Chapter 133 : I Can’t Tell You That
“I’d rather you just say you don’t want to answer. Then we won’t waste each other’s time.”
“I said I would answer to the best of my knowledge. I can’t help what I don’t know.”
It wasn’t that I had asked for a secret. If they were as close as he claimed, it was a matter he could have answered. In the end, was it just a relationship between a contractor and a client?
As I couldn’t hide my disappointment, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Wait, are there other contractors or mercenaries who have contracted with Greenwood besides you?”
Elliot, the Prophet of Blood. He was a reputable contractor, so much so that a broker, who was generally in a position of power, would try to please him. For a contractor of that level, the amount of the reward was a secondary condition. As Elliot himself had said, their interests had to align.
It meant that Greenwood’s request had suited his taste. Was that something that only applied to Elliot?
“Yes, there are.”
And my guess was not wrong.
“There are also those who have joined the organization beyond the contract.”
Although I had tried to dig into Greenwood, I had not known of their existence at all. It was probably because they operated like a cell organization, as was the case with Elliot in front of me. And what if each and every one of them were skilled people who could be called big shots, like Elliot?
Although they had received support from a megacorp, the Public Security Bureau had been swayed by a mere terrorist organization like Al-Raid. It was due to the characteristic of being operated as a cell organization, where it was difficult for members to know each other. It was natural that I, as an individual, had no harvest.
“I know one of them.”
Finally, Elliot uttered information that was helpful to me.
“He would know more about your questions than I do.”
“Even if he knows more than you, I have to be able to trust him.”
Mathematically, if he answered my questions just twice, he would know more than Elliot.
“The last I heard, he had decided to become a member of Greenwood, so you won’t be disappointed.”
If he was a member of the organization, he would know more than Elliot.
“Good, who is that member?”
“That is…”
Elliot’s relaxed atmosphere suddenly reversed.
“……I can’t tell you.”
His smile deepened. The corners of his mouth went up as if his mouth would tear, and his yellow pupils narrowed, becoming close to a single vertical line.
However, I showed no change in emotion and muttered calmly.
“Let’s stop the games. Let’s get to the point.”
“I’m sorry if you feel betrayed.”
“No, I had a rough idea when you were beating around the bush.”
I stared at the glass of alcohol that was spinning in Elliot’s hand. Unlike a drunkard whose body was soaked in the smell of alcohol, his glass was just as Cromwell had handed it to him. As a person who drank alcohol instead of water, it probably wasn’t because it didn’t suit his taste.
“Greenwood’s request to you ended with the delivery of the goods.”
Elliot was a person famous for being a drunkard, but it was said that he never touched alcohol when he was on a job.
“The reason you said you wanted to talk because I seemed to have a lot of questions was entirely your own will.”
Just like now.
“I said I would answer to the best of my knowledge afterwards.”
“It wasn’t a proper answer.”
There is no favor without a reason. It was also ridiculous to get angry, saying that he had just been playing with words. I had been rolling in this business for over a year now to be that naive.
“In the end, I ended up lying. The great one will surely punish me someday.”
I casually ignored his confession. He was just a cultist anyway. The sight of a guy who acted as he pleased according to his own interests, quoting doctrines, was just funny.
“Enough with the silly acting, let’s get to the point now. Is there something you want from me?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
As expected, there was no trace of a sinner’s anguish on the face of the guy who raised his head as he answered.
“It’s been a while since I’ve lost contact with Greenwood. In the meantime, the progress of the request has been quite sluggish.”
I had a rough idea of what his scheme was. The reason I had played along obediently was because it was something I also wanted.
‘He said it was a matter of interests.’
Just as I had sought to obtain the spirit’s cocoon from Greenwood’s request, he must have also wanted something else from Greenwood’s request. His situation would have been better than mine. I had only received the requests that were made public through Cromwell, but he would have communicated directly with Greenwood.
However, for some reason, Greenwood had stopped all its activities. Unlike me, who had been busy moving around since then, Elliot had just been waiting quietly in an apartment in District 2.
“This pendant.”
Elliot handed me the pendant that was hanging on his belt.
“You recognized this crest.”
Elliot’s attire was fixed. In particular, the pendant on his belt was one of his symbolic attires. But he wanted to find out the origin of the pendant.
“I know this pendant as the one you used as a symbol when you founded your cult.”
“It’s not a cult, but yes, that’s right.”
“You mean you used something you didn’t even know what it was as a symbol?”
“To be precise, this is a replica. There is an original. I am looking for that original.”
Elliot had killed several people who had pretended to know about the religion he believed in. Perhaps that pendant was the cause.
“Of course, I know that this is too vague as it is.”
Elliot is a contractor who has built a reputation by being active before me. He must have tried all means, such as mobilizing information dealers or visiting scholars. Although I was a veteran of FP, I didn’t know everything. My knowledge was based on my own playing experience and the common strategies of the community.
The reason I had recognized Elliot’s crest was because it was something he carried around.
“Go to District 17.”
“Why District 17 specifically?”
“The reason I carried out Greenwood’s request was because I could trace the origin of this crest in the process. And I finally found a trace of a similar crest in District 17.”
“Then you could have just followed the tail.”
“I was careless. The great one always said not to be complacent and to do my best. I waited for an additional request from Greenwood, but contact was cut off around that time.”
Just as I had found the spirit’s cocoon from Greenwood’s request, had Elliot been chasing the trace of the crest from Greenwood’s request? What meaning did the symbol that crazy guy had made have, that Greenwood had made it a request?
I first engraved the clue of District 17 deep in my mind and asked.
“Is that all you want from me?”
“That’s right.”
“Make sure you don’t change your words later. Then I won’t stand still either.”
“It’s good that you’re confident, but the great one said to refrain from arrogance and pride. I hope you remember that it’s not an easy request.”
It probably wasn’t a mean-spirited wish for me to fail. Seeing as he was even requesting it from me, a stranger, it must be a very important matter to him.
In any case, I had obtained the clue of District 17. But Gellerg City is not an ordinary city. Even if it was just one district, it was not something that I, a non-expert, could search through on my own.
‘I should leave this kind of work to someone who is better at it.’
A blueprint of how to solve the matter was already drawn in my head.
***
Apart from the request, I received an item from Elliot. A small floppy disk. The information on it was probably not ordinary. It was an item left for someone who knew how to use the rapid growth of spirits, so I was looking forward to what kind of information was on it.
I handed the disk to Beta.
Gulp!
Beta looked at the disk from various angles and then swallowed it down its throat.
“……”
“N-no! I can explain!”
Bell made an excuse, looking scared.
“You swallowed it without chewing! It’s not food consumption, it’s a disk analysis process! External insertion has a risk of damage, so this is a way to safely move it inside…”
“I didn’t say anything.”
I was a little surprised, but I didn’t doubt it. As far as I knew, Beta was the best hacker. If there was going to be an accident in this area, it would be Bell.
When I chided him not to make a fuss, Bell stopped his fit and scratched his cheek awkwardly.
A moment later, Beta said.
“The data on the disk is encrypted. It’s an encryption system similar to the Mage Tower’s database security system.”
“The Mage Tower’s information exchange device.”
It was a name I hadn’t heard in a long time. I had used it to get information about the World Tree after I had escaped from the factory and first arrived in this city. If you had an ID distributed by the Mage Tower, you could easily access the internal database, but on the other hand, it was famous for not being easily accessible by illegal means such as hacking.
The security level was level 10, the same as the city government’s computer network. It was safe to say that it was close to impossible.
“How long do you think it will take to crack it?”
“It will take quite a long time.”
“You mean it’s possible.”
It was close to impossible, not impossible. The notorious thing about the city government’s or the Mage Tower’s encryption system was that the pattern changed irregularly several times a day. No matter how persistently you tried to break through, if you exceeded the time limit, you had to start over from the beginning.
Of course, there was no way that such an encryption system was applied to this floppy disk. If so, the meaning of handing over the disk in the first place would be faded.
“There are traces of it being hastily encrypted.”
“……What do you mean?”
“It’s a copy, not the original. And there must have been a problem during the copying process. There are traces of the security level being raised remotely.”
Since it was data that Greenwood had asked to be delivered, I had thought it was data that Greenwood had made. It was an explanation that overturned that assumption.
‘Did they steal it instead of making it?’
In that case, it was understandable that the data was encrypted even though it was just being delivered. And even the reason why the security level was so high.
“Tell me when you’re done. I’ll take the time to check it.”
It was a shame that I couldn’t check it right away, but it was also a good thing. I had a lot to do anyway. Rather than getting my head complicated, it would be better to take care of the piled-up work one by one and then check it.
I left the homework to Beta and came into the room.
「The World Tree stretches its stiff body.」
Lately, the World Tree had become more active. Not only its personality of wanting people’s attention, but also its frequent squirming movements without my command were like that.
It was understandable.
“It’s about time for it to grow.”
By awakening the spirits and raising the nature affinity before, the World Tree had met some of the conditions to evolve from a sapling to a young tree. A lot of time had passed since then. If you compared me then and now, I was a completely different person.
My status in the industry was like that. Now, if I went to the brokerage office, the cafe would be crowded with contractors who wanted to see me, and Cromwell would even pick and choose the designated requests that others longed for and show them to me.
However, the evolution of the World Tree still seemed distant. I scratched my chin as I looked at the system message in front of me.
「The World Tree has met some of the conditions to grow into a mature tree!」
「Meet the remaining one condition for the World Tree to grow!」
「Missing condition: Fragment of Divinity」
“Fragment of Divinity.”
I held back a sigh. Even the endless spring, which was a mystery of District 16, I had barely found a trace of by investigating the folklore at the Mage Tower. What was a fragment of divinity?
“Do I have to dig through folklore?”
As far as I knew, there was no creation myth in FP. Unless the game company was crazy about the world view, that kind of thing was usually just glossed over. Even I would have wanted to turn off the game right away if the setting had started with something like, ‘In the beginning, there were two gods…’
In any case, in FP, there were supernatural abilities such as magic, psychic powers, and aura, but there was no divine power. It’s not for nothing that I ignore cultists like Elliot.
But now, this world is a proper reality with the game I knew as its background. It was possible that there really were gods in this world, and I just didn’t know about them. In fact, if you think about it, the concept of divinity was not that unfamiliar.
‘I saw it in the system message that appeared when I declared a domain.’
There was definitely a content that the divinity of the World Tree repelled the domains of others in the same place. The system message had never lied so far. I had no choice but to believe it this time too.
‘I was going to contact him anyway, so I should ask him while I’m at it.’
I turned on my phone and pressed a number from my few contacts. The ringing tone was short. I asked a simple greeting and then got to the point.
“I have something to ask you.”
The person on the other end of the line was Colin Sieger. A high-level mage who was so knowledgeable that he was called a wanderer, and had the authority to view all of the Mage Tower’s database.
(End of Chapter)