Part 86: Episode 78: Hacking

Sakuya, you’re safe!
He was pretty worried about you, Ryouta. He couldn’t sit still the entire time you were gone.
Silence, mongrel!
Ahaha, thanks. Sorry for worrying you, Sakuya.
Anyway, Sakuya filled me in on your adventures. You want me to hack into the headmaster’s computer?
Can you do it?

And just like that, we were all off to the headmaster’s office.



Sir, about this control panel…
What about it?
Can’t you tell? It must be the controls for that dome.
Mmm, right. I suppose it could be.
It’s locked, though. We were going to have Yuuya get into it for us, but…
That’s illegal, you know.
That doesn’t matter! Don’t you comprehend our situation!?

Thank you, sir!
Well, having Mr. Nanaki’s approval certainly helps my conscience. Let’s see…

He wakes up the computer, and before long I have no idea what he’s doing to it.
Text flashes across the screen as Yuuya types at an inavian speed. The sound of the keyboard keeps me transfixed to the spectacle before me.

Wow… I wonder where he learned to do that.

X-rated videos can teach someone how to do this sort of thing? Maybe I should watch more of them.

There we go. Now then--

He hit the enter key, and a familiar *ding* rang from the console speakers.


Woohoo!
…Hmph.
This… only has an open and a close button. I guess that’s pretty straightforward.
Well, I’ll leave the rest of this to you two.

If we press this button, either the dome itself or the hatch will probably open. But with the headmaster dead, we have no way of knowing what’s happening outside.
If… If there really is some terrible disaster, then opening the dome could put everybirdie in danger… I wonder if mom’s at home. I hope she’s okay…

There is a dangerous individual wandering the premises, and the bird in charge is dead. I think it would be wise to open the dome now.
That’s true…

We did get Yuuya to help and everything…

The music stops.
Just because the killer used a canned speech for the announcement, it could still be true that there’s a natural disaster going on outside…
If there really is a natural disaster, what’s going to happen when we open the dome? Can we risk the safety of the student body like this?

…It might be more dangerous to open it.
But maybe still better than being stuck inside with the scarecrow…

Hey, wait--

But before I could protest, Sakuya hit the open button.
Soon after, a static voice came out of the speakers.

Panel: Escape hatch opened.

I guess it’s… not for the whole dome.
No matter. All we need to do is get a look outside.

Just having the hatch open is better, anyway, in case there really is a storm or something out there.

Panel: The escape hatch will close automatically in 15 minutes. To reopen it, please reboot and try again.
It closes on its own? That seems like a risky design.

Let’s go out and take a look, before it closes.

I turned to let the others know about our plan.

We’re going outside again, Mr. Nanaki.
If it’s safe, we’ll organize an evacuation at the gym.

Sakazaki, Doctor, what will you two do?
Hmm… Well, I don’t have any more business here. I shall return to the lab.
Leaving Goon alone with another man would hardly be gentlemanly, so I’ll go with the doctor.

Very well.
Yup!

I know it’s not good to get optimistic right now, but I can’t help it.
We might just be able to leave now… We can finally be free of this nightmare!