Project Pegasus

V 1.1 Chapter 13: Execute Project: Zero.

In 2008, a worm found its way inside the servers of the Military Central Command of America, stealing confidential information and sending it back to its unknown creator. The CIA tried fighting the worm, however, it took them 14 months to destroy it. The hacker who created that worm is my father. I found that out three years ago when he forgot to turn off his computer. Incidentally, I was in my parents' room, looking for a book about JAVA, one of the programming languages. Since then, my father became my mentor, both in programming and hacking.

***

"I can't believe I'll ever think the idea of hacking in this world." Looking around in the library, I was researching magic runes. "Now, if only I can understand the meaning behind every symbol in a rune then maybe I can program a computer."

The musty smell of books lingered everywhere. It made me remember the addicting smell of papers coming out from photocopying machines. It was like a drug to me. The place was filled with books ranging from old and new, and because the area was huge, it would probably take me days to find what I was looking for.

"Time's my worst enemy. The way I am now, I will just hold back the team. I need to be stronger."

Four hours had already passed since I started. With Satrillo's help, I found some books about magic runes, but they didn't have very many details. Maybe because Razzia focused their studies on curses after its discovery. Suddenly, Emily entered.

"H-Hiiro," she spoke while looked down. "I-I was waiting for you, but it's already night and... and..." Switching her gaze on me, I saw a teary-eyed Emily. "I thought you already left me." Small droplets of tears fell from her eyes. "I-I don't want to be alone. I... I..."

"Emily." After seeing her eyes, I immediately walked towards her and hugged her. "I'm sorry. I made you cry again." I said, moving away so I could wipe her tear. "Didn't I already promise that I will never leave you?"

"But... But..." she spoke with a strangled voice.

"It's okay. You don't have to worry, I won't leave you."

After that, we had a conversation. Emily still didn't know that I came from another world so I told her about it and the reason why I was at the library.

"T-then, please, let me help you." Emily stammered while blushing. "I won't be able to join you on the raid, and you've already done so much for me. So just this once, p-please, let me be your strength."

There was a bit of silence as I stared at her.

"Okay. Let's go look for it together."

After searching for hours, we found a lot of sources. It was already midnight so I asked Emily to sleep.

"Sleep tight, Haruka."

Reading the books, I learned basic and advanced knowledge about magic. However, there was still something missing.

If I want to create a computer then magic runes is not enough. I need something to process all the codes and another thing to store the data.

Fortunately, both of these exist in this castle. There's only one thing I needed to do, create a magic tool.

Based on what I read, for a mage to cast spells faster, it uses a magic tool to store pre-constructed runes in its catalyst (memory). And when a mage voices the incantation (run the program), the tool will process the rune (code) and execute the spell. Luckily, there was someone I suspected to be an expert in this field, the living magic tool, Satrillo.

***

Once the sun rose, I went to find Satrillo so that I could ask his help with magic tools. In order to protect Emily, I told him that I needed to be stronger. He agreed and invited me again to the storeroom. We were having a conversation while climbing down the stairs.