“We’ve got the first batch of targets.” Vivi spoke up within the void that Blank called a home, appearing before his desk with what seemed to be a small folder. Of course, such a thing was truly just that, a folder of files that she was passing off to him.
The digital god took that folder and looked through it, before shaking his head dismissively and setting it down. “Only three? I can’t move for so few, especially if they aren’t in the same area. I’ll flag their address so that we can monitor them more closely.”
Vivi smiled knowingly, having expected such an outcome. “I am merely passing you the information as agreed. Of the three, two of them are more likely to be natives of our own worlds. Only the one I placed at the top is someone I am sure is an invader.”
Hearing that, Blank opened the folder to look at the image. On it was a young human girl, appearing to be no more than a late teenager. “What makes you so sure of her identity?”
“Her immaturity proved to be her downfall. While those she is living with hurriedly stopped her, she still mentioned several key phrases. From those phrases, it was confirmed that she comes from another world. One where they see a ‘Keeper’ as the final boss to a dungeon rather than the ruler of a world.”
Blank blinked his eyes as he heard that. “I… suppose that the comparison isn’t entirely inaccurate. Were you able to acquire the identity of the people that she is living with?”
“Unfortunately, the new model only has microphones installed, and not external cameras.” Vivi was helpless in this regard. No matter how talented she was at sifting through data, she was incapable of altering the hardware of the devices. “Furthermore, they seem to have chosen to live in an area with a low level of surveillance.”
“I have confirmed the presence of four voices aside from the confirmed target. Two of these were present when she let slip the information, and indirectly confirmed their own involvement. These two also possess gaming headsets, but are using an older model and customized their avatars early. As for the other two, it is possible for them to be natives that were simply renting out a room. According to the reports, the house is owned by a married couple that has inhabited it for six years.”
Blank furrowed his brow at that. “If they’ve been there for six years, it’s highly unlikely that they are invaders as well… are you sure that the information wasn’t tampered with before you got to it?”
Vivi considered that possibility, before shaking her head. “I didn’t notice any traces of tampering. If they did so, their skills with computers would have to be quite extreme to bypass my awareness.”
“Very well. We’ll proceed under the assumption that the three are the only confirmed members of this cell, and the other two individuals can be seen as oblivious hostages. As long as they are around, we can’t make a move in the physical world, and it is pointless to dispose of them digitally if we can’t get all three at once.”
The silver-skinned woman gave a faint nod of agreement. “I’ll get back to monitoring the new units. When I have something more for you to make a move, I’ll bring it over.” After she said that, she closed her eyes, vanishing in a burst of silver light.
“My Keeper, we have received word from Vivi.” Tsubaki’s words broke me out of my monotonous thoughts, causing me to look over towards her in anticipation. “We have located three confirmed invaders, and she has reported some information that she has gleaned from their conversation.”
“Report.” Learning about three invaders was already incredibly significant. Getting information on Sanction’s homeworld? Now that was altogether another level of success.
Tsubaki gave a firm nod. “As expected, the individuals come from a society with a heavy focus on games. In fact, certain titles from our world are known to them. Namely, Natural Seed and Vision Expanse, though the former seems to be a much newer title for them.”
“In their world, the Keeper has not revealed his identity to the public. Instead, the term ‘Keeper’ is used to represent the boss at the end of a dungeon. While the details are unclear, there seem to be a great many personal benefits for them to gain by clearing one of these dungeons. Or, in other words…”
“In other words, killing me and winning the invasion.” I completed her sentence with a low sigh. “Give me their location, I’ll see what I can find.”
Previously, my mirrors had not been able to locate these invaders while using the search parameters of ‘a group of new arrivals from another realm’. All I found were normal travelers coming through the Fairy Ring. As such, it could be assumed that they had methods to hide themselves from divine energy.
Thankfully, I possessed a far more specialized energy, which existed for no other purpose than scanning. An energy that, to my knowledge, could penetrate any type of obfuscation. However, this was only the case if I knew where to scan to begin with.
Once I got the information from Tsubaki, I closed my eyes in focus, activating my world sight.
“Thank you for the meal!” A young woman said as she clapped her hands together, standing up from the table. She had short black hair and hazel eyes, dressed in a button up black shirt and long, tattered jeans.
Across from her was a man and a woman, each smiling kindly to her. “Don’t be like that, Kiana.” The woman insisted, possessing short red hair and a motherly figure. “You should go enjoy yourself. You start work at the tower tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Yup!” The girl, Kiana, nodded her head vigorously. “I just got the acceptance notice earlier. My mana levels are in the acceptable range, so I can go there to help out! I won’t let my good-for-nothing friends freeload off you anymore.”
The man let out a hearty laugh at that. “They’re just having a bit of trouble finding a job, is all. It’s not easy for most people, these days. Even the tower has increased the standard for mages that they accept, you know?”
“Eh? Why would they do that? Isn’t it better for them to be able to get more energy with more people showing up?” The concept of limiting their energy output didn’t seem very sensible to Kiana, causing her to raise the question. However, it was promptly answered by her host.
“It’s because of the refinement. Now that they are able to refine mana into a more efficient form, their overall output has started to exceed the demand by too high a margin. Any energy that they produce in excess of what they can use or store is simply wasted money, so they can’t afford to keep more mages on hand than necessary. The fact that you were able to get in already shows that you have extraordinary talent for one that has only practiced runic magic.”
“Heheh… I guess I just have a way with languages?” She stuck her tongue out playfully as she chuckled to herself. “Anyways, I’ll go play now! See you later, you two!” After she said that, she turned around, walking back to her room.
Blaque, Serin, how are things going on your end? Her voice emanated out along the party chat once she was alone in her room.
Still working on finding an apartment. ‘Honeymoon homes’ are hard to come by in this area. We might need to relocate if we want to use this excuse. What about you three?
The other two are in Natural Seed right now, confirming how much of the game is similar to what we have. I’ll join them soon. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting work in order to have a ‘legit’ source of income. The currency converter will get suspicious if people look too deeply.
Hearing her words, the man named Blaque let out a sigh. Maybe. I was thinking about getting a job, as well. Unfortunately, the only thing around here that fits my skillset is manual labor. At least Serin would be able to apply as an assistant teacher, once she’s done reading up at the library.
Kiana nodded her head, careful not to mention her earlier slip up in a verbal conversation with the rest of her party. The last thing she wanted was these two scolding her as well. They might even take it up with the guild leader. Sucks to suck, doesn’t it~?
Blaque simply grumbled in response, but a feminine voice spoke up. Definitely Serin. How are you coming at learning the local magic?
Serin’s question caused Kiana to stumble a bit. U-uh… I learned a little bit of runic in passing. Not enough to proc a skill, though. I managed to play a script spell off as runic for my test at the mage tower, and they seemed to buy it. I’ll be able to learn their geometric magic starting tomorrow. Once I have the skill, we can start sharing it around.
Her answer seemed to appease Serin, who let Kiana off the hook for teasing Blaque. They finished up their report, and Kiana made her way over to the headset resting on her desk. As she brought her hands to it, she first placed them on the desk, activating a concealed spell. Even if she was confident in their cover story, it was unwise for all three of them to be ingame at once without wards set up.
I watched as Kiana spoke with the couple that they were staying with, their conversation seeming completely natural. From that, I had my suspicions that they were simply innocent bystanders, but this was only confirmed when she left them. Then, as she entered her room, two streams of energy emerged from her head, forming links outside of my scanning area.
If not for my world sight, I would have never been able to notice this connection. It wasn’t mana, or even spiritual energy. Instead, it was some convoluted mix of the two, with a hint of the system’s own energy mixed in. Just from that component, I could guess that they hadn’t created this energy themselves, and were using some form of nonverbal system that their Keeper had purchased.
This makes things more complicated… The fact that they had a practically undetectable means of communication would limit my options to act from here on. Furthermore, while I had identified three of the invaders, and was able to follow the links from Kiana to the other two to make a total of five… there were still too many left.
“It seems that those three are all connected to the game right now.” I muttered quietly, and Tsubaki looked up with a small trace of excitement.
“Shall I inform Blank that he can act to eliminate them?”
Clearly, the thought of being able to defeat a group of invaders so swiftly made Tsubaki want to take action. However, I shook my head to decline her suggestion. “Don’t. They aren’t alone. Aside from those three, there are at least two more in the vicinity that are part of the same group. If we kill the three now, the others will be able to learn what caused it. As much as I really want to make some progress, we need to wait for a better chance.”
Tsubaki reluctantly nodded her head, agreeing with my line of reasoning. “I understand, my Keeper. If you could provide me with the details of the remaining individuals, I’ll pass them onto our network.”
With a nod, I created projections of all five confirmed invaders to let Tsubaki see them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make out the conversation that they were having via their private chat system. While I could read the information being sent, I had no way to interpret it as something I was familiar with. Even the mighty translator function didn’t help me understand the magical equivalent of encrypted code.
