Chapter 5: Position (1)
"You will have an opportunity to test your equipment before long—" Those words came true far sooner than I'd expected.
The Galaxy Federation had never once carried out a preemptive strike.
No matter how carefully they polished their image in peacetime, a single mistake could shatter everything they had built—and an image, once broken, never truly came back. Even if you managed to rebuild it, it would forever carry the tag: they'd done it before.
Conversely, for those who already carried a poor reputation, managing even one decent deed had a surprisingly good effect. Of course, they'd keep getting cursed no matter how much time passed, and that one good act could be written off—but when you had nothing left to lose, it hardly mattered.
Granted, the Galaxy Federation wasn't spotlessly pure, and Noir Corporation wasn't seen as nothing but villains either—but if you insisted on setting them side by side, that was roughly the difference.
So, under normal circumstances, the Federation's best move would be to leave Noir Corporation—operating legally within South Korea—alone.
At least, that was what I had believed.
"But it appears they do intend to attack, after all."
James said this to me.
To me.
"Take a look at this."
James tapped at the tablet he was holding.
At the same moment, a series of displays appeared on the screen of the tablet in my own hands.
A satellite photograph of a building in some provincial area. And photos of the people moving around its perimeter.
The building didn't appear to be in any city center—the land around it was bare and empty. Everyone in the photos wore identical clothing, so they were probably company employees. Their uniforms weren't the combat suits I wore.
"It's a research complex. Quite well known in the region, actually—plenty of locals found employment there."
I hadn't known. Honestly, I'd never had much reason to look into it.
I felt next to no loyalty toward this company. In the beginning, I'd simply needed money for the orphanage's operating costs, and someone happened to come along offering to scout me, so I'd said yes.
...Though by now I was tangled up in this from so many angles that slipping away wasn't so easy anymore.
What good would lamenting it do at this point?
When I went on staring at the screen with a sour expression, James gave a shrug.
"This time, you will be protecting this place."
"Doesn't look like it's in Seoul."
"Of course not. It's in Gyeonggi Province."
"...Wouldn't the round trip eat up quite a lot of time?"
If my workplace happened to be out there and I had no choice, commuting would be one thing—but I was still a student.
Not to mention I lived at the orphanage. I had no intention of giving up either of those two places yet. And being thrown out of them was equally unacceptable.
"Time is no problem. The magical girls are high schoolers as well, you see. The Galaxy Federation would never raid this facility while students are in class. They will almost certainly aim for the weekend."
Well... he wasn't wrong, I supposed.
The webtoon covered that, too.
High schoolers' studies mattered, and Korean high schoolers in particular had the college entrance exam looming over them, so they were only assigned work light enough not to interfere with their studies.
Call it their own brand of a realistic answer to the question, What is a magical girl supposed to do if a kaijin appears in the middle of a listening comprehension test?
For the record, Noir Corporation knew this too, and would sometimes deliberately set its incidents off during exactly those hours. Though more often than not, having pulled it off, they dragged things out so long that the operation collided with the magical girls' walk home from school and fizzled into nothing.
"So... you're telling me to go stay out there on weekends."
"That is correct."
"What about the orphanage?"
"That, too, will be no problem. We intend to make arrangements."
When I jerked my head up and glared at him, James gave another shrug.
"Rather than saying we summoned you, we will say you were selected in the Career Experience Program draw. As it happens, the school has already been informed as well."
"..."
"So you may rest easy."
Something about it smelled fishy, but I decided to let it slide for now.
"Is that the end of the business talk?"
"Yes. As far as work-related matters go."
James admitted it readily.
"That sounds like there's another topic."
"There is."
James admitted it just as readily a second time.
Perhaps that was the real reason I'd been called in here alone.
Combatants were never properly told the details of an operation. Only upon arriving at the site did they barely get to hear a drastically condensed version of the plan before being thrown in.
If the job simply called for some chaos, that was the end of it. Whether you got injured or arrested afterward was no longer anyone's concern. Even the trip home was on your own dime. And yet, judging by how combatants kept coming back to the work, the daily pay itself must have been decent.
The same went for squad leaders. A squad leader was, at best, a combatant who happened to fight a little better. There were rumors they earned several times the wages, but nobody seemed to regard them as holding any position of real importance to the company.
And yet here I was now, sitting in this room listening to a briefing.
Not even a condensed summary at that—satellite photographs included, one-on-one with a cadre.
"What did you want to discuss?"
"Do you remember when you first began working for this company?"
"...Yes, I remember."
Heaven only knew how that scout went about sifting for talent, but somehow I had caught their eye.
I'd known for a long time that I'd crossed over into this world, but I'd never had any particular goal. What was there to aim for in the first place? I'd merely had the luck to become a magical girl's childhood friend—I was never a magical girl myself.
My ambition was simply to scrape by, day after day, keeping myself fed as best I could. If your dream is to graduate, get a job immediately, and make a living—is that too unremarkable an ambition for someone possessed into a webtoon?
That was what I'd always taken to be the reason I'd been dropped into this story.
"You're nothing special."
I'd long assumed that the author who drew the webtoon had wanted to drive home a truth I already knew from my old world—so badly, in fact, that they'd gone out of their way to plant me inside their own work just to make the point.
Perhaps that was why I'd snapped up the offer so eagerly, too.
If I started working somewhere as early as possible, I might climb to a better position down the line. Noir Corporation was a major corporation, after all.
"What did the scout look like?"
"Why on earth would I remember something like that?"
I'd taken a phone number, made the call, sat through an interview, and passed. That was the entire story.
"I see."
"Is that supposed to be the important topic?"
"Important enough. There is a world of difference between talent this company selected with its own hands and talent that simply drifted in from elsewhere. At the very least, you're not a spy dispatched by some outside party, are you?"
"..."
"And the fact that your personal connections are so excellent is a stroke of fortune for us as well."
I watched James deliver this in a thoroughly pleased voice, my eyes narrowed to slits.
"Which brings me to a proposal."
"What kind of proposal?"
"Won't you consider working for this company as a full-time employee after you graduate?"
"..."
"The donations, as your way of giving back to society, will continue. And entirely separate from that, we will set your salary equal to that of the other employees at your grade."
Twice now, Noir Corporation had come scouting me.
"...I'll think about it."
That was all I said for the moment.
I still had no idea how I'd ever get out of this. If I tried to quit after graduating, they might well expose who I really was to Hayun.
But if I kept doing this kind of work, I'd be found out eventually. Some secrets do last forever—but only when they're small enough for one person to carry alone.
"I do hope you will consider it favorably."
James replied with a wide grin.
"The Career Experience Program?"
Jihye pulled a face of pure disgust at my words.
"It's not even a trip—you're telling me you're going all that way on a weekend just to study? Why on earth did you sign up for something like that?"
"I didn't sign up because I wanted to. Nobody volunteered, so they just drew names at random."
I said it with a long, deep sigh.
That really was how it worked. Only a tiny handful of students applied directly; the rest were picked at random by their homeroom teachers.
I wondered if that was even allowed in this day and age, but apparently once the parents were informed, they were actually pleased. Word was the kids might even get to make an impression on Noir Corporation.
"I'll be resting comfortably right here, so have fun~"
Watching Jihye flap her hand lazily without so much as sitting up, I jabbed her in the side with my toes.
"Eek!?"
What a funny sound.
When I moved to jab her again, Jihye slapped a hand over her side.
"Hey, what was that for!?"
"I think you've gained weight."
"What!?"
"It's winter, and all you do is lie around indoors. Of course you're putting on pounds."
Having said my piece, I spun on my heel and bolted for the door.
In the end, I failed to dodge the pillow that came sailing after me.
Two hours' ride on a tour bus lent by the company brought us to a building considerably larger than I'd imagined.
The satellite photo hadn't conveyed just how big it was, but seen through the bus window, it more than lived up to the name 'complex.'
It was technically a single building—but so vast that any number of factories could have been running inside it without anyone the wiser.
Perhaps I'd failed to grasp the scale because the photos on the tablet had been zoomed in so far on the people.
The students around me were all faces I didn't know. A few were in my class at school, but we'd always been awkward with each other.
Kids who came here declaring they'd get jobs the moment they graduated were, naturally, rarely from well-off families. Kids who start worrying about employment while still in high school seldom are.
The bus stopped, and the front door opened.
A teacher had ridden in the very front row, but they were merely the supervising escort—from here on, a company employee would be walking us through the facilities.
The students began to murmur, and the teacher rose and told them to settle down. This wasn't my homeroom teacher. The kids on this bus weren't only from my class—they were a mix of students drawn from across the entire grade.
That teacher, too, was probably here through sheer bad luck. There was precious little energy in their voice, in fact.
...Come to think of it, weren't all the other teachers like that anyway?
After a short wait, a man stepped aboard.
He was an exceedingly pleasant-looking middle-aged man. Pleasant, yes, but not striking—I doubted I'd remember his face a week after his presentation.
He looked like one of those nameless models who turn up in corporate advertising posters, I supposed.
Even his clothes were the gray work jacket the laborers so often wore—though underneath was a dress shirt and tie.
"Welcome, everyone. It's good to have you all."
His face was forgettable, but his voice was genuinely fine. The sort of voice that would put you right to sleep if you listened from a classroom seat.
The man introduced himself, but very little of it registered.
"We will be guiding you for the next two days, so let's spend that time getting along well. You'll be lodged in company dormitories. While you are inside the building, all of you will be treated under the same conditions as Noir Corporation employees."
At his words, someone shot a hand into the air.
"You have a question?"
"Yes."
A student with a rather outgoing look about them half-rose awkwardly from their seat and asked:
"Is there, by any chance, a curfew?"
Snickers rippled through the seats around that student.
"Employees don't have one."
Cheers erupted around them at that.
"But you are not to leave the building."
The teacher said so, but the visible world beyond the building was desolate in the extreme. Even if there was a convenience store, it would be inside the complex—nothing out there.
...I see.
No curfew at night. That would make moving around easier for me, wouldn't it.
I clamped down on the sigh that tried to escape.
Having few friends really does come in handy at times like this.
Not that I could bring myself to call it a blessing.
Making the rounds inside the complex turned out to be more entertaining than I'd expected.
Part of the enormous rectangular building was still under construction; somewhere within was a factory that built spaceships, and an area that fabricated semiconductors for the company's own use.
Seen up close like this, I began to understand just how vast Noir Corporation was. On the outside it did construction work, and it even kept a media outlet and an entertainment company as subsidiaries.
Was this what those megacorporations out of cyberpunk stories were like—the kind that manufacture everything from toothpicks to missiles?
And considering that corporations of this galactic scale had planted themselves in plenty of places besides Korea, I could almost see why national governments were so eager to clasp hands with them.
"Well then, that's it for today."
Half past four in the afternoon. After spending the final thirty minutes assigning dormitories and explaining the rules we'd have to observe inside, the man said this.
The students all seemed to feel the day had wrapped up earlier than expected. Everyone was buzzing. There had been a fairly sizable market on the grounds, and they looked set to go buy up every snack in sight.
I, for my part, had other business waiting.
Now that I looked at it, the students had apparently been selected in a deliberately odd number, leaving me awkwardly to occupy a dorm room alone. The kids gave me looks laced with sympathy, but frankly, this suited me fine. I'd be sneaking in and out all through the night.
I entered the dorm room, was finally alone, let out a long breath, and looked beneath the bed.
...Sure enough, there was a case. I opened it, confirmed the contents, and put it back.
"Good."
I'd been told there were a great many combatants inside this complex.
And among them, I had been assigned the role of meeting the magical girls head-on.
Not a cadre—but a role hardly different from one.
...Could he actually be serious?
I turned James's words over in my mind, but no answer was forthcoming, so I resolved to stop thinking about it.
Still, what had to be done had to be done.
However much of a drifter I was, I refused to spend the whole time losing.
Even if it all ended in failure, I wanted to land at least one clean hit. Take enough one-sided beatings, and that kind of thought becomes unavoidable.
The tablet that had come packed with the suit case carried a detailed 3D map of the building's interior facilities.
It was far too large to memorize in full. Instead, I concentrated on committing to memory the sections said to house researchers.
There was no proof any of it was true. The real thing might be hidden elsewhere, with this information handed over deliberately—to scramble the magical girls' intelligence, it would make a plausible story.
...So that's where they'll attack from.
I had no idea where they'd gotten their information, but seeing them go to these lengths, the possibility was clearly real.
I scratched my head, then switched off the tablet screen.
Then I rose from my seat and ambled, unhurried, toward the area supposedly housing the researchers.
The teachers didn't bother with anything like patrols. I crossed paths with a few students from my school in the corridor, but they were from other classes, so I simply walked on by.
"So that's how it is."
The tablet had labeled it a 'laboratory,' but what stood there now was nothing more than a stretch of enclosing wall.
The deepest point of the complex. Of the structures that looked like pillars holding up the building, the lowest tier of one was the 'secret laboratory.'
Just how anyone got inside, I couldn't tell. Maybe some alien technology was concealing it, maybe they'd plastered over the entrance in preparation for this operation—or maybe they really had done nothing more than point me at one of the pillars.
My task was to defend this 'laboratory.'
I gave a shrug to no one in particular and turned to head back—
Poke.
I felt a finger stab into my cheek.
"...Did you learn that from a drama too?"
I asked, sliding my face sideways out of the finger's reach.
"Not even startled?"
"Well, it was obvious you'd be here."
It was Jigupa.
Jigupa thrust a can of drink at me without ceremony.
"No coffee today?"
"Come on—even I don't show up drunk before a job."
What Jigupa had handed over was just a lemon-lime soda.
I accepted it, and we made our way to the front of a nearby convenience store.
Only after coming inside had I understood why this 'building' was called a 'complex'—the interior felt less like one giant shopping mall and more like a small town raised inside an enormous square dome, a complex designed so that people could stay within it indefinitely and keep working.
It did have floors, but the upper levels weren't especially large—the center was hollowed wide open. And within that open core stood several buildings of differing heights.
The closest thing I'd ever laid eyes on was... that famous indoor amusement park over in Jamsil. The structure itself resembled it—except this was on a far grander scale, and rather than a dome it was a rectangular building. Lacking a dome's shell, it relied on what looked like immensely thick, sturdy pillars to bear the load. And I'd been told that one of those pillars was the 'disguise.'
The moment Jigupa settled in beside me, he unleashed a torrent of this and that. To his credit, he knew where to draw the line—nothing about the job. Mostly dramas, movies, and manga that meant nothing to me.
...Still, a handful of them held my interest well enough that I made a point of remembering a few of the titles.
And then, night.
The company's assessment was that the magical girls—unable to strike at a corporation outright—would attempt an infiltration this time. Not a flashy assault, in other words, but an operation to squeeze every drop out of their abilities and extract only the key personnel.
Which meant our side needed to move in secret as well.
While the places requiring surveillance were watched without fail, I too would lie hidden in ambush.
The black suit earned its keep at times like this. The new helmet I'd been issued even came finished in matte paint—someone may well have anticipated this to some degree.
Until around eight in the evening I drifted about in civilian clothes, keeping an eye on how things developed; from nine o'clock onward, I put on the suit and hid where no one could see me.
Not by the roadside, but from within buildings only employees could enter, watching outward. Many of the structures here housed sensitive equipment and had been designed so their interiors couldn't be seen from outside—decidedly convenient.
The magical girls didn't show themselves until nearly midnight.
My eyes were growing tired. It was right around when I started thinking I should have stolen at least a little sleep after all.
"...Ah."
I murmured.
A white dot had appeared.
It was light born out of empty air, mere moments after the guards on their interior patrol had passed by.
Dimmed to the barest glow, the light swelled slowly, as if warily taking the measure of its surroundings.
...Like I said. Absolutely broken.
Watching the magical girls' abilities—that is to say, the Galaxy Federation's technology—I thought so once again.