Chapter 15: The Game
“I discovered something interesting, so I contacted you early.”
“In a newly released mental simulation game, I found its system to be robust and unbreakable, and it even burned out some interesting components for it.”
“So I plan to invite you to meet, of course, this is also a rather risky act for me. If you can successfully hack into its main server…”
“Then I think this game will most likely end with your victory.”
“But this possibility is not high, after all, if you had a level far superior to mine, you would have successfully caught me by now, wouldn’t you?”
“You have half a day to prepare. Tonight at 7:30 PM, Area 13 of a certain Public Space. I will stay for an hour. The secret code is ‘Joint Operation Three Months Ago’.”
“Don’t disappoint me, SUN.”
“—Your ‘loyal’ partner.”
…
Mu You looked at the deciphered message in front of her, feeling quite bewildered, and not just a little. She felt as if her whole being was out of sorts!
To make it convenient for them to avoid using high-difficulty temporary conflicts as their sole means of communication, the two, who had formed ‘Black Sun’, casually picked a low-end phishing website to serve as a message board. They agreed to exchange updates there periodically, discussing everything except their mutual attacks.
Of course, if there was truly nothing to say, a simple message like ‘The weather is nice today’ was also acceptable.
To this day, countless large-scale Black Sun hacker operations have been negotiated and communicated in this incredibly low-level place.
While leaving messages for each other, they would also try their best to cause trouble for one another. The content was written in code, and the corresponding codebooks were mostly recent articles, magazines, or gossip. However, occasionally, things like the Bible, dictionaries, or famous novels would appear to increase the difficulty. But this time, the decryption method for the message Black left for Mu You was relatively simple, just a column from an evening newspaper two days ago, clearly not wanting her to waste time on that aspect.
Because the content itself had already given her very little time…
“Tonight at 7:30 PM… Area 13 of a certain Public Space… A newly released mental simulation game…” Mu You stared intently at the computer screen, gently pursing her lips, and murmured, “What in the world are you up to?! Are you intentionally trying to confuse me, or…?”
She looked back at the tracking program, which was only half-finished, and whispered, “Or did I think wrong from the very beginning? Or perhaps it’s a trap, you bastard!”
Mu You, feeling a bit frantic, rolled off her bed onto the soft carpet, rubbing her cute doll-like face vigorously. After a while, she got up with messy hair and directly hacked into the backend of the phishing website, leaving a message in pager input format.
“See you there. Also, please spare me the brain-dead hints like ‘newly released game’; it’s clearly too simplistic!!!”
“Phew~” After typing, Mu You squatted back into her chair and immediately terminated the tracking program. Then, she simultaneously played her favorite new anime, old anime, and… uh, no, not that one, on the surrounding screens.
While watching anime, she rapidly thought about the whole situation. Her secret struggle with Black had been going on for many years. Although she didn't know if the other party had made any progress, Mu You had indeed gained quite a bit, even locking onto some highly suspicious targets.
And among them was Mo Tan…
Although she only knew what he looked like and the possibility was not high, Mu You still included him in her suspect list. It was simple: she found that there were some issues with this person's information; even things like his residential address were not registered online.
Although these were just some peculiar things, Mu You still remembered his face.
Even if he wasn't Black, he was at least some kind of hacker, and peeking at fellow hackers was one of Mu You's hobbies…
However, despite her suspicions, she didn't pay too much attention, as the girl's suspect list contained at least a thousand people, of different races and genders from all over the world, so she hadn't really cared much.
Until…
She met Mo Tan in Innocent World. Regarding this priest who seemed to have completely unadorned features, Shuang Ye almost immediately tried to test him.
First, she immediately went offline to set up countless ‘baits’, then subtly revealed that she was Black Sun during their second meeting, while having the AI continuously monitor the network situation.
And the result delighted her: the fake data temporarily created by Type-6 was accessed over three million times within a day. Upon learning this news, she was overjoyed and was about to proceed with further verification when…
Black’s message suddenly appeared.
And he even invited her to meet in the Public Space of Innocent World, acting as if he had no idea she had already been playing the game, thinking he was the first one to attempt to breach Wu Zui Company’s firewall.
What the hell is this?!
Although she stated in her reply that the other party’s hint lacked technical content, Mu You knew very well that finding this game was simple. The real difficulty was getting a set of equipment in one afternoon so she could log into Innocent World on time at 7:30 PM. She definitely wouldn’t have time to build that thing herself.
Two days after its launch, the game's popularity had already caused a craze. It was not easy to buy a game cabin immediately without a reservation anywhere in the world. Just in Mu You's city, the online reservation records she checked were already booked for two days later, and most other places were similar.
It could be said that the conditions Black set this time were very stringent.
But…
The girl turned her head and looked at a ‘game cabin’ in the corner of the room, built on a bathtub base with a large number of peripherals and cables, feeling utterly speechless.
She had already spent an entire day two days ago, referencing a lot of data to make this very one.
And she had already clearly told the priest named Black Vatican about this.
But Black seemed completely unaware… instead, he thought he was making it more difficult for her…
“It’s getting more and more confusing~” Mu You pushed up her glasses, propped her two fair, long legs (proportionally speaking) on the table, and pouted, “Never mind, I’ll know after I meet him~ Just go to the Public Space at 7:30 PM… Hey!?”
She suddenly covered her mouth and exclaimed, “Wait a minute! If it’s 7:30 PM…”
…
Mo Tan was currently sitting in front of his computer, leisurely drinking coffee, the instant kind.
Just a few minutes ago, the overwhelming targeted attacks and searches from SUN had completely gone silent. A grand offensive had ended just like that. However, Mo Tan himself was not surprised at all. Having received the reply, he had confirmed that the girl named Shuang Ye in the game was SUN herself, and she was likely already in a state of slight Confusion, exactly as he had predicted.
Now, all that was left was to put on a ‘good show’.
“Brain-dead hint, huh…” Mo Tan blinked, looking at the message on the screen, “If it weren’t for that, it would have hinted at even more things.”
He gulped down the coffee beside him, turned off the computer, walked back to the sofa, and sat down, closing his eyes with a hint of amusement.
There was still plenty of time, and some details needed to be refined, and they had to be the kind that he could easily do even in his other personality state.
…
7 PM
“Mental connection detected. Synchronizing personal information…”
“Connection complete. Reading character information.”
“Welcome back, Absolute Neutral Black Vatican. Loading Innocent World. Good night.”
Mo Tan appeared in a corner of the military camp. This was not where he had logged off, but an empty garrison with no one around, not far from Fenrir Squad’s location.
“Logging in will place you at the nearest spot where no other NPCs are paying attention, huh…” Mo Tan repeated softly what he had read on the forum, nodding to himself, “That’s quite convenient.”
It was just barely dawn in the game. Most of the Autonomous Army personnel without missions were resting, so the camp looked especially deserted. However, it was almost time for Fenrir Squad to gather.
After briefly orienting himself, Mo Tan walked briskly towards his station and soon saw Ned and the others checking their weapons and equipment in front of the barracks.
“You’re here?” Yinna, with the sharpest eyes, inserted a few feathered arrows into her quiver and called out loudly to Mo Tan, “Hurry, hurry, we’re about to set off.”
Ned glared at her, “Keep your voice down, some people are still resting, and we’re going on patrol! Not a picnic!”
“Tch, those lazy bums who are still sleeping at this hour have no right to complain about noise!” Yinna stuck out her tongue and retorted, “Besides, routine patrol isn’t much different from a picnic, is it? It’s been pretty peaceful lately, hasn’t it?”
“If only that were true, you’re not the only one who wants to slack off here.” Ned shrugged at her, then turned to Mo Tan and asked, “Do you need any weapons?”
Mo Tan smiled in a very Theocrats-like manner, pulled out the 20-copper cost scripture, and shook it, “I’ll just use this. We’re not going to make a priest like me Charge into battle, are we?”
Krab, who was sharpening his axe, looked up at him, then casually took a spiked club from a rack behind him and tossed it to Mo Tan, grinning, “Take it. It’s free, issued by the army. If you don’t like using it, you can sell it later and buy me a drink.”
“That’s against military regulations…” Ned said weakly, then whispered to Mo Tan, who had picked up the spiked club, “Unless you include me when you drink. There’s a weapon shop in the south of the city that recycles these things, you should know about it, right…?”
Mo Tan chuckled, weighing the spiked club in his hand, and nodded, “I know, I know. By the way, Shuang Ye isn’t here yet?”
He hadn't forgotten that in others' eyes, he was someone with property in Dieyan City. It would be strange if he didn't even know about a blacksmith shop in the south of the city…
The problem now was, why wasn’t Shuang Ye here yet?!
“She wouldn’t just ditch everyone to meet me in the Public Space, would she?! That would be troublesome…”
“Not yet.” Ned spread his hands, “She doesn’t live in the military camp like you. It’s certainly not easy for a girl, and a mage at that, to get up this early for a gathering.”
Just then, a lazy voice suddenly sounded from behind them, “I just had a little more breakfast, please don’t underestimate girls, okay~~”
Shuang Ye slowly walked over, rubbing her eyes, and pouted unhappily at Ned, “And I don’t think I’m late, am I, Captain?”
“No, you still have a few minutes.” Ned chuckled awkwardly, “I wasn’t talking bad about you behind your back, you know.”
Shuang Ye tilted her head noncommittally, then tugged at Mo Tan’s sleeve and whispered, “Come here for a moment…”
And pulled him aside.
“What’s up?” Mo Tan asked curiously, looking at the girl in front of him, whose expression was very suspicious, “And why do you look like you haven’t woken up yet?”
Shuang Ye stared at him for a while, then waved her hand casually and said, “Work-related stuff. Let’s not talk about that for now. Can you do me a favor?”
“A favor?” Mo Tan blinked, “If I can handle it, then it’s fine.”
“No big deal.” Shuang Ye said with a giggle, “I have some work to do in reality later. You’re good with words, can you talk to Ned and cover my shift?”
Mo Tan scratched his hair, “Cover your shift?”
“Yesterday, I asked the Captain about the specific patrol missions.” Shuang Ye spoke quickly, “Normally, you and the Captain would be a team going to the wilderness south of the city to inspect the mines. Salazar and Krab, those two with distorted aesthetics, would go west to see if those dog-people tribes are behaving. Yinna and I would go to recharge the magic crystal lamps on the north road.”
Mo Tan nodded and asked, “And then?”
“Priests also have magic power, right? Even if I’m not there, you should be able to help recharge them, so…” Shuang Ye looked at Mo Tan with great anticipation, “Can you ask for leave for me, and then go in my place?”
‘Smart!’
Mo Tan praised in his heart, but on his face, he showed no trace, as if he was pondering. After a while, he nodded, “I think there shouldn should be no problem.”
“Hehe~” Shuang Ye gave a somewhat forced smile and said, “Oh, right, why did you suddenly go offline yesterday? Without even saying hello.”
Mo Tan immediately showed an embarrassed expression, turning his head away unnaturally.
“What exactly happened~” Shuang Ye certainly didn’t let him off the hook, immediately pressing, “It wouldn’t be about Black Su—…”
“Actually,” Mo Tan smiled a little awkwardly, “I had an upset stomach…”
“…”
“What’s with that expression?”
“Nothing, I just feel like an idiot.”
“Oh…”
Then Mo Tan, with the socially less adept Shuang Ye, went to Ned to ask for leave for her. As for the reason, he simply used “family matters” as an excuse.
Ned was also a more humane guy. He nodded and agreed without much hesitation. Anyway, this kind of small-scale patrol mission was not a big deal, and there was no need to be too serious about it.
“Alright then.” He nodded, “Then Black Vatican, you and Yinna go help out on the North Road. Actually, our squad originally didn’t have this mission, but now that we have a spellcaster, Gart just asked us to routinely recharge it. That’s how it is. I’ll go to the mine alone.”
Shuang Ye smiled sweetly, “Thank you, Captain~”
Then she jogged out of the military camp.
…
A few minutes later, Fenrir Squad set off in groups. Almost as soon as they stepped out of Dieyan City’s North Gate, Mo Tan leaned towards Yinna, who was humming a tune beside him…
“Uh, Sister Yinna… can you use magic power?”
Chapter 14: End