Chapter 6: A Hacker’s Mark

Mo Xixi sat cross-legged on her bed, her tiny fingers tapping rhythmically against the surface of a small notebook. The dim light from the bedside lamp cast a warm glow over her chibi-like face, making her already large, glittering eyes appear even more vibrant. She had spent the past few days carefully gathering information about this world—her world now. Every night after her mother put her to bed, she would silently analyze everything she had learned during the day.

Tonight was no different.

She had confirmed several things. First, this world was indeed a mix of advanced technology and ancient aristocratic rule, where magic and martial arts coexisted with high-tech innovations. Second, the tragic novel she had read in her past life was eerily accurate so far. Her mother, Yinghua—no, Yueying—was as kind and gentle as the book described, yet she remained unaware of her true lineage. And third, her father, Lin Heowen, was still nowhere in sight. If events unfolded as they had in the novel, she wouldn't meet him until much later.

But that wouldn't do.

She had no intention of waiting passively for fate to take its course.

“If I want to change this tragic fate, I need to be proactive,” she muttered under her breath.

With a small sigh, she flipped to a fresh page in her notebook and drew a familiar symbol—a tarot card with two bold letters in the center: GS.

Ghost Shadow.

In her past life, she had always left this mark behind whenever she hacked into a system. It was her signature, her challenge, her declaration that no system was beyond her reach. And in this life, she would do the same. If she was going to navigate this world, she needed access to information.

And for that, she needed to hack.

---

The next day, Mo Xixi woke up with a plan.

After breakfast, she watched her mother leave for work, leaving her under the care of the elementary school teachers. Since she was still too young to be allowed free rein outside, she had to find other ways to get what she wanted. Fortunately, the school had computers. The teachers often let the children play simple educational games on them.

That was all she needed.

During free playtime, Mo Xixi casually walked over to the computer station, making sure no one was paying her too much attention. With the practiced ease of a professional, she clicked open a browser and navigated to the school’s internal network. It took only a few minutes for her to locate the system administrator’s panel.

“Child’s play,” she thought smugly.

Her tiny fingers danced over the keyboard. Within moments, she was inside. The school’s security system was weak, and she easily bypassed the firewalls to access the broader network of the city’s government database. She wasn’t looking for anything major—just a simple test to see how far she could go with the limited resources she had.

She smirked as she typed in her signature move.

[ACCESS GRANTED]

She was in.

Her heart raced in excitement. The thrill of hacking was something she had dearly missed. But she couldn’t linger. With a few final keystrokes, she left her mark—a digital tarot card with the letters GS—before logging out and closing all traces of her presence.

“Done.”

She leaned back in her chair, exhaling softly. No alarms. No immediate threats.

She had successfully tested her abilities in this world. And now, the real game could begin.

---

Unbeknownst to Mo Xixi, miles away in a high-security facility, an alarm suddenly blared.

Inside a dimly lit control room, several men in dark suits rushed to their terminals. A large screen displayed an encrypted file with an unfamiliar digital mark hovering over it.

GS.

A man with sharp eyes and a cold expression narrowed his gaze at the screen. “Ghost Shadow…?”

The name stirred something deep within him. A memory. A ghost of the past.

He quickly turned to his assistant. “Trace the source.”

The assistant hesitated. “Sir, the hacker covered their tracks well. We can only confirm that the access point came from… an elementary school?”

Silence filled the room.

The man’s expression darkened. An elementary school? That didn’t make sense. But the symbol—the unmistakable mark of Ghost Shadow—could not be ignored.

“Continue investigating,” he ordered. “I want every piece of information on this hacker.”

As he turned away, his mind churned. If Ghost Shadow had truly resurfaced in this world, then things were about to become very interesting.

And dangerous.

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