Chapter 460

Chapter 460
## Chapter 460: Information War (1)

The server room throbbed and vibrated as the densely packed hardware generated a deafening roar and intense, stifling heat.

These specialized components had been retrofitted using magitech engineering, allowing them to operate with the properties of mystical relics even while deployed on Earth.

‘Damn it, what is going on here…!’

Yet, despite pushing these rare and highly coveted assets to their absolute thresholds, the situation showed no signs of turning around.

Hesperon, resting inside a pod woven with countless cables while outfitted in his Titan Suit, twisted his face in frustration.

‘How can they possibly match this level of computational throughput?’

The presence dominating the cybernetic front right now, Machine Eye: Kallikas, was far from a standard program.

It was completely justifiable to claim it occupied a totally separate tier from its previous state as a basic auxiliary intelligence embedded within a synthetic eye.

An ethereal digital entity that had bound itself to him via the Chains of the Oath, developing in tandem with his own progress and adapting dynamically on the fly.

This ally had never once failed to deliver victory in their past endeavors.

Furthermore, backed by the powerhouse of a Titan vessel’s power reactor, its capabilities were even more terrifying.

Yet at this very moment…

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION Intrusion attempt blocked. Hostile retaliation incoming. Countermeasure effective. Total system degradation surpasses 10%. Initiating urgent restorative protocols.

Infiltration telemetry intercepted by

The only saving grace was that they weren’t being completely pulverized, though that provided little solace under the circumstances.

As the clock ticked forward, the scales were tipping toward the adversary who had already established an entrenched position.

‘t retreat now. Must force a passage

Disconnecting the transmission stream at this stage would merely permit the tracker to follow the digital footprints and locate his hideout shortly.

Revealing his precise coordinates had to be prevented at any price.

A single bombardment matching the scale of the past strike in Southeast Asia would obliterate this entire facility into dust in mere moments.

He activated every hidden node he had covertly compromised up to this point, launching a ferocious offensive.

However, the opposition was mirroring his tactics exactly.

In fact, in a direct war of attrition like this, his operations were at a severe disadvantage.

‘Ugh, the sheer volume they are throwing at us is ridiculous. Exactly how long have they been organizing this attack…?’

A single syndicate stood out as capable of executing a maneuver on this immense scale.

‘Reverse Heaven Society.’

And as if confirming his suspicions perfectly…

-Hello~?

An audio file slipped through the torrential stream of data and triggered automatically.

The voice was instantly recognizable, carrying a bizarre, unnerving rhythm that resonated deeply from just a single greeting.

He required no deep thought to identify the speaker.

‘So you managed to survive. Making moves once more, I see.’

The Doctor—a premier director of the Reverse Heaven Society who was supposed to have been eliminated by Heinz 2nd back in Romania.

He was projecting his presence directly out of the cyberspace landscape.

-My, my, how marvelous! I never envisioned you advancing this deep into our systems. Outstanding work!

The sound of applause punctuated the casual, mocking tone, conveying an impression of genuine amusement—which only served to infuriate him further.

‘We are fighting for our lives over here, and you are treating it like a game.’

Hesperon grimaced, his brow tightening into deep lines.

Even though Machine Eye: Kallikas had achieved greater performance thresholds, a minor drawback emerged: the harder he utilized its capabilities—now that their existences were intertwined—the heavier the mental strain became.

‘Go ahead and stay arrogant, see if I care.’

He chose to withhold any verbal response.

a minor vulnerability could tighten the trap an k.

Even so, he could harvest critical data from the adversary’s ramblings, so he remained quiet and simply listened.

-Oh? Fascinating! Could this be… the birthplace of Kallikas? You have discovered an extraordinary realm! I harbor a great appreciation for their engineering as well. Such a pity that so few returners manage to journey back from that place!

A sudden dread washed over him upon hearing those words.

They were not interacting face-to-face.

They were simply wrestling back and forth for dominance across a networked grid.

‘And through nothing but this digital clash, he identified our technological framework?’

In contrast to his own position of merely channeling the power of the Machine Eye, this individual operated on an entirely superior intellectual tier.

It was the true capability expected of a high-ranking executive.

-Ah, there is so much I wish to discuss, but we are out of time! Perhaps we can converse over the finer points when we meet in the flesh? Hahahaha!

Those declarations were far from empty bluffs.

The instant the recording concluded, the offensive strategy pivoted entirely.

‘Hold on, this is…!’

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION Aborting offensive routines. Reallocating total processing power to warding off attacks. Defensive line breached. Lost control over specific sector networks. System degradation surpasses 30%. High-threat covert assault detected via unpatched exploit. Sacrificing secondary data arrays to restrict overall structural harm.

Alert diagnostics far more severe than anything prior materialized sequentially.

The opponent’s computational power hadn’t experienced a sudden surge, nor did they employ any exotic maneuvers.

Only a single factor had shifted.

‘…Every single strategy we deploy is getting perfectly anticipated. Have they completely mapped our behavioral data?’

Cybernetic combat revolved around searching through boundless streams of signals to exploit an adversary’s structural flaws.

With every single countermeasure landing flawlessly, it was completely logical that they were falling behind.

“Habis! Give me an assessment!”

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION Network control dropping precipitously. Structural degradation surpasses 40%. Shifting to unpredictable routing structures to buy extra time, but under current projections, all connection pipelines will be severed within 5 minutes 51 seconds.

“…Any viable strategies? We cannot simply stand here and accept defeat, can we?”

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION Extrapolating structural vulnerabilities identified from ongoing assaults and deploying adaptive real-time defenses.

If they managed to pull through this event, the identical strategy would fail to penetrate their systems a second time.

However, that context offered no immediate remedy for their current plight.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION Confirmation received nd withdraw before connection lines are completely terminated. That implied abandoning this installation entirely.

In truth, he could accept that loss if absolutely necessary—the hardware was painful to surrender, but replaceable.

Yet, the stakes of this confrontation extended far beyond mere equipment, didn’t they?

‘The Doctor intervened precisely when we began probing that operation within the Pantheon. That indicates the Reverse Heaven Society is closely monitoring the situation.’

Withdrawing at this juncture would permanently eliminate any prospect of unearthing the underlying reality.

Every clue currently in their possession would evaporate, and the targets they had managed to corner would retreat deeper into the concealment of the dark.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION 4 minutes remaining. Preventing that outcome was paramount.

He could not tolerate their victory, and furthermore, Heinrich—who had recently embedded himself within the Pantheon—relied on this specific information stream to maneuver without restriction.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION 3 minutes remaining. The countdown progressed callously while he scanned his options for an escape route.

Yet no sudden saving grace was bound to materialize out of thin air.

What alternative strategies could be deployed against a foe hidden somewhere within the vast web, outside of standard operating procedures?

‘If power failed at their facility, perhaps. No, they would certainly possess emergency backups. Or perhaps an explosion rendering their grid useless…’

He could do little more than vent these empty frustrations.

Naturally, speaking the words would not manifest the reality…

‘Hold on. A hex?’

Instantly, an idea sparked within his thoughts.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION 2 minutes remaining. A malevolent hex.

Projecting ruin or misfortune upon an adversary.

‘And I possess the ideal catalyst. A devastating hex spawned from the demise of a Demon King.’

Hesperon inhaled deeply and shifted his attention to his right arm.

In all honesty, hexes were not forces to be thrown around carelessly.

Owing to attributes such as [Curse Predator], he remained immune to their ill effects, but they remained volatile instruments—double-edged hazards that could easily richochet back if managed poorly.

If the victim was within proximity, it might work, but directed at an unidentified adversary located across the globe?

You would typically require a biological sample, personal items, or astrological alignments to serve as a conduit.

A mechanism to lock onto a distinct target.’

The Machine Eye explicitly tracked the adversary across the digital expanse.

They were not occupying the same room, yet the enemy was undeniably on the receiving end of the connection.

‘Under normal circumstances, this would be unfeasible. However…’

Both the Machine Eye in his right socket and the hex embedded in his right arm were intertwined via the Chains of the Oath」.

There was no reason they shouldn’t produce a powerful synergy.

“The digital matrix… combined with hexes. An absolute match right here.”

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION 1 minute remaining. There was no room for delay.

He extended his right arm outward.

Clack-clank—

The Titan mechanical elements housing his right arm decoupled and vanished into thin air.

Exposed underneath were pale dressings inscribed with intricate, dark glyphs.

And…

“I never anticipated deploying this asset in such a manner. Regardless, this marks the initial deployment.”

Metallic bands positioned at his wrist, elbow, and shoulder radiated a freezing glow beneath the ambient illumination.

A newly developed restriction matrix forged by combining the authority of multiple entities for absolute restraint.

Snap!

Responding to his concentration, the junctions split apart like undone locks, the constraints disengaging simultaneously.

As the dressings uncoiled like banners caught in a gale, a dark, gargantuan presence wound its way out from his right limb.

Hiss—

The intense warmth of the enclosure plummeted immediately.

It felt as though thermal energy itself had been vacuumed away—leaving the space thoroughly cold.

‘It hasn’t been accumulating energy for long, yet its base capabilities are immense regardless.’

Gathering and discharging.

The operational mechanic of the modified restriction matrix.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION 30 seconds remaining. “Let’s begin.”

Hesperon clamped his right fingers around a strand of network cabling, dark essence swirling around his hand, and exhaled completely.

Inverting his intent into raw malice, he formed his desire.

In that exact instant.

Crackle-snap!

An electrical discharge erupted from his palm, and a thread of the hex filtered directly into the digital landscape.

000.000 Hum—

“Oh? An answer at long last?”

The Doctor, his upper limbs directly integrated into the computational arrays, widened his gaze with genuine curiosity.

His limbs—surgically partitioned to reveal their interior mechanics—retained nothing of human anatomy.

He had completely re-engineered them during his extensive physical adaptations.

Routing the incoming signals directly to his visual processors, he let out a mocking sneer.

This was evidently no standard transmission.

“A malicious script? How thoroughly basic! Even when backed into a corner, this performance is underwhelming!”

Deus Ex Machina」

Superficial ploys of this nature could not disrupt the self-proclaimed lord of technology—himself.

He initiated firewall routines, isolated the script, and accessed the underlying message.

Setting the script aside, he harbored a curiosity regarding what this entertaining adversary wished to convey.

“Huh? What is the meaning of this?”

The data payload contained nothing remarkable.

…Or to be more precise, it was entirely vacant.

It was merely a ridiculous chain message structured like ‘This dispatch originated in England…’ paired with an image of a dark-skinned youth grinning while pulling a card out of a pile.

While the Doctor stared in complete bewilderment…

The hidden factor had already integrated into his system.

Pop—

A discharge fractured from his integrated limb.

A direct pathway had been formed between their locations.

The spam-styled framework was nothing more than a superficial necessity—a foundational ritual requirement.

The hex surged to life.

Chime—! Alert-alert!

Ring-ring-ring!

Wail—wail—!

Emergency systems erupted into absolute bedlam.

Metrics across the entire server array went completely erratic.

“Argh, a hex? A hex transmitted over a digital network?!”

Possessing extensive expertise in both mechanical engineering and supernatural talents, diagnosing the origin of the disturbance was simple—but formulating a defense at this stage was completely impossible.

The sheer magnitude of the hex was extraordinary.

His personal laboratory—befitting the pioneer of synthesized sorcery—functioned as an absolute stronghold, yet the malicious force dissolved every defensive line to impact his physical body directly.

“…Heh.”

Snap!

Crash—!

Klaxons cried out amidst electrical fires and structural failures.

“…Ha, ahahaha! Masterful! I never conceived of an implementation of this nature! Splendid. Entirely captivating!”

Despite the surrounding destruction, the Doctor simply bellowed with laughter.

The exhilaration of uncovering unprecedented concepts entirely eclipsed any sense of resentment.

Thud!

After maintaining his laughter for a period, he collapsed flat against the console.

As thick, foul smoke billowed from his burning flesh, he feebly reached toward his side, extracting a component while maintaining a cunning smirk.

“…Heh, I took a heavy hit from that maneuver. Fortunate that I didn’t terminate the connection prematurely. I nearly overlooked this masterpiece.”

A blackened magitech processor, venting dark exhaust, disintegrated into useless cinders.

“Even so…”

His awareness dissolved into darkness.

Projecting a hex through the medium of cyberspace was an incredibly arduous task.

Hesperon dedicated his absolute concentration to governing the Chains of the Oath and the [Machine Eye: Kallikas」.

Guaranteeing that the malicious energy did not deviate from its path and connected cleanly with the intended target.

As he remained entirely immersed in the effort, oblivious to all else, a sudden notification snapped him back to reality.

STATUS Entity fulfills developmental parameters and evolves. Unlocked Unique Capability [Deus Ex Machina].”…What?”

Abandoning his concentration, he fixed his gaze upon the glowing characters.

That designation, for some reason, sounded incredibly impressive.