IBACT Chapter 13

Devaluation (1)

“These days, you’ve been appearing less at official events. I think that’s fortunate.”

At the secretary’s words, I could only stand frozen in place.

Only after searching through Han Sanwoo’s memories could I reach the conclusion that she might have said those words sincerely, not to mock or tease me.

He’s insane. More than I thought, Han Sanwoo might have been someone who lived recklessly.

This is still modern society. I never thought there would be an upper-class person who tries this hard not to work, not like some pre-modern society’s rogue nobleman.

Even politicians who get cursed at countless times or corrupt business people, they at least have to work to gain some benefits.

No matter how much I searched through the memories, there were no useful memories in Han Sanwoo’s head.

Information about what work needed to be done, specifically what to do and how to do it, remained.

But there were no memories about practical work. What was important to me wasn’t what Han Sanwoo had to do, but how Han Sanwoo did his work.

“Well……”

I gave an awkward laugh. I was thankful that this wasn’t a body natural enough to break out in sweat from failing to control emotions.

A pre-modern monarch. Actually, when you think about it, there was no family name that suited that description better than Hansan.

There must be quite a few crazy companies in this world, but companies that operate so blatantly centered around the family, like Hansan, were rare.

This was true even in Japan, which had maintained its power beyond belief and had become something like a world leader, even stronger than Korea.

More precisely, it wasn’t the nation of Japan but Japanese companies that were doing well, and in this world, no matter how powerful a nation might be, it couldn’t beat companies.

While there were groups where families occupied major positions in the company, none were as extremely family-centered as Hansan.

“Since I’ve been putting off work, I should start doing it properly now.”

A company that let a delinquent like Han Sanwoo occupy the family’s highest position, just trusting in the Hansan family name.

That meant, in other words, that ‘if the family wanted to,’ they could drive me out at any time without it being strange.

The secretary looked at me with a mysterious gaze. Perhaps I was being suspected.

This too lacked data. Han Sanwoo had never ‘carefully’ observed her face.

I couldn’t recognize things that weren’t left in his memories either.

Memories aren’t like CCTV, where you can rewind and look through time periods.

I could feel different emotions while looking at the same scene, but I couldn’t recall scenes that hadn’t left any impression and weren’t even remembered.

Still, her attitude was unusual. Perhaps she had already noticed my identity and was waiting for an opportunity to contact the family.

Or maybe there was no evidence. That might be more likely. Originally, it was just an ordinary possession.

Han Sanwoo would just be sick for a few days and get up, and during that time, no event occurred that could have invaded his mind.

In a world that considers the event of someone’s inner self changing as mere fantasy, it might be different, but this was a world where such things could happen readily.

If so, I had to observe the situation from that perspective.

“Let’s move to the next location. We don’t have time.”

If so, it meant I was given some time as well.

Time to somehow explain my sense of crisis to her and somehow find an opportunity to make Stella City and Hansan coexist.

“Understood. But if the same incident happens again this time…”

“I’ll trust you. Ah, and replace all the bullets with stun rounds.”

“It could be dangerous. The immediate response effectiveness is inferior compared to the original ammunition, and variables could arise…”

In this city, almost no one didn’t use implants.

Even to eat cheap food from cheap factories, you had to have implants in your body, and they were essential items for survival and work efficiency.

It’s like a kind of mobile phone. Even if it was expensive and burdensome, it was something you had to use eventually.

Except for some monks or extreme purists, or unusual cases like me, non-lethal rounds that suppress those implants would work well.

Since they weren’t cheap either, it was more convenient for both the sellers and users of implants to deal with regular bullets rather than stun rounds.

“As a guard, I must always think about contingencies.”

But the ammunition she used wasn’t ordinary lead bullets.

While blocking the radio interference of non-lethal rounds was tricky, blocking ordinary and powerful impacts was impossible.

While this difference might not mean much against gangs, there was definitely a difference when considering powerful mercenaries or corporate soldiers who might target me.

Her concerns couldn’t be dismissed as entirely groundless. But it was also true that it was dangerous.

“You, you tried to kill the woman who saved me, didn’t you?”

“……Did you notice?”

Actually, it couldn’t be considered her fault. Rather, I wanted to praise her superhuman patience.

Objectively, between an armed thug who obviously looked foolish and a woman who suddenly activated a time acceleration device and rushed at me without any warning.

If you asked which one was more likely to be dangerous to Han Sanwoo’s safety, the latter was overwhelmingly more so.

The guys who appeared first were just holding pistols. Ordinary and common, small weapons that might barely be able to kill one person.

It didn’t seem like there were other forces besides the visible five, and their technological level was obvious. Objectively, they weren’t people who posed a threat to me.

But Doris was different. She suddenly activated her body acceleration device and jumped out from the window to pounce on me.

Moreover, who knows who else might be behind her. A body acceleration device wasn’t something that amateur thugs would carry around.

From a common sense perspective, the possibility that she was an assassin targeting my life was higher than ‘the probability that a passing mercenary wearing a body acceleration device would activate their ability and throw their body to protect me’.

I’m a member of the Hansan Group. It wouldn’t be strange for people to target me.

Body acceleration abilities put a great strain on the body. If you seriously thought this was goodwill, that would be rather too naive a thought.

“She was… an exceptional situation.”

“I know. But there will be many such cases in the future.”

It wasn’t about not killing people who shouldn’t be killed. It was about not killing people who could be killed, unnecessarily.

“I’ll be frequenting dangerous places and doing unnecessary things often. We can’t go around killing people every time.”

Once I started acting up deliberately, I would have to fight until I revealed my identity.

There would be many people who would find my actions annoying. Not just other companies, but gangs and mercenaries too.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

It was a contradictory task of minimizing Hansan’s evil influence while not directly confronting Hansan.

Like people who hate companies usually do, I had no choice but to go around beating up ‘relatively’ easy targets like gangs or businesses at the fringes of Hansan.

“If there’s something you want to do, there’s no need to do it like a thief. You are a member of the Hansan family after all.”

“Well, it’s not like I haven’t thought about that… but it would be rather difficult. There are quite a few people who hate me, you know?”

Thinking about the checks I would receive from other companies if I acted under the Hansan family name, I had no choice but to hide my identity.

No, perhaps companies wouldn’t hate me that much. They knew well how truly terrifying the real Hansan was.

Among the companies in this city, there weren’t many global companies. General Machina might be considered world-class, but even in terms of the weapons business, when you broadened your view, they weren’t that dominant.

The fact that they could compete with Hansan for interests within Stella City was half thanks to me. Thanks to Han Sanwoo’s incompetence, this strange stalemate could continue.

No matter what I did, there was a good chance they would react like, ‘He’s doing something useless again, so let’s ignore it.’

The problem was the citizens. Their hostility towards companies was not small.

Even Hansan’s strict HR management team would find it difficult to find ‘someone in this city who has no antipathy towards companies, no criminal history, and has ability’.

Whatever I did, they would be wary of me.

While I didn’t need to care about anger towards me, resistance to my actions was dangerous. Even doing the same thing would require more time.

“Then where are you planning to enter?”

“The mountain behind. Thinking of trying some hiking.”

The White Mountain Street was a typical slum of Stella City.

Other than the fact that the Macheonpa faction controlled it, and that for a slum, it had somewhat stable public order through gangs, there was nothing special about the street.

“There’s nothing much. If there are annoying guys, just throw a fist at their heads.”

But it was somewhat important to me.

White Mountain Street was where the game’s protagonist, ‘someone who uses one of the alphabets as a nickname,’ had to visit commonly in the story.

While it was a high-freedom game with various backgrounds, numerous methods, and countless endings, the broad framework of the storyline was set.

The main enemy was Hansan; the main villain was Han Sanwoo.

And to make players realize how strong and evil Hansan was, they drove players into White Mountain Street.

Conversely, this meant that depending on the case, a protagonist who hadn’t experienced ‘the incident that occurred in White Mountain Street’ might not think it necessary to be hostile to Hansan.

Of course, we needed to prepare for the worst situation. A psychopath protagonist might appear and go around killing everyone they see and ‘incidentally also’ kill the Hansan Group.

But if not that, winning without fighting was the best option. Originally, the protagonist had abilities closer to a natural disaster than a single human.

Building a high dam to block a tsunami was certainly effective, but better was living somewhere where houses wouldn’t be swept away by water in the first place.

“At the very least, it would be better to act with a security team…”

“That’s not possible.”

To properly engage in combat in Stella City, you needed to have a certain number of people.

At least one hacker, one frontliner who could withstand bullets, a sniper who could fight from long range, and a rifleman who could project firepower steadily were needed.

While my secretary could perform any of those roles, it would be too much for her to handle all those tasks alone.

“Can’t be helped. Just bear with it a little longer.”

Keeping many people’s mouths shut is an even more difficult task. I had no intention of having any accomplices other than her.

“Then, what do you plan to start with?”

“Well……”

I frowned, slowly recalling what quests there were in White Mountain Street.

Too small ones are difficult. Situations like ‘coincidentally encountering an incident while walking down the street…’ were things that happened to protagonists, not to me.

Quests that consumed too much time or required human understanding were also out.

“Something where I can spend money like water?”

That was all I could do.