Chapter 149
Chapter 149
A Devilish Idea
***
A black line running across the eyes like a perforation line kept writhing incessantly.
What irritated the man in his early old age was his disciple's lack of virtue. With his long hair braided and hanging down, he made no attempt to hide his anger.
"So you're telling me you stopped the life-and-death duel because of the words of some mere woman?"
"Surely you know better than anyone who she is, Master."
"I don't want to hear it."
The moment he swept his arm, his unusually long sleeve billowed.
Only a gentle breeze leaked out from within it, yet Dae Gwanmu's massive body was sent flying into the distance before crashing into the wall.
"Cough."
The strike was powerful enough to drive him into solid concrete.
Even so, Dae Gwanmu painfully crawled back out, dropped to his knees, and performed a full prostration.
"What did I tell you when I entrusted you with this task?"
"You said that if I dealt with Fighting Dog, I could become a squad leader."
"That's right. So you do remember. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten."
Ryungyeong was a great dragon.
Naturally, there were countless forces that envied and threatened it, making periodic purges an absolute necessity.
This time, the fixer named Baek Ga-on had been marked as trash.
The fact that he had mercilessly killed Rajinga, a squad leader, meant he had shown no regard for Ryungyeong. That alone was an offense worthy of death—
"And yet, by the time I returned from another colony, nothing had been resolved. Are you defying my orders?"
"An order came down from headquarters telling us to exercise restraint. How could I handle it on my own?"
"Heh."
As absurd as it sounded, it was true.
That was also why the elder had restrained himself from snapping Dae Gwanmu's neck.
"There are many ways for an organization to rot, but they all end in the same place. They bow to outside pressure, they fracture from within. If discipline is not upheld, then no matter how powerful an organization may be, it is no different from a candle before the wind. I cannot help but lament."
They had placed a bounty themselves, only to withdraw after receiving a warning from another underworld faction.
To the elder, such a thing was utter nonsense.
Especially when the other party wasn't even someone deserving of that much respect.
Weren't fixers a dime a dozen in the back alleys?
"But the one who defended Fighting Dog was 'that' Sword Master."
"So what? He's just an obsolete relic who retired from the front lines."
There's no way.
Dae Gwanmu instinctively bit down on his lips before he could object and lowered his head even further to hide the disloyal expression on his face.
He could understand why the elder did not fear the Sword Master—or rather, why he refused to fear him.
After all, Sword Master Alice had been a figure from fifty years ago.
Compared to those days, weaponry had advanced beyond recognition. The martial system possessed by Ryungyeong was no different. Violence itself had become standardized at a far higher level, to the point where they could confidently say it was twice as formidable as it had once been.
The elder had defeated countless rivals and held his executive position for many years.
Surely it wasn't only his strength that had grown with age.
His stubbornness and obstinacy could be compared to diamond itself.
"Besides, who do you think was responsible for the previous Dragon Head meeting such a futile end?"
It might still have been an unforgettable humiliation for the elder, but to Dae Gwanmu, it was nothing more than a distant piece of history.
One whose truth could never even be verified.
Even so, history was judged by its results.
Back then, the incident had concluded with Alice announcing his retirement. As a bonus, it became the opportunity for Ryungyeong to spread its influence. Contrary to what many spectators had expected, the two underworld factions never clashed.
Some even suspected that Ryungyeong had staged the entire affair itself to reduce the Miyauchi Group's territory.
Dae Gwanmu did not entirely agree with that opinion, but he could not deny that there were many suspicious aspects.
"Nothing has ever been conclusively proven, has it?"
"That's exactly the kind of answer I'd expect from someone who couldn't even kill a single fixer and let things turn out like this. Fine then. Go ahead and make your excuses. What exactly were you doing before the Sword Master decided to protect him?"
"Fighting Dog's abilities were underestimated."
"And what did you see in him?"
"Forgive my boldness, but I believe that at the very least, only you, Master, could have matched him. He possessed the bearing of a grandmaster..."
It was an honest assessment, but to the elder, it was an unbearable insult.
Without even letting him finish, he seized Dae Gwanmu by the throat with one hand and lifted him into the air.
"Cough."
"I've warned you time and time again, yet you still haven't corrected that habit."
The enraged elder glared at Dae Gwanmu as though he would bore a hole straight through him.
"Didn't I tell you not to act as though you were outside the well, as though you were enlightened, making assumptions while never having seen the world beyond it? That's exactly why you'll never amount to anything. A brat not even thirty years old is a grandmaster? Must this matter truly be reported all the way to the Grand Master?"
"No, that bastard really..."
"Enough. Shut your mouth. Listening to your pitiful insight is enough to make my ears rot."
The moment the elder hurled Dae Gwanmu aside, a man hurried to his side and whispered into his ear.
He had a crafty, calculating face.
The man was Siho, Dae Gwanmu's junior disciple.
In truth, he was the one who had orchestrated this entire situation.
He had reported every last detail of what had happened to the elder.
But there was nothing Dae Gwanmu could do.
Excuses were a luxury reserved for no defeated man.
Siho's whisper lasted quite a while, yet the elder's satisfied smile never left his lips.
"Ah... it seems a rather timely request for cooperation has just arrived."
Then he lowered his gaze.
"Dae Gwanmu."
"Yes, Master."
"If you wish to avenge your disgrace, then follow me."
The order contained nothing but the conclusion, yet Dae Gwanmu had no right to refuse.
***
Along with a message stating that the preparations were complete, Croft invited him to District 35.
A place where verdant greenery never faded regardless of the season.
Mars had already entered May.
After six long months of winter, spring had finally arrived, its presence echoing throughout the land.
Swoosh—
As the refreshing sound swept past his ears, Ga-on stopped walking and looked straight ahead.
A golden wheat field stretched all the way to the horizon, rippling like waves beneath the wind.
There was no other way to describe the scenery except magnificent.
Although livestock farming and aquaculture had been replaced by cultivation technology, agriculture itself continued to flourish to this day.
Crop varieties improved at the genetic level had yet to lose their efficiency, and with farmland extending three underground levels, it was possible to harvest eight crops a year.
AI-controlled tractors and combine harvesters handled all the planting and harvesting, leaving almost no need for human labor.
With neither soil depletion nor pests to contend with, the farms theoretically produced an almost limitless supply of crops.
No one went hungry anymore.
Unlike after the Third World War.
Just then, a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"You've arrived before meee."
The approaching man in a white lab coat was Croft.
Checking the time on his device, Ga-on saw it was exactly on the hour.
"Where do I need to go?"
"Right this waaay."
***
On the outskirts of District 35.
Beneath an agricultural warehouse standing alone in the middle of an empty lot was a blast door.
The building itself was built in an old style, but the staircase leading underground had been specially constructed from multi-alloy materials.
The walls were also seamlessly fabricated without a single joint.
Even if a nuclear bomb exploded overhead, it would likely remain intact.
"A bomb shelter? It doesn't look like it's just for evacuation."
"You noticeddd. This place was built to be completely self-sufficient. Such an excellent property came onto the market, so I snapped it right uppp."
"I don't understand why anyone would build something like this beneath farmland."
"There are quite a few doomsday believersss. It was only three hundred years ago that the Third World War broke out, after all."
"Doomsday believers, huh."
That was the term used for those who constantly made a fuss, claiming the Fourth World War could break out at any moment.
Ideally, such a movement shouldn't have existed at all, but unfortunately, as the Ice Age arrived, more and more people began believing in it, if only subconsciously.
"I don't think another conflict on that scale is very likely."
"Ah, the previous owner belonged to a slightly different group. He was worried about an invasion by the Second."
That too was one branch of the doomsday believers.
Judging by his insistence on using only materials with a Military Utility Grade, he had apparently even prepared for a confrontation with the Mars Defense Force—
"A shelter like this couldn't have been cheap."
"I bought it with the profits from stock manipulation... no, stock investmenttt. I needed a place where I could conduct my research in peaceee."
"I see."
A private property tucked away in one corner of vast farmland so expansive that a person could get lost without anyone ever noticing.
Not only were there few people around, but even if large numbers of personnel were mobilized in an emergency, it would hardly attract attention.
"So it's the kind of place where someone could die and no one would ever know."
"Pardon? What was thattt?"
"Nothing."
Passing through multiple layers of security doors, they stepped inside.
An entirely different world unfolded before them.
Above ground was a paradise recreating the age of agriculture.
Below ground was a temple devoted to the worship of the god of machines.
Cables intertwined like plant roots, with rows of vacuum tubes lining their surface.
Countless devices and machines crowded the room, while pipes and electrical wiring stretched upward as though pointing toward the ceiling.
Embedded overhead was a circular device with a hollow center, shaped like a giant doughnut.
It was a device designed to generate nuclear fusion—
"A Tokamak?"
It resembled the one he had seen aboard the space passenger ship.
Though comparing their sizes would have been unfair.
"Please forgive any shortcomingsss. I built it with my own hands, after allll."
This seemed to be Croft's answer to the power source behind abilities that Veda had once mentioned.
In his case, he intended to fuel it with a nuclear fusion reactor.
Whether that was actually possible remained to be seen.
Still, one thing was certain.
Croft had indeed been researching Meta-humans.
Their areas of focus had overlapped.
"The preheating is completeee. Now, if you'll step inside hereee."
The lid of an unfamiliar pod opened, and Croft immediately guided him toward it.
After removing his coat and standing before it, Ga-on paused for a moment.
"It isn't going to explode, is it?"
"The test runs are already completeee. Though I have no idea how it will actually manifest."
"So I'm the first subject."
"Even if it fails, that's perfectly fineee. In that case, nothing at all will happen."
As soon as he stepped inside, a thick cable connected itself to his device.
Then, as though it had no intention of ever letting go—
Clank.
It locked itself even more tightly into place.
Countless warning messages flashed across his vision before disappearing in an instant.
The pod sealed shut almost simultaneously with the lid closing and Croft waving his hand.
"Then I wish you a pleasant journeyyy."
His voice echoed farther and farther away.
For a brief moment, Ga-on was bewildered by the voices filling his mind.
Crackle—
Sparks erupted from the back of his neck, and his vision flickered.
Accompanied by the pleasure of experiencing it for the second time in his life.
***
Above him stretched a night sky overflowing with starlight.
Below him, a hellscape extended all the way to the horizon.
Yet Ga-on remained unshaken as he sat atop the pile of his own corpses.
The fact that he had entered his deep consciousness proved that Croft's experiment had been a success.
More than anything, the pleasure he had felt just before losing consciousness left the strongest impression.
After all, he had experienced it once before.
"Eden."
Since Croft had been one of its principal creators, there was nothing surprising about that.
But to think he had reversed the concept altogether and concluded that if entering one's deep consciousness was possible, then abilities could also be drawn out through it—
"What a devilish idea."