Kuroto Dan! Become the Game Advisor of Millennium!

A powerful rider kick pierced through the defense line formed by the data soldiers in front of him, much like a cavalryman on a heavily armored warhorse charging into a group of plain soldiers with a lance.

The power of the Rider Kick was enhanced to the limit.

If idealistic power had supplemented it, the force would likely be so terrifying it would be unimaginable. However, in the world of data, Kuroto Dan used this power to break through the enemy's defense line and rush toward his destination—the gateway port!

"Let me see who gave me such a big gift—"

As Kuroto Dan rushed forward and neared the network interface, the three girls from Veritas showed panic on their faces.

In their eyes, the 'strange and powerful virus program' had finally been suppressed by the super attack package left by Minister Himari, which now seemed to be under siege by various attack programs.

Then, In a way they could not understand, it suddenly broke through the siege of many disinfection programs and locked the IRL location of Veritas!

"Wow! Kotama! What should we do?" Maki panicked, pacing back and forth. "The IP address of Veritas has been discovered! Us hackers failed in their duty!"

"Strange... It should be a virtual address..." Kotama, the girl with glasses, pursed her lips, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her hands moved quickly. "I'm re-encrypting our IP address!"

Hare standing nearby shouted, "It's too late! An unidentified data stream is attacking our server!"

"Mobilize all the computing power to block it! Maki!"

"The speed of the other side is incredible! We can't stop it!"

A red light lit up in the room of the Veritas, and an alarm rang out.

This was the alarm that would sound when the most important server of Veritas was about to be breached. When this red light came on, it meant that all the network defenses of Veritas were about to fail.

At that moment, there was only one final option left—the most shameful plan.

"Maki! Turn off the power!"

Maki stood up. Above the array host where she was, there was a lever closest to her, covered by a plastic cover with a conspicuous yellow and black logo. Pulling it down would physically cut off the power to all computers, servers, and terminals in the Veritas. After that, the Engineering Department's mechanism would automatically unplug all network terminals, saving Veritas at the cost of giving up their cloud.

"It's over..."

Without hesitation, Maki pulled the power-off lever.

The surroundings went pitch black, and Maki sat down sadly in the chair.

"Veritas... lost..."

"I've never lost so badly..." Hare's heart was full of bitterness. The Yokai MAX drink can in her hand crumpled. "Even with the weapons left by Minister Himari, we couldn't defeat it. We were forced to this point..."

"I don't understand how the program cracked our attack," Kotama said, removing her glasses and rubbing her dry eyes. "If it were before, at least I could understand the structure of the program and its offensive strategies. But this virus program..."

Recalling the random and seemingly selective attack method of the strange virus, a thought popped into Kotama's mind. "Could it be... artificial intelligence?"

Maki looked up. "Kotama, are you saying the virus that attacked us is intelligent?"

"It's just a guess," Kotama nodded, speaking seriously. "Its attacks aren't like regular virus attacks; every move it makes is selective. Each time this strange virus attacks, an unrecognizable data stream suddenly appears within our attack program."

"The last time, when the alarm sounded, that unrecognizable data stream suddenly increased dozens of times and broke through our firewall in an incomprehensible way."

Kotama continued, "Maybe it's some kind of artificial intelligence created by technology that surpasses our Veritas..."

Zi——

A strange sound interrupted Kotama's reasoning.

What shocked everyone was that the sound came from the server room of Veritas!

"What's that sound?"

Maki reached out to hug her machine gun, while Hare and Kotama, also tense, pulled out their small pistols.

"Impossible? The network and power have been physically disconnected. Can they still track us?"

Creak.

Tap, tap, tap.

In the activity room which was now without power, a strange sound came from the sealed server room, a place where no one could confirm who was there.

Then, footsteps were heard.

Colder than the air conditioning set to 16 degrees was this ghost-story-like segment that no Millennium student would ever believe in.

"Could it be a ghost?" Maki's eyes widened. "The server room can't be used! Let's open fire together! Use incendiary bombs! Use mortars!"

"No, don't scare yourself!" Hare shouted. "Excellent materialists are not afraid of ghosts in legends! They're all just scary stories!"

Squeak—

The door of the server room was pressed open by a purple hand.

"Ah!!"

As the server room door slowly opened, a pair of huge red eyes emitted a faint red light from the darkness.

"I found you!"

"Aa..."

Kuroto Dan looked around, his voice cold. "You're the ones who greeted me earlier?" He then saw the three girls huddling together, trying to face him. "You're the ones who made such a big fuss about the antivirus software on the Internet?"

"You're the one who broke through our network defense just now?" Hare huddled behind Maki, looking at the strange figure in front of her. "What's your relationship with Kezaritan?"

Gashu~

Kuroto Dan pulled out the Gashat and canceled his transformation. "I don't know the Kezaritan you mentioned. I was just online collecting information when I was attacked by an unknown network virus, so I followed the clues to find out the cause. Now I'm here to see who did it."

"Yes, it's us, adult..."

Kuroto Dan looked at the three girls in front of him. "You're the ones who made me so embarrassed? The last strong network attack almost got me, but fortunately, I was more skilled! I found you through the network!"

"Through the network?" Kotama's curiosity was piqued. "Can you get into the network cable?"

"Otherwise, how else could I find you?" Kuroto Dan glanced around. "I say, aren't you going to turn the power back on? It's pitch black, and uncomfortable in here!"

Flick!

"If we were dealing with this guy just now..." Maki blinked.

"It's like a virus ran out of the computer and became a real person?" Kotama punched her hand.

"Ha... I found the answer." Hare sighed.

"We—what exactly did we fight against just now...?"