Neo-Joseon Cyberpunk

Chapter 106: A Lead

[Some time ago, we brought you news that world-renowned pop star Ophelia suddenly returned to Seoul. For unknown reasons, she has reportedly canceled all schedules and is remaining completely out of the public eye. What kind of psychological state could she be in? Let us hear the opinion of an android expert we’ve invited…….]

A back alley behind the ‘Sewoon Electronics’ shopping complex, located in Seoul Sector 1-9A.

On several old-model TVs lined up behind glass, a pretty human news anchor was smiling.

Three men strode briskly past the LED glow.

“Sniff, sniff. The stench is thick in this place.”

“A stench……you say?”

At Tae-oh Barosi’s words, Mr. John asked awkwardly.

He had spoken casually to Diesel without hesitation, but seemed unable to do so toward Tae-oh Barosi, who gave off a distinctly dangerous aura.

“Yes. A stench. That scent monsters go mad for.”

“Ah, sir, it seems you have an exceptionally keen sense of smell.”

“I do. Keen enough to smell the rusty pistol you’re hiding in your coat.”

“…….”

“When you get back, oil it a bit. Do you think you could even kill a rat with that thing?”

Instead of replying, Mr. John shot a protesting glance toward Diesel.

But Diesel’s attention was elsewhere.

More precisely, in a completely different ‘world.’

[Sis. Hacking’s done.]

Connected to the Electrosphere, Diesel sent a transmission to Little Sister.

He had just finished hacking the internal lines of Sewoon Electronics.

Little Sister responded in a startled voice.

[What?]

This wasn’t some convenience store server—this was a line connected to the entire shopping complex.

And not just any complex, but one that mainly dealt in Electrosphere equipment.

Knowing that well, Little Sister asked in disbelief.

[You did that hacking alone?]

[Yeah. The firewall was only Grade 5.]

[“Only” Grade 5? You were asking me how to hack not even five months ago.]

At that, Diesel was about to reply when—

Suddenly, Little Sister appeared before his eyes.

She was wearing the crude default avatar provided for new users.

‘They say anyone walking around in that is either a newbie or a veteran relic.’

Clichés don’t exist for nothing.

[Let’s see…….]

Sis, having appeared in person, examined the gaps in the firewall Diesel had breached, moving here and there before letting out a low hum.

[The hacking itself isn’t bad, but…….]

[Is there a problem?]

[Plenty, if I had to list them. Look. It’s good that you avoided this defense code, but you broke through way too forcefully. That makes erasing traces on exit extremely troublesome. The most important part of hacking is the cleanup after you’re done. Skip that, and you’ll get traced back someday. And look here—your access approach was good, but this way you’ll get flagged by all the Akashic programs, and eventually they’ll catch your tail…….]

After nagging for a while about his hacking methods, Sis abruptly turned her head and looked straight at Diesel.

[You. When this job’s over, talk with me.]

[Why now?]

[Just looking at how you work, I can see your future clearly. The kind where you trust your skills too much, wander around, and one day your brain suddenly pops and you die. A very common ending for newbie hackers who think they’ve got talent.]

[I won’t end up like th—]

[You won’t? That’s the number one thing hackers say most right before they die. I’ll teach you properly from the basics, so after this job, make sure you come by the Underground Great Hall. Got it?]

[……Fine.]

There was no reason to refuse when Little Sister, who played on a global scale, was offering to teach him hacking.

Having said all she needed, Sis deftly planted a backdoor into the line.

[I’ll handle monitoring this network, so don’t worry and infiltrate.]

[Got it.]

With that, she disconnected without even looking back.

The polygons forming her avatar broke apart and scattered like falling snow.

Diesel also exited the Electrosphere, then looked at the two men waiting for him.

“Hacking’s finished.”

“You’re sure about that?”

Mr. John asked suspiciously.

Perhaps uneasy about the job, he had been nervously scratching his neck since earlier.

‘We’re trying to catch Azula, a high-ranking Specter—if he wasn’t anxious, that’d be strange.’

Above all, his own life was on the line.

But Diesel grew slightly irritated at the repeated questioning.

“If I wasn’t sure, what would you do? Got another method?”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then just trust me and follow quietly.”

“……Alright.”

Diesel pulled out the hologram mask he had prepared in advance and put it on.

Beside him, Tae-oh Barosi also donned a mask of the same type, wearing a displeased expression.

[This kind of disguise really isn’t to my taste.]

As his altered voice complained, Diesel looked at him.

[For something you dislike, you put quite a bit of effort into the design.]

Light flickered from Tae-oh Barosi’s mask, and a splendid hologram in the form of a white tiger appeared.

[Effort? I simply chose one of the templates you gave me.]

[I don’t remember including a design like that.]

At Diesel’s jab, Tae-oh’s hologram made an indifferent expression.

It was an emotional display only those skilled in mask control could manage.

[……You chose a very classic character.]

By contrast, Diesel’s mask displayed the Smiling Man character.

It was the mask Sis had chosen for him last time.

[Do you know what this is?]

[Of course I do. Isn’t that the villain from a famous classic SF masterpiece animation? Don’t underestimate me—I’ve mastered all the classic series.]

They said he learned social skills from martial arts novels, yet he was well-versed in animation too.

It made one wonder just how far Tae-oh Barosi’s genre conquests extended.

[Let’s move.]

Diesel gestured toward Mr. John.

He was still scratching his neck, wearing an uneasy expression.

[Once we’re inside, manage your expressions properly.]

At Diesel’s words, John let out a small sigh.

“Don’t worry about that. Managing expressions and talking my way through things is my specialty.”

So that meant he hadn’t been managing them on purpose until now?

A flicker of irritation rose, but Diesel ignored it and moved his feet.

* * *

‘This is getting a bit tangled…….’

The shabby warehouse of Sewoon Electronics.

At the slightly twisted turn of events, I lightly bit my lip.

It wasn’t that everything had gone completely wrong.

We had just received the Mukhyang Incense smuggled in from the north.

So at the very least, securing the ‘goods’ was complete.

But.

“Uh……. but, sir. May I ask just one last thing?”

John the oriental medicine doctor carefully asked the handler who had brought the goods.

“What?”

The hulking man deeply furrowed his brow and snapped irritably.

Even so, Mr. John didn’t panic and threw out his question.

“Where is Azula-nim?”

The target who should have come out instead of this man.

Azula hadn’t appeared at the transaction site.

“Why do you ask that?”

“……It’s been quite some time since I last saw her. If she’s unwell anywhere, I thought I might prepare a tonic for her.”

“Ha! A quack bastard talking about tonics? Cut the bullshit and just move the goods properly according to the plan.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected situation, Mr. John tried his best to extract information, but all he got back was a mocking response.

‘Did he notice something?’

No, that wasn’t it.

If he had, there’d be no reason to send the smuggled goods.

According to Tae-oh Barosi’s confirmation, the Mukhyang Incense in that box was undoubtedly genuine.

‘If they had noticed, they would’ve shut down this route entirely.’

In that case, we wouldn’t even have been able to meet Mr. John today.

He’d have been killed by Azula long ago.

‘Then there must have been some other reason…….’

I stared at the menacing-looking brute who had appeared as her stand-in.

‘And it’s not like I can use the Room of the Unconscious here…….’

A high-grade mental-type magic that infiltrated the target’s mind and extracted information.

It was undeniably powerful, but it came with quite a few restrictions.

First, it didn’t work if the target had mental defenses, and even if it did succeed, the target would fall into a deep sleep for a while.

That made it unusable in a situation like this, with too many eyes watching.

‘There are other spells, but…… I can’t show a mental-type magic being used in front of this quack oriental medicine doctor.’

[Can’t you just beat him up until he talks?]

Through a closed communication channel, Tae-oh Barosi suggested the worst possible method.

[Absolutely not.]

The moment we showed even the slightest suspicious move here, Azula would surely erase her traces completely and go into hiding.

After finally grabbing the trail of a Ghostcatcher that even Little Sister couldn’t find, letting it slip away like this would be pointless.

“Why are you staring blankly? If you’re done, grab the goods and get lost.”

The brute barked threateningly at Mr. John.

‘I can’t just leave like this.’

In the end, I closed my eyes.

Then, with another field of vision I possessed—‘Electrosphere Projection’—I looked at the target.

‘This guy’s no pushover.’

The first thing I examined was his external specs, and several high-grade cyberwares immediately stood out.

High-grade subdermal armor capable of stopping rifle rounds, combat arms replacing both arms, a titanium skeletal frame, and finally artificial muscles from the Black Gorilla series.

But what really mattered was something else.

‘It’s a BlackWall.’

A solid barrier that blocked intrusion from the Electrosphere.

A powerful firewall rarely seen even on corporate servers was protecting the brute’s prosthetic body.

‘Grade 6. But considering it’s a BlackWall, I should treat it as Grade 7.’

A level I couldn’t have even approached in the past.

But this wasn’t the past anymore.

‘I might at least be able to try.’

With that thought, my avatar reached out and placed a hand against the jet-black wall protecting the brute.

Just as I was about to attempt hacking the BlackWall—

[You’ll die if you do that.]

Little Sister suddenly appeared and blocked me.

[You…… why are you here…….]

The part Sis had originally agreed to handle was monitoring and controlling the surrounding communication network.

That alone was a task that would normally require several skilled hackers working together—yet she’d appeared on-site.

[I knew you’d pull some crazy stunt like this. You’re trying to break through a BlackWall without even preparing a proper program? You’d have a higher survival rate skydiving without a parachute.]

After scolding me, Little Sister activated a program she had prepared in advance.

[That’s…… an Ice Breaker?]

A program designed to deal with ‘ICE,’ the active protection system installed inside devices.

[Yeah. A BlackWall is a firewall built on ICE, like a siege barrier.]

[Hmm…….]

[This is exactly why talented newbies are a problem. Because they keep succeeding on their own skills, when they run into security measures way beyond their level, they still charge in headfirst.]

Soon, a drill-shaped Ice Breaker formed in Sis’s hand.

Looking closely, unlike ordinary breaker programs, it seemed modified solely for punching holes.

[A breaker I personally made just for BlackWalls.]

‘That alone is a pretty good gain.’

A high-end program that would easily cost tens of millions of Qubits on the open market.

But the moment I saw it, the program’s entire code was already imprinted in my mind.

[I’ll handle things here, so you just focus on your—]

[No.]

[……?]

I cut Sis off and stepped forward, positioning myself in front of her avatar.

Generating the drill-shaped program in my own hand.

[You…….]

Ignoring her astonished murmur, I began the work.

A task even seasoned hackers wouldn’t dare attempt.

Wheeeeee……!

As I poured processing power into the program, the drill spun at a terrifying speed along with its preloaded sound effect.

I pressed its tip against the BlackWall.

Drrrrrrrr……!

Before long, cracks formed in the firewall.

A flawless hack, with nothing to criticize.

[Ha……! You really…….]

[What?]

[I’ve got nothing to say.]

Sis stared at me as if utterly dumbfounded.

I shrugged at her and said,

[Please take care of the rest.]

[……Fine.]

At her response, I cut my connection to the Electrosphere and returned.

I then saw Tae-oh Barosi slinging the box over his shoulder.

[Do you perhaps have another plan?]

[Hacking’s done. Let’s take the goods and get out for now.]

At my instruction, everyone turned to leave the warehouse.

But then—

“Wait. You there.”

Suddenly, the brute stopped me.

Then he threw out an unexpected question.

“That smiling mask……. It looks familiar somehow.”

[…….]

“Have you ever been to the Black Market?”