Chapter 2 Master M

Out of growing curiosity, Vivian narrowed her eyes. "Maria, how much was your salary supposed to be? I can't imagine why your boss couldn't even afford to pay you in full."

As a matter of fact, she really was wondering how Maria got by back in that seedy town.

Her father was a known wealthy businessman in Sheffield.

At the same time, Vivian was also making a name for herself. Aside from signing to Yeez Entertainment, she had already obtained lots of resources just half a year after her debut.

After nailing her role in a TV series and a reality show, she easily made over a million dollars.

On the other hand, Maria worked in a digital shop in a small town after graduating from high school, so Vivian couldn't help but take an interest in how much she was earning from that kind of job. In the back of her mind, Vivian even suspected what Maria earned was probably nowhere near what she spent on her mani-pedi.

"The income isn't fixed. It depends on the orders we receive in the shop. Unfortunately, the shop wasn't really doing well recently. There were only a few orders, and my boss seemed to be running at a loss lately so he was forced to give me laptop parts and accessories as compensation."

Maria elaborated as if it was nothing. Finding it very amusing, Vivian chuckled again.

"You got paid based on orders you received? Isn't that the same as being a temporary worker in a factory?"

After that comment, Vivian didn't say anything more. She just lightly shook her head and let out a sigh of pity. In her mind, Maria's job was no different from being a lowly production worker.

At this time, a chat box suddenly popped up on Maria's computer screen.

"Master M, please advise if you could take this job. Thank you."

Seeing this message, Maria took a quick glance at the order request. It read, "The website of an international Children's Charity Foundation was attacked by hackers. They are urgently requesting to reinforce their firewall."

Then, she looked further and saw that the payment for the job was only three hundred thousand dollars.

Maria's network ID in her line of work was M, but the staff addressed her as Master M to show utter respect. Apparently, she was a member of Heaven, a well-known hacker organization. The staff would receive orders or jobs from various companies and groups, and they would forward them to hackers of this organization, such as Maria, to take them on.

Since the reward for this particular request was only three hundred thousand dollars, it was impossible to persuade a divine-level hacker in Heaven to take the job. In fact, this amount barely met the standard fees of ordinary hackers inside the organization.

However, this charity organization encountered a special situation. Their website was supposed to be very safe and secure, but it still got infiltrated by hackers. If they wanted to reinforce and upgrade their system's defense, they would need a specialist-one with higher technical capabilities. Of course, the average-level hackers in Heaven weren't suited for the job.

Fortunately, the staff knew that among the few divine-level hackers, only Master M would take orders based on her mood and not the reward.

If the client was lucky enough, even if they could only pay a mere thirty thousand, Master M might consider taking the job.

Therefore, with this in mind, the staff tried to push his luck and came to Maria. While waiting for her reply, he couldn't help but feel extremely anxious.

"Fine. Ask the client to send the IP address and all relevant data. I'll update it online soon."

Getting the affirmative reply he was hoping for, the staff was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, then quickly relayed the information to the client.

Soon enough, Maria received everything she asked for.

Before starting, she cracked her knuckles and began to tap the keyboard with her fingers as light and accurate as possible. She was like a pianist whose fingers danced harmoniously. Her beautiful and clear eyes were fixed on the computer screen the whole time as if she was being drawn to it.

At the same time, her laptop was equipped with a silent keyboard. That way, no matter how fast she typed, it wouldn't make any sound.

It only took a short while for Maria to write a complex set of codes. Even for those who had knowledge in this field, her codes seemed to be as obscure as a mystic foreign language.

"It's done."

Maria messaged the staff as soon as she finished the task.

Normally, upon the completion of an order, the client would check the work first before proceeding with the payment.

However, when the client learned that it was Master M who had taken the job, they already transferred the money to her account without having to check first.

In just a matter of a few minutes, Maria finished a tedious task and gained a commission of three hundred thousand dollars.

"Excellent! Thank you so much, Master M! You saved a lot of charity funds just in the nick of time. Those kids who will receive financial help from our client will definitely be grateful to you!"

"No need to thank me. It's my job, and I got paid for it. It's just normal business."

As soon as Maria sent her reply, she exited the chat box and closed the laptop lid.

"Oh, you're done playing?"

It turned out that Vivian had been observing Maria all this time. Apparently, she had a feeling that her new sister looked particularly occupied just for a game. She wasn't too stupid not to suspect that Maria was doing something else.

"It ran out of battery..." Maria replied casually like it was a usual occurrence.

"Really? Ha-ha!"

Hearing this response, Vivian couldn't help but laugh hard. All her suspicions earlier had been set aside.

Now, all she could think of was how lousy this laptop was.

Maria had only been using it for less than thirty minutes, but it had already run out of power.

She believed it was nothing compared to her laptop. After all, Vivian just bought a new one three months ago which cost her a fortune. With its high-end specs, it could run for twenty-four hours straight without having to connect to a power source.