I’ll Take On The Modern World—And Dominate It—Relying On No One But Myself. - Chapter 1: A Suspicious Individual.

A Suspicious Individual.

“—So what you’re saying is, you still don’t know the cause?”

Akaishi pressed Isurugi Kagetaka and Shiratori with a sharp, accusatory tone.

The setting was a conference room at Astral Telecom, a major mobile carrier.

Isurugi Kagetaka and Shiratori, employees of the IT vendor Delta Five, were there to report on a critical server issue to their client, Astral Telecom.

Akaishi, a section chief in Astral’s operations department, was furious at Kagetaka’s report.

Delta Five’s server had encountered a kernel panic—a severe internal error that causes the operating system to reboot.

An analysis of the core dump (the memory content at the time of the crash) suggested the issue likely stemmed from a CPU malfunction.

(But I can’t just report that outright…)

If the issue turned out to be a lot defect, every server equipped with the same batch of CPUs would require inspection or replacement—a massive undertaking.

At this stage, the most probable cause was considered a one-off failure. Still, even a hint of a lot-wide defect could lead Astral Telecom—known for making unreasonable demands—to insist on replacing every affected CPU.

Because of this, Kagetaka was instructed by his superiors to report only that the matter was under investigation.

***

“—Delta-san, there will be no next time!”

Even after the meeting ended, Akaishi’s anger hadn’t subsided.

Kagetaka and Shiratori proceeded to exchange business cards with a man who appeared to be an Astral employee.

Originally, they had planned to introduce themselves before the meeting, but the man had abruptly excused himself, seemingly unwell, upon seeing Kagetaka.

He appeared to be about the same age and build as Kagetaka. There was something suspicious about him.

Throughout the meeting, the man seemed distracted—stealing glances at Kagetaka and occasionally at Shiratori, who also began to grow wary.

“My name is Hiiragi. Pleased to meet you.”

The card he offered read: Shouta Hiiragi.

***

“Phew… that was brutal…”

The report session had felt like being used as a punching bag.

Kagetaka still had to return to the office and resume the investigation.

He was waiting in the lobby for Shiratori, who had gone to the restroom, after checking out at the Astral Telecom reception.

“—Excuse me, Isurugi-san.”

Kagetaka was startled when Hiiragi, whom he thought he had already parted ways with, called out to him.

Though he had looked unwell during the meeting, he now seemed fine.

“Yes? What is it?”

Kagetaka responded cautiously, still on guard due to Hiiragi’s odd behavior.

“The issue this time is with the CPU, isn’t it?”

Hiiragi’s words struck straight at the heart of the matter. Kagetaka was stunned.

“—Wha?! How did you know that?! —Ah!”

He immediately realized his slip-up. The fact that the CPU might be the cause was confidential and not to be shared outside the company.

“I know it may be presumptuous, but if you follow my advice, I believe you can resolve this issue.”

“Whaaat?!”

It was unbelievable—but Hiiragi had accurately identified the problem without being told. Kagetaka couldn’t help but take interest.

“I don’t have time to explain the troubleshooting and analysis points now, but I’ll email you at the address on your card.”

As he said this, Hiiragi glanced nervously around the lobby.

“I know everything about you, Isurugi-san. Your first crush was in third grade—your classmate…”

He whispered something in Kagetaka’s ear that only he could possibly know.

A chill ran down Kagetaka’s spine. Hiiragi was terrifyingly accurate.

“I have no intention of threatening you, Isurugi-san. I’d like to speak with you one-on-one. If you’re willing to trust me, please reach out to the contact information on the back of my card.”

On the back of the card, a mobile number and email address were handwritten.

Kagetaka was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of unexpected information.

“Isurugi, what’s going on? —Ah, hello there.”

Shiratori returned and gave a polite nod to Hiiragi.

“Shiratori-san, Isurugi-san, thank you for your time today.”

With that, Hiiragi walked away.

***

“Whoa! Nailed it!”

Back at Delta Five’s office, Shiratori exclaimed in amazement.

Using the information in Hiiragi’s email, Kagetaka pinpointed the root cause of the problem.

According to the message, it was a rare phenomenon that only occurred under thread contention—when multiple processes simultaneously access the same resource.

Using this clue, the analysis team was able to reproduce and resolve the issue.

“Isurugi, how did you know?”

Shiratori’s question was a fair one.

“Hiiragi-san had apparently heard of a similar case somewhere.”

Kagetaka gave a plausible excuse to brush it off.

“Was that what you two were talking about when I came back from reception? If he’d told us during the meeting, we wouldn’t have been chewed out like that.”

Shiratori recalled their exchange in the lobby.

“Maybe he wasn’t sure yet. You can’t risk saying something half-baked in a meeting like that.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

They believed Hiiragi was a seconded employee from another company working with Astral Telecom, which explained his reluctance to speak up.

“—Hello, this is Isurugi. Are you free to meet now?”

Relieved that the issue had been settled thanks to Hiiragi’s information, Kagetaka couldn’t wait any longer and contacted him.

He had to find out the truth behind Hiiragi’s words.

***

They met at a café.

And the first thing Hiiragi said was absolutely unbelievable:

“I’m from the future.”