Chapter 10: Guilty (10)

“Are you sure this is true?”

“I told you.

As you know, it’s unprecedented for a company to ask for such a soft request.”

Doris shook her head in disbelief.

“A company using mercenaries to do something is just an investigation request?”

“Yes.

There was that safety accident last time, right?

Something seems off.

They want us to investigate.”

Even if Hansan Group had asked her to find a lost cat, she wouldn’t have been this surprised.

No, if she thought about it, it was a request that could have happened.

There was no guarantee that Hansan Group members wouldn’t keep pets, and that was too trivial a task for a company to employ.

“How on earth do we…?

What do you want?”

But this was different.

The work that a company could do.

No, the work that a company could do with its own employees would be much more efficient, so they were hiring mercenaries to do it.

“There must be an intelligence team there, too!”

Hansan’s intelligence department would know much more than a mere mercenary could.

The limited information that mercenaries could obtain by kidnapping and hacking a corporate employee was information that Hansan people could obtain without lifting a finger.

“If there was someone who was harmed in Hansan, what would it be like?

They just let it pass without incident?”

Most citizens thought that Hansan had planned this as well.

Coincidentally, Hansanwoo had taken care of it a few days before the incident.

“Isn’t it entangled in company politics?

It’ll be a headache if you get caught.”

“But the reward is high.

Read it.”

Fumiko pressed her temples, and a hologram unfolded before the mercenaries’ eyes.

“The units are a bit strange.

What was the current exchange rate between won and dollar?”

[I saw it correctly.

It’s all dollars.]

“Regardless of whether the mission was successful or failed, and this is not a completion reward, but a daily wage?”

Doris’s instincts were screaming in anxiety.

This wasn’t right.

It was dangerous for a mercenary to nitpick the client’s actions, but at least he should know how things worked.

He should be able to judge why this person hired him, what would happen if he did this job, and whether he could handle the aftermath.

There was no client who was kind enough to take responsibility for the job on behalf of the mercenary.

The victims, enraged by the mercenary’s actions, felt disgust and anger at the mercenary who shot him himself.

“This is dangerous.”

“You said you wanted to do something big.

Isn’t this a pretty big deal?”

“That’s true!

But I still want to receive a reasonable job!”

Luna and Ravina also couldn’t hide their suspicious eyes.

It was strange from start to finish.

There was no reason to use a mercenary, and there was no reason to spend this much money.

A corporation would never spend money without a reason.

The only time they would pay this much money to a mercenary was when they thought it was ‘cheaper than the corporation doing the job.’

“Just, think about becoming a little closer.

It seems like you wanted to pick out the wheat from the chaff by looking at the faces of the mercenaries, rather than hoping for something big.”

“Ha…

You’re not being used, are you?”

The biggest threat, after all, was Tosa Gupaeng.

“If Hansan is determined to deceive, there’s nothing I can do.

Since you didn’t tell me anything specific, you just have to be careful.”

“Well…”

In a blunt manner, he could make a lot of money just by stalling for time.

It was a high-quality commission that he could regularly receive without having to run around for any particular commission.

“Isn’t something wrong?

Money laundering or something like that?”

It wasn’t something that never happened.

It was common for companies to use mercenaries and brokers to launder money.

They would always pick on a ghost mercenary who had just joined the company as a mercenary and whose identity was unclear, and then ask, [Give this person a commission,] and then allocate a huge amount of money to an easy commission.

It was a profitable business for the middleman to collect a commission, but the money that flowed away would have been a great source of funds for the gang.

“A solo or a small team similar to a solo.

Someone who can solve the problem neatly and without unnecessary conflict.

That’s all the client wanted.”

“This is crazy…”

There was no reason not to take it.

The fact that the terms were too good to be true made Doris nervous, but the price clouded her eyes.

“Fine.

I’ll do it.

Tell me more.”

“Your demands are also ambiguous, so all I can give you is the information you sent me.”

“It’s an investigation into the recent food factory deaths…”

“You’ll have to report regularly.

Of course, but not through Hansan’s official route, but through the number you designated.”

“Luna, can you do it?”

The silver-haired woman bit her lips.

“I can do it.

It might be hard to crack down on a company directly, but a factory wouldn’t have such tight security.”

“However, it would be hard to do better than a company.

That’s probably why…

Are other companies hiding something?”

“Maybe so.

If Hansan would ask for this…

It’s possible that Hansan didn’t really do it himself, but that something ridiculous was going on.”

“Hansan wanted to expose that ‘something’ in order to expand his record, and he entrusted it to a mercenary…

Okay, now I have a reason to understand it.”

If this hypothesis is true, then this isn’t an ordinary case.

Even if it was Hansan, it would be dangerous enough to think that revealing this could cause excessive armed conflict between companies.

Doris nodded.

“Okay.

We’ll handle that.”

“I’ve sent you the contact information.

Report to that number once every three days.

I’ll coordinate the details myself.”

Doris couldn’t stop her suspicious gaze after checking the contact information.

“This number is a bit strange.

Is this the right way to call?”

“It’s a landline.

You can’t call it directly through an implant or a computer.”

“No, then how on earth do you want me to contact you?”

“We’ll have to find another landline.

Well, it’s not the first or second time that corporate people have been picky.

Cheer up.”

“Okay.

Let’s give it a try.”

Doris led her mercenary group out of Fumiko’s office.

***

“Hey, go into the alley.”

“There won’t be anything interesting for you, Master.”

“I know.

Goin.”

I slowly looked around the city while riding in the car driven by my secretary.

It was a place I had seen many times in games.

I knew to some extent which city had which quest.

Learning from the previous accident, the car doors were tightly shut.

However, the cameras mounted on the entire car showed the entire scenery outside.

It felt like I was riding in a car without a body, and it felt like a huge space.

It was a scene that was eerily similar to the scene I had seen on the monitor, but the people walking around there were different.

They were not pieces of data, but actual people moving.

They were ordinary people who would die if I opened the window and shot them.

They were people who had suffered and sorrowed for decades, and had their own stories.

I couldn’t take them lightly.

I couldn’t take them lightly either.

“Get out.

I want to walk for a bit.”

“This place… you mean?

It’s not a very clean place.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

It was strange that my body was getting sick just from the unsanitary environment.

It was a shabby street.

The streets were full of drug addicts, and if I behaved even a little wrong, I would get shot.

I was an unwelcome guest here.

People would slowly avoid me just by looking at my car, and they would look at me with eyes that were a mixture of caution and anger.

“Where the hell is that crazy kid coming in here?”

“Do you think there are a few people who lost their families because of a company?

You’re a bloated bastard.”

Fortunately, no one seemed to recognize me.

Maybe it was because of the place.

Even if I was wearing a suit that was different from usual, wearing a mask and sunglasses, no one recognized me.

Even so, everyone knew that my car was something that was hard to find in this slum.

They were both afraid and jealous of me.

“Isn’t this enough?”

“No, let’s go in there.

That was a Hansan subsidiary, right?”

“… probably isn’t being managed properly.

It’s a franchise with a lot of connections, but it’s a store in this area after all.”

I walked toward the store with an indifferent expression.

There were people following me, but the further I went into the street, the fewer stares I got.

In the end, they were just stares because of the car.

Aside from my confidence that made it hard to believe I was from this area and my clothes that were overly neat, there was nothing that could identify me as myself.

“Master…”

“I felt it when I was robbing people at the factory, but this… was unexpectedly fun?”

“It’s dangerous.

There’s also the majesty of Hansan…”

“I’m not going in with my face exposed, so what?

I’ll have to get used to it from now on.”

Half of it was my curiosity.

I could enjoy the scenery or listen to music through the computer, but I couldn’t smell or taste it.

I wanted to try the astral menu of the cafe that appeared several times in the game with my own mouth.

“It won’t be a very pleasant experience.”

“The important thing is to do it for the first time.

You should get used to it too.”

And the other half was to tame her.

Of course, if you wanted to do something to change this city, it was much faster and more efficient to utilize the power of Hansanwoo, a member of the Hansan Group.

However, there was a limit.

Doing something in Hansan’s name was important, but in the end, that was just Hansan taming this city.

I had to create my own power.

But that wasn’t enough.

I had to cooperate with other powers.

Whether it was a company, a gang, or a third party, I had to create influence within Stella City that could upset this balance.

And I had to grab the leash of that power and make room for myself to control it.

In the end, that meant I had to run myself.

Even to places more dangerous and unstable than here.

And I had to have a secretary in all those places.

I didn’t expect much, but I also hoped that she would sympathize with the suffering of the people in this slum.

When Hansan Tower collapses, understanding them will be necessary for survival, not emotion.

“Here, a glass of ice Seeker.”

It tastes so good that it makes my eyes tingle.

I was curious about what carbonated coffee would taste like.

I was full of anticipation, but when I took a sip, I didn’t feel any particular taste.

My eyes didn’t feel anything.

Because it was just a cold coffee with a bit of carbonation that had an artificial taste that was so strong that it overpowered my delicate tongue.

My secretary, who ordered the same drink and drank it with me, continued to sip it with her eyes wide open, unlike me.

It didn’t seem to be simply because my senses were dull.

There was something she could feel that I couldn’t.

I don’t know if it was simply because of the implants or because of something about the Hansan family.

“Didn’t you say it wouldn’t be as fun as I thought it would be?”

“Well, it was worth a try.

There were so many ads-”

I stopped talking.

It was an ad for this cafe franchise that I, a gamer, or anyone who was a citizen of this city, had heard countless times, but it was a bit awkward that Hansanwoo of the Hansan Group had heard the ad so many times.

There was a lot to worry about.

I got up from my seat with half of my coffee left, and absentmindedly looked out the window.

“Huh?”

And there, there was a woman with a familiar face.