How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 78

Chapter 78

That’s Not the Answer I Want

***

You, who dared to take on a request that didn’t even make sense in terms of cost-benefit, and didn’t even disclose the crucial information?

At the sudden hallucinated voice that rang in his ears, Owen let out a groan. If he threatened to expose everything clearly, he could probably dig it up.

But the gains and losses didn’t match.

Just like the request he had entrusted to Ga-on.

Looks like I’ve been had.

Owen, smiling bitterly, opened his mouth.

“That can’t be. I only asked to confirm.”

“Then that’s a relief. There have been a lot of disappointing things lately. If even you had raised an objection, I might have sunk into regret.”

Ga-on also took a step back. There was no need to deliberately beco hostile with Owen.

Each person taking their own profit in their respective positions.

That was how transactions among adults worked.

Wasn’t it ridiculous to complain to a Mafia executive about guaranteeing a fixer’s rights?

“As promised, I’ll hand over the item.”

When Owen snapped his fingers, the young man who had been standing behind him, Whitney, approached and handed over an attaché case.

Feeling the heavy weight transmitted through his fingertips, Ga-on showed a deeply moved expression. When you thought about it, he had run around so much just to obtain this artificial intelligence.

But that sentint lasted only a mont.

There was one more matter to attend to.

“This is our second eting, yet we haven’t even exchanged nas. I’m Baek Ga-on. What about you?”

Whitney, whose eyes t Ga-on’s, felt goosebumps rise all over his skin. Eyes that seed to pierce straight through his thoughts. The aura was so intense that he wondered why he had only realized it now.

No, he must have vaguely sensed it back at the Black Market as well.

He had only acted stubbornly because he didn’t want to admit that soone his own age could be far superior to him.

Now his mindset itself had changed.

While tracking the origin of Eden, he had co to understand, at least a little, that the world was vast.

“Whitney. Whitney Cooper.”

“Right, a na so annoying it makes want to bite it.”

The aningful tone. Whitney broke into a cold sweat at the reaction that seed to suggest Ga-on knew sothing, but Ga-on never called for him again.

Yes, not even until the mont he left after the transaction had concluded.

***

Click.

After confirming that Whitney had left the reception room, Ga-on imdiately brought up the main topic.

“Co to think of it, sothing strange happened. I asked around and went to find Grant, and would you believe it—he already knew about . As if soone had gone and told him beforehand.”

“Really? That’s strange.”

“That’s not the answer I want.”

“You’re not suspecting , are you?”

Owen shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, but Ga-on had no intention of playing along with his rhythm.

“Do I have to go as far as bringing up the fact that you instigated Whitney before I can get an answer worth hearing?”

Owen let out an exaggerated whistle and shook his head.

“You really do have ghost-like intuition.”

“Because if I figure out the truth later than you, I won’t have to give you the artificial intelligence. It’s a natural deduction.”

“That’s also a deduction open to misunderstanding. I rely recruited Whitney as a pace maker. People only strive and grow when they have a competitor.”

“Really? Then since the topic ca up, how about I stick Nodetech onto you? Instead of the dead Hiro, if you take responsibility for the mistake, will you grow too?”

At those words that couldn’t simply be ignored, Owen’s eyebrows twitched.

“I heard earlier that you had nothing to do with it.”

“I didn’t before. After this, who knows.”

In the end, it was just wordplay.

A warning to be careful if he didn’t want to get on Nodetech’s bad side.

Owen erased the smile from his lips and glared, but Ga-on did not back down and t his gaze.

Silence flowed through the reception room.

A situation on the verge of exploding.

Just when it seed Owen could no longer hold back and clenched his fist, he soon admitted his fault.

“Fine, I lost. I tried to pit the rookies against each other, but it looks like I’m the one about to get knocked out first.”

“An apology is sothing you make with sincerity. If it hadn’t been discovered, that would be one thing, but since it was discovered, you should pay the proper price. That’s the rule of the underworld, isn’t it?”

“So what does our illustrious fixer want?”

“I’d like you to procure a monomolecular blade.”

Since he had already crossed the mountain called Jin Geon, there was nothing left to hesitate about. If he secured one, it would be useful for a long ti.

“It’s not for display, is it?”

“Don’t say the obvious.”

Owen scratched his chin.

A monomolecular blade.

It was military equipnt that hadn’t been released to civilians. In other words, it was specially controlled and not sothing easily obtained in the back alleys.

Of course, the Lucchesia Family was an exception.

It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t an unreasonable request.

It was just about the right level for a gift of apology.

“So that’s why you kept pressing the issue. You had an ulterior motive. Fine. I’ll have Whitney deliver it to you.”

***

At the sa mont Owen ca out of the reception room, Whitney stood up from his seat. His host, Fernandez, had offered him a glass of beer as a courtesy, but there was no way he could drink it.

If Ga-on protested, the situation would beco tangled. He might even have to pay the price of the bet right in front of him.

Please ignore .

He repeated it to himself several tis, but that wish proved aningless—

“Our fixer here says he has business with you, so go talk with him for a bit and co back.”

Owen’s declaration was utterly dry.

“What are you doing? If you heard him, sit.”

Ga-on pulled Whitney into the seat beside him and lifted his vodka martini.

“What do you want to say?”

“I heard you bet one of your eyes in a wager with Mr. Tyrant. And it was over a request I was handling.”

“That’s……”

“I’m not interested, so don’t bother making excuses.”

Owen provoking Whitney had been a kind of rookie training.

Since he kept behaving like a frog in a well, it was presud that Owen had used shock therapy to wake him up to reality.

For an executive running an organization, it was also a asure that naturally had to be taken.

From the looks of it, Whitney seed to have learned the concept of humility as intended, maintaining a more polite attitude than before.

Of course, it was none of Ga-on’s concern.

“Answer my questions sincerely. If your answers are unsatisfactory, I’ve decided to take your eye myself.”

It was sothing that had not been discussed with Owen, but Whitney had no way of knowing that.

“S-say it.”

“I heard you visited the cri scene as well.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No, I just want to know. What exactly happened there.”

Whitney unconsciously swallowed his dry saliva. The Sheriff nad Jin Geon he had t there had given him a warning. If he carelessly leaked information, he would be made to pay the price.

Perhaps because he had seen Jacob being dealt with, it didn’t seem like re bluffing.

Ga-on, having glimpsed Whitney’s inner thoughts, let out a hollow laugh.

“You’re not seriously scared of that Sheriff you t back then, are you? A Mafia mber keeping his mouth shut because of a warning from the Public Enforcent Corps. What exactly am I looking at right now? This isn’t a rabbit, it’s a chicken. Isn’t that right, Mr. Chicken?”

“Fine, I get it, so stop wagging that cursed tongue.”

Letting out a sigh, Whitney picked up the beer glass that had turned lukewarm.

Borrowing the courage from the alcohol, he organized his mories, and shortly after began arranging the events in chronological order.

There was no denying that it sounded sowhat scattered, but what could he do? If it had been sothing explainable within the bounds of familiar common sense, he wouldn’t have been struggling this much.

Even though he had witnessed the situation with his own eyes, Whitney hadn’t understood even half of it.

On the other hand, it beca useful information for Ga-on.

Croft Shen, the person in overall charge, and Jacob.

Through the relationship between those two, he was able to determine that the organization working together with the ta-humans was Ryungyeong. From device extraction to Eden, he could see the tightly entangled connections.

Most encouraging of all was that he had been able to learn, at least partially, the ability of Jin Geon, who could be considered a potential adversary.

“He avoided all of the acidic blood?”

“Saying he toyed with it would be more accurate.”

That was a feat even Ga-on couldn’t accomplish right now.

No matter how sharply he heightened his senses, he would inevitably be hit by a few drops.

If he used the principles of rotation to generate air currents, the situation might change, but that was far removed from the skill Jin Geon had displayed.

“So he’s not just an ordinary hunting dog.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

It was also quite useful to learn that the municipal governnt Jin Geon belonged to was hostile toward ta-humans. Ga-on had been uncertain whether their objective was capture or execution, but now it had beco clear.

They desired the annihilation of ta-humans.

There seed to be no room for negotiation or compromise.

***

Knock, knock.

“Co in.”

Drawn by the sweet voice, the man who opened the door and entered, Caliban Lawler, knelt on one knee.

The being he paid respect to was a woman who was special even among their kind. Soone he respected and cherished deeply.

Although her face was covered with a veil and only her lips were visible, even that alone naturally evoked a captivating image.

From the tip of her head to the ends of her feet, everything that composed her was deadly.

An evening dress that revealed ideal curves and opera gloves. Only her shoulders and collarbones were exposed, yet the restraint of covering the rest of her skin instead stirred impure imaginations.

A fem fatale whose fate was set to move the hearts of all n.

It was a blessed path, yet also a path of thorns. The attention she gathered held no distinction between good and evil. Most of those who volunteered to protect her forgot their duty and were blinded.

That was why the security personnel changed every year.

Caliban, who rembered the end of the previous guard, steadied his wavering heart. Fortunately, the situation he feared had not occurred yet.

Her naturally indifferent disposition likely played a role as well.

The reason he had co here was also an extension of that.

It was not for personal matters, but for an official report.

“Jacob’s death has been confird.”

He began with a heavy statent, but the woman did not move an inch. Having endured harsh hardships since childhood, she had long lost her smile.

The voice that left her lips was equally indifferent.

“Were you able to secure the body?”

If ordinary Public Enforcent Corps had retrieved it, that might have been possible. Their comrades operated in various regions. But this ti was different.

“It seems the hunting dogs were on the trail.”

“Are they from the Mars Defense Force?”

“It seems they ca directly from Earth.”

Earth. The woman was not soone who would fail to understand the aning of that.

“People who are already busy operating in the dos ca all the way here? Why?”

“It isn’t certain, but according to intelligence, they ca chasing Yang Hu.”

“Yang Hu… you an that Yang Hu?”

The fixer who resolved the Millennium Code Gate.

His epithet was Sword Demon.

Among those currently active, he was one of the strongest.

“Could it be that he is also one of our kind?”

The woman suddenly rose from her seat and raised her voice, unlike her usual self.

Even without lifting the veil, it was easy to imagine the excitent on her face. Caliban wanted to share in her hope, but the situation was not that simple.

“That is only a hypothesis. We don’t even know his whereabouts, and if we approach recklessly and it turns out he isn’t one of our kind, it will only cause trouble in many ways.”

“Then discovering the traces of the hunting dogs will be the key first.”

“Yes. If they truly ca chasing him, simply following their footsteps could yield aningful results.”

“As for Yang Hu, assign additional personnel to track him. I will personally decide the timing of any contact.”

Although she had heard unexpected information, nothing had truly changed.

Suppressing the excitent from that gap, the woman shifted the topic.

“What about Eden?”