ch99

“Ugh……”

A delicate groan escaped from the girl’s tightly closed lips.

As her closed eyes twitched as if she were having a nightmare, her eyelashes also fluttered naturally.

She stubbornly crossed her arms and buried herself in the chair, but she wasn’t asleep. Of course, it was also ambiguous to say that her consciousness was awake, as she showed no signs of emerging from the depths of her thoughts, so ultimately, it would be correct to say that she was agonizing.

‘Not as rigid as engineering, nor as rude as hacking.’

Rosalyn Serino, who introduced herself as a net artist, was a prodigy and a talent.

Objectively, not only among her peers but also within the organization, and even in the eyes of completely unrelated outsiders. To put it bluntly, even if you gathered people in the same industry, who were full of pride and ego, and asked them to evaluate her, they would reluctantly acknowledge her as a genius.

But she never boasted about it or deliberately flaunted it.

It wasn’t exactly a virtue of humility, but there was no need to laboriously talk about something that had simply become one of the obvious facts.

In her reckless childhood, after hearing her father complain that salary increase negotiations were slow, she made full use of the cyber engineering skills she had learned on her own.

Starting with cracking the computer network of a mid-sized local company that was subcontracted by Mega Corp, and anonymously reporting the strange flow of funds and the reality of the slush fund that the president was creating to a media outlet, she made a tumultuous debut on the front page of the local electronic newspaper.

After many twists and turns, she joined Five Eyes and is currently assigned to one of the front-line special task forces.

She hasn’t had an undefeated record, as she has always fought on disadvantaged battlefields, but Rosalyn has built up a rather glamorous resume—criminal record—for her age, and she was confident that she could thoroughly beat up even the elite hackers of Elysium if they were to face off under equal or similar conditions. No, she was.

Specifically, until a week ago.

“Tch……”

She violently exhaled through her nose.

Aside from Asif, who was resting peacefully next to her, there was no one to see her, but as if showing it to the rival and formidable opponent who had occupied the empty seat across from her and then left, she crossed her legs.

…But then she felt like she was imitating the black-clad girl who had been teaching her with a graceful and noble posture, like a senior, so she abruptly released them.

A large-scale technology theft offensive under the pretext of securing the safety of Paradise Corporation’s city.

From the moment the request was posted on the black market, serious casualties were expected, so various organizations were keeping a close watch on the matter.

And… it was also the event where the first surface activity of Anastasia Valentine, the hacker and mercenary who had recently monopolized Rosalyn’s attention and thoughts, was observed.

At the time, the number of hacking damage reports filed with the police or companies before and after the incident was about 8,000.

That was only the sum of the reports that were included with the anonymous unauthorized access records, just in case, so if you included the people who ignored it because there was no direct damage and the cases where people didn’t even know they were attacked, it was clear that it was a large-scale offensive that would reach tens of thousands….

“……What does the leader think of her?”

“We can’t just look at her leniently, but it’s okay not to antagonize her right away. At least in Paradise, it’s certain that she has connections in higher places than the people we’ve recruited.”

“Is there nothing else besides saying such obvious things so easily…?”

Even if she grumbled, Asif only let out a soft chuckle, as if he found Rosalyn’s sulky expression amusing.

It was an operation where it was only natural to have a backer or a supporting force, so all the organizations were vying with each other to find out who was behind her.

Five Eyes’ deployment of Rosalyn and Asif was also part of an investigation into her affiliation, disguised as a recommendation.

Pretending to draw in Anastasia, who must have been a major axis of the operation, while probing her backers.

But Rosalyn, a field agent, personally investigated the explosion accident that occurred at the gate in recent days, and after sharing her skills directly, she realized.

A famous Network Hacker leaves a clear trace of their unique working style in the places they have been.

A trace that is cumbersome and complicated to imitate, like a person’s fingerprint or iris pattern.

The path they took, the security vulnerabilities they exploited, the command and code formats they mainly used, the device allocation numbers they failed to erase, etc., are inevitably left behind unless the system they invaded is completely restored to its original state with time and effort.

So, if it was a group effort, there should have been a variety of traces left by the number of people who participated, but there wasn’t a single weed left in the network that Anastasia had swept through.

Should it be called a rule in irregularity, an order in chaos? Rosalyn read from a series of seemingly unrelated incidents and accidents the thoroughness that went beyond being thorough, the chilling force and skill, and the boldness and spontaneity to act without hesitation even in bare ground without any groundwork.

She didn’t hide it, even though she could have hidden it enough.

A personification of confidence that was so violent that it was not enough to call it violent.

That’s why Rosalyn classified the case in the lower levels of Harvest Planet as Anastasia Valentine’s ‘first surface activity.’

There was no way that someone with her abilities could have popped out of thin air, so there must be a dazzling past.

Also… there must be a reason why she suddenly appeared on the front lines.

“…I don’t know.”

She thought that she, as a fellow genius, would be able to understand.

But the more she talked to her, the more she realized that their perspectives, values, and vessels were different, and her belief gradually weakened.

‘I don’t think it’s good to see the world in such a dichotomous way.’

‘Have convictions, but don’t be obsessed with ideologies.’

‘I didn’t say I didn’t have one or two secrets hidden.’

The topics she threw out as if she were looking into her heart and standing on top of her head.

When she actually experienced it, her skills were so sharp that it was difficult to guarantee victory.

Moreover, she had carried out several large-scale projects on her own, yet her goals were unclear.

Even if you consider blowing up an entire district of the gate as revenge for her family, she made the DDoS attack that Rosalyn had been preparing for over a week disappear, saying that she had to earn some pocket money~

There’s a limit to being a good person, she kept making loopholes for not only ordinary citizens but even fugitives like them to escape!

She wanted to show it to some of the guys who were shouting about sacrificing the few for the sake of the many, so they could learn from her.

In the end, the conclusion that Rosalyn came to after much deliberation was the same as Asif’s.

A gray person who is difficult to make a hasty judgment about. A suspicious freelancer hacker who is too versatile to ignore.

“…Hmph!”

……She really makes people agonize and worry in many ways.

Rosalyn stretched her legs out on the wide cabin table and enjoyed her rest, thinking that she was angry because she was a beauty who exuded a hard-to-hate charm when she actually met her….

Bang—!!

“Kyaak?!”

“!!”

With a sudden explosion, the chair and the entire car shook.

Without saying who was first.

Asif, who instinctively drew his gun, began to scan his surroundings with his ears perked up, and Rosalyn, who had stubbornly dug a rat hole in the vehicle information system despite Anastasia’s dissuasion earlier, immediately took out her laptop and called up the observation cameras inside and outside the train.

Even if they were the team leader and team member in terms of rank, if Asif was a Power Player, Rosalyn was an operator and supporter.

It was her top priority to gather the information he needed to make a judgment on the situation.

However… from blocking the driving route to ambushing with Hovercrafts to stopping the train by coercion. There was no room for them, who were disguised as ordinary citizens and keeping a low profile, to intervene.

A loud crash was heard, and the torn door was buried in the sand. The Taito gang members, who called themselves the rulers of the area, poured into the interior in an instant.

“Those who value their lives, stay locked in the cabin! If you don’t resist, no one will get hurt!!”

The two people’s eyes narrowed at the low-level threat that echoed through the train.

Unlike the relatively calm two, screams and curses erupted from other cabin cars.

Asif was just touching his empty shoulder, saying that there were all sorts of unlucky cases in life, but Rosalyn, who had gone to the trouble of locking all the barrier doors and entrances in the passageways and entering a defensive posture, was just venting her anger.

“Tch… simple and barbaric! Isn’t it common sense for everyone, whether it’s this human or that human, to try hacking first if there’s a locked door?!”

Originally, there was no need to go around if there was an easy and convenient way… but her ‘common sense’ was not universally applicable.