NOVEL NEXT Episode 12 - A Challenge Letter to Salome (Part 1)
Episode 12: A Challenge Letter to Salome (Part 1)
The story began three weeks ago, on the night of January 10th.
Fresh from the bath, Aki padded barefoot across the living room carpet, humming softly. She wore only a t-shirt and shorts, with a towel draped over her damp hair.
“I bet landlord-san next door is still wrestling between coffee and sleep at this hour.”
A slight smile played across her lips as she thought of that habitually listless young man with his cold demeanor.
…
The discovery came while Miyagi Aki was cleaning her room – a small hole in the living room wall.
Its hidden location made it nearly impossible to spot under normal circumstances. The hole peered directly into landlord-san’s house next door… or rather, it was positioned for the reverse: a peephole designed to violate tenants’ privacy for base desires.
This could have painted a disturbing picture of the young landlord-san. However, Aki quickly deduced that Duanmu Liang had never used the peephole.
Someone with voyeuristic tendencies, once having indulged, finds it impossible to resist further violation. The thrill of breaching others’ privacy becomes as addictive as any drug.
Therefore, landlord-san couldn’t be such a deplorable person. Whether he remained unaware of the hole’s existence or had discovered it but chosen not to use it out of principle didn’t matter – as long as it didn’t impact her daily life.
Though still in high school, he lived independently from his family, struggling each day to maintain his autonomous lifestyle.
Yet landlord-san clearly had his principles. While not someone with an abnormal personality, he possessed a stubbornness that others might find difficult to comprehend.
This quality made him unexpectedly endearing… at least to Miyagi Aki.
…
Back in her bedroom, Aki was about to don her headphones while browsing news and websites when she noticed a cursor flashing in the screen’s lower right corner.
“Huh…?”
Her eyebrows rose in surprise.
Come to think of it, it had been ages since anyone had sent one.
—A direct message attempting to contact her through the site’s internal mail system.
*
Miyagi Aki, now twenty years old and a second-year university student in Tokyo, was living a comfortable college life.
However, unknown to others, she was also “Salome” – the founder and administrator of an underground website called “Paradise Lost,” a name that inspired both reverence and revulsion in the underground world.
Paradise Lost wasn’t an ordinary website, nor could it be found through conventional search methods. Operating on a carefully filtered membership system and growing steadily, it existed in the DeepWeb – that “hidden” parallel dimension to the network world that ordinary people knew.
To most, the “dark web” seemed more like something from urban legends – a realm of demon websites.
It was said to contain several orders of magnitude more “information” than the surface web. Like an iceberg at sea, the visible portion was merely the tip.
But Aki felt this metaphor missed the mark. The difference between her underground website and ordinary network communities wasn’t merely one of “volume” – it was a fundamental divergence in “nature.”
The trunk and branches of trees above the soil;
The intertwined roots beneath the soil;
The shaded side versus the sunny side.
Like standing on opposite ends of a boundary line.
Years ago, young Aki had planted a tiny seed in the soil of the “network.”
The decay and abundant desires lurking in people’s hearts had continuously watered this buried seed.
Eventually, it took root, sprouted, and grew into lush shade. People with darkness in their hearts instinctively pursued immoral and fallen things, constantly gathering to fill their empty lives.
Before she realized it, Paradise Lost had become a virtual society for the abnormal, a dark side harboring filth – an abyss lurking within the network.
Beyond being Japan’s largest underground website and serving as a virtual venue for numerous gray market transactions worldwide, it also featured distinctive sections that attracted those with unspeakable interests: personal blogs sharing information about past vicious killers and real-time discussion threads about “abnormal crimes.”
Given Paradise Lost’s towering reputation and influence in the underground world, curiosity about its founder “Salome” was inevitable.
Because until now, this website had only ever had one administrator: Salome. Everyone understood the enormous implications of this identity and position, with information tentacles extending throughout the global underground.
Over the years, attempts to uncover Salome’s “true identity” in the virtual world evolved into a smokeless war.
Salome’s legend grew in the underground world – facing joint attacks from multiple hacker groups without faltering, even those who had breached international consortiums’ and governments’ databases found themselves defeated.
Yet the person operating Paradise Lost was merely a female university student living in an ordinary Tokyo apartment.
“It’s been a while since then.”
For years, no one had tried to investigate her identity.
Aki herself had no interest in profiting from Paradise Lost, which was precisely why she could consistently play the role of an impartial “intermediary.”
Whether they disliked her, worshipped her, or remained wary, Salome was impossible to ignore – respected as the administrator.
Aki focused on the email.
“Another fool challenging me?… But someone who can access this site shouldn’t be so rash.”
She smiled as she opened the inbox.
“—?!”
The fingers resting on her mouse stiffened.
The screen’s dark blue glow reflected off her pale face as Aki stared at the electronic webpage, her expression betraying uncontrollable surprise.
…
The email contained only one sentence.
“After that, you went to Tokyo, didn’t you?”