---
Lagos awoke into its usual controlled chaos of sounds.
Honks of cars beeped randomly, vendors offered their wares loudly, the city breathing deeply.
Inside the Adebayo estate, however, all was ordered.
---
Sitting at the dining table of the house of Adebayo, his posture straight and movements precise, Adeiza found himself surrounded by the same quiet luxury. The dining table was laid out meticulously, with the cutlery set neatly on the polished wooden tabletop, the breakfast offering a mixture of opulence and control.
Pap, akara, toast, eggs, fruits.
Gracefully moving around the room between the dining table and the kitchen, his mother corrected positions which did not need to be changed. Meanwhile, his father ate his breakfast slowly while looking at his tablet showing stock data.
"Adeiza," Adebayo started without taking his eyes off the screen, "your grades dropped last term."
Pointed.
Brief.
Cold.
Adeiza calmly lifted his glass of juice and drank.
"I was distracted."
Brief.
True—but incomplete.
Adeiza met the gaze of his father who, after evaluating his son quickly, returned to the tablet and continued his activity.
"Make sure they don't."
With that, his father returned to his business, completely dismissing the topic.
---
Adeiza ate his breakfast silently, finishing quickly.
However—
Internally—
He was already making plans.
While his father, Adebayo Jr., was definitely an attentive man who managed to build an empire in an environment that devours the weak easily, he lacked a complete understanding of the nature of cyber threats.
An understanding that cost Adeiza dearly during the course of his previous life.
Takeovers masked as system failure, financial leaks disguised as an internal breach of confidentiality, reputation attacks coming from invisible entities—threads that he was able to detect.
Even now—
Tiny.
Invisible.
But there.
---
"I'm heading out," his father said standing up and fixing his clothes.
"Adeiza, once school is over, come to the office this week. It is time you learn how things work."
Adeiza gave a simple nod.
"…Alright."
In his past life, he refused to accept such an offer, seeing the whole thing as irrelevant.
Now—
"I'll be there."
A quick nod from his father and he was gone.
---
Silence followed after that.
Looking up and meeting the gaze of his mother who looked at him, concerned.
"You've been different this morning," she said.
Concerned not out of suspicion, but simply because she was aware of the changes that happened to him recently.
Adeiza cleaned his hands calmly, meeting her eyes.
"Just thinking."
She smiled gently.
"Don't think yourself into trouble."
Soft words with more than just a friendly meaning inside.
Adeiza stood up.
"I won't."
---
The black SUV waiting outside the gates for him.
Driver politely greeting him.
"Good morning, young sir."
A quick bow from Adeiza and he was inside the car.
While driving towards Lagos amidst the usual traffic—
His vision briefly went dark.
Not physically.
But mentally.
---
Another translucent interface appeared in front of him.
---
> [System Notification]
[New Task Available]
[Task 2: Establish First Network Node]
[Description: Secure an external system as your first operational foothold.]
[Reward: 200 System Points + Network Expansion Module]
---
Adeiza slightly leaned back.
First network node.
Straightforward in purpose but difficult in execution.
In his past life, when building his network from the very beginning, he was messy, ineffective and sloppy.
This time—
Everything must be organized and structured properly.
Every layer and connection must be thought about in advance.
---
Quickly calculating the options available, Adeiza decided what to do.
Public infrastructure.
Private servers.
Corporate networks.
School networks.
---
"…School," he whispered to himself.
Lower level security.
Regular access.
Almost no suspicion.
Perfect starting point.
---
They arrived.
His school—a modern and financially well-funded institution.
Students gathered in small groups, talking and laughing.
Noisy.
Busy.
Irrelevant.
---
Getting out of the car, Adeiza attracted glances not because he stood out.
But because he seemed somehow distant and detached.
Walking through the gates of the school confidently, he entered the territory of the institution.
---
Classrooms.
Teachers.
Lessons.
Everything went precisely as he expected.
Predictable.
Boring.
Irrelevant on the surface level.
---
But Adeiza did not come here to learn anything taught by the teachers.
He came here to gain access.
---
Within a few hours, he successfully mapped the whole internal network structure in his mind, remembering the Wi-Fi access points, administrative servers, security gaps and outdated protocols.
It was worse than before.
---
"…Pathetic," he thought quietly to himself.
---
During his lunch break, Adeiza ate his food quietly while sitting alone.
With a laptop on top of him, he appeared as a regular schoolboy doing homework.
Regular.
Ordinary.
---
Underneath—
He reworked the whole system.
---
Without rushing, Adeiza connected to the server via an unlocked maintenance access point, slipped past the outdated authentication mechanism and uploaded a self-concealing adaptive script.
---
Adeiza waited for a few seconds.
---
> [Access Granted]
---
Having gained full access to the internal computer systems, he did not hurry, as he was not in a hurry.
Instead of it, he created redundant security protocols and backdoor connections for himself, masking all traces as part of the ordinary network traffic.
Then, he anchored the access.
---
> [Network Node Established]
[Stability: 97%]
[Security Rating: Low → Reinforced]
---
Interface of the System briefly flashed.
---
> [Task Completed]
[Reward Issued]
---
A new module was automatically incorporated into the interface.
Network Expansion Module.
---
Adeiza slowly closed the laptop.
"…Good."
---
"Hey!"
Voice of somebody distracted his thoughts momentarily.
Looking up, Adeiza saw his classmate standing nearby.
"You're Adeiza, right?"
He waited a few seconds.
"Yes."
"You're good at computers, aren't you? I heard you fixed something in the lab last term."
Simple rumors and nothing more.
Not bothering with that, Adeiza listened.
"I know enough."
He smiled awkwardly.
"There's a system error in one of the admin rooms. They've been trying to fix it for days."
Adeiza's gaze hardened.
Opportunity.
Bait.
Whatever it was—
Useful.
---
"Where?"
---
A few minutes later, Adeiza approached the doors of the administrative room which was empty, unlocked and careless.
Entering inside, he looked at the computer desktop with visible error reports.
For a normal person, they could look as malfunction.
But for Adeiza—
As interference.
---
His gaze sharpened.
"…Interesting."
---
They weren't just malfunctions.
There was somebody who tried to tamper with these systems deliberately.
---
Small traces.
Erased—but not fully.
Hidden—but not from him.
---
Signature.
Subtle.
But recognizable.
---
Adeiza's expression did not change.
But something became colder underneath.
---
"…So it starts this early."
---
Slowly analyzing the information on the computer, he detected the pattern of behavior and understood how it worked.
Incomplete.
But recognizable.
---
A ghost lurking somewhere behind the firewall of the system.
Weak.
For now.
But present.
---
Expression of Adeiza remained neutral.
But something twisted under it.
---
"This time…"
Placing his fingers on the keyboard, he started reprogramming the system.
Not just to fix it.
---
"I see you first."
---
As he rewrote the program of the system, adding backdoors and tracing functions in it, Adeiza felt himself becoming colder.
Because outside the room, students remained carefree and unaware.
---
But inside—
The silent game had already started.
---
And Adeiza—
Had no intention of playing by the rules.