Malicious Code

This was my first time stepping into the dimensional server known as the Archive, but I could tell at a glance that something was wrong.

The Archive's overseer—Alice—had a look of pure rigidity frozen on her face.

"The records… have been corrupted?"

Alice spread both arms, and the CCTV feeds monitoring the library wrapped around us. Among them, the camera watching Sector E-225 on the first floor had gone dead.

Every nearby security system had already been down for some time. Alice scrambled to restore them, but not a single security program would respond.

"Ugh… I'm sorry. I think I'll have to go check this out myself."

"Yourself?"

"I need to investigate what caused the corruption. Could you wait here a moment?"

"Hmm…"

This was a dimensional server built by the World Government itself. And Alice was the administrator who held unlimited authority inside it.

So under normal circumstances, Alice would never be in any real danger…

"No."

An unexplainable unease settled over me.

The feeling that I must not send Alice alone—that she would run into something she couldn't handle on her own.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

And my instincts were usually pretty good.

Those instincts had kept me alive more than a few times. An S-rank Awakener's gut was accurate enough to count as limited precognition.

"So we're going together."

I held out my hand to her.

Fortunately, after a brief hesitation, she accepted the offer.

"…Alright! If the Sword Saint is with me, I'll feel much better."

A deep, resonant hum filled the air…

A pocket watch settled around Alice's neck, and the vast library began to stir to life. Clutching the watch tightly, the girl murmured,

"Malicious code intrusion confirmed. Security system neutralization confirmed. Commencing physical removal process."

The currents of information that had been wrapping around her began to warp and scatter. As the dimensional server's immense computational power concentrated into the girl, the surrounding ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠data twisted and degraded under the strain it could no longer bear.

"Well then…"

Alice held out her hand to me with a smile.

"I invite you to Wonderland!"

The moment I took her outstretched hand, the scenery around us snapped and changed.

From the lobby bathed in the romantic starlight of the cosmos, we were dropped into a pitch-black corridor on the first floor.

Both walls of the corridor were lined with towering supercomputers whose height I couldn't even guess. Taller than apartment blocks and packed together like a labyrinth, this place was a Wonderland made of pure information.

"Alice."

"Yes?"

"…Are dimensional server computers usually this filthy?"

When I brushed the surface of a machine with my gloved hand, sticky mucus came away with it. Opening my Eyes, I could see what the slime was made of.

Viruses that dissolved and corrupted data. A nauseating mass of nameless computer viruses tried to invade my body the instant it touched the glove.

"Ugh…!"

I ripped the glove off and flung it away, thrusting my bare hand into the air. Silver particles gathered, and a translucent message window bloomed into existence.

I snatched the pure-white sword as it fell from the empty air, and a translucent barrier immediately wrapped around my body. Only then did the mucus that had been devouring my glove and creeping toward me freeze in place.

"This doesn't seem like ordinary malware."

"I agree. This… feels like a virus made by someone who knows the dimensional server exists."

Alice muttered as she scanned our surroundings.

A server the World Government had poured everything into building was dying. The feeling was anything but good.

"Is that… the Sword Saint's weapon?"

"Yeah. It's the sword I use in the real world. Looks like its form is being projected here as a security code."

"Please don't let go of it if you can help it. Most malicious code can't pierce a Class-1 security code."

"Heh. Don't worry."

Hearing Alice's warning, a faint laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

"A Sword Saint only lets go of her sword when she's dead."

With that, I stepped out of the corridor packed with computer housings. The moment we arrived at Sector E-225, a sinister pressure clamped down hard around my heart.

Finding the source wasn't difficult.

A massive mass of malicious code had the E-225 computer locked in a crushing embrace, sucking the information out of it.

"This is no ordinary virus…"

I didn't know much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about computers.

But… just looking at the sheer volume of code this thing was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carrying was more than enough to tell me it wasn't anything normal.

"You didn't notice until something like this got in?"

"Someone must have tampered with my surveillance net. I didn't catch even a hint of it."

"Hmm? Even I, with a Class-1 security code, can't touch your surveillance net."

"…That's right."

Alice didn't finish the thought, but piecing together what she meant wasn't hard.

The only thing that could approach Alice was Class-0 security clearance. And the only people who could handle Class-0 clearance were…

"The only ones who could mess with that… would be World Government executives."

"I'd like to deny it, but unfortunately, yes."

Alice said it while gripping her pocket watch.

"Shall we deal with that thing first and think afterward?"

"Let's. Once we take it down, we should be able to dig out whoever's behind it too."

The old Northern Psionics Research Institute of former Russia was definitely gone.

A massive gate had opened underground, and beasts had poured out without end. I still remembered, with perfect clarity, my sister's hand reaching for me through the chaos.

So why was some unidentified World Government executive hiding that information?

Were they trying to erase the records of unethical experiments? Or had some experiment I didn't even know about been running there? What could possibly be so bad it couldn't even be left as classified data?

"Alright."

Well. It didn't really matter.

Once I beat the answers out of this thing, I'd know.

"I'm going to find out exactly why they're covering up information about a research institute that already fell."

Charing—

The Winter Sword shone with a cold blue light. The moment I leveled the wind-laden blade at the creature, the giant slime's body began to move.

"Alice, get ready."

"Yes!"

The information that formed the space itself began to heave violently. The slime reared up and hurled a chunk of computer it had been coiled around.

Alice didn't so much as blink.

"Pocket Watch open. Commencing computation."

The dimensional server began dismantling and analyzing the code held inside the computer fragment, piece by piece. It took less than a second for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠computer-shaped code shard to come apart.

"Code analysis complete. Freezing the code."

Click.

The hour hand of the pocket watch stopped, and the computer fragment froze solid in midair.

"Unnie, can you hold that huge mass of malware for just a little while?"

"How many minutes?"

"Three. Three minutes is enough. I'm going to freeze every scrap of information in Sector E-225 so it can't escape."

"Hmm…"

I looked up at the slime. The way it poured over the computers like a tidal wave made it look less like an enemy to cut down and more like a force of nature. For a second I even wondered if I could actually cut it.

But… a Sword Saint was someone who made miracles.

"I've cut the sky itself. Something like this is nothing."

So I swung my sword with absolute confidence.

Flying Sword: Gliding Wind

-----!

A slash carved across the slime's upper body, and the battle inside the dimensional server began.

You can't cut something that has no substance.

That rule applied just as well to the malicious code filling the server room.

Chaotic Sword

Puh-buh-buh-buh-bung—!

In a single instant, thirty separate slashes severed the code.

The slime that had been crashing down like a tidal wave burst apart as if it had exploded, and the body that had been swallowing everything in its path came to a halt.

"…Ha?"

But that was all.

After a brief stagger, the thing absorbed the code scattered across the floor, recovered its original bulk, and started writhing toward us again.

Ordinary swordsmanship couldn't damage it.

Made of countless strands of code, it was less a single living creature and more a vast colony.

"This… might be impossible…"

No matter how many times I cut it, there was no end. Ordinary technique would never stop something like that.

And yet simply dumping a wide-area attack on it carried too many risks. If I blew the dimensional server apart entirely, the data would go with it.

That would reverse the whole point. Every scrap of material on the Northern Psionics Research Institute would obviously be wiped out.

"Alice!"

"Yes?!"

"Dimensional server data—if it gets destroyed, can it be restored?"

After a moment's thought, the girl nodded, though her expression was uncertain.

"…Yes! It would take time, but if we mobilize the dimensional server's computational power, it is possible!"

"Thanks! I'm going to wreck the server a little!"

"What?! Unnie, are you insane?!"

Alice's frantic voice rose behind me, but I had no room left to care. I raised my sword toward the empty air, and the security code activated once more.

Kugugugung—!

With a roar like the sky itself tearing open, five enormous swords plummeted from the impossible heights above. They smashed through computers as they drove into the floor, and Alice's mouth fell open.

"U-Unnie?!"

"If I can't cut it, I'll just crush the whole thing."

It was a technique I would never have used in the real world.

This was swordsmanship that a drug-ruined shut-in's body could never endure.

But this place was a mental world. Having my mind break down was something I was used to by now. Staring straight at the surging slime, I poured mana into the swords.

Kiiiiing—!

With a piercing activation tone, the driven swords shattered into hundreds—thousands—of fragments. Countless shards of blade, each cradling the wind, began to circle around me.

----!!!!!!!!

Only then did the malicious code scream and charge, but it was far too late. My brain, already operating at something close to a supercomputer, had finished calculating every trajectory of every blade.

Winter Sword: Quintuple Focused Acceleration

Airflow Focus: Blizzard

I swung my sword, and blades poured down like a blizzard, blanketing the dimensional server.