aChapter 55: Uncontrollable Variable (2)
“…….”
“Even ignoring people has its limits.”
“You bastard…….”
As Raja growled, Angelina, who was beside him, reached out and stopped him.
“I see. I was lacking.”
She then placed a hand on her chest and bowed her head.
“My na is Angelina Shirin. I serve as the head of the Podvig Magic Engineering Departnt.”
Her expression was blank, but her steady gaze swept over the ghostcatchers.
“I didn’t expect the head to personally handle the briefing.”
“That ans this operation is that important.”
“I suppose it would.”
When Matafil sneered, Angelina spoke in a soothing tone.
“I am aware that you have complaints regarding the composition of the operation team. However, this arrangent is also a decision that benefits all of you.”
“Benefits us?”
Matafil snorted.
“How does stuffing in so ghostcatcher to suit your tastes benefit us?”
“…….”
“I’d understand if you’d brought your own agents. But hiring the sa kind of ghostcatchers separately like this is damn unpleasant for us.”
“This bastard, from what I’m hearing……!”
There were many reasons why gacorporations with overwhelming power deliberately entrusted jobs not to their own agents but to back-alley ghostcatchers.
If one were to consider the most important reason, it ultimately ca down to ‘money.’
The agents, a key asset of gacorporations, required an enormous amount of resources to train.
‘For jobs like this, using disposable ghostcatchers is far cheaper.’
If they were to lose a gacorp agent due to an unexpected accident during an operation?
The loss would be imasurable.
So rather than deploying such valuable talent on one-off jobs like this, they used ghostcatchers who could be worked cheaply.
However, there existed an unwritten rule that one had to go through a ‘Fixer’ to hire ghostcatchers.
Given the shady nature of such missions, this served as a kind of safety asure to avoid getting stabbed in the back.
But if they hired through a fixer, they couldn’t issue minor instructions during the operation, and there were also security risks such as information leaks.
Thus, Podvig’s decision could be seen as a kind of forced compromise—unable to give up either option.
“I fully understand how Matafil feels. That’s why I will make this absolutely clear right here.”
What Angelina chose to quell the ghostcatchers’ dissatisfaction was a straightforward approach.
A compromise regarding the ‘share,’ which ghostcatchers valued most.
“You haven’t yet heard about the final objective of this operation, have you?”
“Removing the power plant core, right?”
“That is correct. And that core is……”
Angelina brought up a hologram.
“The core of a Type-19 Lightning Spirit.”
“What……?”
Matafil muttered in a daze.
“A Type-19 spirit……?”
Even for soone like him, who had taken on many high-level jobs, it was a rank he had never heard of.
That was why Diesel was willing to proceed with this job despite being treated so unpleasantly.
‘No wonder he’s shocked.’
Generally, the spirits summoned by spirit mages were Type-4 to Type-6.
And to summon a spirit beyond Type-10, the backlash alone could cost the mage their life.
Even those great gacorporations only operated up to Type-15 at most, yet this was Type-19.
A spirit possessing power capable of overturning heaven and earth.
“If you simply remove the core, all subsequent handling of the item will be entirely transferred to the three ghostcatchers.”
If put up in an underground auction black market, it was an item valuable enough to start bidding at no less than a billion.
And there weren’t just one, but two such incredible cores.
This was because, by supporting each other, their lifespan was said to extend to near eternity.
Matafil, who quickly ca to his senses, asked with shining eyes.
“So that ans those two over there are excluded from the distribution of spoils, right?”
“That’s right, you arrogant bastard.”
“Of course, the compensation distributed through the fixer after the successful completion of the operation will also be divided among the three of you.”
“In other words, this humble one and Lord Raja here are providing free labor.”
At that, Diesel, who had been listening quietly, asked,
“Free labor?”
There was no way they were truly working for free.
If anything, that made the situation even more serious.
It ant there was so other price besides money and spoils.
And when imagining what that price might be, shady things naturally ca to mind first.
“Ah, it seems my words have caused so misunderstanding.”
“…….”
“This side will, of course, also receive proper compensation for undertaking the operation. I have been promised a personal reward by Podvig.”
“A personal reward?”
“I am to receive prototype installations of various magic implants developed by Podvig. And as for Lord Raja…….”
“Shut up.”
“Would it not be acceptable to ntion at least that much?”
“…….”
When Raja remained silent, the skull rattled and spoke again.
“You are to receive certain information regarding the ‘King’ of southern India.”
At that explanation, Matafil looked at Diesel and spoke over a closed channel.
[Does that satisfy you?]
Though there were still unresolved doubts, even considering that, what they stood to gain from this operation was simply too great.
[For now.]
[Yeah. I think stopping here is fine too.]
Matafil agreed with Diesel’s response, but the remaining one, Pinkbit, gave no reply.
Instead, she sent an emoticon of bubble gum popping into the channel.
‘What is she thinking?’
[Since everyone agrees, let’s move on. That said, don’t let your guard down.]
As the situation seed to be roughly settling, Angelina continued speaking.
“Then, I will resu the briefing.”
At that, Matafil crossed his arms and leaned back against the sofa, and Diesel slightly withdrew the sharp glare he had been directing.
Soon, with a gesture from Angelina, a hologram appeared in the air.
‘Alright…….’
Inside Kang Da-hee’s personal matrix.
After completing various magic experints alone, Diesel looked down at his own hand.
Among them, I had particularly finished completing improvents to the Lightning-type enhancent art, Leigong.
After dozens of tests, I succeeded in nearly eliminating the backlash that would burn up all my muscles the mont it activated.
‘It’s still dangerous if sustained too long, though.’
The duration I could maintain it without side effects was roughly five minutes.
If I dragged it out longer than that or raised the output, my body would burn without exception.
‘It would’ve been nice if I could’ve researched spirit arts too. That part’s a bit disappointing.’
The test chamber was a matrix that perfectly recreated every environnt on Earth, but spirits alone were impossible to implent.
In a way, manifesting will-bearing spirits of the real world inside the Electrosphere was the stranger thing to begin with.
‘Still, at this pace, the preparations for this operation should be more or less done.’
There was still ti before the full-scale mana power plant sabotage operation.
There was also one round of preliminary work in between, so I should be able to do so proper testing then.
‘Anyway, I need to refrain from using miracles recklessly now.’
During the last few operations, my combat style had relied on miracles borrowed from others.
That was the case in the battle with Kaztikan, and it was the sa with the fight against Gnar.
In the end, it was because I couldn’t overwhelm my opponents with my own magic alone.
‘A mage who uses miracles. That’s definitely not a common combination.’
Because of that, continuing to wield such power was perfect for drawing suspicion and vigilance from others.
Especially in a situation where I couldn’t predict how fickle beings from other worlds might react, I couldn’t freely make use of miracles that borrowed their power.
‘I need to beco strong enough to fight with magic alone.’
Soday, a ti might co when I could freely unleash magic and spirits, swordsmanship and miracles.
No, I would probably et existences that I could only defeat by pouring everything I had into the fight.
For that day, even now, I needed to sharpen a single ability to a needle-like point.
That was why the magic I was preparing in the matrix wasn’t limited to just the Lightning-type enhancent art, Leigong.
Brinicle, Ice Spear, Icicle, Lightning Strike, Lightning Whip, Sphere of the Brain Dragon…….
I was ticulously practicing the spells I had learned so far while applying my own modifications to them.
One regrettable point, however, was that my matrix avatar couldn’t perfectly replicate my real body.
‘This avatar doesn’t have the Ten Acupoints opened.’
Not only that, the mana star within my mana core also didn’t exist.
To create an avatar, I had no choice but to hand over a mana scan copy to Kang Da-hee, the owner of the matrix.
There was no way I could casually give up such critical biological information.
‘Let’s think of it as training with sandbags attached.’
What I was aiming to gain from the matrix was spell application and refinent, so the absence of the Ten Acupoints and mana star wasn’t a major issue.
‘Well, the mana star part is a bit of a sha, though…….’
As I continued practicing for a while.
Suddenly, Ar inford of sothing.
〈Master.〉
“Hm?”
〈I’ve discovered so quite interesting materials inside the matrix.〉
“Interesting materials?”
My Electrosphere spirit flitted over and landed in front of .
“What are they?”
〈I was looking through the information Kang Da-hee left behind, and there were so things I thought you’d like, Master.〉
“Hm…….”
I had a pretty good idea of what my spirit had been up to, so I looked at Ar and said,
“You know, invading privacy isn’t a good hobby.”
〈Yes?〉
Ar tilted her head at that.
〈But that’s what you always make do, Master. Invade privacy.〉
“…….”
〈The deep layers of the Electrosphere are full of soone’s private life to begin with. You rummage through other places just fine, but you’re saying this one’s not allowed?〉
As I fell silent, left with nothing to say, Ar perked up her ears and continued.
〈And it’s not really like that anyway. It’s just a Mana ditation technique Kang Da-hee didn’t tell you about, and a few Lightning-type magic formulas you haven’t learned yet.〉
“Mm…….”
〈But since you say so, I won’t bring them up.〉
“……Put them up.”
〈Invading privacy is a bad hobby, you know?〉
“Yeah. I’ve always had a pretty rotten hobby, so put them up.”
At that, Ar let out a hmpf sound and displayed the information.
“Oh…….”
Just as Ar said, one Mana ditation technique and a fairly usable Lightning-type magic formula appeared.
‘ditation’s probably a low-efficiency technique, so she didn’t bother telling , and as for the magic, maybe she thought it was still too advanced for .’
Looking more closely, I could roughly guess her reasons.
As I casually skimd through the materials Ar had sent.
Things completely unrelated to magic began to appear.
“What are these photos?”
〈The interesting materials I ntioned.〉
“You…….”
〈What about it?〉
“……Never mind.”
So café in Seoul, restaurants, walking paths, small streams…….
A series of photos that perfectly matched the phrase “invasion of privacy.”
In them, Kang Da-hee, dressed in casual clothes, wore various expressions.
As I was about to close them after a quick look, I suddenly noticed sothing strange.
‘Wait…….’
Places that all looked like they could be called date spots.
But in the countless photos, the only subject was Kang Da-hee alone, and without any sign of soone else taking them, they were all close-up selfies.
‘Didn’t she have a ton of friends?’
I recalled the many human-shaped backdrops she’d dragged around during the Podvig interview back then.
Could it be that they weren’t friends, but just hollow connections?
As I kept scrolling down.
Suddenly, a single photo with a completely different background appeared.
〈What do you think? Interesting, right?〉
“…….”
A transparent glass container filled with so kind of liquid.
And soone subrged within it.
“What is this……?”
Inside the liquid of what looked like a dical capsule, Kang Da-hee was floating unconscious, without a single thread of clothing on her.
And just like the other photos.
This photo, too, was a ‘selfie’ taken by Kang Da-hee herself.
In other words…….
“Why are there two of her?”
Two Kang Da-hees were captured in a single photo.
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