Chapter 313: Know It or Not (2)

“All data related to the city’s urban expansion and development plan has been stored in a network- and physically-isolated archive since its disposal was confirmed 20 years ago.”

Aris’s expression, which had remained cold, turned dumbfounded, and Hina O’Neil next to her pushed up her glasses.

“That location is Sector 6, designated as the fourth restricted area.”

“Unlike District 13, which is perfectly shrouded in mystery, its outline is somewhat known even to our Agents’ intelligence network.”

Pallard O’Con grinned, resting a hand on the ops table, and asked.

“Isn’t it amusing that the Agents, who struggled to protect the restricted area, are now trying to steal information from it?”

“……”

There was no answer.

Noting the heavy atmosphere, Pallard O’Con quickly shifted the focus to someone else.

“Well, if push comes to shove, the esteemed individual who graced us with their presence here will take care of everything, so don’t worry.”

[Hearing the Deputy Director’s words, I’m actually less reassured…]

Meyer sighed deeply and nodded.

[I can’t burden those of you on the ground any further. I will take responsibility for guaranteeing your safety in that regard.]

“Then it’s decided.”

Pallard O’Con yanked open a shelf on one side of the vehicle.

He tossed the items inside to the personnel seated in the vehicle.

“Let’s become righteous outlaws for this city, just for today.”

Balaclavas with holes just big enough to barely expose their eyes.

Lennok and Aris sighed deeply almost simultaneously.

Restricted Area.

It refers to areas where entry is prohibited, even within the sprawling megacity that extends outward with numbered sectors.

They are used as testing grounds for risky policies or facilities, and some, like District 13, have unknown reasons for their existence.

Sector 6 is one of those restricted areas that has relatively frequent external access.

A massive cement wall, rising endlessly. A command vehicle stopped in front of the steel gate, on which a pitch-black ‘6’ was painted.

“When the megacity was being built, Sector 6 was the administrative hub.”

Pallard O’Con, sitting in the passenger seat, leaned out and mumbled, looking up at the gate.

“After the Council and City Hall relocated, this place has only been used for storing business records. Any high-ranking city official would have visited here at least once.”

“Is access to the archive impossible with the authority of the Agent Deputy Director?”

Ilya, fidgeting with the balaclava she awkwardly put on, asked.

“If it were just about finding the location of a facility transferred from a restricted area to an undeveloped zone, there would be no need for such drastic measures.”

“The only thing I can do with my authority is pass through the gate right in front of us. To enter the internal facilities, you need separate authorization for each one.”

“……”

“One positive aspect is that Sector 6’s access authority hasn’t been updated in over 10 years. That means its security is relatively outdated in this city.”

Pallard O’Con said, looking around at the personnel inside the command vehicle.

It’s basically a storage facility for old documents and records designated for disposal. It’s not strange for its security to be relatively lax compared to other classified areas.

Few people would be interested in secrets buried in an undeveloped zone at this point.

“So, you’re saying you’ll tear through the archive’s security spells with force?”

Pallard O’Con nodded readily at Aris’s astonished remark.

“Not to mention Van, Professor Richellen is also an authority in mana array research. With the power of two Archmages, breaking down a security spell that hasn’t been updated in 10 years shouldn’t be difficult, should it?”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“I know. But Team Leader Marcia taught me that when planning operations with superhumans like you, there’s no need to take too many detours.”

“……”

It gave a glimpse into the kind of operations Evelyn Marcia had successfully executed for the Agents.

As Lennok shook his head, Pallard O’Con clapped his hands together.

“We’ll divide into teams here. As soon as we pass the gate and reach the archive, we’ll split into three teams and begin the operation.”

Pallard O’Con and Hina O’Neil, as Agents and field personnel, would block the archive entrance and buy time, while Ilya and six other freelancers would breach the archive’s interior.

Once the security personnel were subdued, Lennok and Aris would break through the archive’s barrier, extract the data, and escape.

“This is about stealing data from a restricted area directly designated by the City Council. If we fail, I might have to step down as Deputy Director.”

“……”

“But if we succeed, we might obtain crucial clues to infiltrate the Defense Force Headquarters. Are you ready?”

There was no answer. Everyone simply checked their equipment and mana in silence, steadying their breathing.

Pallard O’Con immediately nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

CRRRUMBLE!!

At that moment, the gate, having confirmed the Agent Deputy Director’s entry request, slowly rose upward with a ponderous roar.

Hina O’Neil, sitting in the driver’s seat, immediately drove the vehicle towards the archive located deep inside Sector 6.

Eight people sprang out from the vehicle, which had stopped in front of the exotic building resembling a Greek temple, and began to sprint.

FWOOSH!!

Ilya and the other masked freelancers dashed into the archive lobby, incapacitating the guards.

Lennok, watching them, turned around.

“Shall we go now?”

Despite Lennok’s words, Aris gazed intently at him, still masked.

“Now that you’re covered, it’s certainly…”

“…Professor?”

“Oh, sorry. Let’s move quickly.”

“……”

Aris walked past Lennok and began to move at a brisk pace.

As Lennok followed, she spoke first.

“The Agent Deputy Director. There were many rumors that his methods were utterly ruthless, like iron and blood, but he’s quite different from what I heard.”

“Is that so?”

Aris snapped her head around.

Beyond her mask, her blue eyes gleamed clearly.

“Conversely, someone rumored to be a blood-crazed wizard seems far calmer than expected.”

“……”

“Indeed, rumors can’t be trusted.”

She said that, then stepped into the archive.

Left alone outside the archive, Davi peeked her head out from inside Lennok’s coat.

[She’s still a terrifying human. To make Master’s heart rate fluctuate with just a few words.]

“…Be quiet.”

[Every word seems to subtly hit a nerve. How long do you think Master can last?]

“Not now, at least.”

Lennok sighed, grabbing the cheeky fox’s snout and tucking her back into his coat.

Even if Aris had a separate reason for participating in this operation, it was impossible to resolve her suspicions immediately.

“I’ll observe her reactions a bit more… and if I feel sure, I’ll think about it then. After this operation is over.”

[Postponing the solution to a problem? That’s not like Master.]

“A strategic retreat is sometimes necessary.”

[Isn’t that just a cowardly excuse?]

“……”

Lennok moved, vowing to cut off Davi’s power for a while when he got back.

“Right now, there’s still work to do.”

A wide staircase leading down to the archive’s basement.

Dozens of guards patrolled the deep underground archive passage, dozens of meters below, and overlapping barriers prevented external intrusion.

Ilya, leaning against the top of the stairs and hiding, spoke to Lennok and Aris, who had followed her in.

“We’ll subdue them without killing, but if this drags on, it might be hard to hold back.”

“……”

“As quickly as possible. If that’s difficult, you’ll need to decide whether you can do it or not and then pull out.”

“Understood.”

Ilya nodded at Aris’s words, who adjusted her mask with a hint of tension.

“We’ll go first.”

A small, elite force, all consisting of ability users of Level 6 or higher.

They had even just entered the area legally using Pallard O’Con’s authority. Exploiting a somewhat unprepared moment shouldn’t be difficult.

THWACK!!

“Ugh!”

“Urgh…!!”

“En-Enemy!”

Low death throes echoed continuously from inside the underground archive.

Immediately after, the barrier surrounding the archive activated, recognizing the intruders and about to trigger an alarm.

Lennok and Aris, as if on cue, simultaneously raised their mana and suppressed the barrier’s activation from both sides.

WHOOOOM!!!

The insight to precisely identify the mana source at the barrier’s activation point.

The skill to instantly concentrate mana and suppress that point. A move impossible without combining the bold idea of overpowering a barrier with brute force.

However, the method both of them attempted was remarkably similar, as if reflected in a mirror.

Aris looked back at Lennok, and Lennok nodded.

“Let’s go down.”

Inside the archive’s underground vault, where the vanguard had already swept through.

Lennok and Aris emerged, pushing through the unconscious guards, and began to inspect the archive door.

A massive main vault door, perfectly circular. Hundreds of complex mana circuits faintly flowed on its surface, and any cracks between the door panels were tightly sealed without the slightest gap.

It was clear that despite the security spells not being updated, it was continuously maintained.

Aris, with her hand on the thick archive steel door and her eyes closed, spoke quickly.

“An 11-layer encrypted security system. It prevents artificial intrusion using randomly assigned variables based on 6-dimensional functions. Every time you forcibly break through one layer of the encryption, the next firewall twists, intertwining with the previous barrier.”

“If there’s no key, it’s essentially telling people not to enter.”

Lennok asked.

Aris nodded.

“Regardless of its complex structure, it’s not impossible to solve. Masterpieces created by high-level barrier mages usually bind the central coordinates to an imaginary dimension, making them untouchable.”

Was she referring to the method used in ruins sealed within a fortress? Lennok nodded naturally.

“There’s a reason Pallard O’Con said that. I’ve seen similar barrier cases in the outer districts.”

“Then it should be easier to understand. For barriers with such heavy variations, it’s not about understanding and breaking down the entire structure, but memorizing the patterns of mana reactions upon intrusion and then working backward from the innermost core.”

WHOOSH!!

The mana gathered at her slender fingertips transformed like flowing water, seeping directly into the gap of the door.

“Insert mana into the keyhole, and perform Property Transformation according to each change in the barrier. Then, detect and memorize the 11-layer 6-dimensional function, the 66 linked mana pattern changes, and reverse-interpret them.”

“I understand. Is there anything I can help with?”

“Follow the mana I send, memorize where the reactions change, and continue the pattern. Normally, you’d need as many sorcerers to memorize mana patterns as there are layers in the cipher wall, but…”

Aris said, turning her gaze.

“It won’t be that difficult for someone who already knows this method.”

Aris’s words were subtly meaningful.

It was only after Lennok followed her lead, pouring mana into another gap in the archive door, that he understood what she meant.

CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK!!

The 11-layer barrier, changing dozens of times in the fleeting moment mana extends inward and moves to the opposite side.

Even a slight lapse in concentration would sever the mana flow that had extended inward, leaving traces inside the barrier.

A security spell that imposes risk just by attempting to deactivate it. Its meticulousness was unbelievable for security that hadn’t been updated in 10 years.

The only way to unlock this was to connect mana to the other side of the barrier without a single mistake, then completely reverse that flow to undo the barrier in the opposite direction.

After memorizing all the mana patterns, one had to reproduce the conceptual diagram in the exact opposite direction, like a mirror image, and release the mana as if turning a key.

This was the exact same principle Lennok had explained to Aris when discussing his research findings on summoning magic.

“……”

Lennok’s gaze naturally fell upon Aris’s back, as she knelt and concentrated.

Had she known this from the moment she grasped the barrier’s structure?

A mana flow reflected like a mirror. Sorcerers capable of instantly reversing and unfolding a flow, beyond merely manipulating mana with precision, are extremely rare.

If Lennok were to actualize the reversed mana flow as Aris requested and pass it to her…

Would one of the doubts within Aris transform into certainty?

‘Remarkable.’

Aris’s attitude, showing no outward sign, not interrogating Lennok, but trying to grasp fragments of the truth, was truly cautious.

No, at this point, should it be called a truly scholarly approach, gambling through intellect?

An approach that was incredibly sophisticated, yet also timid, as if she were testing the waters.

Lennok, whose thoughts reached that point, simply withdrew his mana.

CRACKLE!!

Aris, sensing something amiss, turned her head.

“…What’s wrong?”

“The interpretation is complete.”

“What?”

At the same time, a shadow squirmed beneath Lennok’s feet and rose.

WHOOSH!!

A pitch-black mass of shadow formed instead of mana, boldly delving into the barrier’s interior.

Maintaining its form effortlessly even amidst the constantly twisting gaps of the barrier, the shadow then reversed its body according to the flow diagram Lennok had interpreted.

From within, it opened the barrier from the inside out, as if inserting a key in reverse.

CLATTER-CLATTER!!

Aris’s mouth parted slightly.

“No, wait a minute… you just did this by yourself…?”

“As I delved into the barrier’s interior following the concept you taught me, I got the hang of it.”

Lennok replied.

“It seems this method is used when dissolving barriers.”

It seemed Aris had intentionally asked for his help to observe how Lennok reversed mana flow.

But Lennok could simply reverse the entire mana flow by himself and dismantle the barrier.

The water flow Aris chose for Property Transformation would be replaced by shadow, and since the dissolving process would occur inside the barrier, Aris wouldn’t be able to notice.

After that, only the result would remain: the archive door open and the data acquired.

THUD!

Thousands of hard disks appeared from inside the slowly opening door.

Tens of thousands of paper documents, dozens of times that amount, were neatly arranged in thick boxes on cold shelves.

“I’ll call the others.”

Lennok said, standing up.

“It seems the two of us alone won’t be enough to search inside the archive.”

“…Alright. I’ll wait here.”

Lennok, leaving Aris behind, whispered softly as he exited the basement door.

“My victory.”

[…Where was the competition in what Master just did?]

Davi, hidden in his coat, asked, dumbfounded.

“There was a high-level psychological battle, testing each other’s intellect. A spirit that just feeds on electricity from a fuse box wouldn’t understand.”

[On the contrary, I think that performance will only make her more suspicious.]

“Even so… it was the best I could do. She was that difficult an opponent.”

Something resembling a sigh emanated from inside his coat.

[I don’t know whether to call it impressive, or pathetic…]

Aris’s eyes, watching Lennok’s retreating back, gleamed strangely.