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[Dwarmin]

"What was the source of the error anyways? Did you download some sort of malware from the net?"

[Chevaleresse]

Score remained silent for a long moment.
". . . No."
"I. . . there was an error installing a program that WindKnight-san sent me."
If Kauko poked through the relevant logs, it would quickly become obvious that nothing was actually wrong with the source program. The last change to the file was shortly before the installation time, evidently a modification made by Score herself.

[Dwarmin]

"...Listen, I'm not...angry. You're pushing the boundaries of what I've established for you, poking around, trying to learn the things you forgot. Now that I have the cooling issue fixed, we can concentrate on making that place a little more expansive.

WindKnight showed me a lot of tricks for making a small PET a little more homely.

...You know, your PET used to belong to my old Navi SplashWoman. For that matter, WindKnights PET was a custom job. Don't tell SnowMan, but Lumis PET was a hand-me down from my first Navi Fry! I doubt you knew any of that. But none of my old Navi used it for much-SplashWoman said-three hots and a cot, was all she said she needed. That and the Danger Room. Preferred to be on the job as much as possible, or surfing the Net by herself. Fry just wanted privacy, mostly from me. What I mean with the history lesson is that I'm pretty good at making a PET that is functional, but comfort was never really anything I knew how to design.

I didn't know Navi could see the boundaries I set for them. I couldn't understand at the time, why they pushed at them.

Now that we need to repair the damage anyway, maybe we can personalize your space a bit more. You risk your...life...for me, the least I can do is give you a nice place to rest. One that isn't bursting into flames or sinking into the ocean!"

[Chevaleresse]

"I see. I must once again apologize for causing damage, then. I did not mean to disrespect those who had come before them. I just thought that this small modification should be simple." She looked down, the corners of her mouth following suit. "Rather, the modification is very simple, and should have been trivial to execute unassisted. It is not a failing on your part to provide some sort of luxury for me. No, it is my own. I. . . just desired to maintain a gift given to me."

[Dwarmin]

"Apology accepted. You'll fall down a few times finding your legs, that's all. In the meantime don't feel like you have to do it all yourself. I'm here to help...so is WindKnight. Now we don't need to spend all night feeling sorry for ourselves, do we? We've got a treasure to open!"

[Chevaleresse]

The corners of the Navi's mouth switched orientations.
"Thank you, Lehtonen-sama. I will perform my best to repay you."

[Dwarmin]

"I'll hold you that-I keep track of all your stats, you know!"

Kauko brought up a series of circular graphs which appeared around score in her room showing various lettered combat rankings.

[SCORE.EXE]
AVG BUSTING RANK: B

--DELETION TIME: S
--DAMAGE (PENALTY): A
--ACTION ECONOMY: A
--TACTICS: B
--COUNTER-HITS: C
--MULTI-DELETE: D

=MISC=
CROSS-SOULS: UNKNOWN
FAVORITE DIGI-SNACK/BEVERAGE: UNKNOWN
VIRUS MARK: ZOMON
DISTANCE WALKED: 16 NAVIMILES
ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED: [Backstory/Amnesiac] [BladeWorkLv.1] [HoloArtist] [TeamSentinel] [LFG Role:Tank] [DeflectionPerfection] [KagamiNoJutsu] [Coding=Fail]

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Do you want to check the storage chip or let TrustyFriend check it out?" she asks Lumi, who was still holding onto the prize. Her PET let out a chime as she holds out the adapter for Lumi, though Titania gives it a shake and blocks it before TrustyFriend could interrupt. No doubt he was drooling over the opportunity to examine it but she had found it first and had earned the right to double-check it first.

"Sure, he can take a look," Lumi said, taking the adapter and attaching it to the chip.

[USEC_OFFICER]

"Sure, he can take a look," Lumi said, taking the adapter and attaching it to the chip.

"Okay," Titania said as she reached over to take the adapter's cable and plug it into her PET.

She doesn't stop her PET as it lets out a chime and TrustyFriend.EXE speaks up, "Don't worry. I will do my best to decipher whatever lies in the chip. I'm sure that whatever it contains must be important given the level of security." For a few moments the Navi is silent as he examines the contents before letting out a loud squawk, causing the truck to lurch to the side as Thomas jumps.

"What is it? What's the problem?" Thomas asks as he swerves back into his lane.

"To think that everyone would spend decades looking for more data from the Cyllenian Mysteries and we happen to stumble upon some by accident! This is incredible! This is amazing! This is unprecedented! The timestamps are well within estimates for the destruction of the city too! Of course I assumed as much from the messages left on the server but having some kind of confirmation is important for dating. The exact date is still uncertain, since obviously it was set after the destruction, but-"

To prevent TrustyFriend from getting too off track, Titania spoke up, "It's data encrypted by the Cyllenian Mysteries. We've only found five pieces of it ever. Well. Six now."

TrustyFriend let out a chirp in agreement as Thomas nodded, now equally excited. "So what does it say? Any juicy details?"

"Well... No."

"No?"

Ti preemptively covers her PET's speaker as she explains, "Kythera University was worried about people making forgeries so they never publicly released the algorithm and keys. We only know that we have what we have because they published the headers and footers for this exact kind of situation. They didn't want any treasure hunters deleting something because they thought it was junk." Noticing the growing look on her brother's face, she quickly added, "They bought a supercomputer to decrypt it and it still took almost a year. There's no way we could figure everything out on our own."

"Well we won't have to if they've already done all of the hard work for us. We'll just sneak into the university, snag that algorithm, and sneak out." Noticing the growing look on his sister's face, he turned his head to speak to everyone else, "It'll be nice and easy, right guys? How much security can one university have? Can't be any risker than sneaking out at night looking for tombs."

[Chevaleresse]

"I see. . . I will keep these figures in mind for further improvement."
Score listened quietly to the conversation through the mic in the PET. She hadn't expected to encounter such a valuable find (or at least what seemed to be so.)

>If I may comment? The university has likely experienced such break-in attempts before.
>I do not believe it will be an easy task based on the limited information presented.
>If they are frequently handling secret or sensitive data, the security will be robust.
>Caution is advised.

[SeriousConcentrate]

"How much do you think they would pay for the chip?" Lumi asked. "Surely it's gotta be worth a lot."

[Dwarmin]

"How much do you think they would pay for the chip?" Lumi asked. "Surely it's gotta be worth a lot."

"If you're talking about the University they probably wouldn't trust us, and if they believed we had something valuable, they'd try to have us arrested for black market trading. All they have is our word for it after all...and if they can get whatever we tried to sell them out of police evidence when we're locked up, that's quite a bargain." Kauko mused.  "I mean to say, we can't really fence stolen goods to more or less honest people. We could get our hands on that algorithm...but, we'd have to do so leaving no trace of our presence, ideally. Because if the algorithm is stolen, you can really only use it for one thing, right?

I agree with Score, mostly...the university probably doesn't have all that great of defenses around the normal stuff-coffee machines, door locks, and the like-getting in shouldn't be too hard, and moving around the place should be simple. A lot of people leave the codes to their computers written on sticky notes attached to the screen, and the students can probably code their way around anything the place can throw at them.

...But, I wouldn't doubt they stored the algorithm itself in the super computer to keep it safe, or have some sort of advanced defense system. Releasing the header and footer practically guarantees looters will try to sneak in sooner or later if some of them ever got their hands on the mysteries.

It seems like a trap, but the funny thing about traps, is that you have to spring them at the right time. You've got to be on your guard at all times, because anytime someone could show up-like us! I say we do it...maybe we can case the place...if there is an easier way to get at it."

...

WindKnight was practicing his cyber-kata as the conversation went on, flowing from one stance to another. It was hard to stay limber at his age, so constant exercise was a must...

"...Breaking into a Monastery? I suppose this task will be a slight challenge to us, if not a fulfilling one...Kauko, we must be sure not to harm anyone, as these Monks are blameless in their task to preserve knowledge. My blade must remain sheathed, as much as able-I have no wish to harm the innocent.

The cleanest way for this task is to be like the wind-silent, flowing through the gaps, leaving no trace.

It will be easier if no one ever knew we were there...which is to say, there is little honor to be gained working in the darkness. But, I have learned in my long life that the path we take is long and crooked, leading under shade and light in equal amounts...I can only hope this leads to a brighter place.

That being said, I have heard no rumors of the place being protected by any particularly strong Navi."

[USEC_OFFICER]

>If I may comment? The university has likely experienced such break-in attempts before.
>I do not believe it will be an easy task based on the limited information presented.
>If they are frequently handling secret or sensitive data, the security will be robust.
>Caution is advised.

TrustyFriend lets out a chirp in agreement. "Oh, security is certainly tight! Ti had me inv-"

Titania's cheeks redden as she covers her PET's speaker with her thumb. "Ahem. Some areas of the university are open to the public but most of it requires a pass to access. Both in the world and the net. You can register for a guest pass but I assume I don't have to explain how dumb of an idea that is."

"If you're dumb enough to give them your real info, maybe. If you're suave enough I'm sure you could get a pass and waltz right in without any trouble."

"Oooor you could be cautious and see if there's any backdoors or vulnerabilities to exploit. It's a university full of students. I'm sure that no matter how tight security is, someone has done something they shouldn't have. Made a hole or lost their pass without telling anyone. You just have to look for these kinds of things."

"How much do you think they would pay for the chip?" Lumi asked. "Surely it's gotta be worth a lot."

"From what Ti is saying? Absolutely priceless! So, uh, I'd have to ask around and see who is willing to buy something like this and for how much. Oh, but I expect that it's going to be a lot! Something this big? There's bound to be a lot of rich executives who'd love to have their name attached to something like this."

"If you're talking about the University they probably wouldn't trust us, and if they believed we had something valuable, they'd try to have us arrested for black market trading. All they have is our word for it after all...and if they can get whatever we tried to sell them out of police evidence when we're locked up, that's quite a bargain." Kauko mused.  "I mean to say, we can't really fence stolen goods to more or less honest people. We could get our hands on that algorithm...but, we'd have to do so leaving no trace of our presence, ideally. Because if the algorithm is stolen, you can really only use it for one thing, right?

I agree with Score, mostly...the university probably doesn't have all that great of defenses around the normal stuff-coffee machines, door locks, and the like-getting in shouldn't be too hard, and moving around the place should be simple. A lot of people leave the codes to their computers written on sticky notes attached to the screen, and the students can probably code their way around anything the place can throw at them.

...But, I wouldn't doubt they stored the algorithm itself in the super computer to keep it safe, or have some sort of advanced defense system. Releasing the header and footer practically guarantees looters will try to sneak in sooner or later if some of them ever got their hands on the mysteries.

It seems like a trap, but the funny thing about traps, is that you have to spring them at the right time. You've got to be on your guard at all times, because anytime someone could show up-like us! I say we do it...maybe we can case the place...if there is an easier way to get at it."

"Yeah, we aren't in any hurry. Or at least I'm not. We can spend however long it takes investigating until we're confident that we can snag it. I'm not sure if we'll get another shot at it if we mess up... Or at least it won't be as easy as the first time."

"No pressure though!"


Thomas's truck finally pulled into the city. This late at night he wasn't the only vehicle on the road and there were a few pedestrians on the sidewalks, some of whom were undoubtedly stumbling back home after a long night of drinking.

"We can make proper plans tomorrow after we've all caught some shut eye. I don't know about you guys, but I could use some shut eye after such a long night."

[Dwarmin]

"Who could sleep at a time like this? I've got so much new data to sort through! So much stuff to compile!"

Lumi would be aware of Kaukos nocturnal habits.

[Chevaleresse]

>Lehtonen-sama, if I may respectfully remind you of what happened last time you neglected to sleep to analyze new data.