Volume 5 - The Rampage of Suzumiya Haruhi

by Tanigawa Nagaru

  Yet our situation was not optimistic at all. Like I said before, our chances of losing were near 90%, but I had wanted to lose in blazing glory. At least allow our ships to sink gloriously in the midst of all the glittering explosions. I mean, can’t you give us the feeling that “we lost, but that sure was fun, and we did our best”?

  But look at this! We’re now dying a slow and ignominious death!

  “I can’t take this any longer!”

  I should say this was expected, Haruhi now gave her commanding fleet a simple command.

  “All fleets full speed ahead! Kyon, get out of my way! I’m going to find their leader and beat the crap out of him before returning victoriously!”

  As the wanted to speed past the and , we both quickly surrounded her fleet in a fish like formation.

  “What are you doing!? Koizumi-kun, are you trying to stop me from destroying the enemy as well? I order you to back off at once, or you’ll be relieved of your duty as Advising Officer!”

  “I certainly do not intend to get in your way, Commander.”

  Koizumi may have said that, but he had no intention of giving the command to move his fleet off.

  “Commander, please allow us to take charge of this situation. I am willing to risk my life in protecting Your Excellency to the very last moment. As for my punishment, I’ll let Your Excellency decide that once the battle is over.”

  “That’s right.”

  I decided to help Koizumi.

  “If you really want to raise our chances of winning, then stay put. Besides, we still haven’t found their commanding fleet.”

  “That’s why I have to go search! He should be around here……” She pointed at a spot on her screen, though we of course couldn’t see anything from our seats. “……I guess. I’m going to go there in a straight line, and then have a one-on-one battle between us leaders!”

  I don’t know where she’s headed, but I fear that before she gets there, the will become like a beehive that gets attacked by a bear before its winter hibernation.

  Haruhi now clutched her mouse and ordered her fleet to charge forward as though trying to pick a fight with someone.

  “That’s why staying put isn’t going to help a lot! What the hell!? Your just keeps letting the enemy run away! And your forces are depleting as well! Looks like I need to move out after all!”

  “That’s why I’m telling you to stay put first!”

  I commanded my own fleet and blocked the path of the commanding fleet, Koizumi did the same thing without saying a word. Perhaps realizing the situation we were in, the three fleets continued their hit-and-run tactics, while Asahina’s was now lost in some unknown corner of the galaxy.

  “W…where is this place? Oh dear~~. I can’t even tell left from right anymore……”

  Sitting to my right, Asahina continuously looked into her screen and mine. She was close to tears as she said,

  “Where is everybody……”

  I’m so sorry. Please just wander wherever you like and continue to be a lost child. It’s for your own good.

  Thanks to the getting stuck on the backside of the , I was unable to move and have basically become a shield for Haruhi’s fleet. Wave after wave of attack has made my fleet’s triangle indicator shrink smaller and smaller.

  “Out of my way!”

  I couldn’t even if I wanted to. The ungrateful had already dodged aside before Haruhi rammed her fleet into mine, pretending to be busy engaging with , while leaving the troublesome task of stopping Haruhi to me.

  I tried my best to move my fleet, which was now merged with the and clicked my mouse frantically, trying to drag it to a suitable spot on the screen. The ever shrinking triangle representing the now changed direction at a snail’s pace. But as snails move very slowly, my fleet was constantly being locked on to and hit by enemy lasers and missiles.

  This is it, we’re done for.

  Even if I had to raise the white flag, I was left with no choice. Please try to understand, our commander was simply too dumb, even if we had a very slim chance of winning. I think I should have deserted her already before the battle began. No matter what the situation, if the leader isn’t calm, then there’s no way an organization can work efficiently. I may not know the details, but hasn’t it always been like that?

  As I continued to bicker with Haruhi both in the real world and the virtual world, the most far-sighted and calmest member of the SOS Brigade continued to battle on.

  ……That’s what I thought at first.

  I later realized that wasn’t the case, because the member sitting farthest away on the long table suddenly increased the speed of her fingers, so fast that if I didn’t record it with a high-speed camera and play it in super slow motion, it would be nearly impossible to see clearly what was going on.

  Being frustrated to the point of losing her cool had always been Haruhi’s privilege. But this time, this rule may not be entirely accurate.

  Right now, the one showing more passion than anyone of us here is none other than the pride of the SOS Brigade, the knowledgeable Intelligence Officer, bookworm and original Literature Club member……

  “……”

  Nagato Yuki.

  1635 hours.

  “Whoa!?”

  An unbelievable scene unfolded before my eyes, and I gave a foolish yell as a result.

  “What the hell just happened?”

  The visible areas in the map of the have now expanded to three times their previous size. The positions of Enemies , and , which kept appearing and disappearing, can now be clearly seen. One of them was on the left wing preparing to fire lasers at Koizumi’s fleet; another moved off and turned around again, preparing to make its next attack; while the third one had the immobile and locked in its firing range. As for why the enemies’ position could be clearly seen, this was because……

  The had divided itself into twenty fleets.

  “This is too incredible!”

  Koizumi’s praises sounded empty to me.

  “As expected from Nagato-san to notice this feature. I had thought of using it as well, but as it was too complicated, I gave up before even trying.”

  “Wait, Koizumi,” I said, “Is this feature even in the instruction manual?”

  “Of course! It’s right at the back. You want me to teach you? First hold down the Ctrl and F4 key, then decide the number of fleets you want your fleet divided into……”

  “N…no thanks, I don’t think I’ll ever use it.”

  I once again examined the screen.

  The triangle representing the had shrunk dramatically as if being shone on by some strange light. Replacing it were twenty small triangles of equal sizes. I moved my mouse cursor over one of the small triangles, and it indicated the words .

  Subfleet?

  Of the little triangles labeled 01 to 20, some continued to engage themselves with , some sneaked past the gaps in the enemies’ defenses to scout the unknown areas of space, while others either flew around or came to support the struggling .

  Koizumi, would you please care to explain?

  “Well……this function allows you to divide a single fleet into two or more subfleets and give them separate commands. The most you can divide into is twenty-seven, if I remember correctly. That’s what the instruction manual said.”

  “What’re the advantages in doing that?”

  “As you have seen, the area being scouted would increase, it’s like having twenty extra pairs of eyes. Besides this feature, another advantage is that by dividing your fleet, you could have one subfleet act as bait while the other can sneak behind and ambush the enemy. But this feature seems to be too complicated, whic
h is why even the Computer Study Group didn’t use it.”

  Koizumi leaned his face towards me and said in a voice which Haruhi couldn’t hear,

  “This is because these multiple subfleets can only be controlled by one player. Because when you concentrate on one single subfleet, it’s not possible to look after the other subfleets, which would basically be immobile puppets. It simply is impossible for a human to command twenty or more subfleets.”

  I imagined the horrified looking faces of the people next door, and then turned my head sideways.

  “Hey, Naga……”

  The sound of Nagato hitting the keyboard no longer gave the usual clattering noise, but now sounded like all the keys were being slammed at the same time.

  “U…um……won’t you break the keyboard if you hit it so hard……?”

  Her eyes were fixed on the screen, which was no longer showing the game graphics, but a black background with a bunch of letters, numbers and symbols… the words and symbols were scrolling by at an incredible speed.

  Asahina asked looking terrified at Nagato, but Nagato didn’t even look at her. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, which was no longer showing the game graphics, but a black background with a bunch of letters, numbers and symbols, which reminded me of those BIOS interface screens from the computers of the dinosaur age. What’s more, the words and symbols were scrolling by at an incredible speed.

  “What is it?”

  Nagato asked me without even turning her head.

  “……Um, I……”

  Na, Nagato-san? May I ask what you’re doing right now?

  I now felt an invisible pressure emanating from the aura of Nagato’s slamming of the keyboard. Even my mutterings were now becoming polite.

  I reconfirmed what I saw on my screen, the twenty were like animated tea leaves being granted with life, toying around with the enemy. There was no problem with the game interface…… no, wait a minute, didn’t I specifically told her not to cheat?

  “I didn’t.”

  Nagato replied. For the first time she turned and looked at me, while her hands remained busy as usual.

  “I did not perform any data manipulation. I have obeyed the rules of the game as you told me to.”

  As if afraid of being scanned by Nagato’s vision, Asahina inadvertently backed off. Nagato’s eyes were now staring straight into mine.

  “I did not carry out any actions beyond the limits of this simulation game.”

  “I…I see. Sorry for doubting you.”

  I felt a terrible aura now rising from her short hair.

  Yet, Nagato’s expression and gaze remained the same, not carrying any emotions at all. Normally, she would reply in a calm tone, “I see.” And then fall into silence. But this time she gave me an unexpected reply.

  A very shocking reply indeed.

  “It is the people from the Computer Study Group whose actions could be considered as cheating, not mine.”

  At the same time, Haruhi’s fleet broke through the protective barrier of the .

  “Too slow! Why is it so slow? Would it be faster if I poured some mineral water over the computer?”

  She may have been complaining, but Haruhi couldn’t hide her excitement at finally being able to move.

  I leaned forward over Asahina and quietly asked Nagato,

  “What do you mean when you said they’re cheating?”

  Without stopping her high speed typing, Nagato replied without any emotion,

  “They are using commands not present on our computers, giving them an advantage over this virtual galactic battlefield.”

  “What commands?”

  Nagato fell silent for a while, as if trying to reorganize her thoughts and blinked,

  “Their search mode is turned off.”

  After saying this, she then explained further in a calm tone.

  According to Nagato, the Computer Study Group had set their battle mode with “Search Mode Off” at the beginning of the battle, while we had no such option available to us. But I still don’t understand what the difference was between “On” and “Off”. What does it mean really?

  “When search mode is turned on, the players would have to scout the area ahead on their own. When it’s off, they wouldn’t need to do any searching. They have nullified their search mode, rendering it obsolete.”

  Erm……could you please elaborate further?

  “When search mode is off, the whole map would be shown.”

  In other words……

  “From the beginning, they could see the whole map of the galaxy, including the location of all of our fleets.”

  For Nagato, that was the simplest, most straightforward way of explaining it.

  “That is not all.”

  The alien-created living humanoid interface continued without smiling.

  So, the vessels of the even have teleportation devices built into them. No wonder they could disappear at will. The is at least 500 years behind them technologically. It’s like the samurai infantry of the Sengoku period facing off against the Self-Defense Force artillery. There’s just no way of winning.

  “That is correct.”

  Nagato also confirmed what we already knew,

  “Besides losing, we didn’t have any other choice.”

  Didn’t? Nagato was using past tense. So, what about now? When I was hoping she would change to present tense, I noticed Nagato’s obsidian eyes revealing a stirring emotion I had not seen before. I sat back upright and said,

  “But Nagato, I still hope to continue playing this game without the use of any alien powers. I know those guys are cheating, but that is also why we mustn’t resort to cheating with magic as well, or we would be no different from them. No, we would be worse then they’re, since your magic isn’t even within the bounds of this Earth.”

  “I will not go against your instructions.”

  Nagato replied immediately,

  “I was trying to rewrite the program under the boundaries of current Earth technology. I promise you, I will not manipulate any existing data information. I will take measures to counter the Computer Study Group within the limits of human ability. Please allow me to do that.”

  Are you asking me?

  “The one who placed a limit on my data manipulation abilities is you.”

  ……

  I’ve known this girl for nearly half a year already. During this time, I’ve noticed beneath her emotionless face that she was experiencing some very minor emotional changes—that is if she had any emotions—but I do have a certain degree of confidence in this. At that moment, I saw revealed on Nagato’s pale face, in microscopic proportions, a very determined look.

  Asahina looked at me, terrified. Koizumi also looked at me, but with a smile of course. Only Haruhi was shouting something, firing away her lasers and missiles. At this rate she’ll run out of ammo and will be surrounded by enemies. There isn’t much time for me to decide.

  How should I decide? ……I hesitated for a few seconds, it’s rare for Nagato to be so passionate. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen her like this. I was considering whether this was a good thing or not. She may be a living humanoid interface created by the Integrated Data Sentient Entity, that resembles a human in every way, but as with the most perfect artificial intelligence, there may come a day where even she would desire to be human herself.

  Never once did I believe that this wasn’t a good thing.

  “Very well, Nagato. Go ahead and do it.”

  I gave an encouraging smile and slapped my chest to reassure her,

  “As long as it’s within the confines of human ability, then you’re welcome to do whatever you please. Give those guys at the Computer Group the scare of their lives. If you can scare them into not daring to ever demand compensation from us again, which is what Haruhi would like to see, even better.”

  Nagato stared at me for quite a long time—at least for me
it felt like a long time.

  “I see.”

  A simple response later, Nagato hit the Enter key. Just like that, the tables were instantly turned in our favor.

  1647 hours.

  The cunning trap has now been laid.

  Though the sudden change in situation had me speechless, my level of astonishment was merely that of a rookie Shaolin monk who has just begun his training; it was nothing compared with that of the Computer Study Group, who were probably now in total pandemonium as if Wall Street had just crashed.

  This was all thanks to Nagato’s cloning techniques. I was really grateful that Nagato was on the same side as I was. I even thought of buying one or two presents to thank our mighty goddess Nagato. Maybe I’ll get her an interesting book next time. Speaking of which, when is her birthday?

  No matter, we can discuss those details later. For now let us return to the present situation.

  As if the players’ fears were being manifested in the virtual world, the enemy fleets on the screen all stopped moving one by one.

  It seems Nagato has hacked into the Computer Group’s five computers using her notebook computer and directly rewritten the program for . Don’t ask me how she did it, how should I know? I may not have understood that part, but I was sure what her sole objective was, and that was to forcefully turn on the search mode for the enemy as well. As a result, the visible map of the would have shrunk dramatically, and the shrouded areas on their screen would be increasing as well. Before that, they had had no need to send out any surveillance vessels, and in fact they have never done so, according to our Intelligence Officer.

  After locking the enemies’ search mode into the “On” position, Nagato went further and rewrote the game’s source code and had it locked as well. Now no one else was able to change the code besides herself. However, she didn’t delete the teleportation function, but instead made some minor adjustments and executed these changes. This was part of a little plan that Nagato had thought up.

  She did all of the above while commanding her twenty subfleets at the same time, and without using any mysterious alien powers to boot. Even within the boundaries of human ability, she was already exceptional.