Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Game

[Found something interesting, so I'm reaching out early.]

[In a newly released mental simulation game, I discovered its system is solid and unbreakable—it even burned out some interesting components trying to crack it.]

[So I plan to invite you for a meeting. Of course, this is also a risky move for me. If you can successfully hack into its main server...]

[Then I imagine this game will likely end with your victory.]

[But that possibility isn't high, after all, if you were far superior to me, you'd have already rooted me out long ago, wouldn't you?]

[You have half a day to prepare. At 7:30 PM tonight, in Sector 13 of a certain public space, I'll stay for an hour. The password is the joint operation from three months ago.]

[Don't disappoint me, Sun.]

[—From your 'loyal' partner]

...

Mu You stared blankly at the decoded message before her, and it wasn't just a simple daze—she felt utterly thrown off!

To avoid having to rely on high-difficulty temporary conflicts as their only means of communication, the two who formed 'Black Sun' had casually picked a low-end phishing website as a message board. They agreed to periodically update each other on their situations there, discussing everything except mutual attacks.

Of course, if there was really nothing to say, a casual line like 'Nice weather today' was perfectly fine.

So far, countless large-scale Black Sun hacking operations had been negotiated and coordinated in this utterly low-level place.

When they left messages for each other, they also tried to make things as difficult as possible. The content was written in code, and the corresponding codebooks were mostly recent articles, magazines, or gossip—but occasionally, they'd throw in the Bible, the Xinhua Dictionary, or famous novels to up the difficulty. This time, however, Black's message to Mu You was decoded simply using a newspaper column from two days ago, clearly not wanting her to waste time on that front.

Because the content itself already left her with very little time...

"7:30 PM tonight... Sector 13 of some public space... a newly released mental simulation game..." Mu You stared intently at the computer screen, gently biting her lip, and murmured, "What the hell are you up to! Are you deliberately trying to confuse my thoughts, or..."

She glanced back at the tracking program that was only partially complete and whispered, "Or did I get it wrong from the start? Or maybe it's a trap or something, dammit!"

Mu You rolled off the bed in frustration, flopping around on the soft carpet and vigorously rubbing her cute, childish face. After tossing and turning for a while, she finally crawled up with her hair a mess, directly hacked into the phishing website's backend, and left a message in pager format.

[Be there or be square. Also, spare me the idiotic hints like 'newly released game'—it's way too obvious!!!]

"Phew~" After finishing her input, Mu You crouched back onto her chair and directly terminated the tracking program. Then, she simultaneously played her favorite new anime, old anime, and... uh, not that one.

While watching the anime, she rapidly thought through the entire sequence of events. Her covert 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 few insights, even narrowing down some highly suspicious targets.

Among them was Mo Tan...

Even though she only knew what he looked like and the likelihood wasn't high, Mu You still added him to her list of suspects. It was simple: she found some issues with this person's data—his residential address and such weren't even registered on the internet.

Though it was just a few oddities, Mu You still remembered his face.

Even if he wasn't Black, he was at least some kind of hacker, and peeping on fellow hackers was one of Mu You's hobbies...

However, despite her suspicions, she didn't pay too much attention to it. After all, the girl's suspect list had at least a thousand people, spanning different races and genders from all over the world, so she didn't dwell on it.

Until...

She encountered Mo Tan in Innocent Realm. For this priest who seemed to have made no effort to alter his appearance, Futaba almost immediately made a probe.

She quickly logged off, set up countless "baits," and then subtly revealed that she was Black Sun during their second meeting, while having an AI continuously monitor the network situation.

The result thrilled her. The fake data temporarily created by Type VI was accessed over three million times in a single day. Overjoyed by this news, she was about to proceed with further verification when...

Black's message abruptly appeared.

And he even invited her to meet in the Public Space of Innocent Realm, acting as if he had no idea she was already playing the game, assuming he was the first to try breaking through Innocent Company's firewall.

What the hell?!?!

Although her reply indicated that his hint lacked technical sophistication, Mu You knew very well that finding the game itself was simple. The real difficulty was acquiring a full set of equipment in one afternoon to log into Innocent Realm by 7:30 PM—building one from scratch would be impossible.

Two days after the game's launch, its popularity had sparked a frenzy. Getting a game pod without a reservation was tough anywhere in the world. In Mu You's own city, the online reservation queue was already backed up two days, and most other places were similar.

It could be said that the conditions Black set this time were extremely harsh.

But...

The girl turned her head, looking at a "game pod" in the corner of the room—a bathtub base with a ton of external devices and cables attached—and felt utterly speechless.

Two days ago, she had already spent an entire day referencing a vast amount of data to create this very machine.

And she had already clearly told this to the priest named 'Hei Fan.'

But Black seemed completely unaware of it... instead, he thought she was making things harder for him.

"It's getting more and more chaotic~" Mu You pushed up her glasses, propped her fair, long legs (proportionally speaking) up on the table, and pouted: "Oh well, I'll find out after we meet~ I'll just head to the Public Space at 7:30 tonight... Ah!?"

She suddenly covered her mouth with a small hand and exclaimed: "Wait! If it's 7:30 tonight..."

...

Mo Tan was currently sitting in front of his computer, leisurely sipping coffee—instant coffee, at that.

Just a few minutes ago, the overwhelming targeted attacks and searches from SUN had gone completely silent, bringing a massive offensive to an end. Mo Tan wasn't surprised in the slightest, though. Having received a reply, he was certain that the girl named Futaba in the game was SUN herself, and she was probably already in a state of mild confusion, exactly as he had predicted.

Now all that was left was to put on a 'good show.'

"A brain-dead hint, huh..." Mo Tan blinked at the message on his screen: "Without this, I'd actually be giving away even more."

He downed the coffee in one gulp, shut down the computer, walked back to the sofa, and sat down, closing his eyes with a hint of amusement.

There was still plenty of time. Some details needed to be refined, and they had to be the kind he could easily pull off even while in his other personality.

...

7:00 PM

[Your mental connection has been detected. Synchronizing personal information...]

[Connection complete. Loading character data.]

[Welcome back, True Neutral Hei Fan. About to load into Innocent Realm. Good night.]

Mo Tan appeared in a corner of the military camp. It wasn't where he had logged out, but an empty area with no one around, not far from where the Fenrir Squad was stationed.

"You log in at the nearest spot not noticed by other NPCs, huh..." Mo Tan quietly repeated a line he'd seen on the forums, nodding to himself: "That's pretty convenient."

At this time in the game, the sky was just beginning to lighten. Most people in the Territorial Guard camp without tasks were resting, making it look especially quiet. But it was almost time for the Fenrir Squad to assemble.

After briefly getting his bearings, Mo Tan walked briskly toward his post. Soon, he spotted Ned and the others checking their weapons and gear in front of the barracks.

"You're here?" Yinna, with the sharpest eyes, slotted a few arrows back into her quiver and called out loudly to Mo Tan: "Hurry up, hurry up! We're about to head out."

Ned shot her a glare: "Keep your voice down. 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 us being noisy!" Yinna stuck out her tongue and talked back, "Besides, routine patrol isn't much different from a picnic, is it? Things have been pretty peaceful lately, right?"

"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 to equip some weapons?"

Mo Tan gave a particularly enigmatic smile, pulled out the teaching book that had cost him 20 copper coins, and shook it, "I'll just use this. You're not going to make a priest like me charge into battle head-on, are you?"

Klab, who was sharpening his axe, looked up at him, casually grabbed a mace from the rack behind him, and tossed it over, grinning, "Take it. It's free issue from the army anyway. If you don't like it, just sell it later and use the money to buy me a drink."

"That's against military regulations..." Ned said weakly, then muttered to Mo Tan, who had picked up the mace, "Unless you count me in for the drink. There's a weapon shop in the south of the city that buys these things. You should know that, right..."

Mo Tan chuckled dryly, weighing the mace in his hand, and nodded, "I know, I know. Speaking of which, Futaba hasn't shown up yet?"

He hadn't forgotten that in others' eyes, he was someone with property in Layered Rock City. If he didn't even know about a blacksmith shop in the south of the city, that would be way too strange...

The problem now was, why hadn't Futaba arrived yet?!

【She's not planning to stand everyone up just to meet me in the Public Space, is she? That would be a real problem...】

"Not yet." Ned spread his hands, "She doesn't live in the barracks either, just like you. As a girl and a mage, it's not easy for her to get up this early and assemble."

Just then, a lazy voice suddenly came from behind the two of them: "I just took a little longer with breakfast. Don't underestimate girls, okay~~"

Futaba rubbed her eyes as she strolled over, pouting at Ned in dissatisfaction, "And I'm not late, am I, Captain?"

"No, you've still got a few minutes." Ned gave an awkward smile, "I wasn't badmouthing you behind your back."

Futaba tilted her head noncommittally, then tugged at Mo Tan's sleeve and whispered, "Come here for a second..."

She pulled him aside.

"What's up?" Mo Tan looked curiously at the girl, whose expression was quite suspicious, and asked, "And why do you look like you haven't woken up yet?"

Futaba stared at him for a good while, then waved her hand dismissively, "It's work-related stuff. Let's not talk about that for now. Can you do me a favor?"

"A favor?" Mo Tan blinked, "If it's something I can handle, I don't mind."

"It's no big deal." Futaba said with a grin, "I've got some real-world work to take care of in a bit. You're good with words—could you talk to Ned and cover my shift for me?"

Mo Tan scratched his head, "Cover your shift?"

"Yesterday, I asked the captain about the specifics of the patrol mission," Futaba said rapidly. "Normally, you and the captain would be in one group heading to the southern wilderness to inspect the mine, while Salazar and Klab—those two with their twisted aesthetics—go west to check if those two tribes of whatever-the-hell are behaving themselves. Me and Yinna are supposed to recharge the magic crystal lamps along the North Main Road."

Mo Tan nodded and asked, "And then?"

"Priests have mana too, right? Even if I'm not there, you should be able to help with the recharging, so..." Futaba looked at Mo Tan with particular anticipation. "Could you ask for leave on my behalf and go in my stead?"

[Clever!]

Mo Tan praised inwardly, but his face remained expressionless as if he were pondering. After a long moment, he nodded. "I think that should be fine."

"Hehe~" Futaba gave a somewhat forced smile and added, "By the way, why did you suddenly log off yesterday without even saying a word?"

Mo Tan immediately wore a reluctant expression and turned his head away awkwardly.

"What exactly happened~" Futaba, of course, wasn't about to let him off the hook and pressed on. "Don't tell me it was about that Hei Tai..."

"Actually," Mo Tan smiled sheepishly, "I had an upset stomach..."

"..."

"What's with that look?"

"Nothing, I just feel like an idiot."

"Oh..."

Then Mo Tan took Futaba, who had poor social skills, to find Ned and ask for leave on her behalf. As for the reason, they simply brushed it off with a vague excuse about family matters.

Ned was also a rather humane guy and agreed without much hesitation. After all, this kind of small-scale patrol mission wasn't a big deal, so there was no need to be too strict about it.

"Alright then," he nodded. "Hei Fan, you go with Yinna to the North Main Road and help out. Originally, our squad didn't have this task, but now that we have a spellcaster, Gat asked us to do a routine recharge on the way. That's settled. I'll handle the mine alone."

Futaba gave a sweet smile. "Thanks, Captain~"

Then she jogged off, leaving the military camp. Soon after, Mo Tan saw the offline notification for his friend Futaba.

A few minutes later, the Fenrir Squad split into groups and set off. Almost as soon as they stepped out of the north gate of Layered Rock City, Mo Tan sidled up to Yinna, who was humming a tune...

"Hey, Sister Yinna... can you use mana?"

Chapter 14: The End