When the Hacker is Forced to Marry Ch.1

Chapter 1- It doesn’t matter what happens next, let’s run away from this marriage first!

In the Platinum Palace of planet Ta:

“69, 68, 67…..”

Suddenly, the girl lying peacefully in the hanging chair opened her eyes. 

She frowned and jumped impatiently out of her chair almost as she raised her arm and turned off the retro alarm clock that blared loudly.

Although the annoying sounds had disappeared, the numbers on the clock continued counting down. Lin Yan raised her hand and pulled the hair tie that held up her hair, letting the shoulder-length hair cascade down and cover her face. 

She glanced at the mirror in front of her, but her dissatisfied expression did not disappear. She grabbed the brush and powder lying on the dressing table and quickly added a layer of makeup onto her tender face. 

The countdown reached the single digits and Lin Yan finally set down her tools as she rushed out into the living room outside. She quickly sat upon the gorgeous and magnificent, yet lonely looking sofa waiting for her. 

The countdown stopped at zero. 

 Two knocks sounded against her door. 

Lin Yan stayed silent, watching as the door opened indifferently. 

The person behind the door seemed to be used to the scene before her and didn’t think twice before opening the door further and walking in. She gazed at the girl in front of her, a face covered in heavy makeup. The eyeliner was drawn with a heavy hand in a circular shape around her eyes that did not contrast well with that pale face and those lips that lacked a typical young girl’s rosy red vitality. Seeing this ‘princess’ in front of her, contempt filled the woman’s eyes, and the disdain within her heart was revealed. 

“Your Highness, my sincere congratulations. This year’s genetic compatibility test has finally found a Sentinel that is perfect for you.”

Lin Yan seemed like she wasn’t listening as she pulled out a device and started playing a game. 

The woman plastered a fake smile onto her delicate face as she sat next to Lin Yan, “Your Highness, one must know that this wasn’t easy. Although in the past few years we did find a few suitable Sentinels they were either bonded or in the process of doing so. This year we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and I no longer have to worry about Your Highness ending up alone.”

Lin Yan’s hand paused for a moment, but she still did not raise her head. 

“Your Highness will be married off soon and one must act like a representative of the Royal family. Your Highness can’t keep acting like this in the future….” She swept a look around the messy room, her elegant and reserved tone made her seem more like a princess than Lin Yan, “I believe it’s time to clean up your room.” 

The woman did not give Lin Yan an opportunity to refuse as several servants hurried into the room with their heads lowered. They quickly cleaned up and threw away anything that was deemed improper for a ‘princess’.

This time Lin Yan finally responded. She raised her head and watched as the servants busily took away her things, her expression darkened.

The woman watched the servants clean up the things and exit the room before turning her head, smiling again: “Your Highness will be meeting the Sentinel in three days’ time. I do hope you can adjust your bearing by then and look forward to the next time we meet. 

She stood up gracefully, smoothed out her skirt, and then finally walked out the door.

Lin Yan watched the door close and then after staring at the door for some time, one word escaped out of her lips, “Fu*k!”

Didn’t she secretly delete her Guide number from the genetic compatibility system?! Then how could something like this happen?!!

Lin Yan’s thin and slender fingers quickly swiped across the screen and the interface changed from her game to the genetic compatibility system’s network. 

Lin Yan traveled into what was considered the digital no man’s land and broke through the five-fold firewall, successfully retrieving the information of her supposed match. 

However, the Sentinel’s information was strange. 

There was no surname displayed and only the first name ‘Kristen’ was shown. However, she didn’t even know if this name was fake or not and there is no ID photo. The words ‘not uploaded’ were in the photo column instead. 

Just who was she marrying???

Lin Yan pursed her lips, causing the powder to rub off and reveal the original ruby-like color. 

Her fingers went flying and she broke through the last layer of security like it was a piece of dried bamboo and obtained the most confidential information the system had on file. 

“!!!” 

Lin Yan felt her blood run cold as she looked at the words on her screen. 

Kristen, leader of the former interstellar mercenary group: Scarlet Thorns. Recruited by the Empire about a month ago and is now a regiment of the military. However, the mercenary regiment is still independently led by Kristen.

Lin Yan quickly scanned the rest of the information and then carefully cleaned all traces of her from the system before turning off her device. 

She closed her eyes and let out a cold sneer. 

Her father, the emperor, with this one brilliant move, had effectively placed her in check. His most disobedient daughter who although possessed S-level mental abilities, grew up before his eyes into a useless and idiotic princess. She couldn’t be married off to secure an alliance but he could not allow this potential bomb to remain in the palace in case she turned on him one day. Might as well use her to curry favor with the mercenaries who were just integrated into the military. After all, the title she carried as an S-level Guide was quite enticing and the other person would agree because they didn’t know about Lin Yan’s reputation. So if one looked at it this way, it was a win-win situation. 

Lin Yan felt like laughing at the absurdity of it all. She reached up and covered her eyes, clenching her teeth as she muttered, “…..Unfortunately, Father, your wish will not come true.” 

She jumped up from the sofa, her black nightdress fluttering in the air behind her as a determined aura seemed to exude from her. 

Lin Yan took account of the things still left in her bedroom. The woman who had ordered her room to be cleaned had come prepared. She had ordered the servants to take away any objects that might help her escape the Platinum Palace, leaving almost nothing behind.

As she swept her gaze around the now barren room, she suddenly laughed, 

“Terribly sorry,” She turned her back to her bedroom and returned to the lonely living room, “but it seems that after all these years I still haven’t revealed my abilities to you, my dear Father.”

She lifted up the sofa’s cushion to unveil a hollowed out hole in the interior of the sofa. There were piles of various tools and equipment stashed away in that hole along with a small fortune made up of columns of gold. 

Lin Yan fumbled around the edge of a sofa and pressed on a small button. A small drawer popped out from inside the sofa and inside were many pieces of delicate-looking jewelry. A key disguised as a necklace laid in the center. 

She had spent close to ten years accumulating the materials she needed for this escape. She had materials to fix up the spacecraft if it gets damaged during her escape and jewelry that will last her three months at least. She was not going to lie down and die, she was going to fight!

Lin Yan opened up the retro alarm clock that was actually a disguise for a device that warned her when people were coming near and took it out. 

Since her father was so desperate to marry her off, then don’t blame her for escaping early!

The woman was quite thorough in the earlier cleanup, so Lin Yan was able to finish packing in a short amount of time. Just when she had almost finished, she realized she had forgotten the most important part. 

She felt at a loss as she looked at the long dress in her closet and a pair of  high heels sitting next to it in the shoe cabinet. 

Lin Yan raised her head and looked outside her window to see that the light was slowly fading. She didn’t have much time yet and gritting her teeth, she picked up the long dress. 

Ten minutes later, Lin Yan changed into the black dress and high heels and stood in front of the mirror. She had washed off the makeup that she had been using all these years to appear like a haggard and gloomy princess and her normally wild hair was hanging smoothly behind her. Even if the maid and her etiquette teacher, who was most familiar with her, saw her now, they probably wouldn’t be able to recognize her as the awful princess that they knew. 

Around her slender white neck was the key disguised as a necklace and she firmly grasped her photonic device in her hand. [1]

Everyone in the palace knew that Lin Yan was a super talented S-level Guide, so they would always have a spiritual barrier prepared when they walk in front of her in case they accidentally reveal their thoughts to her. 

However, none of the people knew that in addition to being an S-level Guide, Lin Yan was also a talented hacker. 

And at this moment, the photonic device in her hand was showing her a detailed surveillance of the entire palace. 

As the political center of the Empire, the Platinum Palace was one of the most guarded areas in the Empire. The palace is located above a stretch of mountains, suspended in the air by advanced gravitational technology. Therefore if one wished to enter or leave the palace they must do so by aircraft. 

And furthermore,  there were three platoons of Royal Guards patrolling the Palace 24/7 and keeping the peace within it. 

So if Lin Yan wanted to escape successfully, she must avoid these three platoons at all costs. 

Fortunately, with the rapid development of technology, many have become dependent on their advanced devices and however, this depences made everything easier for a hacker. Especially a talented hacker.

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Her high heels clicked on the floor, but the soft carpeting allowed her to walk quietly through the long hallway. She looked down at the screen and replaced the current footage of her escaping to the footage from ten minutes ago. 

Then she switched her interface to the chart that monitored the patrols and her fingers typed furiously. She overrode a few orders so that the Second Platoon would have their time staggered with the First platoon. 

43 seconds left. 

She secretly counted the seconds in her heart. After 43 seconds, those two platoons will show up, but now that their time has been staggered it will give her about 5 seconds. 5 seconds is plenty enough time for her to run from the palace’s side door and into the garden where she will be covered by the flowers and trees.

Lin Yan stood behind the curtains and watched as the guards from the First Platoon walked past. The light in the hallways was a bit dim and with those layered curtains drawn, no one noticed a figure dashing stealthily in the shadows all the way to the half-open side door. 

She took off her high-heeled shoes and rushed in barefoot through the stone path to the garden. She quickly laid flat and hid behind the bushes. 

Just as she made it into the garden, the Second Platoon had turned the corner and onto that same stone path. To the guards, everything seemed normal as they only saw the backs of the First Platoon in front of them. There was nothing out of the ordinary. 

Lin Yan clutched her device closely and waited for the guards from the Second Platoon to pass by. 

3, 2, 1…..

Lin Yan crawled from her hiding place and raised her head, only to meet the eyes of the last guard. 

The guard only saw a girl in a long black dress with slightly messy hair and amber eyes that were widened in pure shock like a deer caught in the headlights. 

The guard, in his momentary shock, let down his spiritual barrier and exposed himself to the mental suggestions of a Guide. 

Then, as if he had never seen the girl, he turned his head and walked hurriedly to catch up with the Second Platoon. 

Maybe now he was feeling a little guilty for not being able to keep up with his Platoon. 

A smile appeared on Lin Yan’s face. She walked along the edges of the garden and arrived at the building that held the Royal Family’s spacecraft and other vehicles. Through the glass, she can see the prized collection of her royal brother who loved to collect various different types of spacecraft. 

For the sake of safety, the most valuable of spacecraft and other aircraft were all controlled by A.I. and other computer systems. This was another thing that made it even easier for Lin Yan to escape. 

She hacked into the security system of the aircraft building and replaced all the verification information with her own. She then easily walked up to the door, letting the scanner read her fingerprints, pupils, and brain waves before walking in easily when the door unlocked. 

Lin Yan picked out a low-key and conspicuous spacecraft before climbing into the cockpit. 

Although she didn’t know how to pilot one, she could at least install a system that would do it for her. 

And so, under the control of an autopilot system, the spacecraft leisurely took off, leaving behind the beautiful cage that had prisoned her for many years. 

She connected her photonic device to the spacecraft and immediately a holographic image was projected. It showed the aerial security system of the Platinum Palace. 

Seven big circles appeared, all showing a green color that indicated everything was safe and normal. 

Lin Yan released her control over the security the moment she left the attack range of the Palace and watched as the seven circles turned red instantaneously and she laughed loudly. 

She watched as the Platinum Palace slowly became smaller and disappeared from her vision. Then she grabbed the radio beside her and sang, 

“When I have seen the light of daybreak, I cannot bear the darkness,

When I have tired a taste of flying, I can no longer bear the cage–”

The spacecraft rushed into the horizon and into the cosmos beyond!

Author’s notes:

This story has a Sentinel-Guide setting! 

So a brief introduction:

Sentinel: People with enhanced senses that are stronger than the average person. They can become hyper focused in one sense and this gives them great power. However, they are weak to external (mental) influence that can throw them into disarray. 

Guide: A person paired with a Sentinel and they usually have the ability to calm or soothe the Sentinel when they go berserk. There are very few Guides who have the ability called ‘emotional resonance’ , which can be used as a weapon to attack other Guides or Sentinels. Mentally (spiritually?) strong, not so much physically. 

The Sentinel and Guide come together in a union called ‘bonding’ in which there are two types: either mental or physical.

Each Sentinel and Guide will have something called ‘spirit guides’ which is a spirit animal that is formed through the condensing of spiritual power. The spirit guide usually reflects a person’s personality. 

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T/N notes:

[1] photonic device: a device that uses the photons in visible light or infrared ( IR ) beams, rather than electric current, to perform digital computations. The direct translation is ‘light brain’ or ‘light computer’ which roughly means a device that can compute things almost at the speed of light.

It’s hard to find a proper tutorial to the sentinel guide setting, but here is one I found:

https://infiniteeight8.tumblr.com/post/68075231337/misspaperlilies-said-what-is-this-sentinelguide

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