It was not impossible.
Still, it was no longer his concern.
"If you have even a bit of self-dignity," he said flatly, "forget about and move on with your life."
Then he walked away.
Eleanor stood there, staring at his retreating figure, tall, unhesitating, and completely indifferent to her existence.
That indifference was unbearable.
This cold negligence, this absolute lack of care... it was sothing she could not endure. Not after everything. Not after there had once been a Theodore who followed her everywhere.
"No... that’s not how this should be."
Her eyes darkened.
Looking at his disappearing back, she whispered to the system, "I want Theodore to rember the obsession he once had with ."
The response ca imdiately.
[Request acknowledged. Condition required: Theodore must be brought to a designated location.]
Eleanor did not hesitate.
"I agree."
..................................................
anwhile, far away from them, Lily was making her move.
Aurora had just arrived at the university and was calmly packing her bag when Lily suddenly appeared in front of her.
Lily wore a wide grin that did not quite reach her eyes.
"Are you free right now?" Lily asked lightly.
Aurora did not even look up. "I’m not."
"Oh! Then I won’t trouble you," Lily replied cheerfully, turning away almost too quickly.
She left.
Aurora paused, a faint crease forming between her brows. Her gaze fell on Lily’s bag as she walked away.
’Was that all she wanted?’ she wondered. ’She didn’t even try anything?’
Then Aurora noticed the book lying on the bench.
Lily had dropped it. Or... intentionally left it behind.
Maybe she had made a mistake during their conversation.
Aurora picked it up calmly and slipped it into her own bag before heading off to find Lily.
However, Lily seed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind. With no way to return it imdiately, Aurora kept the book.
At first, she was not curious.
But then she thought of Lily’s recent behavior, how hard she had been trying to approach her again and again.
Perhaps it was worth checking.
Aurora opened the book.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
The pages were filled with detailed information about the Brown family’s heiress, habits, preferences, schedules, handwriting samples, even personal anecdotes.
There were notes hinting at a secret identity.
The deeper she read, the clearer it beca that anyone possessing this book could perfectly impersonate the wealthy daughter of the Brown family.
To the last detail.
Aurora closed the book slowly, suspicion settling into certainty.
Without a word, she walked into a nearby café.
The rich aroma of roasted coffee beans filled the air, warm and bitter, blending with the quiet hum of conversations around her. She sat down, took out her phone, and began typing rapidly.
Within monts, she had hacked into Lily’s location data.
A blinking dot appeared on the screen.
Aurora’s gaze sharpened.
Lily was hiding in one of the secluded classrooms.
After hacking into the classroom’s surveillance cara, Aurora adjusted the brightness on her screen and leaned back in her chair.
The faint hum of her laptop blended with the distant murmur of the café around her.
On the monitor, Lily appeared, curled beneath a desk, her body pressed tightly against the cold floor.
For the next hour, Lily did not move.
She remained hidden under the bench like soone afraid of being discovered, her breathing shallow, her fingers clutching the edge of the tal fra.
Even through the grainy footage, Aurora could almost feel the tension radiating from her.
’What are you hiding from?’ Aurora wondered, narrowing her eyes.
Finally, Lily crawled out. She straightened slowly and looked around the empty classroom, her gaze darting toward the door, the windows, even the ceiling, as though she were expecting soone to appear at any mont.
No one ca.
The tension visibly drained from her shoulders.
She sat down on the bench, exhaling in relief, her posture sagging as if she had just survived sothing terrifying.
Aurora frowned. ’If she was waiting for soone, why hide first?’
Just as Aurora was about to dismiss it as aningless caution, Lily suddenly lifted her head and looked at the air in front of her.
Then she began to murmur.
Aurora’s fingers moved instantly.
She recorded everything.
There was no one else in the room. No phone. No earpiece. No visible device.
Yet Lily’s lips moved as if she were speaking to soone standing right in front of her.
After Lily left, Aurora imdiately contacted a lip-reading expert.
The wait stretched into the evening, heavy and suffocating.
When the translated content finally reached her that night, Aurora stared at the ssage for a long ti, unable to react.
The translation ca out:
’Task completed. Target has taken the bait. Awaiting further instructions.’
Aurora’s hands went cold.
Lily... was talking to a system.
"I never imagined there were two of them..." Aurora whispered to herself.
But sothing was wrong.
She could hear Eleanor’s system whenever it appeared.
That strange, chanical voice had always been audible to her. Yet Lily’s system... had made no sound at all.
Why?
The more Aurora thought about it, the more puzzled she beca.
If Lily truly possessed a system, then why did she need Aurora as a stepping stone?
Eleanor needed power, needed status, needed influence. Lily, however, was already standing at the pinnacle. She lacked nothing.
So what was her objective?
Aurora rubbed her temples, frustration building. ’This doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.’
At last, a dangerous idea surfaced.
She would hack Lily’s system.
...............................
The next day, Aurora sat beside Lily during lecture. The professor’s voice droned on about theoretical fraworks, chalk scratching rhythmically against the board, but Aurora did not hear a single word.
Instead, lines of code reflected in her glasses as she worked silently.
At first, she believed she was making progress.
Then she realized she was accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Every attempt dissolved like mist, every probe redirected into empty space. For the first ti in years, Aurora felt... clumsy.
"This is ridiculous," she muttered under her breath.
Just as she was about to give up, she noticed it, a faint signal.
A hidden network.
Aurora’s pulse quickened. She followed it carefully, slipping into its structure like a shadow. At first, she was confident she could reach the core.
Then...
Alert triggered.
The system reacted instantly.
Aurora froze.
For the first ti in her life, she could not break through.
A cold wave of dread washed over her. Whoever built this network was not rely skilled. They were terrifyingly precise.
Worried about herself, about her real identity being exposed, and about the safety of everything connected to her, Aurora imdiately withdrew.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she severed the connection.
She expected retaliation.
Tracing.
A counterattack.
But none ca.
Aurora blinked at the screen. She had pulled away at the exact right mont... almost as if soone had allowed her to escape.
’Soone saved ,’ she realized slowly.
Just as she was trying to understand who it might have been, her phone rang.
Aurora glanced down.
Her face turned pale when she read the ssage.
It was from Spencer.
’Why did you try to hack that organization’s network?’
’Do not attempt anything related to the underworld again.’
Aurora’s breath caught.
"Underworld...?" she whispered.
So she had not just encountered a secure system.
She had touched sothing far darker.
That ant the systems connected to both Eleanor and Lily were sohow tied to the underworld.
Her confusion deepened, but she quickly replied to Spencer, carefully choosing her words.
She did not ntion Lily or her investigation.
Instead, she vaguely described a "unique item" she had encountered and claid she only wanted to know its origin.
Spencer read the ssage.
He did not respond.
Aurora stared at the screen. ’He’s angry.’
Just as she was about to send another ssage, Spencer finally replied.
’Do not investigate things like this yourself.’
’If you need information, co to . Do not hack on your own again.’
Aurora bit her lip, then typed back:
’Okay, boyfriend.’
After that, Spencer did not send anything else.
That night, Aurora tried calling him.
He refused to answer.
The silence hurt more than any scolding could have. Yet she understood; her recklessness must have genuinely frightened him, otherwise he would never have reacted this way.
She even considered going to his place to apologize in person.
But rembering how firmly he had shut her out, she could only sigh and lie down.
Sleep eventually took her.
...................................
That night, Aurora dread.
She found herself back in that strange world she had once visited while in a coma, the place filled with impossibly advanced technology, where the air itself seed to glow faintly with silver light.
And there, she saw Spencer.
He stood before her, looking at her with quiet interest, as though he had been expecting her arrival.
Aurora opened her mouth to speak, but Spencer rose before she could say anything.
"If you need anything, contact ," he said. "Other than protection, you may always reach out."
Aurora pouted. "So you won’t protect ?"
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