Tracking (1)
Late at night.
In a hotel suite in Yeouido Sector 2, Susan pushed through the door looking exhausted. She tossed her luggage carelessly onto the sofa and said, “Switch to moonlit forest mode.”
> Applying immediately.
As the eyes of the hotel’s support android flashed blue, the suite’s air changed, taking on the scent of a dawn forest heavy with dew.
And then, beyond the floor-to-ceiling window, the city skyline vanished. In its place spread a forest washed in soft moonlight.
When Susan lifted her head, the ceiling had become a dreamlike sky strewn with countless stars and a great moon glowing between them.
It really was…
“This country is serious about content.”
It was admiration, plain and simple.
In an American hotel, there was no way to expect this kind of mood.
Susan lowered her top off one shoulder. The wound left by the masked man was exposed.
“It’s been a while since I got stabbed.”
She went to her suitcase and took out a potion bottle.
Pop—.
She opened it and poured the contents over the wound.
With a sharp sting, the flesh knitted back together smoothly.
This really is different. No wonder it’s a high-grade potion provided by the Cheoncheon Clan.
As expected, the world came down to…
“Power and money.”
She rolled her shoulders, then headed for the table.
From a black long coat, she took out the camera drones one by one and set them on the tabletop.
“Connect these for me.”
The support android brought over a docking port and linked the drones.
> Recording files transferred successfully.
At the android’s report, Susan walked toward the zero-gravity capsule.
That was one of the reasons she had chosen this hotel.
Wireless zero-gravity dive gear.
She had to attach a thin film-type transmission device to the dive port at the back of her neck, but the greatest advantage was that there was no strain on the body and the interior was comfortable.
Whoosh—.
With the sound of air being released, the entrance of the glass sphere opened.
Once she stepped inside, her body soon began to float.
And then.
Her vision flashed white, and….
Her consciousness sank into the world of data.
.
.
.
The place where she opened her eyes was a vast sea of code. Endless transmission signals and waves of information drifted by in gentle currents.
Susan twitched a finger.
Vwoooom—.
Part of the code condensed, forming a massive door.
Thud!
With a heavy impact, the door opened.
Beyond it stretched an immense editing space.
She stepped inside.
The dozens of video files the drones had just recorded floated through the air, glowing softly like crystals.
Hmm….
Let’s see.
With practiced ease, Susan reached out and pulled toward herself the crystal that looked like the starting point.
It unfolded like a screen.
She shaped her fingers like scissors.
Snip.
The long screen split into dozens of segments.
This one goes here.
That one gets shown as a cutaway.
“This part’s useless, so cut it.”
Talking to herself, she kept pulling in crystals and editing as she went.
A few minutes later, she finished and spread her fingers, enlarging the screen.
A mysterious man wearing a mask.
Around him, dust writhed like a living thing.
Narrowing her eyes, Susan replayed the moment her shoulder had been attacked in slow motion.
The dust gathered and surged, piercing into her shoulder in an instant.
No matter how she looked at it, all it did was deepen the mystery.
She had never heard of any technique like that.
Was it some ability that controlled the air?
Or did it compress dust in an instant?
She considered dozens of possibilities, but none of them made sense.
Even digging through the dark web for similar cases turned up nothing.
In the end, a hollow laugh slipped out of her.
For now, she would settle on this:
It was telekinesis with offensive power.
Then she extracted the masked man’s data and stuffed it into a 3D avatar.
“Mix in my movements as the base.”
At her command, the data began to cycle.
After a moment, words appeared in the air.
Some movements overlap.
“Replace them with the man’s movements.”
After a brief silence, when complete appeared, Susan expanded the virtual space.
Her avatar and the masked man’s avatar stood facing each other.
“Begin.”
Spot!
Susan’s avatar charged toward him.
At that instant, the man swept a hand through the air.
Swish….
Dust rose, blocking her attack.
It was not simple defense. No matter what angle she tried to slip through, the masked man seemed to predict it and shut her down.
Then, in a single whip-crack motion of his arm, Susan’s eyes flew wide.
She paused the simulation.
No way…
She flicked her fingers in disbelief.
At once, the list of assassination videos she had uploaded to the dark web spread out in the air.
If this was real….
“This is seriously impossible…”
She played one of the videos.
A recording from six months ago, of him wiping out the guards at a French mansion.
At one point Susan stopped the video and overlaid the masked man’s movements with her own from the footage.
Gasp.
The motions matched as if by magic.
That whip-like wrist movement of hers.
Even in her family, she alone had always swung her arms that way.
Dad used to tell me to fix that…
Ha….
A sigh slipped out.
It was hard to believe, but….
He learned the movement from my video.
Yes, he could imitate it.
But.
Actually using it in real combat was a completely different matter.
Which meant…
“A martial arts… genius?”
She hadn’t uploaded the video for that reason.
Whether she wanted to or not, she had ended up nurturing a prodigy of assassination arts.
After staring blankly for a long moment, she came back to herself.
Moving her fingertips, she split the screen into multiple angles.
This time…
I should look for the sniper.
Several videos played at once, and just as a flash of light was about to erupt, she paused them.
She zoomed the screen in to its limit.
Her brow furrowed.
But even after combing through the area around the flash, there was nothing to see.
Ha!
Was that even possible?
How high did the transparency have to be for there not even to be a reflection of light?
Not even glass could do that.
From the start, it had been absurd that the thermal sensor on the drone hadn’t picked up the sniper at all.
Having gained nothing, she compressed the footage into a single package file.
Then she uploaded it to the dark web’s Assassin Gallery.
It was dangerous for a red-notice target to leave a trace, but Susan didn’t care.
After all, this was a world where anonymity was guaranteed.
The videos she had uploaded so far had only helped build Blood Su’s reputation.
Once the upload was complete, she added a short line under her anonymous account and buried an IP-tracing code there.
Scout offer
If he’s skillful enough to copy my videos, then he’ll definitely take the bait.
A playful smile curled at Susan’s lips.
.
.
.
Susan climbed out of the zero-gravity capsule.
She walked to the window and disabled the virtual forest, and the city nightscape spread before her eyes once more.
To be honest…
Compared to the Ghost of Abyss…
Copycat is a lot more interesting…
Tsk—.
Still, she’d need to find the Ghost of Abyss first.
It wasn’t as if she had come to Korea for a vacation.
* * *
Early the next morning.
Du-ho returned home after training.
Why was he training all of a sudden?
Because after he had rested enough in the Garage and come out into his room, not even a minute had passed.
He wasn’t sleepy, and with time to spare, Du-ho studied technical books.
Even so, there was still a long way to go before work.
So in the end, he reviewed the battle from the previous day and even trained in assassination arts to build his strength.
It felt like it wasn’t really necessary with Isto and Hoguai around, but…
If he was ever going to reveal the Ghost’s identity.
“I’ll have to get stronger.”
He had no idea how long he could keep hiding it.
And if his identity were suddenly exposed…?
He might be subdued without a chance to resist.
So from now on, he decided to rest properly in the Garage and make better use of his time outside.
Not as a choice, but as preparation for survival.
Anyway.
After Du-ho had spent the long night and was getting ready for work,
Ripple….
The space shimmered, and Isto appeared carrying an old laptop.
The LEDs in its eyes were brighter than ever.
For some reason, Du-ho had a bad feeling.
“What is it… now?”
-You became a star overnight, hamda!
“...?”
Isto couldn’t hide its excitement as it unfolded the laptop in front of Du-ho.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at the screen.
Damn it!
“You’d better not start going into the dark web agai—”
Du-ho trailed off and stared dumbly at the display.
Blood Su vs. Copycat
Uploaded: 4 hours ago
Views: 247,892
Comments: +999
Huh?
Blood Su?
“Co… Copycat?”
For some reason, a bad feeling welled up.
Isto played the video.
Against a backdrop of an alley, Du-ho’s figure was locked in a fierce exchange with a person wearing a cat mask.
Clang! Thud! Crack!
Sharp metallic cries and suffocating impacts rang out so loudly they seemed ready to tear the speakers apart.
Du-ho’s jaw trembled.
“W-what the hell is this…?”
It felt like his heart had dropped straight through the floor.
The masked man on the screen was Du-ho himself.
-This is Du-ho nim’s glorious debut video, hamda! Heehee.
Damn it!
Glorious, my ass!
“Isto, did you film this?”
-Nope, hamda! Blood Su had drones in the air. It looks like that’s when it was shot.
Wait, wait.
Then…
All the Blood Su videos are on the dark web?
-She must have uploaded them herself.
Oh, my head….
Was that woman insane?
What kind of assassin did something like this?
When Du-ho grabbed his head, Isto brightly chimed in.
-Your fame is spreading far and wide in the world of darkness, hamda. Isn’t that a good thing?
“Should I be grateful for this? Is that what you’re saying?”
-Yep.
Good grief….
Du-ho rubbed his temples, at a loss for words, while Isto’s LED eyes curved in a smug little smile.
His reputation had risen more than enough, it said. With a soft exhale, Du-ho looked back at the video. Seen from one angle, it really did look like an even match, but he himself knew the truth.
Blood Su was obviously holding back.
-You can’t just see it that way, hamda.
“...What?”
Isto’s LED eyes lit up.
-It was your first real fight against the world’s best assassin, wasn’t it? Besides, Blood Su was the one who got injured.
“That only happened because I got lucky and it triggered.”
-Nope! You countered in a crisis and even managed to injure her, so you should be proud, hamda!
Praise really could make even a whale dance.
At Isto’s convincing words, Du-ho’s shoulders lifted before he noticed.
Come to think of it, I wasn’t really scared I might die…?
-Exactly, hamda! Confidence! Boom! Doesn’t it make your chest swell up all grand like that!
“???”
Something was weird, but!
Feeling a little more confident, Du-ho naturally became curious about the reactions under the video.
He glanced sideways.
Hmm.
It was strange to be recognized by assassins, but…
For some reason, this feels pretty good?
Someone had even called him a genius.
As Du-ho scrolled down, he suddenly stopped.
Du-ho went pale.
Clothes?
Oh crap.
Startled, he hurried over to the washing machine.
Fortunately, the hoodie he had worn yesterday was still in the laundry basket.
He grabbed it quickly and ran back to the room.
“Isto. Is this okay?”
Isto skimmed over the hoodie.
-No brand tag and a common design, hamda. Don’t worry, sir. Everyone’s just talking, hamda.
Only then did Du-ho let out a breath and pat his chest.
It was a relief, but still…
I really need to be careful from now on.
Sigh.
“Who knew Blood Su would show up there.”
Du-ho put the clothes into the Garage.
Just in case.
“Isto.”
-Yes!
When Du-ho handed over his ID card, a question mark lit up in Isto’s LED eyes.
“Find everything I’ve signed up for and switch it all to non-consent for personal information use.”
-Some of them charge money if you opt out, hamda.
“Pay it. I don’t care.”
-May I ask why?
Du-ho tapped the laptop screen with a finger.
“It’s the Assassin Gallery, right? I figured it’d be safer just in case.”
-Understood, hamda. Should I erase your traces, Du-ho nim?
“I’d appreciate that.”
As Du-ho said that and picked up his bag,
-By the way, Blood Su made a scout offer. What should I tell her?
“Agh!”
“Why are you even worrying about that!”
-I could also ask how much the scout fee is…
“The answer is to show no interest. Okay?”
Unlike Du-ho’s thoughts, the dark web’s Assassin Gallery was already burning hot.
The assassins had begun to go wild over the unknown being called Copycat.
Meanwhile, in the hotel suite in Yeouido Sector 2, Susan sat on the sofa, sipping morning coffee as she looked at her smart glasses.
Comments poured in in real time.
Watching the IPs and location data roll in live, she bared her teeth in a grin.
Copycat.
If the bastard even replies, I’ll catch him right away.