Ch.138Giving My All! (2)

#138

While all attention was focused on Dexter, Himena entered the waiting room across from the server room where the IT team stayed and installed a palm-sized signal amplifier behind a locker.

“…I think I’m getting a signal. Himena, can you hear me?”

As soon as Himena flipped the switch, Jesse’s voice came through her wireless earpiece.

“I can hear you clearly. We need to extract the data quickly while Dexter buys us time. First, connect me to Subtron.”

Hearing Himena’s voice through his earpiece, Jesse pressed a red button in the van and said, “Connect me to Subtron.”

With those words, there was a bit of static noise in the van before a voice filled with mechanical tones was heard.

[This, is, Subtron.]

What Jesse could hear, Himena could hear as well.

Himena spoke in a bright voice.

“Great, I can hear the voice too. Tell Subtron to activate the Surya Protocol.”

“Umm… activate the Surya Protocol.”

[Surya Protocol, activation in 10 seconds. To prevent, tracking, I recommend, activating, the bypass encryption router.]

“…How do I activate that?”

[Press, the antenna-shaped, button, once, then, press, the play button, next to it, once.]

Hearing that he only needed to press two buttons to activate the bypass encryption router, Jesse said somewhat sheepishly:

“If it’s this simple, couldn’t you just do it yourself?”

[I cannot, escape, from, the OSA, externally.]

“Yeah, well… I guess I have no choice then.”

Jesse pressed the two buttons as Subtron instructed. After a moment of silence, Subtron spoke again.

[Bypass encryption router, activation, confirmed. Surya, Protocol, activated. Please, wait, a moment.]

“You talk really slowly. It’s frustratingly slow.”

[……It is, my, limitation.]

“Oh… right, sorry.”

Jesse apologized to Subtron.

Even though it was clearly a robot without emotions, somehow it felt like there were feelings there.

[My, voice output, has, limitations. I will, display, text, on the monitor, in the mobile command center.]

“That would be helpful, thanks.”

Hearing Subtron’s suggestion, Dexter spoke up.

“Congratulations, you’ve become an operator.”

“Operator? Like, a telephone operator?”

When Jesse responded seriously to Dexter’s playful remark, Dexter mumbled.

“No, that’s not exactly what I meant… Never mind, forget it.”

“What’s with that half-baked response?”

Jesse, sitting in front of the computer monitor, was reading aloud the text that Subtron was displaying.

“Um… Subtron says it will trigger an alarm about intruders on the roof and 13th floor in 10 minutes using the jamming signal from the signal amplifier.”

Himena, leaning against the wall outside the server room, spoke in a low voice.

“Got it. I’ll enter the server room as soon as I get the access card, so Dexter needs to find someone.”

“Someone? Who?”

“If it’s related to security issues, there must be someone who knows Orbis Corporation’s secrets present at the meeting. Nobody likes their secrets being exposed, right?”

‘Someone who doesn’t want their secrets revealed?’

As Dexter, still in the conference room, looked around, Himena added:

“Other employees are likely unaware of Orbis Corporation’s secrets. They’re probably desperate for bonuses. But someone who knows the company’s secrets wouldn’t be actively pushing their opinions just for a bonus, don’t you think?”

It was a valid point.

‘So I need to find someone who isn’t being proactive and seems relaxed?’

Dexter tried to identify such a person among the dozens of people in the conference room.

While Dexter was searching for suspects, Himena spotted Kramer hurrying toward her with a crossbody bag.

“Oh my, you’re earlier than I expected.”

“I, I was worried you might be waiting…”

Seeing Kramer catching his breath in front of her while looking away, Himena straightened his clothes and said:

“You’ve worked hard. There was no need to run like this for me.”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s nothing…”

Blushing, Kramer used the access card he brought to open the server room door.

“Thank you.”

Entering the server room with Kramer, Himena looked around at the numerous server computers and said:

“The server room temperature is higher than I expected… Is the cooling system working properly?”

“Ah, yes. Since temperature and humidity control are most important, we focus on that…”

While Himena and Kramer were engaged in light, casual conversation in the server room:

“EEEEEEEE…!”

Suddenly, a siren began blaring, and the server room door locked with a clunk.

Himena realized that Subtron had sent the jamming signal to trigger the Varuna system alarm, as discussed with Jesse.

Pretending to be frightened, Himena said to Kramer in a panicked voice:

“Wh-what’s happening?”

“Oh, um… it seems to be the Varuna system alarm. It could be a false alarm or an error, but we should wait here for now.”

Himena sighed and said:

“I thought something serious had happened.”

“I-it’s probably nothing. Don’t worry too much.”

Himena felt a bit guilty about lying to the seemingly innocent Kramer.

“Does the alarm mean we can’t access the servers?”

“Yes. Access is restricted except for authorized computers…”

Hearing Kramer’s response, Himena stomped her feet anxiously and said:

“What should we do? We need to do a brief database check, and we’re on a tight schedule since we have to visit other companies too. Is there any way around this?”

Seeing Himena’s distressed expression, Kramer began rummaging through his crossbody bag.

“Ah, well, I do have a laptop that I carry around just in case…”

“Oh, a laptop! That’s perfect!”

Taking the laptop from Kramer, Himena pulled a USB drive from her pocket.

“This is a security diagnostic program. May I plug it in for a moment?”

Of course, it wasn’t a security diagnostic program but a program designed to search for Orbis Corporation’s secrets and information related to Polytechnic.

When Kramer awkwardly nodded in response to Himena’s question, she sat at a table in one corner of the server room and said with a smile:

“Thank you.”

“I-it’s nothing. I’ll just check the server room temperature…”

As the embarrassed Kramer turned away, pointing to another area, Himena carefully asked:

“Honey, how’s the situation on your end?”

Dexter couldn’t answer Himena’s question.

A brown-haired man with a beard was standing right in front of him, staring at him with cold eyes.

“Why did you call for me?”

“You were notably quiet.”

“Is being quiet a reason to be called out?”

“About thirty people are chattering away, but only Dr. Muckann remains silent. I felt it was worth investigating.”

Dexter cleared his throat after saying this.

“Dr. Muckann? I’ll look him up.”

Shortly after, Jesse read out Dr. Muckann’s profile:

“Neil Muckann. 35 years old. Caltech graduate, focused on programming analysis, synthesis, and transformation. He’s published numerous papers on the subject. Originally received offers from other companies but for some unknown reason suddenly joined Orbis, a gaming company.”

Despite Jesse’s abbreviated introduction, Dexter extracted the useful information and continued:

“Dr. Muckann, I heard you’re a Caltech graduate. Why did you choose to join a gaming company?”

“Well, the future lies in gaming.”

“The future lies in gaming?”

When Dexter repeated the question, Dr. Muckann nodded slightly and said:

“From a humanities perspective, isn’t Orbis the major company created through the power of culture formed by storytelling and entertainment?”

“Oh, yes. That’s right.”

“However, there are still people who look down on games, and persecution of gaming continues in every country. Even in America and globally, it hasn’t become a perfect mainstream culture in my opinion.”

Dr. Muckann interlaced his fingers and continued:

“Why do you think that is? With technological advancement, everyone from kindergarteners to gray-haired middle-aged people enjoys games.”

“That’s…”

“It’s because they didn’t truly love it. They thought of games superficially, which is why they were so volatile.”

“The reason gaming hasn’t become mainstream culture is because consumers didn’t truly love it? That logic seems a bit strange.”

Dexter had enjoyed games as a child, but through various life events, he naturally drifted away from gaming.

Of course, he still played light puzzle games on his phone, but not to the point of addiction.

Dr. Muckann’s eyes began to gleam.

“No, that’s correct. Users prefer different game genres based on their tastes, don’t they? Some like FPS, others prefer MOBA. But if we create a game that anyone could enjoy, that changes everything.”

Finding the man’s gaze uncomfortable, Dexter shifted slightly in his seat and said:

“So, you’re saying a game could exist that appeals to everyone from five-year-old kids to eighty-year-old seniors?”

“A game everyone wants to play, a game they’re dying to play. If such a game were born from my hands, wouldn’t that be exciting to think about?”

With those words, his gleaming eyes suddenly turned cold, and Dr. Muckann looked at Dexter indifferently and said:

“When that time comes, Orbis will become a global corporation. The Watcher series? Well, it won’t even qualify as a successful game.”

After staring at Dexter for a moment, Dr. Muckann left the conference room.

“Looking at his eyes, he’s completely unhinged. He’s not on drugs, but his eyes are exactly like those of an addict.”

Recalling Dr. Muckann’s eyes, Dexter continued:

“It seems they are deliberately creating addictive gaming consoles and games.”

Then Himena’s voice came through the earpiece:

“It doesn’t seem like they’re making ordinary games. I’ve looked at the list of games in development, and the internal test reports are quite shocking.”

“How so?”

Himena, browsing through files on Kramer’s laptop, glanced at Kramer pacing nearby and said in a low voice:

“They’re not just trying to create addiction. This looks like… they’re attempting to use games for brainwashing and hypnosis.”

“How can games induce hypnosis and brainwashing?”

“It’s hard to explain the mechanism. However, Polytechnic was just an auxiliary device; the real issue is the games. Separate from the Watcher series, all games supported by Polytechnic show attempts to induce hypnosis and brainwashing. And the method seems to be derived from MK Ultra.”

“Somehow that project always comes up whenever brainwashing and hypnosis are mentioned.”

As Dexter and Himena were about to discuss the defunct government project, Jesse looked at the monitor and said:

“Hold on. Sorry to interrupt, but Subtron says the Varuna system deactivated the alarm by itself.”

“What? How could it deactivate that? It’s a protocol created by gathering all the talented people from the Department of Science and Technology.”

“Subtron says… the Varuna system has a learning AI, and the radio interference detected from the signal amplifier doesn’t use Earth’s data format? I don’t understand what that means, but this…”

Listening carefully to Jesse’s words, Himena closed her eyes tightly, gritted her teeth, and said:

“That means… Orbis Corporation also has areas where alien technology is applied.”