THE STORY · EPISODE 01
They had not taken ten steps into the Research Garden.
The Virusun the doctor studied and kept contained waited beyond a low partition. In front of its black outline floated the same emblem as the previous night’s warning. The garden was disconnected from outside networks, and the doctor could stop the test at any moment. Still, Mana’s heart would not settle.
Neat blue letters. A familiar information window. The sender sounded as polite as a helpful attendant.
“Your account will be suspended. Verify now.”
“Suspended...my account?”
As she understood more words, her fear became more specific. If the device she used here stopped working, she might lose contact with the doctor. She might not even be able to search for a way home.
Her hand almost slipped out of the sleeve of her pink mission jacket. The easy-to-move-in clothes she had borrowed from the doctor made her feel a little braver than yesterday. But changing clothes did not give her a qualification. The fingertips taking this test were just as cold as they had been the day before.
“Mana.”
The doctor spoke her name.
“What evidence do you have for trusting this sender?”
“The logo is the same as in the training material...”
She stopped herself mid-sentence. Yesterday, the doctor had been a familiar face. But then he had actually helped her, talked with her at his house, and told her how much he knew. This window was merely showing the same symbol.
“May I open the details under this name? Not the link—the information about who sent it.”
The doctor nodded.
A thin string of characters appeared behind the display name.
support@cyber1in.example
Mana opened the record of the official information the doctor had given her. It said cyberlin.example.
They looked identical.
The second time, they still looked identical.
Above her, the warning counted down. Right now. Before the deadline. Before it was too late. The words beat against her shoulders like rain.
“I’m going to run out of time.”
“Who set that deadline?”
Mana held her breath, then slowly let it out. She placed the two strings side by side again. Following them with her finger, one character at a time, she found that a single narrow stroke in the middle was different.
“This one is a lowercase L. This one...is the number one.”
The edge of the window split a little.
Black smoke showed beneath the friendly emblem. It tried to pull back at once, but Mana did not look away.
Four choices appeared beside the warning.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 01-T1Sender: one different characterAn email says your account will be suspended. The display name and logo look familiar, but the sender’s domain differs by one character from information you already trust. What should you do first?Open illustration & choices
Interactive answer checks and saved progress load with JavaScript. You can continue reading without answering.
“B. I won’t use the email’s link. I’ll check through an entry point I already know I can trust.”
“Why that choice?”
“Logos and names can be copied. The domain is different, and asking the person behind this same email whether they’re genuine doesn’t verify who they are.”
“Check the sender’s domain.”
The doctor read the English aloud just once.
“Check the domain of the person who sent it. That’s what you just did.”
Mana tried saying it too. The English did not flow as smoothly as a magic spell. But this time she understood what the words were meant to help her do.
“Check the sender’s domain.”
The window shuddered.
Not merely because she had recited the words. Instead of pressing the button in the email, Mana had separately opened the official entry point she had verified with the doctor. There was no account-suspension notice there. She reported the suspicious display to the proper contact.
“I’m checking. I will not use your link.”
The black shadow tried to spread around both sides of the partition. But the Research Garden’s controls held. Each time Mana checked the evidence, false information gave way to accurate guidance, leaving the shadow less room to stand. A human was not attacking it; the supervised first test was reflecting the results of her decisions.
For the first time, Mana understood that an enemy looking large was not the same as an enemy having many routes to reach her.
Episode 1, Illustration 1 | Verifying the sender in the certification test
The last remaining shadow stood only as high as Mana’s knees.
She was still afraid to touch it. Until a moment ago, it had been threatening her. Perhaps it would grow again if she came closer.
The doctor stepped beside her, not in front of her.
“You’ve passed. You did more than recognize danger: you verified it without following the sender’s directions. Mana, I certify you as a Secure Star.”
Her name and the certification mark lit up on the previously blank opening page of the WS Encyclopedia. The spaces for the companions she would meet were still empty.
“You welcome your first companion by purifying the shadow I have supervised. From the next encounter on, you will command your companions when they attack a Virusun. Keep that separate from today’s test.”
He held out a fresh Securies chip.
“The trap has stopped. What happens next is your choice.”
Mana held Securies in both hands. Its square edges made her aware of how much her hands were shaking.
“If your power can protect someone...”
As she offered the light, cracks appeared on the shadow’s surface.
The black fragments did not shatter. They unraveled into fine threads. From within emerged a small blue dragon. Pale horns and little wings. Large eyes. In front of his chest was a shield with a golden rim and a lock emblem.
The dragon landed and proudly puffed out his chest.
A moment later, the weight of his shield tipped him forward.
“Whoa!”
Mana caught him, and he hurriedly planted his feet.
“That was a check, don.”
“Of what?”
“Whether the ground was...solid.”
The doctor cleared his throat. Mana could tell he was hiding a laugh, and at last she burst out laughing too. It was her first deep, full laugh since arriving in Cybarin.
“I’m Securidon.”
This time the dragon held his shield a little lower.
“Earlier...I frightened you, don.”
His apology was much quieter than the warning had been.
Mana crouched. She did not know what he remembered from inside the shadow. Trying to get all of it out of him here and now felt wrong.
“I almost pressed the button without looking properly, too.”
“But you didn’t press it, don.”
“No. In the end.”
Securidon peered into Mana’s notebook. An eighth square had joined the first seven.
His eyes followed the tip of her blue pen. A place for a name was neither a space for investigating danger nor a space for correcting a mistake. Mana chose a separate patch of blank paper.
“I want you to write me there too, don.”
“Something to check?”
“My name.”
Mana thought for a moment, then wrote in large letters away from the boxes.
My first companion: Securidon.
The dragon’s cheeks brightened.
Then her WS Encyclopedia opened. COL-021: Securidon. His appearance and name were inscribed on the first page, and the registered companion count became one.
Episode 1, Illustration 2 | Her first companion, Securidon
“The encyclopedia keeps proof that we met. This notebook keeps the things I want to remember.”
She set the two books beside each other, and Securidon leaned toward both.
“I’m in two places, don.”
“But you still count as one companion.”
“So I won’t get hungry enough for two books, don?”
Even the doctor laughed. At last, the frightening sounds left the test garden.
Before noon, a young woman with long blond hair in a high ponytail stood at the Research Garden gate. A purple ribbon and scarf, a short white jacket. Her green eyes went first to the certification mark on Mana’s encyclopedia.
“Did you pass today?”
“Yes. I’m Mana.”
“Error. I started a little while ago too.”
Learning that they were both twenty-two put Mana at ease. Seeming puzzled by her relief, Error flicked her hair away from her shoulder.
“I’m aiming for King. So if I catch up with you on the way, I won’t hold back.”
“I want to enter the tournament too.”
“Wanting to enter and wanting to win are different things.”
After those sharp words, Error pointed to the garden’s stone steps. One still held water from yesterday’s rain.
“That one’s slippery.”
She turned away before she had finished speaking. Mana thanked her and watched the purple ribbon sway in place of a reply. That pointing finger had been a little too kind for her to write simply “scary person” in her notebook.
On the way back to the doctor’s house, Securidon kept turning around. Every five steps, he stopped, as though checking that Mana was still there.
“Am I really that slow?”
“No, don.”
“Then what is it?”
For a while, he fiddled with the edge of his shield.
“It’s my first time walking with someone.”
Without a word, Mana caught up and walked beside him, close enough to touch the cool rim of his shield.
The doctor also checked the first entry in her WS Encyclopedia. COL-021, Securidon. But Mana had not put a number in her notebook. For now, his name was enough.
At a corner, a narrow waterway crossed the path. Securidon jumped first and landed perfectly. Then he realized Mana could not make the same leap and came straight back.
“Use this lower part, don.”
The stone he chose was a little wet. Mana tested it with one foot, made sure it would not slip, and crossed. Securidon waited on the other side with his shield raised. He probably meant to support her, but the shield was taller than the stepping stone.
“If I bump into that, I’ll fall over.”
“Protecting is hard, don.”
“You can ask me what I’d like you to do.”
Securidon thought, lowered his shield, and held out a hand.
Mana took it. If both of them had things they did not understand, they could teach each other. They did not have to decide from the start who would protect and who would be protected.
She still wanted to go home. Whenever she looked beyond the city, she immediately found herself searching for a road back to her old office.
Yet when Securidon nearly tripped at the next junction, Mana looked at his small back before she looked for the way home.
Just then, a message reached the doctor’s device. Traffic had stopped in Update Canyon. Emergency patch. Apply immediately.
“Right now, again?”
At Mana’s words, Securidon lifted his shield.
“This time, we’ll check together, don.”
END OF EPISODE 01