The residents of Net Slum and Helba had come to an agreement.
The remaining question was how to bring Lios to the meeting.
In the end, I decided to ask Wiseman to set up a meeting.
Explaining what happened in Net Slum, he smiled.
“Did you get Helba on your side? You’re amazing! After that, if we can persuade Lios, we will reproduce the passages of the Epitaph of Twilight! ‘And Helba, Queen of the Dark, has raised finally her army. Apeiron, King of Light beckons. At the base of the rainbow do they meet against the abominable Wave, together they fight.’ It’ll be amazing!”
After interacting with Wiseman several times, I noticed that when he was amazed, he occasionally seemed younger.
Perhaps he was much younger than the appearance of his PC.
Wiseman prepared the deepest part of a normal area.
With me and Wiseman in between as witnesses, Helba and Lios faced each other.
“Welcome, thank you for coming,” Helba said.
“It’s great to meet you again,” Lios said moodily. Then he looked at me.
“So what is the situation? Kite, I would appreciate it if you could explain. Why are you guys taking the lead? Why are you hanging out with this woman?”
“We are neutral, Lios,” Wiseman said tactfully.
“From a neutral standpoint, we want you to join together. We prepared this place for that.”
However, the talks lasted longer than expected.
Lios was much more stubborn than I had expected.
When Helba announced the transfer of administrative rights to Net Slum, which we thought was a surefire thing, whatever his inner feelings were, he laughed at her.
“I see, it’s a confidence security,” Lios said.
“Net Slum administrator privileges? That’s a big one. But do you think we can trust hackers? This woman and her crew made a lot of money in an illegal city. Easy money. It just eliminates the means. Just give up the unfairly occupied data capacity, that’s it.”
No use, the talk wouldn’t go any further no matter if we continued. I couldn’t persuade Lios.
When I turned pale thinking about that, Helba whispered to me.
“Don’t do it, boy. Don’t make such a face. I gambled on you. Once you’ve decided… I’ll make a raise.”
“What? What are you saying?”
Helba turned to Lios.
“Lios. It’s not just Net Slum. There is other collateral that hackers offer to the system.”
“Oh, do tell. What is it?” Lios said with an expression as though challenging.
“It’s here,” Helba said.
“Me. I’ll hand over the PC Helba to you as a condition for forming an alliance. Of course, my PC account too. And the password.”
Lios opened his mouth.
Wiseman, standing next to Lios, had a similar look on his face.
Maybe I had the same face as them. I didn’t hear that much.
“What?!” Lios screamed in amazement.
“I hope Helba is to your liking.”
Lios was staring at Helba with a terrible look on his face.
“Why? Are you insane, Helba?”
Lios said as though to squeeze the words out.
“Why are you, a common hacker… adhering to The World so much?”
“I want to see where The World ends up. I want to see with my own eyes what will be born at the end. What does Harold’s program produce? Or can’t it even produce something?”
That was exactly Helba’s true intention, the true intention of this mysterious, even eerie hacker.
She was now speaking honestly from her heart.
However, I felt that way for only a moment, for in the next moment, Helba’s voice returned to something that concealed her talents.
“Lios, don’t you want to see it? Will you ultimately produce what you take pride in protecting? Ultimately, what are you protecting yourself? Or is a pig-headed person like you not interested in such things?”
“Ugh…” Lios groaned with a bitter face.
“I have one more thing to tell you.”
Helba showered him with questions.
“CC Corp‘s senior executives have begun to create a farce scenario. The relevant ministries and agencies, which have been relatively sympathetic until now, are prepared to announce the view that CC Corp is entirely responsible. The upper management who knew about it were trying to gamble for their self-protection.”
“Gambling?”
“On the destruction of the physical server. Anyway, that’s the work of terrorists or hackers.”
I spoke out involuntarily.
“It doesn’t help to do such a thing. The network contamination won’t stop!”
Helba laughed a little.
“That’s right, it’s as you say, CC knows and does it. They don’t care about network contamination. But we here can’t do that. Isn’t that right, Lios?”
“Where did you hear that information?”
“Oh, that’s as good as admitting that what I said is true. Do you have any clues?”
“Uh…”
Lios looked at Helba.
“You’re an unpleasant woman,” he said bluntly and then looked at me.
“You’re an unpleasant child.”
Me as well?
“We now know that we can’t get around… so will I give a pass to Net Slum and Helba? That’s unexpected cunning.”
He shouted in a loud voice, though I thought he would mumble.
“Is it possible to receive a hacker’s bribe and fight together? It’s a shame for a system administrator!”
The place was full of tension.
“…But if we’re hiring a converted hacker provisionally… no problem.”
“Feel free to look… hehe.”
“Helba. Without restraining yourself, not levying Net Slum just has bad timing. Once these incidents have been resolved, I’ll delete them together with the hackers who reside in Net Slum. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t forget. As long as you remember.”
Lios looked at me and Wiseman.
“I will not reply immediately. I will go home and consider it. Then I will email you. Is that fine?”
“Of course.”
Wiseman nodded.
Lios then disappeared without a word.
When I could no longer see him, I sank down on the spot.
Today felt like the longest day I’d ever had in The World.
The next morning, I received an email from Lios.
It was only written down that I understood.
.hack//Translate 