Jack.

"This place isn't too bad."

Lucius was on a remote island. It was located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

"Mr. Lucius, the young master will be meeting you now."

A strongly built butler, who appeared behind him said.

"Lead the way."

After exiting the lounge, he followed the butler to a different building. This island was a resort for important people.

They entered the room. Inside, a young man was typing away on his computer.

"Jack."

The man raised his head. He had glasses on, but he didn't look too bad. He stopped typing and said,

"Mr. Lucius, You are finally here."

He closed his laptop and stood up.

"Yes. I have a mission for your family."

Lucius sighed. He looked at the butler behind him and said,

"You should leave."

The butler looked at Jack, who signaled him to do the same.

After the butler left, he looked at Jack and said,

"If you want to have a mission completed, you should take it up with the collective. I am only wasting my time here."

"You don't understand. It might take years if I post a mission for the collective. I don't have that much time."

"You can pay more money and get the job done."

Jack made a sad expression. He opened up his laptop and typed something on it. After some time, he turned the laptop towards Lucius.

"I don't have any money."

Lucius frowned.

"Then what are you going to pay me with?"

He panicked.

"I-I will pay you after the mission."

"I am guessing you got robbed."

He lowered his head.

"Those damn bastards!"

He slammed the table with his hands.

"They took everything. I thought that my money was safe offshore, but someone was able to trick the bank into giving up all the money. They were good enough to make sure that I had nothing to work on."

He walked towards Lucius and bowed.

"I beg of you. Please help me with this."

"Not worth my time."

He turned around to leave.

Jack was distraught. He had no hope left.

"But I do have a piece of advice. If you want to hire someone, go down to the collective. Ask them that you wish to employ someone named Alex, and tell them that Lucius sent you. You might have your work done at a minimal cost."

He said before leaving the room. This mission was in no way worth his time, but it could be an opportunity for Alex.

Jack wiped the tears off his face and went back to work. Lucius hadn't rejected him completely.

----------------------------------------------------

"What's the matter, Clara?"

Hank saw her expression and asked.

"It's Lucius. He will be back in a few days."

"Is there something else?"

She stared at her father-in-law.

"Alex might be getting another mission. I think that he should take some more rest."

Hank smiled and said,

"You worry about unnecessary things. Alex is smart enough to ask for a break if he needs one. Just let him do what he wants."

She nodded and said,

"Understood."

----------------------------------------------------

"Is this good?"

Steven looked at the screen in front of them. This was brilliant.

"The idea is good. But will you be able to execute it like this?"

He didn't praise Alex too much.

Alex himself looked at the screen in front of him. He was satisfied with his progress.

"A program that connects all the cell phones near the institute and runs a background check on their owners. The cameras then try to match the owner with the image from their information, and if a discrepancy is found, the target is monitored further."

This was a very complicated program. He had presented a very bare-bones version of the idea, but he was positive that he could do it.

"We have a program like this. Wait a minute."

Alex wasn't doing something revolutionary. The government had this, and the grey family had already discarded this project. With the rising popularity of the internet and the gigabytes of image data from the satellites, they had better options. But this was good progress. Alex had not been slacking off.

"Here, take this."

He typed in a prototype of the program that Alex was developing and sent it to him.

"This is will help you speed things up. I'll have mom give you access to the personal sim database of every student at the campus. You make your program efficient at the end of this week."

He nodded. Steven was a good teacher.

"Any questions?"

"No. This session was very helpful."

Steven smiled and said,

"I'll take my leave then. Remember, at the end of this week. Take it as an assignment."

He left the room.

"System, take the laptop in."

The laptop disappeared.

"What did you get from this?"

"Your idea is primitive. The institute has already procured means to directly scan a person's face and check it with the pre-existing database."

"Thought so."

He picked up his bag and left the room.

"But it is an improvement, right?"

"The fact that you can write code after your initial assessment is already a miracle."

"Was that a diss?"

The system turned silent.

"What about mother's mirage? Were you able to form it?"

"Yes. It is ready for you to train."