Dark Hat

The day was in full swing, it was close to noon and the place was full of people walking everywhere. Akihabara was completely full despite not being its most visited time, a cafe was quite busy trying to serve every customer as best as possible despite the difficulties, the heat of the day had made everyone thirsty. One of the chairs sat a young girl, she looked like she was just starting her higher studies, she was checking her computer while finishing her drink, but in reality, it was just a screen, she was really just waiting for someone to have a conversation, a friend who seemed desperate for help, the fact that she asked to meet in person was enough of a sign.

The person in trouble appeared at the front door, ran to the counter to order lunch, and went to sit with the young girl so as not to arouse suspicion.

"Do we really have to do this here?"
"Isn't it a little awkward? Maybe a karaoke room would be more private"

"No, the faceoff rooms have hidden cameras to make sure that the customers don't do "weird things" in the rooms"
"They could use the recording to identify us"
"It's better in a public place, full of people, and most important"
"With the cameras under my control"
"Right now none of them are working and the manager hasn't even noticed"

"So may I know why the excellent special reporter Nozomi is asking for my help?"

"Hey! Aren't we supposed to use code names!?
"If you're so concerned about privacy then don't say my name out loud!"
"The idea was not to say our names in the first place!"

"Okay Mrs. Trust"
"What's your problem then?"

"I have a big problem at the moment"
"Something big, quite big!"
"Kind of what really happened at Nogi Park"

"Is it the same type as "the truth about the soda" or the type of "the truth about what happened at Ueno Dam"?"

"This is serious Bastet!"
"I even have the proofs already"
"What I can't do is upload them to the internet!"

"?????"
"What, did you forget how to do the easy part?"

"Of course not!"
"I've done everything just like you taught me"
"But it doesn't last more than a couple of minutes before it gets deleted from anywhere"
"Not only that, the last time I tried it I was even attacked and the video was completely deleted from the computer"
"I tried to investigate the source and it sent me to the Linux Foundation"
"As if they were making fun of me!"
"I have been careful to make several USB copies of data, but I simply can't do anything with them, no matter how hard I try"

"So, do they have a record of you?"

"No, I have done everything right"
"Disposable computers, crowded public place,short sessions"
"Destroy the device when in doubt"
"There is no way they know who I am"
"But still my doubt remains, how are they able to find that specific video and delete it?"
"Is it some new type of program?"

"As if something so miraculous existed!"
"Remember the saying, if you upload it to the internet it stays there forever!"
"Unless they have an army of agents permanently checking the internet for that specific video to delete it, it's impossible!"
"And no one has the resources or the money"
"Maybe the counter-intelligence section of a superpower"
"But it is too much effort for something that is not worth it"
"Especially checking sites they don't control like the DarkWeb."
"Most likely a rival hacker does have you in his sights"

"And then what do I do? stop using my best card to gather information and do real journalism?"
"Forget it!"
"....."
"Why I called you is something else entirely"
"It's much more interesting anyway"

"Ok, as you wish"
"I wonder how I can help my little padawan in the ways of the force"

"Do you remember Adelis?"
"The strange woman I told you about?"

"The lawyer who opened a coffee shop in Sumida"
"Strange yes, but so what? That's not illegal"

"She is a foreigner!"

"Yeah, yeah, you told me that part too"
"You should stop being so xenophobic"
"Coming from somewhere else is not a sin"

"It's not that, my doubts about them are real!"
"She works for the U.S. or alliance in some way"
"So lately I have been trying to log into her personal computer"
"But no matter how hard I try, there is simply no way to log in"
"I'm no novice at this, but I just don't see the point of it"
"It's as if your computer has the ability to magically turn into an endless network of servers that redirects everywhere"
"The target computer is a laptop, it shouldn't be able to do that"
"Not at such a level of extension"

"Well there's your first mistake"
"If this person is really that important he will obviously have security on her computer"
"Don't be surprised if even her watch has security measures"

"I expected security, yes."
"Just not the Pentagon level of security inside a laptop"
"It's ridiculous, you have to look for yourself"
"This may be the challenge you've been waiting for"

"Ok, that's the level we're talking about"
"I hope it's real"
"I haven't taken my botnet out for a walk in a while already"

"Here is the IP address of the house"
"I had to get it from the internet provider, I couldn't get it any other way"
"It's like the Great Chinese firewall in miniature"

"Come on, you're exaggerating"
"There is always a way, you just have to know how to look for it"

"Yeah sure, go ahead and take a look"
"By the way, next week will be my vacation so I won't be around"
"I plan to visit Okinawa"
"You know, sand, sea and sun"
"A tasty cocktail lying in a hammock looking at a handsome guy while tanning"

"Are you trying to make an enemy?"
"Not all of us are lucky enough to travel in the summer"
"I have a project to present  and I'm not even close to finishing it yet"
"I'll probably spend the whole summer locked up in my house using the keyboard"

"Hey, wait what do you mean disconnected!"
"What the fuck?"
"!!!!"
"She disconnected the restaurant's Wi-fi network!"
"How did she find us so fast?!?"
"!!!!"
"We have to go!"
"....."
"No, wait, that would be suspicious too"
"....."
"I'm going to use another Wi-fi network to use my botnet and we'll leave"

"Oh, what a thing this is!"
"We are before the gates of history"
"Legendary Elite hacker Bastet has been found with her pants down for the first time in years"

"Shut up"
"It's not going seriously yet."
"Now, now I'm connected to my botnet"
"You'll see what you're escaping from my Arachne Orchestra!"
"I'm going to start simple, I'm going to do a saturation attack"
"It's the same as a DDoS attack, but I'll try to do a Nmap."
"If I'm lucky and try it several times I might be able to more or less identify how the demilitarized area works and have something to start with"

"Hey, aren't you attacking too hard?"
"Wouldn't it be better to collect information passively using WireShark?"
"Well, that's my opinion at least, you're the expert"

"If you only have a compiler, yes"
"But with my Arachne Orchestra, using such simple methods is just a waste of time"
"Right now thousands of devices are trying to connect to this IP collecting every bit of information they can and giving it to me"
"Each device comes from different parts of the world"
"And the best of all? there are a lot of useless devices with internet connection that I can take advantage of and use them without their owners noticing"
"I even have SmartTvs on display in a store attacking this address"
"And that's not all, in case a Buffer Overflow happens I can overwrite the memory in my favor"
"I once attacked the Canadian government using this"
"Do you remember the case of the theft of information from their tanks?"
"Well, Bastet's signature was on it"

"If you know that Bastet is an Egyptian goddess and Arachne is from the Greek culture"
"Both have nothing to do with each other"

"I was still young when I made up my names ok"
"Besides, you're not one to talk, I'm surprised you even know what they were"

"Yes, of course, whatever you say"

"!!!!!"
"What the hell!"
"They're identifying every single one of the attack connections!"
"Not only that, it's blocking communications with all of them!"
"How is it doing that?"
"There are even a couple of US Army computers in my Arachne Orchestra !"
"How is she able to identify them so quickly!"
"No, no, no, no, no!"
"Stop, wait! Not so fast!"
"What the fuck!"
"It's as if a human supervisor is identifying each IP separately and deciding whether it is legitimate or not"
"Somehow it knows which are legitimate communications and lets them through"
"But 70% of my Botnet has already been repelled!"
"These numbers are impossible!"
"!!!!!"
"You tricked me! This is not a laptop!"
"It's almost the security level of Europe's ballistic defense system!"

"But it is real"
"I warned you myself"
"It doesn't make sense"
"Not only that, but it is also capable of parallel and horizontal growth"
"Even if you pass this, you will only face another DMZ and you will have to start all over again"

"A new defense system?"
"How does it work? Where is it located?"
"Something like this has never been seen before"
"Maybe an artificial intelligence supervising and creating virtual computer networks?"
"It's like it's alive!"
"!!!!"
"She identifies even my computer!"
"The mastermind behind Arachne Orchestra!"
"My creation has been completely disarticulated!"

"Quickly destroy it!"

The girl quickly took her drink and threw it on her computer so that it would stop working. She then grabbed her bag and pulled out a screwdriver and removed the hard drives and Ram, only to run a magnet over them right after.

"That computer was new"
"I had bought it yesterday"
"Now I have to buy a microwave as well to completely destroy it."
"Life is unfair!"

"Wow, I can't believe it"
"Bastet was defeated in a matter of minutes"
"Indeed history was made today"

"Hey, nobody else knows about this yet, right?"

"Not to my knowledge"

"This is extremely strange"
"...."
"Almost at the same level as the attack in New York"
"...."
"According to rumors in some circles the New York defense system was hacked in record time by a mysterious force."
"No one in the Pentagon could stop them, much less regain control"
"The army had to storm the physical control room directly to regain control"
"....."
"No one wants to believe the rumors"
"...."
"But this here looks a bit like it"
"...."
"...."
"This may be the jumping-off point for the next generation in computer war"
"...."
"Systems like this one here could make human hackers obsolete."
"......"

"Are you giving up!?"

"Of course not!"
"This could be my entry pass to the big leagues that I've been looking for!"
"If I can crack this, everyone will see me as the best hacker in the world!"
"....."
"But this won't be a usual job"
"...."
"To be honest I think this time it will be better to try to collect information effectively"
"...."
"If you want to get information from this stranger Adelis you are going to have to get closer to try and find out what kind of Cerberus is protecting her laptop"

"Are you crazy?"
"She sure knows me."
"I was detained in one of her offices the day of the attack!"

"She knows you're a reporter, not a hacker"
"Why don't you use that to your advantage?"
"You could try contacting her by other means"
"How about that coffee shop?"
"You could pretend you're doing a story on her store"
"No business owner would refuse free advertising"
"Maybe you can find something we can use"

"You are right."
"That's a good idea"
"...."
"But I won't do it until I get back from vacation"

"Sounds good to me"
"That way I'll have time to finish my college project and prepare myself better for the second round"
"I swear I will avenge this defeat!"