Zark sat in the dimly lit room, his face illuminated by the glow of his laptop screen. The apartment was silent except for the soft hum of his machine. He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes, exhaustion creeping in, but a small smile crossed his face.
"I did it."
His voice barely cut through the silence, but there was a sense of pride behind it. The rush of adrenaline still pulsed through his veins as he tapped his foot softly under the desk—a habit of his when deep in thought.
"Rent's paid. No worries for another month."
The words came out more like a sigh of relief than a celebration. He cracked his knuckles, a subtle way to release the tension. But even as he leaned back, a whisper escaped him, almost as if he needed to convince himself.
"Just this once."
He paused, feeling the rush of the hack still lingering.
"I'm not going down this path again."
Even as he spoke, he knew the truth—the thrill had taken root. His mind raced through the steps he'd taken, everything clicking into place perfectly. He glanced at his terminal, checking his VPN chains.
"All clear. Layers upon layers, no leaks, no traces."
He reassured himself with the words, but the paranoia gnawed at him. Zark's fingers flew across the keyboard, running his usual checks, tapping his foot more impatiently now.
"Everything looks solid."
He leaned back again, cracking a faint grin.
"I bet the guy I hacked doesn't even know what happened."
Zark let out a small chuckle, trying to shake off the creeping doubts.
"Probably some careless individual who barely checks their account."
But in truth, Zark hadn't cared to look into who the person was. It didn't matter. He had stumbled upon a vulnerable Bitcoin wallet—an opportunity he couldn't pass up. The person behind it remained faceless and irrelevant.
"Just a normal person, right?"
Zark's voice held a note of uncertainty. He cracked his knuckles again, trying to push the nagging thoughts away.
"They can't trace me. I'm too careful."
Yet, despite his reassurances, the paranoia remained. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling the familiar pang of doubt. His mind always returned to this after a hack—the fear of being caught.
"Am I just being paranoid?"
He shook his head, opening another terminal and muttering to himself as he typed.
"Better safe than sorry, right?"
He set up a firewall rule to catch any incoming attempts at probing his system, explaining the code softly as he typed.
"This will log any incoming connection attempts… Yeah, one per second, burst of three… Should give me a heads-up on anything suspicious."
bash
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --syn -m limit --limit 1/s --limit-burst 3 -j LOG --log-prefix "INCOMING ATTEMPT: "
Zark leaned back again, but this time, his foot was tapping faster.
"Why do I still feel off?"
He stared at the screen, his fingers drumming lightly on the desk. He closed his eyes, trying to push down the rising anxiety.
"Everything's fine, Zark. You didn't slip up. Not this time."
But then, a small red notification blinked in the corner of his screen.
"INCOMING ATTEMPT:"
His heart skipped a beat.
"No way..."
Zark leaned forward, his eyes darting over the logs. His foot stopped tapping as he scanned the details, a knot forming in his stomach.
"An external probe? From… somewhere close?"
He stared at the screen, his mind racing. His voice wavered as he tried to brush it off.
"Probably just noise… maybe some bots."
He quickly pulled up his traffic monitor.
"It's probably nothing…"
But his mind refused to let go of the possibility. His breath grew shallow, and his fingers fidgeted on the desk. He ran another scan, explaining the code to himself as he typed.
"This will capture any suspicious traffic in real time... Yeah, that should work."
bash
tcpdump -i eth0 -w suspicious_traffic.pcap
Zark's brow furrowed as the data streamed in. His foot resumed its soft tapping, faster this time, a sure sign of his anxiety.
"That... that's not right."
A slight delay in encryption caught his eye—barely noticeable but enough to make him sit up straight.
"Did I mess something up?"
His voice was barely a whisper now.
"I couldn't have…"
But the doubt was creeping in fast. His confidence crumbled as he watched the screen flicker slightly, and his VPN connection slowed.
"Damn it!"
Zark cursed under his breath, rebooting the connection and adding more security layers.
"They can't find me," he muttered, pacing the room. "I covered everything… right?"
He shook his head, trying to push the fear away, but his hands were trembling. Sitting back down, he glanced from one terminal to the next.
"Think, Zark! Where did you slip up?"
His foot tapped faster and faster.
"One tiny mistake… could that really be enough?"
His mind raced through scenarios.
"What if they know? What if I hit someone big?"
A beep from his terminal snapped him back to reality. His eyes widened in disbelief as he saw the tiny packet leak.
"No... no way..."
He whispered, his heart racing.
"One misconfigured proxy… that's all it took?"
Zark's foot stopped tapping as panic set in.
"They're coming."
He realized it, his breath quickening. He threw everything into his bag, ripping cables out of the wall. His fingers trembled as he zipped up the bag.
"They can't find me. They can't..."
But deep down, Zark knew it was already too late.
A loud bang echoed from the door, freezing him in place.
"No… no, no, no!"
He stumbled back, his heart pounding as the doorframe shook violently. Another bang, harder this time. Zark took another step back, his mind spinning in fear.
"They found me... they really found me..."
His voice quivered as the door splintered open, and men stormed in. Before he could react, they slammed him to the ground.
"Who are you people?"
Zark gasped, struggling in vain.
One of the men leaned close, his smirk sharp.
"You messed with the wrong person, kid. Jason Cheng doesn't take kindly to thieves."
Zark's breath hitched as the name sunk in.
"Jason… Cheng?"
The realization hit like a punch to the gut.
"No… I didn't mean…"
But it was too late. His laptop was lifted off the floor by one of the men, who looked down at Zark with a cold smile.
"Hope it was worth it," the man sneered.
The last thing Zark saw before everything went black was his laptop slipping from his grasp, and the mocking faces of Jason Cheng's men.