His eyes widened at the sight of someone who knew him. He knew she knows something and all his plans will get ruined by any word that the girl will ever mention.
"Michiyo?!" Hachiro muttered slowly.
"Why the cold gaze, Michi?" Kath asked. "He's one with you, right?"
"Nothing...I was just.." she stared at him once again, trying to meet his eyes but he looked away.
A sudden wail of a girl in pain and dropping on the ground broke the ice in their midst.
"What's happening?!" Kath exclaimed, getting rattled on the incident.
"It's starting.." Hachiro said took a step towards the girl on the ground.
Michiyo saw his approach and immediately grabbed his arm.
"You're not touching anyone here..." Michiyo warned with her threatening eyes. "Haro-san.." she said sarcastically.
Hachiro froze on his step. Looking dazed on Michiyo's expression, he took a step backward and let her approach the girl in pain.
"What's happening to her?" Drake asked.
"She's having a seizure...I guess." Michiyo said in reply and held the girl on her arms. "The GM warned us about this stuff, that the longer we stay here in the AR, the more prone we are in damaging our cognition that will lead to damaging our brain and our body system."
"That's impossible.." Drake exclaimed. "He can't be serious about that, right?!"
"It's possible. Knowing that the GM made all of this and with the power of Scorpio, he's able to manipulate even the reality.." Michiyo replied. "Also, it was also introduced to us by Mr. Louige at the ORION about a month ago. He warned us about something like this could happen."
"And that reality is where we're in.." Kath said. "How cruel."
"It's what you said. That is why we need to get outta here fast and kick that GM's ass." Michiyo said. "Or else we're be kicking our own buckets.."
"But what about that 'Hachiro' guy?" a black-haired geek-looking fellow asked. He wore a white polo shirt and a khaki pants. "Can we just let him run free?"
Michiyo stared at Hachiro with her evil eyes again and took a deep breath.
Looking away from him, she said, "I guess it's not the time to go after that bastard... we need to get ourselves to safety and find our way out." Michiyo said in conviction. "We have to get in touch with the other participants and group for our own safety. We'll have an edge if we gather together." She added.
"You're right..." Drake agreed, "We need to find the others and regroup as soon as possible. They might have had a better plan than we getting ourselves entangled in this kind of dire situation without nowhere to go." He added.
"Ahhmm.." the geek-looking guy asked "I know this is not the time to say this because it's so out of the topic but...I found this flying with the debris from the explosion earlier..."
"What's that?" Drake asked.
He handed him a pen-sized black scroll with a Scorpio logo near its edge.
"What could that be?" Kath asked.
Drake pushed the tip of the scroll and a 3D paper popped out from it.
"Something might be written on that thing... might be a message.." Michiyo said.
"Something might be written on that thing… might be a message.." Michiyo said, she clearly eyed the numbers appeared on the scroll in between x's and zeroes.
2121123120825013124012206240252420131241102558224013826241312411
225018814016207130131240424180238013124052013132411
121301312460162131087240121387240
78026131327260212022408722240213120131118167
"What could this mean?" Kath said.
"I bet it's a coded message. If we can only find the key.." Hachiro said.
"You're quite acquainted with these stuffs, huh, Haro?" Kath said.
"Not that much… I just have to learn these kinds of things before…" Hachiro replied.
"So, if this is a cypher, what can we do to decrypt it?" Drake asked. "We can't just use brute force to decode the cipher."
"I dunno… there are a lot of ways to tackle a cypher…" Hachiro hit keys on his watch and continued saying, "One thing is that we'll take a Brute force…"
"But that thing is time consuming… besides, we don't know what kind of cypher is used with this one…" Michiyo muttered.
"I know," Hachiro replied.
"You know?!" Kath exclaimed.
"I mean, I know that it is hard to know, with these random numbers, we cannot easily determine what kind of cypher there is…" Hachiro said. "…unless,"
"Unless, what?" Drake asked.
"Unless, we'll try all of the ancient cyphers we know…" Hachiro said.
"Can't we just use a software to do that stuff?" Kath frowned.
"That's what the millennials fail to understand. We need to look back to history to take stuffs of today with a silver lining. Math and other sciences were discovered for the betterment of mankind, but with the influence of technology, we are slowly forgetting that we created those techs. Thus, the human mind is far superior than of any computer.." Hachiro explained.
"Big words form a small guy…" Michiyo rolled her eyes.
"I know, I'm talking big. I'm just speaking my mind out. Besides, we cannot access the outside world right?" Hachiro replied. "And if I would, it will take us time to make a glitch and get outside…"
"So, what are you thinking?" Kath exclaimed.
"We'll do the basics…" Hachiro sat with his legs crossed. He opened his holographic monitor and started to input the numbers from the scroll. "From the looks of it, these random numbers are not so random."
"What do you mean? I'm not getting it.." Kath replied with a pout.
"I bet it'll be solved with a simple cypher."
"There isn't a simple cypher, Haro." Drake said.
"There is, only if you knew the key…"
"You've been bubbling about the key, have you discovered it?" Michiyo asked.
"I've been staring at the numbers and Shi-chan here have been doing the analysis, and we have found a repeating pattern.."
"You saying that that repeating pattern is the key.."
"We don't have any other assumptions, thus, we'll bet on this one.."
Hachiro entered the key on his watch and a group of letters appeared on his screen, the Alphabet.
"We'll number all the letters with numbers from 1-26…"
"Hey, are you doing that cypher?"
"Yeah, I suppose we can get it through that.." Hachiro sighed. "The next thing is that we'll move the letters with the key, 8 letters away from the first number…"
"No, Ha-chan.." Shichiro exclaimed, pawing his face. "It's the other way around."
"What do you mean?" Hachiro pushed his wolf back.
"It's not the letters we move, it's the number."
"The number?"
"Yeah…" Shichiro answered. "I've tried that thing with the letters a while ago but I ended up with a nonsensical sentence. Since, you started explaining, I tried to be silent until we tried the other way. I know it's somehow a variation of that cypher, but…"
"Since you said it did not work on the first way, then, we'll move on the other side of the coin." Hachiro grinned. "So, you said, we'll move the numbers instead, huh.." and hit keys on his 2D keyboard.
"Yeah, that means that the number 1 will be on letter H and…" Shichiro explained until Kath interrupted.
"So, what are you two mumbling all this time, huh?!" her face looked annoyed.
"We're doing the Caesar cypher.." Hachiro answered immediately like a child denying he's not eating chocolate in front of the fridge even if his mouth is full.
"That old cypher will save our asses? You serious!?" Drake exclaimed.
"Keep calm, and watch.." Hachiro grinned, gaining his lost composure from the shock Kath exploded, and the letters fill their places on the monitor according to their numbers.
"Birds of the same feather flock together; If you want the key, do the latter. Hit them with one stone, no getting back once it's thrown." Drake read it aloud.
"Is that a riddle?" Kath muttered.
"I thinks it's a hint..." Michiyo replied.
"Ne.." Kath faced Hachiro. "Do you have any idea?" she asked.
Hachiro looked at Michiyo's way, as if trying to ask permission to answer the question. But, she looked away instead, avoided his sight. So, he decided to give his thoughts.
"I think it is a way to defeat those guys and get outta here." Hachiro said.
"A way to get the key?" Drake asked though he's having a feeling that he should not trust the guy after seeing Michiyo's expression towards him. "Do you intend to fight those bastards, idiot?"
"I know this is an insane idea but..." Kath said. "Why don't we try it?" she stood composed and was oozing with confidence.
"Have you gone mad?!" Drake exclaimed on top of his voice. "There is no way we are going to fight those chickens, Kath... they're out of our league..." he added.
"I know! but if Michael and the others are here, they would think the same and not waste this opportunity!" Kath defended.
"I know.. but we are not them, Kath!" Drake said, trying to reason out. "We need to consider backing off sometimes... Running away is still a strategy!"
"Running away is cowardice!" Kath exclaimed. She has made up her mind to defeat the enemy. "We are not wasting this thing, Drake. Besides," she looked past the railings of the rooftop. "Do you think we can get out of here without giving off a fight?"
Drake looked at the street below and saw the massive number of chickens gathering around the building.
"We're surrounded, huh?" he murmured.
"See? That's what I'm trying to say." Kath exclaimed. "If we are to run from here, we need to get pass through them."
"Then, what do we do?" Drake asked.
"Follow the riddle." Kath replied. "If my guts is right, that thing is like a prophesy... something we need to do to get away from here. Right, Haro?"
"A way to defeat the enemy..." Hachiro added. "I agree."
The girl on the ground wailed again and two other members started to got headaches and fell on their knees.
"Can't we do something to reverse the effect of the AR or at least delay its effects?" Michiyo desperately exclaimed.
She knew someone who can make it possible in this situation though she knew he's an untrustworthy man. But, she doesn't have any other choice. She stood from her position and gathered her courage to ask for help.
"Ne?!" She said. She approached Hachiro and dragged him to a corner to talk to him in private. "I know you can do something about this, don't you?... If you do, do it now!" she demanded.
Shichiro sensed Michiyo's animosity towards his master so he didn't waste a second to stand between them.
"What's with this wolf?" Michiyo muttered, she took a step backward.
"I'm a fox, not a wolf." Shichiro glared.
"Stop it, Shi-chan. Don't hurt her." Hachiro grabbed his tail.
"An object, huh? Did you just waste one of the chips for this?"
"Is that a problem?!"
"Anyway..." Michiyo said. "I know you're up to something. I've seen you injecting a program at the bus a while ago. Do you have anything useful there?" she added.
"I'm afraid I don't have one at the moment but I'm still trying to gain access..." Hachiro replied. "You know the GM had set this trap meticulously."
"About the casualties? Is there anything we can do to help them?"
"There is one but...I don't think they can stand it." Hachiro answered.
"What is it?"
"Brain hacking." Hachiro muttered. "I don't think they can stand it on their condition though.."
"Brain hacking?" Michiyo asked.
"It's an experimental process developed by ORION to make use of AI's in medical field. But the results are not yet verified and the data is not yet reliable. All we can do now is to make a way out and get ourselves out of the barrier..."
"Can we bring them back if we lose them now?"
"It is possible, but there is no guarantee. And besides,"
"I don't care... You should make something out, besides,, it's your fault we're all in here.."
"I'm sorry about that.." Hachiro said coldly. " but I... thanks for giving me a chance.."
"I'm not trusting you yet, dumbass... I mean, I might not be able to trust you right at the bat knowing what you have done. But, we need your skills at this moment. And besides, Sandra said we should give you a little credit. I'm doing this for her, got it?"
"Ahh.."
"But I will not get my eyes off you.. any small wrong move and I will tell them about who you are, Haro-san." She said sarcastically again with her eyes turning foul-looking.
"Thanks, Michiyo. It was not my intention to keep this from them but I have to..." Hachiro said. "... unless I don't want to get the hacker in jail."
"I guess we have the same goal.." Michiyo said "...let's have a truce for now."
"Thanks again."
"What are you two doing there?" Kath exclaimed.
"A plan.." Michiyo replied. "We have a hacker here, for good time's sake."
"A hacker, you mean him?" Kath pointed Hachiro. "I know that... It's one of the reason why I stick on to him.."
"Ehh... pretty clever, huh?" Michiyo said.
"So, what do you plan to do?" Kath asked.
"Drop a cannon on their heads.."