Little Silver Wolf was incredibly hardworking over the next ten days or so.
Of course, it helped that she already had a natural fascination with Aether Editing. But even though 'Silver Wolf' praised her daily for her rapid progress, the girl had no idea where she actually stood.
Without a proper opponent to use as a benchmark, she remained clueless about her own skill level.
Engaging in digital tug-of-war with her older sister felt like staring into the unfathomable reaches of the cosmos.
Invisible, unknowable, and immeasurable.
She could try whatever she wanted; she never felt any resistance or hit any solid walls, yet she could never succeed.
It was the ultimate lack of feedback.
Naturally, Little Silver Wolf didn't spend all her time playing only with her dear sister. She also had Cipher and Bartholos as sparring partners.
Compared to her sister, these two felt more like navigating a complex maze.
While that was much better than the sheer aimless void she felt with 'Silver Wolf'—at least she wasn't left feeling completely bewildered—she still couldn't win.
It was a cycle of very little positive reinforcement.
As a result, even though Little Silver Wolf was improving by leaps and bounds every day—and she knew it—she failed to build an ounce of self-confidence.
After all, her original goal in learning Aether Editing was to close the gap between her and her sister.
Looking at the results, it felt like no matter how much she grew, that distance remained an endless horizon.
Fortunately, Silver Wolf was never one to be easily discouraged.
If comparing herself to her sister yielded no visible results, yet she was certain of her own progress, she simply needed a different point of comparison.
Beyond the walls of that tiny underground arcade, the world was crawling with hackers who used Aether Editing. Then again, Little Silver Wolf wasn't even ten years old yet.
The idea of running off alone to challenge adult hackers was a bit daunting.
She didn't want to discuss this with her sister, either. She was reluctant to let her sister know what she was thinking; it felt far too embarrassing.
After mulling it over, Little Silver Wolf set her sights on that strange cat-person lady who dropped by the shop every couple of days to see her sister.
And so, when Cipher returned to the fast-food joint once more, Little Silver Wolf took her chance. She quietly sent her an encrypted email.
Then, she sat there restlessly, pretending to study Aether Editing while looking exactly like a job seeker waiting for an interview.
The encryption on the email was decent, but to Cipher, it was paper-thin. Cipher's eyebrows shot up.
She spared a side-glance at the tiny girl, then looked toward 'Silver Wolf,' silently seeking her input. In a flash, she decrypted the message and saw the contents.
Oh-ho~
A smirk tugged at the corner of Cipher's mouth.
This little girl actually wanted to collude with an outsider like her to go stir up trouble in Punklorde, all for the sake of "training" her Aether Editing.
What a talent!
Every time Cipher had visited lately, she'd seen Little Silver Wolf buried in her studies, so she'd kept a loose eye on the kid's progress.
Since the girl was learning a version upgraded by 'Silver Wolf,' her actual strength—even if her learning speed wasn't totally absurd—was already formidable in Cipher's eyes.
She'd stolen from plenty of hackers who were far worse than this kid.
Taking her out to see the world wouldn't be a bad idea.
Normally, she'd definitely need the green light from the boss and 'Silver Wolf' first, since one was the guardian and the other was the teacher. But the kid's email explicitly begged her to keep them in the dark and conduct this "special training" in secret.
This left Cipher in a bit of a bind. Strictly speaking, she had no real tie to Little Silver Wolf, whereas her connection to 'Silver Wolf' was quite clear.
It would be natural to just discuss it with the elder sister quietly; surely she wouldn't blow the secret.
Then again... Cipher glanced at the girl's profile. She could see that despite her age, the girl was dead serious about this.
More importantly, Little Silver Wolf wasn't some rowdy, bratty kid. Facing such a sincere child, Cipher didn't want to just treat her like a naive toddler and ignore her wishes.
After weighing her options, she decided to chat with the girl first.
Besides, their "clandestine" activities likely wouldn't escape 'Silver Wolf' anyway. If the elder sister didn't speak up to stop it, it was as good as tacit permission.
With that thought, Cipher checked 'Silver Wolf' for a reaction. Seeing none, she finally replied to the message.
[Zagreus: You sure you want to follow me? I'm Punklorde's most wanted right now. Helping me means making an enemy of the whole planet!]
[Silver Wolf: You're with my sister, so you're with me.]
[Silver Wolf: Plus, you're amazing. You're the best hacker I can find besides my sister.]
[Zagreus: Heh, I like the sound of that. I've unilaterally approved your training plan!]
Seeing that 'Silver Wolf' had no intention of interfering, Cipher made the snap decision to recruit the girl into her little crew.
[Zagreus: One condition though: with me, you start as support. Don't even think about charging into the front lines.]
[Silver Wolf: Deal.]
Little Silver Wolf's reply was curt and decisive. She knew she wasn't on the level of Cipher or Bartholos yet, so supporting was only right.
Beyond the learning opportunity, if she kept this up, she would leave her own mark alongside her sister's legacy on Punklorde. It would be a masterpiece they technically finished together.
It might be a bit of a shortcut, but at least she could finally catch a glimpse of her sister's coattails.
Her heart raced at the thought.
The idea of completing a work with her sister filled her with a surge of boundless energy.
This was it!
As the code began to flow more smoothly under her fingers, she got a bit ahead of herself. Riding that wave of excitement, she immediately took Project Bunny and launched a fresh challenge at 'Silver Wolf'!
...And then, the fired-up Little Silver Wolf was instantly plunged back into reality by a familiar, crushing defeat.
(ᗜ ˰ ᗜ)
A classic "Bronya" expression formed on her cute face, making 'Silver Wolf' burst out laughing.
Of course the elder sister knew what they were plotting.
She didn't know the exact "why," but she had actually planned to have Cipher take the girl out for some real combat experience against other hackers anyway.
Since Little Silver Wolf was showing such initiative, she had no reason to step in.
Unaware that her cover was blown, Little Silver Wolf sat in the palm of Project Bunny and followed Cipher's guidance to begin her hacking crusade.
At first, she was nervous.
Since she didn't know her own level, she worried that a failure might expose the shop's location, forcing her to ask Cipher to clean up her mess. However, she soon realized something was off.
She had prepared for a "battle of the century," pumping herself up for a grueling fight, only to find that the enemy hacker was incredibly fragile.
Their techniques were riddled with holes and looked hopelessly outdated. To her eyes, every move they made was an amateur mistake.
"...Are you really this weak?"
Hesitantly, she shattered the opponent's layers of defense and sent that genuine question to their terminal.
The digital battlefield fell into an eerie silence for about ten seconds.
On the other side, the hacker was absolutely devastated. He had caught Cipher's signal and tracked her down, thinking he was about to make the catch of a lifetime.
Instead, after a flurry of "masterful" maneuvers, the opponent had cracked his offense and defense as easily as an eggshell—and then had the audacity to send such a pitying comment.
He felt his dignity as a hacker being ground into the dust.
Gasping for air and turning bright red with rage, he spent thirty seconds just trying to steady his breathing. Finally, for the sake of his pride, he launched one last, futile charge at Little Silver Wolf.
The result was, predictably, a total slaughter. His every move was pathetic. The defeat was so absolute it shattered the man's very soul.
By the time Cipher went to collect the spoils, the hacker just handed over the game cartridge voluntarily, looking half-dead and "done with life."
Cipher just shook her head; this guy probably wouldn't be able to hack again for the rest of his days. But that was his own fault for stubbornly hunting down an "inexperienced" Little Silver Wolf.
The technology Silver Wolf used was a fully upgraded iteration of Aether Editing.
To 'Silver Wolf,' it might just be a standard update, but one had to remember: this was something tweaked by an Aeon of Elation.
A "standard update" from an Aeon created a chasm between a normal person and the girl that was comparable to the gap between a mortal and an Emanator.
Even with only half a month of study, she could easily steamroll these confident, veteran hackers. It was a case of pure, overwhelming stat-checking.
Ignoring the broken man, Cipher finished her routine looting and met up with Little Silver Wolf on a skyscraper under the moonlight.
Standing on the edge of the roof via her holographic projection, Little Silver Wolf watched the Aether cartridges flipping through Cipher's fingers and let out a huff of disdain.
"That guy was way too weak... I thought someone brave enough to follow us would at least have some skill. Turns out he was just bottom-tier trash."
"Ha! That guy wasn't bottom-tier," Cipher laughed. "Actually, he's pretty famous in hacking circles. Definitely a high-level pro."
If that man ever found out he'd been swatted like a roadside fly by a girl who wasn't even ten yet, he'd probably pass out from pure shame.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL