Neo-Joseon Cyberpunk

Chapter 102: Mr. John

A shabby neighborhood tucked away in a corner of Seoul Sector 1.

This was a place where, among Oriental Medicine Clinics, unlicensed and illegally operating shops were clustered together.

〈There aren’t any exact coordinates?〉

〈Yes. This is everything that was written to begin with.〉

Diesel, who had been searching the entire area for an Oriental Medicine Doctor called ‘Mr. John,’ kept coming up empty-handed.

In the end, after checking every single Oriental Medicine Clinic, only one last place remained.

A building located in the darkest corner of the alley.

Perhaps there was a shaman’s house nearby, as multicolored flags were fluttering chaotically around it.

[Welcome.]

Pushing aside the drooping wooden bead curtain at the entrance and stepping inside, I saw a severely rusted old-model android along with the strong smell of herbal medicine.

[Welcome.]

“I’m looking for someone. Is there an Oriental Medicine Doctor here, by any chance…….”

[Is this your first visit? Please enter your information here.]

“No, I’m not here for treatment, I just—”

[Customer, we apologize, but all reservations for today have been fully booked. Please visit again on the next consultation day.]

After reciting its preprogrammed lines unilaterally, the android suddenly shut down.

‘Damn outdated model…….’

Letting out a small sigh, Diesel glanced around the inside of the shop.

Just as he was considering forcing his way in, sounds of movement came from within.

“Ever heard of eumyanggak? It’s a tonic made by reconstructing an herb called ‘horny goat weed.’ Back in the day, whenever our ancestors said a man couldn’t perform at night, this was the very first thing they prescribed. It’s just amazing for male virility!”

“Oh my, if it gets too strong, that’ll be troublesome too.”

The door labeled ‘Consultation Room’ opened, and a greasy-looking Oriental Medicine Doctor came out, giggling together with a rather large middle-aged woman.

“You have to take it three times a day without fail for fifteen days for the effects to show, so make sure he takes it properly. Payment can be handled by the android over there.”

While seeing the woman off, the Oriental Medicine Doctor noticed Diesel near the entrance and spoke up.

“Reservations are fully booked today.”

“Ah, I’m not here for treatment—”

“Just come in for now. Time can always be squeezed out if you try. As a doctor, it wouldn’t be right to just send away someone who’s unwell.”

“No, I—”

The man went back inside without listening to Diesel at all.

‘So it wasn’t a machine problem.’

He strongly felt like just leaving, but then remembered that this was the last remaining Oriental Medicine Clinic.

Stepping into the consultation room, the first thing that caught his eye was a mother-of-pearl nameplate on the desk that read ‘Mr. John.’

‘So I did come to the right place.’

John plopped down into a heavily worn leather chair and asked while looking at Diesel.

“Alright, have a seat first. What brings you here? Where does it hurt?”

Starting off with casual speech despite it being their first meeting.

Diesel couldn’t find any reason to be polite to someone like that, so he responded in kind.

“I’m looking for someone.”

“Hmm……?”

“Do you know a woman named Azula?”

At Diesel’s words, John briefly showed an expression as if he knew something.

But he quickly regained his composure and played dumb.

“I don’t know her.”

“Think carefully.”

“Tsk, tsk. So you didn’t come because you’re sick, you came to pry, huh? I told you, I don’t know anyone like that. But well, who knows? Maybe if I brew you a dose of tonic, it might jog my memory.”

At the blatantly obvious scam, Diesel openly frowned and asked back.

“Tonic?”

“Yeah, yeah. A tonic. Our apothecary’s got a proprietary tonic that really helps with memory, you see. My memory’s been a bit weak lately, but if I take that tonic, I feel like things will just come back to me?”

What exactly did ‘memory getting weak’ even mean?

It was absurd enough that Diesel simply stared John down in silence.

Seeing that, Mr. John cautiously threw out a number.

“Two million.”

“…….”

When Diesel’s expression didn’t change even a bit, John hurriedly added more.

“It uses very rare ingredients, you see. Materials you can only get at our apothecary.”

“…….”

“Ah, fine! I’ll be generous! 1.95 million! That’s the lowest I can go! Do you think I run a business by digging money out of the ground?”

‘This guy’s hopeless.’

He had intended to resolve things peacefully if possible, but instinctively realized that this wasn’t the type of person he could do that with.

Several possible solutions surfaced in Diesel’s mind.

‘Using force is a last resort……. Should I go with mental-type magic?’

Muttering to himself, Diesel chose a completely different approach this time.

He connected to the Electrosphere and attempted hacking.

The target was an old server carelessly left abandoned in the corner.

It seemed they hadn’t completely neglected security, as it was protected by a Grade-5 Firewall.

‘This level is something I can handle on my own now.’

After neutralizing the Firewall through accumulated practice, I infiltrated the server.

I had prepared several programs in case there was ICE, but contrary to expectations, the inside was completely empty, with no security measures at all.

After gathering some information there, Diesel looked at Mr. John and spoke.

“That woman who just left. Looks like she’s quite a regular.”

“Huh……?”

“She’s been coming here about once a week for several years now. Last week she got acupuncture for her bad back, and this week she picked up herbal medicine for her husband.”

“W-Wh-What are you talking about right now…….”

“But what do you think would happen if she found out that the 700,000 Qubit ‘eumyanggak’ she bought today was actually just water mixed with a cheap 20,000 Qubit aphrodisiac?”

John let out a ‘khm’ sound, then muttered in a low voice as if talking to himself.

“D-Did I have a hacker covering my back? You should’ve said so earlier…….”

Then he tried to haggle one last time.

“……1.8 million Qubit.”

Finally losing patience, Diesel narrowed his eyes and said.

“Two million Qubit.”

“Huh……? What did you say……?”

At those words, Mr. John twisted his face strangely and brazenly carried on.

“Hm, hm. I see. You really do understand the value of information! In fact, this is worth well over two million Qubit—”

“If you don’t hand over two million Qubit right now, I’ll contact every single customer who’s ever visited this place.”

“……?”

“And I’ll tell them that every ‘tonic’ brewed here is just tasteless water made by grinding up pills.”

“…….”

John finally seemed to grasp how the situation was unfolding and forced an artificial smile onto his face.

“Hahaha……. Look at me, losing my head. I didn’t even introduce myself to a guest I just met today.”

With that, he slickly extended his hand, asking for a handshake.

“I’m Doctor John. I’ve been an Oriental Medicine Doctor in this neighborhood for twenty years…….”

“Cut the bullshit.”

“……Then if I give you the information, can we settle it against the price?”

“That’s for me to decide.”

Diesel wasn’t the kind of shameless person who would squeeze out information without paying anything in return.

Naturally, if he got good information, he intended to pay a price worthy of it.

He just didn’t like the attitude of this man called Mr. John.

“Fine! You asked about Azula, right? I’ll tell you everything. First off, the name ‘Azula’ is just the alias she uses most often. She’s also gone by names like Sarah, Minji, Abigail, Seonho, and Tao.”

John glanced at Diesel’s expression, realized that his counterpart still wasn’t satisfied, and deliberately made his tone more dramatic.

“Right. What you’re really curious about is her true identity. I don’t know if you already knew this, but Azula is actually a Ghostcatcher based in Pyongyang! Haha! Pyongyang! Surprising, right?”

“…….”

John looked at Diesel, expecting that to be enough, but what he got back was a cold, blank expression.

Panic crept onto the Oriental Medicine Doctor’s face.

“Y-You already knew that much? Right. You even brought a hacker with you, so of course you’d have figured out something that basic. Then I’ll give you more high-level information. About Azula’s position, no less. Yes, yes. You probably already know her as a Gunner. But that’s fake. Her real position is something else.”

John leaned forward, closing the distance to Diesel, and whispered.

“She’s a Specter. Among magic users, that’s the most troublesome position to deal with!”

This time, perhaps thinking it was solid information, he chattered on excitedly.

“Well? Even most Fixers wouldn’t know this, right?”

But to Diesel, it was nothing more than information he already knew.

He frowned slightly and spoke.

“Is that all?”

“……Hey, pal. You’re not pretending you already know all this on purpose, are you?”

When John shot him a suspicious look, Diesel dismissed the doubt with a single sentence.

“More precisely, she’s a Transformation-type Specter.”

“Uh……. Um…….”

“She’s not just a Ghostcatcher, she doubles as a Fixer too. I already know all of that.”

Diesel continued, tapping the table with his finger as if bored.

“With this, I can’t exactly justify paying anything.”

“W-Wait! There’s more!”

Seemingly growing desperate, John began spewing out information about Azula in no particular order.

“She’s active in Seoul to gather information! She mainly uses honey traps—changing her face with transformation-type magic and seducing anyone, men or women alike. I thought you were another victim who’d fallen for her, so I tried to play hardball on the price! Sometimes people who catch onto her tail come all the way here. Then I take a reasonable fee, help them ‘realize the truth,’ and send them back.”

No wonder it felt like he’d done this more than once.

Thinking it was time to get to the point, Diesel opened his mouth.

“I’ll ask just one thing.”

“Sure! Ask me anything!”

“How did you end up distributing northern drugs in Seoul?”

“…….”

Had it hit him right on the mark?

Mr. John was so shocked he couldn’t continue speaking for a while.

“H-How…… that record was only stored on an offline server…….”

A closed server deliberately not connected to the Electrosphere.

A kind of secret ledger operated solely for data management.

But Diesel had the ability to access even such devices.

‘If it’s not connected, I can just crack it open directly.’

Diesel discreetly stroked the Electrosphere Spirit purring inside his coat.

〈Master, that woman Azula is a truly vicious one. Among drugs, she only selects the especially dangerous kinds and brings them in.〉

According to the information Ar brought back, Azula was secretly cultivating massive quantities of drugs in the north and distributing them to the south, including Seoul.

And this ‘Mr. John’ was the broker in charge of northern Seoul.

“Do you feel like talking properly now?”

“……If you’ll just spare my life, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Good.”

Seeing his completely surrendered attitude, Diesel calmly began asking questions.

“What’s your relationship with Azula?”

“Hah…… relationship, huh…….”

Mr. John honestly poured out his story.

At first, it was something he’d been forced into by Azula’s threats.

He hadn’t intended to distribute things this aggressively.

“I want to wash my hands of it too, but it’s gotten completely out of control. If I stop now, I’ll either get killed by the northern bastards, or die in prison. One or the other.”

“…….”

Sensing that the mood was about to turn into a sob story, Diesel drew a firm line.

“Skip the whining and just give me the information.”

“……Alright. Azula sends someone every Friday to inspect the distribution network.”

“She sends someone? She doesn’t come herself?”

“Yeah. It’s actually been quite a while since I last met Azula face-to-face. She seems to be busy with something these days.”

“Then where is Azula now?”

“That, I don’t know either.”

So it wasn’t going to be easy after all.

As Diesel thought that, Mr. John asked him,

“But why are you looking for Azula anyway? Are you trying to kill her or something?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“No, if that’s the case, I can help you!”

“……?”

John suddenly yanked open a desk drawer.

Then he took out a small box and placed it on the table.

“Do you know what this is?”

When Diesel carefully opened the box, something completely unexpected lay inside.

‘This is…….’

A distant past so old that no records remained.

An item devised by the ‘humanity’ of the mythological age to survive against the Monsters that once roamed the world.

Mr. John spoke cautiously.

“Mu-ghyehyang.”

“…….”

“It’s commonly called a ‘Monster Lure Device.’”

A jackpot had just fallen into his lap in the most unexpected place.