"I'm going to tear down all those grand buildings from their very roots," Arsenio answered firmly.
Three weeks had passed since the night that almost took his life. Arsenio stood in front of a small, cracked mirror inside a servant's restroom. He wore a plain white shirt with a black vest that was slightly too big for his slender frame.
His injured hand still felt somewhat stiff, but a white cloth glove covered the scarred tissues and the slightly bent shape of his fingers. Arsenio intentionally let his shoulders slouch a bit. He regulated his breathing to make himself look panicked and anxious.
The Grand Kaelen Building was magnificent tonight. Giant crystal chandeliers hung from the ballroom ceiling. Classical music echoed softly from a corner of the room. Hundreds of wealthy people in lavish attire chatted with one another while holding glasses of expensive champagne.
Tonight's charity gala was hosted by Marabella, the daughter of the family owning the largest tech conglomerate in the city. To all the officials and business owners present, this was a typical fundraising event. But to Arsenio, it was a crucial first entry point.
Arsenio picked up a silver tray carrying five glasses of thick red wine. He intentionally made his hands tremble slightly as he held the tray. From afar, anyone looking at him would simply take him for a very nervous and inexperienced new waiter.
"Hey, you, new waiter!" scolded a chubby catering supervisor passing nearby.
Arsenio pretended to be startled. He bowed extremely low until the silver tray in his hands trembled violently.
"F-forgive me, sir," Arsenio whispered in a voice he made raspy and shaky on purpose. "I'm just a bit intimidated to be in a room this large."
The catering supervisor waved his hand with a look of disgust. "Don't embarrass our catering company in front of Lady Marabella! Take that wine to the executive area to the east. Move it!"
"Yes, sir. Right away," Arsenio replied, lowering his head.
Arsenio walked slowly through the crowded ballroom. He intentionally stuck to the edges, avoiding the main spotlights. Whenever a wealthy guest walked by, Arsenio stepped aside and bowed as if he were an utterly useless creature in the room.
In the center of the hall, Marabella stood gracefully in a maroon evening gown. The woman smiled sweetly at every guest, exuding the charm of a noble. But Arsenio knew very well that behind that friendly smile, Marabella controlled the keys to her family's security system.
Arsenio slowly reached into his pants pocket with his right index finger. There, he had hidden a razor-thin hacking device, no larger than a business card. He had specially designed the tool to breach local networks without being detected by the building's security radar.
In a corner of the executive area stood a chubby, middle-aged man named Mr. Robert. The man was an executive from a rival company of Marabella's family who was attending tonight as a guest of honor. He stood right beside the gala's primary data terminal desk.
Arsenio adjusted his stance. He pretended to trip over the leg of a flower decoration table nearby. His body stumbled forward dramatically.
"Watch out! Please forgive me!" Arsenio panicked and yelled as his body collided with the back of Mr. Robert's expensive suit jacket.
The silver tray in Arsenio's hands flipped over completely. Glass cups hit the floor, shattering into pieces. The deep red wine drenched Mr. Robert's silk jacket and pants, soaking them through.
"Damn it! What are you doing, you stupid waiter?!" Mr. Robert barked hysterically, stepping back with an irritated face.
Arsenio immediately dropped to the floor, kneeling amid the shattered glass and puddles of red wine. He clasped his white-gloved hands together, showing a terrified face that looked on the verge of tears.
"Please spare me, sir! I didn't mean to! My body suddenly started shaking!" Arsenio cried out while grabbing Mr. Robert's pant leg, feigning a plea for mercy.
As his hand brushed the hem of the pants and the table near Mr. Robert, Arsenio's fingers moved with lightning speed. Without a single soul noticing, he attached a backdoor device right underneath the table's data scanner socket.
"Get your dirty hands off my pants!" Mr. Robert shouted, kicking Arsenio's shoulder and sending the waiter tumbling to the floor.
Mr. Robert's personal bodyguards immediately stepped forward, surrounding Arsenio. The crowd of party guests began turning toward the commotion. A few people sneered at the sight of the panicked, utterly pathetic catering waiter.
Marabella walked over gracefully. Her beautiful face displayed discomfort over the chaos occurring at her charity gala.
"Is there a problem here, Mr. Robert?" Marabella asked in a calm yet firm tone.
Mr. Robert pointed at Arsenio, who was still trembling on the floor. "This i***t waiter spilled red wine all over my expensive suit! He ruined my night!"
Marabella looked Arsenio up and down. She saw a thin young man, dressed shabbily, trembling in fear atop shattered glass. There wasn't a shred of suspicion in Marabella's eyes. The man on the floor was far too weak to be considered a threat.
"Call the catering supervisor now," Marabella ordered one of her guards. "Escort this waiter out of the building through the back door. And replace Mr. Robert's suit with a new one from my VIP room."
"Thank you so much, Lady Marabella," Arsenio said, keeping his head pressed to the floor. "I am truly sorry. I am so stupid."
Two large security guards immediately grabbed Arsenio's arms to force him up. Arsenio didn't resist in the slightest. He allowed his body to be dragged out like a piece of worthless junk.
Behind his facade of fake terror, a subtle smirk formed on Arsenio's face. Inside his pocket, a tiny green indicator light on his remote scanner began blinking rapidly. The secret device he had planted under the desk had successfully powered on automatically.
The backdoor to Marabella's family corporate network was now wide open for Arsenio. The family's state-of-the-art security system worth billions of credits was breached in a matter of seconds, without needing to blow open a single door with bullets.
The security guards shoved Arsenio's body out through the building's back exit. His body fell onto the wet, dark alley pavement. The door was immediately slammed shut and locked tightly from the inside.
Arsenio slowly stood up from the dirty ground. He brushed the dust off his black vest, then pulled off the white gloves stained with red wine. The cold night air of Kaelen City greeted him.
He retrieved a makeshift mobile phone hidden inside his sock. The phone's small screen immediately displayed lines of data code pouring rapidly from within Marabella's family database network. The backdoor he installed functioned flawlessly.
"One door is open," Arsenio muttered, wiping fake tears from his cheek.
Now he possessed full access to all of Marabella's internal financial records and secret communications. This information was a lethal weapon. He could see everyone who received bribes, the channels of their illegal business pipelines, down to the list of officials working for them.
However, Arsenio knew his work had only just begun. Opening a backdoor was merely a small step to draw out his actual main enemy. Someone he had once trusted deeply, but who had callously sold his life for a stack of cash and a high position.
Arsenio stepped away from the dark alley, walking through the night mist toward the slum district. Each of his steps now felt far more steady and purposeful compared to a few weeks ago when he was crawling through the sewers.
On his mobile phone screen, a high-security profile name suddenly popped up and flashed red. Arsenio's automated scanner system detected that someone within the corporate security team was beginning to sense a slight abnormality in the data flow within the server.
Arsenio stopped under a dim streetlight. He stared at the name displayed on his phone screen with a cold gaze.
"Geonino," Arsenio said softly.
His former friend apparently still possessed fairly sharp security instincts. However, Arsenio had accounted for that from the very beginning. He had deliberately left small, confusing traces so that Geonino would make even worse blunders in his actions.
Geonino would surely think this was just a routine system glitch or the work of an amateur outside hacker. That underestimation would become the very grave Geonino dug for himself.
Arsenio turned off his phone screen and slipped it back into his pocket. His master plan to lure Geonino out into the open was proceeding exactly as he wanted.
In the distance, the tall towers of Kaelen City still stood grandly, filled with colorful lights. The people inside those buildings had no idea that the foundation of their power was being dismantled piece by piece by a man they had just kicked into a dirty alleyway.
Arsenio walked down the streets of the lower district, ready to enter the next phase of the game. He didn't need an army of soldiers or advanced weaponry. He only needed patience and a little time until all his enemies fell into his grasp.
A short, classified message arrived on Arsenio's mobile phone. The message contained an initial analysis report from the central security system led directly by Geonino.
Arsenio opened the message and read the command sent by Geonino to his entire surveillance team.
"Re-check all cable connections in the gala area, it's definitely just a technical error from a stupid waiter," the message from Geonino read.
Arsenio chuckled softly and silently in the dark of the night. Geonino's arrogance was working precisely as he had hoped.
"You're still the same as ever, Geonino," Arsenio whispered as he continued walking down the slum alleyway. "You can never see the danger right in front of your eyes."
Suddenly, Arsenio's mobile phone vibrated again. This time, an emergency alert signal from the backdoor he had planted at the gala building suddenly flashed red. Someone at the data center was attempting to trace back the signal's origin using super-fast military equipment.
Arsenio calmly stared at his phone screen, his fingers typing a single response command to divert the trace toward Geonino's own personal account.
"Let's see how fast you can run from your own trap," Arsenio murmured coldly.
On his phone screen, a new notification appeared from the internal communications channel. Geonino had officially taken personal charge of the entire data breach investigation.
Arsenio powered down his device, letting the classified data stream continue to flow silently into his personal storage vault.
He knew that by tomorrow morning, the situation inside that skyscraper would never be the same again. And Geonino would begin chasing a shadow he could never catch.
At the end of the alley, the boy from the lower district who had helped him was already waiting in front of the door to their hideout.
"How was the party?" the boy asked curiously upon seeing Arsenio return in dirty waiter clothes.
Arsenio took off his black vest and tossed it onto the trash pile beside the door.
"The party has only just begun," Arsenio replied casually, stepping into the dimly lit underground room.
The boy shut the door and locked it tightly. He watched Arsenio, who was now setting up his makeshift computer equipment on an old wooden table.
"Is that man named Geonino really as dangerous as you said yesterday?" the boy asked softly, handing over a glass of water.
Arsenio accepted the glass, stared at his own reflection in the water, and smiled faintly.
"He's only dangerous to people who don't know who he truly is," Arsenio answered.
"Then what will you do if he manages to find this place?" the boy asked again in a worried tone.
Arsenio placed his water glass on the table right next to the brightly lit computer screen.
"He will never find this place," Arsenio stated firmly. "Because I'm the one who will go to him first."
Aksara