When Xiao Ai and Ace saw that their virus had successfully gotten into the system, they didn't celebrate but instead continued to work. While the system had lost all its prior video feeds, it would continue recording starting now. They would have to design a virtual camouflage that would mask their presence from every camera in the city.
The tricky part of the design was to selectively edit out only their people and the RV, but not everyone else. Fortunately, now that they had control over the government's system, they had a larger margin for error.
This wasn't code that could be written within a day even with their abilities. They referenced a lot of code and architecture from Stack Overflow, Github and other sites. Aggregating the information, they managed to quickly create a basic framework that could be used as a placeholder. They would continue to add and refine this piece of code until they could be perfectly hidden from all cameras.
Both Xiao Ai and Ace became addicted to hacking. Xiao Ai asked, "What should we hack next? This is so much fun~ Usually Mama doesn't allow Xiao Ai to do anything like this."
Both of them were quiet for a moment as they thought. Then Ace jumped up and said, "Oh! I know! We could get our revenge on the bases next. They were also a part of the ambush that almost killed us."
Xiao Ai's eyes widened and then responded, "Mm! Okay! How should we punish those baddies?"
Ace smiled sinisterly and said one word, "Ransomware." [1]
Right at this moment, Aida stepped back into the RV and heard Ace's recommendation. She smacked his head and asked, "What Ransomware? What bad ideas are you corrupting my child with now?"
Ace held his head with an aggrieved look and said, "Master, we want to get revenge on those bases that treated us poorly. We were going to put Ransomware on their systems and hold it hostage until they paid us back."
Aida was speechless, when did they get so vengeful. Pausing for a moment, she contemplated and then responded, "We will get our revenge on them soon, but this isn't the best way to do it. Even if we asked for a ransom, how would we pick it up? It's not like we're going back to those cities right now. Plus, they don't even fully understand the use of a gem yet."
She continued scolding, "Also, have either of you considered the repercussions your actions would have on the entire base? There are a lot of innocent people within the base who would become collateral damage as a result of your actions. Don't punish everyone for the mistakes of a few."
Both of them looked down, ashamed. They hadn't thought of the impact it would have on the innocents and were just focused on getting revenge and having fun.
Seeing their remorse, Aida softened her tone, "You both need to consider all factors before doing anything. For example, it's still possible to run Ransomware for revenge. However, just limit your targets to the leaders and evil scientists."
Hearing this, both of them perked up. Aida was still going to allow them to hack into their systems and threaten them, they just had to be slightly more selective. She then walked away.
The moment she was out of view, the two began discussing their nefarious plans for revenge.
Aida popped her head back in all of a sudden and their discussions abruptly stopped. She laughed at their silly reaction before saying, "Before you get your revenge, dig up information on the government first. We need to know what's going on over there before we reach City M."
They both nodded obediently as they watched Aida leave. Waiting a few minutes to make sure that she had actually left, they continued their conversations for revenge.
Of course, they didn't neglect Aida's request either. They used the exploit embedded within the government's surveillance system to dig out more of the country's military secrets.
Unfortunately, none of the information they received thus far pertained to the information on Lucifer's bounty or the source of the outbreak. The two of them continued to find creative hacks to dig into the situation and learn more while simultaneously hacking the radios and laptops that were taken from the previous battle.
After another week like this passed, Light had finally woken up without any issues much to everyone's relief. They had all been traumatized after seeing Yukio's struggles with absorbing the two gems.
Yukio, who stayed by Light's side almost the entire time, was ecstatic. He jumped up and immediately called for Aida to come up. Light appeared the exact same except his eyes seemed to have acquired a mystical quality that seemed to be able to look into your soul. Aida and Yukio inspected Light and made sure he was okay before allowing him to go shower.
By the time Light came out of the shower, everyone stood outside the bathroom awaiting his exit. When Light saw the group of people outside, his heart warmed greatly. His empathic abilities had grown greatly after becoming a Variant so he was able to feel the genuine concern and happiness from each individual. The only person whose emotions he couldn't seem to sense was Ace's, but Light figured it was likely his power not being fully functional.
"Thank you all for your concern, I am good now." After exchanging a few more words, everyone but the twins dispersed. The twins grabbed onto one leg each and refused to let go. Light laughed at their behavior but indulged it. He could feel and understood their fears well.
[1] Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.