The first thing to do will be to get an incentive for them to work together, and to work against the world. Sure they don’t have any conflict between them but that doesn’t mean the two countries are exactly on good terms, for everything to go smoothly I won’t only need a reason for them to wage a war against the world, I’ll also need a reason for them to work together.

Let’s take things step by step, to start I’ll need a good enough understanding of both nations. Which means hacking into the governments of both countries. I hope I haven’t become rusty.

Vvvrrrr

5 hours later

“That took… longer than expected.”

Turns out that hacking into highly protected governments with a shitty outdated computer takes a lot of time. The computer was already barely holding on because of how old it was, it works fine but it definitely can’t be compared to the new super-computers that have been developed, mine’s about three generations late, I’ve had it for six years already. Not updating or working it hard for those six years probably hasn’t helped either. It took much longer than expected and I don’t have full access yet, it isn’t too shabby to start, but I’m for sure going to need more if I don’t want to fail before I even start. China was easy enough but the virtual protections of United Korea haven’t been giving me a lot of trouble. I just have to finish this and I can finally take a break.

“I’ll have to try hard one more time...”

Bzzt!

“Or not.”

That was the sound of my computer giving its last breath, seems like I pushed it too much after not doing anything with it for years. It’s time to get a new computer then, I wanted to buy a new one either way. I just hope my saving will be enough, if I can’t get a computer decent enough to hack into a bank’s mainframe I won’t have a source of funds.

I haven’t even worn casual clothes in years, apart from going to work in formal clothes I never left my home on weekends.

Been a while since I’ve gone to such a crowded place, even on a weekday the Beyond Mall in the center of Paris is filled to the brim with people, something that I don’t particularly enjoy. After arriving at the store I realized that the amount of money I have isn’t close to enough for a good quality computer nowadays. The Banana corporation is the subdivision of Hirenfa that focuses on producing computers each more powerful than the previous one, and of course, more expensive. The last time I went there was six or so years ago so it’s understandable prices rose but I never expected it to be by that much. After working at such a stingy company, I’d managed to save close to 800 euros, basically, a tenth of what I need for a top-level computer, and a quarter of what I need for a decent one, in other words, I’m fucked.

“Hello sir, I’m Alex, may I help you with anything?”

“No thanks, I’m just looking.”

“Oh, new computers I see, if your budget is too small you can pay in multiple increments, up to four times. If that’s still too expensive I can recommend some less pricy products for you.”

“Listen here! I’m. Just. Looking. I don’t have the money for this kind of stuff.”

“Then go look elsewhere. We don’t want you poor people dirtying up this shop.”

“Who do you think you are? Why the hell are you so rude.”

“I’m rude if I want to be. I’m someone in charge of selling products in this shop, so if you don’t have money, piss off.”

“Sure, whatever you say.”

What a rude bastard. I don’t have many options left, the only place with decent computers I can afford to go to now is a cybercafe, I think they opened one up in the mall a little bit ago, I won’t hack into the governments from there, but I can at least use it to secure some funds by siphoning some of their money, or sell some actions in big enterprises that some people have to my name. The bank is less troublesome, I’ll go with that.

“Welcome to the Panda cybercafe, how can I help you?”

“I need a room with the best computer you have.”

“I see… umm, ah! we have one open, it’ll cost you 300 euros an hour.”

“That much!?”

Even for a mall, this was shocking, just a few minutes away there’s a much cheaper one, I can get one hour for 20 euros over there! Why the huge difference now.

“Why is the price so steep, I hope that at least the computer is powerful enough, what is it?”

“It’s the latest model of Banana incorporation, The Ordinal PC II.”

“...”

Yeah, that justifies it pretty well. That’s one damn good computer, it can rival the entire processing power that small to medium companies had back in 2050. In 2120 though it’s released to the general public, it’s slowly becoming the norm, but the companies couldn’t keep up.

“Fine, I’ll rent it for two hours.”

“Glad to be of service. See you in two hours.”

That should be enough for me to secure funds, and I wasn’t planning on it, but let’s finish the Korean government hack while I’m at it. I never expected to receive such good tools, with them I should finish on time.

Just the matter of picking which bank now, but I do have a target in mind. I might as well start weakening the opponent now, so the Hirenfa European Union Bank seems like a good target, by the way, their naming sense is terrible. Let’s get to work again.