THE STORY · EPISODE 05
Mana knew what she wanted to buy with her first paycheck.
Nothing expensive. Just a slightly special meal with her family, with her picking up the bill for once. She had promised, a little bashfully, before graduating.
So when she saw the subject “Payslip Reconfirmation,” nostalgia came before caution.
The street leading to Cybarin’s HR portal was lined with window-filled buildings. Each window carried someone’s working hours or applications, sending them in turn to the information windows in the plaza.
Only the email floating before Mana felt as though it had arrived at her own desk.
“Maybe it came from the place I’m trying to get back to.”
She spoke softly, and Securidon looked up.
“Do you know that, don?”
“...No. But...”
But she wanted it to be true.
A young man with short blond hair ran toward them from across the street. His movements were light, but he slowed when he spotted the shadow at his feet.
“Don’t step on that line. Let’s clear some space first.”
He introduced himself as Bug, a Secure Star who had started his journey before Mana. He seemed more concerned with keeping room to move than with winning spectacularly.
Under his blue hooded jacket was a white shirt. His black pants allowed easy movement, and he carried a pack. Bug was twenty-four. The way he read the ground beneath him showed experience gained through travel.
Error arrived a little later. Brushing back her long blond hair, she stayed a step away rather than peering into Mana’s device.
“You don’t have to show us your secrets. What are they asking you to do?”
The red @ symbol on the screen swayed slowly. A thin line of light, like fishing line, extended toward Mana’s fingertips, trying to lead them to the sign-in button.
First, the shadow’s line tried to twist the meaning of a word.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 05-D1Recognizing phishingWhat is phishing?Open illustration & choices
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“A. Pretending to be someone you trust to make you hand over secrets.”
Securidon’s shield caught the line. Mana’s voice shook, but the meaning she chose did not.
The message read naturally.
There was no strange Japanese or awkward English. It began with a polite greeting, gave a deadline for the procedure, and ended with “Thank you for your cooperation.”
Miscure asked a question.
“What does the sender want you to do?”
“Sign in and check my payslip...”
Mana stopped her hand as she answered.
She was the one who wanted to see the payslip. Perhaps what the sender wanted was the information she would enter to reach it.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 05-A1Payroll: verify the requestAn unverified email asks you to reconfirm payroll information. Its display name is Human Resources. What should you do before signing in?Open illustration & choices
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“If I reply and ask...C?”
Perhaps it came from home. That hope slipped into her command.
Securidon’s light moved along the reply route. As though it had been waiting, the shadow reeled in the line and pulled the edge of his shield down.
“The person answering would be the same sender!”
Bug steadied their footing while Error called the doctor through the encyclopedia’s communication function.
“That isn’t independent verification. Let’s consider a different situation.”
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 05-A2Redelivery: choose a trusted routeAn unverified redelivery notice asks you to enter information. Where should you check?Open illustration & choices
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“B. Open the official app I already use, myself.”
“And for payroll?”
“The saved, legitimate HR portal. The answer to the earlier question is D.”
Securidon stood up. Mana looked at the scratches on his shield.
“I’m sorry. Next time, I’ll say where we’ll verify it before giving the command.”
“We’ll check together, don.”
Without opening the link itself, Mana compared the sender, displayed destination, and reply address with known legitimate information. Differences were reasons to investigate; she did not assume those alone could establish whether every email was genuine.
“Yesterday, I might have looked only at the sender and felt safe.”
Securidon rested a claw on the rim of his shield.
“I can’t see everything just by looking at what I’m good at, don.”
Mana looked at him. The Securidon she had first met would surely have puffed out his chest and said he could protect everything.
She moved away from the email’s button.
Using a separate entry point, she opened the legitimate HR portal she had saved. She chose the contact from that trusted information too, not from the email.
While they waited for verification, red fishing line coiled around their feet.
Episode 5, Illustration 1 | The payroll email’s fishing line
“Your payment may be delayed.”
Her payment might arrive late.
Mana’s chest tightened.
“It says...I should hurry.”
“If it’s late, there’ll be someone to apologize to, don.”
Securidon spoke.
“But if you give your key to the wrong person, there’ll be more people we have to protect, don.”
Mana closed her eyes. Would her family be angry if the dinner she had promised came a little late? More likely, they would tell her to ask for help sooner when she was struggling.
An answer arrived.
The legitimate department had not issued that reconfirmation request.
“Verify the sender before signing in.”
Check who sent it before logging in.
After speaking the sentence aloud, Mana submitted the suspicious email through the official reporting channel. She described the differences she had verified and stated that she had not entered any information.
“Securidon, we’ve reached the proper verification contact. Push that line back!”
This time, the light did not follow the reply route prepared by the sender.
The red @ symbol jerked sharply. Fishing line whipped through the air, trying once more to drag Mana’s cursor toward it.
Securidon raised his shield. Miscure gently touched Mana’s hand where she held the device.
“Not entering anything counts as protecting something too.”
Listening to her, Mana closed the official screen and waited while the work to disable the suspicious entry point continued.
She did not have to throw away her wish. She simply did not have to hand it over to someone using it as bait.
The line snapped.
The shadow fell to the ground, unable even to bounce. As Securies unraveled the dark mass, a blue fishlike companion appeared. A fin rose from his back, and he held a fishing rod. At its tip, the red @ symbol now swayed quietly.
“Phishingon.”
The new companion gave his name, then moved the rod behind his back.
“Does looking at this upset you?”
Mana did not answer at once.
“That line frightened me.”
Phishingon’s fin drooped.
“But if someone is about to fall for the same trick, I think you’ll notice.”
He looked at the rod’s tip. He did not try to cast the red symbol toward anyone.
“Next time, I’ll call out before I pull.”
“Yes. That would be good.”
The fifth entry lit up in the WS Encyclopedia: COL-001, Phishingon.
Episode 5, Illustration 2 | Meeting Phishingon
“Did you win?” Bug asked.
“We helped. But we were in danger once.”
“If you can say both, you can carry both into the next time.”
Error almost nodded, then looked away.
“Next time, I’ll notice first.”
It was a rival’s voice, but it did not sound like someone leaving her behind.
Back at the doctor’s house, Mana paused with her chopsticks halfway through dinner.
“Today, when I wanted to go home, I suddenly lost sight of what I’d already learned.”
The doctor listened without speaking.
“I thought knowing things meant I could always do the right thing.”
“We don’t always have the same room in our minds to recall what we know.”
“Is that why we go together?”
“How did it feel to you today?”
Mana looked at Securidon. He was explaining to Phishingon why fishing rods did not belong at the dining table. He looked proud, though five minutes earlier he had propped his shield on the table and knocked over the breadbasket.
“I was glad I wasn’t alone.”
The doctor offered no further explanation.
After dinner, while Mana remained at the table, Phishingon brought her a sheet of paper.
“I thought you might need a fresh one if you wrote something wrong.”
The paper was blank. Unlike the trap, it did not tell her what to do next.
“Thank you. I get to decide what to write on it.”
“Yes.”
He answered with a small swish of his tail beside her chair.
Mana tucked the sheet into her notebook. If she got back to her own world, would she forget how she felt today? Even if she did, she thought that this blank page might remind her someone had left her room to choose.
Then she wrote down her promise to buy dinner with her first paycheck. So she would not forget. So that a false email touching a real wish would not make her throw the wish away.
Securidon brought his round face close beside hers.
“What will you eat at that dinner, don?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Then we’ll think about it until you get home, don.”
Those were not words promising that she would get home.
They were words sharing her wish to return.
Late that night, something like a sheet of paper drifted past the window.
Then a hundred more.
Beyond them, the incoming-message bells would not stop ringing.
END OF EPISODE 05