Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress novel Chapter 1469

Chapter 1469: Citadel

Citadel.

That was the new security system the Prime Group was planning to launch in a few months. Although it wasn’t available yet, the market was already abuzz with interest due to its promising marketing campaign. Citadel was expected to surpass their current system, offering unmatched protection—but it still wasn’t perfect.

In other words, it was still a work in progress.

There were ongoing issues the cybersecurity department had been scrambling to resolve as the deadline loomed. They needed it to be flawless. While the team had faith that once operational, Citadel would revolutionize the industry.

But—

"Penny." Yugi grabbed her arm, his brows drawn tight. "You want us to launch Citadel? Right now?"

"Did I say something else?"

"But this is a huge risk," he stressed, just loud enough for others to hear. "In our last test run, we hit a major setback. You were there — you saw it yourself. We can’t launch it now, especially not with this bug in the system."

Penny exhaled slowly, locking eyes with him. "We have no choice."

"We do."

"Then say them," she challenged, raising a brow. "Maybe we do have other options if we think hard enough. But by then, it might already be too late. I’d rather take this risk — just like I took a huge risk abandoning my research for this company. It’s a gamble I’d gladly take any day"

"What about Fortress? The system we’re currently using? Unlike Citadel, it’s proven. It’s tested."

"Yugi, of all people, you know that’s not possible anymore," Penny replied, her voice tinged with disbelief. "That’s the same system we’re using for this event. Did you forget what the second round is going to be? Like that guy said — this is planned. It’s a planned attack on the Prime Group. Whoever’s behind this knew that Fortress was nearly impenetrable from the outside. The only way to hurt it would be to plant a bomb from within."

She paused, then rephrased: "To bomb to hurt us. Not just you and me, but the company and everyone in it."

Her words hit harder than a slap, the cold truth dousing Yugi like a bucket of ice water. Slowly, he released her arm and swallowed hard.

"This isn’t something that’s going to make Prime Group fall, Yugi," Penny said as she lightly tapped his shoulder. "Pull yourself together and join me outside once you’ve calmed down."

With that, she turned—and paused. Her eyes landed on Teddy and Patricia. She didn’t recall asking Patricia to follow, but she didn’t dwell on it.

"Let’s go," she muttered, resuming her steps. The two quickly fell in behind her.

As they walked away, Yugi watched her go and exhaled deeply. He took another moment to recompose himself before turning back to the team. A little bit of shame crept up his spine because Penny was right. This was not the first cyber attack they had encountered. Why fear when they managed to reach this point despite having these types of problems back when they were just starting?

"Run diagnostics on Citadel — ah, no. We need completely new devices for it. Stop the launch for now. We can’t risk infecting it with this bug."

At his order, everyone paused, lifting their hands from their keyboards. One by one, they turned to Yugi and nodded as he pulled out his phone to make several urgent calls.