Chapter 1475: Stop

[Oh, Penelope. Struggle all you want, but your future is already doomed.]

Penny exhaled heavily, no longer bothering with the hacker as she turned to face everyone. Curses and yells echoed across the stage—X had already breached the first line of defense within seconds. Given that X had planted the bug beforehand, it didn’t surprise her.

"Come on, come on! Guys! What the fuck are you doing?! A little help here!"

"You’re not the only one defending! I’m adding another layer of security!"

"Stop shouting, damn it!"

Penny glanced at Team A’s screen and saw they were doing their best — not just defending but adding more layers of protection. Their systems kept throwing errors, but that didn’t stop them from continuing their work. If one was not used to it, it was enough to make them dizzy.

’They’re really doing a good job,’ she thought. ’Thanks to their years of experience in the underground, they’re holding off quite well.’

Nodding approvingly, Penny strutted to Team D’s side. Unlike Team A, they were quieter. However, they were fully focused on launching counter attacks against the viruses attacking their software simultaneously.

’So, they’re taking this approach, huh?’ she thought. ’This might slow down the attacks... if successful.’

Her eyes lingered where Nathaniel was seated, studying his side profile. When her gaze shifted to his screen, her brow arched. Penny crossed her arms, her eyes glued to his monitor.

Nathaniel was helping, but she knew his skill level—he could be doing more.

But then again... Penny lowered her gaze, deep in thought.

’If he actually takes down X, it could put his life in danger.’

It wasn’t like Penny hadn’t known Nathaniel joined the contest. All contestants were filtered through many games before even reaching the preliminaries. Yugi had sent all their profiles to Penny to review. Not that she studied them deeply—just enough to get a sense of who was participating.

In other words, she’d always known Nathaniel was here. And she was certain he’d make it to the finals.

’But that’s not what’s confusing me,’ she thought, snapping her eyes toward the rotating [HAHAHA!] on the big screen. ’They already planted a bomb inside Fortress. And yet they’re still pulling this stunt. What’s their main goal?’

Besides, if the bug had been planted all along, why wait until today?

Was it all to humiliate the Prime Group? Or to frame a rival group?

’And that device Mark retrieved... why would they want to shut down the signal in this place?’she wondered, narrowing her eyes as she ran the questions through her head again and again.

But alas, nothing came to mind.

It was just a giant question mark.

So many whys, and no answers to any of them.

Until—

Penny glanced at Team D’s screen again and narrowed her eyes. After a moment, her breath hitched, her pupils dilating.

"Stop," she breathed, but with all the yelling and frantic keyboard tapping, her voice was lost in the noise. "I said stop! Hands up!"

This time, Penny took a large step forward and grabbed Nathaniel’s arm, yanking it into the air. Her sudden action drew everyone’s attention. They froze, wide-eyed.

"Stop!" Penny yelled again, casting her dilated gaze at Team A. "I said stop!"

Startled by her tone, Team A instinctively raised their hands from the keyboards.

"Miss Penny, what are you doing?!" someone from Team A exclaimed, rising from his seat. "We can’t stop now—look! He’s invading our software!"

"He’s breaching the next line of defense—fuck! He just did!"

"Miss Penny, stopping now would be a disaster," the leader of Team D frowned. "Every millisecond counts! Just look!"

"She wouldn’t understand it even if she looked!"

[HAHAHA!]

The echoing laughter rang again, followed by a ticking noise, taunting them.

Frustration simmered in the room. Everyone was confused—frustrated by Penny’s sudden interference.

"Don’t do anything," Penny said, pulling out her phone. She checked for signal—none, as expected. "Shit."

"Miss Penny!"

"Are we just going to let him in?!"

"He’s breaking through the next firewall!"

"We need to act now!"

But Penny didn’t respond. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to block out the chaos around her. And then—

"Shut up!" Penny roared, glaring at them all. "I’m thinking. Shut. The. Fuck. Up."

---

At the same time, on the second floor...

"What’s going on?" one of the men asked, jumping from his seat. "Why is she stopping them?"

"Is something going wrong?"

"No, she’s interrupting them!"

"But why?!"

Confused, everyone looked at each other in a panic. No one knew what Penny was doing. They silently agreed to go downstairs and confront her for answers.

Just as they were about to move, Hayley stepped in front of them.

"I believe Miss Penny has a good reason to stop them," she said calmly. "Please."

"Miss Rogers, we know it’s your job to manage the situation. But we need to know what’s happening down there."

"We’re going down to get clarity. Are you going to stand in our way?"

"Don’t tell us you’re planning to keep us here against our will."

"Of course not," Hayley said with a faint smile. "I’m simply trying to save you the time of walking down there. I’ll go myself and ask what’s going on—if you’ll allow me."

She dipped her head slightly, lifting her eyes again. "Miss Bennet already covered for your earlier paranoia. A second outburst may start to erode the trust between Prime Group and your organization."

Her words hung in the air as she straightened her posture. The men frowned, but none moved. Penny had already offered them a way to save face once. A second incident might not end so diplomatically.

"If you understand me, then I’ll return shortly," Hayley added. "Rest assured—I’ll report everything back to you. But I believe, with all my heart, that Miss Penny always has a good reason for her decisions and actions. Besides, Prime Group has been working behind the scenes as well."

She pointed at the glass. "This?" she said. "It’s just a distraction."