"What are you doing?"
In the twilight of a small border town in Country N, Estelle tiptoed behind Cyrus to peek at the documents in his hands: "Anti-cryptanalysis logic... Why did you write this?"
Hearing her voice, Cyrus set aside his work.
"It was a long time ago. When I first encountered hacking techniques, I thought it was fun and casually wrote a system." He replied. "Today, while sorting through old books, I found it. It's barely functional, but the basic logic isn't rigorous enough, so I couldn't resist trying to improve it."
"You were suffering from a headache last night. How are you feeling now?" Squatting beside a low table, Estelle cupped her cheek and looked up: "It's not an urgent matter. Can't you wait until you're better before making improvement?"
"I'm much better now, don't worry." Cyrus lowed his eyeslid: "Now that there are signs of a ceasefire in negotiations between countries, we need to return to Electronic City and establish our tech company. Secure storage is the most important thing. I'm afraid we won't have enough time, so as long as I feel well, I want to do as much as I can."
Estelle didn't say anything. After a moment, Cyrus relented and stood up, offering her the stool to sit on.
"Alright, I'll go rest."He picked up the document and handed it to her: "Here's the anti-cryptanalysis logic. In 30 minutes, see if you can find what's wrong with it."
"What!? I've never studied this..."
She had hoisted herself by her own petard and, unable to resist, reluctantly began to examine the cryptic code. Unexpectedly, she did notice something amiss and pointed at the code segment intuitively. Cyrus was surprised, and he paused: "Right here."
Even she was taken aback. When she looked up, Cyrus gazed at her with eyes as gentle as a lake: "You're amazing."
Flattered by his praise, she tilted her head smugly and smiled: "I'm a genius, right?"
Cyrus chuckled in agreement. Estelle asked: "So how do you plan to fix this issue?"
He bent down and picked up a pen, writing line after line on the manuscript paper: "Like this."
What kind of genius could she be? In front of him, even the most outstanding people seemed to fall into mediocrity.
Estelle read his program, marveling at its elegance and perfection, like a masterpiece of art. She held her breath, unable to imagine it ever being cracked—just as she never imagined that one day, this brilliant engineer would die at the age of 26.
The Eagla storage device stood silently in the darkness. Estelle raised her eyes, putting away her final fleeting memory.
The microcomputer successfully established an information channel, and the virus elements invaded en masse. Estelle operated the screen calmly and resolutely, breaking into the data sea of the Eagla system.
29, 28, 27……
The red minute digits counted down slowly. Estelle worked at top speed to crack the Eagla's defenses. Layer upon layer, with no end in sight, she gritted her teeth and pushed forward, inching closer to the core of the Eagla.
She was exhausted.
Her gaze was mechanically focused, and her fingers were tense to the point of cramping. Her physical and mental energy were being drained, but she forced herself to concentrate. Fortunately, there was still ample time. By the 17th minute, she finally broke through the most complex defense layer. As she caught her breath, the densely packed code suddenly vanished. There was a moment of silence. Estelle stared at the screen in surprise as silver letters gathered from the corners, floating into her view like bubbles.
—What's your name?
What does that mean?
Her heart pounded, and her wrist trembled from exhaustion. After a long while, Estelle reached out to touch the keyboard and typed in the reply box: E.G.
In that instant, countless lines of code crumbled before her eyes. On the Eagla system's interface, dark gray wings spread, as if giving her a gentle virtual embrace.
--How are you, E.G. ?
Virus elements continued to infiltrate, and the Eagla remained silent, allowing her to steal its core data.
The black iron box was cold and silent. Estelle reached out in a daze to gently touch its casing. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her long-restrained emotions collapsed. She sobbed uncontrollably and slumped down.
