Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Beeeeep—!
A warning tone blared from inside the glass wall.
The blue barrier surrounding the test stand shook violently.
The blue light rapidly faded from the center outward, and soon the entire barrier scattered into particles of light.
[Live Combat Waveform Reproduction, Attempt 12]
[Barrier Output Plummets]
[Mana Circuit Overheating]
[Test terminated.]
"It shut down again!"
A researcher removed the blackened wrist guard from the test stand.
Thin smoke rose through gaps in the outer casing.
"Run the standard diagnostics again."
"Those came back normal all six times."
"Then why does it shut down the moment monster mana enters?"
The researchers fell silent.
At that moment, the research building door opened.
Sang-hyeok, having completed the security check, stepped inside.
A researcher carrying the blackened prototype on a fireproof tray passed by him.
Sang-hyeok glanced at the prototype for a moment, then headed toward the inner corridor.
On the wall display, red numbers continued counting down.
[Until Korea Players Association Field Suitability Verification]
[17:42:18]
Employees running through the corridor carried spare parts and tablets.
Through the open doors, the same test was being repeated.
The blue barrier activated.
The monster's mana waveform made contact.
The barrier shook, and the equipment shut down.
Sang-hyeok stopped in front of the conference room.
Through the closed door, he heard Kim Sang-jun's voice.
"What about the postponement request?"
"It was rejected for good. They said if we don't show up, they'll treat it as a voluntary withdrawal."
"What if we just go through with it?"
A brief silence followed.
"If the same phenomenon occurs tomorrow, the defect goes on the official record. We also lose eligibility for the second comparative performance evaluation."
"What about the follow-up supply negotiations?"
"They'll be restructured around Taeseong equipment."
Even if Ilseong postponed, it would be eliminated.
If they forced the verification and the equipment shut down, it was over too.
Before the regression, they had chosen the latter.
That outcome had marked the beginning of Ilseong's downfall.
Sang-hyeok looked into the conference room through the narrow glass window beside the door.
Kim Do-hyeon sat at the head of the table.
His face was as composed as ever, but his tie hung loosely undone.
Kim Sang-jun sat beside him, flipping through the Association's response letter.
The edges of the paper were crumpled from being read over and over.
Across from them stood Kim Seo-yun in a white lab coat.
Her hastily tied hair clung to her cheek, and thin bandages wrapped the fingers that had held soldering tools.
Sang-hyeok's gaze stopped on those hands.
Before the regression, the last time he had heard his sister's voice, it had come through broken, cut off between explosions and static.
Now that voice continued clearly inside the conference room.
Kim Seo-yun set the blackened prototype down on the table.
"If we rebuild the prototype from scratch, we'll need new certification too. Then we can't enter tomorrow's verification."
After she finished speaking, she raised her head.
Her eyes met Sang-hyeok's through the glass window.
"Sang-hyeok?"
Every gaze in the conference room turned toward the door.
Sang-hyeok took a breath and opened the door.
"Why are you here?"
Kim Sang-jun rose from his seat.
His surprised expression quickly hardened.
"The research building is under emergency control right now. Go home."
"I came because of that emergency."
"What could you possibly do here?"
Sang-hyeok looked at the equipment case placed in the center of the conference room.
A red “TEST SUSPENDED” sticker was attached to the lid.
"If that equipment shuts down even once tomorrow, Ilseong won't make it to the second evaluation."
Kim Sang-jun's eyebrows twitched.
"And Taeseong wins without even fighting."
The conference room went quiet.
It was an outcome everyone knew but no one had said aloud.
Kim Sang-jun set the response letter down on the table.
"Don't butt in based on what you overheard from outside the door."
"I'm not saying this based only on that."
"Then what?"
Sang-hyeok looked at Kim Do-hyeon.
"Father. Please let me take a look at the prototype."
Kim Sang-jun let out a hollow laugh.
"The research team has been at this for days. What's going to change just because you look at it?"
"I don't intend to look at it with the research team's equipment."
"Then what are you going to look at it with?"
Sang-hyeok pointed at his own eyes with his index finger.
"With my eyes."
Kim Seo-yun's gaze stopped on Sang-hyeok's eyes.
"Sang-hyeok. You don't mean......."
Sang-hyeok nodded.
"I awakened today."
Kim Seo-yun's eyes widened.
As if confirming an answer she had spent years searching for, she couldn't take her eyes off Sang-hyeok's face for a long moment.
"Your Trait really opened?"
"Yeah."
Kim Seo-yun parted her lips, then closed them again.
She had been the one consoling Sang-hyeok whenever the measurement results came back.
Even after Sang-hyeok had given up first, she alone had kept going in and out of the lab, searching for the Awakening Condition.
She was also the one who, right up to the final moments before the regression, had apologized for failing to find it for him.
"Are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere, nothing feels strange?"
"I'm fine. Actually, I feel much better than before."
Sang-hyeok looked at her bandaged hand.
"So there's nothing for you to feel sorry about, Sis."
Kim Seo-yun's eyes wavered for a moment.
Her face looked like she wanted to ask why he'd said that.
At that moment, another warning tone rang from the test room beyond the wall, and Kim Seo-yun swallowed the question she'd wanted to ask, turning her gaze to the equipment case.
Kim Sang-jun also looked at Sang-hyeok with a stiff expression.
"How did you find the Awakening Condition?"
"I didn't find it. When I came to my senses, it was already open."
He couldn't talk about the regression.
Nor about the fact that he had fulfilled the Awakening Condition right before dying.
Then Kim Do-hyeon asked curtly.
"Can you find the defect with those eyes?"
"I'll need to check."
"Do you need to touch the equipment?"
"No. I just need to look."
Kim Do-hyeon's finger tapped the table once.
"Seo-yun. Show him."
Kim Sang-jun started to speak, then stopped.
Kim Do-hyeon's decision had already been made.
Kim Seo-yun stepped up to the equipment case and released the lock.
Click.
The thick lid lifted.
Three wrist-guard prototypes lay side by side on the cushioning material.
Between the black outer casings, the Mana Stone embedded in the center was visible.
Two of them already had blackened edges from repeated testing.
"You don't need to disassemble it?"
"No. This is fine."
Sang-hyeok looked at the leftmost prototype and opened <Demonic Dragon’s Eye>.
The insides of his eyes grew hot, and the colors of the conference room blurred.
Beyond the black outer casing, the Mana Stone and internal components appeared overlaid.
But he couldn't find anything unusual in the stationary equipment.
It was just as the rumors he'd heard before the regression had said.
The trap only revealed itself when monster mana entered.
"Sis. Can you feed in a low level of monster mana?"
"Right here, right now?"
"I just need to see the instant the problem activates. I'll cut it off before the equipment gets hot."
Kim Seo-yun stared into Sang-hyeok's eyes for a moment, then picked up one of the prototypes.
"Bring me a small test unit."
A moment later, a researcher wheeled in a portable test unit.
Kim Seo-yun placed the prototype on the test stand and lowered the monster mana output.
[Monster Mana Waveform Output: 5%]
[Test Duration: 1 second]
"Ready?"
"Start."
When she pressed the button, blue light spread from the prototype.
The moment the round barrier enveloped the test stand, the monster's mana waveform made contact.
Click.
Sang-hyeok caught sight of a fingernail-sized black component moving beneath the Mana Stone.
At the same time, the center of the blue barrier darkened.
"Stop."
Kim Seo-yun immediately pulled her hand from the button.
The barrier vanished just before completely collapsing, and only faint smoke rose from the prototype.
"Did you find it?"
"Yeah."
Sang-hyeok pointed directly beneath the Mana Stone.
"There's a black component hidden here. It moved when the monster mana entered, and the barrier shut down at that exact moment."
Kim Seo-yun lifted the prototype and examined the spot Sang-hyeok had indicated.
But from the outside, only the smooth casing was visible.
"Where exactly is it? What shape is it?"
"Showing you directly will be faster than explaining."
"How?"
Sang-hyeok opened his inventory, and black light gathered above his palm.
Fwoosh.
A black stone tablet engraved with a closed-eye symbol materialized.
Kim Do-hyeon leaned forward slightly from the head of the table, and Kim Sang-jun's gaze also fixed on the tablet.
"Is that an item you got from the Tower?"
"Yeah."
Kim Seo-yun slowly examined the surface without touching the tablet.
"Rare grade?"
"Heroic grade."
Her hand stopped in midair.
Kim Sang-jun also turned to Sang-hyeok immediately.
"You got a Heroic-grade item in the tutorial?"
"Yes."
Heroic-grade items were hard to come by even for high-level players.
No one had ever heard of a newly awakened player obtaining one in the tutorial.
Kim Sang-jun was about to ask something more, but Kim Do-hyeon raised a hand to stop him.
"We'll hear the rest after this matter is settled."
Kim Do-hyeon's gaze deepened.
"What kind of item is it?"
"It's a <Demonic Eye Record Stone>. It lets me show other people what I've seen."
Sang-hyeok channeled mana into the record stone.
The closed-eye symbol slowly opened.
Shhk.
Above the tablet, the wrist guard they had just tested appeared, larger than life.
The black outer casing faded, and the small component hidden beneath the Mana Stone became clearly visible.
When Sang-hyeok sent his intent, the frozen record began to move.
The blue barrier spread open, and then the monster's mana waveform swept over the equipment.
Click.
The moment the black component beneath the Mana Stone moved, the blue barrier shut down immediately.
What had happened in the test room was reproduced exactly on the tablet.
"Wait, stop it there."
When Sang-hyeok paused the record, the image of the black component just before it moved remained on the tablet.
Following the direction of Kim Seo-yun's moving finger, Sang-hyeok zoomed in on that section.
The position and shape of the black component attached beneath the Mana Stone grew to the size of a palm.
"Now again."
Sang-hyeok replayed the paused record.
The moment the black component moved downward, the blue barrier vanished instantly.
Kim Seo-yun watched closely, not missing the instant the black component moved.
'<Demonic Dragon’s Eye: Structural Analysis>.'
As his eyes heated up again, short phrases appeared beside the black component in the record.
[Activation Condition: Monster Mana Detection]
[Activation Result: Forced Barrier Shutdown]
Kim Seo-yun quickly read the two phrases.
"I'll check whether this part was there originally."
She pulled over a tablet.
On the screen, the approved design and internal inspection photos taken right after final assembly appeared in sequence.
Kim Seo-yun zoomed in on the area beneath the Mana Stone in the photo and placed it side by side with the record stone.
On one side, there was nothing.
On the other, the black component was embedded.
"It's not there."
Kim Sang-jun asked.
"What isn't?"
"That component. It's not in the approved design, and it's not in the photos taken after assembly."
Kim Seo-yun pulled up the standard diagnostic results on one side of the screen.
It was the record that had passed as normal all six times.
"This is also why the standard diagnostics came back normal. It doesn't react at all to diagnostic mana, so no matter how many times they inspected it, they couldn't find it."
Kim Seo-yun turned to the other two prototypes.
Sang-hyeok silently moved <Demonic Dragon’s Eye>.
The same spot as the first.
The same black component was hidden in the second one too.
The third was the same.
"All three have it."
The lingering fatigue vanished from Kim Seo-yun's face.
Instead, a cold, hardened look replaced it.
"Someone opened the prototypes and inserted it after the assembly inspection was finished."
Kim Sang-jun looked at the record stone and asked.
"What about the possibility it was mistakenly inserted during the manufacturing process?"
"There isn't one."
Kim Seo-yun's answer was firm.
"A part inserted by mistake wouldn't selectively react only to monster mana. And in the exact same spot on all three units."
She pointed at the phrases on the record stone.
"Someone deliberately made it so it looks fine in normal inspections but the barrier shuts down only in live combat."
Every gaze in the conference room gathered on the black stone tablet.
The reason the standard diagnostics kept coming back normal.
The reason the barrier collapsed every time monster mana touched it.
The cause behind all twelve failures turned out to be a single fingernail-sized black component.
Kim Do-hyeon looked at Sang-hyeok.
"You thought from the start it wasn't an accidental defect."
"Yes."
"And that's why you mentioned Taeseong before even checking the prototype."
Sang-hyeok didn't deny it.
Kim Do-hyeon's finger stopped on the table.
"You believe Taeseong is behind this?"
Before the regression, by the time Taeseong's involvement had come to light, Ilseong had already been eliminated from the verification and stripped of every opportunity.
But this time, he had found the trap before the verification.
There was still time to act.
Sang-hyeok didn't hesitate.
"Yes. It's Taeseong Group."