Prologue

Two weeks ago...

“Mom, I’m not going to transfer to another school, it’ll be hard for me to adjust, especially now that it’s my last year in college. Why do I always need to adjust to other people?”

I glanced at my brother who’s throwing a tantrum before I climb up to my room.

I started packing my things as I listen to my mom and my brother continue their argument, it feels like I’m listening to a Fliptop battle.

“Jerico Segismundo, don’t put a dramatic act on me!” Our mother exclaimed. 

I almost burst into laughter as I heard our mom call my brother Sage in his full name.

“Mom!” my brother exclaimed as he threw a tantrum again.

I just put on my earphones and  continue what I’m doing.

My mom and my brother can continue arguing till tomorrow, but I know that in the end my brother will still win the argument.

I sighed. It’s also the same for me, I’m a senior high school student and we’re already in the middle of second semester, but I need to transfer to another school, I don’t even know how my papers got processed quickly.

Oh well, my parents got connections and influence. My mom is a Chemist and my dad is an AL Specialist, they are both known in their profession, that’s one of the reasons why me and my brother are living a good life, and the fact that we’re also carrying a well known surname here in Vienna.

But I know many things will change as I transfer to Hespheria, the place where my mom grew up and the farthest town here in Vienna and as my parents leave for Russia to do their project..

Someone took my earphone out. “Bring your things down Maelanie, are your things all ready?”

I saw my Dad smiling as I look up to him.

“Yes Dad, how about Sage?” I asked my dad about my older brother.

"You know even if I want your brother to come and live with you in Hespheria, in his situation right now, things will just get complicated for him, so just let him be.” He said problematically as he sat down on a chair in front of me.

“It’s okay, Dad, I can live on my own, so you don’t need to worry and I will mostly stay in our school’s dormitory since it’s one of the school's policies.”  I said as I held my father’s hand.

“So you’ve already done your assignment, huh.” He said as he chuckled and that made me laugh too.

I remember that we’re visiting Hespheria once every two years for vacation since it’s the place where my mom’s family came from, though we don’t stay too long when we visit so I’m not really familiar with the place.

And I remember that every time we visit there my brother always looks like he won a lottery and he goes there even though it's still not time for vacation, but in the past three years he didn't go there which is very unusual.

Hespheria is well known for being a prosperous and richest town here in Vienna. Even Saint Augustine, the elite school where I’ll be transferring to, is known here in Vienna and based on my research, they’re following a foreign policy for their school’s policy, staying in a dormitory is mandatory until the school year ends, students are only allowed to go outside every weekend. I got to know more things about the school, well, I have my own connections.

“I’ll be okay, Dad.” I assured him.

He just nods at me as a response so I get my things ready. 

“I know, and your brother promised that he’ll visit you there every weekend.” He said, but he paused and looked at me, we both shook our heads and laughed.

“You know my brother, Dad, he’ll just do nonsense things if he ever visits me there.”

“Maelanie, you’re being too judgemental!” My spoiled brother shouted as he suddenly appeared in front of us.

Dad and I just laughed at him and they both get down and bring my things with them

I can say that even though my parents are both busy with their work, they still give us the attention and love that we need, so we grew up well, we’re not like the other kids who're rebelling to get their parents' attention.

But my brother is kind of spoiled, but I can say that that’s the only negative in his personality. He’s smart, a dean’s lister and I really admire the mindset that he has.

He’s still in college, but he is already a shareholder of some companies, he’s working and he keeps it hidden from our parents, he used his salary to invest and buy stocks from companies.

I tilted my head as I forced myself to stop thinking about my brother.

I look at my room’s door before locking it.

I took out my two laptops. The other one is for school purposes and the other one is for deep diving and it has a fake IP address.

Deep diving is a term used for seeking truths, extracting facts and everything about a certain thing. It is used to find truths that are hidden from the public’s eyes, secrets that can put you to danger.

A person who seeks truths and answers is called a deep diver, and I’m a deep diver, but I don’t go through sensitive stuff, I know my limits, I just searched stuff about what’s happening in our country, that’s all.  Though I saw the secrets of some politicians, I try to avoid things like that because it might put me in danger.

I log in on the laptop that I used for deep diving and open DWD or Deep Web Divers, a group chat for deep divers like me.

It’s been one and a half years since I joined the group, there are six members and of course we’re all deep divers, sometimes they also share links or information about something in the group.

I raised my eyebrow as I read one of the messages in our group

Page:

I smiled as I read the nickname that Page gave me and typed “Yes” as my answer for his question.

Page or Primo Angelo Seo is the same age as me. He’s one of the members that I get along well with even though we go to different schools, we also know each other personally and I really admire his hacking skills. He is also one of the hackers in our group, he’s the one who put a fake IP address for my laptop.

“Whoa! So we can finally meet you here?”

I smiled again as I read another message from our group, it’s a message from Rona Lavega, we’re six in the group and I’ve met and seen four of them in person who’s living also here in Vienna.

Rona is one of the two members that I still haven’t met. She’s living in Hespheria and like I’ve said earlier it’s too far from Vienna so even if she wants to meet and see us she could’t.

We talk here in our group chat but we don’t exchange personal information about us for our privacy also. But not for Page with his hacking skills, I couldn’t do anything when he hacked all my personal accounts that’s why he’s the one I get along well with.

“I will miss you Lanie, I’ll visit you there.”

I read the message that Rhosean sent, she’s the last girl that belongs in our group.

I couldn’t help myself from spending time with them here in our group as Roleen chatted too.

Roleen:

I lay down in my bed as I read the conversation going in our group.

I’m curious about who’s the founder of DWD’s. No one knows who he is and even meet him in person, his personality is a big mystery and the reason why he made DWD is stilk a mystery to us. We just know him as Recoon and he just let us know about his gender and that’s it, nothing more.

Page tried tracking him but even though he's an expert in hacking, he couldn’t find out who Master is, so he just gave up.

That’s why they called him Master.

Even me is super curious about Recoon’s true personality and I know that Recoon is not his real name.

I hurriedly sat down as the door of my room flung open wide.

“Sage!” I annoyingly called him as he walked in my room. Whatever locked I’ll do in my room’s door he can still open it, he has a knowledge for pick locking so sometimes I’m wondering if he’s a thief.

“Dinner’s ready Maelanie, let’s go down, it’s our last dinner together.” He just raised his eyebrow.

“I’m coming!” I said while frowning and logging off the laptop.

“Deep diving again?”

I looked at him. As I know all of his secrets, he also knew about my strange hobby which is deep diving.

“Mind your own business, Sage.” I rolled my eyes and put the laptop in the bag.

He flicked my forehead. “Just know your limits, Lil' sis. Don’t go through stuff that can put you in danger.” He said as he turned his back and walked away.

That’s his famous line that he repeats to me every time. I’m lucky that at least my brother is open minded and he can understand my hobby as I can understand his.

❤