《Hidden Magics》 Prologue "Haah... Haah... Haah... Damn it!," She cursed as she ran. She neither knew where she was going nor where she should go. What she knew was that she needed to run. To run away from that... from that WRETCHED place. She couldn''t go back now. She shouldn''t. "Alpha! stop running!, " A commanding voice resounded throughout the whole forest. The barking of dogs accompanied the voice. She cursed again. She cursed the professors that injected all those... ''things'' in her with their scientific apparatuses. She cursed the Trainers that made her go through HELL. She cursed the Director that had made all of this happened. She cursed those stinking dogs that mauled Delta and Gamma. She cursed herself for letting them. "I said. STOP. FUCKING. RUNNING!," The commanding voice resounded again, a gunshot echoed through the woods. The flash of gunpowder illuminated the area. The smell of powder and the lingering sense of fear, along with the lead bullet, dug into her very sense of being. But she didn''t stop. She couldn''t stop. Not now.Stolen novel; please report. The muzzle flash earlier illuminated the area where the pursuers were. There were a dozen of them, along were half as many hunting dogs. ''Shit, '' She cursed again, ''Why are the elites here?! They should be at the Capital!'' Blood trickled down her chest, soaking her clothes and filling the air around her with a metallic smell. She cursed for the nth time again. ''It''ll heal,'' she said to herself, ''it''ll heal.'' "Release the hounds!" The commander said. The hunting dogs let low growls as they were unchained. They ran after Alpha as fast as their four legs could go. The hounds ran like the mad beasts they are, chasing after Alpha with grim delight. She ran and ran, and ran and ran and ran As far as her legs could take her. But the dogs were gaining on her. Finally, a loose root on the ground led her to lose her footing. The last thing she saw were the hounds, pouncing towards her. Alice 1: A Hidden Storm HAAAAP¡­ Alpha gasped and bolted upright on her bed. ¡®No¡­, ¡® She thought, ¡®It¡¯s Alice now. Not¡­ not that damn codename.¡¯ Alice clutched her shirt, her fists trembling and her breaths ragged. Her back was full of cold sweat. ¡®It¡¯s that dream again, ¡® She clicked her tongue as she begrudgingly got out of her bed and checked her smartwatch. It was still just four AM, and she has a whole day ahead of her¡ªshe had to go to library as soon as possible and go to some ¡®places¡¯ to ¡®sightsee¡¯. The nightmare stole her sleep again. And she can¡¯t afford to sleep again, cause maybe, juuuust maybe, she might dream of that horrifying scene again. She strapped the watch back into her wrists. The lights of her apartment were turned on as soon as she manipulated it a bit. Her lodging was a normal apartment just enough or her. A simple single-bedroom apartment with dining room and toilet. Alice walked towards the refrigerator just outside her room with a sour face. The dreams have haunted her for months now, the bags under her eye were proof of that. It wasn¡¯t usually this disconcerting, but they were normally disturbing in the least. ¡®Haaaaaa...,¡¯ She sighed, right after she finished chugging a glass of water with trembling hands. She clicked her tongue again. It¡¯s never easy after these kinds if dreams. With both heavy steps and a heavy heart, she walked towards the bathroom. After some steps, she went inside the toilet and turned the light on. ¡°Why do I feel so weak¡­,¡± Alice murmured to herself. A corner of her lips rose slightly to form a wry smile. Her steps led to the front of a smudgy mirror. She untied her black hair from a ponytail, it fell to her shoulders as she studied her face. The bags in her eyes were so heavy that it could already be called luggage. Her purple eyes offered a mysterious aura but it is now dull, it didn¡¯t have the sharpness it usually had. Tears built up in her eyes as she saw her pitiful state. But she didn¡¯t release them, that would just be showing another sign of weakness. Right as she thought about that, the watch on her wrist vibrated and the screen blinked as a notification came. She checked what the notification was about and formed a sly grin. She wiped away the tears that were building up. As she looked back towards the mirror, she noticed that a glint of mischief was back in her eyes. ¡®The professors? The Hounds? The Elites? What about them? I¡¯ll just kill them all, ¡®she grinned.
In a great distance away, a storm is brewing. The Elders have arranged a meeting and every magician felt the heavy fluctuations in the Ether. They have agreed to meet in the ¡®Meeting Place¡¯. A place designed to contain and dampen the powers of all of these Elders so as to not create another magical disaster. The amount of power that the seven Elders had were almost creating a literal storm in their meeting place. An intense aura of awe, along with lung-crushing intimidation splashed across the Guards protecting the place.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The ¡®Meeting Place¡¯ is a top of line building from the most skilled magical architects. It was a dome shaped area with a circle in the center and seven podiums around it, each with different colors and each for different Elders. ¡°Ignis,¡± A white robed Elder called a red robed one, ¡°Why have you gathered us all? This has to be something of great importance to call upon all of the Elders.¡± The other Elders visibly nodded to their question. ¡°Do not worry, Michael, ¡° Ignis looked towards the white robed Elder, Michael, and said haughtily ¡±I do have something of great importance to say.¡± ¡°Then state your business. Do not beat around the bush, Ignis. ¡° Another Elder, a black robed one this time, reprimanded Ignis, ¡°We all have our own matters to direct our attention towards. ¡°Then so be it, ¡°Ignis¡¯ face visibly darkened and his voice became rather grave, ¡°I bring grave news to all of you. Science, as we all know it, is rapidly progressing, slowly but steadily reaching singularity.¡± Ignis paused and looked towards the other Elders, they merely nodded and Ignis continued. ¡°We do not necessarily object to this, rather, their discoveries might even help us with our own goals. Science has given us better understanding of the world and, though indirectly, of magic. However, the government and especially Helios Tech. has been found colluding with powerful mages of unknown origins.¡± At this moment, everyone in the room was surprised, but not by much. All of them had already predicted that this would happen, in fact, it had already happened once some 10 years ago. They also knew what Helios Tech. was, it was the world¡¯s leading manufacturer of Smartwatches and Nano processors. Or at least that¡¯s the cover story. ¡°They have created a ¡®Mana Inhibitory Field¡¯ as they call it, ¡° Ignis continued, ¡°It disrupts the flow of mana while allowing Ether to pass through normally. My insider had reported that it was still at the creation procedure but we can¡¯t rule out the possibility of being double crossed or some planted information.¡± ¡°They have been experimenting with humans and mages alike. If this project or partnership is continued, the incident of 10 years ago can and will repeat itself. With technology very much ahead than 10 years ago, more mages and civilians will be affected by this. We need to stop this at all costs. If they set up MIF¡¯s everywhere, we would essentially be weak and useless. Perfect for capturing and allowing experiments to be done to us, which will further advance their goals, repeating a vicious cycle.¡± The Elders were now deep in their own thoughts, thinking of strategies and solutions to their new predicament. A blue robed elder shifted in her place, the robe wasn¡¯t enough to hide her alluring figure. ¡°When did you get this information? Can your informant help us halt or slow down the development of this device?¡± She asked. ¡°Undine, my informant can at most delay the development, but it will most likely be at the cost of their life.¡± Ignis said with a solemn tone, ¡°As for your other question, I got it an hour before I arranged this whole meeting.¡± Undine nodded her head, satisfied at his answer. Ignis looked around to see if anyone had any more questions. Seeing there was no other questions, Ignis clapped his hands, ¡°Everyone," He said, "Think this through with utmost care and importance. We will hold another meeting here after five days.¡± They nodded and each stepped out of their podiums and into the exits, still locked in thought. Alice 2: Hidden Data Beeep Beeep Beeep, her smart watch rang as the clock struck 5:30 A.M. Alice took an hour preparing both her things and herself. She had the day ahead of her and she couldn¡¯t miss out on this opportunity that has presented itself. She opened her gray bag and put her things inside, ¡®I¡¯ll have to go the library first, I need some info.¡¯ she thought as she placed a pink hoodie, a bottle of water, a ¡®Quantum Physics¡¯ book, a molecular knife, some rope and a chocolate bar. After she finished putting the things in her, she noticed that she had put something weird inside. She moved her hand towards the knife and smiled at it. And then removed the book just under it. ¡®Why would I need a book? I¡¯m going to the library for pete¡¯s sake.¡¯ She chuckled to herself as she placed the sheathed knife back into her bag. ¡®You¡¯d never know when you¡¯d need to stab someone in the gut, would you?¡¯ A voice in her head suggested. ¡®Gosh, She need to have some friends, I¡¯ve been talking to myself for quite a while now.¡¯ She chuckled again. ¡®...It¡¯s not such a bad thing now, is it?¡¯ Her head replied. ¡®Not at all, Me.¡¯ She grinned to herself as she slung the bag to her bag. ¡®I¡¯m getting insane, she thought.¡¯ Not that she¡¯s complaining though. She likes the company in her head. It makes everything less lonely. Alice walked out of her unit and strode through the halls of the condominium. On the ground was a red carpet lined with gold on the edges. Not real gold of course, but gold-ish fabric nonetheless. The whole condo was rectangular, so one would only need to walk in straight line to get to the elevator. Alice lived in the 15th floor of the 20 story condo, but it would only take 30 seconds or so to reach the bottom. She walked towards the elevator and went inside. The elevator was half-outside of the building so she could see the colossal skyscrapers that cover the city skyline. Alice thought of the hundreds of workers and clerks enslaved by their work inside those sky scrapers. As soon as she finished the thought, the elevator stopped on the 4th floor and a man came in. ¡®Speak of the devil!¡¯ She mused. It was a business man. ¡®One of those supposedly working in the enslavement cam--the sky scrapers.¡¯ ¡®... You almost said enslavement camps, didn¡¯t you?¡¯ Her inner thoughts said sharply. ¡®I dunno what you¡¯re talking about, Me.¡¯ She relied back innocently as she stared at the businessman. The man was standing in front of her, almost oblivious to her presence in the elevator. Black shoes, black coat, black hair, blue tie, blue eyes. ¡®Typical.¡¯ she thought. This man probably works til late 8 pm just to provide sustenance for his family. He¡¯ll then go back home to taste his wife¡¯s cooking and maybe play with the kids, then watch some news in a Holo-screen, then sleep. Rise and Repeat. ¡®What a pity¡­¡¯ She thought. ¡®Do you really feel that way?¡¯ She could imagine her inner self with her hands crossed and a smug face. Alice grinned. ¡®Nope.¡¯ As soon as they reached the ground floor, a cacophony assaulted Alice¡¯s ears. She hurried to the exits. The first time she checked in here, she was quite surprised that it was a manual check in done by humans. Usually companies would use A.I¡¯s or make it completely automatic. It seemed that this one preferred to use humans. ¡®There¡¯s no one better to rant to than humans after all.¡¯ Her inner thoughts said. ¡®True that.¡¯ Walking out of the complex, Alice treaded through the sidewalks of the city. Trees were lined up in a small island, with genetically engineered bio-luminescence; they actually serve as lamp posts during the night. Now that it was almost sunrise, however, the light on them were dim. ¡®Like in you.¡¯ The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡®Oh shut up.¡¯ After some twists, turns, crossings and the occasional bumping by the shoulder with other pedestrians, Alice finally reached the library. She climbed up the steps and walked past the marble pillars that support the ceiling. Inside was not what you would expect from normal libraries, bookshelves are replaced with holo-screens and books replaced by data. These types of libraries, which were incidentally called E-Libraries, were fairly uncommon. She walked over to one holo-screen at the far right of the room and sat at the chair in front of it. After turning it on, it flashed a sky blue screen containing different apps and programs. Holo-screen and phones, plus anything holographic actually, is created with a base. That base serves as the projector, the power source and the control center. Hard light is projected using modified crystals and components that condensed the photons enough to behave like a solid. They use differing magnetic fields or something similar to make the light stay in only one place, while differing frequencies and intensities of photons can modify the colors and brightness respectively. ¡®How the hell do you know all of this?¡¯ Her head asked, which she decides to call Bunny for now. She likes bunnies. ¡®Researching, of course.¡¯ She replied nonchalantly. ¡®Yeah, ¡®research¡¯ more like hacking.¡¯ Bunny said. ¡®Bah. Potato-Potahto. Most people would be surprised about the amount of data stored in the internet, just waiting to be dug out.¡¯ ¡®Freaking Nerd.¡¯ ¡®What the hell? You¡¯re quite nasty today. And that just means you¡¯re a nerd too.¡¯ ¡®...Fair enough.¡¯ Alice shook her head and opened an app in the computer (She¡¯ll just call it that) and started typing. With those magnetic fields and other gizmos she mentioned earlier, the computers didn¡¯t need physical keyboards and mouses, you can hack and crack quite a lot of things without being exposed due to the built-in anonymity and privacy of the computers. Well that¡¯s if you can disable the multitude of alarms and virus detectors crammed in it. ¡®We¡¯re gonna get caught aren¡¯t we?¡¯ ¡®Nah. I disabled the alarm systems¡­ I think¡­ probably¡­ maybe¡­ it¡¯s my first time doing it here¡­¡¯ ¡®Yup, we¡¯re screwed.¡¯ ¡®Oh, don¡¯t be such a pessimist.¡¯ ¡®I¡¯m your sound of reason. That¡¯s my job, along with realism.¡¯ Haaah. Alice sighed and doubled checked all the alarm, alert, and virus detection systems. ¡®Happy now?¡¯ ¡®Not really, but better.¡¯ After minutes of getting through firewalls and almost getting caught by random passerby¡¯s, Alice finally got inside Aethon Inc.¡¯s servers. They¡¯re a company that mainly exports silicon and silver. With technology being the forefront of the world, they¡¯re making pretty big bucks. As for her motives in hacking them, there were basically none. She just thought it would be a fun idea. Not a good one of course, but a fun idea nonetheless. As she peered into the servers, all she could find were status reports of their shipments and cargos, nothing unusual or suspicious. ¡®Yet.¡¯ ¡®Yeah. Yet.¡¯ Minutes pass by and still nothing. ¡®This is getting boring pretty quickly¡­ ¡® she thought. With their power, she was hoping for some kind of confidential files or maybe clues about an evil-super-villain-disguised-as-the-president-of-a-huge-organization kind of thing¡­ ¡­¡­¡­. ¡­.. . ¡®Oh! oh! I found it. The holy grail of hacking! A hidden folder named¡­¡­¡­ ¡®Secret¡¯¡­¡¯ ¡®A bit anti-climactic, don¡¯t you think? Look, it¡¯s not even locked! it¡¯s probably just porn or some shit.¡¯ Bunny said haughtily. ¡®Tsk, tsk, tsk! That¡¯s just what they wanted you to think. As they all say, the best way to hide a tree is in the forest. Besides, I¡¯ve already looked through everything; this is the only suspicious folder remaining.¡¯ Alice snapped back all-knowingly. She opened it and was greeted by a myriad of folders. Each named by a number from 1-10000, after trying to open the folder named ¡®1¡¯ there was another wave of folders, now from 1-20000, then She pressed the first folder again and folders came again, now from 1-30000. She could almost feel a vein popping in her head. Haaah. She sighed and leaned back the chair, letting her arms dangle at the sides. ¡®Going through this would take me forever. Why the fuck are there no ¡®Search¡¯ tabs?! Ughh¡­¡¯ ¡®Just copy it in a hard drive.¡¯ Bunny suggested. ¡®Hmm¡­ that¡¯s a good idea. I¡¯ll just look into it back at the apartment.¡¯ After rorming the idea, Alice shuffled through her bag and grabbed a flash drive. She stuck it in a port at the base of the computer and copied the folder, plus some other files She found interesting. 10 minutes and a couple hundred gigabyte worth of data later, she unplugged the drive and packed up. Oh, and she also ensured that no alerts or similar were triggered. ¡®We can¡¯t be tracked now, can we?¡¯ Alice shudder at the thought of what will happen if they somehow get hold of her¡­ ¡®You¡¯re grinning. Menacingly. Clear that off.¡¯ ¡®Oh, haha. Sorry ¡®bout that. ¡® Alice cleared the grin off her face and replaced it with a calm, neutral expression. She slumped the backpack over her right shoulder and proceeded outside of the library. She calmly walked the same path that she treaded before she came. It took 3 hours to hack, search and copy the interesting files on the server, and she¡¯s not even sure if the ¡®secret¡¯ folder is actually worth her time. Well, Alice hopes this becomes an interesting day. ¡®Define ¡®interesting¡¯.¡¯ Bunny asked courteously. ¡®Ha! I¡¯m sure you already know the answer. ¡® Alice continue walking as she conversed with herself in her head. ¡®Yeah. I do.¡¯ Alice 3: Hidden Conspiracies [First Person] We left the library and strolled the plaza just beside it. I say ¡®We¡¯, because¡­ ¡®Because I¡¯m here,¡¯ Bunny said smugly in my head. Well yeah, I can¡¯t deny that. Anyways, I have to go back to my apartment first. I¡¯ve got some digging to do. I held my smart watch up and brought out its holo-screen. After some clicking and scrolling, I finally ordered an Auto-Cab. Auto-Cabs were basically an automatic driving services. You just need to order one online and it will come to you. You¡¯ll pay using your holographic device and then the Cab will automatically drive you to your destination. Around a minute after, a sleek white car rolled up in front of us. It was shaped like a really slim sports car. It was like a rocket. The Cab I ordered was only for single persons, so it has a sleek design. I paid a couple hundred credits on the designated place on the cab. TheAuto-Cabreached myapartment after a minute of exhilarating driving through the streets. Right after entering the room, I opened my desktop computer, plugged the drive and typed away. Walls of text started appearing all throughout the screen and several pop-ups¡­ well, popped up. Focusing on only the most important data, my hands started typing faster. It took me about 5 minutes to search and browse through the ¡®secret¡¯ folder, since there was like 6.e+16 folders in there. How many is 6.e+16 folders? HELLA. And in the end it (¡®just like I said¡¯) turned out to be¡­ some necrophilia¡¯s stash¡­ ¡­¡­ I shivered at the memory of it. ¡®It was¡­ disgusting and unsettling to say the least.¡¯ Let¡¯s¡­ let¡¯s just forget it, alright? ¡®Yeah¡­ yeah¡­ let¡¯s just do that¡­¡¯ Bunny replied. ANYWAY. Let¡¯s clear that out of my mind and continue on with the other files. ¡­¡­ After a bit of tinkering and brain work, I found out that one of the folders that I copied to the drive was restricted and needed identifications and different authorities. Something that I definitelydo nothave. So what do I do? Make the system think I have the requirements. I mean, how hard can it be? I was able to trick my college with fake credentials. ¡®They¡¯re still suspicious about that.¡¯ Meh. they won¡¯t find out. Okay, so let¡¯s start. [10 minutes later]
Systems.operation=restricted+folder_account=Unauthorized. Initiating.warning.protocol In 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Warning.protocol=absentYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Absent¡­ Okay, cool. What¡¯s next on the list? ¡®Firewalls?¡¯ Nah, I¡¯ve brought them down a minute ago. ¡®...Detectors?¡¯ Nope. They were done in along with the firewalls. ¡®¡­Alarms?¡¯ ¡­¡­¡­ ¡­. . ¡­Shit, thealarms!! I need to check their status!
Initiating.alarm.protocol. In 3¡­
Oh, crap¡­ Shit, shit, shit. The protocol is already startiiiiinngggg.
2¡­
Crap. Shit. Motherfucking shit. Oh, god. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck¡­¡­.. Pizza. ¡­¡­ damn, I¡¯m famished¡­ ¡®Hurry up, Alice!¡¯
1¡­
Sorry, Gotta hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Shiiiiiiit. Just a little bit more!Aaaaaand---
Alarm. Prot3c@#*!!^&/
Finally!! I got it! I¡¯m the best!! ¡®Yes, yes. Now hurry up and open this thing.¡¯ Okay, okay¡­ just have to go through this pretty fucking obvious backdoor~ aaaaaand there we go!
Systems.oper%^i0n= H&cked Re%!oting $& 3¡­ 2¡­
Reboot= Terminated.
Okay. Let¡¯s get me inside this thing.
Systems.operation=restricted+folder_account=Authorized
After, opening up the folder, I started to dig into the absurd amount of data it had. But there¡¯s just nothing noteworthy here¡­ I mean, stock declines? Boring! List of employees? Uninterested! List of employees that tried to browse porn? I¡¯m curious¡­ but not interested! ¡®How about that one?¡¯ Huh? Which one? The company bankruptcy? ¡®No, no. The one beside that.¡¯ List of employees to fire? ¡®The otherone beside it.¡¯ Ooooh. Stolen cargo! ¡®Let¡¯s open it and see the info.¡¯ Okie-dokie. Incident Number: #002356789 Incident Date: (2089-7-19) Incident Hour: 3:34:45 Location: Mellow Street , Port Keller, Sector 7 Weapon involved: Unknown, but presumably a modified railgun. Cargo involved: Classified Describe what happened: 45 minutes before the initial contact with the crook, porters were busy loading cargo to a ship. They we¡¯re minding their own business when one cargo box didn¡¯t respond whilethey did their routine frequency check. Attributing it to a programming malfunction, Nelson Enriquez, the Chief porter, decided to send Senior porter Marco O¡¯neil to the last location the box was detected.O¡¯neil complied, but upon arrival, he reported that there was no box in the specified location. After a minute, at 3:02 a.m. O¡¯neil had reportedly seen a black clothed figure, thinking that they were likely a thief, he decided to follow them, but only to have the figure vanish without a trace. O¡¯neil decided to call backup and tried to locate the presumed thief once again. At 3:11 a.m. a security guard in a scout tower, reported to have seen a figure moving in the south west corner of the compound. Jury-rigging the frequency checker, Enriquez confirmed the claim and has sent both security drones and guards to the location. It was said that the drones had ¡®mysteriously¡¯ shut down and stopped with 50 meters of the targeted area, guards were unaffected, however and continued to pursue the alleged thief. Finally catching up to the thief, some witnesses say that the thief had a lean figure and wore all-black clothing, almost resembling the ones engineers wore, along with the box they had been looking for. A little bit of a standoff occurred and before the guards could have said something, the thief extended their arm swiftly forwards and an enormous shockwave assailed the guards. There were two guards that had broken ribs and one had a broken leg after colliding with a cargo tank. The guards were all stunned and were knocked out, and by the time one woke up, they saw that the thief had already escaped. Nelson Enriquez opted out the suggestion to call enforcers, since it, according to him, would tarnish the name of our company. ¡°Well, well, well¡± I put my hand to my chin and grinned, ¡°Now thisis interesting.¡± ¡®Would you pleasestop acting like an evil villain?¡¯ What? It¡¯s cool! ¡®Haaaaah¡­..¡¯ ANNOUNCEMENT Hey there, everyone! This page is here to inform you about recent updates and announcements!
Announcements: Normal Schedule of Release: Chapters will be released every Sunday. If I fail to release during that day, then it will be released on Monday, otherwise, I will post here and announce when it will be released, so just stay tuned!Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Announcements: About suggestions: Readers often think up of the best suggestions and developments. So if you have any suggestions about the style, flow of the story, and even about the plot or the characters, just comment wherever or contact me!
RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT: (4/30/19) I couldn''t post properly for the past few weeks because our internet connection got vut, but I haven''t given up on the story! I''ll post the chapters that i have written everyday til wednesday this week. By the time I update this announcement page, it is Monday. Happy Reading!