The past few days had been a whirlwind of chaos and frustration for ire. Honestly, she was on the verge of losing her mind. First, there was the drama with udia-twice, no less. Then there was Lisa, followed by Alexander''s nonsense.


    Every single thing seemed to pile up, each issue more maddening than thest. Her head throbbed from the stress. ire was sure that if one more problem came her way, she''d explode like a pressure cooker.


    But there was one bright spot in all of it: Adrian. Dating him was probably the only thing keeping her from losing it entirely. No matter how insane everything else got, at least that part of her life was going right. That small piece of happiness made everything a little more bearable. At the moment, ire was at Cryptonic, her little safe haven away from the madness of Metacortex. She''d had enough of being buried in work and dealing with people for a while. All she wanted was a moment of peace.


    To clear her head, she decided to dive into one of her favorite pastimes-surfing the web and indulging in a bit of harmless hacking. Today, she was in the mood to create a little challenge, so she whipped up aplex firewall quiz and posted it online to see who would manage to break through it.


    As she coded and set up the challenge, ire felt an odd sense of calm wash over her. It had been a long time since she''d done something purely for fun like this. She was always so wrapped up in work, in meetings, in drama, that she rarely made time for her hobbies. But now? Now she was in her element. With a final keystroke, she leaned back in her chair, feeling the familiar thrill of havingpleted something just for herself.


    She pulled up the dashboard and started monitoring how many people were already trying to crack her firewall. Comments flooded in almost immediately, and one in particr made her grin: "The Raven is back!" Ah, her old alias still had some weight in the hackermunity. Everyone seemed excited to crack the code, eager to prove themselves worthy of the challenge she''d set up.


    As she basked in this moment of peace, her phone rang. It was Matthew.


    "Hey, ire," he greeted, amusementcing his voice. "Why the heck did you post a quiz?"


    ire chuckled. "I was bored," she admitted with a smirk. "And honestly? It''s the only thing making me feel at ease right now."


    Matthewughed on the other end. "Of course you''de up with something ridiculouslyplicated as your idea of fun."


    ire leaned back in her chair, spinning slowly as she spoke. "What can I say? I''ve got a weird way of rxing."


    "Yeah, no kidding." Matthew sounded more amused than surprised. "Anyway, how''s the day off treating you? Enjoying some peace and quiet away from the circus?"


    ireughed softly. "Oh, it''s glorious. Speaking of which, how''s work? You''re surviving, I take it?"


    Matthew groaned dramatically, making ire grin. "It''s so boring. Paperwork, meetings, more paperwork. I don''t know how you do this every day."


    ireughed, not the least bit surprised. "Hang in there. It''s not fun, but it keeps the lights on."


    "Ugh," Matthew sighed, obviously unimpressed. "Why did you make me fill in for you again? What did I ever do to deserve this?"


    ire smiled. "Because you''re the only one I trust with this stuff. If there''s anyone I can count on, it''s you."


    Matthew felt a warmth spread through him at her words, though he tried not to show it. "Oh, so you trust me, huh?" He leaned back, propping his feet up on ire''s desk as if she were there to scold him. "Or is it because you just didn''t want me tagging along on your day off?" ire let out augh. "Okay, maybe it''s a little of both."


    The two of themughed together, a wee break from the intensity of thest few days. But then something on ire''s screen caught her attention, and herughter quickly faded into a frown.


    "What the...?" she muttered, leaning in closer to herputer.


    Matthew, hearing the shift in her tone, perked up. "What''s up?"


    ire''s eyes narrowed as she read the data on her screen. "Someone... someone just broke through the firewall."


    Matthew sat up straighter. "Wait, what? Already?"


    "Yeah," ire replied, tapping away


    at her keyboard as she tried to figure out who had managed to get past herplex coding. "I made it


    insanely hard-like, really ha


    There was only a 0.12% chance anyone would solve it. This shouldn''t be possible."


    Matthew whistled low. "Well, looks like someone''s either really lucky or really good."


    ire bit her lip, intrigued but also a little frustrated. "I don''t get it. This should''ve taken hours, if not days, for someone to crack. But this? This was too fast."


    Her fingers moved quickly as she dug deeper, trying to trace the hacker. "Hold on. I''m going to figure out who this is."


    Matthew leaned in, watching her over the phone with curiosity. "You think it''s someone you know? I mean, Raven''s kind of a legend, so you''re bound to attract the best." ire chuckled. "Maybe. But this feels off. Let''s see what I can find."


    As ire worked, her mind raced.


    Who could have done this? And how? She was no stranger to talented hackers, but the speed which this person had gotten through her defenses was


    known exactly where to look as if they''d been familiar with her style of coding.


    unnerving. It was almost ret


    After a few minutes, she paused, staring at the screen.


    "What is it?" Matthew asked, sensing the shift in her mood.


    ire''s frown deepened. "There''s something weird about this. It''s not just that they hacked it quickly-it''s like they left breadcrumbs, on purpose."


    "Breadcrumbs?" Matthew echoed, confused. "Like... clues?"


    "Yeah, like they want me to find them," ire murmured. ire squinted her eyes as she analyzed the result. For some reason, ire feels weird as she looks at it deeply. "It''s like they''re ying a game."


    Matthew let out a low chuckle. "Sounds like someone''s trying to get your attention, ire."


    ire smiled, herpetitive side kicking in. "Well, they''ve got it."


    She leaned forward,pletely focused now. "Okay, time to track this person down. Let''s see who thinks they can outsmart The Raven."


    Matthewughed, settling in to watch the show. "You''re having way too much fun with this."


    ire smirked, her fingers flying across the keyboard again. "Oh, trust me, this is just getting started."


    For the next minutes, ire chased the digital trail, trying to unravel the mystery of who had managed to slip past her defenses. Each time she got close, the trail would twist, leading her in a different direction. It was like a cat-and-mouse game, and ire found herself more excited than she''d been in weeks.


    Finally, after what felt like an eternity of digital back-and-forth, ire saw a writing on the screen that says ''Click Here'' and she did the next thing she receive is a pop up message.


    She froze, eyes widening as she read the message.