Chapter 41
Chapter 41
That’s unusual
***
“Wide-Area Investigation Unit of District 2, Sheriff Jin Geon. Just as you said, he was Public Enforcement Corps for now.”
“For now?”
“Last week, he received an appointment to the Seed Colony from Dome No.1 under the pretext of personnel reinforcement. Looking at the related documents, it seemed like he applied directly.”
“That’s unusual.”
“The reason I said ‘for now’ was because of that part. His record wasn’t lacking enough for him to suddenly come all the way to Mars. On the contrary, it was rather brilliant.”
A Medal of Distinguished Service awarded for wiping out hundreds of Striders. A presidential commendation received for uncovering the corruption of a megacorp. And even a special promotion granted after negotiating with the boss of a mafia and drawing out a confession.
“He’s still not a promotion candidate, perhaps because he’s young, but based on experience alone, he’s at a level where it would be understandable for him to be appointed as a Special Agent.”
“So that’s how good he is.”
A Special Agent was the position immediately above Sheriff.
Modern Public Enforcement Corps was a world where, since the ranks were simple, everything was decided solely by performance. Background or age were like supplementary appendices that came afterward.
Sheriff, then Special Agent.
It was only a single-step difference, but the scope of authority usage expanded beyond comparison.
One would become the head of an institution, taking command from the front. Having the capability to investigate even megacorps was a given.
After Special Agent, there were only positions that could influence the very system of the Public Enforcement Corps itself, so there was no need to wear out one’s mouth explaining just how high it was.
The important question was why such talent had come to Mars—
“He’s probably closely connected to the upper brass.”
Dominique cautiously expressed his opinion.
“What makes you think that?”
“I’ve heard that when the upper brass wants to use manpower they can’t openly talk about, they use methods like this.”
Come to think of it, hadn’t it been said that agents belonging to the National Intelligence Service also worked by disguising themselves as employees of other corporations?
Ga-on, who had pulled out an old memory, nodded his head.
“He’d be closer to the municipal government than to the Public Enforcement Corps.”
“I happened to have an acquaintance in Dome No.1 and asked around, but he didn’t seem to know either. If he’d been this active, he should have at least heard the name.”
“So no matter how carefully you hide things, you can’t fabricate personal connections as well.”
“Anyway, this is about as much information as I can gather by approaching him. I could dig deeper, but……”
“If you did that, the other side would notice.”
That wasn’t what Ga-on wanted.
“But why did you want to investigate someone like this?”
“He just caught my eye, and I wanted to know. So put your worries aside. At the very least, I’ll make sure your name doesn’t come up.”
“That part is something you know better than I do, even without me spelling it out.”
Dominique nodded in satisfaction and took his leave.
“Then please take good care of Fernandez.”
Ga-on got off on a quiet roadside and saw off the black sedan heading away in the distance.
Thanks to meeting Dominique, everything became clear.
The man who had suddenly appeared one day (Sol), Jin Geon.
He called himself a Sheriff, but his true identity was probably a hound that had chased him all the way from Earth.
There was a high probability that he belonged to the municipal government.
It was surprising that it wasn’t related to the Millennium Code, but in truth, there was no reason for them to step in. The woman currently holding the chairman’s position herself came from a concubine’s lineage.
That meant there was no direct grudge.
He was probably just tagging along unavoidably according to the intentions of the municipal government.
Now that the cause had been identified, solving it was easy.
All he had to do was rush to District 2 and kill Jin Geon.
But that wasn’t the correct answer. It would be no different from shouting that he was Yang Hu himself.
Even a thief with a guilty conscience wouldn’t go that far.
Of course, if this had been during the period when he had no identity, he would have chosen an extreme option without hesitation, but now he was wearing the shell called Baek Ga-on.
He had to escape Jin Geon’s—no, the municipal government’s suspicion.
Otherwise, a second Jin Geon could appear at any time.
What was encouraging was that he had already read their move.
A specified target was no longer frightening.
***
District 32.
There was an iron door beneath Ga-on’s house.
An iron door that could only be opened with a physical key.
He deliberately excluded digital equipment and replaced it with analog sensibilities. In an era like this, he had learned through experience that such a method was actually safer.
If that response seemed excessive, there was something else that was unusual.
That was the weight of the iron door itself.
It was an alloy mass approaching a staggering 700 kilograms. As much as the weight had increased, its strength and durability had also risen dramatically. Ordinary firearms wouldn’t even be able to scratch it.
Above all, it was manual.
In other words, one had to move a 700-kilogram iron door with bare hands to get inside.
In fact, this alone could be said to make the security perfect.
The staircase leading underground was narrow and short, and it was awkward to bring in heavy equipment.
An inaccessible space was completed in an instant.
He had only told Sera that it was a storage room.
He didn’t give curiosity-provoking warnings like never approaching it under any circumstances, or that something terrible would happen if she came here.
Even if she complained that it wouldn’t open, he could just brush it off by saying it was broken.
On the off chance that she did enter, there was nothing special inside.
At least, not yet.
Despite even being equipped with an emergency generator, the only operating device was a single computer.
Sitting in front of the monitor, Ga-on investigated aging.
Why exactly did humans grow old?
The most representative cause was the erosion of telomeres. The base sequences that protected DNA from damage during cell division gradually wore away and disappeared, causing parts of the cell to fail to replicate properly and die, which led to aging.
This was also a structural defect that carbon-based life forms inherently possessed.
It manifested in the most suitable form on the planet called Earth, but from a cosmic perspective, it was an extremely inefficient model. To maintain its form, it had to constantly take in energy from the outside.
An existence that could not be established without the sacrifice of others.
So perhaps humanity was given the karma of circulation the moment it separated from nature.
But Ga-on alone was an exception.
A mutation that could not be expressed by any word.
Just what exactly was happening inside his body?
‘It’s dizzying.’
This was the first time I had ever resolved to conduct an in-depth study of my own essence.
If I had to be precise, it would be more accurate to say that I had never had the opportunity.
The ice age that came after the Third World War ended. Contact with extraterrestrials that arrived just as another golden age was about to begin. And finally, the advance to Mars.
Three hundred years seemed long at a glance, but perhaps because so many events had occurred, it only felt short.
Ga-on’s mental age was the same.
It was no different from that of a young man. It had merely developed to be adept at improvisation.
Simply letting time pass was not everything.
Hadn’t he experienced welcoming a beloved woman, conceiving a new generation, enjoying the joy of watching his child grow, and taking time to reflect on life as he wrapped up his twilight years?
The human mind was meant to grow as diverse experiences accumulated, but Ga-on had no connection to that path.
Moreover, life was something completed through birth and death.
It only gained meaning because its duration was defined.
But Ga-on, who lacked death, would only stagnate eternally, with no period anywhere to be found.
Perhaps choosing the profession of a troubleshooter was meant to fill that lack.
My life, which would never end in death, did not change, but the lives of those who would someday die did change.
Dobby was one of them.
Originally, it was a fate that would have ended in death not long ago.
But because Ga-on intervened and untangled the twisted threads, Dobby was able to live out his own life.
An indescribably positive change.
In that process, Ga-on was able to feel vicarious satisfaction.
But one could not continue to be swayed by such things forever. Now was the time to take one more step forward.
Of course, contrary to such lofty aspirations, the basement was nothing short of modest.
‘Even looking at it again, it’s desolate.’
Simply put, an electron microscope. On a broader scale, a 3D printer, a component analyzer, an ultra-low-temperature freezer, a biological tissue analyzer. Ultimately, even a gene manipulator—
There was a mountain of items that needed to be filled in.
The most urgent issue was the entity that would conduct the research.
The topic of immortality was no different from aiming for the very essence of life.
Biotechnology, molecular biology, genetic engineering—there were more than enough fields that needed to be overseen.
As multiple Slots were developed, there were many means to enhance intellectual ability, but even that required talent and aptitude to be possible.
It would be ideal to obtain advice from masters scattered across various regions, but things were never as easy as they sounded. Humans were the least trustworthy of all.
Fortunately, there was no shortage of substitutes.
‘Android.’
If they were beings whose commands could be enforced, there was no need to fret about betrayal.
Hadn’t Sera also been unable to clearly explain what happened in the mansion where she worked?
It seemed like I would need to bring in one more boarder.
***
A corner of the bar counter.
Sitting in a seat that had now become his designated spot, Ga-on rolled his eyes while manipulating a device.
He could feel a gaze fixed on him from afar, but he deliberately ignored it.
The awkward atmosphere with Fernandez was nothing new.
Should it be called fear? Or should it be said that he was shrinking because he had done something wrong?
It was probably consideration in his own way, but from Ga-on’s perspective, it was nothing but stifling.
One couldn’t keep drawing parallel lines forever.
Ga-on casually tapped the bar counter with his index finger.
“I’m not going to eat you, so if you’ve got something you want to say, say it.”
“What have you been looking at for a while now? Don’t tell me you contacted another broker instead of me? You know, last time too, didn’t I set the brokerage fee to the minimum? I didn’t say it because it’d sound like bragging, but at that level, you could say I practically gave it away with no profit.”
He wondered if he’d opened the floodgates for nothing, as Fernandez moved his mouth incessantly.
“Calm down. I was just looking at a catalog.”
“A catalog?”
“Yeah. Androids are pretty expensive.”
The central figure of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was, no matter what anyone said, artificial intelligence. Hadn’t it also become a reliable backbone during the development of Mars?
After relentless cost reductions, things had reached a point where even individuals could afford to own them.
Even so, it wasn’t at a level where one could buy them indiscriminately. In old-fashioned terms, it felt like bringing in a high-end imported car.
“If it’s that kind of thing, I can arrange it for you. I’ve got a few vendors I know well.”
“Ah, what I want to buy isn’t something on the market.”
All androids sold in stores were household models. In other words, they all had ordinary specifications like Sera’s. Something like that couldn’t achieve the goal. The computation speed would be too slow to handle high-dimensional reasoning.
Therefore, what Ga-on was aiming for was, naturally—
“Androids that fall outside the Artificial Intelligence Restriction Act, in other words, ‘unlocked’ ones, should be floating around the back alleys. Right?”