The Game

I discovered something interesting, so I contacted you ahead of time.!

I discovered that the system of a certain mind-simulation game from the latest city was sturdy and impenetrable. It had even burned out some interesting components in the process.

So I'm inviting you to meet me once. Of course, this is also rather risky for me. If you can successfully hack into its main server...

Then I think this game will most likely end with your victory.

But that possibility isn't very high. After all, if you were far above my level, you would have found me and dragged me out long ago, wouldn't you?

You have half a day to prepare. At seven thirty tonight, I'll stay for an hour in Area 13 of a public space. The password is the joint operation from three months ago.

Don't let me down, sun.

—From your "loyal" partner

Mu You stared blankly at the decoded message before her. It wasn't ordinary blankness, either—she felt like she was completely falling apart!

To make sure the two of them wouldn't have to rely on high-difficulty temporary clashes as their only means of communication, the two people who made up Black Sun had casually chosen a low-end phishing site as a message board. They had agreed to exchange information there at regular intervals, discussing everything except attacking each other.

Of course, if there was nothing important to say, they could simply leave a message like "The weather's nice today." That was fine, too.

By now, countless large-scale hacking operations had been negotiated and coordinated in this place that was so low-level it couldn't possibly be any lower.

At the same time, they would try to make things difficult for each other whenever they left messages. Everything was written in code, and most of their codebooks consisted of recent articles, magazines, and gossip. Occasionally, however, they would use the Bible, the New Chinese Dictionary, or famous novels to increase the difficulty. The code Mo Tan had left for Mu You was relatively simple, using only a column from the evening paper two days ago. Clearly, he didn't want her to waste time on this.

Because the message itself had already left her very little time...

"Seven thirty tonight... Area 13 of a public space... A certain mind-simulation game from the latest city..." Mu You stared fixedly at the computer screen, pursed her lips, and murmured, "What the hell are you up to? Are you deliberately trying to confuse me, or..."

She glanced back at the tracking program that was only halfway complete and muttered, "Or did I get it wrong from the very beginning? Or maybe it's some kind of trap? Damn it!"

Mu You went a little crazy. She rolled beneath the bed and rolled around on the soft carpet, vigorously rubbing her adorable baby face. After thrashing about for quite a while, she climbed up with her hair in disarray, hacked directly into the phishing site's backend, and entered a message in pager format.

See you tonight. Also, spare me those brain-dead hints like "the game from the latest city." They're obviously way too crude!!!

"Phew~" After finishing the input, Mu You crouched back into her chair, terminated the tracking program, and then simultaneously played several of her favorite new anime, old anime, and... er, not that one.

As she watched the animation, she rapidly thought through the whole matter. Mo Tan's covert struggle had continued for many years. Although she didn't know whether the other side had made any progress, Mu You had indeed made quite a few gains. She had even locked onto several highly suspicious targets.

And among them was Mo Tan...

Although she only knew what he looked like and the possibility wasn't particularly high, Mu You had still placed him on her list of suspects. It was simple: she had discovered that there were problems with this person's information. Even his residential address and similar details had never been registered online.

They were only suspicious details, but Mu You still remembered his face.

However, although she suspected him, she hadn't paid him too much attention. After all, the girl's list of suspects contained at least a thousand people, including people of every race and gender from all over the world, so she hadn't taken it too seriously.

Until...

She encountered Mo Tan in Innocent World. For this priest who seemed not to have disguised his appearance at all, Shuangye had almost immediately begun testing him.

She had first logged off and laid out countless "bait," then subtly revealed that she was Black Sun when they met for the second time, while having the AI continuously monitor the online situation.

The result delighted her. The fake information she had hastily created for the sixth type had been accessed more than three million times in a single day. She had been overjoyed upon learning this and was preparing to verify it further when... he had even invited her to meet in a public space in Innocent World, while acting as if he had no idea she had already started playing the game, believing that he himself was the first person to attempt to break through Innocent Company's firewall.

What the hell?!?!

Although she had replied that his hint was too lacking in technical sophistication, Mu You knew very well that finding this game was easy. The true difficulty lay in obtaining a complete set of equipment in a single afternoon and logging into Innocent World on time at seven thirty that evening. There was no way she could build the thing herself in time.

Two days after the game's launch, its popularity had already triggered a frenzy. It wasn't easy to buy a game pod immediately without a reservation anywhere in the world. As for the city where Mu You lived, the reservations she had checked were already backed up for two days. Most other places were in the same situation.

Mo Tan's conditions were extremely harsh.

But...

The girl turned her head and looked at a "game pod" in the corner of the room, built on the foundation of a bathtub and fitted with a huge number of peripherals and cables. She was utterly speechless.

She had spent an entire day two days ago consulting a massive amount of data and building this thing herself.

And she had very clearly told that priest named Hei Fan about it.

"This is getting more and more confusing~" Mu You pushed up her glasses, placed her two fair, long legs—as was customary—on the desk, and pouted. "Whatever. I'll know after meeting him~ Going to a public space at seven thirty is all I need to do... Huh!?"

She suddenly covered her small mouth and cried, "Wait! If it's seven thirty..."

Mo Tan was sitting leisurely in front of his computer, drinking coffee. Instant coffee, that was.

A few minutes ago, the overwhelming targeted attacks and searches from sun had suddenly fallen completely silent. The massive offensive had ended just like that. Mo Tan, however, wasn't surprised in the slightest. After receiving the reply, he had already confirmed that the girl called Shuangye in the game was sun herself. At this moment, she had probably fallen into mild confusion, exactly as he had expected.

Now all that remained was to put on a "good show."

"Brain-dead hints, huh..." Mo Tan blinked at the message on the screen. "Without that, wouldn't it have given you even more clues?"

He drained the coffee beside him, shut down the computer, walked back to the sofa, and sat down. He closed his eyes with a faintly amused expression.

There was still plenty of time. Some details still needed to be perfected, and they had to be things he could accomplish easily even while in his other personality.

Seven in the evening

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

Connection complete. Reading character information...

Welcome back, Absolute Neutral's Hei Fan. Innocent World is about to load. Have a pleasant evening.

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

"Upon logging in, you appear at the nearest location where no other NPCs have noticed you..." Mo Tan softly repeated something he had seen on the forums, then nodded to himself. "That's pretty convenient."

It was just becoming light in the game. Most people in the autonomous military camp who had no missions were resting, making the place seem especially quiet. The time for Fenrir Squad to assemble, however, was almost here.

After identifying the direction, Mo Tan briskly walked toward his station. He soon saw Ned and the others checking their weapons and equipment in front of the barracks.

"You're here?" Yinna, whose eyes were the sharpest, reversed several feathered arrows into her quiver and called loudly to Mo Tan. "Hurry up, hurry up! We're about to set out!"

Ned glared at her. "Keep your voice down. Some people are still resting. Besides, we're going on patrol, not a picnic!"

"Tch, those lazy bums who are still sleeping at this hour have no right to complain that other people are noisy!" Yinna stuck out her tongue and retorted, "And routine patrols aren't much different from picnics anyway. Things have been pretty peaceful lately, haven't they?"

"It would be great if that were really the case. You're not the only one who wants to laze around here." Ned shrugged at her, then turned to ask Mo Tan, "Do you need to take some weapons?"

Mo Tan gave a mysterious smile and shook the scripture that had cost twenty copper coins at cost price. "This is enough for me. We're not really going to make a priest charge into the front lines, are we?"

Crab, who was sharpening an axe, looked up at him, casually took a mace from the rack behind him, and tossed it over. Grinning, he said, "Take this. It was issued by the army for free anyway. If you don't like using it, sell it later and use the money to buy me a drink."

"That violates military regulations..." Ned said weakly. Then, in a low voice, he added to Mo Tan, who had picked up the mace, "Unless you count me in when you're drinking. There's a weapons shop south of the city that buys these things back. You know the one, right..."

Mo Tan awkwardly weighed the mace in his hand and nodded. "I know, I know. By the way, Shuangye still isn't here?"

He hadn't forgotten that, in other people's eyes, he owned property in Rockpile City. It would be too strange if he didn't even know about a blacksmith shop south of the city...

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

Could she be planning to stand everyone up just to meet me in the public space? That would make things difficult...

"Not yet." Ned spread his hands. "She doesn't live in the military camp, like you. It isn't easy for a girl who's also a mage to get up and assemble this early."

At that moment, a lazy voice suddenly sounded from behind them. "I just had a little extra breakfast. Could you stop underestimating girls~~"

Shuangye rubbed her eyes and slowly walked over, dissatisfiedly pursing her lips at Ned. "And I don't think I'm late, am I, Captain?"

"No, there are still a few minutes left." Ned smiled awkwardly. "I wasn't saying anything bad about you behind your back."

Shuangye tilted her head noncommittally, then tugged on the hem of Mo Tan's clothes and whispered, "Come over here for a moment..."

She pulled him aside.

"What is it?" Mo Tan looked curiously at the girl before him, whose expression was full of suspicion. "And why do you look like you haven't woken up yet?"

Shuangye stared at him for a long while before waving it off indifferently. "It's something work-related. Forget that for now. Could you do me a favor?"

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

"It shouldn't be a problem." Shuangye smiled brightly. "I have some work to deal with in reality later. You're good with words. Could you discuss it with Ned and cover my shift?"

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

"I asked the captain about the specific patrol duties yesterday." Shuangye spoke rapidly. "Normally, you and the captain should go inspect the mines in the wilderness south of the city. Salazar and Crab, those two guys with horribly warped tastes, should go west to see whether those two tribes of dog-what's-his-name are behaving themselves. Yinna and I are supposed to recharge the magic crystal lamps along the main road to the north."

Mo Tan nodded and asked, "And then?"

"Priests have mana too, right? If I'm not there, you should be able to help recharge them, so..." Shuangye looked at Mo Tan with great anticipation. "Could you ask for leave on my behalf and go there instead?"

Smart!

Mo Tan praised her inwardly, but his face remained expressionless, as if he were deep in thought. Only after a long while did he nod. "I don't think there should be a problem."

"Hehe~" Shuangye gave a somewhat forced smile. "By the way, why did you suddenly log off yesterday? You didn't even say anything."

Mo Tan immediately put on an embarrassed expression and turned his head away unnaturally.

"What exactly happened~" Shuangye naturally had no intention of letting it go and immediately pressed him. "You weren't scared by something concerning Black Su..."

"Actually..." Mo Tan smiled awkwardly. "I had an upset stomach..."

"..."

"What's with that expression?"

"Nothing. I just feel like an idiot."

"Oh..."

Then Mo Tan took the socially inept Shuangye to Ned to ask for leave on her behalf. As for the reason, they simply brushed it off by saying something had come up at home.

Ned was also a rather warmhearted fellow. He agreed without much hesitation. In any case, this small-scale patrol mission wasn't a major matter, and there was no need to take it too seriously.

"All right, then." He nodded. "Hei Fan, you and Yinna go help out by the northern road. Our squad didn't originally have this assignment, but now that we have a spellcaster, Gart asked us to recharge them while we were at it. How about this? I'll go to the mines alone."

Shuangye smiled sweetly. "Thank you, Captain~"

Then she jogged out of the military camp. Before long, Mo Tan saw the system notification that his friend Shuangye had logged off.

A few minutes later, Fenrir Squad set out in groups. Almost as soon as they stepped through Rockpile City's northern gate, Mo Tan leaned toward Yinna, who was humming a little tune beside him...

"Um, Sis Yinna... can you use mana?"