Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume4 Phase02 (section)

===Part 3===

Despite the 10-year-old boy’s provocation, they couldn’t launch themselves right away because busty Miss Henrietta cried, shouted, and stomped her feet in protest. Her absurd strength was a real problem at times like this. As silly as it was, they had no choice but to persuade her and get her to cool down.

“She’s like a kid who doesn’t want to go to the dentist,” commented 3025th Prince Geranud, somewhat exasperated.

And so…

“Oh, right. I’m sure you’’ll need to know this eventually, so I’ll go ahead and tell you.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re going to the other levels, you’ll need different kinds of money. Even if you watch how you’re dressed and blend in perfectly, you’ll give yourself away the instant you use the wrong money and then they’ll call the guards on you.”

“And how do you earn that money?”

“Vulnerabilities. You know how the upper levels have lots of services done through the sorcery network, like bike deliveries? If you find a new vulnerability in one of those and report it, they pay you.”

“Eh? Are you saying you’re a Sorcery Hacker like Ayato?” asked Teleria in surprise, but 3025th Prince Geranud waved a hand to say no.

“Course not. People upload tons of photos with their eye and face data. You can do a lot by gathering those and using them for the payment processing stage on the official media summoners. There are vulnerabilities you can take advantage of even if you’re not clever enough for actual sorcery hacking.”

Mamilis nodded with interest and Henrietta held a hand to hear head and breathed a heavy sigh.

“You get more money with a serious vulnerability than a bunch of little ones. And they can’t exactly go public with these deals, so you can get the money from the box without ever meeting anyone in person.”

“I see. …That should prove very useful indeed.”

“The dangerous individual has that wicked smile again,” said Henrietta, but he ignored that.

As usual, the key was information, not power.

“You can wear the same clothes up to about the fifth level, but higher than that and you’ll need to dress nicer. Also, perfume is pretty important for blending in. Adjusting the mix of scents based on the time, place, and situation acts as a kind of code. An invisible form of ID, if you will.”

3025th Prince Geranud then supplied Ayato’s group with a home base. Whether it actually belonged to the children wasn’t clear, though.

After Geranud handed them the key and left with the other children…

“I see. This would make a good hideout for a fugitive.”

The rundown shack was made from a collection of rusty metal panels. It seemed to take all of Henrietta’s willpower to not hold her head in her hands.

Meanwhile…

“Wow, it’s like a secret base, coach.”

Mamilis’s eyes went wide. Despite her tall and slender appearance, she was a grandma’s girl at heart, so this may have excited her more than a gaudy luxury hotel or a mansion.

Ayato took a look around, but as rundown as the place was, it still had a bath, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It would make a decent place to say as long as they didn’t mind the drafts.

“Hmm, but there are only two bedrooms for the four of us, so we’ll have to split up two and two.”

“We will be splitting between boys and girls, dangerous individual!!!”

Henrietta may have decided his idea might actually happen if she didn’t protest, so she snapped back at him. A shame.

The living room even had a round media summoner, albeit a small one. Or maybe like in rural areas, the dearth of other entertainment meant people relied on network service even more.

Teleria checked over the kitchen.

“Oh, don’t grab any of the potatoes in that basket. The ones with eyes are obvious enough, but I have to check them over carefully to make sure none of the toxins have gotten inside them.”

“Ugh,” groaned Henrietta, stiffening, but this was quite a warm welcome for the bottom level. At the very least, the potatoes were recognizable. Ordinary could be a luxury. Ayato was glad they didn’t have to worry about some “beef” that was actually fat stuffed inside a dog corpse.

Mamilis puffed out her cheeks.

“Teleria got to the kitchen first again. I want to snack too.”

“I am not in here snacking.”

In order to confirm the functioning of the kitchen equipment, Teleria cooked a white chilled potato soup. It looked simple, but she has used chicken bones and quite a few herbs to get the seasoning right. Although those herbs appeared to be the weeds that grew from the cracks in the resin on the lower level. The soup also had plenty of vegetables, so a bowl of it would be quite nutritious.

It was a bit early for dinner, so it may have been more like a late lunch.

“Chilling it took some doing, but I thought something that soaked into you would feel better than a hot soup so soon after being out fighting.”

“Hee hee. This soup is good.”

Mamilis immediately stuck her spoon in her bowl with a huge grin on her face. Teleria smiled bitterly but didn’t stop her. The dark elf’s appreciation must have reached her directly. Teleria had a talent for making people happy with her cooking, but Mamilis appeared to have a talent for making people happy with how she ate their cooking.

“I wrote down the recipe. You can find all the ingredients here, so those children should be able to make it with some practice.”

Today, Teleria had increased her wife levels by 120% and was edging in on mom territories. Ayato couldn’t bear to wait a moment longer – he wanted to marry her right this instant.

And once they had eaten, it was time to get going.

They couldn’t stay away from that thing forever. The Human Cannon Catapult was the one and only way of moving between levels in the capital without leaving any record.

After locking the door to the hideout, they called over Geranud and the other children, and made their way to the roofless warehouse.

They at least needed to learn how to operate that thing.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…”

“Coach. I don’t think Henrietta will accept it until someone shows her it works.”

“Our Striker isn’t so bad in ‘scared rabbit’ mode, if you ask me.”

“Ayato, please stop recording a video.”

Oops, Teleria noticed.

Ayato slipped the crystal tarot cards back into his pocket.

Geranud (who was fairly taken aback by the sudden gift of a recipe) and the other children helped as Ayato adjusted a sandbag until it was roughly his own weight and placed it on one end of the seesaw as a test. Yanking on the giant lever would, in theory, release the stored energy of the arm-thick springs.

''Bazoom!!!

With an explosive roar not like any mana-conducting silver springs Ayato had ever heard, the sandbag vanished into the sky. He could see it’s curving arc fall into one corner of the multilevel city.

“Oh, wow. It really flew. And the Shade Swallows didn’t react.”

“Coach. It moved so fast I couldn’t track it with my binoculars. I didn’t see where it landed.”

“I told you this was a terrible idea!!” tearfully shouted straitlaced Striker Henrietta.

Apparently someone would have to demonstrate for her. Just like Mamilis had suggested. So Ayato chose to go first.

He couldn’t send the girls until he was 100% confident it was safe.

3025th Prince Geranud grinned with his hands clasped behind his head.

“Really, it’s over before the count of five, so you don’t have time to be scared. But do be careful at the moment it launches you. It’s a pretty powerful shock. If you don’t grit your teeth ahead of time, you might bite your tongue. And be careful of your neck and hips so you don’t hurt them.”

“Got it. Begin.”

“Heh heh. You sound confident. Do you like heights too?”

Ayato had never really thought about it, but he at least wasn’t afraid of them.

He sat in the seesaw that resembled a giant spoon and leaned back. He fixed his head in place. After confirming Ayato had his teeth firmly clenched, 3025th Prince Geranud used both hands to operate the lever.

''Boom.

Sure enough, there wasn’t even time for Ayato’s vision to settle on anything.

Then Ayato’s body was enveloped by something soft. It was a thick, waterproof cloth you might find as a yacht’s sail.

He really didn’t have time to feel fear.

He shook his head to make sure he hadn’t hurt himself and then saw something flying in from the distance.

“Ha ha ha! Miss Teleria, over here!!”

“Stop spreading your arms with that refreshingly wicked smile and get out of the way before I hit youuuuuuuu!!!”

She might complain, but people could not change direction once airborne. The short busty blonde crashed right into Ayato’s chest. ''Thank you, capital, for this dream come true.

The boy heard an unpleasantly raw noise come from inside him, but he didn’t care.

“Gfh!! Eh heh heh. I may have just broken a rib or two, but I regret nothing, Miss Teleria.”

“You have blood dripping from the corner of your smile. Here, I’ll use some recovery magic!”

“I’m not sure we have the time. Miss Mamilis will be flying in next.”

“M-move out of the way!!”

The two of them rolled aside while in each other’s arms to avoid the human artillery shell and Mamilis crashed into the thick waterproof cloth a beat later.

The dark elf looked a tad disappointed with her lonely landing.

She spoke to Ayato and Teleria who were lying in a shady patch of grass.

“No fair, Teleria.”

“Mamilis, you should really get out of the way. Henrietta is next and she’s wearing armor!!”

Once Henrietta was contained in the waterproof cloth, she was sprawled out and dizzy.

Apparently she really couldn’t stand transportation without the official seal of approval. The way she twitched was weirdly lewd, but Ayato knew teasing her would only make Teleria mad and make Mamilis glare at him icily.

There was a large wooden box near the landing point disguised as a decorative banner. Ayato checked inside and found another Human Cannon Catapult. So this point wasn’t just for landing. They could also launch themselves to a different level from here. Covering the trip back showed a real attention to detail.

(I see. You use this wire so the box will close after a time delay. That way its hidden after we leave.)

“Coach, where are we?”

“The second level. Remember the entrance to the capital at the end of the long bridge? This is on the same level.”

It was a touristy level, but it was actually quite low in the hierarchy. Mostly only merchants lived here, with the aristocrats and religious officials living on higher levels. Was the idea for the outsiders to enjoy themselves down below while only their money made it higher?

They couldn’t just stay at the inconspicuous landing site forever.

Before making their way to the top level, they needed to walk through other levels to see if they could blend in and identify any issues.

So they first walked to a nearby major street.

“Okay, let’s enjoy some capital sightseeing.”

Ayato’s group took a new look around.

They saw a well-maintained stone-paved street and buildings with colorful roofs. The combination looked something like a paint palette because each section had a defined size for its shops and residences. The occasional building was bigger, but those looked like someone had bought up two or three lots of land and expanded across all of them.

Ayato wanted money, so he used the public media summoners available just about everywhere.

He had heard they paid for reporting on new vulnerabilities.

“Let’s see. It would be faster to just take the cash out of the sorcery device myself.”

“Do you want me to arrest you in the act, dangerous individual?”

A young man rode up on a bicycle. He appeared to be delivering an order of fried chicken. Ordinarily, you would use the public media summoner to sign for the delivery and then insert your payment into the cash slot at the bottom of the snow-globe-like orb, but Ayato instead pulled out his linkage plug sword. He had increased his level with streetlights and sprinklers, so he stabbed it into the base of the media summoner. Then he could rewrite the amount of inserted money without actually inserting any.

(Level 8 should be enough for this.)

The bicycle delivery worker sighed in exasperation.

Ayato had a plan if the man got scared and tried to report this, but he seemed used to it.

“What, demonstrating a new vulnerability to report on? Well, I get paid either way. I don’t care where it comes from.”

“Sorry about having you ride all the way out her. We can split this.”

After sharing the fried chicken (which was apparently from a very popular restaurant) with the part-timer, a message arrived at the snow-globe-like media summoner. If they had tried to get out of paying him by saying that vulnerability was already known about, Ayato was planning to go for a more exciting type of attack, so he was a little disappointed. He memorized the displayed map and retrieved the decently thick stack of paper currency from the wooden box hidden below a bench. In the capital, even the government workers were fast.

“That should be enough for now. If I cleared out too many of the vulnerabilities, Geranud and the other kids would be out of a source of income.”

“If you knew bike deliveries were an option, why didn’t you choose to work up a sweat and earn some honest money, dangerous individual?”

“I wouldn’t receive my first paycheck until the end of the month. Are you willing to wait that long?”

The difference in remuneration between good and evil left Teleria (cutely) flustered, but something else was happening at the same time.

“Coach, someone gave me this pamphlet.”

The dark elf hid her long ears with a Mimic Option because she was afraid of humans, so it was unusual for her to act alone in a city like this. Maybe the true grandma’s girl had been influenced by the festive mood.

Mamilis unfolded the free pamphlet and Ayato took a look from her side.

“With so many first-time tourists, I doubt anyone will question it if we look lost, but we should probably start learning the names of places and landmarks. Miss Mamilis, this says that there is Labor and Blessings Street.”

“How am I supposed to remember that, coach? They should just name everything after food. Then I’d never forget it.”

He couldn’t deny she had a point.

The capital was said to have the greatest population density on the Static Continent, but unlike the bottom level, the flow of time here seemed more relaxed.

None of the people walking by were wearing noticeable weapons.

At most, they had a card-sized sorcery gun used for everyday tasks. They were pulling out their wallets at the food stands without any concern at all.

This was a clean district with guards on patrol and streetlights and security cameras installed at regular intervals.

In that sense, the feel of the place was very different from the bottom level.

Mamilis looked all around.

“Wow, so this is the actual capital.”

“Like I said, this is the second level, so it’s basically where the ordinary class lives. The inns for travelers are mostly here too, so it’s more tourism-based than commerce-based,” explained Ayato.

Henrietta looked uncertain.

All knights longed to see the capital, but she had already seen the disastrous state of the bottom level. She probably couldn’t rejoice like she wanted to. Being so earnest made things difficult for her.

“But this place isn’t the paradise I thought it would be.”

Nonhuman Mamilis gave a harsh and biting review.

And she was right.

A once a thousand combo-year festival was underway, but none of the people appeared to be cutting loose. They were all following the rules – or more accurately, monitoring each other’s behavior.

With such an obvious class system, it was possible to make a mistake that sent you plummeting down that ladder.

And while falling was easy, climbing back up probably wasn’t.

This miniature garden was comfortable and had eliminated all danger, but it also cut off all possibility and gave no thought to the creation of new trends or an explosion of culture. This place was safe, but the people were always watched from above, leaving no chance for advancement or getting rich quick. Here, people could easily calculate their lifetime earnings from their monthly salary. Once you started seeing it that way, the bright scenery suddenly lost its luster.

Although for Sorcery Hacker Ayato, this experience was far from new.

On the other hand, Henrietta viewed the food stands lining either side of the stone-paved street.

“If we were going to come here, maybe we shouldn’t have bothered gathering ingredients down on the bottom level. The same ingredients up here are probably safer to cook with.”

“The gaudy wrappings help disguise it, but everything sold at these stands is junk. I think the ingredients down on the bottom level were healthier and more nutritious than this. Because this is meant to celebrate a festival and those bottom level ingredients need to support people’s daily lives.”

Henrietta petrified at Teleria’s rapid rebuttal.

Although her real mistake was probably looking for a balanced diet at festival stands.

And 3025th Prince Geranud had been right.

If you paid attention, there were royals here on this lower level. The young man buying flowers at a stand was 10th Prince George and the woman gathering an audience of onlookers with her violin music was 15th Princess Tegilea. These VIPs were recognizable even without searching articles and photos on a media summoner article, yet they appeared to think they were going unnoticed.

Henrietta nodded in a thoughtful way.

“Hm, it is fascinating that the royals would want to blend in among the common people. Perhaps those are false identities they have adopted to covertly investigate some kind of wrongdoing.”

“Even if this is the capital, I doubt it’s anything that heroic. I mean, everyone can tell it’s them. They might be indulging in a romance across class lines, however.”

“Ohh, that’s amazing, coach.”

“It really is. Their partners could easily be a spy from another continent or a marriage scammer, so it’s a pretty risky thing politically speaking.”

The straitlaced Striker petrified again.

Of course, the princes and princesses had their special maids and swords of succession, so at least there was no chance of them being assassinated or abducted.

(Assuming, of course, they aren’t attacked by another of the princes or princesses.)

With princes and princesses on so many different levels, it would be hard to keep track of who was where during their “undercover” time. In addition to simple risk to their well-being, they could also use that to prepare some kind of illicit plot.

“…”

A laughing group of small children holding cotton candy passed by Ayato’s group.

For some reason, Henrietta suddenly ducked down and hid behind Mamilis’s back.

“S-Soldier Shadelose is here…”

“Who’s that, Henrietta?”

“One of my subordinates from the sky city. What is he doing here? Probably here for the Precession Festival, I suppose. But if he sees me with this dangerous individual, my reputation will never recover!”

But as peaceful as this city was, Queen Astaroth Revolver was planning something here.

Something related to the royal family problem.

She of all people would be able to obliterate this miniature garden which was stable but barren.