"The Blackwall?" Loggagia frowned tightly. Though not overseeing tech directly, he knew what that word meant. "You're certain?"
"We're over eighty-five percent confident." The technical expert took a deep breath, struggling to keep his voice steady. "The data packet's signature, transmission priority, plus those interception-proof characteristics... all point to the Blackwall.
Sir, this means... the netrunner who launched this attack isn't just some ordinary hotshot. He's... he's basically holding a 'cyber-nuke.'"
He looked around at shocked colleagues, further explaining: "Think about it—all of us, everyone jacked into the network, need the Blackwall's protection isolating rogue AIs beyond the wall.
And now someone can bypass or even exploit the Blackwall itself, forcing information right in front of us.
Which means, theoretically, he could just as easily breach any of our terminals, rifle through our secrets, or even...
directly send overload commands to our neural processors, frying our brains.
Before him, we have zero network secrets or security."
These words sent chills up every attendee's spine.
They weren't afraid of business competition, street violence, even government investigations—but this threat from the deepest network layers, utterly indefensible, made them feel genuine terror for the first time.
"Find him!" Loggagia practically ground out these words through clenched teeth. "Spare no expense—find this netrunner who can manipulate the Blackwall! We need this technology!"
The corporate crisis, in some sense, revealed a far greater and more tempting opportunity.
Whoever controlled this power would stand invincible in the future.
Just as Biotechnica internally descended into chaos, two nearly simultaneous encrypted communications made situations even more complex.
The first came from NUSA President Rosalind Myers.
Myers' holographic image appeared in the conference room, expression serious and direct: "Mr. Loggagia, regarding your company's current predicament, I express the NUSA's concern."
Loggagia's heart stirred but maintained calm externally: "Thank you for Madam President's concern. This is merely competitors' despicable tactics. We're capable of handling it."
"Let's cut the bullshit." Myers interrupted him. "This incident's media storm—you alone can't quell it short-term.
We can help. NUSA-controlled media resources can assist guiding public opinion, redirecting attention elsewhere—like... potential foreign forces destabilizing things."
"Conditions?" Loggagia asked bluntly. He knew politicians' promises never came free.
"Two conditions." Myers raised two fingers. "First, Biotechnica needs providing NUSA more... favorable terms and support on New Alaska resource development projects.
My team will coordinate specifics with you afterward.
Second, and most importantly—once you've found that netrunner hiding in shadows, you must immediately share all information with us."
Loggagia's eyes narrowed slightly: "NUSA's also interested in this netrunner?"
"Someone capable of exploiting the Blackwall—their threat level exceeds ordinary cyber-terrorists." Myers' reasoning sounded high-minded. "This concerns global network security foundations. NUSA has responsibilities and obligations ensuring such power isn't abused.
Of course, if possible, we'd also like 'studying' the principles behind this technology."
Her words revealed Militech's—closely tied to NUSA—hunger for this tech.
Loggagia pondered momentarily.
Ceding interests certainly hurt, but compared to possibly obtaining Blackwall-manipulation technology, seemed acceptable.
Besides, leveraging NUSA's power could indeed stabilize situations faster.
"...Agreed. We'll cooperate."
Almost immediately after communications with NUSA ended, another call came through—from NetWatch.
NetWatch's representative was equally direct, expressing extreme concern over this Blackwall-exploiting broadcast incident, hoping Biotechnica could provide all available leads, cooperating with NetWatch tracking this netrunner.
"The Blackwall is the final defensive line we helped build and maintain. Any abuse of it threatens all humanity." NetWatch representative's tone carried technical custodians' "righteousness."
However, Loggagia—having just reached secret agreements with NUSA—almost unhesitatingly refused NetWatch's cooperation request.
"Thanks for NetWatch's attention, but this is Biotechnica's internal affair. We have our own cybersecurity teams handling it.
Currently we've found no concrete evidence linking this to Blackwall vulnerabilities. Perhaps just some novel virus type we're unaware of yet.
If further discoveries emerge, we'll report through proper channels."
Like hell—NetWatch wanted "patching vulnerabilities" and "apprehending netrunners," while Biotechnica and NUSA wanted "controlling technology."
Completely different objectives. How could they cooperate?
Letting NetWatch interfere would only add variables, possibly even making them ultimately destroy or monopolize this tech.
The cleanly refused NetWatch representative frowned in the holographic image.
He sensed Biotechnica's concealment but felt helpless.
Though special, NetWatch lacked authority forcing multinational corporate cooperation.
They could only secretly intensify their own efforts, attempting to independently find that audacious ghost daring to toy with the Blackwall.
——
Inside the wasteland workshop, Cairo calmly observed through multiple channels the waves stirred by chess pieces he'd casually placed outside.
He saw Biotechnica's stock price crash, surging online public opinion, plus through some covert monitoring means, roughly understood Biotechnica internal meetings' tense atmosphere—NUSA's opportunistic exploitation plus NetWatch's anxiety and helplessness.
All within expectations.
Biotechnica's responses were lackluster—nothing beyond corporate giants' typical PR tricks and blame-shifting strategies.
NUSA's intervention exposed Militech's hunger behind them for cutting-edge force projection, especially network-layer absolute control.
NetWatch's reactions resembled more dutiful "administrators" frantically trying to patch fatal system bugs.
"Swift reactions, but methods still limited to existing frameworks." Cairo assessed. "Attempting using so-called rules to handle new-layer challenges."
He didn't care about Biotechnica's fate, nor whether Sasha's "revenge" perfectly succeeded.
This matter to him resembled more a "stress test" of local factions' technical capabilities and adaptive responses, simultaneously practical verification of Blackwall-exploitation techniques.
NUSA and Militech's hunger for "Blackwall-manipulation technology" sparked his mild interest.
They obviously recognized this power's strategic value, willing to pay prices obtaining it.
This perhaps meant they held certain related, equally high-value technical reserves or research materials.
"Hopefully they'll bring some surprises." Cairo's crimson optical lenses flickered slightly. "If only these existing crude technologies, that'd be too boring."
He took no further actions stimulating various parties, nor attempted misleading or interfering with their investigations.
He resembled more a detached experimenter, quietly observing petri dish microorganisms' stress responses, awaiting possibly emerging valuable mutations.
His primary energy still focused on deep dimensional transport device research, Maine crew modification planning, plus analyzing just-obtained Biotechnica data.
This current storm was merely a small interlude in his lengthy research process, part of collecting local world information.
He was quite curious—under NUSA's pressure and support, what exactly could Biotechnica and Militech pull off searching for him?
And NetWatch dedicated to maintaining the Blackwall—could they, with professional capabilities, find any traces pointing toward him?
"Let's see then—this world's 'top-tier' forces, exactly what levels can they reach?" Cairo's murmur echoed through the workshop before being drowned by equipment humming.
He turned, once again immersing into endless data analysis and technical cracking, awaiting the next act's performance.
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