Strategizing

Wiping her face she got off the bed and made her way towards the bathroom. If it was one thing she was grateful for is that her room had a personal bathroom. She was still trying to properly come to terms with her rebirth and having such a limited time to save her life. In moments like this she needed to take a warm shower. Stripping of her clothes she went under the hot water and let it burn her skin. The heat against her body made her feel alive and helped clear her mind. There were a lot of thoughts running through her mind but she couldn't bother to process them. Trying to consider every point was impossible, she had to make her priorities straight. The only way to do that is to start with a fresh mind. Taking her time she stood under the water till it ran cold. Once her skin had turned prune she turned off the water.

Stepping outside she wrapped herself in a towel and went towards her closet. Opening it she stared at the lines of light colours and girly dresses. She had a moment of repulsion looking at the clothes she used to wear. At one point she had truly enjoyed the style but looking back it seemed she just followed her mother's suggestions.

Her style was really her mother's and imitated a docile woman. Every little thing reminded her of how naive she was. Now, while she did not hate them entirely it felt wrong to wear them. As if she was slipping back into her previous life when wearing those clothes. The person she was today had a new lease on life and could use a new set of clothes too. Searching through them she looked for something she could wear for now. Finding a pair of loose pants and a rare black top she put them on.

"Now to get started..." Tying her hair up into a ponytail she went under her bed and pulled out an older laptop. She had a newer model but she could no longer trust using it. This was a model she had several years back and had purchased it herself. There was barely any chance for them to manipulate the equipment which is why they gave her a newer model soon after. She had been surprised and happy that she had the latest market product and thought nothing of it. The timing however was too close to be normal. Plugging in the charger to the laptop she booted the computer on.

Cracking her fingers she let her hands flow across the keyboard. The black screen soon filled with a combination of different codes as she hacked into her own computer. She needed to wipe the laptop free of any viruses or hidden programming before using it. Seeing the familiar codes running she waited for them to finish their search before she logged into her account. Turning off the wifi she stopped any communication from the laptop to outside for now. Rubbing her eyes she tried to remember more details that could help her.

Back when she was a child she was fascinated by technology and had a dream to become a hacker. A majority if it was caused by an english movie she had seen years ago titled Matrix. The movie in general did nothing for her but she loved the idea of being able to be access information from home. So she snuck around and stole books to learn by herself. No one in her family knew of her interest, she thought that if she just surprised them one day it would make them happy and proud of her.

As she grew up, the interest never died but her parents forced her to go into a foreign languages major. The reasoning was that she would be able to help her brother in the family business. So in order to please them she went through with the degree and managed to learn a lot of languages. She was fluent in 5 languages and could freely switch between them. Though she had doubts that they knew of her skill level with them since she had never had an opportunity to use the languages in front of them. Her family had full access to her class schedule so they were aware of all courses she had taken. Therefore she would purposely give breaks in her schedule where she would be able to attend computer programming classes. Even at the school library, while they thought she was studying for class she was really filling her mind with more hacking knowledge. All the painstaking hours slaving over a computer was now an asset to her survival.

"Now how do I get more information..."

She had a good grasp of hacking but she did not know where to go here. It was best of her to start with paper items so there was no electronic trail but her home was a war zone. Tomorrow when she left to go "shopping" she would slip out to the library and pull news clipping. To add onto her list she should buy a wig too so slipping out could be easier.

"I can't sit around....there must be something I could do now!"

Slapping her face she tried to make herself focus and think of more ideas. A notification sounded from her phone. Glancing at it she got a random system prompt to update her game. Putting her phone back down she sighed but it was as if a lightbulb went off in her head.

'A game! Why did I not think of this!!!' While there were a lot of normal ways to collect information the black market, physical items, a search engine etc - the younger generation had started straying away from those usual methods. Popular games had become breeding grounds for information spreading and gossip. By playing those games she could interact with other people and casually collect information without gathering too much attention. Even if her brother checked in on her he wouldn't care that she spent time on video games.

She vaguely remembered her friends telling her about a new game that many people were addicted to. Searching up the name she quickly downloaded it onto her computer. The screen changed as the game "King of Swords" slowly loaded. Going through the registration motions she used a new email to login and create her avatar. Pausing she hesitated to type in her username as she wasn't sure what she wanted. Even if it was for information she needed a good name to raise the ranks. Looking around her room for inspiration she finally decided on one.

"General V."