Digital Offensive and Defensive Battle (Part Two)

Warehouse Seven at Pier Three in Tokyo Bay stood like an iron graveyard in the darkness. Tang Yu crouched in the shadow of a shipping container, rainwater dripping from his waterproof jacket. Less than two hours remained before Tsukishiro had to return to the Hive to synchronize.

Karuizawa was pale. "I... I'm afraid of heights..."

"Trust me." Tang Yu looked at her firmly. "I'll protect you."

The shouts from downstairs drew closer, and someone began pounding on the bathroom door. Karuizawa gritted her teeth and nodded, then grabbed the shower curtain and started climbing down. Tang Yu followed close behind, scanning the area below with the system:

[Personnel detected on the ground]

[Number: 6]

[Armed with: Nonlethal stun batons]

[Recommendation: Turn toward the bushes on the left]

When they reached the height of the second floor, the shower curtain suddenly tore! Karuizawa screamed as she fell. Tang Yu leaped after her, catching her in midair as he activated:

[Instant Buffer Force Field]

[Cost: 5,000 points]

[Remaining Emotion Points: 2,400]

An invisible cushion of air formed just before they hit the ground, absorbing most of the impact. They rolled into the bushes, and Tang Yu immediately covered Karuizawa's mouth, signaling for her to stay quiet.

Six security guards carrying stun batons ran past less than five meters away. Their powerful flashlights swept over the bushes, nearly catching them. Only after the footsteps faded did Tang Yu let go.

"What do we do now?" Karuizawa whispered. She was soaked through, her blonde hair plastered to her pale cheeks. "They've definitely sealed off the school gates..."

Tang Yu thought for a moment, recalling Ayanokōji's text. Tsukishiro depended on a central node... If they could find and destroy it...

"Let's get off campus first," Tang Yu decided. "I know a place Tsukishiro won't find."

Using the torrential rain as cover, they moved through the blind spots in the surveillance system. Tang Yu spent his remaining Emotion Points to acquire temporary environmental-vision abilities, avoiding every patrol. By the time they finally climbed over the school wall, the horizon had begun to brighten.

"Where... are we?" Karuizawa asked, looking at the shabby apartment building before them.

"Ayanokōji's safe house." Tang Yu entered the access code—715229. "He told me before he left."

The apartment was unexpectedly tidy, with all the necessities of daily life. What stood out most was the old but clearly modified computer in the middle of the living room, along with the wall covered in notes and photographs—all of them related to the White Room.

Karuizawa collapsed onto the sofa and finally broke down sobbing. "Why me? I haven't done anything! I just... I just wanted to start over..."

Tang Yu knelt in front of her and gently wiped away her tears. "Because your change was so pure, so real. Tsukishiro wants to analyze it, replicate it, and then..." He remembered Tsukishiro's words at the hearing. "Harvest it."

"What should we do?" Karuizawa looked up through tear-filled eyes.

Tang Yu looked over the information on the wall, his gaze settling on a blurry photograph. It showed the basement of some building, where dozens of devices resembling incubation pods stood in rows. A label in the corner read: WR-Hive-7.

"Find the Hive," Tang Yu said softly. "Destroy Tsukishiro's central node."

He helped Karuizawa to the bedroom to rest, then returned to the living room to study the information Ayanokōji had left behind. Beside the computer lay a USB drive labeled "For Tang Yu."

As soon as he plugged it into the computer, a video started playing automatically. Ayanokōji's face appeared on the screen:

"If you're watching this, Tsukishiro has already made his move. The White Room's Seventh Hive is located inside an abandoned flood-control facility beneath Tokyo Bay. The entrance is at Warehouse Seven, Pier Three, in the port district. Tsukishiro's main server is there, but it's heavily guarded."

The video switched to blurry surveillance footage of Tsukishiro entering a basement. After taking off his jacket, he revealed a conspicuous port at the nape of his neck, connected to his spinal nerves.

"As you can see, Tsukishiro Shuhei is a biological AI host. He must return to the Hive every 72 hours to synchronize his memories and energy. The next synchronization is due..." A string of numbers appeared on the screen: 72:00:00, counting down.

Tang Yu checked the current time. Thirty-one hours remained until the next synchronization.

"The Hive's defenses include 12 armed guards, motion sensors, and an electromagnetic pulse barrier. A frontal assault is impossible. But there's a flaw in Tsukishiro's design..."

The video abruptly switched to a complex technical diagram.

"...His biological neural network relies on quantum entanglement. That means any attack on him will immediately feed back to the main server.

"The reverse is also true—if you can hack the server, you can directly affect every connected Tsukishiro unit."

At the end of the video, Ayanokōji looked unusually grave. "The choice is yours. Attacking the Hive is extremely dangerous, but it's the only way to stop Tsukishiro. I've installed all the necessary hacking tools on the computer. Good luck."

The screen went dark, and Tang Yu fell into thought. Within 31 hours, he would have to plan an infiltration of a heavily guarded facility while protecting Karuizawa—and his Emotion Points were nearly depleted.

The bedroom door opened softly, and Karuizawa stepped out in a clean change of clothes. "I heard some of it... Are you going to that Hive?"

Tang Yu nodded. "This is our only chance to put an end to all of this."

"'Our,'" Karuizawa stressed. "I'm not letting you risk your life alone."

"It's too dangerous!"

"More dangerous than tonight?" Karuizawa gave a bitter smile. "Listen, I know I don't have your special abilities, but I can help. Tsukishiro wants me, which means I can be the bait..."

"Absolutely not!" Tang Yu cut her off sharply. "You have no idea how dangerous Tsukishiro is!"

"That's exactly why I have to be involved!" A rare determination shone in Karuizawa's eyes. "This isn't your fight alone, Tang Yu. My life, my memories, my future... I want to take them back with my own hands."

They stared at each other for a long time. At last, Tang Yu sighed. "All right. But we need a plan, and you have to follow my instructions to the letter."

Karuizawa nodded, looking a little more relaxed. She walked over to Tang Yu and looked at the computer screen. "So, Mr. Genius Hacker, how do we break into a super AI's lair?"

Tang Yu couldn't help smiling as he began browsing the toolkit on the computer. His elite hacking skills let him recognize at once that these weren't ordinary programs—there was a quantum decryption tool, a neural network simulator, and even an AI consciousness interference algorithm. Ayanokōji had prepared extensively.

"First," Tang Yu said, opening a map of Tokyo Bay, "we need to figure out the Hive's exact layout and the guards' shift rotations..."

Outside, the torrential rain began to ease, and the first rays of sunlight pierced the clouds. Over the next 31 hours, they would plan an almost impossible raid.

Somewhere, Tsukishiro Shuhei was searching for them through countless cameras and surveillance devices.