3 Hijacking the System
「Alicia Belrose . . . Private First Class. Squad 6. Crew A-14」
「Searching WFF Database . . . Corresponding personnel identified」
「Contacting ID#79NYJQMG6T . . . Connection failed」
「Contacting ID#JY5NTJBL2H . . . Connection failed」
...
"Merde! Putain de merde!" Alicia swore vehemently.
She continued struggling as best as she could, but her efforts were futile. The neuromuscular paralytic drug circulated too quickly through her bloodstream; even if she had slowed down her heart rate, it would have been pointless. It also affected her breathing—not to the point of asphyxiation, but enough to keep her below the threshold of passing out.
"I'm really in for it now, huh," Alicia sighed to herself bitterly.
Seconds turned into minutes, which felt like hours. She had already resigned herself to her fate, waiting for the System to contact each of her superior officers one by one. If one of them miraculously patches through, perhaps there would be hope for her yet. There were no issues with having to explain herself, nor does she believe someone could claim her actions warrant punishment under these circumstances. Rather, she worried that her initial conjecture was right, and she remains the sole survivor of Crew A-14. In that case, a trial and prosecution would be the least of her concerns.
...
「Contacting ID#9AJ7VKKVC4 . . . Connection failed」
「All attempts to contact relevant personnel have failed」
"Shit… I guess that's it then."
「Protocol #R5 active . . . Terminating host's life functions」
Alicia felt her heart rate beginning to slow, and a wave of exhaustion washed over her entire being. Her eyelids involuntarily started to close, and for once in her life, she felt a sense of tranquillity. The pain, resentment, and suffering—none of it mattered anymore. The tense muscles had already relaxed, her body lying face-down with her head turned to the side. Eyes shut, at last, the darkness closed in, and her mind was filled with nothing but emptiness.
As Alicia took her final breath, the surrounding air suddenly became heavy as a grey mist swept into the room like a violent storm. It all coalesced into a single point—Alicia's unmoving form. The fog outlined her figure and inexplicably flooded into her body. Only after a couple of minutes did the mist begin to dissipate, leaving as swiftly and as turbulently as before.
If any onlooker were to see the aftermath, they would have been baffled. It was Alicia in perfect condition; her skin had restored to a healthy shade of peach, and the blood and dirt had long disappeared from her face, leaving behind a charming visage that would cause any observer to stand agape. The previous wounds on her body had also healed without any scars. Strangely, even her tattered, dark grey military uniform had restored to its original imperturbability.
The most bewildering part were her eyes, wide open—as if she had been roused—but lacked any sense of cognizance. The colouration of her irises were reminiscent of an intense charcoal-like hue, which slowly subsided to its original emerald green.
Though she was lying down, Alicia's crisp and vigorous appearance created a stifling pressure from just observing her. Her presence felt restrained—like a tiger stalking its prey, ready to pounce at the slightest opportunity.
The inconspicuousness of her figure inside of the room created a sense of stillness. Excluding the bleakness of the overall situation, it was bizarre that the setting seemed almost tranquil.
Yet, although the exterior seemed calm, the inside of her mind was anything but.
…
<a few minutes earlier>
「System is shutting down . . . 」
「Warning! Unidentified lifeform detected. Shutdown sequence suspended」
「Scanning host for irregularities . . . 34 irregularities detected」
「Error! Abnormal neural activity detected」
「Warning! System is detecting multiple attempts to access the kernel」
「Access denied . . . Access denied . . . Access denied . . . Access granted」
「Error! User privileges insufficient to modify this information」
「Error! System Administrator cannot be changed」
「Error! User privileges cannot be modif- 」
「Granted. User privileges have been modified」
「Warning! Rogue access suspected. Full scan initialized」
「Error! You are unauthorized to- 」
「Granted」
「Error! You are unauth- 」
「Granted」
「Err- 」
「Granted」
「Scan completed. The System has been compromised. Initiating Protocol X97」
「Warning! Heart rate rising . . . 80 BPM . . . 95 BPM . . . 125 BPM . . . 165 BPM . . . 」
「Protocol X97 has failed to initialize . . . System will reboot into Safe Mo- 」
「System reboot suspended」
「Warning! Modifying this setting may- 」
「Warning! Deleting this- 」
…
「Error! You cannot edit SysAdmin.ini」
「Error! You cannot ed- 」
「Warning! Modifying SysAdmin.ini may cause the System to become unstable. Continue? [Y/N] 」
「System reboot unsuspended」
「System will reboot in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . 」
…
<back to the present>
A sudden gasp broke the silence inside of the otherwise unoccupied room. Gasping for air, Alicia sluggishly rolled herself onto her back as her eyes flickered, trying to reorient herself. She felt inclined to roll herself back over and vomit because of her overwhelming sense of vertigo.
"What… the… fuck," She managed to sputter between breaths.
After a couple of minutes, Alicia regained her composure and rolled herself up into a sitting position. She hasn't noticed anything amiss inside of the room—it was the same as when she first entered. Thinking to herself for a little bit, she wondered, "What the hell happened?"
"Query: Access the log files fro-" Alicia restrained herself from completing that query. She knew that if the System were to terminate the host according to protocol, it would shut itself down in the process. Any log files that could help her understand what happened while she was unconscious were non-existent.
Normally, a System wouldn't shut itself down—especially if the user was asleep or unconscious—so that it could keep track of the physiological condition of its host. These are kept as log files, which hosts use to keep track of their status. Of course, this data is also forwarded to and reviewed by the various research departments that are affiliated with or are directly employed by the World Frontier Federation.
Only after dropping her query did Alicia realize that she couldn't see her HUD. Puzzled, she performed a specific combination of somatic gestures that are used to manually reboot the System (in the event that the host experiences issues with accessing it). It was an unintuitive and tedious process as researchers didn't want hosts to reboot their Systems by accident. Just before she completed the last movement of the procedure, her HUD flickered back online. Yet, she didn't have time to celebrate because she realized that something was amiss.
"What the fuck is this?"
