Chapter 35 – The Hacker Makes Their Move
Gu Yanzhou left her room, his footsteps heavy and unwilling, heading downstairs to face his mother—the final distraction the hacker had orchestrated.
As soon as the door closed, Xiao Xi's internal System screen flashed violently, shattering the hospital room's peaceful white light.
[WARNING: Unauthorized override. Host control compromised.]
[FINAL ACCESS INITIATED.]
Red, chaotic code swallowed her entire vision, filling her mind with digital static and pain.
Her breath hitched, a terror she hadn't felt since the crash returning.
"N-No—stop!" she gasped, clutching the sheets.
A distorted, synthesized voice—the Secondary Consciousness—crackled inside her skull, the sound amplified and triumphant.
You're weak, Xiao Xi.
Emotionally fragile.
Physically broken.
Easy to break.
Your Primary Variable is distracted.
Give up the luck you stole… or I will take everything and erase you.
Xiao Xi clutched her head, a physical scream tearing from her throat as the intense digital pain overloaded her senses.
She was helpless, her System already too compromised to fight.
The System tried one final, desperate shielding attempt—and failed.
[Host brainwave overload. System integrity at 0%.]
[System shutting down—ERASURE PROTOCOL INITIATED.]
"STOP!" she screamed, the sound sharp and utterly desperate.
The lights in the hospital room flickered violently, reacting to the impossible surge of energy.
Machines beeped wildly around her, the vital sign monitors screaming alerts.
Nurses and hospital staff ran toward the source of the commotion—her room.
And across the hospital, already with his mother , Gu Yanzhou felt an instantaneous, cold, crushing seizure in his chest, a pain that transcended the physical.
He knew, with absolute certainty, that something catastrophic had just happened to Xiao Xi.
"Something's wrong," he muttered, shoving past his horrified assistant , and mother, and turning, sprinting back toward her room—
Just as Xiao Xi collapsed again, her body seizing against the crisp white sheets, this time with no one to catch her.
The hacker had won the digital battle.