Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression
Chapter 37: Chaotic Combo:The Briefing

Chapter 37: Chaotic Combo:The Briefing

"Alright team, the job today might be the hardest we’ve ever done so far." Tag stood in front of his team, with their mission objectives displayed on the monitor behind him.

The screen displayed three objectives, hack, copy and sabotage.

"Our client wants three things from us," Tag explained, "first we break into the target, copy every single line of relevant code and leave behind a kill switch which would be used at a later time."

Before Tag could say anything else, a hand went up from the couch where the team of six sat.

"OH! OH! Tag! Quick question!"

Tag didn’t even need to look to know who it was. He closed his eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What is it, Zero?"

Zero grinned, legs swinging with barely-contained energy as he sat on the couch. He was the youngest on the team—eighteen, but looked and acted five years younger when excited.

He had on a baggy hoodie that covered his entire frame. His hazel eyes excitedly fixed on Tag indirectly informing him that he had taken one too many cups of coffee.

"I mean, yeah, we’re breaking into something, but like—what is the thing? What’s the target here?" he asked, blinking innocently. "You said it’s a system, right? But like... system as in server farm? Military-grade? CIA honeytrap? A bank? The monster that keeps eating my socks?"

"I was getting to that—" Tag began.

"Well, you’re slow." Zero rolled his eyes before sitting back, arms crossed. "You gotta keep up, man. My attention span is like—" he snapped his fingers, "—that fast."

He only calmed down and sat still when Nico placed a hand on his head full of white hair and started gently patting it.

Nico was their unofficial wrangler. She was the only one who could easily calm Zero’s coffee induced energy spike.

"Shh," She said softly, still ruffling Zero’s hair. "Let the grown-up speak."

Zero made a humming sound but didn’t protest. He slumped against Nico’s side like a docile cat, turning mercifully quiet.

It made sense since she was the oldest female of the group, so she was their unofficial mother figure.

Like Spectra, she had short hair, but hers was black and neatly cut, with a couple of silver streaks running through her bangs.

She was skilled in planting malwares or viruses, allowing them access into any system that they targeted, no matter how secured.

Tag let out a sigh of relief, muttering something under his breath before tapping the keyboard. The slide changed.

Onscreen, a single name appeared in bold letters:

Sentinel

"This," Tag said firmly, "is our target. Sentinel is an advanced cybersecurity suite developed by a ghost startup called OmniTech. Well, a ghost until a few days ago."

"The advertised capabilities of this Sentinel is what’s causing a buzz right now and although its fame is currently being controlled, it’d cause a headache for our client’s boss if this software was released and could perform even half of what was promised."

He took a small pause, waiting for the second interruption but it surprisingly didn’t come, so he continued "and that’s where we come i—"

"Skip the boring stuff, what’s the pay?" There it was, the interruption he was expecting.

Silk was the money hungry member of the crew. Screw morality or whatever danger the job posed, as long as the pay was good enough, she was in.

"As long as the pay’s fat," Silk continued, flipping a coin in her hand, "I don’t care if we’re hacking God’s inbox."

Unlike the other three, she sat on a reclining chair, her feet raised on a massive panda plushie, an animal she clearly liked, judging by the small panda tattoo on her neck.

Or maybe it was simply because of her Asian origin.

"Fifteen million," Tag informed, "the client has made a five million deposit and promises ten after the job is done."

"Uso deshou?!" Silk let out in surprise before grinning, "now that sounds like a beautiful reason to get off my ass."

"She says, while still on her ass," Bypass muttered, instead of sitting and listening attentively to the ongoing briefing, he preferred sitting behind his monitor, typing away.

But no one could blame him, not even Tag, since he knew that although he had gathered a team of geniuses, each came with a weird trait.

The only normal ones here were Spectra, Nico, and him... well, to a degree. After all, no truly normal person wore a black trench coat and gloves just to look cool.

"Shut it, Keyboard Jesus," Silk fired back without bothering to turn to Bypass.

Bypass, as his nickname suggested, was responsible for bypassing firewalls during most of their hacks and he was hella good at it.

The glasses he had on reflected the screen he was working on as he shifted them to Silk but choosing to say nothing as he turned back to his monitor.

Suddenly, a soft snore broke the rhythm of the room.

Tag looked over, mildly annoyed, to the corner couch, where Juno, their least talkative member was curled up, asleep.

His arms were folded and his hood pulled halfway down his face. One foot resting on the armrest and slumbering away like he couldn’t be bothered by its drama.

Of course, he was asleep.

"He’s sleeping through a million-dollar mission briefing?" Bypass asked, squinting over his glasses.

"It’s fine," Nico said, "he’ll wake up when we actually have to start the job, besides, I’ll brief him about the important stuff when he wakes up."

Tag exhaled through his nose, deciding not to let Juno’s nap derail the briefing.

"Back on track," he said, switching the slide again. "According to the client, Sentinel is exactly as advertised—capable of scanning an entire system in minutes, identifying every vulnerability, and patching them just as fast."

"And that’s just the capabilities of the demo version they were able to get their hands on." Tag paused again, this time his eyes locked on Spectra.

On the surface, she seemed deep in thought—but if there’s one thing Tag had learned in the three years they’d worked together, it was that this was exactly the face she made when she was excited.

She was excited to test exactly how challenging this Sentinel was and that made Tag smile.

"Alright then," he added, "if there’s no questions, let’s get to work."