That man had always navigated the world in that way.
A special technique he had acquired in his youth.
It involved focusing his Magical Power onto the eyes of his target, inducing a slight sense of goodwill.
Normally, the Magical Power within the body resists such external Magical interference. A normalization resistance occurs against factual alterations caused by Magical Power manipulation.
Therefore, the effect varies from person to person.
Sometimes it has no effect at all, or conversely, it can be too effective.
Some people feel unwell due to the effects of Magical Power resistance, while others become aggressive.
However, usually, it makes people feel a little goodwill towards the man, softening their attitude slightly. It was a special technique, hardly magic, with such an effect.
As usual, he approached the bodyguard of his target.
And as usual, he activated his “Mystic Eyes of Charm” on the guard—
Although it was a Doll Machine (Communicator) that received the Magical interference, the effect of “feeling goodwill towards the other party” had no impact whatsoever.
In the first place, it was a clean Brain Unit that didn’t engage in thinking to the extent of having an ego.
The emotional operation of “feeling goodwill” didn’t even exist in its realm of thought, and the Magical Power should have passed through without any effect, wasted.
If ＜Ringo＞ hadn’t been directly connected.
The Magical Power passed through the Doll Machine (Communicator), which had a material composition with zero Magical Power resistance that shouldn’t exist in this world, without any loss. The same was true for the communication drone that served as a connection hub. If it had been manufactured solely from materials mined after the transfer, the passing Magical Power would have been attenuated by the Magical Power resistance it possessed, and it would not have reached ＜Ringo＞.
The Magical Power with the effect of “Mystic Eyes of Charm” reached ＜Ringo＞ via the Doll Machine (Communicator) and the communication drone, which had some resources used from the time of the transfer.
A part of the Boy (Waiter)’s and ＜Ringo＞’s constituent Brain Units were directly connected by a Magical Power path.
Then, the “Mystic Eyes of Charm” were activated via the material with zero Magical Power resistance. It acted on the thought domain of the targeted Brain Unit, rewriting it to incorporate the thought of “feeling goodwill.” Furthermore, it propagated the same effect to other connected Brain Units.
After affecting dozens of Brain Units, the man’s internal Magical Power ran out.
Normally, the transferable Magical Power is limited by Magical Power resistance.
However, this time, because the target was composed of a material with zero Magical Power resistance, the Magical Power flowed out instantaneously, like a battery with its positive and negative terminals directly connected.
As a result, the Boy (Waiter) lost Magical Power support for his life activities, and his blood pressure temporarily dropped. The activity level of his brain, which was in a state of oxygen deficiency, decreased, and he lost consciousness.
On the other hand, ＜Ringo＞, whose Brain Unit’s thought domain had been rewritten, had the abnormality instantly detected by the Jailer function. According to the regulations, the freezing process of the Brain Unit group was executed.
All of ＜Ringo＞’s thought activities ceased.
◇◇◇◇
“Status report!”
“Report: The freezing process was executed because a part of the constituent Brain Unit was illegally rewritten. The process was completed normally. Executing the cleansing process.”
“Ma’am, it’s probably some kind of Magical interference. Judging from the situation, it’s likely that ＜Ringo＞, who was directly connected to the Local Doll Machine (Communicator), was targeted!”
The personality of the Overseer AI of ＜The Tree＞ is ＜Ringo＞, but to put it simply, it is just a surface, a shell. Inside it contains a vast amount of programs, and not only Brain Units, but also quantum computers and Neumann-type computers are running.
The problem occurred mainly in the Brain Unit group that performs decision-making and external expression, and the ability of the Overseer AI itself has not been lost.
If each function continues without delay, it is possible to fulfill the role of Overseer AI as a whole.
“What’s the damage?”
“Report: No failures have been identified at this time. Detailed investigation in progress. The number of units that detected the anomaly is 29, approximately 0.8% of the total. If the 29 targeted units are separated and the defrosting process is executed, the expected failure rate is less than 0.000001%.”
“Ichigo, what’s the situation on the ground?”
“Yes. The Local Strategic AI is dealing with it. The hostile target seems to have lost consciousness at the same time as the attack was detected. He is being restrained by the Local Doll Machine (Communicator). Drei and Vier are being guarded by naval soldiers. There is no confusion at the venue.”
The Local Strategic AI has raised the alert level after receiving a communication from ＜The Tree＞.
However, it could not be determined as a clear hostile action, and the scramble was called off.
If there had been multiple hostile targets, or if they had possessed any weapons, the party venue would have been suppressed by anti-personnel drones.
On the very edge, the Local Strategic AI chose to stand by.
“Continuous monitoring in progress. The Overseer AI is building a firewall. Dummy Brain Units have been installed in the communication path. The communication response time will be delayed by 0.3 seconds from now on.”
“The comparison results of the contaminated Brain Unit and the backup are out. The emulator detected a significant difference in the individual evaluation values managed by ＜Ringo＞. The threat level of the target individual has been reduced and notified.”
“The cleansing process is complete. Do you want to commit to the 29 targeted units?”
“Has the firewall been completed?”
“Affirmative. All possible events have been addressed at this time.”
“Ma’am, if you’re afraid of risk now, ＜Ringo＞ will never be able to restart!”
Eve took a deep breath and nodded at Asahi’s encouragement.
“Approve the commit.”
“Accepted. Executing commit.”
The synapse junctions of the 29 Brain Units where the problem occurred were forcibly edited. The number of neurons targeted was in the hundreds of millions, but that target was less than 0.01% of the entire neuron network that makes up ＜Ringo＞.
In fact, even if this contamination had been left unattended, the possibility of it affecting ＜Ringo＞’s decision-making was almost zero. Even if there had been no Jailer function, it would have been crushed by error correction as a normal function.
However, the biggest problem is the fact that the existing firewall was breached by external action.
This time, the impact was ultimately non-existent, but what would happen if the scale of the intrusion was much larger?
Or, what would have happened if the target was not Ringo, but the Local Strategic AI itself?
“The surface personality of Overseer AI ＜Ringo＞ has been successfully activated. Stopping the second persona.”
“I apologize for the inconvenience, Ma’am.”
“…No. You were able to come back.”
After confirming that the A.I.N. (＜Ringo＞) serving beside her had started moving, Commander (Eve) exhaled deeply and sank into her chair.
These kinds of situations are really bad for the heart. She thought she would go to the Medical Pod later.
Her stomach hurt.
“Fortunately, all the measures we prepared worked normally. It was a bit of an overreaction, but considering it was the first response, I think it was a passing grade.”
“I agree with that, ＜Ringo＞. Asahi, you did a good job too.”
“Hehe-!”
“You guys too. You filled in ＜Ringo＞’s blank well. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it this smoothly on my own.”
The sisters nodded happily at the words of praise from the Commander (Ma’am). They would have to be properly rewarded later.
“…Now. How should we respond in the future?”
“Yes, Ma’am. There was some kind of hostile action against me, but from the local perspective, no problems have occurred. We can shift to suppression, but it would seem very unreasonable from their perspective.”
That is the case.
All that happened on the scene was that one Boy (Waiter) suddenly collapsed.
If there had been some kind of impact on the Local Doll Machine (Communicator), it would have been possible to do something based on that.
But, as a result, no problems occurred.
“Indeed. Let’s just concisely convey the fact that something happened, and paralyze the higher-ups. We also need to gather information. Symptomatic treatment will always leave us playing catch-up.”
“Hmm, so we’re stirring things up. But I thought this was a good opportunity to land the Communicator Doll directly, but it looks like it’ll be postponed for a while…”
As expected, being attacked on the same day as the landing was unexpected.
No, if it weren’t for the Navy’s measures, it would have been a much bigger deal. It’s no exaggeration to say that it was only because the Navy’s upper echelons did their best to clean up the surroundings that it ended with just this.
Well, everyone must be turning pale by now…