Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase01 (section)

===Part 3===

The bell rang from all the sorcery devices around the school.

“Yikes, what is happening?”

Mamilis jumped and clung to Ayato’s side. Her surprise was understandable when the world around her transformed after the monotone melody played.

The dark elf trembled like a lost child.

“Th-the mood is different?”

A tense chill suddenly hung over the hallway.

Sudden changes like this may have been a unique trait of the ''twisted'' social structure known as a school. Unlike before, Ayato stood next to a pillar by the wall to avoid being seen by a teacher walking toward the stairs.

“Class is starting. It could be trouble if someone found us now, so be quiet.”

He also dropped his voice to a whisper.

He of course had a reason for this.

“Let’s see, as you should know by now, all magic can be classified into the four elements of fire, water, wind, and earth. Make sure to remember that Primary is red, Secondary is blue, Tertiary is yellow, and Quaternary is green. But they branch out even further from there to create the derivative classifications of Ex and Taboo. The basic four elements are formed when the Four Lords who rule the four directions of our vast world give a unique ‘color’ to the invisible mana flowing through the air.”

They could hear a teacher giving a boring lecture in a nearby classroom.

The dark elf’s curiosity overpowered her nerves and she tried to peek inside the classroom, so Teleria had to quickly pull her away.

If they could hear the teacher in the classroom then it was possible their voices or movements would be noticeable inside the classroom. That was why Ayato had switched to a whisper.

“The Four Lords hold a fixed position at the top, but the one-and-only Demon Lord is often described as having more ‘play’ or ‘fluctuation’ to her abilities. So even though she supports all the solid magical laws that govern our world, you might not always get the same result when observing her under the same circumstances. We should all give her a secret word of thanks. Without Nirvelphany, humanity might have been obsessed with the silly horoscopes given along with the weather forecast on the search engine’s top page. We would have had no way to improve our situation and never would have felt this heart-pounding excitement so similar to preparing to confess your love to someone.”

They could not afford to be caught now.

No longer could they move freely.

(Not that I think the teachers can actually stop the Student Council. Even if the teachers are officially in charge, the Academy Towers are truly run by the Council.)

The armor and carbine woman sighed in this world of identical blue blazers.

She shrugged.

“I will try my best not to stand out, but I do not know how security works here. Our efforts are meaningless if they have some strange technology that lets them search out people’s locations.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Ayato didn’t sound concerned. “They have a lot of tech here, but they don’t have sorcery cameras giving them a constant feed of everything from these circular hallways to the shower rooms. This school loves autonomy, so surveillance is kept to a minimum to respect the students’ freedom and dignity.”

“And the real reason?”

“The place is littered with classified research in fields ranging from entertainment to military. Why would they set up a mist mana network of sorcery cameras inside the secret base where they work on things that would get people killed if the secret got out? A robust surveillance network would be suicide here.”

“I had a feeling,” sighed Henrietta.

Mamilis was at the age where her curiosity in new things took precedence, but Henrietta was a strict peacekeeper who instead viewed new technologies with distrust. Ayato was mildly surprised by this reversal from the cowardly dark elf and the daring Striker.

(Miss Mamilis has come a long way. When we first met, she was afraid of a baggage scan gate.)

“Just try to remain unseen during class time. It might not make sense to you, but it’s just how schools work.”

They walked to the elevator that could reach Floor 49, the top of the mana tower’s Grade E zone that both Ayato and Teleria had access to. Even the elevator required changing cars every ten floors to pass through the security colosseum.

“Floor 49?” Mamilis tilted her head. “If your grade can get us in, then can’t we go even higher? Teleria could get us to the Grade B zone on Floor 70, right?”

“This is meaningless if we’re stuck on that floor. But that changes if we stop on Floor 49.”

They got off the elevator for the first transfer at Floor 10. Henrietta’s eyes widened when she saw one corner of this floor where all the interior walls were removed.

A dark shadow lurked there with no relation to the positions of the lights.

“Whoa, what is that!?”

“They’re called hounds. They absorb the surrounding light to hide themselves. They’re the Floor 10 gatekeepers for the Grade H door. It’s kind of ironic that they wrap themselves in shadows by bathing in more light than anyone else.”

Now Mamilis tilted her head.

“That seems like a lot for the first barrier. And darkness doesn’t sound much like a sorcery device.”

“A gatekeeper is still a gatekeeper. They’re not going to half-ass its design just because it’s for a lower grade. And its hidden form is actually very mechanical.”

Fortunately, it was harmless if they had the necessary grade.

Ayato’s group passed through the large metal door to reach the Grade H zone starting on Floor 11.

Their exploration party on the elevator was joined by a Public Morals Officer girl with a longer skirt and pigtails, but she never could have imagined everyone else on the elevator was part of a criminal gang.

They transferred elevators a few more times on their way up.

Once they passed Floor 30, they could no longer hear the voices of the practicing Cheer Squad or the jogging Track Team down on the surface. They now found themselves in a research-focused area that reeked of disinfectant and seemed almost unhealthily sterile.

Their goal was the top of the gem tower, so climbing the mana tower should have been meaningless.

However.

Ayato spoke after watching the pigtails girl get off at her destination floor.

“There is a walkway connecting to the other tower at Floor 49. And it’s a diagonal walkway, so it connects to Floor 51 of the gem tower.”

“Hm? Wait just a second, dangerous individual. There is no way their system includes such a blatant security flaw. You said authorization for the mana and gem towers are handled separately, so they wouldn’t let you take a shortcut on the walkway. Surely they have some kind of powerful military sorcery device standing guard there.”

“You are absolutely correct, Miss Henrietta. We will have to face a fearsome gatekeeper whether we try to climb from the bottom or cross over from a neighboring tower. But I never said we were taking the walkway all the way to the other tower.”

“???”

Henrietta only looked more confused, but Ayato was busy stabbing his Linkage Plug sword into an auto-sorting trashcan, an automatic well, and other weirdly high-tech appliances. He used that to increase his level: 1+1=2, 2+2=4, etc. But the blades would be noticed if he stabbed too many things, so he stopped at Level 16 for the time being.

Needless to say, the military sorcery devices meant to keep out intruders would not be hacked so easily. There was a row of gates much like a train station’s ticket gates and it was accompanied by an anthill that supported a mana-conducting silver turret with legs. Red ants bigger than a thumb were crawling all over its surface. They were clearly venomous. It was best not to imagine how many would swarm out if that hill was carelessly attacked.

Ayato wanted to hack something else.

The black-haired boy stuck the tip of his sword out the walkway window.

“Do you see the window-washing gondola on the outside there? It’s the thing shaped like a scarab larger than a food cart.”

“Y-yes. But it’s kind of gross from the underside like this. What about it?”

Henrietta wasn’t following him, so he smiled and explained.

“If we grab onto that and have it travel along the outside of the windows, we can get across without worrying about the walkways or floor gates.”

“We’re almost 50 floors up here!!!”

Her complaints weren’t going to change his mind.

He felt the biting wind on his cheeks. It was chilly on the ground here, so it was even worse this far up. The mana-conducting silver armor felt frozen, so they would have to make sure their skin didn’t get stuck to it.

They slowly travelled along the outside of the walkway with the elevated wind buffeting them. They of course had no lifelines and all four of them would fall if the 6-legged sorcery device were knocked loose from the window.

“Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!”

“Ah ha ha. I’m going to blush if you hold me any tighter, Miss Henrietta. If you need help extinguishing the fire burning in your body, stop by my room tonight. I will leave the door unlocked, my kitten.”

“Listen, dangerous individual!! If I fall, you’re falling 50 floors to the ground with me!! I, Striker Henrietta Split Destrius, will never forget the way you treated me today!!”

The straitlaced Striker shouted tearfully at him, but the mobile anthill did not react to their presence. They had to be visible since the walkway was lined with windows, but the military sorcery device would not react unless the gate sensors were triggered.

“Okay.”

After the window-washing scarab moved from the walkway to the gem tower wall, Ayato casually removed one hand from its body and opened the hallway window. Then he entered the tower. The heated air inside was much more noticeable after being exposed to the chill.

They had arrived on Floor 51, which was in the Grade D zone.

Ayato lent the girls a hand to pull them into the safe hallway.

“Thinking up ways to pass the security colosseums and gatekeepers to climb the tower without using the stairs or elevators is a good way to get into the mindset of a Sorcery Hacker. There are plenty of options beyond the window-washing scarabs, like the flying delivery butterflies or the fiddler crabs that collect the hallway trashcans. And if you could get it snagged firmly enough on the windowsill, a primitive rope ladder might work too.”

“Coach, you need to stop. Henrietta is about to cry, but if she does that in front of you, I think the humiliation would lead her to bite her tongue and kill herself.”

The pure dark elf probably wasn’t aware that pointing all this out would be a good way of delivering the finishing blow. The Striker hung her head and trembled.

“Oh? I never would have guessed you were afraid of heights. You kept the composed face of a stage actress when using the wing glider.”

“That was a tried-and-true sports tool. But what we just did is ''against the rules'' for that device!!”

“And you had no trouble at all using the sky city’s artificial air currents to soar between those tall buildings.”

“Th-the height isn’t the problem! It’s about whether or not you are using a system intended to let you fly! Just like crossing a long-abandoned suspension bridge without permission is nothing like crossing a sturdy iron bridge!! Those air currents are an ''official service'' supported by a large city’s transportation infrastructure!!”

The boy noticed a difference in values in Henrietta’s argument. He didn’t understand how you could trust something just because some giant system gave it a seal of approval. The more people who used a network, the more openings it had for someone who was up to no good.

Meanwhile, the look on Teleria’s face said she was delighted that everyone was being so lively.

Someone had died here once, so an icy atmosphere might have hung over the place if it were only her and Ayato.

“Our goal is the very top of the gem tower. That’s Floor 101, which is past even Grade S.”

“S…” muttered Mamilis, looking up at the ceiling.

The thick pipe running through there likely carried steam or air. The boiler’s heat could not melt metal, but by indirectly sending lots of air, it could help increase the intensity of a fire.

The gem sciences excelled at such things. When Ayato was disposing of the devil revolver, he had dismantled it, smashed up all the parts with special tools, and then thrown them into a blast furnace.

But for now…

“Each grade is a set of ten floors, so Grade S gets you to Floor 100. That is the final security colosseum.”

“Th-then how does the Student Council get to Floor 101, dangerous individual? Surely they don’t battle the gatekeeper every single time.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Ayato shrugged at Henrietta’s reasonable question. “What matters is that there is some final barrier beyond simply the grade increases from I to S. And you need to join the Student Council to learn the secret way through.”

That was an obvious privilege.

Despite being part of the school, that key was not found in the faculty room.

The Striker couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but the Sorcery Hacker kept going.

“Floor 101 is effectively a special grade zone covering a single floor. And a special gatekeeper was built to protect just that one floor. The top floor of each tower is used for the headmaster’s office, the board chairman’s office, and other privileged positions in the school. We can skip past a lot by going straight to the Student Council Office at the top of this tower.”

“You said we need to reach the top to investigate something, but what is even up there? A big, locked treasure chest?”

Ayato tried to answer Mamilis’s question, but he never got a chance.

He heard a footstep from down the curving hallway.

He needed to view that as unusual.

Mamilis and Henrietta showed minimal caution since they didn’t know how the school worked, but the bell had already rung to indicate the beginning of class. Slipping out of a classroom now came with a certain amount of risk. And yet it almost felt like someone had been waiting for them? But taking the risk to wait here couldn’t have been possible without a perfect grasp of Ayato’s group’s movements.

That meant whoever this was had the upper hand when it came to information.

In sorcery hacking terms, this was like having a blade against the throat or a gun against the back of the head.

It wasn’t hopeless, but escaping would require directly risking his own life.

A boy older than Ayato appeared around the hallway’s curve.

He wore the same blue blazer uniform, but he had a very different vibe. He had perfectly styled brown hair and intellectual glasses. He had the air of more than just a boy. Even the elderly teachers and the eccentrics who had abandoned common sense ages ago would step aside in the hallway to clear the way for him.

He began speaking with a decidedly ''un''friendly smile.

“Were you hoping to improve your abysmal attendance record? Welcome back, Hexajinx.”

That nickname carried a lot of baggage here in the same tower where that tragedy had occurred.

And this boy was well aware of that.

“And what are you doing here?”

Teleria gave a start by Ayato’s side. Maybe she hadn’t expected Ayato’s voice to sound so much icier than usual.

He continued in that same dark voice.

“I can’t imagine you spend a lot of time wandering around these lower levels.”

“Every single floor of every single school tower is a splendid academic facility provided with all the knowledge and technology a student could want. Not a single room is wasted. I use the entire academy to improve myself.”

“Ayato,” whispered Teleria, moving right up next to him.

Henrietta silently brought her dominant hand to the bolt-action carbine she wore at her hip. She could sense several presences around them. In fact, she could hear the solid footsteps of someone making their presence known. There was a group ahead and a group behind, trapping them in the curving hallway with nowhere to run. This was the same dance of intimidation made by a pack of hounds driving their prey out in front of the hunter. Ayato knew that thoughtlessly attempting to do what felt best in the moment would lead to a similar fate here.

These people all belonged to a certain organization.

Mamilis and Henrietta probably couldn’t imagine it since they didn’t understand how the school worked. This appeared to be something only Ayato and Teleria could understand thanks to attending the Academy Towers in the past.

Mamilis looked puzzled.

“Coach, who are these people?”

“I said there’s something on Floor 101 that not even a Grade S student can access, remember?”

He did not call her “Miss Mamilis” like he normally would.

She was a guest, so she wasn’t a registered Academy Towers student. These people could get the teachers’ help investigating Ayato’s actions, but it was possible they still didn’t know her and Henrietta’s names and identities. He wanted to avoid giving them that information himself.

Ayato Criminaltrophy explained while staring right at the confidently smiling glasses boy.

“''That something is the Student Council Office, the fortress belonging to the Student Council President standing in front of us now''!!”

Ayato immediately pushed the girls with both hands.

He pushed them out the hallway window on Floor 51, the very bottom of the Grade D zone.

The situation was much like running into the corrupt noble or millionaire while still preparing to sneak into their mansion. Meeting the President here ruined all of Ayato’s initial plans.

The Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary had to be here too.

Needless to say, the Academy Towers were their backyard.

“Ayato.”

The boy waved his right hand.

Like a magic trick, he suddenly held a weapon. It was a scythe much like the grim reaper’s, but its blade was made of a substance as clear as crystal instead of polished steel or mana-conducting silver.

That was a Linkage Plug.

“You cannot get inside the Student Council Office.”

“Who ever said I need to get in there?”

“A very Sorcery Hacker thing to say. A shame I know you are bluffing. And even if you did get in, you could not get ''it'' open.”

“Oh? So there’s something more than just the room’s door? A locked drawer maybe? Or perhaps a locker made of thick, military-grade mana-conducting silver?”

Ayato bristled when the tip of the blade casually touched the floor. This was something only a Sorcery Hacker like him could recognize. He was deeply glad he had sent the girls out the window first. Thin, invisible lines of mana mist raced across the walls, floor, and ceiling to instantly take control of this space.

This boy was a true Sorcery Hacker. Ayato had switched weapons after he was forced to abandon his old one, but this genius could control his Linkage Plug and Monitor and hack other people’s magic as casually as he used a knife or fork. It was said he could easily bring down an entire city-state all on his own. And Ayato knew that wasn’t just a baseless rumor.

Ayato felt surrounded by a living hell. Like he was trapped in a giant spiderweb meant to capture humans whole.

He placed his foot on the windowsill.

(He’s on another level entirely!!)

“Bring your devil revolver next time. In a battle between Sorcery Hackers, ''the half-baked skills you have thrown together are no match for me. You cannot break through my net.''”

“!”

He had to retreat and try again later.

Before the spiderweb fully closed in on him.

He immediately jumped from the window to follow after the girls he had already pushed down.