Chapter 72
Chapter 72
Interesting
***
Ga-on checked the information that had come into the device and nodded his head.
There were countless autonomous districts that existed on Mars. People had simply set foot on land that belonged to no one. There was no one who could claim rights over it. Even if it was the municipal government or the council, it was the same.
Some corporations settled in the wastelands hoping for a sudden fortune, while there were also quite a few people who lived lives completely detached from civilization.
Because of that, colony development varied drastically in scale and purpose, ranging from places that could be called city-states like Seed Colony to places so small that the words village or hamlet suited them better.
The place that became the stage of the Black Shower was a mid-sized colony with solid influence among them, a place that had just been about to take its first step toward becoming a city.
“Suspicious.”
Not only had several shuttles burned up in the atmosphere, but their fragments had formed an impact cluster.
It was a situation that could only be explained as a strike on the origin point.
[From what I investigated, it seems a war broke out, and a massive one at that—large enough to blow an entire colony away]
“So they incited people by claiming the shuttle had crashed.”
[At the time, even the Seed Colony council stepped in to handle it. It’s probably still in textbooks now.]
“Then what was that colony’s council doing while another colony interfered like that?”
[They all died. I told you, it was a war]
“No way……”
[That’s right. A force that wanted to swallow the colony itself started the war]
At the same time, Dobby displayed the list. Perhaps because it had been prepared with great effort, the names of the terrorists continued endlessly.
Among them, Ga-on managed to find a familiar face.
“Giness?”
Alias, fanatic.
He was the leader of the group that tried to steal the ion drive, the one I had met on the space passenger ship.
[Someone you know? It says here his head was cut off]
It seemed he became a cyborg right after being killed by X. Most likely, the Black Shower had been the event that led to his birth as a fanatic.
‘So there was a reason the Mars Defense Force panicked and covered up the incident.’
Since a ghost from the past they had already dealt with had appeared, there must have been more than a few uncomfortable generals.
[The interesting thing is that they all belonged to a company called RYQ Company]
At that moment, RYS Company came to mind.
Right, the group presumed to have extracted the device from the real Baek Ga-on. Judging by the way the name was structured like this, it was probably an organization that branched off from the same line.
“Obviously a shell company. What else?”
[In 28 years ago and also 39 years ago, evidence was discovered that an unidentified actor appeared and settled the incident]
At Dobby’s explanation, Ga-on felt as if a common denominator was beginning to appear. In fact, there was no need to look far.
Every single one of them involved matters where the fate of Mars had been at stake.
Because initial measures had been taken, it had not become major news, but if it had blown up publicly, it would have been a huge disaster.
Ga-on knew.
An organization that operated like this.
“The Mars Defense Force.”
Now I finally understood why Jin Geon had been unable to grasp the situation and had been wandering around here and there. Only something of that scale could interfere with the municipal government’s hunting dogs.
That must also be why Maximus had been reluctant.
Naturally, at this point a question was bound to arise.
Why were they reacting so sensitively to the mere distribution of an electronic drug?
Handling illegal drugs was certainly a serious crime, but it wasn’t grave enough to warrant the intervention of the Mars Defense Force.
That was when a message came from Noah.
[I found out]
“What?”
[What Eden originally is]
Following Noah’s chattering explanation, Ga-on also retraced the incident. Her claim was weak, but she had accurately pointed out the blind spot.
“Interesting.”
If that was the case, the Mars Defense Force had no choice but to go wild.
***
Eden Park, located in District 26, had originally been planned as the site for a large apartment complex.
However, during the land survey, ground subsidence was discovered, and the purpose of the site was changed. The cost required for reinforcement construction had not been small.
In the end, when Eden Park was built, the area was replaced with an attraction called cave exploration. You could say it was a profit model that turned a crisis into an opportunity.
Of course, the area that was utilized was only the upper layer of the underground, while the lower layer was left abandoned. Development beyond what was necessary would only have been meaningless.
Since it was a place where human footsteps did not reach anyway, it faded from everyone’s memory.
But in this world, there was no place that was completely useless.
Eden Park was a landmark that boasted the largest floating population in District 26. On weekends or certain holidays, it became a hot place crowded with citizens.
The amount of logistics passing through in a single day alone reached thousands, even tens of thousands of tons.
Moreover, unlike during the day, once night fell, the presence of people dropped sharply. Since it was not a densely populated residential area, crime did not flourish either.
With even an emergency generator prepared in case of safety accidents, it was the optimal place to produce something. So there was no way mold would not grow in a corner where no one came.
Below the cave exploration attraction, there was a hollow where development had stopped.
There, an uninvited guest had built a nest.
Thick electrical wires, long pipes, and electronic devices lined up above them.
That was the result of the past three years. Brazenly, the impure group had been slipping in the parts they wanted one by one among the cargo entering Eden Park.
However, since the orders had to be placed discreetly, all external decoration had to be excluded.
That was why, despite possessing facilities comparable to a laboratory, the inner walls had been poorly finished.
A drop of water that fell from a stalactite landed on the crown of his head, but the man, Croft Shen, did not react and remained focused on compiling the information arriving from various places.
But that lasted only for a moment.
Croft frowned at the message that had come into his device.
It was news of a colleague’s death.
Rather than sadness, annoyance came first to mind. It was because that man had been their source of funds.
“Did something happen again? Dr. Croft.”
That was when a flippant voice was heard from behind him.
A man whose nape was covered in cut scars, Jacob grinned wide enough to reveal his fangs. Along the wrinkles etched into his face, the sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose bounced slightly.
“Yeees, it seems someone involved died. It looks like they were caught by the Mars Defense Force after all. I thought it was perfect though.”
His endlessly drawn-out speech naturally drained one’s energy. When they first met, I thought he was just mocking people. But that had been a misunderstanding.
After realizing it was simply Croft’s habit, Jacob had half given up on it.
In the first place, they were not close enough to point such things out.
The relationship between the two was merely a strategic alliance, and there was not even a speck of personal friendship between them.
“It might have been decided from the moment we recruited Professor Preston. That’s why I told them to select people from the underworld like us.”
“But thanks to that decision, Eden was completed faster than expected. Anyway, it seems it’s only a matter of time before this place is discovered.”
“Ah, so it seems.”
At Jacob’s attitude, as if he were speaking about someone else’s business, Croft detached the magnetic cable connected to his device.
“Come to think of it, how did you come here?”
Even Croft had only just heard about the incident that occurred outside. Yet Jacob had not only arrived a step ahead but had even brought it up first.
What did that mean?
Croft felt a sense of unease almost at the same time Jacob rolled up his sleeves.
Jacob, who pressed a combat knife against his arm filled with wounds, opened his mouth.
“It seems the higher-ups felt this little bonfire was too dangerous.”
“I didn’t expect opinions to split here.”
“It’s a shame, but what can you do. Playtime is over.”
“Didn’t I explain how valuable this is last time?”
Eden was an electronic drug, yet it was not an electronic drug.
Its true nature was malicious code scattered throughout the world in order to analyze the proprietary machine language system that composed devices.
In other words, the more people who abused Eden, the more samples there were to understand the structure of devices.
The pleasure generated during the process of the malicious code reading information had been an unintended error, but it became a blessing in disguise.
Because it allowed it to be distributed as an electronic drug.
Thanks to that, devices could be interpreted much faster than expected. There was no need to urge people to install suspicious programs.
Countless people were already drawing number tickets and waiting to fall into the pit.
This was an extremely encouraging achievement.
If they could dig into the foundation of devices, it meant they could peek into the cloud computing platform connected to them, and that in turn meant they could reach the massive data center that Seed Colony boasted.
Yes, that massive data center located in District 1.
If the grand undertaking was completed, they could manipulate the entire social system.
“And yet you’re saying we should give up?”
“Because it’s more important that those guys don’t discover our existence.”
With Lucas dead, the connection to the megacorp Marstop had also disappeared. Now that they had lost one of the means to control the press and public opinion, throwing a gamble would not be the right choice.
Even if they managed to enter District 1, what would be the point if they all died?
Jacob was someone who represented the interests of Meta-humans.
“Rather, if everything disappears right here, those guys won’t find any traces to chase us with.”
“Mr. Jacob, have you really gone mad?”
“You probably didn’t even finish half of it anyway.”
“We finished half of it.”
The two confronting each other did not back down even a single step.
A hair-trigger situation.
Suddenly, a bullet flew in from outside.
Croft’s glabella was pierced in an instant. Jacob, who hid his body behind the wall, immediately raised his head and looked toward the ceiling.
Inside the hollow formed by ground subsidence, there were countless tunnels whose destinations were unknown.
The attacker must have infiltrated through one of them.
Sure enough, far in the distance something like a writhing shadow could be seen. However, Jacob could not approach.
Croft’s subordinates, having heard the gunshot, rushed in.
“You, did you kill Lord Croft?”
“You wouldn’t believe me even if I said no.”
It was a situation where he could not even make excuses.
In any case, they were people who had to be dealt with sooner or later.
Jacob raised the combat knife and slashed down across his own forearm.
***
After arriving at Eden Park, Ga-on immediately headed toward the cave exploration attraction. That was because Dobby had analyzed that more supplies than necessary seemed to have been consumed there.
It was also the place Ga-on had inwardly marked. There had been no other place to establish a base.
That was when a message came from Jin Geon.
[Another victim has just appeared]
“Who is it?”
[Temper Parker. He’s the owner of Golden Film Association, that is, an accounting firm. He’s also one of the accountants mainly in charge of Ryungyeong’s funds.]
“Ryungyeong, is it.”
One of the Four Great Underworld factions.
If the Lucchesia Family was the Mafia, then Ryungyeong was the Triad. And they were a group deeply intoxicated with rather progressive ideas.
Because of that, it was said they introduced many bizarre and ingenious technologies.
I had never met them personally, but they had already been on the list of suspects.
No, judging by Jin Geon’s words, it was practically confirmed on the spot.