Chapter 37: The Rakshasa and the Angel at the Gukbap Restaurant
“About Kaztikan. What the hell happened, anyway?”
Raksha said as she tapped the table with her fingers.
“I nearly died wanting to ask while we were resting.”
At that, Diesel spoke as if it were nothing worth ntioning.
“I killed him.”
A brief silence fell over the gukbap restaurant.
The one who broke it was, again, Raksha.
“You killed him.”
“…….”
“That Kaztikan.”
The rakshasa’s words were not a question, but a confirmation.
“Yeah.”
At Diesel’s answer, Sis slowly nodded her head.
Seriel barely managed to close her mouth, which was overflowing with questions.
Raksha deeply furrowed her brow.
“How on earth did you…….”
She was about to ask sothing further, but Seriel beside her stopped her.
“Raksha, stop it.”
“You were curious too! The one we were dealing with wasn’t just so random nobody, it was Kaztikan. That immortal Kaztikan!”
Raksha continued, her emotions rising slightly.
“Diesel, I’m not doubting your skills. It’s just that this is……. I don’t really understand it. How that troll bastard could…….”
“How he got killed by a Ghostcatcher who’s only been active for about two months?”
“…….”
Raksha recalled her mories from the Moon Base.
The look in Diesel’s eyes she had seen just before she collapsed.
They were unmistakably the eyes of a tyrant who had reached a certain realm.
“I just got a little lucky, that’s all.”
As silence once more settled over the shop, Sis changed the subject.
“Anyway, good work, everyone. We failed again to capture the Witch of the Electrosphere, but still.”
“You worked hard too, Sis. But did you figure that out?”
As Sis opened the topic, Seriel chid in appropriately.
“You know, those strange lifeforms that appeared that day.”
“Oh, those?”
At the angel’s question, Sis continued.
“They were things that ca out of a secret laboratory hidden in the Moon Base.”
“A laboratory?”
“It turns out those crazy Podvig bastards built a facility on the moon to research ghosts.”
As she gestured in the air, a hologram resembling the Moon Base Lighthouse appeared above the table.
“This lighthouse, you see, is known to have two purposes within the Electrosphere. One is as a marker that fixes coordinates in the Electrosphere, and the other is a warning telling you not to go beyond it. But in fact, it has one more use beyond that.”
Hearing information he’d never heard before, Diesel listened closely.
“The idea of building a lighthouse on the moon originally started as part of a facility ant to lure ghosts.”
“Hah…….”
Raksha let out a disbelieving breath.
“And what’s ghost luring supposed to be?”
“Back when ghosts first appeared in the world, the most troubleso thing about them was their absurd numbers. So the Moon Lighthouse was planned to reduce, even slightly, the number of them coming to Earth.”
“And that……. is even possible?”
At Seriel’s question, Sis waved her hand, and bright light burst out from the hologram lighthouse.
“By design, this lighthouse emits strong wavelengths toward other realms. And that’s what attracts ghosts.”
At her explanation, Raksha asked,
“And they kept operating it even knowing that? Isn’t that insanely dangerous?”
“You’d think so, right? But Podvig said they modified it so it only sends signals into the Electrosphere, and kept it running. Of course, without going through any kind of objective verification.”
“Why would they keep doing sothing that crazy?”
“Because it’s tied to a kind of hegemony. Right now, Podvig’s lighthouse has beco the standard for Electrosphere coordinates. You don’t think they’d give up that position so easily, do you?”
“Disgusting corporate bastards, as always.”
Raksha shook her head.
“Anyway, because of that, it seems the Moon Base still had remains of ghosts that appeared in the past. Those strange creatures were crude attempts at imitating ghosts using those remains.”
“Then could it be that the witch was trying to terrorize the Moon Lighthouse because…….”
At Seriel’s words, Sis slowly nodded.
“Yeah. She probably intended to wipe out both the lighthouse and the laboratory at the sa ti. In fact, they say the lighthouse suffered damage so severe that Podvig won’t be able to restore it for quite a while.”
‘So that was one of her goals.’
The reason she chose the Moon Base as the place to et Diesel.
That it was also ant to eliminate a threat that could lure ghosts.
This fact beca yet another piece of evidence supporting what he had been suspecting.
‘The witch definitely knows about destruction.’
It seed Diesel wasn’t the only one who knew about the fate that would soon co crashing down on the world.
“With this, Podvig will fall behind in the Moon Lighthouse competition. Without lifting a finger, Cheonrang basically got to blow its nose for free.”
There was another company besides Podvig that had built a lighthouse on the moon.
That company was none other than the gacorporation ‘Cheonrang Group,’ second to none when it ca to Electrosphere-related matters.
From Sis’s explanation, it seed the new lighthouse they had built operated in a way that didn’t stimulate other realms like Podvig’s did.
‘Maybe this incident will cause a bigger butterfly effect than expected.’
“Anyway, this plan was a complete failure. The whole thing about sealing the witch inside a data chip. The theory looked almost perfect, but…….”
“Hah! Still, you said you made a killing with the information you pulled from Podvig’s servers.”
“We’d better have at least that, or the books wouldn’t balance. It’s not like we invested just a few coins into this job.”
Sis smiled brightly and looked at the three Ghostcatchers.
“Alright, then—ti for the fun part, settlent!”
She pulled out cards containing Qubits from her pocket and slid them forward.
“Here. Each of you gets your promised share.”
Cards containing twenty million Qubits each were placed into the Ghostcatchers’ hands.
“And of course! I also prepared the additional rewards you requested.”
This ti, she took out a sturdy-looking box.
The first thing she pulled out from it was a heavily rusted iron spike, ‘Sacred Nail.’
Seriel carefully received it and gently tucked it away inside her clothes.
Next, a wooden rosary emitting a faint jade light was placed into Raksha’s hand.
The rakshasa stared intently at it with her blue eyes, then imdiately put it on her left wrist.
Lastly, Sis looked at Diesel and spoke.
“And what you asked for, Diesel, is…….”
What she handed him was a chip containing a considerable amount of extra paynt.
Raksha snorted when she saw it and said,
“You asked Sis for nothing but Qubits? Don’t you think your imagination’s a bit lacking?”
Before Diesel could respond, Seriel rebutted first.
“Qubits aren’t a bad choice either. Do you have any idea how hard it is to obtain a huge sum that can be laundered this cleanly?”
Raksha shrugged, and Seriel stood up from her seat and looked toward Diesel.
“Seriously, good work on this job. Co to think of it, I don’t think I properly thanked you back then.”
The angel neatly folded her wings and slightly bowed her head.
“Thank you for saving .”
“Oh, co on. It was only natural.”
“What about ?”
Raksha grinned as she looked at Seriel.
“I saved you too, you know.”
“…….”
But the angel cleanly ignored the rakshasa’s words and headed outside.
“If we get the chance, let’s et again.”
After leaving those final words for Diesel, she jingled the door open and left.
“Hmph. Damn bitch.”
After that, the rakshasa also stood up and scratched her face.
“Hey. About that……. the first day, you know.”
“……?”
“I was mistaken.”
Then she abruptly turned around.
“You really are strong.”
Leaving those words behind, she hurriedly chased after Seriel.
Again, a jingle rang through the gukbap restaurant.
“They really do look like a perfect pair. Don’t you think?”
“Well……. Maybe.”
“But did you know?”
Sis looked at Diesel with a satisfied smile.
“Both of them really like you. A lot.”
“Really?”
“This is actually kind of amazing. You might not know it, but those two are incredibly picky Ghostcatchers. Especially Raksha—her saying sothing that acknowledges soone else. I never even imagined that.”
“Hm…….”
“It won’t be a bad thing to stay on good terms with them. They’re both veterans who’ve been running around the underworld for a long ti. And with the relics they got from this job, their strength will probably rise another level.”
Normally, it wasn’t easy for otherworldly races to increase their combat power.
That was because of the nature of miracles, which involved borrowing power from the realm they belonged to.
However, if there was a sacred relic capable of breaking through a certain limit, that power could skyrocket dramatically.
“The Sacred Nail that pinned down the ssiah’s second disciple, the prayer beads made from the bodhi tree where Dharma ditated……. With items like that, they might even beco stronger than Kaztikan.”
“How do you even get things like that?”
Just hearing about them made them sound absurdly valuable.
Valuable enough that the hundred-million–unit bonus Diesel received made perfect sense.
“Well, the madam of the Underground Great Hall pulled a few strings.”
Madam Isabel, the most enigmatic fixer active in Seoul.
Becoming acquainted with her was one of the gains from this job.
In fact, he had even received an expensive motorcycle as a gift.
“Anyway, good work.”
Sis said this to Diesel as he stood up from his seat.
As he moved toward the door handle of the gukbap restaurant, Sis’s voice ca from behind him.
“Let’s work together again next ti.”
“If I have the ti.”
“Heh, sure. If you have the ti.”
Seoul, Sector 22-4C.
A high-rise building located at the edge of the Gangnam area.
Diesel, who had moved into a new ho just the other day, looked around the place.
An apartnt with a spacious living room featuring an island kitchen, and two clean bedrooms.
With the money he had saved up so far, he had finally secured a place that could truly be called a ho.
With powerful soundproofing and barrier magic engraved in duplicate, and even miracles laid down to prevent spiritual projection, this place now boasted truly ironclad security.
The very first thing Diesel did after setting up his nest was to try using the newly awakened ability.
The ability he had realized through contact with the witch.
After that brief yet intense encounter with the witch, two changes had occurred within Diesel.
One of them was figuring out how to handle ‘code’ within the Electrosphere.
‘So hacking really is magic of the Electrosphere.’
Just as he could manipulate mana in reality to form magic formulas, Diesel could manipulate code in the Electrosphere to create programs.
‘It’s an absurd ability.’
Creating programs for the Electrosphere was not only extrely difficult to learn, but also required a cyberdeck that cost an astronomical amount.
‘As expected, the Electrosphere also belonged to the category of the surreal.’
The reason Diesel could directly modify code seed to be because it was another form of surreal phenonon occurring within the Electrosphere.
Thus, Diesel, who possessed the ability called ‘Surreal Awakening,’ was able to freely handle the surreal of the Electrosphere—that is, ‘code.’
Just like the witch had done right in front of his eyes.
‘She said the witch was my younger sister’s thought-form.’
The awakened ability his younger sister possessed, called ‘Manipulating Hand.’
A power similar to Diesel’s, capable of handling all surreal phenona.
Whether that ability had been fully passed on to the witch as well, she too seed able to use code just like Diesel.
‘And because she showed how to handle code, I beca able to use it.’
The Electrosphere weapon that had sliced through the carp-shaped ICE in a single stroke.
The witch had created it right before Diesel’s eyes.
What Diesel had always needed was sothing like that—a way to open the floodgates.
As long as he took the first step, walking and running ca naturally afterward.
‘Good. Then now…….’
That wasn’t the only thing that had changed after eting the witch.
That was…….
“Ar.”
〈Yes, Master.〉
“What did you think of the Ice Breaker I just made?”
〈Master’s program is very efficient. However, it lacks a bit of what one might call ‘romance.’〉
“…….”
It was a change that had occurred in Ar, his Electrosphere spirit.
“What kind of romance do you even need to write programs?”
〈Even designing sothing as simple as a bathroom involves a certain sensibility, doesn’t it? Then why do you think programs wouldn’t need it?〉
“Hm…….”
〈Master has a tendency to pursue efficiency to an extre. As a refined Electrosphere spirit, I sincerely wish that Master would imbue his programs with a bit more elegance and dignity.〉
After coming into contact with the witch, Ar’s language abilities had developed to a truly astonishing degree, now reaching a level comparable to human conversation.
He didn’t know the exact reason, but he could only guess that sothing like an awakening had occurred when the witch stroked Ar.
〈What on earth was that crude, rock-shaped Ice Breaker? Ar will find a few references to make up for Master’s lack of ‘style.’〉
“Forget that, and deploy the ICE again.”
〈…….〉
At those words, Ar bit down hard on his master’s hand in clear dissatisfaction.
Then, with a snort, she spoke.
〈What grade of ICE would you like to deploy?〉
“The Grade 1 was too easy just now, so let’s raise it by two levels straight to Grade 3.”
〈From Grade 3 onward, it really won’t be easy.〉
“Really? Then go ahead and show .”
At Diesel’s provocation, Ar let out a low growl and spun around once in place.
Then, sothing began to construct itself behind her.
〈Grade 3 ICE, ‘Widow Spider.’〉
A spider roughly as tall as Diesel revealed its sharp venomous fangs.
〈If bitten even once, it’s Black Ice that inflicts fatal damage on the intruder’s nervous system.〉
“Mm…….”
Why was that?
It was supposed to be test ICE, yet the threat level looked identical to a real combat situation.
〈Why, is the grade too high?〉
This ti, Ar swayed her tail gently as she taunted him.
“No.”
Completely unfazed, Diesel created a new Ice Breaker in his hand and muttered,
“Just right.”
And so, for a while, a fierce Electrosphere battle unfolded inside Diesel’s new ho.
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