Professor Halden continued explaining network architecture for cybernetic components while everyone else focused on their assignments.
I, on the other hand, quietly began tracing the anomaly.
The first thing I noticed was... strange.
The transmission wasn't reaching me directly.
It was bouncing through another device inside the classroom.
I discreetly scanned the nearby network.
One by one, each student's registered cybernetic components appeared within my implant's diagnostic interface.
Most of them were ordinary educational neural assistants manufactured locally on Aurix-9.
Then one stood out amongst the others.
Its hardware signature wasn't native to Aurix-9's hardware but is one of the imported ones modified by the corporation itself.
'Hyperion. That explains it, the signal mostly cycled theough Hyperion networks and cybernetics, so it really must be Angel.'
Interesting.
The student himself probably didn't even know.
Hyperion specialized in robotics, AI, and cybernetics. Their neural hardware was distinct enough that, after a year of living with one of their components integrated into my own implant, yet heavily modified from caution, I'd become rather familiar with its digital fingerprint as it were.
My own neural implant contained only a single Hyperion-designed processing module.
It had been chosen because, quite simply, nobody built cybernetic processors better than Hyperion.
Normally, it wouldn't matter. But who would've thought that such a coincidental meeting would occur today.
The unfamiliar signal briefly resonated with that component before dispersing through the academy network.
That's why I'd noticed it.
Without that single Hyperion processor...
Angel's transmission probably would've passed by unnoticed.
Using the nearby student's implant as a relay point, I carefully established a connection.
I tried to not prod yet, however I had underestimated the signal sensitivity a Siren specialized in technopathy would have felt, even if she was young. The signal had immediately reacted.
"...Huh?"
A young girl's startled voice echoed through the newly formed neural link.
"Who's there?"
So it really was her, 100% confirmation given now.
I kept my expression perfectly calm.
"My question exactly," I replied. "Who are you?" I tried the old partial Intimidation route, but...
Silence.
Then...
"W-Wait!" She stammered out in panic.
The connection suddenly lurched.
'Well shit, that didn't work as I expected.'
Instead of simply disconnecting...
She tried to sever the communication far too quickly.
In doing so, she accidentally exposed the routing process her powers were using.
I blinked.
"...Seriously?"
It was the equivalent of slamming a door so hard that it bounced open again.
For someone with abilities like hers...
That was an astonishingly careless mistake.
My implant immediately began following the newly exposed route.
I didn't even need sophisticated hacking.
Just basic network tracing.
One relay after another unfolded before me.
Years earlier, I'd made it a point to acquire comprehensive galactic navigation data. As soon as I was old enough to access interstellar databases, I'd spent countless hours studying star systems, trade routes, corporate territories, and communications infrastructure.
My reasoning had been simple.
The Borderlands universe wasn't confined to Pandora.
If I wanted to survive here, I needed to understand the galaxy itself.
Pandora had naturally become one of the first locations I memorized.
Because eventually...
I knew I'd have to go there, but before that I would go the the other worlds in the galaxy.
Maybe even Kairos, the planet where the events Borderlands 4 would take place, through i had died before playing Borderlands 4 so I have no information other than the Timekeeper is the main antagonist and had harnessed the power of that Vault on Kairos to tough its population theough neural implants.
Thats why I was also so eager to remove my own implant.
If in the future he captures me and puts a neural implant in me, logically there would be a failsafe to kill the person if they tried removing it via deeply being rooted in the nervous system.
My plan was simple, biological cellular Immortality, I could rip it out along with all my nerves and vessels, sure it would be painful but I won't be no slave at least and thats what matters.
The communication path stretched from Aurix-9 through several major relay stations before finally narrowing toward a familiar destination.
I obviously knew where it was going, to Pandora near the Hyperion space station that is in the building phase still hidden in the nearby solar system since at this time Dahl still 'owned' Pandora mining operations.
I traced the signal to another encrypted channel.
Finally...
A localized neural signal.
'...Found you.'
I wasn't letting my chance get away, call me manipulative, but I wanted to live, best way is to befriend a powerful Siren if not all of them, I would have favours, allies and they in turn would come to save me when im in danger if the friendship is deep enough.
And to leave an impression of Angel as she was young, distraught and alone right now was the perfect chance.
Angel grew up like any normal child, but when the previous Siren died somewhere in the galaxy, the 'Siren Soul' which is the source of their power and also connects to previous Sirens of the ancient past together, transfered to Angel at the age of roughly 7 years old.
As she played with her toys one day, her father John, who would eventually turn into the fallen hero and villain Handsome Jack, was a loving father but saw the Siren tattoos on her left arm which clearly wasn't there the day before.
Worried for her, he got a 'doctor' to come check on her, but it turned out to just be another corrupt person.
The 'doctor' realised she is a Siren and took her hostage to sell her off.
Angel afraid and new to a power that awakened in that moment, had caused a nearby gun turret to activate and it fired out, killing the 'doctor' but sadly in the crossfire had also killed her own mother.
John was distraught as Angel herself fought against the reality and denied the fact her mother died in front of her.
John had then started to suddenly became manipulative and a cruel twisted person, he confined Angel forever in Control Core Angel a location where technology became her floor, walls and ceiling while she had access to it all and Hyperion network all to help her father as her new purpose.
However, all of this was too sudden, a theory is that The Seer, naturally fearing the 6 Sirens which could never be controlled as they possess Free Will, had decided to conteol and manipulate John the same way it can control non-Sirens.
Logically, this is the only known reason that is the most sensible given the all to sudden change in his behaviour in the various Echo Logs that can be found throughout the series.
Hence, befriending Angel at such a turning point like now is my prime chance and I would not let it go easily.
The connection stabilized as I honed in on it.
I wasn't merely speaking to a distant transmission anymore.
I had traced the signal all the way back to the source.
Specifically...
Her neural implants.
For several long seconds...
Neither of us spoke.
"...You found me..."
Her voice had become very small.
Very nervous and scared, like a dog with its tail being stepped on slightly and could be stomped on at any moment.
She sounded so utterly defeated and had no idea how to respond.
"I..." she whispered.
"I didn't mean to..." tears started rolling down her eyes and she began to snuggle and hic.
I couldn't help twitch my face, what the Hell is this development, how am I suddenly scaring a child.
I feel like a scumbag all of a sudden...oh well who cares...
"You're not very good at this."
"...Huh?"
"You were careless."
"If someone else had been paying attention instead of me, they might've traced you the same way."
Another long silence.
Then...
"...Dad said nobody could."
"I imagine he wasn't expecting another child to notice."
That much was probably true.
Without my previous life's maturity, years of focused study, familiarity with Hyperion hardware, and a healthy amount of curiosity...
I would've missed it too.
"...Are you going to tell someone?"
"..."
"..."
"Eh?"
"I-uh, what i mean is-"
I had ignored what she said after that. I see, well she is still a child and thinks in such a way, it was quite adorable and cute that I had chuckled slightly.
I quickly shook my head before realizing she couldn't actually see me.
"...No."
Then an idea occurred to me.
Using my implant's holographic projector, I transmitted a simple visual feed through the connection.
Nothing elaborate.
Just myself sitting at my classroom desk.
A twelve-year-old boy in a school uniform, resting one elbow on the desk while looking into the camera.
"There."
"Now you know who you're talking to."
Her response came almost immediately.
"...You're..."
"A kid?"
"...what's that supposedto mean? You're a kid too, in fact you're way younger than me so where's your defense!"
There was genuine surprise in her voice.
"I-I thought..."
"You expected an angry adult..."
"...uh yes?"
"Is that a question or an answer? Speak properly"
"Y-yes sir!"
Angel was so confused and overwhelmed by the situation she had no idea what was going on and just wanted to play with her captain bear and wake up from this dream.
"My name's Raime." I decided to stop confusing and panicking her, I enjoyed the trolling and teasing but I guess I've reached the limit. "Raime Virex."
"...Angel."
She answered after only a brief hesitation.
"I'm, Angel."
"I know."
"...You know?"
"I mean..."
"I know your first name now. That's usually how introductions work."
"...oh, ah."
For the first time since we'd connected...
She giggled.
A quiet one.
---
"So..." I said.
"Why were you connected to our classroom?"
She hesitated.
Then answered honestly.
"I wanted to learn."
"...Learn?"
"I can't really go outside much."
"So..."
"Dad lets me connect to classrooms. I can watch. I can listen. I can study with everyone. I thought...nobody would notice."
Her voice became quieter near the end.
There wasn't any malice behind what she'd done.
No espionage.
No corporate objective.
She was just...
Lonely.
A little girl using extraordinary powers to attend classes she couldn't physically visit.
I looked around my own classroom.
Nobody had noticed anything.
The lesson continued uninterrupted.
Then I made a decision.
"How about this?"
"Hm?"
"You don't need to keep sneaking into random classrooms."
"What do you mean?"
"You can connect to my implant instead."
...
"It already receives everything I'm studying. I can share my notes. And...we can talk here and there.
"...Talk?"
"Yeah as friends."
The silence this time lasted much longer.
When Angel finally spoke...
She sounded happier than at any point since we'd met.
"...R-really?"
"Really."
"I've never..."
She stopped herself.
Then quietly admitted,
"...I've never had a friend before."
Neither had I.
Not in this life.
"...Then I guess," I said with a smile, "we'll both be figuring it out together."
"...Okay!"
The excitement in her voice was impossible to hide.
For someone who possessed one of the rarest powers in the galaxy...
She sounded exactly like what she truly was.
A seven-year-old girl who had just made her very first friend.
Hic...
'A fuck, I thought as I heard Angel crying again, this was clearly too emotional for her, she really is the crybaby type isnt she...'