Sol Mercer returned to the group, phone in hand.

"How did it go? How did it go?"

Nicole rushed forward, asking urgently.

"With me on the job, success is a given."

Sol Mercer shook his phone with a smile.

"You're amazing!"

Nicole hugged Sol Mercer in excitement, practically tackling him with her enthusiasm.

"Of course."

Sol Mercer enjoyed the soft and bouncy sensation.

As expected, Boss Nicole is the best—handing out little perks every now and then.

After a moment, Nicole let go of Sol Mercer, speaking with relief. "Thank goodness for you. We owe you our lives."

Sol Mercer asked, "So, do we head out now, or wait for the Proxies to recover?"

"If we leave now, all that intel we gathered would go to waste. And since it's a hacker attack on the Proxies' end, we wouldn't be able to help anyway." Nicole pondered for a moment, then made a decision. "Let's wait a bit longer. Intel from the Hollow Investigative Association isn't easy to come by."

The space within the Hollow was always shifting. If they failed to retrieve the safe this time...

They'd have to pay another "irresistible price" for the next piece of intel—definitely not cheap.

"No problem. We've got an escape route anyway," Sol Mercer said casually. "By the way, want to lie in my arms and rest for a bit?"

"No way!"

Nicole flicked her pink twin tails and sat further away from Sol Mercer.

She only did that before because the Carrot was gone, and she thought they were going to die. Now that the crisis was averted, no way she'd do something so embarrassing again.

"Mm-hmm."

Sol Mercer shrugged, unfazed.

There will be plenty more chances. No need to rush things.

…

At the RandomPlay video store, in the studio.

Belle and Wise tried every method they could, but still couldn't reestablish the connection within the Hollow.

"Brother, we've tried everything. It still won't reconnect."

Belle sounded a little anxious.

Wise stroked his chin, puzzled. "Strange. With HDD's tech, it shouldn't be this vulnerable to Hollow activity."

"Other than the HDD, Nicole and the others have no way to contact the outside while in the Hollow," Belle said worriedly. "If they stay too long, even with Ether Aptitude, they could still turn into monsters."

Though Nicole had racked up debt after debt and still owed a mountain of Denny, Belle didn't want to see her die in the Hollow.

And that Sol Mercer who loved teasing people—he better hold on, too!

"We've tried everything, so all that's left is to reboot!"

Suddenly, Belle had an idea and reached out to press the power button on the mainframe.

"Eh~ Sis!" Wise held his forehead and sighed in exasperation.

"Ehehe, isn't there a superstition? If you turn off the power and wait a few minutes, any issue disappears."

Belle retracted her hand, looking a bit embarrassed.

Wise was about to scold her when he noticed something odd.

Even though Belle had shut off the power, the HDD's system interface was still lit.

The strange sight made him recall Sol Mercer's warning—that USB really was problematic!

Belle noticed the anomaly too and gasped. "We've been hacked! The HDD system disconnect wasn't our fault!"

Just then, a sinister laugh echoed from the computer: "Keh keh keh! I thought you'd never notice, Phaethon!"

"But to realize it only now... Seems the great Phaethon isn't so great after all. As you can see, this system's mine now. Be good and hand over the decrypted password from that USB!"

"Password? What code? I dunno what you're talking about!"

Belle tilted her head, looking like a toddler show character.

Meanwhile, Wise seized the opportunity to try to regain control of the HDD.

"Don't play dumb with me!"

The hacker laughed in irritation.

Just as he was about to say more, he noticed Wise's subtle actions.

"Well, well. As expected of Phaethon, always scheming." The hacker sneered. "But I suggest you don't waste your energy. Even in its crippled state, this thing is beyond your abilities to crack."

"..."

Wise stopped, shaking his head at Belle.

Just as the hacker claimed, there was no vulnerability—just as he hadn't detected the virus before.

Belle and Wise exchanged looks, both realizing how serious this was.

The HDD's security was top-tier. Even physical tampering wouldn't give control of the system.

This hacker was no small fry.

It seemed Nicole and the others had really been caught in something big this time.

The hacker barked impatiently, "Quit spacing out, Phaethon. Hand over the password."

"Sorry. I'd love to help, but we truly don't know the password."

Wise still chose to bluff.

He didn't know the hacker's true goal, but giving up their only leverage in a compromised situation was unwise.

"Still pretending, huh?" The hacker cackled. "Fine. Time for you to feel some pain!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a line of characters appeared on the HDD's screen: [Formatting in progress… Formatting complete]

"Oh no! The data from Alpha Data Station is gone!"

Belle watched the scrolling characters, unable to suppress her heartbreak.

Alpha Data Station stored their Hollow exploration data—the core material for making Carrots.

Losing it meant several years of Proxy accumulation gone in an instant.

Even if Phaethon's Inter-Knot account still existed, it was now an empty shell.

"Hmph hmph hahah, Phaethon. Do you see how powerful I am?" The hacker laughed. "With just a flick of my finger, your prized account is worthless!"

"But we really don't remember the password~"

Belle spread her hands, speaking helplessly.

Since the loss was already massive, might as well go all in.

"That's right, we forgot the password. But the data from the USB was cracked using Inter-Knot computing power. We have a backup on our Inter-Knot account," Wise said. "If you return control of the HDD system, I can log into the account and tell you the password."

"I wouldn't trust a sneaky Proxy's word that easily," the hacker scoffed. "However, I do have a video that might help you reconsider."

"I deleted a lot of stuff just now, but that Bangboo's recording archive had some things left. Play it on another device—I think you'll change your minds."

Belle and Wise's expressions tightened. "Did something happen to Nicole and the others?"

They quickly grabbed a tape, transferred the video from the HDD system, and played it on the TV.

The video showed Nicole, Sol Mercer, and the others being surrounded by hundreds of Ethereal. Surprisingly, the creatures didn't cause much trouble and were swiftly slaughtered by Sol Mercer.

Then, the group rested in a corner while members of Public Security and the Investigative Association approached.

Billy suggested trading Proxy intel for a Carrot, only to be firmly rejected by Nicole and Sol Mercer.

At that point, the video abruptly ended.

Because the hacker knew—watching a single frame more might cause them to explode.