Chapter 21: The Most Important Thing in Hacking
“Hacking?”
At my request to teach hacking, Sis put on an expression of surprise.
“What? Are you suddenly trying to change careers from mage to hacker or sothing?”
“It’s not like that. Since I’m handling an Electrosphere spirit, I thought I should at least have so basic knowledge about hacking.”
“Hmm…… that’s a pretty convincing reason, in its own way.”
She said so with a smile.
“There’s no reason I can’t teach you. But first, you need to know what the Electrosphere actually is.”
“I already know the basics.”
“Oh? Then let’s start by connecting to the Electrosphere.”
At her words, Diesel took out the used cyberdeck he had prepared as a decoy.
It was a low-end model he had bought from a stall vendor at Namdaemun Market.
When Sis spotted it, she frowned as if she had seen sothing she really shouldn’t have.
“Ugh…… what is that thing?”
Then she continued, as if emphasizing each word.
“One absolute law of hacking. ‘Ninety percent of hacking skill cos from equipnt.’ Want to recomnd an entry-level cyberdeck for you?”
“No. This is enough for .”
At Diesel’s reply, Sis let out a small sigh, “hm.”
“Alright……. Well, if you only need the basics. But you’re not seriously planning to go around hacking with that thing, are you? You’ll die.”
“…….”
“I’m not joking—you could actually die. Your brain could burn up, lt, or just go bang, in unimaginably diverse ways. So don’t even think about hacking with junk like that. I’m really worried.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Then let’s start with the most basic thing. Hacking always begins with breaking through this.”
Sis spread her arms wide, unfolding a firewall.
To Diesel’s eyes as he connected to the Electrosphere, it felt as if a massive wall had been erected right in front of him.
‘This is…… just what grade of firewall is this……?’
Before he realized it, Ar fluttered over and landed lightly on Diesel’s shoulder.
〈At least Grade 6 or higher. Precise estimation requires analysis.〉
After seeing the firewall Sis had deployed, Ar’s body shuddered.
“To hack, you first need to understand the Electrosphere. As you probably know, the Electrosphere isn’t a space invented by so technician. It’s one ‘realm’ that humanity newly discovered. Do you know who discovered the Electrosphere?”
“I heard it was mages.”
“Oh, that’s right. You know your stuff. Back then, mages had sothing like an inferiority complex about the fact that they didn’t have a realm of their own. Looking back now, it’s a pretty strange line of reasoning. Magic doesn’t beco inferior just because it lacks a unique realm. Anyway, mages searched through every dinsion imaginable to find where the power called magic ca from. And then—ta-da!—by pure chance, they discovered a place called the Electrosphere. It was an incredible discovery.”
Sis continued, her voice growing slightly excited.
“I really like explaining hacking as ‘magic wielded within the Electrosphere.’ It’s surprisingly accurate.”
She flashed a bright smile.
“If that’s the case, then this ‘firewall’ is like a ‘protection spell.’ Protection spells have various grades and types, right? Firewalls are the sa. Usually they range from Grade 1 to Grade 9. Grades 1 to 2 are weak firewalls, 3 to 4 are average, and once you hit around 5 or 6, they beco strong enough that you can’t approach them carelessly. At 7 or 8, they’re really, really hard to break through. And finally, ultra-high-grade firewalls of Grade 9 or above are monitored in real ti by multiple high-level hackers. You shouldn’t even think about hacking them—don’t even go near them.”
As Sis gestured here and there in midair, the firewall’s grade shifted freely, changing in an instant.
At that, Ar, who had been sitting on Diesel’s shoulder, trembled again and spoke.
〈Master, I advise against picking a fight with that woman lightly.〉
〈……Your master isn’t that weak, you know?〉
〈Ar’s calculations are accurate.〉
“Once you’ve successfully hacked a firewall like this, the next step is dealing with ‘ICE.’ Not the English word for frozen water, but an abbreviation for ‘Intrusion Counterasures Electronics.’”
The words ‘ICE, Intrusion Counterasures Electronics’ floated in midair.
“If a firewall is a barrier that protects electronic devices, then ICE is like the guard stationed inside the firewall.”
Sis instantly withdrew the firewall and this ti deployed ICE.
From sowhere, a low, rumbling growl like that of a gigantic beast began to echo.
“A hacker’s greatest enemy is this ICE. That’s because, just like the na suggests, these things are designed to forcibly expel—or kill—intruding hackers.”
The form of the ICE Sis had created revealed itself.
A massive beast with three heads, seemingly modeled after the mythical Cerberus, drooled saliva from its mouth.
The mont Ar saw it, he yelped in surprise and dove into Diesel’s arms.
“Oh my. Sorry, Ar. I didn’t an to scare you.”
Sis snapped her fingers sharply in the air, and Cerberus transford into a cute puppy.
“Is this better?”
But Ar was still trembling violently in Diesel’s arms.
“Doesn’t look like much of a difference.”
“That’s right. Only the appearance changed—the abilities are exactly the sa as that Cerberus from before.”
With that, she put the ICE away again.
“There are many kinds of ICE, and their forms vary widely. Usually, the more threatening it looks, the stronger the ICE. But like the one I just showed you, there are plenty of ICE that look cute but are anything but.”
Sis said with a smile.
“I usually handle those kinds of ICE.”
They say that once a person reaches a certain level, they start enjoying decorating their appearance in strange ways—Sis seed like exactly that type.
“So, how do you break through such terrifying ICE? Do you happen to know?”
At Sis’s question, Diesel answered.
“With an ice breaker?”
“Correct! You can think of an ice breaker as the hacker’s ‘weapon’—sothing that literally smashes ICE.”
Sis deployed a scarecrow-shaped practice ICE in front of her.
“Ice breakers co in four major types. Close-range weapons like swords or axes. Long-range weapons like bows or guns. Spell-type weapons like magic. And composite weapons that combine multiple properties.”
As she raised one hand upward with the explanation, a long sword appeared in her grip.
“This sword is a type of composite weapon. It can be used as a close-range weapon, but it can also release sword energy for ranged attacks, or be wielded like a magic spell that emits light.”
She lifted the weapon high and brought it straight down toward the ICE.
A sword strike glowing with an enigmatic color shot toward the scarecrow.
The instant the beam made contact with its target, a dazzling explosion erupted, and the scarecrow vanished without a trace.
“This kind of combat that takes place in the Electrosphere is what we call ‘hacking.’”
He had thought hacking was just sitting in one place and tapping away on a cyberdeck, but it turned out to be a surprisingly intense and dynamic task.
“You probably won’t ever see ICE, Diesel. At your level, the devices you can hack usually only have Grade 1 or 2 firewalls. Those kinds of devices don’t even have ICE installed. Like I said earlier, whether you’re hacking or protecting against hacking, equipnt—aning money—is the most important thing.”
Sis said this while making a gesture shaped like money.
“ICE and ice breakers in particular are extrely expensive ‘programs.’ ICE has to be installed into the device it protects, and ice breakers have to be installed into the hacker’s cyberdeck—both at a very high cost. And the better the ice breaker, the larger its capacity and the more processing power it needs. So what happens then? You need a better cyberdeck, right? And the price of a better cyberdeck…… I think you already understand what I’m getting at.”
Programs installed on extrely expensive cyberdecks for an extrely high price.
At that point, Diesel secretly smiled without Sis noticing.
Because he could see the ‘code’ of the ice breaker Sis had just demonstrated.
‘So that’s the code that makes up the program.’
Normally, a program’s code was thoroughly hidden.
Code was, quite literally, the ans to analyze a program from beginning to end.
Which ant that if one knew that code alone, one could create and use an ice breaker personally.
‘Then if the code is visible to my eyes……’
Just as he watched the magic others used and learned it as-is, programs within the Electrosphere could be imitated in much the sa way.
He didn’t need any expert explanation to understand how extraordinary this was.
‘It really is an absurd ability.’
However, there was one troubling point.
Even if he understood the program’s code, the process of ‘processing’ it was sowhat burdenso.
With low-grade programs, it wouldn’t matter much, but if he tried to overuse a high-grade program that required heavy computation, there was a risk his brain would overheat and burn out.
Still, even that wasn’t without a solution.
‘I have a reliable partner who can help with computation.’
〈Hm……?〉
Ar—the proud Electrosphere spirit whose abilities were growing rapidly day by day, rivaling even a high-performance cyberdeck.
Diesel slipped a hand into his arms and gently stroked Ar.
‘Now I just need to learn how to handle that code……’
Unlike religious miracles or magical formulas, which he could manipulate freely, Electrosphere code didn’t work the sa way.
He had made various guesses as to why, but so far he hadn’t arrived at a clear answer.
‘If I dig deeper into hacking, I might find out.’
“Alright, that covers the basics of hacking. There are also things like siege firewalls, the Matrix, Electrosphere wraiths, corporate tags, and other keywords, but those are advanced topics.”
“Could I learn about those too? Not right now—just files I can read later would be fine.”
“Woah…… you’re pretty enthusiastic, aren’t you? Sure. I’ll send them over. At this rate, you won’t co looking for one day saying you want to beco a professional hacker, will you?”
After so simple manipulation, Sis handed Diesel a data file.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“No. Thanks.”
“Good. Then let’s seriously talk about that ‘proposal’ I ntioned earlier.”
She looked at Diesel and smiled faintly.
“Let’s do a job together.”
“A job?”
A job with Little Sister.
‘I’d welco that.’
For Diesel, this was also an opportunity.
To develop his abilities quickly, the best way was to work alongside high-level Ghostcatchers.
“Honestly, a newbie who hasn’t even been active for a year has no business joining this. But…… if I say I brought you along, everyone will accept it one way or another.”
Her words didn’t feel upsetting or anything like that.
It was an undeniable fact that the underworld was extrely sensitive to experience.
If anything, he was grateful she was making the offer at all.
Still, Diesel managed his expression and asked.
“I’d appreciate it if you could be a bit more specific.”
Then Little Sister spoke a na that sounded sowhat unfamiliar.
“Have you ever heard of it?”
“……?”
“The Witch of the Electrosphere.”
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