The Doma Residence was sealed off.
The living room...
After Mai Sakurajima reluctantly accepted the explanation that the Doma Residence had been sealed off, the truth was, she had no choice but to accept it. When you were under someone else's roof, you had to bow your head! As for Kazusa Touma, she had been convinced by Sogo Doma's claim that it was just a coincidence. She had to be convinced—given what she knew about him, she probably wouldn't be able to leave anyway. What was the point of struggling?
Next, Sogo Doma had Mashiro Shiina bring over the laptop containing Shaqiang's source code.
"Sogo, is there really a fifth person here?" Mashiro Shiina looked around. As a professional artist, she couldn't believe her own eyes!
"Yeah!" Sogo Doma nodded as he powered up the laptop. "Sometimes, the human brain gives people false feedback. For example, people who freeze to death often feel hot just before they die. Compared to touch, sight is even easier to deceive..."
"Oh!" Mashiro Shiina understood that easily enough. For an artist, playing with perception was one of the basics. She had simply been caught off guard...
While they talked, the laptop finished starting up.
Sogo Doma called Shaqiang again. "Have you finished analyzing the logic behind the malicious deletion of pheromones? Can you pinpoint the other party?"
"Logic unclear. The technology used by the other party cannot be analyzed. Cause of formation: unknown!?"
"What about the data backup?"
"Backup complete. Malicious program deletion attempt detected and repelled. The other party failed to breach the backup..."
"Um..." Seeing Sogo Doma talking back and forth with the computer again, Mai Sakurajima couldn't help asking, "What are you doing now? Does it have something to do with me?"
Sogo Doma nodded. Then, as if he'd thought