IV. The Misdirection Maneuver
Alex had spent the afternoon designing the plan with the precision of a clockmaker. It wasn't about hacking, but about manipulating the environment and the people who guarded it. The key was Ben.
Ben was Alex's antithesis. A brilliant programmer, but socially inept, whose only validation came from his strict adherence to rules and his technical superiority over the university "rabble." To Ben, Alex was a charismatic parasite, and that aversion was the first ingredient of the trap.
🌙 The Preparation
At 11:30 PM, the campus was quiet. Alex was in a cubicle in the main library. First, he sent a text message to Maya.
ALEX:Minor technical emergency. Need you to run a traceroute ping to the Sigma-9B subnet router from your terminal. Use port 4480. Leave the result on the screen. It's the base of an exploit I need to test.
Maya immediately responded with a single thumbs-up emoji. She didn't ask questions, she didn't hesitate. Alex had delivered, and now she was delivering. She was sitting less than a hundred meters away, in the library's data center, the farthest point from the Denton Building.
Alex headed to the Engineering Building, Ben's sanctuary. He knew that at this hour, Ben would be patrolling or, more likely, studying in the small office adjacent to Denton's server room, watching the data flow on his multiple monitors.
🚶♂️ Execution of Misdirection (Lvl 1)
Alex found Ben exactly where he expected him: typing furiously, surrounded by network diagrams. Ben looked up, his expression, a mixture of exasperation and disdain, hardening as he saw Alex.
—What do you want, Alex? If it's for me to help you format an essay, the answer is no. I'm monitoring kernel integrity in real-time; I can't waste time.
Alex activated Charisma (Level 12) to appear genuinely concerned, but he balanced it with a touch of precise technical jargon, drawn from his Intelligence (Level 4).
—This isn't an essay, Ben. This is the backbone network and you have a problem. A problem that only you can solve before it becomes a catastrophic violation of Protocol 7B.
Protocol 7B. Alex pulled it from the System's memory cache: it was an archaic academic rule about manipulating network packet headers for testing purposes, something no one remembered, but the mention of which sounded serious.
Ben blinked, the word "violation" cutting through his attention like a laser.
—What are you talking about? Everything is nominal.
—Maya—Alex dropped the name with the tone of someone reporting a fire—She's in the library, attempting an emergency hack to isolate the error that Jess's file cluster left in the system. Remember that one? The temporary fix she implemented, apparently, is creating an unstable output buffer in the Sigma-9B router.
Ben scoffed, but his fingers paused on the keyboard.
—Unstable? That's absurd. If Maya implemented it, it must be functional.
This was where Alex injected the Misdirection (Lvl 1), diverting the focus from the server room (his real target) to an "imminent technical disaster" created by the only person Ben considered his peer.
—Functional, yes, but not clean. She's attempting a dirty fix. Look, she just sent me a message—Alex showed his phone, where Maya's reply was visible, the thumbs-up confirming the action—She's going to try to directly manipulate the router's ARP tables on Sigma to force the route, and she's using port 4480. If she does that, she's going to violate Protocol 7B for unauthorized port usage, and what's worse, it could cause a data spillover into the main firewall. She calls it a "tactical patch," but you and I know there's no such thing.
Alex lowered his voice, making the most direct eye contact his Charisma allowed.
—She needs you to go. Now. Not me. She told me she needs the most meticulous person with protocols. You have to go to the library, look over her shoulder, and make sure that when she hits Enter, she doesn't send the main network into a deadlock. If you don't go, and she bypasses 7B, who will be responsible as the on-duty T.A.?
The mention of his position and the possibility of a protocol violation were the final blow. Ben stood up rigidly. The idea that Maya, the untouchable, was about to make a dirty technical mistake, which he could correct or prevent, was an irresistible lure for his ego.
—That idiot! I knew that temporary solution was a sloppy job. Fine. I'll go. But know this, Alex, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for the integrity of the academic system. Don't move from here, monitor the general activity screens.
—Of course, Ben. I'll cover the rear. Go. Quick—Alex said, suppressing a smile.
Ben grabbed his jacket and rushed out of the cubicle with the nervous haste of a soldier running to defuse a bomb. His mind was fixed on Protocol 7B and on proving that his knowledge of the rules was superior to Maya's anarchic genius. The Denton Building and the access key log had become completely invisible to him.
🔑 The Access (60 Crucial Seconds)
Alex waited exactly five seconds after hearing the entrance door close before moving. Cunning (Level 5) told him that Ben was predictably fast, but the distance to the library guaranteed his window.
He slipped over to Ben's small desk, where, tethered to a cable, was the access card scanner used to log entries into the Server Room.
Alex took out a small device that looked like a USB keychain: an RFID Reader/Emulator he had acquired through campus contacts (even before getting the System, he had carved out a reputation as the guy who could get anything).
Ben's access log was open on one of the screens. Alex clicked on the access record for Professor Denton from that morning.
On the desk, next to the scanner, was Ben's access card, mandatory for all T.A.s. Alex placed his device over the scanner.
Cloning Ben: First, he swiped Ben's card over the device. A silent beep, a green light. He now had the T.A.'s permissions.
Identifying the Target: Alex needed the high-level access permissions of the faculty. He used Ben's interface to identify the card code of Dr. Evelyn Thorne, a senior researcher whose card had logged her entry to the room less than an hour ago. Her access level was the highest.
Emulation and Duplication: Alex opened his wallet and slid a blank plastic card (similar to a gift card, but with a virgin RFID chip) into his device. Then, he quickly typed Dr. Thorne's card code into the emulation field of Ben's scanner, and forced that code's output onto the blank device. The process, which usually took minutes, was completed in less than 45 seconds.
[Hidden Achievement: Phantom Access]You have used the existing security infrastructure to clone high-level credentials without leaving a digital trace of the cloning.
Reward:+500 EXP
Alex removed the blank card, now a functional replica of Dr. Thorne's key. He put away his device and sat down in Ben's chair, looking at the general activity monitors, exactly where Ben had asked him to stay. His breathing was normal. His heart was beating with the calmness of someone who had just finished a crossword puzzle.
Right at that moment, Ben's phone vibrated. It was a text message.
MAYA:Everything under control. The instability was a false positive. Why did the on-duty T.A. just barge in here, yelling something about Protocol 7B?
Alex smiled. The game was over. Ben would be back in about ten minutes, frustrated, but Alex wouldn't be there.
He stood up. He left Ben's workspace untouched.
He had obtained his key, not through a code exploit, but through a human exploit. The path to the System's knowledge was now clear.
🚪 Next Step
Alex left the Denton Building, Dr. Thorne's card cold and secure in his pocket. Tomorrow night, he would access Dr. Thorne's logs.
Alex must now decide where to focus the information he seeks: the exact moment of his own System 'activation', or what other secret the Denton server hides?