Starry Sky Railway: I Intruded with the Heart of God

Kafka stopped again at the second portrait on the right and asked, "Who is this?"

The video feed was synchronized to Silver Wolf's side, and Silver Wolf said, "I don't recognize him."

"So, do you recognize this white-bearded old man behind me?" Kafka asked, turning around.

"I don't recognize them, maybe they're from the club?"

Kafka moved forward again, this time stopping in front of the third image on her right.

"Heh~ I recognize this, Silver Wolf. Look, it's Screwgoom, your old rival."

"Uh...like I said, I didn't know it was him at the time..."

"It was that battle that made Eriol take a liking to you. I remember Eriol saying something like..."

"Someone in the universe actually managed to crack ScrewGumm's program!"

"First it was Sluggoom, then Black Tower. I doubt anyone in the universe has provoked two geniuses in such a short period of time. It must be fate."

"Sigh...it seems I am the 'slave of fate.'"

Kafka moved forward again, and after using the device in her hand to open a space station isolation door, she killed a phantom soldier of the antimatter legion that appeared to be defecating with a single strike, and then continued forward.

Just then, the seemingly dead antimatter legion phantom behind her slowly rose and attempted to launch a sneak attack on Kafka.

Kafka continued walking forward as if she hadn't noticed anything.

The phantom soldier leaped into the air, and just as the blade in his hand was about to touch Kafka, his body was digitized and vanished as pixels.

The silver wolf who had spoken to Kafka earlier appeared behind her. While operating the virtual terminal in front of her, she said, "Cleaning up other people's messes isn't my job. Don't you agree, Kafka?"

The girl named Silver Wolf blew a large bubble of chewing gum and looked to the side.

Kafka turned around and walked up to her, saying, "Where did you put him?"

"These coordinates were just randomly chosen, nothing fancy. Are you really concerned about where that pawn went?"

"I don't care~ It's just that no matter how many times I see it, I can't help but think, your methods are truly unbelievable~"

"It's just modifying real-world data; it's a trivial trick."

"What were you looking at so intently just now? Let me see it too?"

"The Black Tower's toys, a catalog of 'curiosities' from the space station's collection. It contains many interesting items."

"for example?"

"There is a gun that can score the creatures that appear in its target message, from 0 to 100."

"...What's so interesting about this?"

"Aren't you curious about how many points you'll get?...I'm quite curious to know."

"Sure, if it's on the way, let's go check it out! Where's our destination?"

"Continue along the corridor behind the door on the left, and you'll find a room containing some kind of 'strange object'."

"Is the star core...right there?"

"It can tell us where the star's core is."

As the girl named Silver Wolf easily opened the isolation door on the left, they continued forward.

"In the core area of ​​the space station ahead, there will be many illusory soldiers of the antimatter legion."

"Okay."

...

The two dealt with the pawns along the way and arrived at a door.

"stop."

The two stopped in their tracks.

"It seems there's something ahead."

A phantom soldier, the Tamperer, suddenly appeared in front of the two.

Several dummy soldiers also appeared beside him.

"It seems we're the ones who were ambushed," Silver Wolf said.

"Unfortunately, it was they who were surrounded."

next moment...

"100% Weak Point Strike." As Silver Wolf fired his cannon, they entered the narrow passage of fate, and the opponent's resilience was completely reduced.

With the phantom soldiers at their mercy, the duo easily dealt with the surrounding phantom soldiers and entered the door in front of them.

"There's not a single person here. The evacuation was quite thorough. Was it an order from the Black Tower itself?"

"According to the access records, that woman hasn't logged in here for more than half a year. The refuge operation is being directed by a station manager named Está."

“A name I’ve never heard of… Ah, Elio said it seems we won’t encounter the Black Tower on this trip, so it seems she really isn’t here.”

"So, where is the star core?"

"Elio's script doesn't mention the issue of the star core, meaning that in the future he envisions..."

"We didn't find the star's core through physical means, did we?"

"There are so many incredible things in this space station, it's not surprising to find such strange objects."

"Using a strange object to hide another strange object is indeed that woman's method... You've been flipping through the catalog for so long, you must have some clues by now, right?"

"We have all the necessary clues; all that's needed next is a little trick."

"Help me investigate the terminal equipment in the room; the strange object might be inside."

After a few simple operations, Kavka said of the first device on the right, "The entire space station is on the monitoring screen... but I can't see the location of the star core."

"Even if there were, they would be traps. The Black Tower's collection would never be shown to the public."

A huge hub stood on the left, but Kafka remarked, "It seems a storage device is missing from this terminal..."

"This is the monitoring room. It's a one-stop shop for deleting databases and running away. It's a tradition in the industry."

"You should come over here; this kind of investigation is inefficient."

Kafka approached the silver wolf and said, "So, my dear, what brilliant plan do you have? I'm all ears."

"Just hack into the surveillance system and that's it."

"Ah, I see. The Black Tower's collection must be independent of the system; everything that remains unaffected is the target."

All the displays in the room were now filled with images of pixels and a silver wolf's head; all the devices in the room had been hacked.

"Simple, crude, but effective. Look, we found it."

Kafka approached the only device that hadn't been hacked, looked at the screen, and asked, "What's this?"

"Anomaly No. 211 'Blind Spot': A simple deflecting light field that makes things in the area less noticeable, but it will reveal itself once other things become inconspicuous."

"The Black Tower used such a simple little gadget to hide her treasure?" Kafka asked skeptically.

“The simpler the method, the less likely it is to be detected. Isn’t that our motto?” Silver Wolf said.

"Too..."

Kafka tapped the device in her hand a few times, and a notch appeared in front of Silver Wolf.

"There's another weird thing."

"Hmm, based on the data, it's just a regular holographic image, but it has an added outer shell..."

"Let's go through and take a look. It's alright, we won't get stuck here."

As the two approached the gap, the scene before them changed rapidly, and a star core appeared right in front of Kafka.

"This idea is interesting; no wonder you're from the Genius Club."

"Hurry up, Kafka, the star core is right in front of us."

Kafka tried to hack into the terminal in front of her again, but it didn't seem to work.

Silver Wolf's voice came through Kafka's earpiece: "There's an independent protection system. It seems that the Star Core is not an ordinary collectible for the Black Tower."

"Can it still be taken out?" Kafka asked.

"Of course, in the hacking world, even the genius Black Tower is no match for me."

"Okay, then I'll leave the preparation of the carrier to you as well~"