Looking at the information that I acquired, it's strange. Ethan Carter, 28-year-old, he majored in cybersecurity and IT. However, even though he was on top of his batch, he didn't land a job in any company. Not because he couldn't but he didn't want to.
Several high-end companies and elite corporation reached to him but he declined. And the reason is, he wanted to be freelancer. Not bad, it's admiring and understandable. Being in his shoes, I would choose to do the same. Why bind yourself to someone who gives you orders and limit your abilities??
And it's not like he need money. His family background is topnotch. He is a third rich generation guy to a family that owns a multimedia production company, and the second born in his family. He doesn't lack in money nor standing.
And that's the weird part. I've never been in touch with such families. Yes, we do have our fair share of connections with business people, military and governmental figures. After all, my father's position makes him influential in his own right.
Wealthy individuals may seek to curry favor with judges to protect their financial interests, influence legal outcomes, and safeguard their reputations. Favorable rulings can help them avoid punitive measures, gain competitive business advantages, or shield high-value assets from litigation risks. In jurisdictions with judicial elections or appointments, they may leverage campaign contributions or political influence to align the judiciary with their interests. While some efforts may be legal, unethical attempts to sway judges, such as bribery, undermine the integrity of the judicial system.
So many try to carry favor with us for the influence father have in the court.
However, we're not that close to any. When they care about power, prestige, expensive events, luxury cars, designer clothes and lavish vacations, and everything they do is about projecting wealth. They look down on those who doesn't have money or high positions, to them, money is not just a means to live, it's symbol of worth. They curate their lives for appearances, concerned more about how others see them, and secure connections for power and status.
We stand in contrast to them. Our family lives comfortably, our wealth is a means to an end, providing for our needs, enjoying simple pleasures, and securing a future for the family members. We're raised not to impress but to nurture the family bond, focusing on comfort over extravagance. We prioritize values like kindness, integrity, and hard work, seeing money as a tool for creating opportunities rather than a measure of success. We values family peace and privacy, preferring quiet weekends and family time over extravagant events.
We like to dress with the best and drive nice cars, but not to flaunt our wealth, but for our comfort and liking. Our social circles are made up of friends from all backgrounds that we genuinely connect with, not people we need to impress or can benefit our social standings.
So, the possibility to interact with someone like that, is dim. Even if we met, I won't have deep relationship with him, nor get involve with anything regarding him, unless he's a genuine person, who's not superficial and shallow. And doesn't try to carry favor with me for father's sake.
So why would this person investigate me and be related to my accident? Unless either he knows the perpetrator, or it was a client. It's normal to receive such job listing on the dark web. And this guy, is obviously, an expert in this field. However, after hacking his data, I didn't find any job order requiring to delete the accidents records. Which means he didn't receive the order online, but by person.
So, it's either a close person to him, who knows his specialization, or a trusted client, who knows his identity. After couple of hours, I ended my investigation with frustration. This guy, didn't leave any trace.
After knowing his true identity, it wasn't hard to gather information about him. Although his proxy server and VPN are good, I still managed to hack his phone. His security isn't strong on the phone, for he believed no one will manage to find out his true identity in the dark web, and try to gather information about him.
Confidence and arrogance for people like us is natural, however, we must always make sure not to be blind by this and lack in security and caution. In this risky and danger domain, no matter how strong you are, you can never know when the tables flip and you become the prey. Alertness and vigilance should always accompany us.
There wasn't any useful information regarding my case. There was many information regarding him, but none to my concern. No phone calls, no messages, nothing. That leaves one way, all the informations are exchanged face to face, to prevent any leaking, like now.
Then time to use other means.
On the other side of the city, someone was freaking out. Well, to be accurate he was both scared and excited. Ethan was stunned looking at his computer. He's been cleaning and restoring his system for the past 3 hours, and yet, he wasn't able to completely restore all the functions. He needs more time, probably a couple of days.
And that amuse him, he faced so many different kinds of attacks and viruses before, that's normal in his job field, but none were on this level. After all, no one had ever managed to break down his proxy server, nor managed to cross the firewalls without alerting him. The only reason he managed to find out is because the attacker let him know, in order to gather informations. And that's what scare him.
The attacker actually could do it without alerting him. If he managed to break in and gather information while fighting him, that means he could do it in secret. But he didn't. And that's because he wanted him to know.
Looking at the well-known signature, Ethan was in a dilemma. DARKRUNE, a worldwide known name. There's no one in the web world who haven't heard of it.
Every hacker aspires to suppress him, and yet no one managed to do so. He has a solid foot in the industry, and no one dares to challenge him. Last time someone dared to do so, who was number two on the best hackers list, ended up being exposed on all platforms and sites. His ID, name, IP location, all of them were out in the open, for all to see.
A threat and example to anyone who dare to challenge him and try to acquire his information. Since then, not a single hacker, not even countries, tried to search for him. Well at least not in public.
However, in the past year, DARKRUNE, disappeared. It was as if he never existed. Many tried reaching for him for job applications, countries, companies, and individuals. But no one could reach him. Many rumors and theories circled about what happened to him.
Some said he was dead, others said he retired, while some speculated that he was discovered by someone, and either killed or got locked up. The long year, was like a sentence about his fate in this domain. No matter what happened, one thing was sure, DARKRUNE has faded.
Looking back to his screen, he wanted to laugh and cry. It seems that all the rumors and theories are nonsense, no matter what happened, DARKRUNE has returned. But the bastard returned and chose him as his victim this time.
Actually, it's not strange. DARKRUNE was known for his wild, outrageous, bizarre and unpredictable actions. He might attack someone out of boredom, or because he said a word he didn't like or made an action he didn't accept. The guy is lunatic, he didn't hesitate to attack countries for fun of hacking and breaking the systems, or to expose a dirty deed they did.
But for him to choose me, it's ridiculous. I've always stayed out of his orbit. Although I admired him, I didn't want to subjugate myself to this fate. And yet looking at the screen. It's like fate was mocking him.
But he still can't understand why. He didn't do anything that could rub DARKRUNE the bad way. Could it be because he rose in the list?? About half a year ago, during his disappearance, Ethan managed to rose from number 6 to 3 on the list of best hackers.
It's rare for someone to rose 3 levels on the spot, but not impossible. And Ethan was proud in his abilities, he's well aware that he's not on DARKRUNE level, but he wasn't that far. Could it be that DARKRUNE got curios about him for rising like that?? It's not weird, given the guy lunatic actions.
Although Ethan was worried since his information got stolen, and his IP address was discovered, but he felt proud that he caught the eyes of this lunatic prodigy. And it's not like he did any bad deed that makes him expose him on the platform.
Actually, despite his bizarre actions, DARKRUNE had never exposed someone, who neither provoked him nor had a hand in severe crime. Even though he hacks anyone he wants, and he leave a mark to let them know, he never leaked any information. How it's known he do that, is because everyone who suffered under his hand came fourth and reported.
At first it started as a complaint and then turned into bragging when they realized that no one was exposed. It's more like DARKRUNE noticed them and approved of them. Deemed them worthy, and that actually gave them better job opportunities.
Ethan couldn't sit still. Afterall he wasn't different from the others. He always wanted to be approved by this guy. Although it happened at the expense of his information, but he's not worried. He needed to go and boost to his brother and his friend. Even though his computer still needs a lot of work he didn't care, he was tired and wasn't in hurry.