IBACT Chapter 19

Devaluation (7)

“Is this the place? Indeed, there seems to be quite a bit of unnecessary security……”

Doris was walking through the dangerous area, tightly gripping the gun hidden in her chest.

“In the first place, did we get proper permission? If this is really Hansan’s secret base, we won’t be able to handle the aftermath.”

“He spoke rather ambiguously. That old man didn’t show much reaction even when Hansan was mentioned as being involved.”

Luna and Ravina looked at Doris with suspicious eyes.

“Ugh, maybe we should have left it to Luna……”

Finding Ravina’s gaze unbearable, Doris shouted and protested roughly.

“I’m telling you nothing really happened! Besides, he seemed like he didn’t want to talk to me for long either.”

“Really?”

“Someone who uses such an old-fashioned phone for security reasons wouldn’t give straight answers just because we ask.”

Luna slowly nodded.

“True. It wouldn’t make sense to have a friendly chat with someone from Hansan. This might be okay.”

“If it’s Macheonpa faction territory, can’t they just help us?”

“If they were thinking that, they wouldn’t have hired us in the first place. To be honest, I’m even doubtful if the client is really from Hansan.”

The silver-haired hacker was walking while being vigilant of her surroundings, her face deeply furrowed.

The request she received, the work she was doing, this location—there was no reason to feel at ease anywhere.

“Fumiko isn’t someone who’s easily fooled.”

“The hypothesis that the man brilliantly deceived Fumiko is more convincing than Hansan being involved in something like this.”

As they circled the same factory, or some facility in the form of a factory, for the third time, they could feel the gazes of people around gradually turning vigilant.

They had kept sufficient distance from the target and hadn’t gone in and out through the main gate, so they probably hadn’t drawn special attention.

But they couldn’t keep circling this place like this forever.

“This doesn’t feel good… According to my intuition, we’ll definitely get caught here.”

“You think so too?”

Ravina agreed with Doris’s concern.

“…Is it that bad? The CCTVs around look manageable, and if we sneak in well, it should be fine.”

“It’s definitely involved with a corporation, and we don’t even know what they do here. It’s a place trying to hide something. Once we get inside, we’ll get caught by security guards, not CCTVs.”

Luna sighed deeply, but if they didn’t enter this place, the investigation would come to a halt.

“Are you sure this is the place?”

“It’s the most likely location. No matter how much I searched, signals with unknown purposes were connecting to this place, independently of the factory’s parent company.”

Indeed, there were more than enough reasons to be suspicious.

Corporate networks are closed. Even for minor signals, there was no reason to transmit or receive information somewhere outside the corporation.

Moreover, the corporations in Stella City were practically enemies.

In some regions or countries where public authority functioned properly, fights between corporations would sometimes occur within reasonable bounds.

But things were different here. In Stella City, corporate disputes were actual wars with guns, violence, blood, and death.

On the surface, they often took the form of proxy wars between gangs supported by each side.

But since those gangs would end up attacking the other corporations anyway, it wasn’t much different.

The reason employee shootouts didn’t occur was simply because no corporation wanted to repeat the path of the ‘Corporate Wars’ that had actually happened.

“What about Hansan?”

“…That’s a major problem with this hypothesis. Hansan was involved too.”

“Then isn’t it unrelated to the case?”

“Maybe. But if we don’t find answers here either, we’ll really have to acknowledge the existence of ‘someone who can hack intranet machines without leaving a single trace.'”

It wasn’t common sense. Like claiming a USB drive in a drawer was hacked and its information changed.

“There must be something. The corporations that couldn’t uncover the information I found… They must be hiding something.”

“I prefer that explanation.”

Doris, wearing a mask to cover her face, stared intently at the section where security seemed the weakest.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Be careful, and if something feels off, run away immediately.”

“This isn’t my first time doing this… I’ll be fine.”

A space too high for people to watch over, with many obstacles.

Countless CCTVs were watching one spot to overcome that weakness, but Luna wasn’t an ordinary hacker either.

“I can only block the external CCTVs. I don’t know the internal structure, and naturally don’t know what’s inside either.”

“Understood.”

“Once you’re in, secure an access point as quickly as possible. Even if you can’t find physical evidence, if we find a connection point, we can extract internal information.”

After giving strict warnings, Luna got into the mercenary group’s car parked nearby.

“Alright. One, two, three. Can you hear me?”

“Clearly.”

“Good. Then shall we start……”

Luna, wearing nerve gear, began hacking.

Just because it’s a corporate internal network doesn’t mean it only uses wired connections.

To begin with, it’s a network that needs to sync with the computers implanted in the brains of people working at the corporation. People who need to move around can’t live with wired cables plugged in 24 hours a day.

If the distance is close enough, a hacker of her skill level could access the internal network without a wired connection.

“I’ve stopped the external CCTV operations. Start.”

Using Luna’s words as a signal, Doris and Ravina jumped into the nameless structure.

***

“How long do you plan to stay here?”

I mindlessly watched people passing through the restaurant while fiddling with the notebook in my hand.

No matter how obsessed I was with this game, I couldn’t remember every single quest.

Still, I needed to complete all the important quests.

Even though the people of White Mountain Street might be angry at Hansan, they should feel grateful to the ‘strange man’ who helped them in their time of need.

But quests are ultimately just event developments in the game world.

Events happening while the protagonist luckily passes by, meeting important people, or them freely sharing their pain or requests didn’t happen to me.

To begin with, even that protagonist accomplished half of the quests through other people.

Brokers who arrange mercenaries, gang leaders, or corporate figures seeking fixers.

“If you have a pre-arranged place… is this the right one?”

“Ah, I’m sure. I checked several times.”

Maybe the event hasn’t occurred yet because it’s not time.

In the case of that disabled veteran, he was someone who had been homeless in front of that place for years. The situation was desperate, and he was someone driven to the point of clutching at straws.

In such a situation, he had to accept the deal even if I seemed suspicious. But not everyone was in such a situation.

This restaurant is right. The location isn’t wrong.

Though I hadn’t come here often, I’d visited once per playthrough, so I knew the interior scenery.

But killing time like this wasn’t very efficient.

“Let’s see……”

The quest here was related to the criminal organization in White Mountain Street.

It wasn’t anything special. Looking at just the quest alone, it didn’t take much time.

It was just a common quest you might find in this kind of game, asking to properly discipline a foolish son who wanted to join a criminal organization.

“…I’ll have to do this next time.”

“Where is our next destination?”

“Let’s just go back today. I’m tired.”

Thinking about what that ‘son’ would do later, even that outcome wasn’t such an easy matter.

“It might be my misconception… but I felt there was a clear purpose in the young master’s movements.”

“In my own way.”

“Then… if it’s not rude, may I ask where you get that information from?”

I gave a bitter smile.

Well, it must be really hard for her to understand.

My actions, movement routes, the websites I visit, and even minor information. In a normal situation, I should share everything with her.

She was my bodyguard and observer before being my secretary. Even without such a position, I, who didn’t have machine implants in my body, had limited routes to acquire information.

Me moving for inexplicable goals as if possessed—it couldn’t help but be suspicious.

“That’s not what’s important, right?”

“…Young master’s words are correct.”

But she didn’t have the right to press me.

“Well, it’s all for Hansan.”

“Speaking from my limited perspective, investing so much energy in dealing with people from such a hopeless place isn’t very efficient.”

“Maybe so.”

“If you really want to help these people, you can just expand the business.”

It was a very Hansan-like thing to say. And it wasn’t wrong either.

“If they have the will to work hard and are clean enough not to have any disqualifying factors in their background check… just increasing Hansan’s employees would be a great help.”

But it’s naive.

She’s not a bad person. To begin with, someone with even slightly problematic personality couldn’t be in charge of the Hansan family’s security.

It might work in other regions, but such words wouldn’t work in Stella City. Her perspective was both broad and narrow at the same time.

In the city center, surrounded by Hansan. At least surrounded by people from other partner companies, there was no way she could know how other people in this city think.

As long as bound by the frame of Hansan, there’s no avoiding citizens’ anger.

“That’s the easiest way… but how should I put it? Actually, whether these people’s lives improve or not isn’t really my business, right?”

I put on a familiar mask. It doesn’t have to be particularly convincing; it just needs to present a reasonable excuse.

“What do you mean?”

“Even if people’s lives improve that way, their view of me would be the same. Their view of Hansan wouldn’t change much either.”

“That’s……”

At this point, telling one or two more lies wasn’t such a grand matter.

Still, it was a bit dizzying. Since entering Stella City, not a single sentence that came out of my mouth wasn’t a lie.

“This guy and that guy are all trash. Speaking bluntly, how much money has Hansan invested in this city? How much have we done for them? But people all treat Hansan like bastards.”

“Even if we expand business and help people in White Mountain Street, those people will curse Hansan just the same. Even if not, they won’t look up to me.”

“Being swayed by the views of such common people is not behavior befitting a member of the Hansan family.”

“Anyway… I want to do Han Sanwoo’s work, not Hansan’s.”

Here, there’s no need to reveal that I have intentions to directly go against Hansan.

It’s enough if my secretary perceives that Hansan’s shadow is too big, and I just want to escape from it slightly.

And it’s not entirely wrong that this is for Hansan’s sake.

The protagonist of this game has various backgrounds and routes, and among them exists the option to cooperate with Hansan, the root of all evil.

That choice has its corresponding trials and hardships waiting.

Unfortunately, I never even saw that boy’s face until the end.