IBACT Chapter 21

Devaluation (9)

“Thanks, sisters. I’ve been looking for this data for a while… Never thought you’d find it for me.”

Though the immediate danger had passed, she couldn’t trust someone she’d just met.

Doris still hadn’t lowered her weapon, eyeing the people surrounding her with suspicion.

“You say you’ve been looking for this data… Do you know what we have?”

“Well, there’s not much information worth taking from there. The corporate guys were desperately chasing after it too…”

They seemed to know something, but Doris and her mercenary group didn’t know what was inside.

It was an information imbalance. Not a particularly comfortable situation.

If given a few days, or even a few hours, they might have time to analyze the internal information.

But not right now.

“Thanks for saving us, but we have clients too. We can’t just hand over the data as we please.”

Of course, Hansan didn’t look particularly appealing to Doris either. Given the chance to betray them, she would do so at any time.

While this might not have been the most desirable attitude as a mercenary or a human being, things were different when dealing with corporations.

“Even if they offer a lot of money, it would probably be less than what your side is paying us.”

Money wasn’t really the issue. While Hansan’s support for the mercenary group wasn’t small, there was a more crucial problem.

Safety. If Hansan openly discovered their betrayal, it was hard to gauge what they’d need to do to avoid their wrath.

The ideal betrayal would be a failure. Finding someone willing to pay more for the information Hansan wanted, then secretly selling that information without anyone knowing.

It was safer than facing Hansan’s anger directly, and they could properly milk the corporation’s money while screwing them over.

It would be a loss if Hansan discovered their betrayal. While attaching themselves to another corporation might help them survive, any corporation that had leverage over them would treat the mercenary group like dogs.

“…A commission? Ha, so you’re mercenaries. Hmm, yes. That makes sense.”

The leader of the group surrounding Doris slowly nodded.

She was wearing a strange hat. She looked young and had metal plates attached to various parts of her body.

“You look disappointed?”

“Well… I thought you’d be comrades. Mercenaries, huh… Well, that’s not bad. As long as you’re not here on a corporation’s commission.”

Doris frowned. Regardless of their true intentions or circumstances, the fact remained that they had come on a corporation’s commission.

“Tell me more. What’s inside it?”

“…I thought you’d know, so why did you enter that building?”

“We detected suspicious radio waves. That’s all.”

While this wasn’t something a law-abiding citizen should say, it was routine for mercenaries like Doris.

While they ‘tried’ not to kill people when possible and ‘attempted’ to avoid civilian casualties, they were too far gone to feel guilty about trespassing or theft.

“What’s inside contains corporations’ dirty secrets. It’s a collection of discussions about how to handle accidents and incidents.”

“…Is that even possible?”

While corporate cooperation wasn’t unheard of, modern corporations were essentially closer to nations.

They were entities that would take up arms to protect their territory and citizens and could kill those who incited internal rebellion or impose legal punishments equivalent to death. If not legally, then privately.

Just a few days ago, there had been an incident where several employees from two companies were seriously injured in a “gun accident,” with both sides arguing over responsibility.

There was no reason for such corporations to share information while laughing together.

“All corporations are the same. They might fight on the surface, but they share know-how and strategies when it comes to oppressing ordinary people.”

“Hard to believe…”

“If you’re skeptical, we can look through the information together. I can’t guarantee, but you stole the internal database, right?”

If the strange hat-wearing woman’s words were to be believed, Doris’s actions had been in vain.

But that didn’t mean she could easily hand over the information.

Scams were commonplace in Stella City.

While she didn’t want to doubt someone who had helped her in an emergency, the information imbalance was too great. They could negotiate when things were more stable and they had peace of mind.

“…I’ll look into it. I don’t know why you need this information, but we could hand it over for the right price.”

“That’s not good.”

The atmosphere turned cold. The hat-wearing woman, who had been wearing a friendly smile, gradually hardened her expression.

“Many people have been harmed by corporate tyranny. We’re people who gathered because of that.”

“Who are you?”

“It’s not a name we chose, but… Brown Hood. That’s what they usually call us.”

“…First time seeing you in person.”

In Stella City, gangs are usually born with good intentions, no matter how horrific and inhumane their crimes become.

In other words, newer gangs tend to have a weaker gang identity, and their noble purpose still retains some light.

Brown Hood was an organization that rallied against corporations.

They were a typical terrorist organization that kidnapped corporate employees and spread their message through journalists and pirate broadcasts.

The ironic reason they could still survive was that their activities weren’t actually harmful to corporations.

“The name sounds familiar. That’s good. Then you probably know what we do?”

They would rather starve on the streets than accept corporate sponsorship. And in Stella City, only other corporations could harm corporations.

It was more urgent to stop the Macheonpa faction, who committed crimes with Hansan’s protection and weapons, than to arrest a few agitators shouting ‘Corporations are ruining this city!’

Hansan likewise didn’t bother stopping Brown Hood, who ‘fairly’ criticized all corporations. They just laughed it off, treating them as naive dreamers and hypocritical terrorists.

“Hand it over. We’d like to… pay a fair price, but we don’t exactly have that kind of resources.”

“You certainly look that way.”

While their weapons were relatively well-maintained, that only meant the weapons’ condition was decent.

The quality of the weapons themselves was filled with outdated, cheap guns that should have been discarded long ago. Some even carried cheap plastic pistols that were treated like toys.

“Looks nice. Handmade?”

“We have a blacksmith at our base. Not pure handmade rifles, but we take broken guns and force them to work again.”

It was essentially charity work. Considering what she and her mercenary group had done to obtain this, giving it away for free was nonsensical.

Doris looked around. While there were quite a few people, few had truly dangerous implants.

With a body acceleration device, they could win if a fight broke out.

“Please, I’m asking seriously. We’re not trying to forcibly take the information. Just, let’s share it.”

But underestimating the opponent’s strength could lead to getting shot and dying.

For mercenaries, combat was like spinning roulette. While the chances of defeat might be low, they could never be zero.

This was even more true if you expanded the scope from defeat to ‘permanent injury.’. Fighting a battle that offered no money and wasn’t necessary was foolish.

Moreover, Luna’s and Ravina’s exposure was also a problem.

They hadn’t received augmentation implants that would allow them to proudly walk away after taking concentrated fire in an exposed space without cover.

“Didn’t you receive a commission? Unless your client specifically demanded you bring back the information, I doubt they asked you not to leak it.”

Her words were right. Doris slowly nodded.

“Alright, let’s crack it open together then. Is there a facility nearby where we can analyze this?”

“Depends on your hacker’s preferences; our facility is… somewhat analog.”

“You’ll need to use a keyboard and monitor; is that okay?”

“…Really? Are there actually security systems that can be cracked that way?”

It was common sense that professional computer work was done by hackers with implants diving into a full dive state through nerve gear or capsules.

While she had expected them to be far from cutting-edge technology, this exceeded Doris’s imagination.

“…Luna?”

“Absolutely not. Even being optimistic, we’d need to spend over a week on that data.”

The hacker’s opinion wasn’t much different.

All they could do with the keyboard and mouse was insert pre-made programs.

The security system would constantly change its form, trying to verify the user’s identity.

Finding information the computer could download, the monitor displaying it, thinking of a response, and typing in that method.

If all hacking in the world worked that way, corporations would never expose security vulnerabilities.

“We do have nerve gear, but… it was hard to get. We’ll have to dispose of it after one use.”

“Why can’t we just go to our safe house?”

“…Sorry, but we can’t fully trust you yet.”

“So we have to spend over a week with you verifying that information? This is kidnapping.”

There seemed to be no sign of opinions converging easily. Doris bit her lip with a troubled expression.

***

“…This is an emergency. We don’t have time for this. Let’s leave right now.”

“Armed conflict is anticipated. First, we should utilize our allied armed forces…”

“Who should we use? The Macheonpa faction? Hansan’s armed personnel? If we’re going to use them, we might as well just give up now.”

While it was somewhat risky, armed conflict hadn’t broken out yet.

If the Macheonpa faction entered and started acting on their own, the idea that we could control the next situation was just naive fantasy.

Hansan’s armed forces weren’t much different. Even if they took my orders, the mercenaries were ultimately just criminals who had robbed a corporate building.

There was no time to prepare plausible excuses. While Hansan’s armed division might be the corporation’s private army, they weren’t my private army.

We couldn’t expect a “measured response” from them. To begin with, exposing Doris now would be a loss.

“Will you participate directly?”

“I’m just going to observe. This situation could go any way. As for you…”

Even so, I couldn’t go without my secretary.

“Bring an exoskeleton, a big one. Quickly.”

“…Understood.”

We’d have to fight Brown Hood someday, but not right now. Moreover, letting Doris fight Brown Hood made no sense.

While there were no problems right now, there was plenty of potential for it to lead to fighting.

“Damn…”

The frightening thing about Brown Hood was that they wouldn’t compromise.

They were that extreme and hardline. Enough to endure their poor technological level and quality of life.

“We can’t get caught…”