Chapter 33: The Observer

Sitting a seat away, Sean watched as Calvin operated the mouse and keyboard, typing the word "Volva" into the search engine. They clicked through several links, all of which were reports regarding the public performance of *The Dagger and the Sheath*.

Sean frowned. "Can you look this up in the AHgAs resident database?"

"You mean hack into it?" Calvin squinted.

"…Uh," Sean blinked, suddenly realizing that neither he nor Calvin had the authorization for that kind of data. "Never mind then."

"Anything else you want to look up?"

"Could you try 'Volva Short-Alarm Alley'?"

Calvin was about to move his hand but suddenly realized something. "Is this another thing related to Hestia?"

"Haha, how could it be?" Sean offered a helpless smile. "I'm just curious who this person is."

"Wait until Fletcher returns your computer, then you can look it up yourself," Calvin said, closing the laptop. "I need to prepare for my self-study."

Sean didn't respond. He sat where he was, acting as if nothing had happened, tugging at his hair in a daze while pondering the search results he had seen earlier.

Early this morning, he had, as usual, opened Calvin’s computer while he was asleep, expertly beginning to analyze the data he had packet-sniffed the night before.

A year ago, he had buried an extremely concealed Trojan in a deep folder on Calvin’s computer. It was the first virus program he had ever written himself, which Sean named "Assassin."

It was small in size, low in system consumption, and left no traces of use. Its sole purpose was to connect to and manipulate the computer belonging to Mrs. Lavitt, the manager of the student dormitory—that was the puppet machine truly under Sean's control.

Mrs. Lavitt had never been interested in information technology. Although she was diligent and responsible in her work, she had zero enthusiasm for understanding how computers actually functioned. After a computer malfunction, Sean had "kindly" cleaned up her workstation, and from that moment on, Sean had secured his first and most hidden "zombie" machine.

To ensure his actions went undetected, Sean would secretly perform maintenance on Mrs. Lavitt’s computer regularly, preventing it from running too slowly and risking her sending it in for repairs.

Mrs. Lavitt remained completely oblivious to all of this.

Through the Lavitt node, Sean had captured many interesting things. What he enjoyed browsing most were everyone’s search and history data—each person’s search and browsing behavior served as a profound and authentic reflection of their recent lives.

Take Mrs. Lavitt, for instance. She frequently searched for gardening and cooking tips, a passion everyone knew about. However, one Sunday late at night, Sean discovered her searching, "What to do if you get a puncture wound from a rusty nail?" He originally assumed Mrs. Lavitt had accidentally injured herself, but the next day he found her completely unscathed, while Mr. Weir had failed to show up for work.

When Mr. Weir reappeared, he had a cotton adhesive bandage on his forearm. Sean approached him with feigned concern, only then learning that Mr. Weir had gone to the base hospital that morning specifically to get a tetanus shot.

This made Sean realize that these two middle-aged people, married for many years, had likely spent that Sunday night together.

There were many such details. Sean observed the activities of everyone in the student dormitory from the shadows. He had never told anyone about this, not even Calvin.

He continued to expand his strongholds within the base, which required no advanced technology—he simply targeted ordinary people like Mrs. Lavitt who lacked enthusiasm for tech. Aside from one incident half a month ago, when he was quickly discovered by Morley after a relatively aggressive attempt to use staff accounts to obtain information on Hestia, he had almost never been caught.

The only other time was shortly after he discovered that the base had underground structures as well. He had been astonished by the precision and advancement of the underground architecture, which seemed to belong to an entirely different era than the surface world, so he began pondering how to forge online identity credentials to gain access authorization.

However, Sean soon realized that it wasn't just the architecture; the technology used for underground communications was also alien to him. Before he could do anything—merely upon inputting an access command—he was caught.

It was also that time his credit rating dropped directly from A to C.

Nevertheless, observing everyone around him brought great joy to his life. In this digitized world, he saw the unknown sides of many people here.

The flickering, dense flow of information slowly permeated the lives of all humans in this civilized world. In it, Sean saw shivering eroticism, fear, jealousy… or longing.

In this regard, Tan-Yi City was no different from the Hecla Wasteland.

Originally, in their second year at the base, students were supposed to begin studying computer technology. However, perhaps because most combat against chelates only required knowing how to use tools rather than understanding their working principles, many reserve members didn't value the subject much and stopped digging deeper once they passed their exams. This gave Sean vast room to maneuver.

But there were exceptions—like Liz Fletcher. After completing her third-year information security course, she proactively upgraded the encryption on her network communications. Soon, the other two girls in 403 did the same. Sean wasn't sure if Liz had done it for them, but it made him quietly steer clear of Liz.

This morning, he noticed an additional device in the student dormitory. Although it had no name, he quickly deduced it must belong to Hestia, who had just been issued a new computer.

Sean scanned Hestia’s search history. The top three entries were: "Hecla Wasteland," "Hecla Brothers," and "Hecla Tragedy."

He was stunned for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.

*Hah...*

*So you want to learn about me too, Hestia.*

Had he not been worried about waking the sleeping Calvin, Sean would have let out a loud laugh. He did his best to suppress his surging emotions and read through the list one by one. Although Hestia later searched for Asgia, Catra City, and the Sol Wasteland, it did nothing to diminish the subtle ripple in his heart.

And this mood was briefly replaced by curiosity when he saw the final search record.

*Volva.*

First of all, this was definitely not someone inside the base. Looking at the name, it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman, but since Hestia had searched for it, it must carry some weight.

Sean had originally intended to follow this thread and investigate further, but the chirping of birds outside the window acted like an alarm clock, shocking him out of his immersion—the sky had grown bright, meaning Calvin would wake up soon.

He quickly erased his tracks and sat at the table. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Calvin woke up.

"Get ready. We're going to the library."

Calvin’s voice suddenly interrupted Sean’s deep thoughts.

"Huh?" Sean raised an eyebrow. "You're going for self-study, why do I have to go?"

"I can't leave you here alone," Calvin replied. "Change your clothes and come with me."

Sean had no choice but to get up and prepare, grumbling under his breath.

...

On the way to the library, Calvin felt that Sean’s silence was somewhat unusual—he hadn't said a word the entire time, clearly deep in thought.

In fact, Sean was indeed still mulling over "Volva." Hestia's search journey had come to an abrupt halt after that name; she hadn't even clicked on the page details, which meant the results provided by the search page were not the answers she wanted.

In that case, everything related to *The Dagger and the Sheath* could be temporarily ruled out.