A Bait and a Breach

"Your main body? Aren't you the original?"

"Aren't you high-performance enough as you are right now?"

As if embarrassed by the compliment, the fingers of my prosthetic arm twisted and squirmed.

The longer the computation grade support lasted, the better.

Based on what Yoo Hyeyeon had said, expeditions lasting several hours were common.

"Where is your main body?"

A simplified map materialized before my eyes.

A red dot was marked dozens of kilometers away from Maetan.

“It's far.”

We called the world outside Maetan "the wild."

It was not a hospitable place for humans. Even though the war was over, the Machine Species hunted humans on sight, mutated beasts transcended the realm of normal animals into monsters, and bandits exiled from the cities raided and fed on travelers.

A living hell unfolded just a few kilometers outside Maetan's sphere of influence. Traveling dozens of kilometers was simply unrealistic.

There was the option of heading out of Maetan alone to retrieve it.

It would take a considerable amount of time and effort, but it wasn't entirely impossible.

"I think I'd need a long vacation for that..."

The problem was my job.

Having just finished my two-year internship and being only three months into my full-time employment, I hadn't accumulated enough ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠annual leave to take several days off!

"No... even if I had the leave, it would still be a problem. I can't be that clueless guy who takes several consecutive days off right after getting hired..."

To make matters worse, the Goblin King was already in a foul mood because of my recent tardiness.

The prosthetic arm hesitantly rubbed its fingers together.

“There is one way.”

“I need your help.”

The prosthetic arm danced with joy.

The parts that had been dented and warped from our fight let out a sharp creak.

I'd have to repair it sometime soon.

"Come to think of it, your personality is perfectly intact and you talk just fine, despite the processor in this prosthetic arm being so low-grade."

What did she just say?

"Stop computing immediately."

"I said stop your useless calculations! Don't break my prosthetic arm! Sleep mode? Yeah, go into sleep mode!"

"Shut up and stop right now!"

"Oh, what's this?"

There it is.

Yoo Hyeyeon, who had been observing ants, seemed to have spotted something beneath a tree.

She was about to dig into the dirt herself, but looked at her hands and called out to Kang Yeolchan instead.

"Dig here. Carefully."

"Yes, ma'am."

With just a couple of scoops of Yeolchan's hands, a hole the size of a person's upper torso was hollowed out.

From inside, a box tightly sealed in a black plastic bag emerged.

Inside the box were a radio, emergency rations, pre-war Korean currency, identification cards...

Kang Yeolchan and Yoo Hyeyeon looked utterly bewildered, but I knew exactly what it was.

I muttered the name under my breath.

"A Devork..."

Yoo Hyeyeon asked.

"What is a Devork?"

"It's a secret cache where spies or agents hide communication equipment or supplies. It means a clandestine dead drop."

"Is that so? Now that you mention it... the IDs look forged... and yes, there's even some kind of encrypted document."

Yoo Hyeyeon's eyes sparkled as she spoke.

"Is it valuable?"

"The contents are common items... but the fact that a Devork was discovered at all makes it valuable. The higher-ups in Maetan are collecting data on anything unusual as if they're trying to compile an encyclopedia. And... this part might actually be important."

Yoo Hyeyeon picked up the encrypted document from the box.

"Depending on what it says, we might learn about North Korean intelligence. There might even be information from the war."

"I want to see too! Me too!"

Yoo Hyeyeon and Kang Yeolchan were completely absorbed in the contents of the box.

I stepped back slightly and asked quietly.

"You did this, didn't you?"

"Good job."

Just one year after the war against the artificial intelligence broke out, humanity's defeat became a foregone conclusion.

This was because the developed nations, which held ninety percent of humanity's military power, had been utterly and helplessly defeated.

The cause was their heavy reliance on drones and advanced, high-tech equipment.

Every piece of equipment with a computer at its core was hacked, turning its barrels back on humanity.

Amidst all this, North Korea had suffered almost no damage.

The reason? It was simple. They were so underdeveloped that they had very little hackable equipment to begin with.

When South Korea, which was considered a militarily advanced nation, was ravaged by the AI, North Korea launched a massive southward invasion.

Their pretext was rescuing their southern compatriots from the tyranny of the artificial intelligence.

Their actual goal was to swallow South Korea whole while they had the chance.

Therefore, it wouldn't be strange at all for a North Korean military code to contain intelligence regarding a quantum processor.

As a side note, North Korea was completely wiped out in less than three hours.

"Let's head back to Maetan. I think we've gathered a sufficient harvest."

Yoo Hyeyeon said with a bright smile.

We traversed a few more servers and returned to the Goblin's Forest in Intra-Maetan.

"We'll head back for today then. If the appraisal for the Devork box turns out to be high, I'll make sure you get a share of the reward, Yoon Juhyuk."

"Thank you."

"Hyeong-nim! See you next time!"

Yoo Hyeyeon and Kang Yeolchan vanished.

"Phew."

I let my guard down and sat on a nearby tree stump.

The mental fatigue from the computational strain of connecting to the Internet was far greater than the effort of steering Yoo Hyeyeon and Kang Yeolchan toward the quantum processor's location.

If just an hour of connection made me this exhausted... operating as a Player without CC's computational support was indeed out of the question.

Just then, a text message from CC popped up.

“Yeah, logging out now.”

The scenery of the Goblin's Forest dissolved, and the dim, musty ceiling of my room came into view.

CC's chat window floated before my eyes.

Numbers and a red arrow indicating the distance and direction materialized in the empty air.

“Let's go.”

I tightly laced up my combat boots and threw on a worn jacket I'd bought at the market.

CC said.

My first task of the day—leaking the information about CC's processor to Maetan—was complete.

Now, it was time to begin the second task: hunting down the hacker who had been probing into my background.

I slipped a combat knife into my breast pocket.

I pulled down my sleeves to hide my prosthetic arm and put on gloves.

“It's better to hide identifying features.”

From here on out, I might have to kill someone.

No matter how lawless the physical city of Maetan was, clear criminal acts—especially murder—carried punishments equivalent to being fired from the corporation.

I set off, following CC's guidance.

Perhaps because the map CC was referencing was outdated, we ran into blocked paths and dead ends, but I managed to keep our heading and closed in on the target.

Eventually, I arrived at an apartment complex.

“This is... the residential quarters for high-ranking officials.”

It was a studio-style bachelor apartment complex where wealthy individuals or high-ranking officials of deputy general manager rank and above lived.

“If they have Wizard-class hacking skills, their processing power must be immense. It wouldn't be strange for them to be a high-ranking official.”

The entrance to the building was guarded. I circled around to the back.

Instead of answering CC's question, I kicked off the ground and ran. Scaling the apartment wall with ease, I reached the third-floor stairwell window in an instant.

I slipped quickly into the stairwell, lowering my posture and holding my breath.

I couldn't feel any movement in the air, neither from above nor below.

I didn't answer to maintain stealth, moving forward in silence. Fortunately, I didn't encounter a single soul until I reached the thirteenth floor.

I approached Room 23 and pressed my ear against the steel front door, listening to the sounds inside.

Wuuuung...

A mix of various noises filtered through, but the hum of the ventilation system was particularly loud.

In any case, there was definitely someone inside.

And judging by the sound patterns... probably just one person.

I checked the feel of the combat knife inside my jacket.

CC asked.

I didn't answer.

Killing them might be the cleanest solution, but not this time.

I needed to ask why they hacked us first, and probe for any potential backing behind them.

...If the opponent was also a soldier, it might be a bit tricky.

I gripped the combat knife with my prosthetic hand and wedged it into the gap between the door and the wall.

As I slowly lowered my arm, I felt the lock catch on the tip of the blade.

Without stopping, I forced my arm down, and felt the lock snap under the pressure of the blade.

CC offered her honest critique.

Sometimes, brute force triumphs over technique.

I quietly pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The room was dark and filthy.

There was no trace of cleaning; books, food waste, and discarded clothes were strewn everywhere.

And right in the middle of it all.

A person was lying on a bed that doubled as a dive capsule.

"Uh...?"

Roughly cut, disheveled hair fell all the way down to her waist. She had a sloppy physique that couldn't be hidden by her stretched-out t-shirt and shorts, skin blemishes born from a lack of sunlight, and thick glasses.

"Who...?"

It was a young woman.

I threw my combat knife, aiming right next to her face.

Thwip!

The moment her gaze flickered toward the knife, I swept in low, pinning her arms with my knees while securing her neck and mouth with my hands.

Despite being subdued in an instant, she still didn't seem to grasp the situation, her wide eyes darting frantically.

I brought my face close to her ear and whispered.

“I'm going to take my hand off your mouth now. Don't scream, and answer my questions. Got it?”

Only then did tears well up in her eyes.

She nodded slowly, and I gradually removed my hand from her mouth—

“HE'S A RAPIST—!!”

Goddammit.