Unless the other two large companies gave Mitra Group something.
"In addition, we have all realized that an evil force is operating in New Jersey in secret."
Sure enough, Director Tidorata continued,
"This evil force is attempting to destroy our free and beautiful market with its conspiracies, tricks, slander, and dangerous weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, representatives of our three companies have unanimously agreed that Mitra Information Group, Wotan Mystery Technology, Smoke Mirror Life Construction, and all other people of conscience are irreconcilably opposed to any terrorist organization."
A terrifying light emanated from the eyes of Dhritarashtra,
"Mr. Sipettick, the security director of Smoke Mirror Life Construction Company, has provided new technology capable of tracking the terrorist organization's hideout. We thank him for his contribution to world peace and have dispatched a Vajra God tactical team, in conjunction with our regular security forces, to surround and eliminate the terrorist organization's lair."
"From now on, there will be no place for terrorist organizations in New Jersey."
Gan
Needless to say, Hayden's expression was not good at all.
When Hayden came to his senses and turned to look at Alastor on the video screen, he saw that the man had a calm and composed expression, as if he were facing his execution.
The seeds of change have been sown.
Alastor whispered,
The rest is up to you, Comrade Hayden.
048: My Heart Is Like Fire
Top Secret - Priority "Black"
By order of the Mitra Board of Directors
Unauthorized opening is prohibited.
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From: Tidorozha, Deputy Marketing Director, Mitra Information Group
Recipient: Boiro, Leader of the [Vajrapani] Guild
"Operation First Step"
Mission Objective: Search for and capture members of the [Bo Xun] anti-corporation organization, and recover stolen development data.
The New York branch security team will assist you in sealing off and searching for the target.
[The Vajra Guardian] is honored to accept this mission. This mission will be carried out by five soldiers of the 4th Tactical Squad, 2nd Company. Service is the highest honor. The company's will will surely be fulfilled.
————————————————————————
The seeds of change have been sown.
The rest is up to you, Comrade Hayden.
So Alastor said.
Hayden's reaction to this was, of course,—
"I'm not your comrade, you son of a bitch!"
Hayden roared as he watched the constant stream of documents being fed into his phone.
Alastor's hacking skills were indeed impressive. There was no room for refusal; he had already force-fed a massive amount of data onto Hayden's phone.
Hayden glanced through them briefly and found that most of the documents concerned skills education chips, which was not surprising. As Alastow said, these documents might be the spark that ignites future change.
However, another set of documents truly astonished Hayden: they were a compiled collection of information about the life magic-related research institutes under the Mitra Corporation and the Smoke Mirror Company. This information not only detailed which life magic projects each of the two large companies' research institutes was developing, but also meticulously instructed Hayden on how to hack into their systems and exploit vulnerabilities to steal the data he desired.
[It's an undeniable fact that the Mitra Group is planning to raid my hideout. They had already blocked the internet access in my city before even releasing the information to reporters.]
Alastor said calmly,
Comrade Hayden, I know you've always been pursuing research into affordable healing potions. Therefore, this information is the last reward I can give you. Thank you for your help so far.
Hayden was absolutely stunned.
remuneration?
He said this was payment!?
It's too much. While researching life magic was indeed Hayden's long-cherished dream, the reward was still far too heavy. The menu of all life magic research projects from two major corporations, and the method to steal detailed development data for these projects… While this didn't directly fulfill Hayden's dream, it at least opened a door for him!
(As for whether the door is illegal, well, who cares about that?)
However, after Hayden came to his senses, he immediately realized a strange problem: "Wait a minute, Mitra has blocked the domain? Then how are you still video chatting with me!?"
Alastor smiled slightly, but then did something that greatly surprised Hayden—his figure on the projection screen actually stepped out of the image and turned into a blue-white semi-transparent star, floating in Hayden's living room.
The StarNet is essentially a non-physical network system formed by interconnected giant sympathetic magic.
Seeing Hayden's stunned expression, Alastor, in his astral form, explained with a smile.
"At my level of information magic, even if the company blocks the domain, isolating the entire city's network connectivity, I can still forcibly establish a connection using my magic. It's similar to how you directly connected to 'Blessed Pure Land' using spirit perception last time, only I did it the other way around. I was actually quite startled by you then; it just goes to show how different expertise truly is."
That's absolutely true. Even now, after hearing Alastor's explanation, Hayden still finds it incredibly unbelievable.
Hayden could also use arcane magic to access the internet using only his brain, and he could also project his astral consciousness. However, with the Mitra Group isolating network communication, Alastor was able to forcibly connect to the Mitra network using his astral consciousness and his communication magic, which was simply an inconceivable method.
Seeing Alastor effortlessly project the astral object through the isolated network before him, Hayden, a wizard practicing classical magic, could only conjure up images of ancient, fantastical legends. Those incredibly powerful mages could astral projection, traveling thousands of miles at night, even traversing the stars. And the ancient gods could let their souls leave their bodies and travel freely to other places.
With Alastor's abilities, he could probably go anywhere there's internet access.
Firewall? Forget firewalls these days, even if the Mitra Corporation blocked the network, he could still crawl out of Hayden's phone screen! It's like something out of a horror movie from over a hundred years ago!
In other words, Alastor's physical combat ability is inferior to Hayden's; otherwise, this would be a classic case of killing someone from afar via the internet.
However, if top hackers didn't have such methods, how could they possibly outwit and outmaneuver the super corporation that controls StarNet?
Unfortunately, even with such technology, I was still no match for the Blood Magic Sympathetic Spell of the Smoke Mirror, and the supernatural powers of the outer Mitela Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes.
Alastor chuckled self-deprecatingly.
[What a pity, I made a wrong move. If they hadn't decided to join forces on counterterrorism tonight, I would have won.]
Holding this generous gift from Alastor in his hand, Hayden was at a loss for words.
Smoke Mirror Life Construction Company specializes in biochemical technology and blood magic, which has been feared by normal people since ancient times. This is a different field from the Mitra Group's information network technology. No matter how talented Alastor is as a hacker, he will ultimately have no chance of escaping when two large companies use two different professional technologies to work together to hunt him down.
Moreover, the Smoke Mirror Company already had some connections with [Bójīn]. Hayden was a wizard, and he was well aware of the problems that the rules of sympathetic magic could cause in this regard—the closer the relationship between two people, the more likely they are to track and influence each other through sympathetic magic.
While this is just an extreme example, theoretically, if you capture someone's wife, you could use her to cast a remote curse on that person. This is because the relationship between husband and wife is so close; there is a strong metaphysical connection between them, which is the sympathetic connection in magical concepts.
In simpler terms, this connection is what's known as "fate." In the words of the Mitra Group, it's also called "cause and effect." With the two companies working together to track down this connection, even Alastor's exceptional talent was rendered useless.
[Rest assured, I've already taken precautions with intelligence gathering. The Mitra Group will absolutely not be able to detect your whereabouts through us. That's why I can entrust this information to you.]
Alastor's smile vanished, replaced by a stern expression.
[To be honest, you know my fellow students aren't cut out to be leaders in a struggle, nor are they people to whom we can entrust our hopes. After we're all wiped out by the Mithra Group's tactical forces, the company won't suspect you still have copies of the data. You will inherit the torch of the future.]
He spoke words that sounded like his last will and testament, his face as calm as a dead man's.
"What makes you think I'm cut out to be a leader of a struggle?!"
Hayden was absolutely stunned.
"I do hope that people can live better lives, but I'm not tired of living myself yet!"
Hayden certainly wanted all the big corporations to die, and he didn't mind causing them trouble. But was it really worth sacrificing everything, risking his life, to fight to the death against a world controlled by big corporations?
This isn't something you can just nod and do!
Goodbye, Comrade Hayden. Never cease the struggle.
But Alastor had already ended the call. The astral body he had projected into the Hayden family's living room through sympathetic magic vanished instantly.
Hayden immediately tried to call back, but the connection was lost. Just as Alastor had said, the Mithra Group hadn't found Hayden; otherwise, they would have already surrounded and arrested him. However, Hayden discovered that the network for an entire lower-level city next door had been cut off. The Mithra Group publicly declared this a "network service interruption due to an emergency." The two large companies joined forces to track him down, and then the Mithra Group deployed its official tactical forces to encircle and suppress him. [Bo Xun] was already doomed.
Therefore, Hayden only needs to consider one question now:
"...What should we do now?"
He stared at the phone in his hand and couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Angela hadn't paid much attention to the interaction between Hayden and Alastor, but when she heard Hayden muttering to himself, she looked over with a strange expression: "What is troubling you, my master?"
Her tone was one of pure, abstract curiosity.
good question.
Hayden opened his mouth, only to find that the question was actually quite difficult to answer.
Alastor had clearly anticipated that after the trade meeting of the three major companies concluded today, they might decide to eliminate [Bo Xun] first, to prevent these hackers from causing any unforeseen complications. That's why he prepared so many documents in advance, and as soon as the results were in, he immediately transferred them all to Hayden's phone.
So Hayden could certainly leave [Bójīn] alone for now. In fact, Alastor probably hoped he would leave it alone too. After all, Alastor wanted Hayden to inherit the flame of their reform after [Bójīn] was wiped out, not to rush in and commit suicide now.
but,
Looking at his phone and the information Alastor had sent him about the two companies' research on life magic, Hayden could only raise his head and honestly reply, "I don't know what to do."
There were some things he simply didn't care about. But there were also things Hayden couldn't help but care about.
“Alastor is clearly prepared for a scorched-earth scenario, but I personally don’t want to see all of their dozens of students die at the hands of a big company, or suffer a fate worse than death.”
A large corporation like Mithra certainly has many ways to make you suffer worse than death. If Alastor is smart enough, he might prepare a way to make [Marsh] die a more pleasant death... but that's hardly any consolation.
Who really wants to die?
“So,” Angela tilted her head, “you’ve already made your judgment. What else is needed?”
"You make that sound so easy. There are so many things I want to do! How many of them can I actually accomplish?"
Hayden couldn't help but retort,
“Mithra has now surrounded that district with an entire army; not even a fly can get in! And they’ve even used the damn Vajrapani tactical unit! Those things are the real military force of the corporation—the fighting gods! An army composed of gods! I can’t even beat one of them!”
He wasn't waving his arms, jumping around, or screaming, but judging from Hayden's expression, he was clenching his fists and very annoyed.
Because he is not strong enough.
Hayden wasn't some invincible, intelligent, and charismatic overlord who could solve any problem with perfect organization. He couldn't come up with a clever way to save people, and he couldn't defeat Mithra's war god army. Because... he was just a lone wolf mercenary, a mortal who was doing relatively well among the lower classes.
Hayden is not a god.
But Angela just watched him quietly.
“Master, I have said it many times. Whatever you want to do, I will help you and always be by your side.”
Angela said this,
"So the only important thing is whether you can make a choice that is in line with your true feelings."
What does she mean by that?
Hayden knew Angela was incredible; she might be some ancient, strange, and powerful being. But how powerful was she? Could she possibly be above the entire Mithra Group?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Big corporations are the gods of the modern world. Crushing Hayden is as easy as stepping on an ant for them.
So the most sensible thing to do at this point is to sit back on the sofa and pretend that nothing ever happened.
But... is Hayden really willing to do this?
He doesn't want to.
"Gan."
So, after glancing at his phone one last time, Hayden swore and turned to look at his wind-up doll.
“Angela, how many high-level demons do you think you can defeat? I mean the kind we encountered at Alicia’s house three months ago, and the ones you took apart with your bare hands.”
He asked this question because he really wanted to know just how strong Angela was. However, if he directly asked her about her combat strength, she would probably only give a vague and unclear answer. Therefore, Hayden simply let her estimate it herself using numbers.
As for why Hayden used a high-ranking demon as an example, it's because the strongest enemy he and Angela had ever encountered was probably that high-ranking demon from last time—yes, that demon was torn apart by Angela, but that doesn't change the fact that it was actually the strongest battle they had ever fought!