Chapter 91
Dong-gu was hell
***
***
I looked down at the remnants of Gideon that had burst apart like brilliant fireworks and let out a low groan. The power had far exceeded my expectations. When I checked the device, I saw that a drug cocktail was leaking out on its own from the hormone regulator.
It must have malfunctioned due to the electromagnetic pulse Gideon had spread.
My failure to control my strength must have been an extension of that.
Still, it wasn’t all drawbacks. I had just witnessed that drugs and the Arhat were not a bad match.
As for what kind of chemical reaction the two elents would produce, I decided to experint with that later—
‘First.’
Collecting samples took priority.
I was currently pouring my heart and soul into research on immortality. When it ca to control groups, the more the better.
I was also curious how different I was from other ta-humans.
If it were up to , I would have taken the corpse, but that was Dominique Jordan’s share.
After taking out a flask and carefully gathering Gideon’s remains, I turned around.
Gideon wasn’t the only one who knew about RYS Company.
“Don’t co any closer!”
“Oh? An android daring to give orders to a human?”
I kicked the girl who was trying to flee in panic and stomped on her back.
“No, nooo!”
“How cunning.”
The wailing girl looked no different from others her age.
If she were human—even if she were an android—it would have been a situation bound to evoke guilt.
But I wasn’t deceived by appearances.
Crunch.
After smashing the girl’s head so she couldn’t spout nonsense, I took out the storage device from inside. She was an android modified by Gideon.
Since they had moved together, useful information—routes included—would surely be recorded.
If I walked using the journey of the two as signposts, it seed obvious that the tail of the ta-human would eventually be revealed.
It was certainly a satisfying outco, but I didn’t forget my original purpose.
These two were rely a big catch that had happened to get hooked. My true objective lay elsewhere.
Standing before the computer, I took out a magnetic cable, inserted one end into my device and the other into the port.
In an instant, countless streams of information surfaced in my mind and vanished.
It would have been much faster to get help from Dobby Howard, but this was a secret I couldn’t share even with him.
Fortunately, the Cache Server was operating normally.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that RYS Company had settled on top of it and was making good use of it.
Since extracting devices required personal information, it could be called a natural choice.
“Let’s see.”
The woman who had engaged in a secret affair with Baek Seok-do, Chairman of the gacorp Baekdu, was Yeosanghwa.
Like Baek Seok-do, she was Korean—an ethnicity relatively rare in this era. Because of that, excluding a few keywords completely changed the search results.
Not long after, I found Yeosanghwa’s information, but it was heavily damaged. The important data must have been stored in the server Gideon had destroyed.
Still, I was able to determine at least one thing—her last known residence.
A residential area in Dong-gu.
It wasn’t that far from the third Data Center either, so it seed I could take care of both in one go.
‘The urgent fire’s been put out.’
Now it was ti to deal with a personal matter.
I imdiately accessed the private server managed by RYS Company and entered my citizen ID. Information related to whether the transaction ledger remained intact scrolled up in a stream.
Among them, sothing caught my eye.
‘An orphanage background.’
It wasn’t that I hadn’t known. Just in case, I had familiarized myself with that information. Even that the real Baek Ga-on’s birthplace was Hyphen Colony.
Yes—
RYS Company had retrieved the device 16 years ago, when the real Baek Ga-on had been six years old.
In other words, right after the Black Shower had occurred.
There was nothing strange about it. With countless devices being discarded, gaps would have ford. In a sense, it could even be called a windfall.
The problem was that the real Baek Ga-on would turn 22 this year.
The half-sibling Baek Seol was searching for was also that age. Even the surna was the sa.
When Baek Seol pointed it out, I brushed it off as nothing, but to dismiss it as re coincidence was, in truth, far too convenient in many ways.
It was only natural that a sudden premonition of unease ran down my spine.
It might be needless worry.
Hyphen Colony had once housed nearly a million people. There could be any number of young n with the sa conditions as the real Baek Ga-on.
Above all, he would have to be connected to Yeosanghwa in so way. The crucial point was that he was Baek Seok-do’s child.
From that perspective, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the real Baek Ga-on was an extramarital child. He had never officially encountered her. The data recorded in the device proved that.
After erasing all the transaction records along with my stray thoughts, I disconnected the magnetic cable.
Deleting them from the system would leave traces, so I tracked down the relevant storage and destroyed it thoroughly. Since Gideon had already smashed several beforehand, there was nothing unnatural about it.
A perfect cri.
Only then did I finally feel at ease, letting out a breath.
Now, there was no one left who knew the real Baek Ga-on’s whereabouts.
***
Stepping outside, I looked down at the object caught at my feet. It was a corpse I hadn’t seen when entering. Using the blood scattered across the road as an arrow, I followed the trail with my eyes and soon spotted Im Sol, her exhaustion plainly visible.
“Looks like you had quite a scuffle.”
“They attacked the mont they saw you go inside, Gaon-nim.”
I wondered how many blows she had taken—patches of hardened skin stood out across her body.
But that only lasted a mont.
The skin that had been dyed black gradually regained its original color as ti passed. It was a sight that indirectly showed how fiercely she had struggled.
The submachine gun slung over her shoulder had never looked so reassuring.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. If I couldn’t be of help even like this, there would have been no point in coming all this way.”
I couldn’t deny that.
If she hadn’t protected Dominique Jordan, the compensation I was supposed to receive from him would have evaporated into thin air.
Sure enough, Im Sol cast subtle glances at Dominique. Unable to endure the gaze, Dominique cleared his throat and changed the subject.
“What happened to what you went to handle?”
“You can tell just by looking. I cleaned it up neatly. A few servers were destroyed during the fight, but nothing critical.”
“That’s a relief.”
“But can you wrap it up on your own?”
It was small to be called a Data Center, but it was still a building. For a full investigation, one person was far from enough.
“I contacted a junior I trust. He happens to be on assignnt not far from here, so he said he could co to Nesol right away.”
Was it an unofficial request for cooperation?
In any case, since he said he would handle the aftermath himself, I turned away without further comnt.
“They’ll still think it’s under RYS Company’s managent, so let’s head back quickly. Staying here will only drag us into unnecessary trouble.”
The fact that they had targeted only Im Sol and Dominique without entering the building said enough.
“Is the search over for today?”
“Yeah.”
The sun was already setting, so wrapping up was the right call. Besides, I was carrying the burden called Dominique.
“That’s an odd expression.”
“Oh dear, did my thoughts show on my face?”
“Even if you don’t rush , I intend to pay compensation accordingly.”
“Got it. Pay in money, not words.”
***
After properly attaching a sidecar to a bike lying on the road, I took Im Sol and Dominique and returned to the entrance of Hyphen Colony.
Then I set up a temporary base centered around the van parked underground.
Through multiple reinforcents, the vehicle had grown larger than its original specifications. Adding one more person, Dominique, didn’t make it cramped.
The three of us each took a seat and rested.
Amid the endless silence, the sound of steady breathing finally broke through.
After confirming that Dominique had fallen asleep, Im Sol whispered softly.
“So, did you find the information we need?”
“It’s not complete since much of the data was damaged, but I found her last known residence at least. If what I saw was correct, she’ll be in Dong-gu.”
“Dong-gu?”
The one who echoed the question wasn’t Im Sol.
It was Dominique, who had been lying with his eyes closed just monts ago.
Im Sol shot a sharp glare at the middle-aged man who had suddenly intervened.
“You’ve heard sothing you shouldn’t have.”
“Calm down. I only woke because I heard sothing I couldn’t ignore.”
His intentions were questionable, but it was unlikely he had been recruited by Baek Ryang. And if he tried anything later, I could just kill him. Even if he was an acquaintance of Fernandez Peroma, that changed nothing.
After organizing my thoughts, I gestured with my chin.
“Speak.”
“It seems you’re planning to go to Dong-gu. How about finding another way instead?”
“What’s the reason?”
“Dong-gu is hell.”
At the blunt phrasing, Im Sol tilted her head.
“What do you an by that? Are you saying the Outriders have taken over and established another autonomous district there?”
“That might actually be the cuter option.”
Dominique let out a low groan, recalling the scene he had witnessed a few sols ago.
“An amount of radiation beyond what a human can endure was detected there. It’s completely abandoned land.”
“You’re saying it’s contaminated? What do you—”
“Even if you ask for the full story, there’s nothing I can tell you. I only learned about it while investigating Hyphen Colony beforehand.”
As soone who knew the truth behind the Black Shower, I wasn’t surprised.
‘So Dong-gu was the most intense battlefield back then.’
Judging by Dominique’s words, a tactical nuclear weapon must have been used. Well, that would have been the cleanest thod. If the war had dragged on and news had spread, even the Mars Defense Force wouldn’t have been able to control the information.
“Anyway, if you don’t want to be exposed, a unit related to that is essential.”
Humanity had long since advanced from nuclear fission to nuclear fusion for energy. Research on radioactive materials had reached its peak. Needless to say, decontamination technology had been established just as long ago.
However—
“Where are we supposed to get one…?”
Faced with the unexpected obstacle, Im Sol pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead. We could enter while accepting radiation exposure. As long as we didn’t die, we could return to Seed Colony for treatnt.
But there was too much at stake.
“It’s in the trunk.”
As if asking what there was to worry about, I provided the answer. Im Sol’s eyes widened.
“Y-you brought it?”
“Have you already forgotten who owns this vehicle?”
“Ah.”
The pickup truck the two of them had arrived in had long since broken down. The van was nothing more than spoils of war.
Why had Team 1, who took a request from Baek Ryang, equipped themselves with such a unit?
There was no need to even ask. Most likely, they had been tipped off in advance. As Im Sol reached that conclusion, her expression inevitably turned cold.
“Don’t tell …”
“It seems they knew about a place like that as well.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers