Akihabara...


Ryuu: " are you sure about this?"

The young man shifted nervously from one feet to another at what he was expected to do. It was clear he was having a rough debate between obeying or running away.

Kirito: " we can't get the data unless we run the virus. Plus, if something happens, we have Sendou and Jin ready to cut down Buld before it causes any harm."

True to that, Zenon and Nightmare were stationed not far away, their weapons in hand in case anything went wrong. Finding no way around, Ryuu took a deep breath.

Ryuu: " alright then."

He typed away on the CCM, and Kirito narrowed his eyes at that act. The LBX was wrapped by a dark red aura and its eyes shined bright red.

Eva immediately ran the scans on both CCM and LBX, gathered the data and then send them to Kirito. After a few seconds, the blond told Ryuu that he can shut it, which Ryuu was more than happy to do.

Kirito: " Interesting."

Hiro: " what did you find?"

Kirito: " first of all, I was wrong. The virus doesn't break through security. Just as Eva said. It actually asks for permission to be executed like any normally program, right?"

He looked up at Ryuu for confirmation, to which the other male nodded.

Ryuu: " each time you run it, it asks for permission to be placed inside the memory and be processed."

Rina: " like any usual program."

Kirito: " are you familiar with zombie programs?"

Ran: " z... Zombie?"

Jin: " sometimes, bugs happen in computers, and when a program is closed, it doesn't get deleted from the memory card like it should be."

Kirito: " so it stays there, taking a space of the memory."

Evangeline : " but as far as I know, the Zombie programs aren't that big deal. You can delete them manual."

Kirito: " well, not in the case of this virus. Each time it takes place in the memory card to be ran, it takes an amount of the space. And when it's closed, a part of the program stays behind in the memory, like a zombie program. Except, this part is actually a few scripts of another program hidden within the virus. No, I should call it the true virus."

He pulled up the recording of the scans of Buld.

Kirito: " with each use, a part of the hidden program get placed in the memory like a zombie program, but hidden so no one can notice them. When all the pieces of the program are on place, the CCM is taken over of, as well as the LBX."

Rina: " so the actual program that takes over the CCM is not the same virus installed into it."

Kirito: " right. The L Virus role is to create the program of control inside the CCM."

Gouda: " if it's inside the CCM, how can we stop it?"

Kirito: " did you forget that there is a direct link between the LBX and the CCM. If we manage to create the vaccine, we merely need to get it into the LBX through any type of physical contact, and it will travel all the way back to the CCM as a feed back data and then delete the controlling program."

Kazu: " then, what are we waiting for! Let's make the program!"

Kirito kept silence for a while.

Kirito : " impossible."

" Eh!"

Sendou: " what do you mean impossible !?"

Kirito: " I tried to think of a hundred way to simplify it. But this vaccine program is so long and complicated. I can't create, not even with the help of all the employees of Tiny Orbit."

Ran: " oh man! We were so close to finishing everything here!"

Kazu: " wait a second!"

Everyone looked back at him.

Kazu: " I know exactly the right guys to lend us a hand with the program!"

Ami sweat dropped.

Ami: " Kazu, you don't mean them right?"

Kazu: " no one other than Otacross and the Hackers Corps can help!"

Ami sighed.

Kirito: " right, that one calling himself the legendary hacker can lend us a hand."

Eva blinked twice.

Evangeline : " the legendary super hacker?"

Ami: " fortunately, you didn't get the chance to meet him or his friends."

Takuya: " ok, then your next direction should be Akihabara."

Hiro: " oh my! Really! Yes!"

Gouda: " right, I forgot we have one hell of a geek here."

Ran sighed forlornly...


Kazu: " it's been a while since we went back to Akihabara. I'm pretty sad Gouda, Sendou and Asuka are not with us."

He said looking through the Window of the train as it zoomed past buildings.

Kirito: " we need back up there in case more LBXs started rampaging."

Kirito stated coldly without looking away from his CCM. Apparently on alert for any possible danger before it got snatched by Eva who peered down from the seat behind him.

Evangeline : " relax, you don't need to be on guard 24/7. You can take a leaf of Arata's book."

She pointed at the boy pressing his nose against the glass pan of the window. He whirled around enthusiastically that he was more of a blur of red and blue.

Arata: " I can't believe I'm going to see that legendary hacker!"

Ami: " and why bringing Arata?"

Ran sweat dropped.

Ran: " he said he wanted to battle some strong guys and tagged along."

Hiro: " the Senshiman's figure, the DVD of the new released movie, the special manga... I have to write everything I need to buy so I won't forget anything. Hope my money will be enough."

He said writing a pretty long list.

Kazu: " um... Hiro, aren't you forgetting the main reason behind coming here."

He asked with a sweat drop.

Evangeline: " leave him be, that's Hiro for you."

Her comment made everyone chuckle at the blunette while he shot up his head, confused...


Blue Cats' Coffee...

Gouda was cleaning the glasses while Hakai-O was arranging them in their place.

Sendou and Asuka sat to the counter, the male playing around with his CCM and the blonde slumping on the wooden surface.

Asuka: " why didn't we go with them?"

She sighed wistfully.

Sendou: " 'cause we're need here."

His answer was curt that it made her slump even more, if it was possible, on the counter.

Asuka: " but I wanna do something interesting! It's boring here!"

Sendou: " then why not challenging some people to battle?"

Asuka: " hey, good idea!"

She was about to stand up and walk to the customers when Gouda grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and made her sit back.

Gouda: " wow! Hold your horses! The last time you asked my customers to a battle, you ended up scaring them away and I had been through a rough week!"

Asuka: " do you think this face is scary?"

She feigned a sad face.

Gouda: " this, no. But your face when you're totally excited for a battle, it can easily cause them nightmares for months!"

Asuka: " you're rude!"

She puffed out her cheeks and folded her arms in anger.

Gouda: " I want to remind you that those here in the cafe are the people who came to enjoy a calm place and a cup of tea. If you're looking for a battle then head down."

Asuka: " there is no one there!"

Gouda: " then sit still and enjoy your time. It's not everyday that you get a day free of infected LBXs."

Just as he said that, their CCMs beeped with an alarm sound. Sendou glared back at the green head.

Sendou: " you were saying..."

Gouda: " me and my big mouth."

Asuka: " yay! Some fun!"...


They finally reached to the huge tower and walked into the elevator then climbed the building towards the highest floor.

As the elevator was making its way up, they were able to see the full city from there.

Hiro: " it's really heaven on earth!"

He said clinging to the glass of the elevator with sparkling eyes like a kid marveling over candies. Mist of them giggled at his sight.

Jin: " so, how are we going to tell Otacross what we exactly need?"

Kirito: " don't worry. Everything is here."

He said holding a flash memory.

Evangeline: " Kirito made sure he brought all the data we need to create the vaccine."

Pandora: " hope it will work."

Fenrir: " it should work. Or else we will have to fight infected LBXs till the end of our lives."

Ran snapped back her head in exasperation.

Ran: " eh! I don't want that!"

Kazu: " then let's pray this will work."

They finally reached to Otacross' room. It was messy like usual, with pills of objects everyone failed to identify, but the old man insisted that it was tidy that way.

As they stepped inside, a shadow manifested up the stairs.

" Ho! Who do we have here!"

The old man ran down the stairs with an agility that didn't suit his age.

Otacross: " Ami-tan! Ran-tan! Did you miss me? And ho! This is Eva-tan! I hadn't the chance to properly meet her before!"

Eva's instinct told her to keep her distance from the old man. Meanwhile, Ami had an awkward laugh while Ran frowned.

Ran: " not a bit!"

Otacross: " but I missed you a lot!"

He made an attempt to hug her. Before she could take a position to threaten him with her karate skills, Minerva was already flying in front of him with her blasters pointed at him.

Minerva: " get back!"

The old man backed while Ran had a satisfied smile at her LBX.

Otacross: " Minerva-tan is really so scary."

Pandora: " since you're not surprised to see a talking LBX, I bet you've being following our news for a while, if not spying on us."

Otacross: " I won't use the word ' spying ', Pandora-tan."

Kirito: " anyway, it will make things easier. You do know what we need."

Otacross: " right."

He smirked.

Otacross: " but it won't be for free."

Ran: " what!"

Hiro: " you never asked us to pay you for something before, Otacross-san!"

Otacross: " well, what can I say. It's the rule this time deyo~."

Jin: " alright, what do you want to help us?"

His smirk widened more.

Otacross: " you will let me do my own scan on one of your talking LBXs."

Ami: " that's all?"

Otacross: " yep. So would you accept?"

Evangeline : " to be honest, it sounds fishy."

She told the blond by her side, however, Kirito didn't seem to be bothered at all by the strange request.

Kirito: " alright."

Otacross: " very well. Then let me contact the Hackers Corps to lend us a hand deyo~"

He said hopping on a box so he could reach to his computer...


Takuya: " I see. Thank you for your hard work everyone."

He sighed as he ended the call with Gouda and the others. Pulling up the map on his screen, he was relived to see no red dots.

Takuya: " despite all of their hard work, it can't be that they are the ones taking down all the infected LBXs. I'm sure there are more. More whom we don't know about."

He looked out the window.

Takuya: " everyone, please find a solution."...


Yamaneko: " it's a pretty hard program you're trying to make. But for the Hackers Corps, there is nothing impossible."

The blond boy spoke confidently from the other end of the video call.

Hiro: " so you're helping us!"

Yamaneko: " otto, not so fast. The Hackers Corps only follow the king's order."

He closed his eyes and wagged his finger at them.

" Eh!"

Ami: " but! Ban isn't here right now!"

Yamaneko: " there is no helping it..."

He opened one eye and smiled at them.

Yamaneko: " since you're the king's friends then I will make an exception."

Everyone cheered in relief.

Otacross: " then what are we waiting for? Let's get to work deyo~!"

He was all fired up, typing fastly on the keyboard and pulling up all kinds of needed tabs on the screen.

Hiro: " won't you mind me asking?"

Otacross: " what deyo~?"

Hiro: " haven't Akihabara been affected by the L Virus?"

They could hear all of the Hackers laughing from the other end.

Yamaneko: " don't be ridiculous."

Otacross: " if someone wanted to get something like that in the territory of Akihabara, those guys will find out about him immediately deyo~."

Yamaneko: " we're not letting anyone harm the peace of Akihabara."

Kirito: " in other words, you've managed to block the dealers of the virus from Akihabara, but how?"

Yamaneko: " it's all thanks to our intel. They managed to capture every suspicious person that tried to infiltrate Akihabara."

Otacross: " our players had been alerted about this as well, and there is a strict punishment for whoever dares to help with spreading the virus deyo~."

Jin: " this way, Akihabara had been protected from the virus."

Arata: " wait a sec, how did you stop it before even knowing it was that dangerous? It has already spread everywhere before the first case of rampaging?"

Yamaneko: " we are not allowing someone to taint our beloved LBXs with a cheat code."

Fenrir: " a very convincing answer."

Ran: " doesn't seem very convincing to me."

She said showing them her CCM, the map on the screen had showed a bunch of red dots.

Otacross: " what! How is that possible deyo~!"

He suddenly got a call from Ota Red who appeared momentarily on the screen.

Ota Red: " Master! We have an emergency! A bunch of players barged into Akihabara!"

Yamaneko: " how did they get through the security cameras!"

" It seems they had hacked through our security system!"

Yamaneko: " don't joke around! Our system is protected! They can't hack us!"

Otacross: " well they did! I can't believe they have such capable hackers deyo~!"

Ota Red: " what should we do!?"

Ami: " they can't possibly stand against infected LBXs."

Ota yellow pushed Ota Red of the screen.

Ota Yellow: " come to our help, Ami-tan!"

Kazu: " nope, I say they can hold it in front of them just fine. They're the battlers of peace after all."

He said while his eyebrow was twitching up and down.

Hiro: " we will go to help them."

Minerva: " we will be enough to stop them."

Ran: " let's go!"

And they ran off to the elevator. Everyone else directed their attention to Otacross.

Otacross: " we have to finish this program as soon as possible deyo~!"

" A violation to Akihabara's network has been reported!"

Otacross: " what!"

A video record appeared on the screen, showing LBXs within the Infinity Net attacking the main severe of Akihabara.

Yamaneko: " they even managed to get past the fire wall!"

Otacross: " how did they-"

The old man was vexed.

Kazu: " it will be troublesome if that server is down right?!"

Otacross: " we're currently using that server to create the vaccine program deyo~! If they take it down..."

Zenon: " then let's go there! To the Infinity Net!"

Achilles Deed: " we can stop them from there!"

Kazu: " right!"

Otacross: " you guys..."

He jumped off the box and walked somewhere before returning with a huge platform in his hands.

Otacross: " I've updated my scanner deyo~! It will get a up to ten LBXs in there deyo~!"

Jin: " alright then! Let's stop them!"

" Roger!"...


Ran: " finish them off! Minerva!"

Hiro: " don't hold back! Achilles!"

The LBXs were falling one after the other by the duo's attacks.

Ota Red: " watch out!"

The bird like LBX shot away a unit that was about to attack the humans from behind.

Ota Yellow: " we got your back! Maybe we can't fight them but we can push them away!"

Ota Red: " we're the battlers for peace! We have to protect Akihabara!"

" Right!"

Hiro: " what a heroic speech. I may learn from them."

He said with twinkling eyes.

Ran: " don't you ever dare!"...


In the vast sea of data, the five LBXs manifested.

Zenon: " the infinity net."

Fenrir: " it really has no limit."

Twilight : " never thought I will be able to see it once."

Otacross: " focus on your mission! Take care of the enemies deyo~!"

Achilles: " we don't need you to tell us what to do!"

He said as he dashed off towards the LBXs attacking the server, shooting them down with his gun.

Zenon followed after him, hitting them violently with his hammer.

Pandora ran through them with a high speed, cutting through their abdomens.

Fenrir jumped in the middle, whirling around and slicing at them.

Twilight flew gracefully in between the digital robots, swiftly cutting through their armors.

Yamaneko: " a...awesome! They're really strong!"

"They managed to take most of them down with hardly any effort!"

" Is this the power of the program they have."

Otacross: " watch out!"

One of the LBXs flew through the five and hit into the server, causing some data to fly away.

Yamaneko: " damn it!"

Ami: " is that data really important?"

Otacross: " of course it is! We were using it to create the program deyo~!"

Kazu: " can't you gather it!"

Yamaneko: " not in the curent conflict."

Arata: " then, what if we collect them manually?"

Kirito: " what?"

Every eye went back to the red head at his suggestion.

Arata: " one of the LBXs can gather them."

Ami: " they're busy with the enemies right now."

Arata: " then I can do it!"

Now their jaws dropped slightly.

Arata: " while everyone is fighting I can gather them using Achilles Deed!"

Otacross: " not a bad idea deyo~. Go for it, kid."

Arata placed down his LBX on the scanner and it soon manifested in that digital world. Without losing any second, it moved quickly to grab the flying data.

Yamaneko: " be careful not to make them fly even further."

Arata: " alright."

It was the first they saw Arata so focused on his CCM as his LBX moved carefully to collect the scattered digits.

Pandora: " more are coming!"

Achilles: " we have to finish them off with an attack function!"

Kazu: " I like your way of thinking! Everyone, let's go!"

" Hissatsu Function!"

" Attack Function: Break Kaiser!"

" Attack Function: X blade!"

" Attack Function: Black Storm!"

" Attack Function: Souken Rangeki!"

" Attack Function: Midnight Katana!"

The five attack functions collided to wipe away the enemy LBXs. Through the rising dust, Arata flew Achilles to the server to return back the data.

Yamaneko: " we will take care of things from here."

Evangeline : " let me help out."

She said walking to the computer.

Ami: " are you sure of this?"

Evangeline : " are you sure you want them to attack us again and start everything from scratch once more?"

That idea didn't sound appealing.

Otacross: " alright Eva-tan, I'm depending on you."

She took in a deep breath before her eyes gleamed in red. She placed her hands on the panel next to Otacross and a bunch of codes appeared, scrolling down so fast.

Arata: " what's..."

Otacross: " we have to hurry with the main code, Eva-tan will debug and optimize it."

He said as they retrieved all the data and the loading bar for the program moved forward again. With all hands focused on working this time, they managed to finish it in quite a short time.

Eva sighed as her eyes went back to normal. All that was left is some simple tunning which Otacross took care of.

Twilight : " are you alright? You don't feel tired or anything?"

Eva smiled softly at her.

Evangeline : " I'm fine. Don't you worry."

Twilight : " but Kousuke said..."

Evangeline : " I'm alright, really."

It seemed it would take more than that to convince the purple unit. Never the less, she didn't want to push her player so much.

Arata: " what was just..."

Evangeline : " oh, my ability."

She said nonchalantly, much to everyone else's surprise.

Arata: " something like my overload?!"

Evangeline : " hm, yeah, it's something similar. I can use it to control any computer or similar thing."

Arata: " I didn't know such thing is possible..."

Evangeline : " it's not, I just have special... Circumstances let's say."

Otacross sighed as he looked at the screen with a confident air.

Otacross: " the Vaccine program of the L virus is ready to be used deyo~!"

Everyone had a relived smile at that. Hiro and Ran called just then.

Hiro: " we've completely wiped out all the infected LBXs!"

Ran: " Akihabara is now secure!"

They could hear cheering coming from the Hackers' Corps side.

Yamaneko: " hold on!"

They all stopped as he interjected with a serious voice.

Yamaneko: " it's not over yet..."...