Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Kim Sang-jun's gaze shifted from the record stone to Sang-hyeok.
"What's your basis for saying it's Taeseong?"
Sang-hyeok closed his mouth for a moment.
He couldn't explain what had happened before the regression.
"I can't say right now."
"You're naming a competitor without even being able to disclose your basis?"
"I'm certain. It's just that I don't have proof yet, so I'm saying we should confirm it ourselves before it gets out."
Sang-hyeok pointed at the final inspection photo displayed on the tablet.
"A part that wasn't there when assembly was finished is now inside all three units."
Kim Sang-jun's expression hardened.
"You're saying someone accessed the prototypes after the inspection was completed?"
"There's no way a Taeseong person came into the research building and tampered with them directly."
At those words, Kim Do-hyeon turned to look at Kim Sang-jun.
"Sang-jun."
"Yes."
"Seal the two prototypes exactly as they are now. Use only one for repairs."
"Understood."
"Start by narrowing down everyone who accessed the prototypes after the final inspection. Secure the access logs and the parts intake records in their original form."
"I'll check right away."
Kim Sang-jun immediately called the security manager.
When the call connected a moment later, he gave instructions in a low voice.
"Identify everyone who entered the prototype storage area after the final inspection. Secure the storage area first, and back up the access logs and internal footage to a separate server. Don't contact anyone on the list yet."
His intention was to secure the evidence before an insider caught wind of the investigation.
While Kim Sang-jun was confirming the sealing procedure with the security team, Kim Do-hyeon looked at Kim Seo-yun.
"Can you fix it before tomorrow's verification?"
"If I can remove just the black part properly, it's possible."
Kim Seo-yun checked inside the equipment case.
Two of the units had gone through twelve reproduction tests, and their edges were scorched black.
Only the remaining unit had not yet overheated.
"I'll use this one. I just need to remove the part that wasn't in the original design and run the inspection again."
"Then there won't be any problem with approval?"
"Because we're not adding anything new—we're restoring it to its original state."
That one unit was now the only prototype that could be used for verification.
Until now, without knowing the cause, they hadn't been able to risk damaging even the last unit.
But now Sang-hyeok's record was pointing to the exact location of the part that had to be removed.
Kim Do-hyeon checked the wall display.
[Until Korea Players Association Field Suitability Verification]
[17:19:34]
The numbers kept counting down.
"Begin immediately."
With that instruction,
the conference room door opened.
The researchers moved the prototype to be repaired into the testing room.
Sealing devices were fitted onto the remaining two units, and a security team member immediately took custody of the cases.
Sang-hyeok followed Kim Seo-yun into the testing room.
The prototype was placed under a bright work light.
The recording equipment was switched on, and everything from the opening of the outer shell began to be documented.
Click.
The black outer shell was separated.
Just below the central Mana Stone, a black part the size of a fingernail revealed itself.
It was exactly the same shape as the one they had magnified on the record stone a moment ago.
One of the researchers swallowed.
"It really was there."
Kim Seo-yun compared the approved design with the prototype in front of her again.
The black part appeared nowhere in the design.
Only the traces of someone forcing it in after assembly remained.
"I'll remove it."
Kim Seo-yun picked up the black part with a small pair of tweezers.
When she carefully applied force, the embedded part came out.
Clink.
The black part dropped onto a silver tray.
The researchers all looked at the tray at once.
The cause that had ruined twelve tests was only the size of a fingernail.
One researcher immediately transferred the part into a transparent evidence container.
[Evidence 01]
[Recovery location: inside Ilseong Prototype No. 3]
Kim Seo-yun examined the empty spot and then checked the approved design again.
"There's no other damage."
Her voice sounded lighter for the first time.
"Please close it back up."
The researchers reassembled the outer shell.
The researchers placed the prototype on the test stand and began with a standard diagnostic.
Vmmmm.
A blue barrier wrapped around the test stand in a circle.
[Standard Diagnostic]
[Barrier output normal]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
The first inspection passed.
But the standard diagnostic had been normal from the start.
The real problem appeared when monster mana made contact.
Kim Seo-yun immediately prepared the monster mana reproduction test.
[Monster Mana Waveform Output: 5%]
[Test duration: 3 seconds]
After setting the test device's output, Kim Seo-yun looked at Sang-hyeok.
"Can you check inside the equipment again?"
"Yeah."
Sang-hyeok opened <Demonic Dragon’s Eye>.
As the inside of his eyes grew hot, the interior of the equipment was revealed.
Below the Mana Stone, the spot where the part had been removed was completely empty.
"No problem. Start."
Kim Seo-yun pressed the button.
Monster mana flowed from the test device and covered the blue barrier.
The researchers watched the test stand, holding their breath.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
The click that had sounded when the trap activated never came.
The blue barrier wrapped around the prototype without wavering.
[Live Combat Waveform Reproduction, 1st Trial]
[Barrier output normal]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
"It's normal!"
The researcher's voice rang through the testing room.
Kim Seo-yun immediately ordered the second test.
The same mana covered the barrier again.
This time too, the equipment did not shut down.
After the third test ended, the same result stacked up in three lines on the screen.
[Live Combat Waveform Reproduction, 1st Trial: Normal]
[Live Combat Waveform Reproduction, 2nd Trial: Normal]
[Live Combat Waveform Reproduction, 3rd Trial: Normal]
The researchers' stiff shoulders dropped all at once.
Someone leaned back in a chair and let out a long breath, while another researcher checked the three results over and over.
Kim Seo-yun looked at Sang-hyeok before the screen.
"That's enough now. You can rest."
Sang-hyeok withdrew <Demonic Dragon’s Eye>.
"This much is fine."
"It's not fine. Your eyes are already that red."
She sat Sang-hyeok down in a chair and handed him a cooling pack.
"The reproduction tests are over. All that's left now is tomorrow's field verification. Rest until then."
"Sis, I think you should rest your hands first."
Sang-hyeok's gaze lingered on her bandaged fingers.
"I'm used to this much."
"Is that something to be proud of?"
Sang-hyeok laughed as if dumbfounded.
A short laugh spread across Kim Seo-yun's lips too.
Sang-hyeok placed the cooling pack over his eyes.
In the darkness, he could hear Kim Seo-yun's voice, which had been continuing clearly until just moments ago.
Before the regression, that voice had remained as a final contact cut off by explosions and static.
This time was different.
Even with his eyes closed, the voice giving instructions to the researchers continued from close by.
Sang-hyeok relaxed the hand pressing the cooling pack.
This time, he would definitely protect his sister.
As dawn approached, Kim Do-hyeon returned to the testing room.
"Is the repair finished?"
"The reproduction tests passed all three times. Now only tomorrow's field verification remains."
Kim Seo-yun looked at Sang-hyeok's bloodshot eyes.
"I'll bring Sang-hyeok to the verification site too."
"Do that. Get the submission ready."
"Yes."
The researchers placed the prototype inside a shock-resistant case.
Click.
The lock engaged, and a red seal sticker was applied.
[Korea Players Association Field Suitability Verification Submission]
The next time that case was opened would be in front of a real demonic beast.
* * *
The next day.
Korea Players Association field verification site.
Ilseong personnel, industry reporters, and observers from competing companies had gathered in the testing hall.
In front of the Taeseong Group observer section stood a woman in a beige suit.
Yun Chae-rin.
She belonged to Taeseong Group's Strategy Planning Office and was Sang-hyeok's fiancée.
She looked at Ilseong's sealed case sitting on the verification stand.
'So they went through with the verification after all.'
But to Yun Chae-rin, either outcome made no difference.
If Ilseong postponed the verification, it would be treated as a voluntary withdrawal.
If they pushed ahead and the barrier shut down, the defect would remain on the official record.
Either way, Ilseong would be eliminated, and the second-stage evaluation and follow-up supply negotiations would pass to Taeseong.
'But why did they force the verification? There's no way they fixed it overnight.'
Yun Chae-rin was certain that Ilseong would never find the cause.
No matter how much they searched the blueprints or took the equipment apart again, they couldn't find a fingernail-sized trap hidden among countless parts in a single night.
Unless they had special eyes capable of seeing the exact moment the trap moved when monster mana touched it.
At that moment, Yun Chae-rin's gaze turned toward Ilseong's technical section.
A familiar face stood among Kim Seo-yun and the researchers.
It was Sang-hyeok.
'Why is he there?'
From what she had heard recently, he had shut himself in his room and done nothing but drink.
A Conditional Awakener who hadn't even unlocked his Trait.
A fiancé with nothing to offer except the name of Ilseong's youngest.
That kind of person was standing among the technical staff.
Yun Chae-rin was briefly puzzled, but soon lost interest.
Sang-hyeok was merely a formal fiancé bound by the interests of both families.
A relationship that would naturally end once Ilseong collapsed.
That was all.
The association examiner broke the seal on the prototype.
"We will now begin the first Field Suitability Verification for Ilseong Group's Standard-Issue Mana Defense Equipment."
The iron gate of the containment section rose.
Grrrrr.
A captured low-level demonic beast walked out, dragging its chains.
The demonstration player equipped Ilseong's defense equipment on his wrist.
Vmmmm.
A blue barrier wrapped around his body.
One reporter leaned forward, looking at the barrier.
"Oh, it's operating stably for now."
The reporter next to him responded.
"Normal operation was always fine, apparently. It shut down after the demonic beast's mana touched it, they say."
"Then we'll soon find out whether the defect allegations are true."
The demonic beast lowered its body.
Rough mana flowed from its body and touched the blue barrier.
Everyone on Taeseong's side fixed their eyes on the barrier at once.
If the hidden part was going to move, now was the moment.
One second.
Two seconds.
But the barrier did not shut down.
A Taeseong staffer looked down at the tablet in his hands.
If things had gone according to plan, the barrier should already have disappeared.
Yun Chae-rin's eyes narrowed.
'Why isn't it shutting down?'
Before Yun Chae-rin could find an answer, the demonic beast kicked off the floor.
BOOM!
A massive claw struck the blue barrier.
The barrier bent sharply inward, and the demonstration player was pushed back half a step.
But the blue light did not vanish.
[1st impact]
[Barrier maintained]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
One of Taeseong's staffers stiffened.
"Normal?"
The demonic beast lunged again.
BOOM!
The barrier held through the second impact as well.
The blue light that had blocked even the third claw strike wrapped around the demonstration player's body to the very end.
[Successfully Defended Against 3 Live-Combat Impacts]
[Barrier output normal]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
The association examiner entered the final result.
[Ilseong Group Standard-Issue Mana Defense Equipment]
[1st Field Suitability Verification: Passed]
[2nd Comparative Performance Evaluation Eligibility: Maintained]
"Passed."
Everyone in Ilseong's waiting area let out the breath they'd been holding all at once.
The researchers grabbed each other's shoulders, and word that Ilseong had resolved the defect spread quickly through the press section.
Camera shutters fired in rapid succession.
Several reporters called their news desks the moment the pass result appeared, and association staff checked Ilseong's name again on the second-stage evaluation participant list.
In contrast, a heavy silence settled over the Taeseong waiting area.
The people who had come to confirm a failure could not take their eyes off the pass result.
That single result preserved Ilseong's place in the second-stage evaluation and its follow-up supply negotiations.
Those were the two opportunities Taeseong had been certain it would take.
Only after confirming that both opportunities had been protected did Kim Seo-yun slowly unclench her tightly balled fist.
Nail marks were pressed deep into her palm.
"Sang-hyeok."
"Yeah."
"If it weren't for you, Ilseong would have been eliminated here today."
Sang-hyeok looked at her hand, where the nail marks remained.
"No. I couldn't have done it without you, Sis. You're the one who fixed the equipment."
Kim Seo-yun's eyes grew red.
Yun Chae-rin, who had been watching from a distance, looked at Sang-hyeok again.
The researchers, not just Kim Seo-yun, were naturally looking at him as well.
She couldn't know what had happened last night.
But one thing was clear.
Sang-hyeok was not someone who had simply come to watch the verification.
The man she had considered worthless until just moments ago.
That man was standing at the center of Ilseong, having overturned the board Taeseong had set.
'What on earth happened last night?'
Yun Chae-rin left the Taeseong waiting area and stopped in front of Sang-hyeok.
"Sang-hyeok, could we talk for a moment?"
Yun Chae-rin.
She was still Sang-hyeok's fiancée, but before the regression, she had been the woman who first called off their engagement once Ilseong collapsed.
When Sang-hyeok faced her, the engagement ring on her finger caught his eye.
But this time, he had no intention of waiting for her to call it off.
'I'll break off the engagement first.'