Nagi nodded along to Leon's analysis. Quite a bit made sense to him.

To be clear, Nagi is far from unintelligent. He has a good memory for faces and names, a memory for the many forms of media he interacts with with little confusion, and is self-taught regarding his criminal consulting business and his own advancement as a hacker for the past several years. For the most part, he just preferred to live life freely.

Until pushed.

"That, unfortunately, makes sense. Again, the mall security system was on a completely different level than before the incident, and the only major change between attempts to check their security before and now was the incident itself, meaning this group somehow got a hold of the mall's camera and security system, bolstered it, and left traps. All while carrying out all of their physical tasks."

Nagi paused, considering, tapping his laptop with a finger.

"From what research I have been able to do, you are correct regarding local groups. There is no one in this city, known anyway, that has the numbers, skill, technology, and from what you say sheer professionalism to accomplish this feat. This implies a group who recently moved in, or a group who operates outside of the city making use a convenient locale."

He tilted his head, taking a quick drink from his shake before continuing.

"I'm inclined to believe the latter, as there really isn't any real reason for a new group to move into this city. Nothing major regarding tech developments or anything, and even if there were this was more of a public spectacle, a testing ground, then an attack. Sadly, the two options I mentioned are not mutually exclusive. We may be seeing a well established, if unknown yet extremely threatening, group coming to this test to turn it into a testing playground."

Nagi frowned at this.

"Which bodes poorly. The incident at the mall was essentially completely unopposed. Granted, it was against almost purely civilian targets, but as far as I am aware the operators suffered no causalities and no captures, no identification. There is no guarantee that the people of this city can deal with a group like this. Which, sadly, can have many ramifications, from economic to simple population fear causing a rise in criminal antics."

Shaking his head, Nagi returned to his drink for a few moments.

"Fortunately, most people believe this to be some random terror attack than anything truly serious, so as of yet the only lasting effects lie upon the people who were present at the mall and their close relations, as well as the reputation and business of the mall itself and its stores. Still bad, but nowhere as bad as it could be."

Nagi didn't recognize what Leon referenced, but a few seconds of fingers dancing across his keyboard revealed the reference, giving the context for what the man spoke of.

"Even more worrying then. That speaks of people who really don't want to be identified. I believe the gas masks then served a dual purpose, to prevent breathing whatever drug they unleashed, and to hide their identity as full masks tend to do."

Nagi would scowl in thought.

"That... is bad. This city is barely what one would call stable at the best of times when you look past the surface, especially in the older and poorer sections. Plus a vast majority of the criminal underground, according to released public reports and complaints on social media, tend towards numerous small groups and independents with only a few large ones. Between the massive divide present in the city between all the walks of life and how professional this new group is, it is likely they will be able to act with impunity for some time."

A few key presses had some word documents blur through the screen with keywords and images to jolt Nagi's memory sufficiently.

"Perhaps the so-called 'Raijin Clan' may be able to counteract some of this new group, but between the demonstrated capabilities and lack of information publicly at the moment for them, it is likely not. Not until more is known, which unfortunately means we all get to play a waiting game. Kinda like waiting a new update for a game: never know if you can handle something new with what you have until you face it."

Nagi would nod at that, recognizing the names of some of the biggest (criminal) organizations in Anthem. A thought would occur to him.

"Wait. Question for question, You were at the mall? From what I've read... Why would you ever step foot in a mall willingly considering everything that happened to you the numerous other times you tried?"

Nagi was now immensely curious. Also by the rules provided to Leon earlier, now Leon had an opportunity to ask a few questions of Nagi himself if he would like. Mr. Sudeki's horrific luck with malls is actually in a few, hilarious to your average reader, online articles.

Nagi nodded his head to the question.

"Right, well, as mentioned I play no small amount of online games. This means I meet all sorts of people. Some of them are rather capable at programming, coding, and assessing digital security systems for others. It's actually a pretty profitable and respectable job area, honestly. One of my friends had, recently, previously tested the mall's systems to help work out better ways to prevent shoplifters with camera angles, possible power loss, hacking attempts, things like that."

Nagi nodded his head.

"They heard about the incident at the mall and so went to investigate directly after the incident. What they found was a system far more difficult to break into then before. No access to cameras, security... Everything was upgraded to a much higher level. Additionally, they had broken through one part, only to have their computer shut down. Another attempt resulted in... a rather rage inducing message being left for them."

Nagi sipped from his drink.

"While the former wouldn't have been too terribly surprising, based on previous attempts, the latter is, from what I know, incredibly unusual for a public space like the mall. Which means someone else, the group who did this, upgraded and set up their own defenses inside the mall's. Which means they broke into the mall's security system and utterly revamped it either shortly before or during the attack. Either or, this speaks of a good grasp of modern technology and information security, the latter of which being something most criminals do NOT comprehend beyond the need to wear a mask."