IBACT Chapter 14

Devaluation (2)

“Not a bad face. But…… it still looks too bright. Maybe we should add some scars?”

“That kind of service requires professional help. With my amateur skills, if I try to create scars, it’ll definitely look unnatural and be discovered.”

The secretary’s words made sense. I nodded slowly while looking at the smooth skin in front of me.

I was the one who said it would be better to have as few people know as possible. The secretary must have brought the best product available within those conditions.

“True. This is a mass-produced item, right? It wouldn’t be strange to run into someone with the same face.”

“It’s not impossible. But the probability doesn’t seem very high.”

“Well, I guess so.”

Advanced technology made possible what was thought to be impossible by common sense.

What she held in her hand was a kind of human skin mask that would make me look like a different person when worn on my face.

“However… it wasn’t an easy task. There aren’t many people who need items like this.”

“It was worth spending money on, to some extent.”

But considering the technology involved, this kind of item was extremely inefficient.

For the purpose of hiding one’s face, there weren’t many reasons why someone with enormous wealth and power would need to hide their face.

Of course, there were upper-class people with malicious intentions plotting crimes like me.

But even that wasn’t a very common demand.

“Do I just put it on directly?”

“Please lie down. I’m receiving the necessary installation information in my head, so please wait, and I’ll handle the fitting for you.”

People belonging to corporations wouldn’t need to wear such masks to do and say what they wanted.

There was no reason to be shaken by scandals, verbal abuse, physical violence, bribery, or other ‘minor’ scandals.

They are the ones who make the laws. Most ‘expensive’ deviant behaviors were already legal, and even if illegal, there were no prosecutors or police brave enough to punish corporate people.

Rather, sometimes among them, boldly committing crimes was seen as a badge of honor.

I have this much money; I’m this connected to power, so you can’t punish me for just this level of crime. It was viewed as confident and brazen behavior full of such self-assurance.

“I’m nervous……”

Smaller-scale criminals preferred to just wear hoods. The human skin mask carried quite a price tag for something that was simply used to ‘avoid showing one’s face’.

It wasn’t very meaningful for disguise either. People verified each other’s identity through chips implanted in their bodies.

It was no longer an era of simply taking out ID cards and comparing the attached photo with the person.

Even if someone wanted to use it for identity theft crimes, it would be faster to figure out how to find vulnerabilities in the security system rather than making such useless items.

“How do I look to you?”

“Quite ordinary.”

“……That’s a boring answer. Isn’t this extremely handsome? I could probably debut as a celebrity.”

“Compared to your original face, young master, it doesn’t even come close. It looks artificial, and the finishing seems somewhat lacking.”

Nevertheless, wanting to have better looks was human nature, regardless of gender.

But this item was shunned even by such people.

“If someone truly seriously wanted to become handsome, they would get implants rather than this ‘mask that sticks to your face.'”

“That’s true.”

It’s not a permanent item. It was especially unsuitable for people who went out too frequently or couldn’t tolerate even minor flaws in their items.

One day at shortest, six months at most. Since it wasn’t made to be used for long periods in the first place, even good-quality ones couldn’t guarantee durability.

Matching its inefficiency, this was an item made purely for entertainment and luxury.

It was a prop to be used at masquerade balls where Stella City’s upper class gathered.

I have to solve an unnecessarily small problem using an item that would be used by people who wouldn’t even want to mix words with poor people.

It was somewhat disappointing that there were no experience points in reality. At least in games, quests would steadily raise your level even if the rewards were insignificant.

“Let’s start.”

The secretary’s soft hands brush past my face.

Acting as Han Sanwoo of the Hansan Group was already difficult. Let alone acting as someone else that Han Sanwoo was pretending to be.

Just imagining it makes me feel overwhelmed. But I couldn’t show weakness.

“Is it done?”

“It needs about three minutes for the new face to settle on your body, I’ve heard.”

“Good. That’s reasonable.”

Still, I wasn’t planning to do anything too dangerous.

White Mountain Street was a street that the protagonist visits relatively early on, and it was unlikely to have difficult and overwhelming incidents.

After taking a deep breath, I prepared to go outside.

My body feels lethargic. Even while knowing there were things to do, sometimes going outside this house felt overwhelmingly complex and daunting.

There’s a beautiful secretary, and most ordinary tasks can be done just by giving commands to the AI that manages the house.

Lying in bed, all I can see through the glass window is the vast and beautiful sky.

I got up. It was time to go out.

***

“Luna…… is it still far?”

“It won’t come out just because you’re impatient, so wait calmly.”

“I’m just being anxious. We need to report soon, but we have nothing to say.”

“The other party is a corporation. Unless we don’t provide any information at all, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if we spread wrong information.”

Luna was endlessly replaying the footage left on CCTV.

While there had been developments in recording devices, it would have been wasteful to invest in excessive facilities just for factory management.

In the end, even after thoroughly searching the factory’s database, all the information they could obtain was CCTV footage full of noise.

“That corporate guy, does he have some weird fantasy about mercenaries?”

In broad terms, detectives could be considered part of mercenary work.

To those unfamiliar with the industry, detectives who solved cases that police couldn’t through brilliant intuition, meticulous reasoning, and ingenious information gathering gave quite a romantic impression.

“Maybe they have some thoughts on their side? Or did they think of mercenaries as something grand…?”

But real mercenaries and detectives were far from such romance. No matter how corrupt Stella City’s police were, the gap in investigative ability compared to ordinary mercenaries was too large.

“That’s not it either. From the start, what the client first looked for was ‘solo or small teams equivalent to solo.'”

“I’m starting to feel ridiculous… are they really telling us to deduce the case and find out the truth?”

“Seems like it.”

Since it was included in the request content, Doris had no reason to whine, ‘This is a fraudulent contract!’

But there are expectations.

When sending a thirteen-year-old child on an errand, you don’t expect that kid to bring back good items cheaply through excellent negotiation skills and a cold eye for goods.

“Wasn’t it simply asking us to find evidence?”

It felt like taking a test without knowing the scope. Like being told to solve problems with half-cut context.

“Still, there must be some cause. Were there any suspicious people?”

“Can’t say there weren’t any… but honestly, I don’t know. While I’ve done rough work before, I’ve never worked in a food factory.”

Luna bit her lips hard in thought, then finally stopped the video and turned around.

“Sigh, this won’t do. Since it seems Hansan has no intention of providing information…”

After closing her eyes briefly to think, Luna chose the most orthodox method.

“Doris. Are you very tired right now?”

Armchair detective wasn’t a very fitting occupation for them.

Class, assistants, authority to make judgments, and comfortable armchairs were all hard to find in this room.

“……Why?”

“We need to hit one place… no, at least three more places. We need to create a control group.”

The amount of information she would need to analyze would increase exponentially, but there was no other choice available at the moment.

While they didn’t know how much leisure time Hansan’s people had, they at least needed to show that they were making efforts.

“You mean finding commonalities among them……”

Doris nodded, but Ravina was sighing heavily.

“Isn’t this pushing it too much? Security around factories in this area must have tightened; it’ll be troublesome if we get caught sneaking in.”

“This level of risk is necessary considering the money we’re receiving. As for the strengthened factory security… wouldn’t it be fine if we run to factories on the opposite side?”

It was an incident that occurred simultaneously at food factories within Stella City.

Finding other factories where those incidents occurred wasn’t too difficult.

“But…… wait, you said control group? Isn’t there something more important than finding commonalities between factories?”

Luna slightly raised her head to look at Doris.

While usually unreliable, sometimes she would come up with plausible opinions.

“You said control group? To know the differences between factories where the incident occurred and didn’t occur, shouldn’t we break into ‘factories where it didn’t occur’?”

“You’re probably crazy.”

Luna shook her head with a shiver.

Separate from the fact that finding ‘other factories where the incident occurred’ wasn’t too difficult, finding ‘factories where the incident didn’t occur’ was difficult.

No, actually it wasn’t that difficult. Since there was only one such factory in this city, finding it was rather too easy.

“While carrying out a request to receive money from Hansan, you want to collect information by breaking into Hansan’s security data?”

“Well, killing two birds with one stone. It’s not like we’re going to use this for anything bad?”

“If it’s Hansan Food’s security, it won’t be as amateurish as the place we broke into last time. Unless it’s a frontal assault, infiltration has its limits.”

But Doris was smiling.

“Scared? Anyway, Ravina and I will do the infiltration.”

Luna gritted her teeth. She couldn’t gauge how much breaking into a food factory to collect information would provoke Hansan’s displeasure.

They might unexpectedly think it’s no big deal and keep quiet about it, or they might pursue with full force thinking their pride was threatened.

“Well, since it’s that Hansan, I can understand the feelings…”

From the start, even accepting this request must have dealt a severe blow to Doris’s pride. Luna could understand her.

“……Alright. Let’s try it.”

In fact, they needed to secure Hansan’s information at least once for their own safety as well.

Not the processed information they would willingly send, but raw, vivid information that could be seen from places beyond their expectations.

In the end, they still couldn’t guess why Hansan made the request, which meant they could be used in any way at any time without it being strange.

“What should we do? Today, right now?”

“Haah……”

Thinking about the order, that would be better.

After realizing this attack wasn’t a one-time thing and was specifically targeting food factories, security at other factories would become stricter.

And Hansan’s factory already had a dangerous and difficult security system that didn’t need to increase in difficulty.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“That’s more like it!”

Doris shouted spiritedly and immediately opened the closet in one corner of the room. Numerous guns were waiting for her.

“Let’s go in hot!”

“Don’t say crazy things. Not hot, but quietly and stealthily…”

Luna ignored the dizziness she felt in her head and changed into the clothes she wore for work.

Playing detective was a job that didn’t suit her in any way.