Clockwork Bride

Page 10

She turned to Hayden, who was just beginning to react, and said, "Master, this woman is using the same kind of magic chip we found this morning."

"……What!?"

Hayden was more than just stunned. He quickly stepped forward, bent down, and gently touched the strange prostitute who was convulsing on the ground with his staff, extracting various data packets from her network form. Ten seconds later, looking at the decoded data, Hayden was horrified.

As Angela said, this was the same dream chip they had seen in the brothel that morning, or at least some kind of eerie and malevolent thing similar to a dream chip.

A dream chip, as the name suggests, allows anyone who wears it to have a specific dream. In the dream, you can experience a virtual life, be anyone, and go through anything the chip has pre-programmed—literally living in a dream.

So, if a similar technique is used to repeatedly flood the same person with a large number of dreams, could it be possible to shape him into a specific personality?

Needless to say, such brainwashing is absolutely illegal. Not only is it illegal, but it's also a bizarre technique Hayden has never seen before. Although he and Angela can both see that it's clearly developed from existing dream chip technology, it's also a completely new and terrifying magical technique.

Where would an entertainment club get such new technology?

How could an entertainment club have such audacity?

What exactly is this entertainment club?

And why did this new technology suddenly malfunction the moment it came into contact with Angela?

Several questions flashed through Hayden's mind, but now was no time to waste. The club's security system hadn't detected anything amiss yet, but since the prostitute had fainted, the server would eventually detect the error. And Hayden wasn't really there for fun today—he needed to retrieve the data to report back and get paid.

"...I have a bad feeling. We need to finish this quickly."

So Hayden grabbed the chibi Angela and put her back on his shoulder, then pointed his staff at the wall of the virtual room. Instantly, the outline of a door appeared there, radiating a dazzling white light.

...Then, in the next second, the outline of the door disappeared, and the wall remained as thick as before, with nothing on it.

"Gan"

Hayden couldn't help but curse.

He was, after all, just a third-rate hacker. He was a first-rate mercenary in combat magic, capable of single-handedly taking down a drug den in the material world, but his skills in the astral network were far weaker; he couldn't even breach the firewall here.

Frankly, if Hayden had tried to force his way into this cultural club from the material world today, he might have been more likely to succeed.

Fortunately, this third-rate hacker knew a lot of people. Realizing his own inadequacy, he simply put away his staff, ceasing his blunder, and instead pulled out a new gadget. This integrated hacking tool program was something he had previously purchased from a top-tier hacker he had worked with; on the StarNet, it looked like a blood-red sword.

He swung his sword down at the wall of the virtual room, from the ceiling to the floor. The blade hissed as it sliced ​​through the wall, and the wall parted like a curtain.

What the heck? What's going on?

To put it simply, it's quite straightforward—the Astral Network is ultimately a world constructed from the mind, so all the physical forms here are merely "images" symbolizing mental concepts. Hayden's current actions are essentially bypassing normal, legal procedures and hacking into the backend of this venue's network host through the walls.

This wasn't as easy as it seemed. Hayden was simply wielding the tool program the expert had sold him, completely unaware of how the program's code actually worked. It was somewhat shameful, and he didn't usually like doing things this way, but he couldn't care less now.

The surrounding scenery changed abruptly, as this was no longer a place for guests, but a corridor with doors on both sides. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all gray, just like a corridor in a real office building, except that those "doors" were actually shimmering barriers.

Where is this place?

Angela asked curiously.

"The club's document server for storing data."

Hayden answered as he hurried through the corridor, passing door after door, until he arrived at a door with a large padlock icon. He raised his blood-red sword and, following the same procedure, cleaved the "lock" of this door open. It instantly vanished as pixels, and the door clicked open.

At the same time, a semi-transparent figure appeared out of thin air in the corridor.

It was a muscular, strong man with three heads and six arms, three dark blue faces with protruding fangs, and he was naked with a fierce expression.

Before Angela could warn Hayden, Hayden had already reacted. He pointed his sword at the translucent, six-armed giant, a bolt of red lightning shooting from the tip and piercing its chest, knocking it down instantly. The figure flashed and vanished the moment it hit the ground.

"...Security procedures have already begun searching for me."

Hayden, however, did not show any smugness or joy; instead, he frowned.

He turned and slipped through the newly opened door, walking up to something that looked like a wall. The wall seemed to be made up of rectangles of varying sizes, each filled with a swirling cloud of glowing characters—some were just 0s and 1s, some were letters and numbers, and others were Greek symbols, smiley faces, and other oddities.

Hayden wasted no more time; he walked directly to the wall and reached in. The contents immediately began swirling around his finger like a data storm, eventually popping up as a screen displaying rapidly scrolling blue text.

[Name: Alicia Clari Kazmuk Apsara]

Number of visits: 28

[Joined: December 2099]

VIP: Yes

Average consumption time: 71 minutes

[Preferences: Young men, SM, sadomasochistic, burning men with flames...]

Hayden couldn't bear to look at the rest of the text—"My God, my buddy married into the family of a company executive, and his wife actually likes to play around with young men like this?"

But in any case, these things were just copies Hayden needed to make to take back and hand in. What he was really interested in now was the rest of the club, the things that were hidden deeper inside.

So he had to dig even deeper.

Hayden withdrew one hand from the wall and stuck it into another brick. More text flashed before his eyes, this time in green, arranged in the form of a table of contents. He withdrew his other hand and slapped it onto another brick, revealing yet another table of contents.

What he found inside made his face turn ashen.

These directories are vast amounts of specific personality data stored on this web host. Tsundere, passionate, aloof, sadistic, masochistic, flirtatious, cheerful, innocent, shy, or shameless—all are neatly categorized here. Whatever personality traits a customer desires, this personality data is simply brainwashed and imprinted into the prostitute's mind—slap!

Your ideal service provider is now available!

So, let's go back to those questions.

Where would an entertainment club get such new technology?

How could an entertainment club have such audacity?

Could this entertainment club really be a secret facility of a large company disguised as an entertainment club?

Why would they use this technology for spring sales?! That's ridiculous! What couldn't they use this technology for?!

Unfortunately, no one here can answer Hayden's questions.

No sooner said than done, the cyberspace around him suddenly exploded with lightning. Four semi-transparent, three-headed, six-armed burly men appeared from the void. They were clearly anti-intrusion security programs, and this time they were all armed. One carried a spear, one a broadsword, one a tin staff, and the last one even carried a rope, all with furious expressions on their faces.

Without even a warning, they unleashed all sorts of weapons at Hayden!

Hayden took off running!

A broadsword grazed his back, a spear pierced his hair, and a rope nearly lassoed his neck. Hayden didn't dare turn around, wishing he had more legs, and ran frantically through file doors, with security personnel relentlessly chasing after him.

His intrusion has been detected by the network host's security program!

"Master, aren't you going to fight back?"

Angela, a chibi-style girl, gripped Hayden's shoulders tightly and asked, puzzled.

"Security procedures can't be completely eliminated!"

Hayden could only shout as he ran for his life.

"A hacker can never win a war of attrition against a company!"

As if to prove his point, he turned and swung his sword, unleashing a crimson bolt of lightning that pierced the forehead of the security program wielding a large knife. It staggered back, dissolving into pixels and shattered graphics—and then, in the next instant, two new, three-headed, six-armed security programs appeared on the corridor walls, each holding a large knife.

Network hosts can deploy a near-endless array of security programs within themselves, designed to find, repel, and even kill hackers. These programs can tear a person's online mental projection to shreds in seconds, and some are so malicious that they can do the same to a hacker's brain and body through specially programmed biofeedback.

A hacker might be able to thwart a few security programs, but a network host can always send out more, so this war of attrition will only have one outcome.

This is the reality of the online world. Of course, large corporations in the physical world are pretty much the same. Life is just that unfair. Getting in and out of certain places isn't about taking down all the security—that's a legend, not reality—it's about being unseen from the start. Once security, anywhere, knows where you are, you can't expect to win every direct confrontation.

Three security procedures were quickly closing in on Hayden. He swung his red sword again, and two bolts of lightning shot out, striking two of the procedures, causing them to dissipate and collapse into cubes. The last one, however, closed in, fearless, and swung its staff at Hayden. Hayden tried to dodge, but he wasn't fast enough. The head of the staff smashed into his head, the world went dark instantly, and excruciating pain exploded within him.

At the same time, in the material world, Hayden's body suddenly convulsed, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Before Hayden could recover from the shock of the internet, Angela saw another security program flash up right behind them.

"Master, behind you!"

Upon hearing Angela's warning, Hayden quickly turned around to look, only to see the three-headed, six-armed security guard raising a large knife and slashing it down at his head.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

"Grass"

Hayden watched the greatsword rapidly approaching him and realized his death was imminent.

The crisis of death always arrives at the most unexpected time. He wasn't one of those truly great hackers, nor was he one of those invincible archmages. He couldn't handle the situation on his own in an instant.

Hilarious! He's actually going to be killed by the security procedures of an entertainment club!

Although this entertainment club was probably actually a secret facility of a large company, people in the future will only think that Hayden was killed by the security procedures of an entertainment club!

This is not the way he wanted to die!

So Angela took action.

The chibi-style woman stood on Hayden's shoulder and pointed to the security protocol that had just appeared behind her.

An incredible thing happened immediately: an invisible gust of wind grabbed the three-headed, six-armed, blue-faced, fanged program and hurled it into the air. Before it could recover, a second gust of wind struck it again, blowing the security program all the way to the other end of the corridor.

Another security detail was closing in on Hayden, charging at him with spears. But this time Hayden finally reacted, immediately retreating and narrowly avoiding being stabbed.

Heaven have mercy. Hayden previously thought that Angela's erratic behavior was ruining the prostitute, but now it seems that her erratic behavior wasn't entirely a bad thing.

Taking advantage of the security procedure's missed attack, he forcefully plunged the sword into what appeared to be a wall—at the end of the corridor. A crack immediately appeared.

More and more security procedures began to appear from the walls of the corridor, and this time they were all carrying ropes, seemingly intending to capture the intruder alive.

But Hayden and Angela had already passed through the crack, through the shell of the Wenle Club network host, and plunged into the light trails of the astral network's information flow, escaping at the speed of thought.

011: Coherent Extrapolation Will

Leave StarNet.

Return to the material world.

Hayden opened his eyes. There was an ugly bruise on his face, exactly where the security procedure had hit him, and blood was spurting from the corner of his mouth. The vital signs monitor on his wrist warned that his blood pressure and heart rate were abnormal.

"Damn it. I definitely prefer fighting in the material world."

He endured the pain and touched his forehead, trying to focus his scattered attention.

"Damn it, next time I'll definitely sneak into the server from the material world."

He wanted to write this down and stick it on the refrigerator: Third-rate hackers shouldn't bother with StarNet infiltration adventures.

Hayden needs treatment, but there's a slight problem. While modern arcane magic is effective at treating open wounds, it's not so cost-effective when dealing with biofeedback damage from StarNet projections, or when trying to treat complex injuries to the heart and nervous system.

This isn't because modern arcane magic can't perform such treatments, but because the upper class simply doesn't need them—they have no need for inexpensive magical techniques to treat chronic illnesses or complex neurological damage. They have ample resources; even if they were to need treatment for complex neurological damage, they could simply unleash more advanced, energy-intensive healing spells. And if all else fails, they could simply clone a healthy body and replace it.

What can't you do with money?

But poor people can't play like that.

Therefore, Hayden usually treats his nerve damage through various ancient magical rituals, but that takes time. They now need to slip away as quickly as possible—the company behind the Wenle Club might discover Hayden's physical location while online, which is this internet cafe.

So Angela came closer and reached out to touch the blood on Hayden's face.

An incredible thing happened at that moment.

The instant they touched, a beam of emerald light shot from Angela's fingertips, like a tiny green lightning bolt. This electric light, like a glowing little fish, powerfully darted into Hayden's face. Needless to say, Hayden was startled, jumping up from his chair in fright.

But the vital signs monitor immediately reported that he had recovered.

He looked in the mirror in the private room and found that there wasn't a single trace of injury on his face. Even the bruises and bloodstains had vanished into thin air, as if "nothing had ever happened." It was like erasing a part of a pencil drawing and then redrawing it.

"…What on earth did you do?"

Hayden was completely stunned.

But Angela didn't seem to understand Hayden's question.

"Your nervous system has just suffered damage that could have caused shock, and it was very painful, so I healed you."

“I know you cured me,” Hayden pressed, “but how exactly did you do it?”

But Angela still didn't understand.

“My goal is to make you happy, so I healed you.”

Her answer seemed completely irrelevant.

Oh my god.

Hayden was speechless.

What Angela just did was clearly completely different from arcane healing. Damn it, modern arcane medicine is about reason; it involves treating the symptoms with various potions or spells, requiring a significant amount of magical energy to heal injuries and illnesses. What kind of absurd thing is this?

Hayden had some knowledge of ancient medical magic rituals. They used herbs, minerals, fragrant oils, massage, or acupuncture and aromatherapy on specific parts of the body to produce magical healing effects. Like all ancient magic, they were not as easily quantifiable and measurable as modern arcane magic, and their effects were difficult to stabilize, thus they were gradually phased out by modern arcane medicine.