The Double or more Life of the Fake Heiress (Mirabella)

Not long after, the assistant walked back in, looking anything but happy.

"The labs from the third to the fifth floor have taken a hit. The equipment's damaged, but we might be able to fix it," he rattled off about the other floors quickly.

What he didn't say was that fixing everything might cost more than just buying new ones. The real issue wasn't the busted equipment—it was the data inside.

Joen glared at him, his expression icy. "So, you're saying my lab got hit the worst?"

The assistant nodded, head bowed. "... Yes."

Joen couldn't hold back his temper any longer and smashed a cup to the floor. "Fantastic! It's like they had it out for me!"

The assistant felt his nerves tighten, knowing how scary Joen could be when he was angry.

"Please, try to stay calm. The university's locked down all the exits. Whoever pulled this off in such a short time probably wasn't alone. Plus, the cops have sent some tech wizards to sort out the surveillance footage. Maybe we'll catch them soon."

Joen clenched his jaw so hard it was like he was trying to grind his teeth to dust. "Catching them won't bring back my research data, will it?"

Decades of hard work, gone!

The assistant stayed silent, struggling to find anything comforting to say.

Joen rubbed his aching temples, took a deep breath, and then walked out, face blank. "I need to see who messed with my lab!"

The assistant quickly followed, knowing Joen was heading to the surveillance

room.

Once there, police techs were hard at work trying to recover the footage.

Joen, no computer whiz himself, hovered behind them for a couple of minutes before asking, "How much longer till it's fixed?"

"Just a bit more," one tech said, not even looking up as his fingers danced over the keyboard.

Hearing this, Joen's scowl softened just a touch.

He was hell-bent on making whoever wrecked his life's work pay dearly.

Minutes

the proater, the screen showed the progrèss at ninety-nine pet

The tech, seeing this, finally leaned back, ready to call it a day,

But instead of that last percent ticking over, two flashy letters popped onto the screen.

[FU]noveldrama

The tech's grin froze.

So close to being done, and then this? Pure, unadulterated mockery!

Joen stared at the letters, icy as ever. He didn't need to be a tech genius to get

the message. "Is it gone for good?"

The tech snapped back to reality,

frantically typing again, but he

couldn't fix it or even exit the

vel

program. The screen was stuck

on

those two letters, taunting them all.

He cursed under his breath and gave up. "No luck. We've been outsmarted. They hacked us back."

Joen's face was stormy.

First, they trashed the equipment in broad daylight, then the footage was unsalvageable, and now they were being openly mocked. Whoever did this was outrageously bold.