Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

between it and your Avatar code. On review, the Sentinel AIs’ redundancies will realize their error. They’ll write a counter-code to recognize you within the system. It’s like an animal’s immune system recognizing a virus the second time it infects the subject.”

Aya sucked in a breath. “How long before they realize what’s going on?”

“A Level Nine Sentinel? Maybe two seconds of real time.”

Two seconds of real time. That would feel like ten minutes in the EtherCloud. Hidden from all Sentinels, she could acquire all kinds of information.  “How do you know it won’t work again?” she asked.

Slash grinned. “Let’s just say, I haven’t been in the Peacekeeper EtherSpace for several months now.”

“What do you want for that code?” Aya asked.

“What are you offering?”

Aya projected some of Ryusuke’s files. “This is all the Peacekeeper’s information on Ishihara before the lockdown.”

“Before the lockdown?” Slick raised an eyebrow. “Were you the one who caused it?”

She grinned. “What if I was?”

Both stared at her.

“Just what did you—assuming it was you—do?” Slash asked.

Aya blinked innocently. “I may or may not have helped Ishihara escape.”

Slash grinned.

Slick, on the other hand, gawked. “What if he’s behind the murders?”

“He’s not,” Aya said.

“How do you know?” Slash lowered his sunglasses again to eye her.

If she told them, they’d know she was in Kyoto. “I’ve seen Peacekeeper footage. Plus, it’s pure logic. Last night, there were seventeen deaths, all between 20:00 and midnight, spread throughout the city. He couldn’t have possibly done it all.”

Slash held out a playing card and flipped it through his fingers. “This is the code. Thing is, I already have Ishihara’s file from Dig.”

Aya frowned. She’d seen fellow hacker Dig near Ryusuke’s file. Of course, Dig hadn’t gotten as involved as she had, and hadn’t triggered the lockdown. “How about some Level Three combat codes?”

Both Slick and Slash perked up.

“Since when did you achieve Level Three combat?” Slick asked.

“A girl’s got her secrets.” She held out a scroll.

The other two exchanged looks.

“Well, I want to find out.” Slash flicked the card at Aya.

She caught it, then bowed low in the manner of Old Japan and handed it to him in two hands.

He plucked it from her palms. “I can’t tell you how much I love your aesthetic.”

She bowed again. Starting to jack out, she paused.

Slick was staring at Ryu’s file. “How about a Level Seven Sentinel Shell for Ishihara’s file?”

Level Seven. It might take some time to integrate into her Avatar code; for now, it would operate at Level Six, which would restore what she’d lost to the Peacekeepers.

Slash whistled. “I would’ve liked that.”

Luckily for Aya, the hacker code prevented one hacker from trading something he’d acquired from another hacker…though part of that was based less on honor, and more on the fear that a new copy would unleash a virus.

With a nod, she offered Slick a copy of the scroll. He gave her a small geometric painting that would’ve fit the décor of his EtherSpace.

With another bow, she jacked out. Only a split second had passed in real time. Once her mind acclimated to the real world, she hurried to catch up to Ryusuke.

“I have a way into the Peacekeeper EtherSpace,” she said, “but once I use it, I will never be able to hack into it again, even from the inside. I’ll do it for you, but I recommend we not use it until you’re ready for your attack.”

Ryusuke held up a hand. “I sense the arrival of our quarry.”

At his side, Siena’s pointed ears twitched. “There’s a chirping sound I’ve never heard from any bird on this planet…”

Chapter 28:

The Purebred

W ith his body invigorated by Advancement to First Rank in the Water Path, Ken joined Master Ryusuke, Siena, and Teppin in following Aya.

With all the vitality brimming in him, he could sense her more deeply now—while visibly frail, her internal energy felt stronger than that of an XHuman man who stared at them as they passed.  Even so, her Qi felt miniscule compared to his now, and also didn’t flow smoothly.

“I love this neighborhood.” She smiled as she led them down a quaint road lying in a valley between skyscrapers. The road was lined with old wooden buildings, like something right out of old movies. Several of the temples interspersed among the old homes were well over fifteen hundred years old; their destination, Hozoji Temple, was close to two thousand years old.

Just as he loved watching Age of Greed martial movies, Ken also got lost in the ancient history of this land. He gestured down the street. “You know the significance of Hozoji?”

She nodded. “It is the resting place for the head of famed swordsman Kondo Isamu, leader of the last Shogun’s enforcers.”

“The heroic Shinsengumi!” Ken said.

Aya looked at him, eyes wide. “More like the notorious Shinsengumi. They were thugs and murderers.”

Considering she knew everything, he wasn’t going to argue. Though by a direct route it was just five minutes from Pontocho Park, where they’d been practicing, they’d taken time to avoid Peacekeeper patrols.

As they drew closer, his heart raced with a mix of excitement and trepidation. With this new body, he felt like he could take on the world! Still, they were facing a monster the master feared; and if Aya’s energy was so much weaker than Ken’s now, Ken must be even more pathetic compared to Master Ryu.

Clouds rolled in to obscure the moon. A chirp warbled up ahead, followed by a flash of lightning and the roll of thunder.  The ground shook.

With sound feeling like it had just crushed Ken’s brain, he shuddered. All courage from his Advancement melted away.