"Hey there, miss, where'd you get those pretty contact lenses?"
The distinct mechanical voice of Mogwai echoed through the room, interrupting Asagi Aiba's fingers as they danced across the keyboard.
She blinked her glowing blue eyes and gently raised a hand to touch her eyelid.
"Oh, these? They were payment for helping with some programming."
"Payment… meaning Mystic Eyes?" Mogwai materialized in the room, eyeing Asagi's eyes with curiosity. "There are Mystic Eyes that come in this form?"
He could sense Asagi hadn't undergone any transplant; she was simply wearing something like decorative contacts.
"Supposedly it's new tech—lets a person use all sorts of Mystic Eyes on their own." Asagi lifted her hands from the keyboard and playfully closed her left eye. "As for mine…"
The contact in her right eye erupted with a more intense hue, a stream of data flickering rapidly across it.
Mogwai tilted his head curiously, glancing around the room.
What was about to happen? Flames? Ice? Maybe laser beams?
Just as he watched expectantly, inside the room…
Absolutely nothing happened.
"It's not broken, is it…"
Before he could finish, as an AI, he seemed to notice something off.
Mogwai whipped his head back toward the monitor.
The keyboard sat quietly on the desk, untouched by anyone, yet the code on the screen suddenly sprang to life, moving on its own.
Something had connected to this computer—no, not just this one. All the nearby electronic devices were linked.
He quickly traced the source as the data stream began boiling like a surge of magical energy.
To an AI like him, this data was the equivalent of his magic.
There it was.
The other side offered no resistance, and Mogwai easily pinpointed the source.
—It was coming from Asagi Aiba's smiling eyes.
"Oh, cool."
"Cool, right?" Asagi blinked. "It's like a brain-computer interface from sci-fi movies. These eyes let me control devices with my mind."
Blue light shimmered in her eyes as lines of code rapidly multiplied on the screen.
"Mystic Eyes with that kind of function actually exist."
With that, Mogwai vanished like scattered particles, his form slowly reconstructing within Asagi's contact lens.
"There's more." Asagi flicked Mogwai's goofy doll-like body out of her eye as if sweeping away dust. The contents of that day's menu surfaced in her mind.
"Besides this one, there are Mystic Eyes that make you invisible but only to one person, ones that let you foresee the past five seconds after a five-second delay, and even ones that let you steal someone else's vision."
As if sighing at how bored a certain vampire must have been, she gave a slight wave of her hand.
"There are even Mystic Eyes that work just like decorative contacts."
"…Isn't that just a contact lens then?"
"Pretty much."
As she used her Mystic Eyes to write code, Asagi opened a messaging app.
"By the way, why did you pick this kind of Mystic Eye?"
"It suits me," Asagi replied, giving him a look that said it was obvious. "Plus, it's pretty convenient."
"Convenient… for work?" Mogwai asked innocently.
"…"
Silence.
Mogwai's question instantly plunged Asagi into quiet reflection.
Now that you mention it… yeah.
She silently looked up at the lines of code steadily increasing on the screen.
With tech like this, coders could work anytime, anywhere, writing code wherever they went.
How terrifying.
Asagi sharply sucked in a breath, her hands trembling involuntarily.
"Hahahaha, it really is convenient." Mogwai laughed cheerfully, as if amused, and pointed out that Asagi had received a new email. "Of course, not just for work."
"…If you mislead me like that again, I'll flood you with viruses," Asagi shot him an annoyed glance and casually opened the unfamiliar email.
The sender was MAR Company—a globally top-tier corporation she'd taken commissions from a few times before.
This wasn't a work request, though. It contained just a single line—
'Seeking Interpretation.'
"Oh? A decryption? Interesting." Asagi's lips curled into a pleased smile, her Mystic Eyes gleaming with a brilliant blue light. "Mogwai, this link is safe, right?"
"It's just a plain file."
"OK."
The next moment, the screen displayed various rows of strange, unidentifiable text.
An intimidatingly complex linguistic system, flaw-ridden logical arrays—different from any known human language that had ever existed on Earth, yet not magical incantations or curses either.
"This is…"
Mogwai murmured softly, narrowing his eyes.
"You know what it is?"
"Yeah, I know." Mogwai nodded, recognizing it. "Don't worry, it's not dangerous. No viruses, and it won't make you play chess and send you to another world."
"Then don't tell me what it is just yet." Asagi let out a soft breath as her curiosity ignited. "I'm going to solve it myself."
The keyboard adorned with Neco-Arc's image instantly emitted crisp clicks as she chose her most familiar method to decipher the puzzle.
Tap-tap-tap.
Amid the continuous clacking, the bizarre text began to unravel, and translated words appeared on the screen.
"…Nalakuvera?"
Gazing at the word that surfaced on the monitor, Asagi muttered under her breath. "Feels like I've stepped into trouble again."
"Already intercepted the return transmission data." Mogwai chuckled beside her.
It seemed this puzzle was designed to send back data once solved.
Was this a screening process? No solving, no next step or something?
Calmly, Asagi opened her phone and pulled up Natsuki Minamiya's contact window.
Better report anything strange—wouldn't want a repeat of last time.
But just as she was about to send the message—
Beep-beep.
A new email arrived.
"They're quick." Asagi sent the message first, then opened the email.
Her eyes widened.
'Please provide your address information so we may deliver the gift for solving the puzzle,' the email stated.
"…Do they think I'm an idiot?"
"Bwahahahahaha!"
Amid Mogwai's uproarious laughter, Asagi angrily filled in her address in the reply and then—
Dialed Natsuki Minamiya's number.
"Natsuki-chan, are you home?"
--+--
"The 'Cyber Empress' replied?" A fierce-looking old man slowly emerged from the shadows, his authoritative eyes fixed on the screen ahead.
An intimidating aura, paired with the large scar on his face, hinted at a tumultuous life.
"Good." The old man gave a slight nod, the muscles across his body bulging prominently.
Thick fur manifested across his skin, his form gradually swelling. In moments, a dark-furred beastman stood in his place.
"Prepare to move out." He slowly lifted his gaze toward the pitch-black night sky.
"The final step. Once we obtain the Nalakuvera control codes, the Black Death Emperor Front will achieve—"
"—Failure."
At the entrance to the top floor of a luxury apartment complex, Natsuki Minamiya sat on a chair, propping her cheek on one hand.
Her blue eyes coldly observed the beastman tightly bound in chains before her as her cherry lips parted.
"Your few remaining comrades have already been captured. You've failed, Gardos."
Behind her, Asagi Aiba stood with arms crossed, letting out a disdainful huff.
Such is the advantage of wisdom.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.