The victory screen illuminated Finn's face. His chat was still losing its mind over the ten-minute slaughter.

Maverick didn't look away from the monitor. He tapped his index finger against the side of his coffee cup.

"Move," Maverick commanded.

Finn scrambled out of his ergonomic chair so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet. Maverick sat down, his large hand wrapping around the mouse. He logged Finn out.

His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in his own credentials.

The screen glowed with a unique, dark-gold border reserved for only one account in the world. M. T.

The stream chat went absolutely nuclear.

CAPTAIN IS ON HIS MAIN!

HE'S GOING TO ADD SPADE Z!

Maverick's face was an unreadable mask of ice. He pulled up the recent players list, found the ID Spade Z, and clicked the 'Add Friend' button.

A soft chime echoed through the room. The request was sent. Finn rubbed his hands together, grinning. "He's gonna freak out when he sees who added him."

In the dark, heavily curtained bedroom of the Vance estate, Zero leaned back in her chair. She rolled her shoulders, feeling the slight burn of lactic acid in her wrists. The hardware test was a massive success. The latency was zero.

She moved her mouse to close the game client.

Suddenly, a massive, gold-trimmed notification box popped up in the bottom right corner of her screen.

Player M. T. has requested to add you as a friend.

Zero's dark eyes narrowed. The name triggered a visceral reaction in her chest. M. T. Maverick Thorne. The god of esports. The man the old Zero had humiliated herself over for years.

If the old Zero were here, she would have hyperventilated and passed out from joy.

Zero let out a harsh, mocking scoff. She remembered the freezing, disgusted look Maverick had shot her from the second-floor window just hours ago.

Her finger clicked the mouse. She didn't hesitate. She didn't pause to think about the prestige.

She hit Reject.

The notification vanished. Zero immediately hit Alt+F4, killing the game client entirely, and brought up her dark web coding terminal.

Back at the Empire Alliance base, the room was dead silent.

A small, gray system box popped up on Maverick's screen.

The player has rejected your friend request.

Finn gasped, clapping a hand over his mouth. The Twitch chat froze in collective shock. Someone had just rejected M. T.

Maverick stared at the gray box. The air around him plummeted to sub-zero temperatures. A muscle feathered in his jaw.

He didn't yell. Instead, a slow, incredibly dangerous smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. The rejection didn't deter him; it ignited a violent, burning need to conquer.

Maverick stood up abruptly. His black trench coat flared out behind him as he marched toward the secure glass doors of the technical department.

He pushed the doors open. Gus Kowalski, the team's Chief Technology Officer and resident hacker, was sitting at his multi-monitor setup, chewing loudly on a lollipop.

Maverick walked up behind him and slammed both hands down on the desk. Gus choked on his candy, spinning around in terror.

"Drop everything you're doing," Maverick ordered, his voice a lethal, vibrating baritone.

"C-Captain?" Gus stammered.

"Track the ID Spade Z," Maverick said, his blue eyes dark and stormy. "I want his physical IP. I don't care if you have to tear through every firewall in North America. Find him."

The morning sun streamed through the massive French windows of the Vance dining room.

Zero walked down the sweeping staircase, dressed in her crisp Ivy League uniform, one hand casually tucked into her pocket.

At the long mahogany table, her mother, Helena Vance, sat rubbing her temples. A tablet was propped up in front of her, displaying a sea of red downward arrows on the stock market app. Helena looked exhausted, the stress of her husband Brandon's corporate sabotage wearing her down.

Helena heard the footsteps and looked up. She saw Zero's sharp new haircut and tailored suit. A flash of surprise crossed her face, quickly replaced by a heavy sigh. She assumed her "son" was just trying a new aesthetic to get Maverick's attention.

Zero walked to the table. She didn't whine or demand money like the old Zero. She pulled out her chair in silence and sat down with perfect, fluid grace.

She noticed the dark circles under Helena's eyes. Zero reached for the crystal pitcher and poured a glass of warm milk. She slid it across the polished wood until it rested by Helena's hand.

Helena stared at the glass, her hand trembling slightly. In eighteen years, her spoiled child had never once served her.

Zero looked directly into her mother's eyes. Her gaze was steady, anchoring, and completely serious. "Mom. Stop looking at the news. Drink."

Helena's eyes watered. She picked up the glass and took a sip, the warmth soothing her tight throat. "The company's cash flow is broken, Zero. It's bad."

Zero's eyes darkened. She picked up her napkin, dabbing her mouth. She needed capital to build her hacker infrastructure and crush Brandon's faction.

"I will get straight As on the midterms," Zero said flatly.

Helena froze. She offered a sad, broken smile. Zero was at the bottom of every class. "Zero, please..."

"When I do," Zero interrupted, her tone leaving no room for argument, "I need a transfer from your private offshore account. I have a use for it."

Helena, too tired to argue with what she thought was a delusion, simply nodded.

Zero stood up, grabbed her black backpack, and walked out to the waiting car.

When the Rolls-Royce pulled up to River City Academy, the atmosphere was electric. The video of Zero breaking Kenzie's finger and kicking the locker had gone viral on the Campus Forum.

As Zero walked down the hall, girls openly stared, their faces flushing red. Whispers of "bad boy" and "so hot" followed her every step.

Zero ignored them. She chewed on a lollipop, her face an emotionless mask.

She opened her new locker. Three pink envelopes fluttered out. Love letters. Zero raised an eyebrow, swept them up, and dropped them directly into the trash can without breaking stride. The girls watching actually squealed at the cold rejection.

The bell rang. Zero walked into AP Calculus and took her seat in the back. Cody Boggs, her desk-mate, immediately slammed his body against the wall, trying to put as much distance between them as physically possible.

Mr. Peterson, the balding math teacher, began writing a massive, agonizingly complex calculus proof on the chalkboard.

Zero rested her chin in her hand, staring at the numbers. Her brain was a supercomputer for code, but this body's foundational knowledge of academic math was garbage. The formulas looked like ancient hieroglyphs.

Bored and annoyed, Zero propped up a thick English dictionary on her desk. She slipped her hands into her desk drawer and unlocked her phone by touch. She needed to check the dark web traffic on her home server.

Beside her, Cody's terrified eyes caught the faint glow of the phone screen illuminating Zero's lap.