Chapter 107: Snowfield Zone (1)
“Because that mask… I think I’ve seen it there.”
The big guy furrowed his brow and examined Diesel’s mask.
But before Diesel could answer anything.
“Wow! The Smiling Man!”
“……?”
“You know that character!”
Mr. John hurriedly cut in.
“Just in case you don’t know, I’ll explain. That smiling man character you’re seeing right now used to be popular. Rea.lly. Insanely. Popu.lar. He played the role of a genius hacker villain with a very striking presence, and just how unique a character he was, you see……”
John started explaining as he turned on a hologram projector, as if he’d pulled it out of nowhere.
And after that dizzying patter went on for a while.
“FYI, the letters floating around are a quote taken from a 20th-century Arican classic novel, and the aning is……”
“Stop it!”
In the end, the big guy couldn’t stand it and shouted.
“That’s enough, so take your stuff and get lost!”
“Why are you acting like that? I haven’t even properly started yet.”
“I said get lost!”
“Huh-huh, seriously. All right. Co on, everyone, let’s go.”
Mr. John smiled slickly, then turned and headed out of the warehouse.
With him, Diesel and Tae-oh Barosi also gathered the boxes and left.
A little later, once they’d pulled back to a safe distance, Diesel looked at John and asked.
[What was that just now?]
Mr. John shrugged and replied.
“Everyone kept going on about classics, so I tried a classic annoyance-inducing tactic myself.”
[That was ‘classic’ just now?]
“You really don’t know anything. It’s a Korean-era classic ‘internet’ .”
[……I’ve never heard of it.]
“Right now in the Electrosphere, s from that era are trending again. If you want to keep up with kids these days, you’ve gotta study a bit, old n.”
“So you’re doing this job there again this ti?”
The Safe House Training Ground.
When Diesel ca out after finishing his shower, Kali spoke with a smile at the corner of her lips.
“I an Furry Land.”
She also looked like she’d just finished working out—her orange tracksuit was completely soaked with sweat.
“Yeah.”
“Want to help too?”
“If you’re fine with unpaid.”
As if it was an answer she hadn’t wanted, Kali lifted one eyebrow.
“So it was true—you really did work that half-dragon for free.”
“I’m not working him. He volunteered.”
“Then I’ll pass. I’m not taking any job that doesn’t pay.”
Furry Land.
He didn’t know why a beastn’s place had co up while tracking Azula, a Northern Side Ghostcatcher.
All he’d gotten was information, from hacking the big guy last ti, that so kind of deal had taken place in Furry Land.
“Ti really flies. Back then, you still looked like a bit of a rookie.”
Kali twisted open the cap of a mana supplent for lee Mages and chugged it down.
Diesel shot back at her.
“You got money squeezed out of you by that rookie.”
“Hahahaha! Yeah. I did. I still rember it clear as day. ‘After the fee, half. If you can’t pay, I’m out.’ Ha! I thought you were a real lunatic.”
“…….”
“I’m not cursing you, I’m praising you, praising you. They say the ones who’ll make it are different from the sprout stage. And in the end, in less than half a year you even beca a clan leader.”
“It just happened.”
At Diesel’s answer, Kali stared at him intently—so much it was almost burdenso.
So Diesel roughly changed the subject.
“How are Jo and Zal? Doing okay?”
“……Why the hell are you asking about those bastards?”
“You’re close with them.”
“Crazy. Don’t say that kind of crap even as a joke.”
Kali shuddered slightly, like she was sick of it, then stood up.
“Whether those assholes are alive, or got shot sowhere and croaked, I don’t know.”
At the reaction—far more intense than he’d expected—Diesel felt suspicion rise.
‘What kind of relationship do they have, anyway?’
From the start, Kali and Jo, Zal had looked like they were on terrible terms.
During the job back then, every ti their eyes t, they’d start fighting.
‘But it didn’t feel like they were total sworn enemies, either.’
In any case, it wasn’t sothing that mattered right now.
With that thought, Diesel shook off the random questions bubbling up.
“Still, I’m telling you, this kind of disguise really isn’t my thing.”
A dark back alley near Furry Land.
Tae-oh Barosi, wearing Furry Gum, muttered.
The half-dragon had transford into a White Bear beastman more dashing than anyone else.
Then, the gray wolf beastman beside him—Diesel—answered.
“Why don’t you be honest. You’re enjoying it.”
“Enjoying what—who’s enjoying anything?”
“Usually, with this gum, you don’t get such a specific shape.”
“…….”
Maybe because he’d co to know more about different kinds of magic.
Diesel realized that the toy called Furry Gum was a fairly elaborate magic item.
A disguise tool based on Transformation-type magic, with several techniques properly mixed in.
The more concrete the user’s ntal image, the more elaborate a mask it created.
And the white tiger Tae-oh Barosi was wearing had detail alive down to every single strand of fur.
“At that level, didn’t you actually want to beco a White Bear?”
“What did you say? A brain dragon becoming a White Bear! What an obscene thing to say! Ahem, ahem. You misunderstand.”
Diesel took Tae-oh—who was desperately denying his true feelings—and stepped into Furry Land.
[In this place, not even half of them are proper beastn.]
Tae-oh Barosi muttered as he looked around while passing through a club-style lounge.
Maybe because it was the vision of a transcendent being—a dragon—it seed like he could see right through the identities of those disguised with Furry Gum.
It was similar for Diesel, too.
To his eyes, which could look into all surreal things, it was plainly visible who was camouflaging themselves with Transformation-type magic.
Even if, unlike a dragon, he couldn’t pierce through to their true identities.
‘Wait. But he’s a half-dragon. Strictly speaking… doesn’t that an he counts as a beastman?’
Originally, beastn were known as hybrids of humans and their great ancestors from the distant past, the ‘sapient animals’.
If that was the case, then depending on one’s perspective, it wasn’t strange to see a half-dragon as a kind of beastman as well.
[Why are you staring like that?]
But for so reason, I felt like I shouldn’t ask, so I turned my gaze away and stepped onto the moving walkway belt.
[……Let’s just move.]
The place we were heading to now was the ‘Snowfield Zone’.
It was Furry Land’s own artificial environnt that recreated the harsh, snow-covered conditions of Siberia.
‘What’s this place now. A marine life encounter plaza?’
On the way to the Snowfield Zone, there were several spaces with peculiar thes.
The first to appear was an area surrounded on all sides by enormous aquariums, where all kinds of sea creature beastn—penguins, sperm whales, rmaids, and more—were biting into pufferfish-shaped drugs and enjoying a hallucinatory party.
[Hmm. As expected, the world of beastn is quite diverse.]
After passing through the unique encounter plaza, we ca to a space like a tropical rainforest.
Beneath gigantic plants—no idea whether they were real trees or not—reptile and amphibian beastn were gathered in small groups, chatting.
Every single one of them had a pipe in their mouth, belching thick smoke.
‘To think that all these beastn used to look just like humans in the past…….’
The various races of the world hadn’t suddenly appeared one day.
They had existed alongside us for a very long ti, but because of the Outer Space Whale that orbited the Earth while emitting a powerful ‘cognition-inhibiting magic’, everyone had simply looked human.
So people died in their fifties, others lived past a hundred.
So were good at sports, others were good at studying.
The diverse traits of humanity existed because they truly were different ‘races’ at their core.
‘They say if you look again at old photos taken in the past, your grandfather looks like an elf, and your grandmother looks like a beastman.’
With those stray thoughts in mind, I passed through deserts, plains, forests, and other terrains, and finally entered the Snowfield Zone, our destination.
A vast space appeared, with thick snowflakes gently falling.
[Is this it?]
[Yeah. If we go a little further, there should be a restaurant district. Let’s start investigating from there.]
Coincidentally, the forms Tae-oh and I had taken were beastman types that fit the snowfield the well.
A gray wolf from cold regions, and a tiger with white fur.
‘It’s freezing.’
Even so, it didn’t an I’d beco resistant to the cold.
As I went deeper inside and the temperature dropped sharply, I pulled my collar tight.
“Welco!”
As we stepped into a wooden building that strongly resembled Eastern Europe, the owner—who looked like a snow leopard beastman—greeted us.
“What’ll it be. Vodka? If you don’t like liquor, how about so hot beer?”
Like other leopards, the snow leopard had sharp facial features, but the generously built owner showed no trace of that fierceness and instead had an affable air.
“Sebin, take care of the guests!”
“Just a mont!”
The employee called Sebin was also a snow leopard beastman.
But despite being the sa species as the owner, their appearances differed to an absurd degree.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. I’m sorry—there are a lot of custors today. Hehe.”
A youthful face that looked like they’d just co of age.
Round, small ears with soft-looking fur.
Sharp eyes that seed to insist they were, in their own way, a carnivore.
“Huh…….”
At the sight of that employee, Tae-oh Barosi’s expression changed strangely.
The White Bear hide he was wearing shook violently.
‘What’s wrong with him?’
When I poked Tae-oh in the side to snap him out of it.
“Ehek……!”
He let out a strange cry, and his expression returned to normal.
“It looks like it’s your first ti at our place. Would you like to guide you?”
“Yes. Please do.”
“…….”
“First, I recomnd the mountain goat hind leg and wild boar pork belly! Especially the grilled mountain goat—we’re proud to say it’s the best in all of Furry Land! The owner personally raises them in the back mountain and only uses fresh at…….”
At that mont, the shop door flew open and several huge beastn barged in.
“Ahem, ahem. Owner! I’m pretty sure I told you to co out and greet ! What the hell have you been doing?”
At the sudden commotion, I looked toward the entrance.
There, I saw a rather familiar face.
‘That brown bear beastman…….’
An executive of Podvig who’d lost half his body to Betty Barosi.
‘Michya, was it.’
This was the third ti I’d run into that bastard.
None of our previous encounters had been positive, and sohow, I had a feeling this one wouldn’t be either.
“Oh my, Director. I’m very sorry. Today’s been a bit busy…….”
“Busy my ass. Who would even co to a trash heap of a place like this?”
“…….”
“A lowly bastard who just runs a shop ought to know his place. Your belly get full so you forgot what it was like to be a tadpole? Why are you just standing there? Hurry up and give the best seat!”
Spitting out vicious words, the brown bear started berating the owner with an air of blatant arrogance.
His booming voice carried all the way to where I was sitting at the far end of the shop.
Sebin forced an awkward smile and said.
“Hehe……. I’m sorry. He’s kind of a high-ranking person…….”
A high-ranking person, huh.
Was being a gacorporation executive enough to warrant being treated like a king?
Well, as a high-level official of a corporation that ruled the world, there probably wasn’t anyone who could stop him from throwing his weight around.
“I’m sorry, but that seat is already reserved…….”
“Ha! Reserved, my ass.”
The brown bear went to the best seat in the shop, snatched up the sign that read 「Reserved」 and flung it aside, then sat down arrogantly.
Then he glared around nacingly.
Even though there were quite a few people inside, not a single one had the guts to et his gaze.
A look of superiority etched itself onto the brown bear’s face.
It seed the etiquette Betty had tried to instill in him had utterly failed.
‘Well, it’s not my problem right now.’
It was an eyesore, but getting involved would only be a hassle.
Thinking that, I casually ordered two servings of grilled at.
“Yes, two servings of grilled mountain goat hind leg. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Please wait just a mont!”
After running to the kitchen to deliver the order, Sebin took a deep breath.
It looked like they were steadying themselves before going over to Michya.
“Sebin. I’ll handle that person myself…….”
“No, sir. I can do it.”
When the owner tried to step in, Sebin cut him off with a firm expression.
Then, clenching the nu tightly, they strode straight toward where the brown bear beastman was sitting.
“Tae-oh.”
“…….”
“Hey, Tae-oh.”
“……Huh?”
Tae-oh Barosi couldn’t take his eyes off that scene.
“Just ignore it. That brown bear bastard is an empty can—just loud.”
“Do you know him?”
“Well, if I had to say, yeah.”
I brushed it off vaguely and was about to explain our next plan again.
“Kyaaak……!”
Suddenly, the sound of a glass shattering ca from Michya’s table.
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