In 2008, a worm found its way inside the servers of the Military Central Command of America, stealing confidential information and sending it back to its unknown creator. The CIA tried fighting the worm, however, it took them 14 months to destroy it. The hacker who created that worm is my father. I found that out three years ago when he forgot to turn off his computer. Incidentally, I was in my parents' room, looking for a book about JAVA, one of the programming languages. Since then, my father became my mentor, both in programming and hacking.

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"I can't believe I'll ever think the idea of hacking in this world." Looking around in the library, I was researching magic runes. "Now, if only I can understand the meaning behind every symbol in a rune then maybe I can program a computer."

The musty smell of books lingered everywhere. It made me remember the addicting smell of papers coming out from photocopying machines. It was like a drug to me. The place was filled with books ranging from old and new, and because the area was huge, it would probably take me days to find what I was looking for.

"Time's my worst enemy. The way I am now, I will just hold back the team. I need to be stronger."

Four hours had already passed since I started. With Satrillo's help, I found some books about magic runes, but they didn't have very many details. Maybe because Razzia focused their studies on curses after its discovery. Suddenly, Emily entered.

"H-Hiiro," she spoke while looked down. "I-I was waiting for you, but it's already night and... and..." Switching her gaze on me, I saw a teary-eyed Emily. "I thought you already left me." Small droplets of tears fell from her eyes. "I-I don't want to be alone. I... I..."

"Emily." After seeing her eyes, I immediately walked towards her and hugged her. "I'm sorry. I made you cry again." I said, moving away so I could wipe her tear. "Didn't I already promise that I will never leave you?"

"But... But..." she spoke with a strangled voice.

"It's okay. You don't have to worry, I won't leave you."

After that, we had a conversation. Emily still didn't know that I came from another world so I told her about it and the reason why I was at the library.

"T-then, please, let me help you." Emily stammered while blushing. "I won't be able to join you on the raid, and you've already done so much for me. So just this once, p-please, let me be your strength."

There was a bit of silence as I stared at her.

"Okay. Let's go look for it together."

After searching for hours, we found a lot of sources. It was already midnight so I asked Emily to sleep.

"Sleep tight, Haruka."

Reading the books, I learned basic and advanced knowledge about magic. However, there was still something missing.

If I want to create a computer then magic runes is not enough. I need something to process all the codes and another thing to store the data.

Fortunately, both of these exist in this castle. There's only one thing I needed to do, create a magic tool.

Based on what I read, for a mage to cast spells faster, it uses a magic tool to store pre-constructed runes in its catalyst (memory). And when a mage voices the incantation (run the program), the tool will process the rune (code) and execute the spell. Luckily, there was someone I suspected to be an expert in this field, the living magic tool, Satrillo.

***

Once the sun rose, I went to find Satrillo so that I could ask his help with magic tools. In order to protect Emily, I told him that I needed to be stronger. He agreed and invited me again to the storeroom. We were having a conversation while climbing down the stairs.

"Satrillo-san, can I ask you something? What happened to the previous war?"

"Hmmm... Let's see." He turned around to face me. "I was not born in Razzia so I can only provide you with what I know."

Even though Khina found greater power, it was not enough to win the war. This only resulted in years of stalemate between the two countries, killing thousands of lives, both civilian and not. To avoid more bloodshed, the two Kings decided to have a treaty ending the decade-long battle. The Upper Continent of Eteria once again gained peace.

"Based on what I heard, there used to be a summit occurring every year," Satrillo added. "There, the two countries traded resources and knowledge with each other. They also discussed things about maintaining peace and order."

"Used to? Why did they stop?"

Based on what he said, it was ten years ago when a huge explosion occurred while the summit was ongoing. The investigators suspected that it was a terrorist attack, however, they found zero evidence to support this claim. Since some footage of the CCTV found a demon lurking suspiciously in the venue, the humans suspected that it was their fault. However, the explosives found were modernized bomb made by humans. Thus, creating a crack between the citizens of the two countries. Right now, the two countries are not on bad terms with each other, but they are not on good terms either.

"Afterwards, Khina shut off all of its borders. Till this day, it still remains close," Satrillo added.

"Then how about the Kings? They want peace, right? Can't they do nothing about this?"

"They can't, Hiiro." Satrillo gazed at me with a serious look. "The explosion killed both the Demon and the Human Kings."

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After that, we continued to talk about Razzia. According to him, there are five Kingdoms in Razzia. They are based on the Five Major Cursed Elements: Veter (Cursed Wind), ruled by the Lich King Emil; Pochva (Cursed Earth), governed by the Snake Queen Medusa; Molniya (Cursed Lightning) controlled by the Vampire Lord Vladimir; Voda (Cursed Water) lead by Lust Empress Cherry and Pozhar (Cursed Fire) which is currently vacant. The Castle of Vladik is located in Veter Kingdom.

The previous Demon King came from the Pozhar Kingdom and can only be replaced by a person with the same blood. However, all the royal family of the Demon King also died in the explosion 10 years ago.

Fortunately, when the people investigated the King's chambers, they found out that the King had an illegitimate daughter. He hid the fact since she was born from a different race, which was a taboo at that time.

After that, we continued walking to the storeroom. Both of us never spoke a single word. The place was filled with silence; the only thing I could hear was the small droplets of water coming from above.

***

After we finally reached the storeroom, Satrillo instructed me what I needed.

First is the design. What I want is a portable device that I can effortlessly hide. It must look like an everyday accessory so no one will suspect it. Hackers work in secret after all. After minutes of brainstorming, there was only one object I could think of, and it was a ring. In this world, it is normal for people to die wearing one and not able to remove it, so wearing a ring is okay.

Second is the catalyst. In theory, if I'm going to make a computer, I need to have a memory able to store a large amount of data. Lucky for me, the castle has plenty of these. The only problem was that since the rings were too small, it could only use little catalysts. I can wear more rings, but I doubt it's enough.

Then, I thought of another idea. The magic tool I want does not need to be small, rather it must not look suspicious. There was another thing that could fill this requirement, clothes. A skeleton wearing a robe is also normal in this world. But, since I like the idea of rings, I decided to use them both.

After I told Satrillo my ideas, he asked me to wait for a week so he could assemble the base of the magic tools; I gave him the robe Emily gifted to me. I wanted to treasure it like what I said before, and doing this would honor that gift. Seven days seemed to be long, considering I have roughly a few weeks till the raid. But, I still hadn't master rune writing yet, so I decided to study at the library for a while. Occasionally, Emily and Satrillo visited and helped me with my research.

***

A week had passed, King Arthur went to the Demon Council meeting. By this time, I learned all the things I needed about rune writing. Not that I memorized everything, rather I understand them. The reason I liked math was that I didn't need to remember everything; I only needed to understand how it was derived by recalling only a few formulas. Using that logic, I was able to learn Rune Writing as if it was just another Programming Language.

It was nighttime when Satrillo handed the magic tools to me; Robyn also arrived from her mission. Based on what Satrillo told me, it seemed the Village of the Necromancers had been entirely annihilated. Piles of necromancer and human corpses were everywhere, but among those bodies, two important people were missing, Oliver and the village Chieftain. However, she couldn't find out who was the culprit for the attack since there were remains of "other" races seen in the village.

"The King suspects that it's caused by the terrorist group connected to Dr. Albert," Satrillo spoke. "It's the reason why we're going to raid Dr. Albert lab, to look for evidence.

"But what happens if Dr. Albert is innocent? Or if the culprit is really Khina?"

"Then we have no choice but to start preparing for war," he replied.

After our conversation, I went to the library. There, I started applying everything I learned and programmed runes after runes in the magic tools. It took me about three weeks to finish the Alpha, but it was still not 100 percent complete.

***

Outside the castle, I was testing my program.

"Execute Project: Zero!" Bright lights flashed around me as the robe I was wearing enveloped my body, transforming to a robotic exoskeleton. The black suit covered everything from my skull to my feet. A one-way mirror was placed in front of my eyes allowing me to see. "The design is a bit plain, but I'll fix that later. This is embarrassing. I look like some sort of hero from a children's show."

Should I make some explosions every time I transform?

"No. No. No. That would be too weird."

"Hiiro? W-what is that?" A girl ran towards me; it was Emily who was watching nearby. "You're Hiiro, right?"

"Yes, I am Hiiro. Sorry, I don't have a name for this yet, though, I might just call it 'Zero." Slightly raising my hands, my gaze turned to my palms. "This suit should amplify my abilities, including speed, strength, and mana. It also borrows some energy from its surroundings so I don't have to worry that much about using up all of my mana. It should also help me with my problem of casting a rune."

"Hiiro." It was Aria who also came. Satrillo and Lucie were also present. "Can you show us what it can do?"

Hmm. Let see. I don't think a simple spell is enough to showcase this.

"Let's try this one." Pointing my right hand towards a tree, I concentrated on a looped spell. "Ahm, you might want to move away for a moment. I still haven't tested this so it might be dangerous..." After that, they took their distance. "Execute Loop Program: Fireball... Set X to 100." Suddenly, runes kept appearing in front of me. "Fire!!!" Shouting those words, multiple explosions occurred. However, it didn't hit the tree, rather, it exploded in my position.

"Hiiro!!!" Everyone yelled as they ran towards me.

"Hiiro, please tell me you're okay?" Emily begged while holding me. "Please..."

"Emily, I'm okay. The suit protected me from the explosion." Immediately, I stood to prove what I said. "See. I can even jump just fine."

"I hate you," Emily cried. "I was... too worried. That was... a powerful spell... I thought... you were gone," she stammered, her speech was interrupted by her sudden hiccups.

"I'm sorry."

Well, it's okay I guess. It's normal for programs to fail at first try. I'm just glad the defense mechanism worked fine. I need to finish this quickly, there's only three days before the raid.

***

---A Certain Man Wearing a Black Hooded-Jacket---

"Dr. Albert, huh."

"Ne ne, Ciel onii-chan. Why are you looking at your phone?" Said the voice of a little girl with long ears.

"I just received the information for the next job. In three days, I'm going to infiltrate a certain lab."

"Don't you mean 'we'? I'm also coming," the girl replied.

"It's too dangerous for you. I'm going alone."

"I wanna join," The girl cried on the ground while repeatedly shouting these words.

"Shut up, you stupid kid. It's final! You're not coming. You wait for me from HQ"

"I am not a kid! I'm already 22 year's old." the girl shouted back.

"Shut up, you brat! According to Elven Law, you're still a kid."

Hearing those words, tears fell from her eyes. "Baka Onii-chan! I hate you! When I turn into an adult, I won't talk to you even if you begged for me!" The girl screamed walking away while stomping her feet.

"Who cares? I'm probably dead when that time comes."

"That child's really a handful." Voice of another woman speaking inside my head.

[Voice of the man] Now I regret saving her from assassins.

[Voice of the woman] Oh really? Your speech that time was marvelous though, 'I'm not a hero. I don't save princesses. I'm a criminal. I steal them.'

[Voice of the man] S-shut up.

[Voice of the woman] By the way, how about that female necromancer? What her name again? Thea Skysomething? Is she joining this mission?

[Voice of the man] Huh? There's no way I'll letthat pervert join. This is a covert mission you know. It's still too early forher.