Cross Academy.
A violent snowstorm was ravaging the huge section of the Swiss Alps that the academy owned. An extreme weather alert ordered everyone at the academy to stay at home. This was quite a regular occurrence in the area especially during the official winter season so nobody panicked even though the storm was extremely dangerous.
Most of the residents stayed at home but there were some people whose duty was to ensure the safety of Cross Academy 24/7 no matter the danger. Some of these loyal, duty-bound individuals included specially selected members of the Computer Department who were in charge of the academy’s surveillance and online security system.
Cross Academy was a powerhouse in its own right with resources comparable to a small developed country. Its economic and diplomatic might was as equally legendary as its reputation for producing the best geniuses among geniuses in the world. Rumour had it that the academy had its own secret military and a stash of advanced weaponry but no definite confirmation or denial had been released as of this moment.
Given its undeniable power and wealth, not to mention the countless secrets it continued to safeguard for more than two centuries since the legendary founder Professor Galaxianne Arria von Cross, it was not surprising that Cross Academy was a tempting target to many who wanted to snatch its immeasurable richness.
A specialized unit of the Computer Department was assigned to defend the academy from any online attacks to the surveillance and online security system, ranging from simple pranks to full-on malicious assaults
Ever since a beloved alumnus of the Computer department named Evelina Vetrova, known in the hacker world as the legendary Fantom, changed the entire system to that of her own design, Cross Academy never suffered any serious breaches ever again.
Even when Evelina had been reported as killed in the bloody Vetrov annihilation years ago, the Computer Department continued to use the system she designed when she was still a student, making improvements as necessary to keep up with the times. It wasn’t because the department head wanted to honour the memory of his favourite student by stubbornly using the system she designed for the academy, although that was also a part of it.
The real reason that they continued using Evelina’s system for that long was because there was no one else who could design a better system than hers. It was as simple as that.
Imagine the department head’s delight when a newly enrolled student appeared and learned that she was a disciple of his late student, making Iris Long his grand-student.
Iris Long was as brilliant and talented with computers as Evelina Vetrova. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t enrolled in the Computer Department. The department head still regarded the young woman as an important honourary member of his Computer Department.
There was a sense of bittersweet nostalgic pride whenever he admired Iris Long’s exploits as the rising star Drakon and compared it to the late Evelina Vetrova’s legendary feats as Fantom.
The department head once again felt nostalgic as he watched the new security system that Iris Long designed fight off the usual wave of malicious hackers. She designed and presented it when she stayed in the academy last year.
Although the department head felt a little reluctant to part with Evelina’s old system, he couldn’t possibly reject Iris’ new system when it was obvious that it was better in every single way. It was approved as Cross Academy’s new surveillance and online security system within a day.
The new system was even more aggressive to attackers than the old one. To the department head, this was proof that Iris Long, a.k.a. Drakon, was a completely different person than his favourite student Evelina Vetrova, a.k.a. Fantom.
Although Fantom cemented herself as a legendary figure in the hacker world for many years, she was never known for aggressiveness.
In fact, the name Fantom wasn’t decided by herself but by the hacker community after noticing her odd modus operandi of hacking in the toughest systems in the world for the strangest reason of simply entertaining herself and leaving undetected until someone discovered her traces by accident. Another odd quirk of hers was leaving entertaining review-like messages such as “a page-turner, terrific suspense but lacking in comedic factor” on highly classified files stored in places like The Pentagon, for example.
This modus operandi was definitely odd among so many hackers who craved attention and recognition for their feats. Neither money nor status moved Fantom. She simply operated within her own set of rules that nobody even until now ever really understood.
Instead of being aggressive, she was actually quite passive, not initiating any destructive attacks without being provoked or triggered first in some way. In addition to her odd modus operandi, these traits earned her the moniker of Phantom because she operated like a mysterious phantom.
She later accepted the name but changed the spelling into Fantom and had officially used it ever since up until what the hacker world called her “mysterious disappearance”.
The department head couldn’t help but sigh in admiration as Iris Long’s security system once again destroyed the attackers rather brutally and even successfully locked on to their real geolocation.
Not only that. It also started gathering basic background information about the attackers which the Computer department could pursue and use to punish them according to Cross Academy’s policies.
The most diabolical feature of Iris Long’s system, however, was that once it discovered the identity of an attacker, it would automatically trace the hacker’s bank accounts—both registered and illegal ones—and then freeze the funds inside them.
Then it would prompt the staff in the Computer Department on what to do with those funds. If the money was obtained through illegal or vicious means, then it would suggest returning the stolen funds to their original owners, or if the original owners couldn’t be found, then “donated” to various charities.
Although there were a lot of similarities on how Evelina and Iris operated, the department head had already long concluded that it was only natural given the women’s master-disciple relationship. To him, it was clear as day that the two women had completely different styles.
The attack tonight was routine. Nothing too exciting. There was no human intervention needed at all. The security system could handle it by itself.
