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 actually needed those 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?

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.