Chapter 57: Exhibition of the Empty City (2)
“An aesthetic of strategic and tactical weapons.”
Was it an exhibition on a topic that even the local generation found sowhat unfamiliar?
Matafil muttered quietly.
“So these days, corporate expos are done like this too.”
As he said, the intention behind this exhibition was blatant.
Along with the nas of the weapons, the nas of specific corporations were written in huge letters across the posters.
‘This isn’t so aesthetic nonsense. They should just call it a power-flexing exhibition.’
Neutron bombs, antimatter weapons, artificial seismic wave generators…….
Every single one of them was a weapon with enough power to casually wipe out several cities.
Especially since they appeared to be purely ‘tech weapons’ without magic or miracles mixed in, it was safe to see this as an exhibition for the alliance between the Gale Consortium and the Cheonrang Group.
‘An alliance between first and sixth place, huh……. Maybe the gacorp rankings will shift soon.’
“Let’s move.”
Matafil put on a pair of distinctive goggles that covered his eyes and headed toward the exhibition hall’s back door, sunk in darkness.
The purpose of this preliminary operation was simple.
To infiltrate the exhibition hall and leave behind ‘evidence’ that soone had stolen information.
So minor commotion along the way was acceptable.
‘This side is the bait, after all.’
On the day of the operation, the valuables being transported to Neo-Asadal were not limited to the core of the 19-type spirit.
Among them were also various strategic weapons headed for this exhibition hall, and the plan was to deliberately stir up a hornet’s nest to draw the security team’s attention.
“Still, let’s not get too loud. It’ll be troubleso if gacorp agents show up.”
When we reached the back alley, Matafil pulled a drone out from his coat.
[Deploying drones.]
Three ultra-small reconnaissance drones, each the size of a thumbnail, rose into the air without making a sound.
Kusanagi Systems’ Tink.
Each unit, an expensive product worth around fifty million Qubit, smoothly shifted into optical camouflage mode and vanished from sight.
[Is the connection good?]
[Don’t ask stupid questions.]
Raja snapped at Matafil and then shared the location data of the android guards.
[If you don’t reach the server room within fifteen minutes, assu you’re all dead.]
The mont the hacker finished speaking, the number 14 : 59 appeared over my neural network.
“Tsk, what an unpleasant bastard.”
Matafil clicked his tongue and gripped a pistol fitted with a suppressor.
“Let’s breach.”
Soon, the back door of the exhibition hall opened, and the three Ghostcatchers moved in.
‘So far, so good.’
Standing in front of the server room, I muttered to myself.
The hacker called Raja was far more skilled than expected.
Not only did he have top-tier hacking ability, but even while issuing control instructions, his judgnt was so clean it felt as if he were watching the situation right beside us.
[Door lock disengaged. Get your asses moving.]
Still, his foul mouth and filthy temper were extrely irritating.
‘Are all hackers like that?’
The only hackers I had ever t in person were Sis and her nephew, Zeon.
Among them, Zeon had been a rotten little brat who deliberately shoved his teammates into deadly situations.
At least Sis could be considered fairly normal, but even she definitely had so peculiar aspects to her.
‘Maybe that rumor is true.’
The rumor that those who stare long and deep into the Electrosphere eventually go insane.
It was a saying that spread because there were so many personality-defective people in the hacking profession, but maybe it wasn’t entirely wrong.
Given the nature of a job that frequently pushed the brain into an overheated state, the parts governing personality might gradually go bad.
‘I should be especially careful about overheating too.’
As I drifted through those thoughts, Matafil plugged a chip into the server.
“Now it’s almost over.”
Then he plopped down onto the floor and casually struck up a conversation while looking at .
“So what’s your relationship with Boss Kim?”
“…….”
Since it wasn’t a topic I wanted to get into deeply, I deftly changed the subject.
“I got my first job from that old man. What about you?”
“I see. We’ve got a pretty tenacious connection. Must be about ten years now.”
I recalled Boss Kim’s words about having put together a team he could trust.
Then I turned my gaze to Pinkbit beside .
“Is this one normally quiet?”
“…….”
“Oh, right. Co to think of it, I’ve never seen Pinkbit talk either.”
The Polar Fox Beastman just chewed gum indifferently, showing no reaction at all.
“Still, it’s not frustrating or anything. When necessary, we communicate with emoticons.”
“Sounds like you two have known each other for quite a while?”
“Well…… to so extent?”
At Matafil’s answer, Pinkbit showed no interest at first, then raised an emoticon holding up four fingers.
“Yeah. This is our fourth job together, and we’re in the sa clan.”
“Which clan?”
“That…… it’s not famous. It’s a very small clan.”
“……?”
For the first ti, Matafil trailed off mid-sentence.
When I stared at him, finding that strange, Pinkbit projected text as a hologram.
「Lollipop.」
“Hah…… yeah. The Lollipop Clan.”
A cute word that didn’t match his bulky build popped out.
Matafil, seemingly embarrassed by it, hastily added an excuse.
“Our clan leader’s kind of a weird person.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Pinkbit glared at him.
“What? It’s true that they’re weird.”
‘Just what kind of person are they…….’
I wanted to ask more, but right on cue, the server emitted a series of beep, beep sounds.
Along with it, Raja sent a transmission.
[All done, so get yourselves out.]
“All right, let’s move.”
Just as we pulled the chip out of the server and were about to relocate—
“Huh……?”
A sudden, unpleasant infrasonic wave slamd into the surroundings.
“Ugh……!”
At the sa ti, sparks crackled and flew from the various cyberware Matafil had equipped.
‘This is…….’
A wave I had experienced once before.
It was exactly the sa phenonon as when Little Sister had forcibly shut down the connection to the Electrosphere at the Moon Base in the past.
“W-what is this. The Electrosphere connection……. Did it get cut only for ?”
“No.”
I said, preparing to draw up my mana.
“Pinkbit.”
“…….”
“Can you open a portal straight from here to outside the building?”
The server room was deep underground, and the exhibition hall was absurdly vast, so we would have to cross at least 200 ters.
Even for a trickster highly skilled in spatial magic, it wasn’t an easy distance.
As expected, Pinkbit shook their head sideways with a serious expression.
‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’
Soon, Matafil seed to recover from the shock of the shutdown and ca to his senses, raising his pistol.
Confirming that, I moved toward the server room doorway and gave instructions.
“We need to get out of here imdiately.”
If we stayed in this server room, we would obviously end up like cornered rats.
With contact with the external hacker cut off, we had to move quickly under the assumption that our infiltration had already been discovered.
“Yeah. Let’s get out first.”
The mont I turned the doorknob.
Kwaaang!
Along with a trendous explosion heard far away on the surface, alarm sirens blared from all directions.
“Are you kidding , what the hell is this now……?”
Cursing under his breath, Matafil pressed himself against the corridor wall and scanned the surroundings.
“Calm down. It’s just an alarm.”
“Hm, seems like it.”
“I’ll take point. Follow closely.”
Sensing that the situation was far from normal, I cautiously crossed the corridor.
“Is it really all right to do this?”
A certain dark monitoring room.
The light spilling from the screens illuminated two Ghostcatchers.
“If they can’t handle even this, they’re hopeless.”
“Hm…… their skills have already been proven, though.”
“You just believe everything that dwarf bastard says?”
“That is…….”
“Shut up and stay still.”
At Raja’s vicious words, Heavyskull turned his gaze to the monitors.
Ultra-small drones that were barely outside the range of the ‘Electrosphere Blocking Pulse’ were hovering high in the air, intently filming a single subject.
“You’re curious too, aren’t you?”
“…….”
“How those scraps will deal with a monster.”
A grotesque smile crept onto the hacker’s lips.
Getting up to the surface wasn’t all that difficult.
Partly because the huge explosion above had scattered attention, and decisively because the connection to the Electrosphere was cut.
“The Electrosphere connection could be restored at any mont. Let’s hurry.”
The three Ghostcatchers climbed the ergency stairs two at a ti.
〈Ar. You okay?〉
〈Yes, Master.〉
Since I was materialized in the material world, I asked Ar, who was still in good condition.
〈You can’t connect to the Electrosphere either?〉
〈I can’t. Just like at the Moon Base.〉
〈Then it really is the sa as what Sis used…….〉
After the Witch of the Electrosphere job, I had once asked Sis how she managed to shut down the entire Moon Base.
Her answer had been surprisingly simple.
-Oh, that? It was a pulse bomb the Cheonrang guys had.
An Electrosphere-blocking pulse secretly developed by the gacorporation Cheonrang.
A bomb identical to that had just gone off here.
‘Why?’
Did Cheonrang set off the pulse because our infiltration had been discovered?
That thought was erased the mont it surfaced.
This exhibition hall was a building owned by the Cheonrang Group.
They detonated that kind of bomb in their own building?
It made no sense.
Even if our infiltration had been detected, there was no reason to use such an enormous weapon when they could just deploy gacorp agents.
There was another, more suspicious culprit.
‘Raja.’
The hacker who hadn’t liked our side from the beginning.
His objective was still unclear, but this situation could have been a surprise he orchestrated.
‘I just sat back and watched, and he pulls sothing like this…….’
Of course, nothing was certain yet.
But if this stunt really was his doing…….
‘This is a declaration of war.’
A troll move that could completely ruin this operation.
I would make him pay for it.
‘But first, we need to get out alive.’
For so reason, I had a feeling that whatever was waiting for us on the ground-floor lobby wouldn’t be ordinary.
And my intuition was correct.
“Holy shit……. what is that thing now…….”
Matafil muttered in a daze.
It was understandable.
Right in front of us, the highlight of this exhibition was moving.
A brand-new tank developed by the Gale Consortium.
A multi-legged monster called ‘Titan’.
‘It looks similar to the AT-71, but…….’
I recalled a bad connection from my very first job.
Back then, it had been an outdated model over thirty years old, but the one moving now was a cutting-edge military weapon that hadn’t even been properly unveiled to the public yet.
“There’s no need to fight. Pinkbit, even if you have to open portals consecutively—”
Before Matafil could finish his sentence.
Uuuuuung……!
A heavy sound spread in all directions.
“……!”
This ti, it wasn’t a physical wave like infrasonics.
It was the wave of a disruptor that twisted all the surrounding mana spatial coordinates.
That ant two things.
That the easiest way out was gone.
And that the monster had finished analyzing its kill target.
“There’s no choice.”
That left only the hard path.
Sensing that, I made a swift decision.
“Frontal breakthrough.”
Lightning-type mana light crackled and flared up.
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