Ghost Signal

I'd better hold onto my attribute points for now.

The perks I couldn't choose all demanded attribute points, so it seemed wiser to save them up and dump them into whichever perk I actually needed later.

"What have you been staring into space about for the past minute?"

Lucia looked up at me and asked.

"Just thinking for a second…."

A status window popped up right in front of my eyes.

Let's give it a try.

The moment I made the decision in my head, the effect kicked in immediately.

So this is how it works.

It was a shame my Reason attribute was too low to reveal all of her physical anomalies. Still, it told me her frontal lobe function had dropped by twelve percent—impressively detailed.

She looked half-dead when I first met her, but she's actually holding up pretty well these days.

"Excuse me?"

Lucia's voice rang in my ear.

"Hm? What?"

"What did you just say about me?"

"What? I didn't say anything."

Don't tell me this is part of Ghost Signal's effect—can it hear the target's inner thoughts?

Sharp instincts on this one, huh.

Lucia's inner voice drifted into my head once more.

Guess so. Now how do I turn this thing off?

So it keeps running as long as it's active.

Once Ghost Signal shut off, I could no longer hear Lucia's thoughts.

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feature that let me read minds. That was going to be seriously useful.

"Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned you could make immunosuppressants."

Lucia muttered under her breath, talking half to herself.

"One minute you're thrilled about going into business with me…"

"I got to thinking. I felt like I'd dragged you into something dangerous."

"Honestly? I'm glad."

"Why? Don't tell me you're planning to tag along when the Nemesis crew climbs back up to the Upper District?"

"Wouldn't that be nice."

"Are you insane? They'd treat us like we weren't even human! All we're doing is supplying drugs, that's it. Let's not get in any deeper than that. I get my cut, and that's the end of my involvement."

"Is money really that important to you?"

"…I'm in this state because I don't have any, so yes, it is. What about you, huh? Do you absolutely have to go up to the Upper District?"

"I want to go up there and develop a drug that actually cures Chrome Syndrome."

"Oh, good grief. Listen to yourself, spouting lunacy like that."

"It's not lunacy. And once Chrome Syndrome is cured, cyberpsychosis disappears with it. The whole world benefits."

"Easy for you to say. Even if cyberpsychosis vanishes, something else will just crawl up in its place."

Lucia thought for a moment, then spoke.

"But still… that's pretty admirable. Wanting to make a drug over an ideal like that. If it were me, I'd just flood the black market and rake in a fortune."

"Easy to say, harder to do. Developing anything takes money—facilities, equipment, all of it. That's why this deal with the Nemesis Gang matters so much."

"Reach too far and you'll tear yourself apart down there. Take what's reasonable. The Nemesis boss hasn't been right in the head lately, you know."

Lucia pinched a cigarette between her lips and lit it.

"Which is exactly why I keep telling you to stop bolting chrome onto yourself."

"You know her?"

"Know her? Please. Every other week she'd show up hauling a pile of cyber parts, whining for me to install them. That wench."

"Wench?"

Blowing out a plume of smoke, Lucia said,

"She's the old boss's little sister. Going on and on about avenging her brother or whatever. Crazy girl."

Amused, Lucia launched into an anecdote about the woman.

"Once she dragged military-grade hardware out of a junkyard and demanded I graft it into her. Threatened to kill me if I refused, so… what could I do? I did it."

She added, her voice turning bitter,

"I suspect that's what kicked her Chrome Syndrome into overdrive."

"What's this girl's name?"

Lucia smirked.

"You're about to meet her. What do you need her name for?"

"Lucia! It's me! Doomdoom-nim has arrived!"

"See? She's quick. Feels like she left less than thirty minutes ago."

"Boss says right now! Meet her! You! And Lucia—come with me!"

Doomdoom jabbed a finger at me, then turned on his heel. We followed.

The moment we stepped into the abandoned factory, Nemesis Gang members were swarming all over the place. Apparently they'd set up shop here.

Boss of a crew like this—no need to see the face to know it's a machine.

Every last one of them wore a face like machined steel. And the old boss's sister was bound to be no exception.

Thud. Thud—!

Doomdoom stopped in front of a door and pounded on it.

"Boss! Brought 'em like you asked!"

"Send them in."

A woman's voice came from within.

Inside, a black-haired beauty sat with her legs crossed at the desk.

"Hey, Suzy. Long time no see."

Lucia greeted her cutely, and Suzy snorted through her nose, eyes flicking open.

She's terrifying.

Black hair, crimson eyes.

Still—so Suzy hadn't replaced her face with chrome after all. A mercy, if nothing else.

"The man next to you—is he the pharmacist?"

"Pharmacist?"

The question slipped out of me before I could stop it. In that instant, Suzy vanished from where she'd been sitting, and her samurai sword was pressed against the nape of my neck.

Wh-what the—?!

"I ask the questions. Keep your mouth shut. Got it?"

"Suzy. Stand down."

Only when Lucia spoke did Suzy withdraw the blade.

Crazy lunatic.

She had such a delicate face, I'd figured she could hold a conversation. But ask her one clarifying question ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and she nearly takes my head off. Lucia hadn't been exaggerating about the Nemesis boss losing her grip on sanity.

"Where's the product? You brought it, didn't you? Answer."

Let's take a little look.

Execute.

Whoa. This is bad.

Ninety-two percent? She was a time bomb waiting to go off. And with a hundred percent chance of cyberpsychosis inside three days, if I left her alone, her death was a certainty.

I'm… I'm scared. I'm going to become a cyberpsycho just like this. Getting military chrome grafted in was a mistake. At this rate, I'll die before I ever avenge my brother. Hnn… hhk.

Beneath that ice-cold mask, Suzy was crumbling to pieces.

"There's no product."

"What? Are you screwing with me right now?!"

Suzy seized me roughly by the collar.

"If I have the raw materials, I can make it right now. Doomdoom mentioned you've got a production room here, no?"

"I need the product now!"

Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

My hands are shaking on their own. It's the cyberpsychosis onset. Damn it! Damn it! I don't want to die, I don't want to die!

Suzy let go of my collar, hid her trembling hands behind her back, and took a step back.

"Suzy. It's fine. The product will be ready by tonight. Trust him."

Lucia tried to calm her, but Suzy only flared up hotter.

"Trust what? Some guy I've never seen before in my life?"

"Jinwoo's someone you can rely on. Really."

Suzy looked me up and down, then turned her gaze back to Lucia.

If it's Lucia saying it… fine. She is careful. This one's probably safe.

"Fine. Then let's see you make it. But I'm watching every second—understand?"

"Understood. Lead me to the production room."

Blade sheathed, Suzy strode ahead of us. Down the stairs, thumping EDM music thundered out and a wall of steam rolled up to greet us. So this was where the drugs got made.

"Boss, you're here?! Perfect timing—we just finished developing a brand-new immunosuppressant!"

One of the crew killed the music and hurried over, shoving a syringe full of immunosuppressant right up in front of Suzy. She stared at it for a long moment, then handed the syringe to me.

"How's it compare to what you make?"

"Let's see."

"Garbage. Good materials, and the purity still comes out this low."

I said, handing the immunosuppressant back to Suzy.

"Doomdoom was telling me. He said what I make beats anything produced here."

"I got that report already."

"Better environment than here, better materials—I should be able to brew up one hell of an immunosuppressant, don't you think?"

"Really? If you can pull that off, I'll give you whatever you want."

She immediately halted every operation on the floor and said,

"Make it. I'll wait as long as it takes."

"Won't take long. I'm going to recycle that."

Suzy stared at the syringe in her hand.

"Recycle this?"

"Yeah. Just needs a little touch-up work."

"Liar! There's no way that's possible!"

The chemist who'd brewed this particular immunosuppressant had clearly been eavesdropping in silence, and apparently couldn't take it anymore—he barked out,

"Recycle?! How do you recycle an already-processed compound?! Boss! He's lying! Give me just a little more time and I'll make you an immunosuppressant to end all immunosuppressants!"

"Shut it. Before I kill you."

"Y-yes, ma'am."

Honestly, I don't buy it either. But right now, he's the only one worth trusting…

Cold as ice on the outside, and yet inside she was a mess like that. It was a little sad to watch, really. Some kind of defense mechanism, I supposed.

"Give me a moment. I'll have it ready shortly."

Pulling on a dust-proof suit whose hygiene left plenty to be desired, I set to work on the drug.

Following the guide floating in the corner of my vision, I broke down the Improperly Formulated Immunosuppressant and extracted only its key compounds.

Using the extracted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠compounds, I combined them with the valid combination items nearby to craft the drug.

Familiar, and yet not.

It resembled the research I'd done back at the pharmaceutical company, but with a strange twist to it—like brewing some kind of illicit elixir, in a way.

Anyway. After a process that ran a good ten-odd minutes, the synthesis was complete.

No vague qualifiers like "major relief" or "minor effect"—a clean, unambiguous percentage. And while the suppressant I'd brewed in Lucia's back-alley clinic had carried a single plus, this one sported three.

"Check it."

Suzy snatched the immunosuppressant away and jammed it straight into her forearm.

Poosh—! Ssss—!

…The trembling in her hands is dying down? And a few of the glitches in her cyber parts have cleared up too.

Suzy stared at me in astonishment.

Ghost Signal. Was this perk not completely broken?

"Hn-hm. The effect's weaker than I expected, no? Still… this is pretty decent work. Good. Make more."

Watching the gap between what she showed and what she felt was its own kind of entertainment, after all.

Not that I planned to keep cranking out product for free like some mark.

"Not for free, I won't."

Whatever comes in, something's got to go out. That's just how the world works.