Securing perimeters

It was finally time to secure his room and Milles felt nervous. He had done his best to ensure nothing went wrong on his end but unexpected things could always end up happening.

There was only a single connection port inside the room that made Milles agitated.

Was the academy expecting him to share a single internet access port with this roommate? There were all kinds of problems that would brew with such an arrangement.

But Milles decided to ignore that small point for now. He had more important work to do. Such as - hacking into the mainframe of the system and making sure his room was secure.

The neural system was an advanced AI system capable of performing magic but it was a system at its core. There were weak points in its mainframe and Milles hoped to make use of them.

He had been given a laptop, the standard version provided to every first year at the start of the day and Milles could already tell that he would hate this whole experience.

The specification of the laptop was not great but it was the security that worried him. There were a lot of security checks that made it almost impossible to keep information out of the loop.

The academy wanted to keep a tight hold on its students and it made Milles wonder whether the students were aware of this security check or not.

He could not wait till he had enough money to get his supplies once again. But for now, he would have to make do with what he had.

His only saving grace was that laptop was a luxury, not a necessity for now. The laptop was just a tool for Milles to get the real tool in play - the modified phone.

"System, run a check and provide me with a path inside the mainframe. I need to gain access to the neural network mainframe and fast" Since Milles had created the neural system, he was well versed with its capabilities.

But it was also a self-learning AI and Milles had no idea how much it had improved on its own.

[Connecting to the mainframe. Joining networks.

Access code scanning….

Access granted under security protocol code Alpha]

The neural system was even faster than the last time Milles had used it. It made Milles proud to be the one who had created such a masterpiece.

But it also worried him. This was too much power for one person to hold.

[Scanning mainframe data. Gaining access…

Making a secure connection…

Connection established and stabilizes in 3…2…1…Connection established]

The laptop screen was blank but the phone screen lit up with the neural system's coded data.

Milles wanted to have a deeper look at the changes but there was no time for it.

The neural system had a protocol after all. Protocol 11 to be specific alerted the main control office of external connection to the mainframe. Milles could only overwrite that protocol for a short period.

Once again, it had all been that crafty woman's fault. She had been paranoid that someone would somehow gain access to the neural system without their knowledge.

She had not been wrong.

But darn her and her ability to interfere with Milles even in her death.

"Get me to the access files. Erase all access to the current location, divert attention and erase all tracks" Milles wanted to do so much more but his phone was reaching its limit.

There was only so much he could do without appropriate equipment at hand.

[Confirming data…

Command carried out]

As soon as the command was carried out, Milles was out of the mainframe.

As much as he wanted to look deeper look at the code, he was out of time. But he did have a screenshot of the coded data to look at so he was not entirely out of luck.

"Is this room secure?" Milles had to know whether he had succeeded or not.

[Location is secure. Surveillance to the path had been diverted to other places and all tracks have been erased]

So he did it. Milles had successfully hacked into the neural system for the first time since he had been back.

But now what? This was as far as he had planned things out. Where did it leave him now?

"Let's take things one day at a time for now. I will think more about all this on the weekend" tomorrow was the first day of class and Milles felt nervous.

He had been to the school once already. His current situation was similar to his last one, a hopeless idiot no one paid any attention to until they wanted something. He was still at the bottom of the ladder.

Except, this time his foster parents had money and he had no sister to keep him sane.

But with time had come wisdom. And Milles had learned one thing from his previous experience - lying low was always the best option to get ways unnoticed.

And this was what he wanted to do as well.

____________________________________________________________________

"I'm telling you, that kid knew what he was doing. His gaze was of someone who had too much experience with this thing. And his looks, they're no joke as well. I'm telling you, principal, he's one of them" the bunny hybrid spoke with confidence.

The shopkeeper had debated whether to bring her doubts up with the principal of the academy.

But she had decided to inform him about her suspicions.

"Misha Raycraft you said? And you are sure you are not mistaken?" the old man was as hard to talk to as always.

As long as Stella had been aware, the academy had the same person in charge. The old principal looked not a day older than when she had been a student in the academy herself.

Being one of the poor mutants from downtown, not many people had liked her. Stella always knew she had talent but no confidence in herself.

It had been the principal that had set her up at her current store and she felt grateful for his help. That was the only reason she had decided to come up to him with this information.

She was essentially a spy planted by the principal in that shop.

"I wish it was that but I'm sure" there had been something wrong about that child. Stella had never felt that out of her element around someone.

Not to mention, nothing besides basic information came up when she had tried to hack into his files. It was as if he did not exist beyond his basic information.

"What are we going to do about him?" Stella could not help but ask.

She had heard about what had happened in Downtown sector 5 already and it only made her feel more certain that this Misha Raycraft would be a problem in the future.

"Unfortunately, we cannot do anything. He's the adopted son of the president, Mr. Raycraft and we cannot risk him being aware of our plans just yet" Stella gritted her teeth at the information.

Doing nothing when they had already come this far? Just what was this old man thinking?

"You mean that you cannot afford something to happen to the kid. I am more than happy to see him gone" Stella felt bad for wishing death on an innocent kid but it was for a good cause.

What was one life when compared to half of the human population?

The principal, as if aware of her thoughts, just sighed in disappointment.

"Stella, don't be hasty. I am on your side. You and every other mutant that hopes for an equal society. Have I not proven myself already? Please trust in me a little more" the principal sounded sincere.

And Stella knew that the old man was right.

The number of mutants being allowed to learn magic and to place in higher society was increasing each year. There had been a general protest but the principal had somehow managed to convenience the government about this change.

Still, this all could change in a heartbeat if one of the mutants lost control and attacked the normal people. There had been a general outrage against mutants using magic after all.

"Alright, I will choose to believe in you. It's not like we have many other options available to us after all" the old man smiles at Stella and she could not help but think of it as fake.

"Excellent. I'm sure things would work out just as we have planned" the principal sounded confident in his words.

Stella was sure that the 'we' in his sentence had been 'me' instead. She was aware that the old man was not helping the mutants out of goodwill, but that he already had his personal plans in place.

But that did not change the reality that he was only of the only allies that they had. The world had all but forsaken them and the magic-less but not for long.

The time for them to take over the world and take the neural system down was coming soon.

She just hoped that her gut feeling about Misha Raycraft was wrong. A clone or not, the world could not handle another coming of Professor Milles. Stella would not put it past the government to try at least.