice stood quietly in the shadow of a huge oak tree outside the main gate of the Hammer estate. Rainwater dripped down her black hood, tracing across her cold face.
"Thirty-six ultra-high-definition cameras, infrared night vision, full coverage with no blind spots. Pressure sensors are buried under the lawn, with a margin of error of no more than ten grams per square meter; even a stray cat running across would trigger an alarm. They've even deployed a LiDAR array around the main building."
Alice quickly constructed a 3D defense map of the entire estate in her mind.
This was an impregnable fortress.
"Kato Megumi's ability can fool the human eye by suppressing presence to make the brain ignore visual signals, but it cannot fool cold machines and infrared scanners. If I were to force my way in, I'd be riddled with bullets in just 0.1 seconds."
Alice's hand pulled a PDA that looked like an old handheld gaming console from her pocket.
Her slender fingers danced rapidly across the miniature keyboard, moving so fast they left afterimages.
On the screen, strings of green code cascaded like a rushing waterfall, reflecting off her focused profile in the darkness.
"Justin Hammer, your taste is as abysmal as ever. The security system uses civil-band frequencies that Stark Industries phased out five years ago. Even with encryption, it's nothing more than an open public restroom in front of my decryption matrix."
[Invasion initiated, establishing handshake protocol.]
[Hijacking satellite video feed.]
[Logic trap deployed.]
...
After just ten seconds, the screen displayed the words [Invasion Successful], followed by a green smiley face symbol.
"Video loop initiated. Now, I am the administrator here."
Meanwhile, in the heavily guarded surveillance room of the estate, the feed the bodyguards saw was still the rainy, calm courtyard from three minutes ago.
In reality, the infrared sensors had been blinded, the gravity sensors' thresholds had been modified to a level where even an elephant passing by wouldn't trigger an alarm, and the LiDAR had been temporarily shut down by a planted virus.
This multi-million dollar electronic fortress had completely turned into a pile of expensive electronic trash in front of Alice.
"Next, it's time to solve the human problem."
Alice put away the PDA, took a deep breath, and adjusted her breathing rhythm.
"System, switch Character Card — Kato Megumi."
A strange sensation washed over her entire body, as if the whole World had suddenly gone quiet. She felt herself fading out from the layers of this World.
And then, just like that, with her hands in her pockets, she strolled toward the main entrance of the estate.
The two mercenaries at the entrance were wearing black raincoats, huddled under the canopy complaining about the weather, their cigarette butts flickering in the darkness.
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