An electronic alarm rang out within the RV.
The members of Group had finished eating their lunches separately and were now discussing their plan for the upcoming investigation, but they were immediately cut off.
The flustered voice of the driver/operator came over the vehicle's speaker.
"E-emergency! I'm sending you the data now!!"
Accelerator and the others looked toward the speaker the voice was coming from.
A map of Academy City appeared on the screen that was on the wall separating the back living area from the driver's seat.
"District 5's Virus Isolation Center?"
"It's a facility where Academy City-made computer viruses are analyzed and antivirus software is made. …It seems someone's cracking it." Tsuchimikado said as he read the rows of characters that were continually appearing.
Even though they knew about this incident, they never once thought of contacting Anti-Skill and asking for help. An issue that could be resolved by normal people wouldn't find its way to Group. If Anti-Skill could solve everything, Group would never have been created.
Accelerator spoke as if he found this to be a pain in the ass.
"Do we really have to act on this? You said there were plenty of other organizations like Group. Can't we leave this to one of them?"
"We have different duties, so there's no guarantee they would act on this. And it's also highly likely that one of those organizations has betrayed Academy City. We have to go."
Tsuchimikado continued to speak.
"That Virus Isolation Center has a number of unanalyzed viruses and a number of experimental viruses purposefully created by Academy City researchers. If they got out…Well, there'd be a panic."
"How far 'out' do you mean?" said Musujime with a meaningful smile on her face.
There was a gap of 20 or 30 years between the scientific technology inside Academy City and outside of it. The same went for viruses. An old generation virus for Academy City machines would be a completely unknown threat to machines "outside". And if a brand new virus that not even Academy City's antivirus software could handle was leaked "outside"…
"I'm pretty sure Academy City's security focuses more on keeping things in than keeping things out. So there should be a facility for that."
"…The External Connection Terminals."
Academy City was detached from the normal internet and an Academy City-only network had been created. The external lines that connected to the internet all had to pass through an External Connection Terminal to make contact.
"There's a terminal in the north, the east, the west, and the south, right?"
They heard a bit of static over the RV's speaker. The driver/operator was forced to speak.
"The emergency cut off of the External Connection Terminals has begun. The north terminal in District 3 is cut off. The east terminal in District 12 is cut off. The south terminal in District 2 is cut off. …!? The west terminal in District 13 isn't responding! I can't confirm whether it has been cut off or not!!"
"Ha ha! Another easy to understand plan!!" Accelerator laughed after hearing that announcement.
Tsuchimikado gave a daring smile.
"Most likely, they're luring us in. I don't know who it is, but it seems they want to be scrapped."
The RV started heading for District 13.
The driver's anxious-sounding voice came over the speaker.
"Wh-what about the attempted assassination of Oyafune Monaka-san?"
"We'll deal with it later."
"In fact, it might be School that's behind this as well."
"Um…What about Unabara-san?"
"We were never planning on saving him."