Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression

Ding

The bell above the diner door let out a ring as Aria pushed it open and walked in.

She had on casual pants and a white hoodie as she couldn't be bothered to dress up for this meeting, besides, she wasn't trying to impress anyone, she was just here for a commission.

Looking around the diner, she soon spotted the one she was coming to meet. They say by the window, with their back turned to the door.

Like Aria, they also had a hoodie on except theirs was black.

Aria sighed and approached the seat. This was the only hacker she could find on the black market that agreed to work for the amount they were offering, which wasn't much since Lillian had only been working for a month and her first pay wasn't anything to write home about.

Surprisingly, the person hadn't even negotiated an increase in the price, they just accepted and scheduled a meeting the same day, which was a bit strange, but Aria didn't mind.

As long as they could get the job done.

Sliding into the booth opposite the person, Aria raised her head to meet the eyes of the hire.

But unlike what she expected, the hacker was a female and her attention wasn't even to Aria who just sat opposite her, as she was currently focused on the view outside the window, a cup of boba in hand.

She seemed to be sulking, but that disappeared as soon as Aria noticed it, so she dismissed it as nothing.

"You're late," she said without even turning to Aria.

"No," Aria said looking at the time on her phone, "you're early."

Slowly, the girl turned to Aria with a deadpan look on her face before muttering under her breath, "Nande watashi ga kore o shinakya ikenai no yo?" (why the hell did I have to be the one to do this?)

But it wasn't loud enough for Aria to catch, so she just ignored it and went straight to business, "how long would it take to gather the information I want?"

The girl put down her hoodie's cap, revealing a panda tattoo on her neck. Sighing, she said, "just get my pay ready, I'll contact you before the end of the day."

With that, she stood up to leave, only to be stopped by Aria, "wait."

The girl turned back to her and asked, "what?"

Aria narrowed her eyes, folding her arms on the table. "You don't even know what information I'm after. How do you know you can deliver?"

The girl let out a groan before digging into the pockets of her hoodie and pulling out a piece of paper, before walking back and placing it in front of her, "send the all relevant information to that number."

With that, she picked up her boba that she had previously left on the table and walked out the diner, the bell ringing on her way out.

Aria looked at the closing door with a couple of questions on her mind. The hacker she hired clearly didn't want to be here so why come in the first place? It wasn't like Aria had a way of forcing anyone to accept the job.

Letting out a second sigh, Aria picked up the paper placed on the table and flipped it around, on it was written what seemed to be like a name and link,

"Silk?" Aria read the name written on the paper.

----------

Silk, meanwhile, had a frown on her face, putting up her hood again and walked towards a restaurant opposite the diner she met Aria.

Opening the door, she entered an empty diner before walking towards the back, the staff saying nothing as she entered.

Opening a door that was labeled, storage, she was led to what looked like a pantry as she closed the door behind her.

Moving a few jugs, one of the cabinets moved, revealing another entrance, one which she walked into and it closed behind her.

Walking forward for a short while, she soon came upon another door and had to move out the way as soon as she opened it.

A second later, what seemed to be a dart zoomed past her. With a groan, she walked in and locked the door behind her.

"Oh, it's just Silk," Zero, the culprit, said, disappointment evident on his face.

Slowly, Silk walked towards him and before he could realize what she wanted to do, a chop landed on his head.

"You idiot," she said already a lot more annoyed than she previously was, "that could've hit me."

"Don't interfere, keyboard Jesus," Silk turned to Bypass who's seemed to have something to say.

She then walked past Zero who was clutching his head to the nearest couch and plopped down on it.

This was their new base, one smaller than their previous one since the exterior of the restaurant shouldn't be a whole lot bigger than the interior appeared, since that would just raise questions.

The Vigilants couldn't be moved out of Atlanta since their face was immediately on TV after their 'deaths' so the next best option was this base that was disguised as a restaurants.

OmniTech claimed to have bought it from an old couple who were ready to go live the rest of their lives in the Caribbeans.

And he also hired great chefs with questionable pasts, hence the reason none of them batted an eye when she walked in.

All this made the Vigilants question if he had already planned everything from the start and they were already making moves that he designed.

And they weren't wrong, though most of the outcomes were a bit unexpected, Ethan had already planned most of this since Dmitri hired them.

And right now, they worked for him.

Their jobs mostly involved taking down certain figures that were connected to their former employer's employer and it had been fun until today...

Today, they had been contacted by OmniTech to aid his COO and her friend without letting them know he had offered a helping hand.

Why?

They had no idea, but they couldn't exactly question their new boss now, could they. So after a round of 'einy meeny money more', yes, they actually played it, Silk was the lucky one chosen to meet Aria, a decision she didn't like at all because the pay was less than satisfactory.

"How did it go?" Nico asked.

"Not so great," she said with a groan, "we didn't talk for long anyway, and she'll send the detes later."

"Good job," Nico told her with a smile, causing the frown on Silk's face to get even darker, but before she could say anything Tag cut in, alright, let's get to work, we'll dig up everything she requested for and for, y'know, impressing our employer and all.

_____

While the Vigilants got to work, Ethan sat at his office, calmly going through paperwork.

Lillian had told him not to get involved so he was doing it as discreet as possible, besides, this was just to even the playing field... Or so he told himself but in truth, there might be another reason.

Slowly he stood up and walked towards the glass window of his office, overlooking the city, there were thoughts flowing in his mind, but none that he was actually ready to think about, so the best option was to distract himself.

"Athena?" He called out, "how's Nathaniel reacting to our deal with Google?"

Her avatar popped up on his PC screen and she said with a small smile, {not great, though she genuinely recognizes your genius, though, I wonder how he'll react when he finds out most of his black market connections have been cut off.}

"I reckon he wouldn't be pleased," he responded with a chuckle, "though, I think it's time he's taken off the picture, I've let this drag on for too long."

There was a certain glint in his eyes, one that seemed to get brighter the closer he got to his revenge, he had told Nathaniel that he'd be waiting for him in hell... And this?

This was the personal hell Ethan was creating just for him.

"Let's start with his lifeline," He said, "his father, Victor Langley."

{Understood,} Athena said, sharing the smile with her creator, {Victor's opponent seems desperate for an advantage over him this year, I think he'll appreciate a little 'aid'}

Yeah, it seems Ethan might've added in a bit of cruelty in her code as she seemed to be genuinely enjoying this.

"Yeah," Ethan nodded, "he'll definitely appreciate it."

"Keep him busy enough so he won't be able to aid his son when my judgement arrives," he added, "we wouldn't want our hard work to go to waste now, would we?"

{Already on it.}

_______

While multiple plans were being put in place, directly or indirectly against them, Damian and Vanessa lay naked under the covers of their hotel room, enjoying the body of the other and completely oblivious of what was coming.

They both had their eyes on the ceiling after an intense session, sweat glistening on their foreheads.

Vanessa sighed in satisfaction before turning to her lover, "should we give her a call now?"

Damian turned to her before shaking his head, "no, let's let her worry about our time of arrival for a while longer, in the meantime, let's enjoy the vacation."

With that Damian moved on top of Vanessa again, his weight supported by his hands, as he asked, "want to go another round?"