"If you... dive a few cardinals to the left, you can reach the main... data core."
Ouch!
Someone had accidentally stepped on her foot.
Talo opened her eyes and saw nothing but the pale gray color of concrete beneath her. The noise of the city came from all directions, like white noise. She was so far from home.
Could've at least apologized, Talo thought.
Though in a crowd like this, hardly anyone would even notice they had stepped on someone's foot. Talo herself could no longer tell who it had been. The city she had just arrived in hummed like a giant power station. It felt as if someone could disappear into this chaos forever.
"Hey! You're Talo, from the Land of goats?"
"Ah, what...?"
A short young man suddenly appeared in front of her. There was nothing especially remarkable about his appearance, except that he looked oddly polished.
"My name is Aram. The university sent me to meet you. Where's your suitcase?"
"I only have a backpack with me."
"Oh..." Aram looked slightly surprised. "Well, that does make traveling easier."
"Yeah." Talo smiled nervously.
Aram reached out to take her backpack, but Talo had already tightened the straps and was looking at him expectantly. Her face revealed nothing, but her eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"Shall we go?"
She strode forward with confidence, toward a new city and a new life.
"- We're going the other way."
After some time, in the very place where Talo and Aram had been standing, a breathless blond man in a C-TU university uniform appeared.
"Hello! Yes, I'm here! No, I can't find her anywhere!"
He looked around frantically.
"How are we supposed to find one lost student in a city like this? She could just get beaten to death in some alley—" a worried voice rang out through his web channel.
"It's much worse than that. She could blow the whole damn city to hell."
Ever since all AI had been moved into a separate network and closed off from public access, a resistance had arisen in the Country of Apes. They believed that data was the key to humanity's freedom over nature. They illegally dove into the NeuroWeb and copied or stole internal data and scripts. Later, they were called pirates, and they spread across all twelve countries on the continent, but nothing remained of their noble goals. Smuggling, racketeering—basically, they had become just regular bandits. And Aram was a newcomer in their ranks.
"So easy for a first mission," he thought. "I'll finally earn some respect from the guys. I just don't get why we need some broke student girl."
"How much longer until we reach the main campus?"
Talo's voice came from behind. While Aram had been imagining his successful criminal life, he had almost lost sight of her.
"A little more. The city is pretty big, so first we'll get to the metro station."
"Hm, got it. What year are you in?"
"I'm in my third."
"Oh, so you're older than me. How old are you?"
"Twenty-three."
"You look really young."
"…What?"
The neon streetlights dimmed as the scenery shifted to slums and pawn shops. In a place like this, where people usually start thinking that something is wrong, Talo turned to Aram. His expression was calm, like a cat before a jump.
"Did something happen? We're almost there," Aram began.
"Who are you? And where did you get information about the students?"
"I don't understand what you're talking about."
"I know the face of the person who was supposed to meet me, and that's definitely not you. Besides, even if you were replacing him, you wouldn't be able to hide your pirate mods. Your whole web is sparkling like fireworks on New Year's Eve."
Aram's face changed sharply. How did she find out about the mods? That wasn't something you could see with the naked eye; even an engineer would need several hours to determine the state of a web. He had to act fast.
"Mod 2: enable data processing mode. Xatab: first attack form, calculating sequence."
Aram's hand shot out at incredible speed. A normal person needs a fraction of a second to make a decision. The web sped up his consciousness and predicted the outcomes. He aimed for the neck, then to sweep the legs. Disable, but not kill. Wait, what?
Where Talo's soft neck should have been, there was nothing. His attack was perfect; even if she had dodged or jumped back, her web would have sent a response signal. But xatab stayed silent. In its sequence, the movement was completed: it registered that he had struck her neck, and now came the follow-up swing to knock her down.
That's impossible. The web can't be wrong… or can it?
There's a small problem with pirate webs.
Talo explained this to Aram while dodging his attacks. None of his strikes could touch her, or even graze her. All he could do was grab at empty air.
"When they develop mods, layers of data get stacked on top of each other like bricks slapped together in a rush. From the outside, it still looks like the same wall, but it's full of cracks and rough spots. Especially xatab, your version of it. It looks like someone clipped it. You're a rookie, aren't you?"
Stopping abruptly right at the edge of his attack range, Talo watched the angry face of the young pirate, waiting.
Aram flinched back. What is wrong with her?!
But before he could say anything, a sharp blow to the jaw sent a shock through his skull.
Critical hit detected. Defense mode activating.
Aram's arms snapped into an infighter's boxing guard. His face was covered, his hands tight against his body. With his height, the peekaboo style worked well for both defense and offense.
"Oh, boxing. I like that," Talo thought with delight.
Aram lunged into close range. Even with his face hidden behind his gloves, his eyes could still clearly see the enemy in front of him. For now.
As soon as he got close enough, Talo dropped low toward his legs and swept his ankle. All of Aram's weight had shifted onto one foot, so with a hook under it, she easily knocked him onto his side. Before he could understand what was happening, his head was caught in a neckbar.
Talo's arms locked around his neck in a tight choke. After a while, Aram was already out cold.
Stretching after the fight, Talo caught her breath, then started digging through the tool panel on his wrist. Pirate interfaces were usually layered over multiple times, so the place where they were implanted always had tiny scars left over from previous updates.
This one wasn't hard to figure out. It looked like his whole arm was covered in scars.
Was it really worth it? Talo wondered.
Once she wiped the interface history, Aram no longer had any value.
"Great. So how am I supposed to find my way to uni now?"