《Alice in Magic Land [UNREVISED]》 Prologue Sorcerers, magicians, witches, wizards, whatever you might call them. They had existed for millennia and offered a myriad of possibilities. Crush rocks, cure wounds, split the seas and more. These people study the ¡®Mysteries¡¯ both of the Earth and of Magick. They are the same yet are not, with different sets of ¡®Abilities¡¯. Cursed or blessed, fiends or friends, calamity or divinity, whatever you name them, we know they exist. We know they¡¯re out there, under the guise of normal people, hiding. But. When Magick exists, Science will try to compete. Bio-compatible body enhancements, holograms, Nano-machines and lots more of interesting and even unfathomable technology, Science had it all. Created in order to compete against and divert attention from the mysterious arcane.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
We knew the relationships of the two powers were unstable, but we hoped that the balance will last for long. ¡­¡­. ¡­ . But never did we predict that she will take the whole world by storm.
A battle between facts and fictions, A war of nature and of man and a clash of titans with unfathomable power and potential. Though stuck as they were in a deadlock, Science seemed to be willing to break the centennial tie. Threatening to plunge the world into chaos. But then there came an Alice. Once from the world of Science and technology, now falling through the arcane rabbit hole and into the mysterious wonderland of Magick. A smart, crazy and sociopathic Alice. Alice 1: A Storm Brewing ¡°Ah, fuck¡± I grumbled as the house of cards on my desk was toppled by a gust of wind from the open window beside me. ¡°It¡¯s so boring!¡± Today was a weekend and I, Alice Mayers, was inside my bedroom in my apartment, it was a costly apartment consisting of a small kitchen, bedroom, dining room and comfort room. The dining room doubled as the living room, since it was just at the front of the door and it had a TV across the table. I stood up from my desk, lunged into the bed, and checked my holo-phone for the umpteenth time. I opened a browser app and tried to open a website, only to have it show a ¡®No network connection¡¯ notification. ¡°Ughh¡­¡± Turning the phone off, I grunted. I rolled back and forth on the bed. Oh this is quite fun. I grinned at nothing in particular and continued rolling; only stopping due to nausea. I lied still on the bed face down and started to think about my next course of action. What can I do¡­ I¡¯m gonna die of boredom if this continues¡­ Maybe I could go to a friend¡¯s house? Oh, wait I don¡¯t have one¡­ I laughed dryly at the thought, still facing down of course. I had never really considered having one, and neither did I feel lonely without them, I still do think about it from time to time. I turned over and looked at the white plastered ceiling. Should I¡­ no, that¡¯s too troublesome¡­ I¡¯ll just go to the library for now. Having decided something to do, I leaped out of the bed and went to my closet. It was a little bit underwhelming¡­ it was full of hoodies, T-shirts and different kinds of shorts or jeans. I¡¯m not necessarily a rich girl; I barely even have enough money to live in this apartment, which also explains why I¡¯ve been leeching internet from my neighbors. Usually, the connection would be stable and enough for streaming videos and reading online books. However, today, it just went haywire and that brings us to the current situation. Well, I could figure out what happened. But guess what, I need internet for that! Hurray, me. Shaking out my own sarcastic thoughts, I picked up a blue hoodie, boyfriend shorts (Why are they called like that???) and a pair of sneakers. I also grabbed my pink backpack that was hanging at the back of the chair. I NEVER leave without a backpack, I don¡¯t know why but it gives me a sense of security. Which is really odd due to my¡­ nature. Anyway, I stuffed it with stuff like a water canister, a small umbrella, a modified molecular knife, an extra hoodie and a book in case I got bored. Wait¡­ I placed something weird thing in my bag. I shuffled the bag a little bit and took out the book. I set it back neatly in shelf above the desk. Why would I need a book if I¡¯m going to the library? I shrugged at my own mistake and proceeded to go out of the door. The corridors of the apartment building were white and holograms appear every five or so rooms I pass by. The carpets alternated between red and yellow and were giving off a rather luxurious feel to the corridor. As I traversed the halls, with only a small amount of turns, I reached and entered the elevator. It overlooked the already bustling city through its reinforced glass walls, colossal skyscrapers and heavily trafficked roads dominated most of the view of the ¡®skyline¡¯.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The elevator descended until a high pitched ¡®Ding¡¯ resounded in the cabin. It prompted me to look towards a newcomer. It was a man, a ¡®regular salary man¡¯ if you would. He was wearing a black suit with a red neck tie, black pants and similarly colored shoes. Ah, another corporate slave, huh. What a pity. This man was probably working hard for his family, working at 9 in the morning to do paper works in the office, then go home at 7 in the evening to come home to his wife having already cooked a meal, then he plays with his children a little bit or watches the news on a holo-screen, lastly he sleeps and the cycle continues. A really sorrowful story, I truly pity him. ¡®Do you really?¡¯ My inner self asked me. ¡®Nope, not at all.¡¯ Came my reply. I returned to looking at the scenery when the high pitched ¡®Ding¡¯ resounded again, signaling the closing of the doors.
[3rd Person POV] 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 all of the seven Elders had were creating a literal storm in their meeting place. Alongside an inferno, a void, a flash flood, a star show, and other unfathomable things. The ¡®Meeting Place¡¯ was magical, top of line 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. ¡°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 some 10 years ago. They also knew what Helios Tech. was, it was the world¡¯s leading manufacturer of holo-phones 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. ¡°Everyone, ¡° Ignis clapped his hands, ¡°Think this through and 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: Hacking the System As soon as we reached the ground floor, the cacophony assaulted my ears. I hurried to the exits. The first time I checked in here, I 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. True that. Walking out of the complex, I 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! Ehem, anyway, after some twists, turns, crossings and the occasional bumping by the shoulder with other pedestrians, I reached the Library. I 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 were replaced with holo-screens and books replaced by data. These types of Libraries, which were incidentally called E-Libraries, were fairly uncommon. I 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, are always 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 condenses 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.
Why I know all about this? With a little bit of research of course! You hacked into a government server Alice. Bah. Potato-Potahto. Not like they actuallyneededthose files, it was even a low-level server! Yeah, right. Anyway, most people would be surprised about the amount of data stored in the internet, just waiting to be dug out. Freaking Nerd. Hey! That¡¯s mean! Besides, that means you¡¯re a nerd too. Fair enough. Oh¡­ I got out of track, where was I again?This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Using the damn Holo-screen in front of you. Oh yeah, that, thanks. Anywho, I opened an app in the computer (I¡¯ll just call it that) and started typing. With those magnetic fields and other gizmos I mentioned earlier, these computers didn¡¯t need physical keyboards and mouses, they''re fully touch screened. You could also 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. Ohhhh, don¡¯t be such a pessimist. I¡¯m your sound of reason. That¡¯s my job, along with realism. Haaah. I already doubled checked all the alarm, alert, and virus detection systems. Happy now? Yup.
After minutes of getting through firewalls and almost getting caught by random passerby¡¯s, I 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 my motives in hacking them, there were basically none. I just thought it would be a fun idea. Not a good one of course, but a fun idea nonetheless. As I look into the servers, all I find are 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¡­ With their power, I 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. 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 file remaining. I 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 I pressed the first folder again and folders came again, now from 1-30000. I could almost feel a vein popping in my head. Haaah. I sighed and leaned back the chair, letting my 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... Hmm¡­ that¡¯s a good idea. I¡¯ll just look into it back at the apartment. After forming the idea, I shuffled through my bag and grabbed a USB drive. I stuck it in a port at the base of the computer and copied the folder, plus some other files I found interesting. After 10 minutes and a couple hundred gigabyte worth of data, I unplugged the drive and packed up. Oh, and I also ensured that no alerts or similar were triggered, we can¡¯t be tracked now, can we? I shudder at the thought of what will happen if they somehow get hold of me¡­ You¡¯re grinning. Menacingly. Clear that off. Oh, haha. Sorry ¡®bout that. I cleared the grin off my face and replaced it with a calm, neutral expression. I slumped the backpack over my right shoulder and proceeded outside of the Library. I calmly walked the same path I treaded before I came. It took 3 hours to hack, search and copy the interesting files on the server, and I¡¯m not even sure if the ¡®secret¡¯ folder is actually worth my time. Well, I hope this becomes an interesting day! Define ¡®interesting¡¯. Ha! I¡¯m sure you already know the answer. Yeah. I do. And some guys ain''t gonna like it. Alice 3: Interesting... The Auto-car reached the apartment 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 necrophiliac''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¡­ ANYWAY. Let¡¯s clear that shit 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 definitely do not have. 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. Yeah, right. Oh, shut up. Let¡¯s start.
[10 minutes later]
Systems.operation=restricted+folder_account=Unauthorized. Initiating.warning.protocol In 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Warning.protocol=absent
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? ¡­¡­¡­This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡­. . ¡­FUCKING alarms!! 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 motherfucking 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? Hell no! How about that one? Huh? Which one? The company bankruptcy? No, no. The one beside that. List of employees to fire? The other one beside it. Oooo. 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 [military time] 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 when they 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 this is interesting.¡± Would you please stop acting like an evil villain? What? It¡¯s cool! Haaaaah¡­.. Alice 4: ¡°Mornin¡¯ Ms. Fletcher,¡± I greeted a woman whom I passed by. She¡ªMs. Ela Fletcher¡ªwas the guidance counselor and an excelling calculus teacher. She wore a blue pencil skirt and black glasses, giving her a little bit of the ¡®secretary¡¯ vibe. Though with the advancements of ophthalmology and eye care this past decade, I can only assume the glasses were naught but a decoration. ¡°Good morning Alice,¡± She nodded as she went past. And yes. It¡¯s 1 p.m. and I¡¯m at my university right now, Elton International University to be exact. (Pro tip: Don¡¯t fucking take the 8 a.m. class. Trust me on this one.) The school is just one of many out there. It¡¯s neither a poor nor a prestigious university, it¡¯s somewhat in the middle. I spent my day yesterday examining the different files I¡¯ve found. All of them would have been useless except for the fact that I managed to grab missing cargo file and the company bankruptcy file. I¡¯ve been really progressive yesterday. You didn¡¯t even study for the quiz today and you ended up munching on pizza for the whole day. I don¡¯t really need to eat healthy, you know? The nanites will do their job. They won¡¯t always be there, you know? Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I walked past the corridor and entered class. Good, the professor¡¯s not here yet. I found a seat somewhere at the back and sat while being as inconspicuous as I can. I grabbed a book from my backpack and started reading while the class waited noisily for the prof. Titled ¡°Link Delta¡±, the book shows a story where major disasters and mysteries in the world were not caused by aliens and advanced secret technology, but rather by the occult and ancient arcane powers. I¡¯ve been putting off reading this book for quite a while now, since it¡¯s almost similar to other conspiracy novels. Before I could even read a whole paragraph from the book, the professor¡ªMr. Arnold White, entered the room, making me put down the book to my table. Prof. Arnold is a man in his late sixties and has graying hair; he often had to look up to students (literally) because of his small stature. The cacophony of voices was muted and the entire class greeted him. He greeted back and started the lecture, he himself is an esteemed chemical engineer who mostly focuses on biotechnology, he also studied bioengineering and genetics back at his day. He was talking about the use of nano-particles that can be used to cure wounds when they were injected to the blood stream.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I looked at the book on my table and started reading it again. I¡¯ve been admiring the work put on this book since it almost seemed to have full details of different entities like dhampirs and demons. The writer really did the research on this book. ¡°¡ªayers,¡± I felt a sudden nudge at my shoulder and looked to my left, my seatmate pointed towards the front without saying anything and I noticed that most of the class was looking in my direction. ¡°Ms. Mayers. Would you please put that book down and stand up.¡± Mr. Arnold sighed, ¡°Now, for the fourth time, what is the answer to my question?¡± ¡­¡­ ¡­ . Shit. I wasn¡¯t listening. Well, I told you earlier not to bring the book, and guess what? You still did, didn¡¯t you? Shut up, we both know it was an interesting read. ¡­Okay fine. You win this time. I did as I was told; I put the book down to my desk and stood up. ¡°Umm¡­ Would you please repeat the question, I wasn¡¯t listening.¡± I did a wry laugh and scratched my head. A bunch of students can be heard containing their laughter but Mr. Arnold shushed them. ¡°Damn right you weren¡¯t,¡± He sighed and I just looked at him apologetically, ¡°Anyway, my question is: What steps and processes have bioengineers conducted to try to make nano-particles that can heal internal wounds?¡± ¡°Well, for the past decade, scientists have been trying to make this technology possible, some tried to make similar researches using modified viruses to enhance the natural human healing speed and battle other viruses.¡± I took a deep breath and continued, ¡°This, however was stopped due to concerns of the possibility that the researchers will be able to create an unstoppable virus There was also the concern that if our enemies have somehow taken hold of this modified strain, they would be able to reverse engineer it create something that can destroy it, thus the Council deemed the research too risky to continue.¡± ¡°¡­ Thank you Ms. Maye¡ª¡°He tried to say something but¡­ ¡°I¡¯m not done yet professor, ¡° I interrupted, ¡°Since there is always the possibility of making a bio-weapon using the previous process, researchers started to think about using mechanical nano-machines¡ªNanites. However, this process has its fair share of problems, an example would be production, while a virus has the ability to replicate itself, nanites cannot¡ªexcept if it¡¯s versatile enough to be able to make a copy when resources are present.¡± I took a small pause to catch my breath. What else? Did I forget to include something? Yeah, you forgot about the Korean. Oh yeah, thanks. ¡°Up until the last year,¡± I continued, ¡°This has been a major problem in the nanite research, however, when Jin Chun, a Korean geneticist and bio-engineer developed a system where the nanites can be easily mass produced,¡± With a sigh of contempt, I finished my speech. The class went silent and everyone was looking straight at me. Don¡¯t you think that was too much? I think its fine? It¡¯ll stop him from calling my name again to answer a question. Finally, he was the one to break the deafening silence inside the class. ¡°¡­That¡­ That is all correct. Congratulations, you just summarized 3 days¡¯ worth of class,¡± He sighed again, ¡°For goodness sake Alice, take it easy.¡± I raised my hand and called out to him just as he was about to turn back, ¡°Can I sit back now?¡± ¡°Yes Alice, yes you can.¡± He sighed once more; honestly, one more sigh and I think his soul would come out of his body. It''s all your fault, nerd. Hey! You contributed to it, you know! I sighed internally, sat back down and grabbed the book. ¡°Put the fucking book down, Alice.¡± He scolded. ¡°Fine.¡± I mimicked a surrender gesture and slowly placed the book back to my bag. Alice 5: Break in The rest of the day at school went by without a hitch, well, except for the fact that someone managed to short circuit a Holoscreen at 4th period. It doesn¡¯t really concern us, so why bother? Hmm¡­ true enough. Anyway, right now I¡¯m walking towards Port Keller, the place where the cargo robbery happened. It was far from the campus but I decided to just walk towards it, riding an auto-car would leave a digital footprint anyways. I needed to ¡®inspect¡¯ the place where it happened and maybe find a clue about who the robber was. Even a piece of clothing can be a vital clue for identifying the culprit. Now, you might be asking ¡®But Alice, why would you go through so much effort just to catch this one guy?¡¯ Well, my dear-whoever-you-are-that-probably-doesn¡¯t-even-exists-and-i¡¯m-just-talking-to-myself-again, a railgun that can send a shockwave so strong it can send a grown man fly is not rare¡ªit¡¯s just simply unheard of. Also, the way the drones were turned off was most likely due to a very strong EMP device. But I think referring to the mentioned railgun as¡­ a railgun, is a bit wrong. Railguns are characterized by their ability to electrically accelerate their rounds¡ªnot by producing shockwaves. The mechanics are still a mystery to me, and that specifically is why I want to get hold of it. I need to get hold of that piece of tech¡­ for scientific purposes. Definitely not to do something bad and definitely not for blowing stuff up¡­
Looking up, I realized that it was already dark. The sun has already set on the horizon and the first signs of stars finally emerged in the summer night. I pull my hood over my head and put my hand in my pockets. My hoodie had a dark blue color I think it might help me sneak better. There¡¯s still a bit of distance until I reach the port. The shadows of the night will only help me sneak in. The lights of cars and cycles washed past me as the rush hour sets in. I better hurry. A towering metal fence loomed over me as I reached the port. That¡¯s about¡­ I dunno¡­ 4¡­ no, 5 meters high? Anyways, I snuck around and found a section where the fence is visibly lower than the once beside it. Climbing it would make a noise that can alert people, and cutting through it is going to take a while and it¡¯ll be irreversible. I need to leave as little sign of me being here as possible. The obvious options are out the window, so I do the next best thing.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I walked about a dozen meters away from the fence. After reaching my plotted destination, I crouched low on the ground, and then¡­ The wind brushed my face as I ran. I ran fast and I ran like hell. Just before hitting the fence with all of my inertia, I jumped¡ªno, ¡®leaped¡¯ would be a better term for this one. I had to order my nanites to enforce my bones and muscles; else I wouldn¡¯t even be able to do that feat. Reaching over the fence, I rolled for a landing. Just ¡®cause I can reinforce my body parts, that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯ll ignore my general safety. Key word is ¡®general¡¯. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I¡¯m inside the premises of the port already. I was about to complain about how lax the security is, until I realized that the top of the fence had electrical traps and infrared sensors. I just barely reached far above it that I was able to avoid getting stupidly electrocuted. I hid behind some cargo crates to avoid detection from the patrol crew. As I was doing that, I caught sight of a drone patrolling the place opposite me. Taking them down would be easy but it would most likely alert the others of my presence. I guess I just need to avoid those guys generally. After sneaking a few more times and after a couple of times that I almost got caught, I arrived to the place where the confrontation happened. I found a spot where I could hide away from the mechanical eyes of the drones and took some nifty gadgets out of my backpack. I scanned the surroundings for any signs of anomalies. An EMP as strong as the one used here would have to leave some sort of trace. If I could find that and cross-reference it to other similar occurrences, I might be able to find something, a clue perhaps. While standing guard as the device continues the scan, I noticed something in the pavement where the culprit presumably stood it. Faint cracks spidered out from a central point in that place, the fissures were just about a millimeter wide and snaked for about a foot long. The last thing I noticed at the spot was a key. It looked like the ones used in the 18th century¡ªmade of brass and had an ornate bow. It was close enough for me to discern that it was an ornate key, but it was also far enough that to reach it, I¡¯ll need to leave the relative safety of my hiding spot. To leave or not to leave, that is the question. You can just take it before we actually leave this place, instead of the possibility of getting caught now. Oh yeah. Good point. After a few more minutes of waiting for the scans to finish, its screen flashed green, signaling that the data collection process had been completed. I packed up the device and stealthily got out of my hiding spot. I didn¡¯t forget to grab to key and take a picture of the cracks as I pass by them. If you have a sufficiently crafty mind, you¡¯d be able to know that getting out of this place is easier than getting in. I climbed up some cargo holds near the fence and jumped over it. Again, I rolled as a landing to avoid any unnecessary broken limbs. Looking around, I see no surveillance devices, patrols or drones. Good. Having a picture of me taken is a bad thing. A VERY bad thing. After pulling my hood over my face once again, I walked away from the port as if nothing happened. However, as I got to the sidewalk, I saw a pair of Enforcers. Those guys were the police of Eaden. Like their title suggests, they enforce the rules set by the Council. They wore a full body exo-suit made up of tough metal alloys; a normal 9mm would even do much to scratch the surface of their suits. Shit, they¡¯re walking towards me. I pulled my hood down a little bit more. Did the drones take a picture of me? Was I spotted? Shit, this is bad. They have Hover-cycles with them. ¡°Excuse me miss,¡± One talked towards me, ¡°May we have a speak with you?¡± Alice 6: Confrontation ¡°Excuse me miss, ¡° One of the Enforcers walked towards me, ¡°May we have a talk with you?¡± My shoulders tensed up, "Have a talk"? Shit, have they caught on to me?! The Enforcer took their helmet out and I realized that it was actually a woman, just around my age, an inner suit housed her hair, but small brown strands peeked out of it. Is she a trainee? I think I can get aways from her, but the other one... he looks rugged. But a trainee wouldn''t be handling things like this, and iff they actually wanted to arrest me, they wouldn¡¯t need to¡®Have a talk¡¯with me. I relax a little bit knowing they¡¯re not here for me. ¡°Oh, what is it about, officer?¡± I took my hood off and spoke to the Enforcer; it looks like her partner has caught up. "I am Officer Aria McCarthy, and this," She pointed at her partner, "Is Cedric Gilberts." She whispered something to Cedric and nudged his shoulder. He took off his helmet and a rugged man that looked like in his mid-thirties emerged from underneath. He grabs something from the pocket of his exo-suit. Oh, is that paper? Yeah, think so. Had the Council finally ran out of budget? Usually, they¡¯d use holograms to easily show people stuff¡­ Those jerks wouldn¡¯t even think to remove budget from the Department though. Yeah, the Department usually trains and sends out Enforcers, but on the inside, the officials are the ones that does the¡®dirty¡¯jobs for the Council. As I was immersed in my own brief and conspired thoughts, the man spoke up. ¡°Have you seen this person?" Cedric held up the paper, it contained a single picture. I examined the photo closely, the man in the picture seemed to be around his late fifties and of southern origin. His black hair was trimmed neatly and his muddy brown eyes seemed to stare at me through his glasses; wrinkles can be easily seen all around his face. I raised an eyebrow due to a sudden realization. I thought,''Why would the Department look for such an old man?'' "I haven''t seen him before," I said while still looking at the picture, shaking my head for an extra confirmation. I looked up at Aria and asked, "Why are you looking for this old guy?" Just before the she can answer my question, Cedric spoke up. "This is Department matters ma''am, we can''t tell." He held up his palm, signalling me to stop digging deeper. I shrugged ay their secrecy, i''ll find out sooner or later anyway. "I''ll just report to the Department if I see the man," I said as I pull my hood back over my head, "Bye, officers. I have personal matters to attend to." I started walking away, but Aria stopped me. "Sorry, ma''am. What''s your name again?" "It''s Elise. Elise Portwell." "Thank you, miss Elise. You can go now." Another fake name? Yep. I can''t just give away ''Alice Mayers'', you know?Especially right after breaking into the port. After walking a safe distance away from the duo of Enforcers, I turned to a dark alley. I need to change clothes. I have to leave as less of a track as I possibly can¡ªand dark alleys are currently my best bet. Well, the only problem with dark alleys is... "Hey''a, little miss," A man emerged from the shadows of the alley just in front of me. Two more men stepped out of their hiding place and surrounded me. In this dim environment, I can''t easily make up their facial features. But it seems like the one in front of me has a lean stature. "If you give us yer bag, we''ll let you go," The man stepped closer. How did he even know i''m a girl?? I have my hood on, an i''m not even, you know...''bountiful''. Thug instincts? Most probably, yeah. I took off my back pack and opened it. Inside, I grabbed a knife. Dropping the bag, I held the knife forward at the man with two trembling hands. "Don''t... don''t go closer!" A feeble voice came out of my throat. My hands shook at I tried to keep my knees from buckling. The hood i''m wearing was excellently positioned that I can see the man''s expression but he doesn''t see mine. He was grinning, probably thinking "It''sa good catch today, huh." He took out his own knife, held it on his right hand and pointed it towards me. I took a momentary step back. "Can you kill, little girl? Can ya really take us three on with just you?" His buddies are already laughing behind me. Looking back, I see the the two holding a knife and a baseball bat separately. "I... I..." My knees trembled and my hands shook, the knife i''m holding seemed to be useless against this three. "Hah! Just kidding!" I dashed towards the man in front of me, a grin from ear to ear was plastered on my face. I held the knife on my right hand If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The man took a step back and was stunned for a moment. And a moment was all I needed. I infused my bones and muscles with nanites. I slapped away his still outstretched hand with my left hand. A stab in the stomach and another one in the lungs is enough to incapacitate him, but another stab in the head wouldn''t hurt right? I giggled. At least it won''t hurt for me, for him on the other hand... His bloodied corpse dropped to the ground and leaked blood, I kicked him on the side but he doesn''t move or flinch in the slightest. Probably dead. The two goons behind me seemed to have snapped out of their shock. One charged straight towards me with his bat. "Haaaah!" he shouted as he swung the metal bat towards my torso. I crouched and avoided the bat, I stood up and tried to stab the guy at his side, but he immediately did a backstep and avoided the stab. I charge towards him, but he swung his bat upwards, preventing me from going closer. As soon as the bat was high enough, I slided in front of him, grabbed the hand he was holding the bat with, and swiftly brought it down to my shoulder. A crunching noise could be heard as the joint in his elbow was broken. "Ahhhh! Fuck!!" He shouted, I kicked his stomach and sent him lurching back and down to the ground¡ªunconscious, I walked closer to his body and stepped on his neck. That should do it. The last goon was nowhere to be seen, I guess he hid? I would have noticed if he ran away. "We can''t let him escape, now can we?" I said to myself.
[3rd Person] Bert knew that mugging was bad. He knew that stealing and killing was bad, he knew he''ll get imprisoned, and if worse, killed if the Enforcers found him. That didn''t stop him from being hungry though. He was tired of eating food scraps and rotten fruits. Sooner or later, he knew he''ll get sick. He''ll die. He met the other two thugs when he was out mining for food in the trashcans of Sector 6. They offered him food, real food. Not just some sick amalgamation of mold and bread. They moved here to S7, right after they angered one of the big shots on S6. He knows he has brothers now, he knows that they would take care of him. Well, hehadbrothers. Now, he has corpses. Bloodied, unconscious, anddefinitelydead. He feared for his life. He knewshewas coming for him next. That ghastly smile was one of a predator, one that wouldn''t let prey get away. Her eyes were sharp as if she was just looking at playthings.''Not even prey!''He thought,''She looked at us as if we were playthings!'' He can''t see her properly in the dim lighting of the alley, but he swore he saw her eyes shone with madness and joy. The sound of her giggle sent shivers down his spine. She acted and killed without guilt or remorse, he saw in her eyes that she was just enjoying what she did. Even when the blood splatters soaked her hood and jeans. Bert knew his end is near. But he still hid, hoping for that small glimmer of hope among the darkness. "Come out, come out, wherever you are,"her high pitched voice reverberated through the dark alleyways, it reverberated through hisskull. Bert shivered and pressed his back closer to the trashcan behind him, hoping for some sort of encouragement from the dirty metal it''s made of. He could hear hear foot steps getting closer and closer. And then it stopped. ''Is she gone?''He thought to himself. "Aha!"The girl threw the trashcan away, revealing a trembling man behind it¡ªBert."Found you!" Bert mustered up all his strength and courage,''At least I need to kill this monster, I need to avenge them!'' He spun around and stabbed the girl in the chest with his knife. The tip dug deep into the young girl''s torso. The grin on the girl''s face faded and revealed a surprised expression which only lasted a split second before going back to her crescent moon-like-grin. "Was that supposed to hurt?"She asked, Bert could be nothing but flabberghasted.''''WHAT THE BLOODY HELL???" He backed away, leaving the knife in the girl''s chest. She looked down at the knife and slowly pulled it out. She stepped a little bit closer to Bert. "Mister,"She said, her grin getting wider,"It seems you forgot this." He was rooted into place by sheer terror. He knew he''ll die right now. The last thing Bert saw was the girl''sdevilishgrin and a knife between his eyes. Alice 7: Bloody Hell! ¡°Ow, ow, fuck, ow!¡± I murmured, my hands shook as I took the knife out of my chest. It wasn¡¯t a big knife, just about 5 inches long, but it was stabbed through me with such force that it would have pierced through if it was just a little bit longer. I cringed as I was finally able to take the whole knife out of my torso, blood spilled out from the open wound. The floor seemed to sway beneath me. The blood continued to flow down my chest, he probably grazed my heart. Literally. I found it hard to stand still and eventually leaned towards the damp wall of the alley. I ended up sliding down on it. Looking to my left, I can see the corpse of the last man. His head was pierced by my knife and his obviously lifeless body is now laying down the alley floor, underneath him would be a puddle of his own blood. Luckily, I was able to sit down a spot where the blood didn¡¯t reach or will flow towards me. That damn bastard managed to actually stab me. Damn it. Another good hoodie gone due to stab wounds. I know. Fuck, the rest of my clothes right now would end up bloodied too. UGHH, it¡¯s hard washing off blood! ¡°Haah¡­¡± I sighed, I immediately cringed in pain as a sharp sensation assaulted my chest. It looks like the nanites aren¡¯t finished healing my lungs yet. This is annoying. Just because I can heal from wounds in just a minute, it doesn¡¯t mean I like to get stabbed. It still freaking hurts. After waiting for a few more seconds for the nanites to their job, I stood up slowly and walked towards the corpse of the man beside me, I retrieved the knife imbedded in his head, and also the backpack I dropped earlier. I headed a little bit deeper towards the alley and opened my bag. Inside are a change of clothes, the scanners and the material I gathered from the port. The key was neatly placed inside a zip lock bag, I also wore gloves when I retrieved it, just in case. I finished changing clothes and put the bloodied ones into more zip lock bags. Those stuff are really handy, they haven¡¯t gone extinct even if the technology is around decades to century old. I turned around a corner and took a different path towards my apartment, it would be suspicious if I come out of an alley directly where 3 dead bodies lay. It was suspicious enough that you willingly went into an alley. I know, I know. I sighed at my own thoughts.
As soon as I reached my apartment, I locked the door and plopped the bag on my study table, I took out everything inside and threw the bags containing the bloodied clothes towards the trash can beside me. I opened a drawer and pulled out my laptop. While I connected the scanner to the laptop, I took my phone out my pocket. I unzipped the bag containing the key. Using some gloves that I grabbed off a shelf, I picked it up and put in the desk. I took pictures of it from every angle.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. After some research and digging, I found out that the design on the key did not match any design on the net. It¡¯s most likely a custom made ornate key. Why the hell was it there? What is that even for?? Exactly. That¡¯s what I intent to find out. I put the key back to the bag and plugged the scanner to my phone. Holograms of graphs, charts and data showed up from the files of the scanner. There seems to be spikes with certain wavelengths of light, as well as subtle changes in the magnetic field. How did this happen?? Yep, looks like there¡¯s an increase with dark energy concentrations within the immediate area too. And would you please stop questioning me, if I knew, you would have known already. Sorry about that. But seriously, any idea? The makings of one. If the railgun condensed dark energy as a projectile and electromagnetically accelerate it, this could happen. Okay, first problem, no one know what dark matter really is! You can¡¯t just manipulate it, let alone condense it! That¡­ is a really good point. If this robber has access to ground breaking tech, we can easily say that she has backing. And it means there might be a whole new array of dark energy weapons and technology that can be used against us. You don¡¯t really care do you? I swear I can imagine you smirking right now. And yes, I don¡¯t care about that. It¡¯s all about the thrill of the show.
In the distance, within a Society base: A figure paced back and forth, they looked deep within their thoughts. A closer inspection would lead you to realizing that this figure is the guy that broke into Port Keller. Looking closer than that and your bones will probably be broken too. Well, Alexis Everdale was just that type of woman. ¡°Where the fuck is my key?!?¡± she thought. Unfortunately, she was also that type of woman. After more seconds of pacing and thinking and shouting creative profanities in her head, the elevator in front of her opened to reveal¡­ no one. She immediately stepped into it and pressed seemingly random numbers on the touchpad at the side of the carriage. But¡­ nothing happened. ¡°Fucking codes,¡± She grumbled as she re-entered the numbers, ¡°Fucking bad luck.¡± The elevator doors finally closed and dropped down instead of up. Which should be weird since this is the ground floor of a building without an underground parking area. After a few seconds, the elevator stopped, its doors opened, and a humanoid creature stepped in. The man had gills on his neck and his skin is tinged blue, some scales can also be seen on his forearms. ¡°Yo, Walter, ¡° Alexis greeted the guy, ¡°Are you going to the surface?¡± ¡°Yes, I have classes tomorrow, so I need to go back to my dorm, I just have to grab some food from the cafeteria below. ¡°He said, ¡°How did you know?¡± ¡°Well, considering you¡¯re holding a bag of clothes and you¡¯re wearing casuals, it¡¯s quite easy to guess,¡± She smirked and pressed a button on the elevator. ¡°Oh, fair enough.¡± The elevator proceeded down, but Walter stepped off the next floor after his. Alexis was trapped again inside her own thoughts. Before she realized it, she arrived at the bottom-most floor of the Society base. She stepped out of the elevator, what came from the floor was a stylized room. It almost looked like a president¡¯s oval office. Book shelves lined the sides of the room and chandeliers lit it up. In the middle of it all was a mahogany desk, about a meter long and three wide. The desk was full of paperwork and devices. Beyond the desk was a chair where a rugged man in his late fifties was seating, he was holding papers and seems to be in deep thought. ¡°Steve,¡± She says, walking towards the desk. ¡°Alexis, ¡°He replies, ¡°Why are you here?¡± It seems that Steve has sensed that Alexis brings trouble. She starting getting cold weat at the idea of this guy getting mad. Rumors has it that the last guy that made Steve Clemson angry broke every bone in his body. ¡°Umm¡­ I might have had kinda¡­ sorta¡­ maybe¡­ probably lost my Mirror Key.¡± She scratched the back of her head. Thoughts like ¡®Shit, I¡¯m dead. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Does anybody know a good burial company? Shit, shit. Holy crap.¡± Have been raging in her head like wildfire. ¡°YOU WHAT?!¡± Steve went wide eyed and shouted. ¡®Ah, yep.¡¯ She thought ¡®I¡¯m really gonna die.¡¯ ANNOUNCEMENT Hello everyone, I''m so so sorry that I''ve went into a loooooong hiatus. Due to certain circumstances, i just lost my will and drive as a writer. However, it''s summer break as of today and I thought maybe I could continue this novel again. Don''t expect too much guys! I''m going to edit the first few chapters first and gonna be posting them on a new account named "Alter-Ego", its my new accaccount.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I thought maybe a new account/identity would help me write better. I''m not going to be deleting the story in this account but I''ll be renaming it. I''m really sorry that I couldn''t post/write anything guys. I have no excuses.