Vows and Bullets
Chapter 73: Meeting with Mr. Choi (Part 2)

Chapter 73: Meeting with Mr. Choi (Part 2)

While Agent Helios distracted Mr. Choi by talking and negotiating with him, my main job was to sneak into his office and hack his computer. Mythos agents were taught the basics of hacking a computer—though, by basic, I meant "advanced" if it’s on an average person’s standard. It mainly involves using another Mythos device which we operate once plugged into someone’s computer, phone, or tablet, then some coding until the device has been completely hacked.

With those things in mind, I only have around ten to fifteen minutes maximum to hack Mr. Choi’s computer. Agent Helios said that business talks wouldn’t usually take too long, especially during the first meeting, since it mainly involves trying to sell out an idea, a product, or whatnot, and wouldn’t dive into details much.

Only when the other party was interested enough would they set up another meeting to discuss the specifics in a more detailed and organized way—with matching presentations and all that work-related stuff—and those meetings could last from thirty minutes to an hour or so.

Wealthy business people wouldn’t have that much free time in their hands, so most sessions were cut to the shortest amount of time they could be. That was an unspoken rule to show respect on both sides. As the saying goes—time is gold—so did business-minded people treat their time. They could earn millions or billions just by spending their time on valuable and profitable kinds of stuff.

And so, I stepped out of Mr. Choi’s office, carrying my bag and phone with me. I pretended to play around with my phone as I walked and observed my surroundings. The other employees bowed their heads when they met me. It’s impressive how they recognized me when we hadn’t met. It seemed that Mr. Choi’s secretary did her best.

Once done deliberately showing myself to the people around, which took almost five minutes of my time, I turned back and went to the comfort room, which one of the employees kindly led me to. Just as we expected, she showed me towards the most luxurious one used for client visits—the exact place where I needed to be.

"Feel free to take your time, Mrs. Jeon," the kind lady said. "Let me know if you need anything."

"I’m good, thank you."

Prior to coming, we reviewed the blueprint of Mr. Choi’s office—especially the air ducts that I would use to stealthily go to his office. Not all air ducts were big enough for me to fit into, but luckily, the ones in his office were large enough for me, given my slim figure. The reason why we decided to use this approach was to avoid any possible suspicion once they found out that his computer had been hacked.

If I go straight to his office by saying I want to check how it looks, then proceeds to stealthily hack it, I would be the number one suspect in the crime. First of all, I was there on the day of the incident, I’m the one who suggested coming inside, and I’m the only one left alone inside his office. It’s common sense to think I did it.

But since I went OUT of his office and met many employees on my way—which I also deliberately derailed towards the opposite way to his office—then I wouldn’t even be considered a suspect. Plus the fact that the CCTV recorded all those things and that I went towards the comfort room afterward and came out within five minutes—I should, or else it would be suspicious—then, it would be most unlikely that I’m the one who did it. This way, they would think that it was someone from his company who took the chance of our visit as a way to cover his tracks—since the culprit knew that Mr. Choi would be very busy given he had important clients coming.

And so, I went inside the luxurious comfort room and checked if there were any cameras around. Good thing there’s none, or that would be a violation of privacy and a lot of laws. Just to make sure, though, I used my smartwatch to double-check in case there were any hidden cameras around. To my relief, there was none, so I immediately locked the door and went to the far end where the air duct was.

Laying my bag on the countertop, I quickly grabbed the things I needed—my battle suit since I couldn’t possibly dirty my dress, some screwdrivers to unfasten the bars on the air duct, an extendable pole I could use to climb my way up the duct, the small USB-looking hacking device, and other tools I might need.

Setting up, checking my surroundings, and changing into my battlesuit already took almost a minute of my time. After that, I quickly went up the air duct—putting my weight on the pole, unlocking it, then going inside and crawling towards Mr. Choi’s office.

’Ugh. This air duct is dusty. They should clean this regularly.’

Not even a minute passed, and I was already at Mr. Choi’s office. The luxurious comfort room wasn’t that far from his office, so it didn’t take long. I peeked in to see if there was anyone around, and there was none, so I tapped on my smartwatch to order Fae.

"Fae, enable mode Umbra, just within Mr. Choi’s office," I whispered to my smartwatch.

I left my brooch in the bag since it might tangle up somewhere since I’ll need to crawl my way in. Still, my brooch, smartwatch, phone, and tablet were all connected to Fae, so it was fine. I also kept it in silent mode since I wouldn’t want people hearing my device speaking out of the blue.

"Enabling mode Umbra," the screen on my smartwatch showed, hacking and deactivating the CCTV inside Mr. Choi’s office.

Once done, only then did I step out of the air duct and go down to his office.

I walked straight to his computer and plugged my hacking device into the USB port. Then, I tinkered and entered a couple of codes.

"Aaaand... done. You’re now hacked."

A pop-up box appeared on the screen of Mr. Choi’s computer.

"Downloading all information..."

"10%..."

"30%..."

"50%..."

It’s taking more time than I anticipated. Just how much data did he have stored inside his computer? I only have less than three minutes left.

"70%..."

"80%..."

As I waited on the device to copy all the data inside, I suddenly heard footsteps from behind the door, followed by Mr. Choi’s voice!

"It’s not like that, Mr. Eun-Woo. I have all the files on my computer," he said. "Let me quickly get it for you and show you. I’m sure you’ll be very interested."

Oh, shoot! He’s coming in, and I’m not yet done. And he’s coming to get his computer! Sh*t. Agent Helios, do something!

I quickly sent an SOS and pinged him using my smartwatch—as we agreed, two pings for an emergency.

’Come on, Agent Helios. Don’t you dare fail me on this!’

I peeked through the thin frosted glass door in Mr. Choi’s office and saw both of their silhouettes standing beside each other. Mr. Choi was just outside the door, ready to pull the knob and open it, while Agent Helios was a meter or two away from him, not even checking his watch! Ugh. Even if he’s not checking it, he should feel the vibration, right?

’Should I stop the download now and hide instead? But I haven’t put back the bars on the air ducts. I can’t do that in five seconds!’

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

My heart raced while my mind tried to quickly analyze the situation and take the best route of action. According to Mythos’ protocols, in the event that our identities might be compromised or we get caught while doing a task within a mission, we should prioritize hiding our identities over the task. We could always make another plan and redo it, but once our identities were leaked out, it would compromise Mythos.

And so, I reached out my hand toward the hacking device to unplug it while searching for a suitable place to hide. For the air duct, I used the pole and a clipping tool I brought with me to temporarily put it back into place.

But then... before I managed to unplug the hacking device...

"Needing the help of a visual aid to explain a simple idea to me," Agent Helios spoke, "how truly incompetent of you."

"A-Ack... that’s..." Mr. Choi was at a loss for words. "Well then, I’ll explain it concisely, if you don’t mind."

"You should. Besides, I don’t like wasting time. We still haven’t discussed how to deal with your promiscuous daughter."

He let down his hands and decided not to open the door. His shoulders dropped as he turned around to face Agent Helios. What in the world did they talk about to cause him to look so dejected and scared like that? Woah.

’Phew! What a relief. It seems like he’s going back to the couch now. Good catch there, partner—I’ll admit. It would have been a lot of hassle if it didn’t.’

With that, I averted a possible crisis, thanks to my one hell of a partner. I should get ready for the insults I’d get later, though. He would definitely tease me for being too slow in doing my SIMPLE task. Ugh. I could imagine his smug face already.