Chương 17: Meeting

"Good day, everyone!" Richard greeted as calmly as he could.

He was nervous, but he wasn't going to let it show. The motto now was 'Fake it till you make it'; even if they guessed he was nervous, he would never act that way.

"Good day to you too, Mr. Richard. My name is Anurag Prekesh of the Numerical Company, and we would like to thank you for the recent flaws you have brought to our attention," a young-looking man said on the other side.

He seemed to be of Indian descent, though Richard could only tell from the name; the man didn't look the part for some reason—probably biracial.

"That is no issue, Mr. Prekesh. I happened to have some free time and a strong desire to eat, so I did what I had to do," Richard replied as a joke, even if it wasn't entirely one.

It was exactly what happened. He had free time and was hungry, so he found one of the easiest ways to make money to cover both his feeding and his plans.

Hearing him, the people on the other side gave a dry chuckle before diving into the matter at hand.

"I see. In order not to waste both our time, we requested this meeting to discuss your payment and a little issue that the company is facing at the moment."

"Okay?" Richard replied, acting as though he couldn't already figure out what they wanted.

"Mr. Richard, some of the flaws you sent seem to have divided my team in half. Some don't even recognize them as flaws because of how unconventional they are, and others say they need to be rectified immediately when there isn't even a way to do so," Anurag said, clearly frustrated.

Richard didn't even need his explanation to know that such a thing had happened. He expected it, and seeing the way the people behind Anurag were positioned, it was clear there was a divide.

"Then I believe you are talking about the critical severity bugs I sent."

"Yes," Anurag replied on behalf of his team, who all nodded.

"Okay. In truth, in today's age, those wouldn't be considered flaws due to how they seem almost impossible to exploit. But then… Before I go ahead, can I, with your permission, hack your company?"

"Huh?" Anurag asked as he looked around, even above the camera.

It was a slight gesture, but it revealed a lot to Richard. Anurag was just a spokesman, a liaison; he wasn't the person in charge.

More accurately, someone with higher authority within the company was in the room with them. This meant that depending on how he performed here, his pay would increase dramatically.

"You can go ahead, but please ensure that none of our files leak, and if they do, ensure that you retrieve them," Anurag said.

The man didn't like the idea of being hacked without them providing a test server. This hack, if successful, would access the real files of the company, and if the other party lacked any morals, they could lose much more than they could manage.

"Don't worry, I have no intention of doing so. If I did, they would all be gone by now," Richard replied with a smile.

With that, he shared his screen and began his hack. Since a higher-up was in the room with them, he decided the best course of action was to hack not just their network but also the camera system.

No one could and should hide from him when technology was within reach. Richard's hands expertly danced around on the keyboard as he easily broke through the so-called 'state-of-the-art defence.'

"Of course, you all probably already know that it wouldn't be this quick if I had done things the normal way. However, who said you have to hack alone? I created a bot specifically for this," Richard explained.

He showed off the bot, knowing full well that they would never be able to replicate it… They might try, but never to the same level.

"Mr. Richard, this has been a great display of your skills, but it hasn't shown us any of those flaws," Anurag said.

"It was probably too quick, but I will send the exact codes to you soon for review," Richard replied as he successfully took control of their system.

Far across the world, in an office, a small number of people could be seen staring intently at a laptop. Richard, who had taken over the cameras, could see everyone in the room thanks to the expert placement of the cameras.

The man on the other side of the room was middle-aged, well probably older, with clearly dyed hair but still looked quite healthy for his age.

"Oh, and Mr Larry Brin, it is an honour to have you watch my demonstration," Richard's voice resounded throughout the room.

It didn't come through the laptop's speakers; it came from the speakers they had in the room. They weren't connected to the laptop; they were there because this was a conference room.

"Sorry if this spooked anyone, but the first flaw on that list grants whoever exploits it Administrator rights. At the moment, I can not only delete but also introduce new files into your system without any of you knowing," Richard said.

Hearing that, the faces of everyone in the room changed. They just realized it. Gaining administrator rights within a target system was the goal of every hacker, as it allows them to come and go as they please, but to do it so easily and quickly was unexpected. Richard said it was a bot, but they could see his screen clearly; it was only three lines of code that did all this.

"You know, it took some of the most famous hackers on the planet more than two days to gain access to my systems and another day to establish administrator rights… on a test server," the elderly man began as he finally decided to put himself within view of the camera.

"You hacked against my entire cybersecurity team in what, twenty seconds or a minute?" the man asked.

"I appreciate your compliment, sir, but that's your cybersecurity team right there," Richard said, pointing towards the group behind Anurag.

"You think a big company like mine only has six programmers?"

"That is true," Richard thought.