Undercover
Lui Chen and Zyrec had been locked in a power struggle for a long time. However, from their perspective, it was a petty squabble that didn't require much serious attention.
It wasn't a war to expand their territory or increase their influence; it was merely a cheap clash of corporate pride.
But now, the situation had changed.
"Something" presumed to be a Lui Chen chimera had destroyed a Zyrec laboratory. A Zyrec weapon had sliced through a Talos—specifically, an ECPD tactical transport. And in retaliation, the Talos had obliterated a Lui Chen power plant.
It was no longer a petty dispute over pride. It had escalated into a real war, and the fallout was beginning to severely impact each faction.
Consequently, the megacorporations' headquarters and the ECPD central office had stepped in directly. The leadership of each faction would have issued orders to pull out the undercover agents they had planted in rival organizations.
Naturally, such an order would have trickled down to Zyrec's CSIA. Eric, the operations team leader who had initiated the undercover mission, would have no choice but to comply immediately.
And that very Eric had come to this place.
To someone as high-ranking as Eric within the CSIA, mercenaries were probably nothing more than dirt. Yet, here he was, swallowing his pride and enduring Soo's rudeness to beg for their help.
"I guess you can't go to Lui Chen yourself. Have you infiltrated them before?"
"...Do you know about our situation?"
"It's obvious, isn't it?"
The partial destruction of Southpeak's Sector 7. The missing Enforcer. The ruined laboratory. The shattered power plant. Factions striking at each other's vital assets.
Soo listed the series of events reported in the news one by one, then stared blankly at Eric.
"Isn't this information, combined with the fact that you came here, enough to figure it out?"
"I... I suppose so."
Following Eric's reaction, Angela's eyes widened in surprise.
This was the first time Soo had ever laid out her line of reasoning to others like this.
Granted, there were still many gaps in that logic. It should have been a deduction full of holes. Yet, Soo spoke with absolute certainty, as if she already knew the correct answer.
As if she knew exactly how these factions operated...
Magic...?
Because Soo blamed everything on magic whenever she did something inexplicable, Angela's thoughts naturally drifted in that direction. Of course, she didn't actually believe it was real magic.
There's no way...
She decided to chalk it up to Soo simply having incredibly sharp instincts.
"I guess your other agents are busy."
"That is an internal Zyrec matter. I cannot disclose it."
"Is it a family matter?"
Soo tilted her head as she asked.
Eric's expression flickered, but it was just a surface-level twitch. There was no real agitation. No genuine emotion behind it.
Therefore, it was a fabricated reaction.
The claim that his family member was the undercover agent was a lie.
What other reason could there be, then?
Why would a CSIA officer bypass his own agency's resources, swallow his pride, and seek out a nameless, fledgling mercenary office to beg for a favor?
The pieces of the puzzle fell into place in Soo's mind. She cross-referenced the current situation with her knowledge of the original game to recall what events occurred around this time.
Finally, after getting a rough grasp of Eric's personality, she voiced her most likely theory.
"There's crucial information inside that undercover agent's head, isn't there?"
"What do you—"
"You want to extract that information and escape Zyrec... or rather, betray them. You must have a contact in Lui Chen, then. After all, only Lui Chen has the technology to extract information by tampering with the brain."
Eric's mask shattered completely. He stared at Soo with a devastated expression. Fear crept into his eyes, as if he were looking at an incomprehensible monster.
In contrast, Soo's eyes sparkled. The boredom that had clouded her face vanished, replaced by a sudden burst of vitality.
"Okay. I'll do it."
Soo pulled a neatly folded contract from her coat. Eric was surprised once again to see that it was made of actual paper, but even that shock faded once he read its contents.
"...What on earth is this contract?"
"It's our office's standard contract. These are the terms you must agree to if you want to hire us."
"The... the payment isn't listed here..."
"We decide the payment. You don't have to worry. As long as you stay alive, Eric, you'll definitely get what you want."
Eric thought of the loaded pistol concealed in his jacket. He felt the blood rushing rapidly through his veins. If he activated his neural acceleration implant, could he kill both of them?
He couldn't be sure. He didn't know why, but despite her looking like a small, fragile girl, he felt an unspeakable, chilling dread radiating from her. He shouldn't make a reckless move...
Reaching that conclusion, Eric reviewed the contract once more.
A little girl, or a monster...
Just as Soo said, it wasn't an unfair contract. In fact, it was filled with clauses that were highly favorable to the client.
"I'll hear the details of the request after you sign the contract."
"It says here that once the details of the request are disclosed, the contract cannot be canceled. Are you sure you want to proceed like this?"
"You don't need to worry about us."
Since we already know your secrets, wouldn't you be the one in danger if you walked out without signing?
That was how it sounded to Eric's ears.
He clicked his tongue inwardly and closed his eyes tight.
He had underestimated them far too much.
He had thought they were just mere mercenaries. He was confident that no matter how much they struggled, they wouldn't even reach his ankles.
But what was the reality?
Though she hadn't presented concrete evidence, her deductions were entirely correct. If she went straight to Salvador Ortega and revealed this, Eric's life would be forfeit.
Checkmate...
He had no choice but to sign.
It felt as if everything had played out exactly according to someone's design.
Eric bit his lip and looked at Soo.
That innocent smile of hers felt more chilling than anything else in the world right now.
"...I will sign."
"Okay. Do you need a pen?"
"I will use my own."
"Oh, that looks nice. How much is it?"
Why on earth was she asking about that at a time like this?
Would answering carelessly leak even more information? Eric thought so, and tried his best to reply casually with a lie.
"It was a gift, so I do not know the exact price, but based on the brand, it should be worth at least four hundred thousand credits."
"Could you give me that as part of the payment?"
Was she mocking him?
Was she trying to provoke him into losing his temper?
The thought crossed his mind, but the moment he met Soo's eyes, those doubts became meaningless.
Soo was genuinely coveting the pen...
"...Very well."
Eric let out a heavy sigh and began to sign.
As long as the mission succeeded, he could buy her thousands of pens like this.
The details of the request Eric presented were no different from what Soo had deduced.
To protect and safely extract the Zyrec undercover agent planted in Lui Chen.
They weren't told what would happen afterward. They didn't know the nature of the information the agent possessed. They hadn't even been given the agent's identity within Lui Chen yet.
Literally, they had only heard the bare bones of the request.
But even that was more than enough for Soo to carry out the mission.
Thus, without asking further questions, Soo pressed her thumbprint onto the contract.
The inkpad was supposedly grape-flavored for children, and it tasted surprisingly good. Licking the ink off her thumb, Soo studied the destination marked on the map.
"Soo, are you sure about this...?"
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Still, it's just... well, we agreed not to take requests related to the megacorporations."
It was a promise made between Enoch, Soo, and Angela.
They could take any job, but they would avoid anything that involved getting deeply entangled with the megacorps.
"You don't have to worry."
Soo looked up at Angela with her usual expression—or perhaps, a slightly more excited one.
"This time, the request is for you, Angela."
They had agreed to keep their promise. Soo had no intention of breaking it.
However, before that promise, they had established one condition: even if a request involved the megacorps, if it concerned one of the three of them, they would take it without hesitation and see it through to the end.
That was why Soo had accepted this job.
"...Could it be?"
"Yeah. We're going to help your sister. I don't know what the two of them want, but any kind of achievement inside the megacorp will be helpful to her."
"Then... are you planning to hand him over to her?"
"I don't betray our side."
"I'm not the sharpest, so I don't quite understand. Then... what do you plan to do, Soo?"
No matter how high-ranking a CSIA operations team leader was, he couldn't pull off an operation of this scale alone.
Even if it only involved a single undercover agent, the CSIA valued every single asset.
Although a team leader had come in person and signed a contract under duress, making the situation look somewhat trivial, Zyrec's CSIA was an elite division.
Only the most outstanding individuals—possessing physical combat prowess, netwatching capabilities, tactical planning skills, and the intellect to coordinate them all—could join Zyrec's CSIA.
Therefore, Eric could not achieve this alone. In other words, he had an accomplice.
That accomplice was likely the undercover agent inside Lui Chen. The fact that Eric wanted to extract information from the agent's brain was proof of that.
So, they could simply hand that undercover agent over to Angela's sister.
But that would be too simple and predictable.
So, how should she explain her plan?
There were still too many variables, and even Soo couldn't predict exactly how things would unfold. Humans were unpredictable creatures, capable of changing at any moment.
However, if she set up the right conditions, she could guide their actions to some extent.
Is it worth it?
She didn't know yet. That was why she needed to hear the other side of the story. Every person had their own life and values. It would be a waste to act based on only one side's perspective.
"I don't know yet. But it will definitely help your sister."
Saying so, Soo dialed a number. Angela didn't need to think twice to know who was on the other end.
"Good morning, Serena. Can I ask a favor?"
"...What on earth did I do to deserve this from you?"
"Nothing. You gave me a bathtub, a hairdryer, and a foot bath. Thanks. I've been using them well."
"Then why... why are you testing me first thing in the morning?"
"It's something you'll like."
"...Let's hear it."
"I think I found a way to meet that nameless faction we've been looking for."
A heavy silence hung over the headset.
Soo grinned and continued.
"Bring me a hamburger on your way. A double cheeseburger with extra cheddar and fried mozzarella. Angela will have a salad from the cafe in front of our office. Right?"
"Uh, yeah, that's right, but..."
A loud crash echoed from the other end, followed by Serena's urgent voice.
"I'm coming right now."