bStartled/b, Wendelyn flinched, instinctively locking her phone. When she looked up, Shermaine was already smiling at herb, /bbWerdelyn’s /bfarw stiffened as she saidb, /bb“/bNothing”

Shermaine raised an eyebrow. “Reallyb?/b”

“Of course,” Wendelyn said. She clenched her jaw and thought, ‘Why the hell was I scared of Shermaine just nowi? /iThat reaction was some!

By evening, the sun had begun to set. Around seven o’clock, a car pulled up in front of the vi. Joshua didn’t live here, but since his grandfather kept tabs on himb, /bhe’d show up at set timesb, /bthen leave right on schedule.

Mariam had already made dinner.

Once he walked in, Joshua changed into slippers and loosened his tie. “Shermaine’s not home yet?”

Mariam replied, “No, Mr. York.”

The vacuum robot at home wasn’t the standard kind, different bfrom /baverage ones. A regr one just cleaned and did nothing else.

But the one Joshua had bought came with anguage program. When it sensed the owner’s return, it would greet them bat /bthe door. If it detected the owner was in ba /bbad moodb, /bit would do a mechanical dance to cheer them up.

Mariam figured that since this robot was sort of part of the household, she added, “Mr. York, Ms. Shue identally kicked the robot and broke it before

she left.”

The robot had been around for two years. Joshua never thought it was anything special, but in terms of cleaning, it did an incredibly thorough job. That was why he hadn’t hesitated to drop a lot of money on it in the first ce.

Joshua thought, ‘Shermaine broke it? Whatever.‘

His expression stayed calm. “Then rece it.”

Mariam couldn’t help but feel Joshua was holding a double standard. Back when Alfred came over and started fiddling with the vacuum robot out of curiosity, Joshua had said, “If you break it, I’ll break your hands.”

So Mariam had assumed the robot was something special to Joshua. When Shermaine identally broke itb, /bMariam had been worried sick for her. She hadn’t expected Joshua to react like this at all.

After saying that, Joshua went upstairs.

Mariam started thinking maybe she should find someone to repair the robot, just in case it could be fixed.

Then she suddenly remembered–Shermaine had mentioned she’de back and fix it herself. But Mariam didn’t think this could be handled without

some serious tech skills.

By 9 p.m., Shermaine finally got home. She hadn’t nned on having dinner with Wendelyn and Ruth, but they’d dragged her along to some upscale sushi ce. Shermaine couldn’t get used to eating raw fish, and honestlyb, /bthe dinner had been pretty underwhelming.

Meanwhile, her bad reputation at Basterel University had already started making its way into upper–ss social circles.

Even some of the usual rich–kid ckers were confused. They’d never messed with the academic crowd, so they didn’t get why they were being bloc /b

down on now.

20:45. Fr, 30 May

bChapter /bb22 /b

bSo /ba bbunch /bbof /bspoiled rich kids who never took school seriously swarmed into Basteret University’s student forum, loved the por

btheir /bown reputationb. /b

Someonemented: b“/bbIf /bbyou /bwanna diss Shermaine, go ahead. But what’s with dragging us rich kids into it too? You think a backwoods facerepa her even qualifies to hang with us? Get real.”

Another typed out ament: [She hurt our friend Ronnie and we still haven’t dealt with her yet.)

Someone else wrote: [You college nerds better watch how you talk.}

After the rich kids made theirments, a bunch of high–society girls who couldn’t stand Shermaine jumped in with snide remarks, dropping juicy gossip about Shermaine.

One bof /bthemmented: [Though Shermaine’s technically a member of the Jean family now, she’s only been their heiress for a month Before that, she was just ba /bregr nobody.

[People always say talent cane from anywhere, but I don’t see that in her at all. Aside from being pretty, she’s got nothing going for her. And she’s mean and violent, too.]

Another added: [Compared to Wendelyn, Shermaine’s nothing. What’s worse, she snatched Wendelyn’s crush. The moment she came back, she became his fiancée. Has she even looked in a mirror? Does she seriously think she’s good enough for Mr. York?b] /b

Shermaine read thements and realized she was officially being cyberbullied. She skimmed through a fewments on herputer, then casually tapped a few keys. Within seconds, the original poster’s personal info popped up on the screen.

The poster turned out to be Erin Murray, a sophomore Comparative Literature major at Basterel University.

Shermaine stared at the ID photo. It was the same girl who had bumped into her earlier today. Shermaine typed a few moremands and directly hacked into Erin’s phone andptop.

Erin’sputer had important course files saved on it. Shermaine clicked delete, and they were gone for good, with no way to recover themb. /b

At the same time, Erin was ying a pay–to–win mobile game called Starlight Groove on her phone. Also, her WhatsApp was full of chat logs between her and Wendelyn, and Shermaine hadn’t expected to stumble on solid proof just by digging a little.

Wendelyn had even generously wired Erin thirty thousand dors as a reward and a payoff to keep her mouth shut.

Erin’s gaming ount had over thirty thousand dors in recharge history.

Shermaine clicked her tongue and thought, ‘She doesn’t evene from money, but look at how much she’s willing to spend on ba /bmobile game. Total money–burner.

‘She goes to such a good school, but she’s clearly stupid. Might as well start her off with ba /blittle warning shot.

????????????

After getting that thirty thousand dors, Erin had already spent a few thousand on Starlight Groove today alone, finally managing to collect the full set of that new premium outfit.

Once she had it on her avatar, she joined her friends‘ game lobby, turned on iher /imic, and startedining, “I got such bad luck. It took me ba /bfew thousand bucks just to get this collection.”

Before her friends could even reply, her screen suddenly went white. No matter what she clicked on the screen, nothing worked.

Erin muttered under her breath, “Stupid phone.”

A minuteter, her phone finally went back to normal. Erin logged back into the game. But when she got in, she saw that every single boutfit /bbin /bher ount was gone. Her character was standing there in the default outfit.

She thought she was seeing thingsb, /bso she logged in again. But it was still the same.

bFri/bb, /b30 bMay /b

Erin was on the verge of tears and immediately contacted customer support, submitting a whole list of transaction records to prove how much máney she had poured into the game.

Ten minutester, the customer support team finally replied: (Ms. Murray, we’re very sorry, but your ount data has been tampered with Unfortunately, our technicians are unable to recover it. We apologize for the inconvenience.]

Customer support: We suggest you rece your SIM card and create a new ount as soon as possible to avoid further loss.)

Erin was furious as she typed back: [You’re not going topensate me for my losses?]

Customer support: [The attack was targeted at you specifically. The hacker didn’t alter any other yer’s data or attack our serversb./bb] /b

When it came to hackers like that, the tech team’s stance was to avoid provoking them. They figured Erin had simply pissed off the wrong person.

Erin was falling apart. She couldn’t think of a single person she might’ve crossed.

Just as she was about to type out aeback, Shermaine’s words from the afternoon suddenly came back to her loud and clear. “Since you set me iup/i.. you’ll definitely pay the price,” Shermaine had said back then.

Erin wondered, ‘Could it be Shermaine?‘ The moment that thought hit her, a chill crept down her spine. But this was only the beginning of Erin’s nightmare.

Shermaine stretchedzily and was about to go look for a drink when her eyesnded on the robot vacuum she’d kicked and broken this morning. She carried it over to the table, grabbed a wrench, and dismantled it on the spot.

The programming was way too basic. Her obsessive need for perfection kicked in, and she upgraded it and optimized it.

Around ten, the robot vacuum rebooted.

Then, someone knocked ion /ithe door to Joshua’s study. He thought Shermaine needed something again.

But when he opened the door, ino /ione was there–until he heard a voice at his feet. “Good evening, Master. I’m King Tiki, version 2.0 of your robotic cleaning assistant. It’s an honor to serve you.”