Chapter 143: The Hidden Dangers of the Akasha Terminal
Gin's cold eyes scanned the message from Cointreau, a flicker of annoyance crossing his features before he dismissed it without a reply. Instead, he composed a terse message of his own and sent it to Kir, instructing her to stand down.
You need not worry about what comes next.
Staring at the notification on her phone, Rena Mizunashi felt a knot of unease tighten in her stomach. The message from Gin was unsettlingly simple. She had fully expected him to be suspicious, to doubt her report that "Noah's Ark" had self-destructed. Given Gin's paranoid nature, she had braced herself for orders to find a way back inside the Sindora Group, to dig deeper and confirm the truth for herself.
After all, the level of artificial intelligence the Sindora Group had just demonstrated was a prize the Black Organization would never willingly abandon.
'Could it be they've already assigned someone else to investigate?'she wondered, her mind racing.'But why bypass me?'
Logically, she was the perfect operative for the job. She had already established a connection with Ningguang and Ganyu, giving her a natural pretext to approach them again. Sending her back in would have been the most efficient move.
So, was Gin suspicious of her, or did he have another, more suitable agent already in place?
Rena considered the first possibility. Gin had been the one to task her with investigating "Noah's Ark" in the first place, which suggested a degree of trust. If he had suspected her loyalty, he never would have given her the assignment. That left the second, more chilling possibility.
The thought sent a chill down her spine. The Black Organization was truly unfathomable, its tendrils reaching into every shadow, its agents seemingly everywhere.
Meanwhile, at the Mouri Detective Agency, the atmosphere was far more relaxed, though one occupant was anything but. After watching Ningguang's interview on Yomiuri Television, Conan Edogawa's expression had turned grim.
He never imagined that Ningguang would achieve results so quickly after acquiring the Sindora Group. It was definitive proof that her interest in the company was no recent development; she must have been eyeing it for a very long time.
As Ran and her father chattered excitedly about the functions of the new "Akasha Terminal," Conan remained silent, lost in thought. He couldn't shake the feeling that the project Ningguang had poured so much effort into had a hidden, ulterior motive. The Akasha Terminal was not just a simple portable computer—it couldn't be.
Suddenly, a vibration from his pocket broke his concentration. He pulled out his phone to see a message from Haibara, asking him to come to Dr. Agasa's house. She had something to discuss.
"Ran-neechan," he called out, already scrambling for his shoes. "Dr. Agasa just told me they got a new game! I'm going to stay at his place tonight, so I won't be back."
With that, he bolted out of the agency before anyone could protest.
"Huh? Oh—Conan-kun, be careful on your way!" Ran's voice trailed after him, her words barely catching up to his rapidly retreating back. "Remember to wake up on time for school tomorrow!"
She stared at the open door, a fond but exasperated smile on her face. "That boy," she muttered to herself. "He has school tomorrow, but he's still running off to play games. I hope he doesn't stay up too late."
At Dr. Agasa's house, Conan burst through the door, his breathing slightly ragged. "Doctor! Where's Haibara?" he demanded, forgoing any pleasantries. "She called me over so suddenly. Did something happen?"
Dr. Agasa looked up, startled by the boy's abrupt entrance. "I-I'm not sure myself," he stammered, clearly confused. "Ai-kun and I were just watching that interview with Ningguang. As soon as it ended, her face turned very serious, and then she sent you that message. You'll have to ask her for the specifics."
"Then where is she?" Conan pressed, his anxiety mounting. Haibara was the one who had summoned him; why was she nowhere to be seen?
"Ahem," Dr. Agasa coughed, scratching the back of his head with an awkward hand. "Well, Ai-kun... she went to take a shower..." He offered a sheepish explanation. "She probably didn't expect you to get here so quickly, Shinichi, so..."
Conan was speechless. 'So I was supposed to take my time? Is that it?'
With no other choice, he slumped onto the sofa to wait.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before Haibara emerged, wrapped in a bathrobe with a towel around her damp hair.
Conan shot to his feet. "Haibara! You called me over so suddenly—is something wrong? Is it about the Black Organization?"
Haibara met his frantic gaze with a deadpan expression and rolled her eyes. "No."
'Honestly,'she thought,'is the Black Organization the only thing on his mind? Can't he think about anything else?'
"Oh," Conan deflated instantly, his voice losing all its earlier urgency. "Then what is it?"
Seeing his complete shift in demeanor, Haibara rolled her eyes again. "...It's about that Akasha Terminal of Ningguang's."
The moment she said it, Conan's interest was reignited. He looked back at her, his eyes sharp and attentive once more.
Ignoring his whiplash-inducing change in mood, Haibara continued, "Do you remember how Ningguang introduced the Akasha Terminal during the interview?"
"Of course I do." Though he wasn't sure where she was going with this, Conan dutifully recited what he'd heard. "It's a portable device that integrates information collection, transmission, and communication. What's the problem?"
"That is the problem," Haibara said, a faint sigh escaping her lips. "When I was with the Organization, there was a codenamed member who was obsessed with network information, so I learned a few things about the field. The Organization has always placed extreme importance on network security. They exclusively use internal, closed networks within their bases to prevent any information from leaking."
She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in. "Once the Akasha Terminal is released, if its functions are as powerful as Ningguang described, almost no one will be able to resist such a useful tool. And when the vast majority of the population is using it... if there's a backdoor, then all of their information will be completely transparent to Ningguang and her people."
Haibara took a deep breath, her gaze locking onto Conan's. "Kudo, you know they have connections to the Organization. We don't know how deep those connections go, but if my theory is correct, it would be disastrous for us."
Watching Conan's expression grow increasingly grave, she decided to temper her warning. "Of course, this might just be me overthinking things. After all, anything I can think of, other experts will surely consider as well. Once the terminal is officially released, it will be torn apart and analyzed. If there are any major security flaws, they won't be able to hide them."
She continued her analysis, thinking aloud. "Besides, achieving that level of mass surveillance is incredibly difficult. Ordinary artificial intelligence can't support that kind of massive computational load., there's currently no efficient and stable method capable of transmitting such a colossal amount of data simultaneously from millions of users."
"So," Haibara concluded, "the Akasha Terminal might have some information leakage issues, but the problem probably isn't as catastrophic as I first imagined. The true extent of the danger depends on the limits of current technology... and the depths of Ningguang's ambition."
After listening to her breakdown, Conan's grim expression eased slightly, though the tension didn't leave his shoulders. He mulled over her words for a moment, then turned to Dr. Agasa, who had been listening intently from the side. As an inventor, the doctor would know more about this than either of them.
"Doctor," Conan asked, his voice low and serious. "To achieve what Haibara just described... to process all that data... would only something like 'Noah's Ark' be capable of it?"
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