Part 77: Hashida Itaru makes a peculiar discovery
"Nya? Who are you talking about nya?"Hm? But Faris's real name should be Akiha Rumiho. Gh, don't tell me, is this an effect of changing the past...?
"Faris is Faris nya. I don't have any names other than that nya.""Yeah, yeah, sure. Your true name is Faris. My apologies."
My surprise subsided. That's just the sort of girl Faris is.
"And?"
Getting a call from Faris might mean there's some progress in her getting that IBN 5100 for us. But...
"Kyouma's acting too conspicuously nya. The encircling net has already been spread nya.""Haah...?"
More of Faris's signature bullshit?
"Hehehe, I see... but don't believe that the Four Heavenly Kings can stop me. Akiba will turn into a sea of blood..."
"After the Four Heavenly Kings is the Under Big Four nya. After that, the Eight Heads, and the Black Angel Troupe also wait nya.""There's that many?! They've inflated their group too much!"
"It means they're just that serious nya... Kyouma, I'm sorry, but this is checkmate nyan.""No, its not over yet. As long... as I have that, I can turn the tides...! Have you yet to find information on the IBN 5100?!"
What, so she doesn't have any progress?
"Please hurry. I don't have any time left..."
"I knyow! When Faris finds it, she'll tell you nya. Kyouma, until then... don't die nyan.""Yeah, like hell I can die... El Psy Co--"
Dammit. That's why I hate talking to Faris. Well, let's just leave that aside.
No, instead, maybe I should say that was a miracle? I mean, it's reached urban legend status, and people like Moeka spend several months with zero clues. So, when I started searching for it, it was as if I were guided to its discovery in just two or three days. That itself was fate... no, Steins;Gate's choice. That's why I shouldn't regret its loss.
"That's the phantom PC for ya."Daru, at his PC like always, whispers calmly.
"I learned this from @chan, but several years ago, a collector apparently paid some tens of millions of yen before he got one. The IBN 5100's dangerous. Seriously dangerous.""If it's got that high a premium on it, then..."
Then people around the world really are aiming for that retro PC's hidden ability!
"It's really a mystery to people like me. It's actually seriously puzzling as to why it's priced so high. Well, it might be an expensive item in the first place, since it looks like it cost about $2000 back in the day."$2000... That is expensive.
"Anyway, I really don't feel like getting one. It certainly is a nice machine, but that was strictly back in the day. I don't think it's worth getting your eyes bloodshot over. Someone's buying them up."People feel a psychological need to seek things that are hard to obtain. Now I'm in the same frame of mind.
Is it SERN's accumulated information that shall become the core to its time machine development? Or is it information that proves the existence of the Council of 300 that lies underneath SERN?
At any rate, I want to expose that area more and more each day. My desire to bring chaos is not my only reason. This is necessary to obtain the trump card to oppose the evil that is SERN.
There's also that threat mail. Daru showed confidence that SERN didn't find out about his hacking, but I can't just blindly trust that. Our opponent is the world's best thinkers, the inventors of the world wide web. They're backed by the secret organization with the influence to silence nations. Our opponent is way too strong. They'd have no trouble at all with crushing our puny lab if they so wished.
That's the very reason I want a trump card to protect ourselves... but currently, we're stalling, without obtaining an IBN 5100. I'm getting restless.
Daru stops typing and forcefully bends himself towards the monitor with wide eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"No, wait, this is impossible, but...""What are you talking about? Explain."
"Well, right now, I examined various ways to get root access to SERN... but I never thought the information in SERN's database would fall so quickly."
"Direct? Is that different from normal?"
"It's literally direct. A fiber optic cable is seriously connecting us directly to SERN in France.""Is that different from normal?"
"It's completely different."As if to find an example, Daru calls up a browser window and goes to the National Assembly of France's site. Additionally, he brings up the command prompt and drives in some sort of command.
"This PC's IP address is in the 0th position. After that, it passes through various points in Japan, flies to France, then goes to the National Assembly's site by way of computers in France. So, it takes 16 steps in order to view the National Assembly's site. The average transfer rate is about 300ms. That's normal for overseas travel. To put it simply, it's like the route to visit French sites from Japan is restricted. Everyone takes the same route.And that's not just to France. Other countries are the same. Even for domestic Japan browsing, it takes about 10 steps. So next, let's try SERN."
Daru calls up SERN's homepage on the browser. Then, he calls up the route on the command prompt like last time.
And then...
