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Glib sighed quietly, stretching out. His spine popped a little. Ever since finishing college he has picked up an…interesting hobby. Along with his old group of friends he started to hack in and absolutely terrorize CEO’s of multi million companies. Some of them were truly stupid, with passwords directly connected to their public information (their kids' names and birthdates. The dates of starting their companies. etc.). They didn’t like listening to their security either, seeing as their personal computers were much less protected than the official ones. But hey, it only made Glib’s job easier. Recently, one of the bigger drink and snack companies launched a campaign promoting „Healthy lifestyles”…Because drinking lemon lime capri-sun’s with every meal is the perfect health choice. From the company’s history that glib was able to find, it looked like a money laundering scheme at first…but no??? by all means it seems like a legitimate business these days. Well, it didn’t stop the company from being the next target of the small hacker group. They all had different roles, Glib usually took care of the private computers and sifted through the CEO’s messages. He opened up his message program and sent a quick text to the group chat. His nickname was Hermit. Which, he didn’t choose. Admittedly, the way that all of his friends wanted to have „cool hacker names” annoyed him a little, but after a month or so he got used to it.
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The app had a custom theme for every person using it, there were only 5 of them anyways, so it didn’t add too much chaos. Glib Murphy wanted his to be simple. Not too custom, with a simple faded repeating sucker like pattern on the dark background and lighter cyan and blue accents. They didn’t have profile pictures, Glib was ecstatic at the notion because well, he didn’t have to search the internet for a fitting image, since there is no way in hell that he would use his own face. The limitations lead them to be more creative with everything else. Everyone chose a font to „Speak” in and a color for the text to appear in. Glib chose a pale seafood green, closer to a blue but still…green. Colors are hard to explain. And the font he chose was a simple one, really. It was Verdana, though he did consider using comic sans for the fun of it. The font was annoying to his eyes though, he was too used to judging any business card that used it. Speaking of, Goodbid’s computer had comic sans set as the default font, how wonderful. Glib clicked on a small colorful icon and typed in a message, sending it after scanning it for any glaring mistakes.
Hermit — 8:32 PM
his security is laughable. i’m getting into his personal pc rn.
Herbalist — 8:32 PM
I Got into their main system like an hour ago, what took you so long to get into his private shit?
Hermit — 8:32 PM
i have a life you know. i had to go get some groceries. and go to the pharmacy for my t-shots
Herbalist — 8:33 PM
Good 4 u
Lyricist — 8:35 PM
YOU LOOK HAPPY AND HEALTHY
Hermit — 8:38 PM
i hate you
Lyricist — 8:42 PM
Love you too
Charlie chose a bright neon yellow for her text and the font underdog. It fit, Glib couldn’t deny that. Oh, and Phlash, He chose a sage green along with the typeface Charter.
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Glib sighed and closed the app, soon opening up a program and getting into Mr.Goodbids pc. After two minutes of hard work, he was in. His desktop was neatly organized, everything sorted into folders or in their little sections. He looked around, before noticing a text file, hidden in 3 different folders with a list of names. He quickly copied them and started to do some research. These people were all criminals. Glib then looked at the name of the file „contacts”. This piqued his interest, so the next thing glib knew, he was looking through all of the other folders, soon finding a list titled „Hits” with another set of names. Glib looked through them, there were numbers next to them too. They seemed to correspond with the names from the first list in some way. Looking up the names of people on the „Hits” list, Hermit soon found that they were almost all dead or missing. He blinked a few times in confusion. This wasn’t happening, was it? How stupid did you have to be to write those down- Glib shook his head and let out a sigh. He spent another hour sifting through Goodbid’s Personal Computer, before deciding to leave a message. Well, he doubted that it would be noticed, since the man didn’t seem like the sharpest spoon in the toolbox.
„Lot of sensitive information you let sit out in the open”
Read his message, which Glib left in one of the folders. He then grabbed as much of the information as he could and made his way out of the system. By the end, he had his bank information, all of the contacts and hits as well as mr.Goodbid’s real last name. Somehow, he couldn’t find his first or middle name…but his last name was right there, in one of his messages with the contacts. Well, Glib will keep it in mind. The rest of the day was much less eventful. It’s not like Murphy likes to have very „exciting” days ,anyway. A quiet afternoon was all he really wanted. He stayed home until the evening, Quietly clicking away at some videos. The doom scrolling went on for a few hours. When glib looked at the Time it was almost midnight. Time flies when you’re distracted. Murphy decided that it was time to check through the files he copied from goodbid’s pc and then look back at it, maybe something changed or he missed an important file? Well, he already had Goodbid’s bank information, so really, he could stop here. But something urged him to play with the millionaire, it was a fun dynamic he had to admit. Finally someone who could destroy the lives of countless people was the one powerless as someone did as they please with his own property.
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— OH SHIT — Glib said to himself when he got back into the Goodbid’s personal computer. The password was different. he must have upgraded his security. But it was no better in Glibs opinion, since he still got in with little trouble. But the thing that surprised him most was that His little message was now in the middle of the desktop. Then Glib looked into it, and it was recently edited. Great. The young man quickly opened the file, only to find that his message was deleted and replaced with a response.
„I do not know who you are or how got into my computer, but I do not appreciate this breach of privacy”
Glib laughed out loud, damn this man had balls to write something like this after getting hacked. After a few minutes, he checked the folders. Contacts and Hits were gone. Glib rolled his eyes, good thing he had them saved. Now, he only had to check if he- oh, he did. Goodbid also got rid of all of his communication with his contacts. Some useless damage control. Who would have thought that he would care so much about it. Glib laid back in his chair, bored. He didn’t have anything better to do, all of the important stuff was already saved on his pc. After a few minutes, he remembered their little back and forth, and decided to give Goodbid a response. Maybe a little threat would work? Having a goddamn millionaire around your finger could be…useful, that’s for sure.
„if you don’t want your information getting out you’re going to do as I say. Do we have a deal, Carnelius?”
Glib brushed off some small crumbs off of his keyboard and closed the program, and then his pc. Honestly, he was curious about how goodbid will respond. He was toying with the man, more than anything. Murphy kicked his feet up on the desk and leaned back, looking up at the dull ceiling of his room. He couldn’t help but notice small cracks in the paint and darker lines where cables ran. The house he lived in was old, older than him and probably his mother. It was built right around the time when rift reach was being expanded. As much as glib hated big cities he couldn’t help but admire the people who built an empire in the middle of nowhere. His mother used to praise the city, because it gave so many jobs to people, and you could actually make a living there. But now, when it’s being run by corrupt and greedy millionaires, Glib found himself wishing it was burnt to the ground or that the rift would open and swallow it whole. These thoughts aside, the short man actually visited the place a few times. It was fascinating how the ministry of light, as It was called, could light up the lower levels without the help of complex tech. The engineer in Glib always made him feel giddy when he thought about that. But, sadly, Murphy had an ethical backbone of sorts, which kept him far from very profitable jobs. If anyone would ask him, for example, to program a spying software in an app, he would refuse. Even with his limited life experience Glib knew that bosses don’t take kindly to their employees refusing. But for now living off of smaller jobs will have to do. That is until every single one of the billionaires falls and leaves nothing but a void in their place.
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It was a sunny day, when Glib’s friends decided to get him out of his room for once. The whole group traveled uptown, where all of the big businesses have their sky scrapers. Speaking of. Messy, tangled brown hair was swept to the side by a ferocious wind, as Glib tilted his head upward. A tall, intimidating building towered over him. Small sparks of rage built cindered in his stomach at the site. Not even a calming hand of Phlash on his shoulder could snap him out of it. Glib’s thoughts ran rampant, what he would DO to have these terrible obelisks tumble to the ground like mountains of charcoal. He would do a lot… and he could do a lot. His brilliant blue eyes shot back to Phlash’s face, and he asked, rather quickly.
—So, what do we have on the Capri’sun dude? Anything to help us with the monopoly predicament?— Despite the existence of laws against businesses having monopoly on certain areas, Goodbid was…able to find a loophole. And now most things that were snack-related had the wonderfully terrible branding on them. Most candies had a „Lemon Lime” flavor in the berry mix, too. Glib hated that one. It tasted like ORANGES.