Chapter 11 Part 1: I Became a Hacker Loved by AIs

To a Higher Place (3)

Dozens of military hoverids soared into the sky simultaneously.

They surrounded the research facility from all directions and deployed combat troops all at once.

These soldiers’ cyberware didn’t care for appearances.

They had no time to polish their looks. Every modification, every graft was meant for more firepower, more combat efficiency. That’s what bio-welding technology was for.

The one most panicked by this sudden assault was, of course, Drex, the gang boss who had kidnapped Neige.

“Fuck! They found this place?! This site’s records were completely wiped during the Alphabet War! How the hell did they know already?!”

“B-Boss! The guards are saying ImmuneWire’s forces have already filled the perimeter!”

“Damn it! That girl and the ImmuneWire chick weren’t carrying anything! Did someone leak the info from inside?! Which bastard didn’t keep their damn mouth shut?!”

The atmosphere of the entire gang quickly sank.

Being surrounded by a corporate’s main force was one thing — but when even your boss starts to panic, it becomes clear how grave the situation is.

“This isn’t the time to point fingers! Bring me that bratty girl, now!”

The gang members scrambled through the facility and quickly found Neige.

Despite the tension, the child was leisurely playing with toys.

“As long as we have the kid, we’ve got leverage. Got it?! Stay sharp! And whoever spilled the beans, if I find out, I’ll blow your fucking head off myself!”

“Y-Yes, boss!”

His voice roared through the structure as if it might collapse, loud enough to reach Svetlana outside.

Upon hearing that, she smiled slightly.

To her, they looked like insects bracing for a desperate fight in their nest.

That’s all it was, a futile resistance.

As ImmuneWire’s troops completed the encirclement swiftly, Svetlana calmly adjusted her visual overlay.

Using the map the young miss had sent, she overlaid the real world and cyberspace, perfectly in sync.

She directed the Ouroboros Protocol that had infiltrated the network, planting seeds deep in every vital system.

At the same time, she also located the other two hostages, as well as the young miss.

‘Miss…?’

Suddenly, her eyes caught sight of Neige, who was in the middle of a firefight.

She was traversing the walls of the security fortress belonging to the maid and pilot’s ICEs, exchanging gunfire with bitmancers.

‘How are you doing this from inside?’

Genuine awe flickered in Svetlana’s gaze.

Even elite ImmuneWire agents wouldn’t dare attempt such a stunt.

But she was doing it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

‘...You even copied my camouflage code.’

Her admiration deepened.

This genius who takes other people's code and uses it immediately on the spot never fails to impress.

Svetlana nodded respectfully.

‘I will not let you down.’

Raising a megaphone to her lips, she declared:

“We are a strike force deployed by ImmuneWire. You are surrounded. Release the hostages and surrender now, and your lives will be spared.”

In response, the facility doors burst open, and three gang members stepped out.

“...Our boss wants to negotiate!”

“Speak.”

“We’ll hand over the hoverid pilot and the maid. Open a path for us to escape, and we’ll negotiate separately about the girl later.”

“Hand over everyone, or there will be no negotiations.”

“You—!”

Svetlana wasn’t focused on the negotiation in front of her at all.

Her attention was deep inside cyberspace, where the snake she controlled continued to slowly devour the facility’s interior.

It slithered not only into the gang members’ cyberware and weapons visible before her, but also deeper inside, to the guns aimed threateningly at the young miss.

Svetlana was allocating 80% of her brain processing to commanding the snake and managing computational calculations.

The gang members standing right in front of her didn’t even realize.

Even as their security systems collapsed, and control over every internal device was wrested away.

“You! You really wanna see your little missy get shot in the head?! Want us to mail her corpse to your master?!”

“Well... are you sure it’ll be a corpse?”

As Svetlana’s hand moved toward her holster, the gang members immediately raised their guns.

In response, ImmuneWire’s combat troops aimed their guns back at the gang.

Tension thickened — one wrong move and a firefight would erupt.

But Svetlana simply stared past them, at a specific enemy inside the facility.

The gang’s boss.

Wearing the most expensive cyberware, wielding top-tier equipment.

As soon as the ICE protecting his gun was breached and the snake sank its fangs in—

Svetlana pulled the trigger in rapid succession.

Three shots.

Three gang members’ heads exploded before anyone could react.

It was an inhumane speed that the gang members who were already aiming couldn't even react to, including the soldiers who had been ready to shoot.

“H-huh...”

The troops who witnessed Svetlana's incredible speed could only stare blankly at the collapsed bodies.

Amidst their admiration, she said in a cold, emotionless voice.

“I’m going in. You handle things out here.”

Click, click.

Her heels echoed on the floor as she strode confidently into the facility’s main entrance.

***

“That woman suddenly pulled the trigger?!”

Drex, the gang boss, who had briefly relaxed assuming negotiations were underway, exploded in rage when he heard the news.

“Y-Yes, boss. But... she’s no ordinary fighter.”

“Of course not! You think someone leading a strike team would be ordinary?!”

“Boss! She’s entering the facility!”

“What?! The whole strike force is coming in?!”

“No, just her! Alone!”

Drex froze as he stared at the subordinate in disbelief.

Alone?

She’s going into a tight, complex facility like this one... by herself?

“Fuck! She’s underestimating us! Everyone, prepare for battle!”

“H-Huh? Boss! Are we really going to fight a corporation?!”

“You think we’ll have any negotiating power left if we can’t even kill one woman?! Move! Kill her first, then we negotiate!”

“Understood!”

“We’re up against ImmuneWire! You guys go to the security room and tell the bitmancers to be ready!”

The gang members all grabbed their weapons and rushed out.

Each one took position along the corridors, stairwells, and hallways, suggesting they had decided on a pre-established defense strategy.

At the same time, the fact that they had a defense strategy also suggested that they possessed excellent combat capabilities.

The sound of heels that started from the entrance of the research facility slowly entered the interior.

Meanwhile, the vanguard of gang members set up an ambush behind a corridor wall, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

At that moment, Svetlana paused, glancing up at a faded map on the wall.

‘This is our chance!’

The gang member who revealed himself first with his gun raised—

His weapon's internal electronics malfunctioned and exploded.

He died instantly in the blast.

“You bitch...!”

Another member who was enraged lunged out from the side—

But without even looking, Svetlana's trigger is pulled and a bullet pierced his head cleanly.

Immediately, two more gang members jumped out at once.

“I—I can't see!”

“Why isn't my gun working?!”

Their optic cyberware and firearms had already been hacked.

Svetlana took them down with two precise shots.

In mere seconds, four people had died.

And yet, Svetlana’s face remained blank, emotionless.

Her heels echoed once more as she calmly resumed her pace deeper into the facility.

“What the hell... what are our bitmancers doing?! We’re getting shredded out here!”

While the rest of the gang's vanguard team hesitated,

Svetlana’s vision was fixed on cyberspace.

***

There was one thing I realized while watching the snake conquer the entire system.

The overwhelming difference in computational power smashes through everything, including defenses.

The reason why I was finding vulnerabilities and twisting my body to get through Cerberus was ultimately because I couldn't compete in computational power.

But now, the snake was simply destroying all the ICEs with overwhelming force and taking over the system.

Svetlana's own brain must be incredibly powerful, and her cyberware is likely top-tier.

But there must also be a difference in the efficiency of the program itself.

[Ouroboros Protocol, used only by the ImmuneWire Chairman’s Secretariat.]

Considering its intended users, is there any program stronger than this in existence?

This was the absolute power of the best human-made program of this era.

An unbridgeable gap for ordinary people — not even a chance to resist.

As I stacked up my understanding of hacking, I fought on, gaining a reputation as the “suddenly appearing third bitmancer.”

But one thing piqued my curiosity. This was a question that arose from watching both the real world and cyberspace in parallel.

Out there, Svetlana was tearing through the gang like a storm.

Inside, the bitmancers were still locked in battle.

How do you notify bitmancers inside cyberspace about what's happening outside?

The answer wasn’t difficult.

Just send a message from the computer connected to the deep-dive chair.

But that raises a crucial point:

If a message can be sent, that means a live connection exists.

Which means there must be a data flow somewhere maintaining that connection.

“Found it.”

I was standing on the network that carried that data flow.

And there, a fragmented snake from the Ouroboros Protocol had sunk its fangs in.

It was already blocking the signals being transmitted from the outside.

I carefully sat down atop the snake’s head, and it looked up at me.

“Svetlana noona—no, unnie.”

The snake, of course, didn’t reply.

But I knew my words had gone through.

“This is the data flow that bitmancers use to receive information from the outside. Blocking it must require a ton of computational power, right?”

Svetlana had to fight in the real world and dominate the system at the same time.

According to V, the computational efficiency of a bitmancer with consciousness drops significantly.

Based on these two pieces of evidence and my own speculation, I was certain:

Svetlana’s computational power had reached its limit.

As evidence of that, she was leaving the bitmancers' ICE untouched, without bothering to break through them.

There was no reason to spare them.

If she had spare capacity, their brains and neural networks should have been fried by now.

What if I could lighten her load a bit?

“If there's no signal for too long, the bitmancers will get suspicious. How about I take control of this place and keep sending fake signals, so they will continue attacking the data fortress?”

The snake looked at me for a moment, then began to move.

A small data block formed in its eye, floating toward me.

I received the data block and inspected it — it was the code used to destroy this data network.

I copied the code as is and inserted it into my dagger-shaped data weapon, then stabbed the dagger into the data flow.

The snake soon pulled out its fangs and disappeared.

I immediately began sending out a false signal:

[Boss is pissed. Says hurry up and crack the ICE already. What the hell are you doing?]

The bitmancers attacking the fortress received the signal and groaned in irritation.

“Goddamn it, how are we supposed to crack ImmuneWire’s ICE quickly? Even Cerberus is a damn nightmare.”

“Hey! Did you guys even report that some lunatic bitmancer breached our net and is shooting at us?”

I’ll answer that for you: Nope, you didn’t.

I also blocked that information from getting out.

Not that it would’ve mattered if you had successfully sent it.

The corporate elite don’t wait around for your pings.

Their messages are more urgent than yours.

And out there... it’s already hell.

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