IBACT Chapter 22

Devaluation (10)

“Boss? Wait a moment.”

A man who was hiding inside the building carefully revealed himself.

“Why, again? We’re resolving this through dialogue. We’re not thieves; we should properly compensate the warriors who came out here after such hardship…”

“Those guys received orders from a corporation.”

The atmosphere instantly froze. Doris could only be surprised that Hansan’s security was this lax as she clenched her teeth.

“Fumiko, Security A. It’s money and security at a level impossible without a corporation.”

“How did you…”

“Surprisingly, there are quite a few people who sympathize with Brown Hood’s cause.”

No matter how perfectly you hide something inside the curtain, if there are limited people who can put things ‘inside that curtain’.

It was bound to be discovered.

It wasn’t that the broker’s security was lax. But the purpose was different.

They wouldn’t be able to get evidence that Hansan directly placed the order.

But such strict security and covert orders were concealment operations directed at ‘other corporations’.

The police don’t bother to dig into corporations’ covert crimes unless it’s an extremely large-scale case.

If they appear to be investigating corporate wrongdoing, it’s because they’re being backed by another corporation opposing the one that committed the crime.

Gangs are also connected to corporations, and while spontaneous and temporary conflicts might be different, they don’t have the resources or ability to uncover hidden truths.

Therefore, those concealment operations didn’t need to hide the fact itself that ‘a corporation’ arranged the request from ordinary people.

If it’s a request involving corporation-level security and rewards large enough for them to pay, it couldn’t be hidden from the start.

“Tell me.”

You might be able to make a cow look like a horse by putting a black cloth over it, but you can’t make an elephant look like a cat. The sizes are different.

It was concealment that was neither necessary nor possible to execute.

“Did you receive orders from a corporation?”

If only they hadn’t run into someone as extreme as Brown Hood, who could hate others simply for having ‘connections to corporations’.

“…Yes. But our initial orders weren’t to take this away.”

“How can I believe that?”

Doris frowned.

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand their feelings. Though the scale might differ, no one in Stella City liked corporations.

She too, ultimately aimed to make corporations eat dirt. In the highest position, in the most spectacular and destructive way.

But not right now.

“…If you want this, we can give it to you. We can’t reveal everything about the request we received, but as you said, protecting this wasn’t part of the contract.”

Though she said this, Doris had given up hope of resolving this peacefully.

For ordinary organizations, it’s rare to be hostile to someone simply because they have connections to corporations.

There are corporations they hate more and less, and they might criticize the more hated corporations while joining hands with less hated corporations or their associated gangs, but that’s about it.

But these people were different.

“I don’t think this is a situation we can just let slide. Corporate dog.”

“If I’m a corporate dog for taking one request, how many masters do I have?”

“…It seems tiring to talk while standing. Let’s sit down.”

But Brown Hood’s leader didn’t seem interested in bringing chairs.

Because if their legs gave out, they’d have to sit on the ground to talk whether they liked it or not.

“To hell with that.”

There was no way to end this nicely. If they had to fight, it was obviously several times more advantageous to pull the trigger first.

But Doris’s body was already at its limit.

‘I’ve already used it more than eight times…’

The body acceleration device puts tremendous strain on the body.

In that stopped time, one has to move several times faster than others. It was natural for the body to break down.

Even now, her muscles and nerves were screaming for relief.

How many people could she kill with one use of the body acceleration device? Even if she shot her gun accurately, she couldn’t kill everyone here with just one use.

To fight properly, at least twice. Even that was an unrealistic assumption since they didn’t know how many people were in this building.

Moreover, the people out in this open space weren’t everyone. Through the windows of the shabby building, someone with fierce eyes was watching them.

She couldn’t bring herself to press the switch. Because once she fired, it would be over right there.

‘This isn’t good…’

At that moment, a massive and dignified engine sound rang in her ears.

“…What’s that?”

“Damn, we took too long!”

Even though they were sloppy for corporate types, they hadn’t just evaded the corporate vehicles but destroyed them.

Then naturally, a pursuit team would be organized to track survivors and punish the perpetrators.

Brown Hood’s leader glared at Doris, but even she had no reason to engage in a gunfight instead of fleeing in this urgent situation.

“Let’s meet again.”

“I’d rather not if possible?”

Though Doris laughed it off, she too had no time.

“The car?”

“Those bastards punctured our tires before leaving!”

“Until the very end…”

Even though they were fleeing, taking the same route as Brown Hood would be suicide.

After knocking on several doors, it became clear this place was more of a fortress or maze than a normal slum. In fact, in Stella City, those three weren’t very different.

“Let’s go through the main entrance!”

At Ravina’s shout, Doris frowned.

“Are you crazy? I’ll somehow manage carrying Luna…”

“We have no choice right now! If you use the body acceleration device anymore, you’ll really die! Especially while carrying Luna!”

“The siren sound seemed far away, so if we run away right now, we’ll be fine! Let’s remotely detonate the car and escape with just a few important items!”

“Alright!”

Doris’s group hurriedly escaped toward the entrance they had come through, gathering their guns and information-containing devices.

“…Kuk!”

But in front of them, a huge monster was waiting.

A warrior like a machine, armed with large and numerous implants that couldn’t be called human.

Whether it was the body acceleration device, rifle bullets, or anti-tank guns. Even if they brought laser guns or plasma beams, it seemed they couldn’t even scratch that massive warrior.

This was the end. They couldn’t win.

As Doris thought this, she saw a man who quietly appeared beside that monster.

A dignified face and a somewhat aged suit, graying hair and eyes devoid of compassion.

The words that came from that man’s mouth were something Doris hadn’t even considered as a joke.

It was close. If it had dragged on just a bit longer, there was a significant possibility that an armed conflict would have broken out.

“You remember my voice, right?”

Doris tilted her head for a moment, then shouted as if realizing something.

“The one on the phone…”

***

The reason they could track Doris’s movements was simple and ridiculous.

It was because she had Hansan implants in her body.

In normal situations, ordinary people can’t track implants. But my secretary was different.

With the highest security clearance within Hansan, it wasn’t impossible for her to track all Hansan implants.

“You caused quite a spectacle.”

“…It couldn’t be helped.”

“I understand.”

Though I gave them enough money, I hadn’t expected them to cause such a big incident without additional costs.

Though it probably wouldn’t be related to the truth of the incident, this kind of interesting information was worth the money spent.

“But I can’t fully trust your side… you understand, right?”

“Of course.”

Nothing was as easy to modify as voice.

Though I used a high-quality modifier that even voice analysis programs couldn’t easily track, ordinary ears could be fooled without using such devices.

The opponent is Hansan. If they thought I was an insider just based on voice alone, I would have been disappointed instead.

“Go. Report the acquired information after analysis.”

“…Thank you.”

Her eyes were filled with misery and disgust.

Hansan was also one of her enemies. There were many seeking revenge, and she was one of them.

Taking requests was one thing, but having her life saved by Hansan’s people. It must not have been a pleasant thing for her.

“The pursuers…”

“There are none. Officially, that building wasn’t corporate property.”

The police won’t move either. It was certain that information had been stolen, and corporate people weren’t brainless.

Rather than calling the police and pursuing Doris to expand this situation, somehow burying it was the right choice to avoid being implicated in this suspicious information.

Doris’s mercenary group disappeared into the city center, dragging their tired bodies.

“I saw them again. They’re people with more sense of responsibility than expected.”

“If they weren’t that kind of people, they wouldn’t have been worth going this far for in the first place.”

Considering the average mercenary’s character, maintaining this level of loyalty to the client was rare.

It’s a life-or-death situation. Even if Doris’s mercenary group had immediately handed over the information and left the place the moment Brown Hood saved their lives, they couldn’t be blamed.

“Have you figured out the information?”

We couldn’t secure all the specific data.

But by using the brief moment Luna accessed the internal database, we could roughly figure out what kind of information was contained by its classification.

Though Luna was one of the best hackers, my secretary was also someone who had no field where she wasn’t ‘the best’.

Whether it was serving someone, document classification, economic and political activities, or even shooting, fighting, and hacking.

In terms of talent, she was a more outstanding talent than anyone here.

“Being involved in this kind of thing is Hansan’s shame. It seems they were sharing know-how and information to cover up safety accidents and illegal activities.”

“It’s treason.”

“It is treason.”

Being loyal to the company is common sense in this world. I didn’t particularly want to understand it, but I had to use what I could use.

“How did they think to band together?”

“While it might be different for the upper ranks, talent at the site management level is recruited locally in Stella City. In other words, it’s regional connections.”

“Ah.”

While there might be quite a few people with loyalty to the company, people who have lived in this unfortunate city won’t be without care for each other.

After all, people who shared hardships together aren’t easily forgotten.

But somewhat sadly, it seemed many people had forgotten what had made them suffer.

“Roughly list it.”

“Safety accidents during transport, fall accidents at construction sites, poisoning accidents due to management not following hazardous material safety regulations…”

Even to corporations, the rate of ‘suspicious deaths’ in this city was abnormally high.

In fact, they had convenient excuses. It was interference from hostile corporations, gang attacks, mercenary crimes. Even if people died, there were quite a few elements to make excuses with.

While all were realistically possible, it seemed there were also those who used these as excuses to hide and cover up incidents.

“For more specific details, we’ll need to analyze this in a calmer place.”

“Interesting.”

I couldn’t help but smile imagining what could be done with this.

“Let’s wrap up. Tomorrow will be busy in its own way.”

Leaving behind the acrid smell of burning vehicles, my secretary and I got into a vehicle large enough for her to enter.

We had to keep moving.