Of course the hacking that Alex will perform was not the typical hacking. That’s a little inefficient for the current situation.

 

Instead, Alex will follow the steps of a certain Electromagnetic Manipulator from one of his favorite light novels.

And the steps will just involve directly accessing the whole camera and computer system of Grand Point City by manipulating the electrical currents and electrons in his Range!

 

Even if Alex’s Range was just around 800 meters, he only needed to access one device to allow him to hijack all the cameras in Grand Point City.

Of course doing it this way will alert the IT Experts here in the Grand Point City, and if Alex was right, his ‘hacking’ will only last for around 5 minutes before it gets blocked by the city’s cyber protectors.

 

Well, that time was already enough for Alex to obtain his goals.

 

He pulled up his phone, which he bought 2 days ago.

 

He held it tightly with his left hand as he used his Esper Ability to connect with phone.

“Bzzzt!” The phone let out a humming sound as Alex started to send out his power from within the phone, allowing him to connect with the surveillance of the city.

 

The phone’s screen started to blink and blur as Alex accessed all the current and past feeds by the security cameras.

The screen kept on flickering, as Alex tried to seek the camera feeds where Lauren could be found.

“There!” Alex then saw a camera feed 1 hour ago showing Lauren leaving the convenience store nearby.

Once Alex saw this feed, he decided to predict and follow Lauren’s path by using the nearby cameras.

This resulted in more screen flickers, with each flicker displaying Lauren’s changing location.

 

After 1,532 flickers, Alex stopped as he saw Lauren entering a house.

The house looked somewhat in shambles, with its foundation looking quite brittle from the outside. It was as if this house went through a lot of things that made it this way.

 

“……” Upon seeing this house, which Lauren entered at the next camera feed, Alex decided to dig more info.

He immediately connected to the net as he tried to identify the location and the occupants of the said house.

 

“House legally owned by someone named Andrew Collins.” Alex muttered as he read the information that he obtained.

Aside from these words, Alex also saw a picture depicting this Andrew Collins.

 

What Alex could see was a thin, scrawny many wearing thick-rimmed glasses. The man’s face also looked slightly gaunt, as if his life was taken out of him.

 

 “Andrew Collins disappeared 5 years ago, leaving his two children in the custody of their aunt.”

After seeing this sentence, Alex decided to scour deeper, as he felt interested at the mention of the children.

 

“There it is.” Alex thought to himself as he saw the picture of two children, taken around 5 years ago.

The older one of the two seemed to be a female around 12-13 years old, while the younger one looked extremely young, only around 1 years old.

 

Just by looking at the picture, Alex was sure that the older child was Lauren 5 years ago. The appearance of the child in the picture was near to Lauren’s current appearance.

With this picture shown to him, Alex was now sure that that house was Lauren’s place.

 

Alex then memorized the place and the address of the house as he moved on towards the next part of his cyber investigation.

“Now then, where could you guys have been?” Alex murmured as he decided to look for any traces of the New Villain Team and Glacia.

 

“There is no way that the officials in Grand Point City were unable to locate you.” Alex muttered to himself as his phone began to overheat. “You will inevitably be caught by a camera, I just need to find that feed.”

 

After a few more seconds of searching, Alex let out a sigh as he realized that this could be quite a task.

 

“Oh, now that I remember it, maybe I should also access the weather satellites around Grand Point City.” Alex murmured as his confident smile returned.

From what Alex knew, the weather satellites in Grand Point City were so accurate that it can detect miniscule temperature changes in an area around the size of a car!

 

“Hehehe, with those Villain Team bringing in  Glacia who can manipulate ice, I am sure that their trail was filled with dips in temperature.” Alex muttered as he decided to combine both the camera feeds and the temperature data from the satellite.
 
Alex then started to triangulate these data together, giving him an overview of the path the that Villain team took.

 

Alex followed this projected path, until he reached a camera feed that showed him what he wanted.

“There you are.”

 

Alex’s phone was almost smoking at this point as Alex stared at the feed on the screen.

 

He could see 5 people walking together, with all of them wearing a costume except for a woman, who seemed to be wearing prison clothes.

 

Alex was sure that this woman was Glacia, which just meant that the other 4 people with her was the Villain Team that broke her out!

 

Unfortunately for Alex, the camera feed was taken on a dark alley, which somehow prevented him from seeing the full appearance of the Villain Team.

However, Alex could still somewhat make out some details.

First of all, he could see that the Team was composed of one male and three females, judging by their body outline and their hair.

They were all wearing costumes too, which just made it harder to identify them.

 

Each person in this Villain Team were also wielding their own kind of weapon, with their outline somewhat recognizable to Alex.

The sole male in the Team could be seen holding a circular ball, with some kind of objects attached to it.

The nearest woman to that male was holding a sheathed sword, and if Alex’s guess was right, that woman was holding a katana, just like Alina.

The second woman was holding a whip, which made Alex somewhat shiver inwardly.

As for the last woman, she was holding some sort of… chemical container? Alex could not really ascertain what he saw, as the view from the camera feed was not that cooperative to him.

 

“Psrst!” Before Alex could observe more, his phone started to burn up, as heat and smoke came out of it.

Alex’s phone was unable to take all the information processing that Alex did, which brought it on its current flaming state.

“You did well, comrade.” Alex said as he dropped the phone on the ground, then stomping it on his foot to destroy it completely. “Your sacrifice will not be forgotten by me.”

 

“….” Alina and Queen Mother could only stare at Alex in confusion as they saw what he did.

 

“I already know where Lauren is.” Alex said as he saw the worried expression on Lauren’s face. “So, be rest assured that we can help her out.”

 

“So, we will just go to Lauren’s house then?”

 

“No.” Alex said as he sternly replied to Alina’s query. “If we do that, we will be outing Lauren’s true identity to other people. Instead, what we will do is that I will first send her a message alerting her about the Villain Team, and then we will choose a nearby place to Lauren’s house. Once we did that, we will just wait for the Villain Team to approach Lauren’s place. Once we see the Villain Team, we will jump in to fight them.”

 

“…Fight them?” Are you sure about that, hooman?” Asteria said as she gave Alex an inquisitive look. “You are willing to fight them even though you have no idea on what their abilities are? And let me remind you that they have some ideas on your abilities already.  Maybe its  just me, but I think even if you ambush them, your chances of driving that villain team off could be quite low.”

 

“Heh. Do you think we are the only one who will face off against the Villain Team?” Alex said with an amused tone as he shook his head. “You should never underestimate my planning skills!

 

“Ok.”

*********************

“Sis! Do you have food for me?” An extremely adorable child shouted out as she pulled the hem of Lauren’s dress. “Aunt only cooked some noodles last night! I am not full from that!”

 

“Don’t worry Lara. Big Sis got some food for you.” Lauren said as she showed the stash of food that she bought with some of Alex’s money. “I just got some good money from my new part-time job!”

 

“Yay!” Lara let out a dimpled smile as her eyes widened in delight.

“Pit pat, pit pat.” Lara’s short legs moved as she jumped towards Lauren, initiating a hug with her. “Hehehe, Big Sis really is the best! Can you cook now?”

 

“Yes, yes. I will.” Lauren muttered as she poked Lara’s cheeks. “But before I do that, let me ask you first. Did you behave while I am out last night? Were you a good girl!”

 

“Yes Big Sis! Lara is a good girl last night!” The adorable munchkin said as she let out a pout. “I helped Auntie with weaving some clothes! I made 10 yesterday!”

The little girl then excitedly pulled out some small clothes that barely fitted a child. Just one look at the clothes, and Lauren knew that they can only be good as rags.

Of course Lauren did not dare criticize Lara’s work as she opted to praise her.

“Hey, you made some good clothes!” Lauren said as she proceeded to pat Lara’s head. “Just practice a little more, and you can be a good tailor!”

 

“Hehehe, like Mom?”

 

“…Yes, like Mom.” Lauren replied as her face slightly fell.

 

Luckily for Lauren, Lara seemed to be absorbed in her Big Sis’ praise that she did not notice Lauren’s expression.  

“I will be a tailor, I will be a tailor~” Lara sang as she started to run around their house. “I will be a tailor~”

“….” Lauren could only shake her head slightly as she started to sort out the food that she bought.

“Hey Lara, aside from making these ra- clothes,  make sure to study well in school too!” Lauren said as she saw the little girl stopping in her tracks. “The start of the new school year will start next week, right?”

 

“…Yes sis…” Lara replied as the cheerful expression disappeared from her face. “But Sis, do I really need to go to school?”

 

“What’s the problem?” Lauren asked with a sigh as she realized what the problem was.

 

 

 Lara’s eyes started to water as her lips trembled slightly. She looked down on the floor as she haltingly said,

 

“Big Sis, my classmates will just bully me again because of my clothes and food…”

 

“Lara…” Lauren’s throat started to become thick as she does not know how to console her younger sister. “I’m sorry if I cannot give you better items, but you must know that you must study so that you can get a good job in the future, ok? Don’t be like me, ok?”

 

“Ok Sis…” Lara replied as she wiped her eyes. She then looked up at Lauren who seemed to be trying to not cry too. “Sis, why are you crying? Are you sad too?”

 

“Ah, some dust just got into my eyes.” Lauren replied as she hurriedly wiped her eyes too. “Geez, don’t be that perceptive around me.”

 

“Oh, so you came back. I thought you kicked the bucket already.” A heavyset woman interrupted Lauren and Lara’s conversation, prompting Lauren to look at the woman.

“Auntie, I just told you that I got another part-time job. I did not put my life in any risk at all!”

 

“Hmph, you better not place yourself in risk, young woman.” The Auntie said as she picked up the scraps of cloth scattered on the floor. “Your mother died that way. Please don’t be like her.”

 

“….” Lauren bit her lips, as she badly wanted to say that her Auntie was wrong. But in the end, she was unable to say anything in retort.

 

“I will cook our lunch now.’ Lauren said briskly as she began preparing the dishes.

 

“Hmm, hmm, hmm~” While Lauren was busy on cooking, the little munchkin Lara was humming merrily to herself, with her chubby little legs swaying on the table. She could also be seen holding two spoons on hands, signifying her readiness to eat.

 

“Food, food, food!”

“Patience, youngkin.” The Auntie said as she gave Lara a look. “You should always be respectful towards food, especially during these days when it is hard to find one…”

 

“Look who’s talking. It was as if you were the one providing food for us.” Lauren thought angrily to herself as she did not look at her Auntie’s pious face. “Seriously, if it were not for the law, we would not be staying here with you anymore!”

The trio then spent the next half hour in awkward silence as Lauren finished cooking.

“Clink, clank.”

 

Lauren was about to serve the food when she suddenly received a notification from her old model phone.

 

She gave her Auntie the ‘I have a business’ look as she went out of the room.

 

Once she was out of the room, Lauren looked at the text sent to her.

“!!!”

After reading the message that she received,  Lauren’s face immediately paled, with her knees trembling greatly.

“Why….”

When Lauren received the news of Glacia’s breakout earlier, she only panicked for a second before calming down.

 

Lauren knew that even with Glacia breaking out, it will be impossible for that villain to figure out Lauren’s real identity.

This knowledge placed Lauren at an ease, which allowed her to act normally with her younger sister earlier.

But the message that Lauren received right now threw all that ease out of the window!

 

[Lauren, this is Alex speaking. We are sorry to tell you, but there is a high possibility that the villain team that broke out Glacia already knew your identity. And there is also a high chance that this team and Glacia will seek you out. So please, if you can escape, please do it right now. But if you can’t, do not be worried. I, Alina, and Queen Mother will be just nearby. We will fight them later, so you should not be worried that much. But I still recommend that you and your family escape.]

 

“F**k.” That was all that Lauren could say as she ignored the chewing sounds made by her younger sister.