Chapter 102
Six months earlier.
Choi Kangseok, an executive of the Mapo Shelter, secretly summoned Lee Taesung.
“I would like to make a request.”
“What is it? I’ve been a bit busy lately.”
“The leader of the Sinchon Campus Alliance, Yoo Minji, is conducting a research project in secret. Bring us the result of that research.”
“Research?”
“I don’t know the details. Only that it’s apparently quite valuable.”
When Lee Taesung responded indifferently, Choi Kangseok made his move.
“As payment, I’ll give you any C-Grade artifact you want.”
For a moment, Lee Taesung doubted his ears.
A C-Grade artifact.
An item worth hundreds of thousands of UP on the black market.
Choi Kangseok, that miserly bastard—what was he thinking?
“Oh… this request must smell pretty rotten.”
“It’s not like that. This is all the information I have. There are no clues.”
“So you’re saying I have to figure out everything from start to finish.”
“That’s your field of expertise.”
Lee Taesung smirked.
Before the collapse, he had been the owner of a private investigation agency.
“Well, that’s why I’ve managed to keep making a living in this shitty world.”
“So? Will you take it or not?”
“Have you ever seen me refuse a job?”
He accepted the request for the time being.
But something bothered him.
It did not take long for him to realize what that uneasy feeling was.
Half a year.
That was how long it took to find the damned laboratory.
He deployed his subordinates and searched everywhere, but not even a trace appeared.
By temperament he would have beaten information out of anyone he encountered, but early on he had tortured a few people too brutally and completely cut off any possible leads.
Just when his patience was reaching its limit, an ordinary commercial building near Hongdae appeared on his radar.
On the surface it looked like a typical survivor shelter.
But the amount of supplies entering and leaving was abnormally large compared to the number of residents.
A laboratory hidden beneath a building where more than a hundred people lived.
It was like hiding a tree inside a forest.
Lee Taesung spat on the ground while checking his equipment.
This job had to be handled alone.
The Sinchon Campus Alliance was too cautious.
If he made a mistake, they would hide again like rats.
It had to be done in one clean strike.
“Whew…”
Lee Taesung entered the building wearing a pair of expensive Noise-Blocking Boots he had purchased to suppress sound.
Snapping the guards’ necks was effortless.
Without making even a sound, he eliminated every living thing from the first floor to the third floor.
But all of that effort became meaningless the moment he reached the basement stairs.
“Ha.”
The entrance was blocked by a special alloy door that looked at least thirty centimeters thick.
“So this is as far as the quiet approach goes.”
There was no turning back now.
Lee Taesung took a deep breath and clenched his fist.
Crack.
The muscles across his entire body swelled violently.
Veins bulged like worms, and his heart pounded as if it might burst.
B-Grade trait, Iron Grip.
Despite its grand name, it was essentially the same as Strength Enhancement.
Simple, but therefore brutally destructive.
Lee Taesung drove his metal-hardened fingers into the steel door and tore it sideways.
Kiiiiiiing—!
The steel screamed as it tore apart like taffy.
Beep— Beep—
Alarm sirens blared, and screams erupted from inside.
“Intruder!”
“Burn the data first!”
Burn the data?
Startled, Lee Taesung charged through the doorway.
“Freeze!”
But he was too late.
Beside a metal bookshelf, inside a crucible embedded in the wall, a blazing red fire was already roaring.
He had spent six months suffering through hell to get here, only to watch the target burn before his eyes.
“You… bastards!”
His reason snapped.
Lee Taesung smashed everything in sight.
Except the people.
He needed them alive for interrogation.
“Aaagh!”
“P-please—ghk!”
Looking at the blood-soaked bodies scattered around, irritation came rushing in.
Even after torturing the researchers, he obtained nothing.
What was he supposed to say to Choi Kangseok?
“Damn it. First I need to erase the traces.”
There might be other research facilities besides this one.
If it became known that he had been here, the others would hide deeper.
“If Yoo Minji is as smart as they say… she might even shut down the entire project.”
His decision was simple.
He would disguise the scene as the work of ordinary raiders.
Crash!
He threw a chemical grenade onto the floor.
A corrosive acidic solution spread along with toxic gas.
The floor tiles melted with a sizzling sound.
“Hm?”
But beneath the melted floor, an unfamiliar metallic sheen flashed.
It was a double floor.
Lee Taesung quickly cleared away the melted debris.
Hidden there was a special metal box roughly the height of an adult man’s thigh.
“What’s this?”
When he opened the box, he saw marble-sized colored spheres floating inside a sticky transparent preservation fluid.
Five in total.
Faint, but there was a clear mana reaction.
Was this what Choi Kangseok had actually been looking for?
Not the data?
Lee Taesung curled his lips into a grin as he pocketed the spheres.
Of course, he had no intention of handing them over to Choi Kangseok.
“This reeks of something shady. I’ll need to investigate it myself.”
An abandoned factory on the outskirts of Seoul.
Lee Taesung contacted a professional appraiser he had found through the black market.
The old man specialized in stolen goods—especially rare items with unclear origins.
“You called me all the way here just to appraise a core? You know I’m a busy man.”
The appraiser grumbled while polishing his magnifying glass.
“A core? This is a core?”
“The mana wavelength is exactly like a core. The shape is a bit strange though… let’s see.”
The appraiser casually picked up one of the spheres and examined it through the magnifying glass.
But one minute passed.
Then two.
He kept turning it around, placing it inside a mana measuring device, tilting his head.
“Huh… this is strange. I can’t determine the grade. The numbers are too odd.”
“What do you mean, odd?”
“It’s similar to the wavelength of an F-Grade core… but the total energy is only twenty percent.”
The appraiser lowered the magnifying glass and looked at him.
“Was this core artificially split?”
“Split a core? Is that even possible?”
“There are rare production-type abilities that allow core processing. Some people split a single F-Grade core into several pieces and sell them as separate cores to scam people.”
The appraiser looked at the sphere with disdain.
“The total energy is conserved. Even if it looks convincing, all five of these together are only equal to one F-Grade core.”
“…What?”
All that suffering just to earn the value of one F-Grade core?
Six months.
The equipment he purchased for the raid.
All of that effort—for the equivalent of a single F-Grade core?
“You… bastard…”
Did Choi Kangseok trick him?
Or had Yoo Minji been conducting pointless research?
Rage surged inside him.
Just as he was about to throw the spheres away in anger—
“Excuse me, Mr. Lee Taesung.”
The appraiser spoke cautiously.
“If you’re going to throw those away, would you sell them to me? They might be useful as research samples.”
“Sell them?”
“Yes. I’ll pay the value of two F-Grade cores. At least you’ll recover something.”
Lee Taesung nodded blankly.
Right.
At least he would recover something.
Just as he was about to hand them over—
Flash.
Through the appraiser’s glasses, Lee Taesung saw it.
A pair of narrow eyes gleaming with greed.
Lee Taesung studied him carefully.
The man’s hand was trembling slightly.
“…Look at this bastard.”
He withdrew the hand he was about to extend and grabbed the appraiser by the collar.
“Ghk?!”
“Old man. You know my personality, right? I really hate liars.”
Lee Taesung lifted the appraiser and slammed him against the wall.
Bang!
“Talk properly. What is this really?”
“Cough! I-it’s true! It has less energy than an F-Grade core—!”
“Then why are your eyes shining like that? You rat bastard trying to sell me bullshit!”
Crack.
Lee Taesung bent the old man’s little finger backward.
“Aaaagh!”
“You know my temper. If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll tear you apart piece by piece. I’ll give you three seconds. One. Two—”
“Wait! I’ll talk!”
Groaning in pain, the appraiser shouted desperately.
Lee Taesung released him and threw him onto the floor.
Clutching his broken finger, the old man gasped for breath and spoke.
“T-this… is an artificial core.”
“Artificial core?”
“Yes. It didn’t come from a named mutant… it was created artificially by humans. I thought it was just a rumor when I first heard about it…”
For a moment, Lee Taesung felt as if he had been struck in the head.
Humans could create cores?
“I don’t know where you got it… but if this becomes commercialized, the balance of the world will change. It would basically be a machine that prints money!”
Even in fear, the appraiser’s voice trembled with excitement.
At that moment everything finally made sense.
Why Choi Kangseok had pretended to know nothing when making the request.
And why he had offered a C-Grade artifact as payment.
“Choi Kangseok… that bastard.”
He had asked him to retrieve a money-printing machine, yet offered a few coins as compensation.
“Ha… hahaha…”
Laughter burst out.
This was an opportunity.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance to change his entire life.
Without hesitation, Lee Taesung tightened his grip.
Crack.
With a crisp snapping sound, the appraiser’s neck twisted lifelessly.
Secrets were best known by as few people as possible.
Lee Taesung dropped the corpse onto the floor and picked up the radiant spheres from the table again.
Their cold surface pressed against his palm.
“This is mine now.”
If he could find the source of this technology—
Becoming the king of this world would not even be a dream.
I scanned the surroundings through the visor of my reinforced exoskeleton.
Red brick buildings could be seen between the dense trees.
“So this is what a university looks like.”
Some windows were broken and vines had climbed up the walls, but the atmosphere of the world before the collapse strangely lingered here.
Like an island where time had stopped.
“Boss! Look at that banner! They’re still holding festivals here? Romance is still alive, sir!”
Picker zoomed his lens excitedly from my shoulder.
Indeed, for a city abandoned for more than ten years, the area was strangely well preserved.
At that moment, Jeon Bongsik, who had been following behind us, removed his helmet and sighed.
“Ha… this brings back memories.”
A nostalgic expression appeared on his face.
For a veteran mercenary who had walked countless battlefields, it was a surprisingly innocent look.
“Do you have memories here?”
“Ah, yes… my old girlfriend was a Yonsei University student.”
The Machine Society members guarding the surroundings widened their eyes.
“Girlfriend? You, Team Leader?”
“That was a long time ago.”
“What? A Yonsei student? That’s an elite university. How did you…”
Their gazes were obvious.
How could someone like you date a woman like that?
Are you lying?
Jeon Bongsik, apparently used to such reactions, suddenly shouted.
“I graduated from Sogang University!”
“What? Sogang?”
“Team Leader, you went to university?”
The members murmured as if hearing it for the first time.
One of the younger members tilted his head.
“Where’s Sogang University? Is it good?”
Jeon Bongsik’s face turned red.
“Hey! What do you mean where is Sogang? Haven’t you heard of Seoul-Yonsei-Korea-Sogang-Sungkyunkwan?”
“I’ve heard of Seoul National and Yonsei or Korea University, but Sogang… not really.”
Most of the people now in their early twenties had been children before the collapse.
The same went for me.
We only knew Seoul National or Yonsei because adults constantly talked about them.
Other universities meant little.
“This is why I never bothered mentioning it.”
Jeon Bongsik shook his head bitterly.
I chuckled and stepped in.
“Anyway, this works out well. There are so many buildings here I couldn’t tell what was what. Where’s Engineering Building No.1?”
“Ah, just over that hill. I used to wait there all the time for my girlfriend’s classes to end.”
Jeon Bongsik took the lead, pointing here and there.
“That bench is still there. It feels like just yesterday that we sat there drinking canned coffee. Twenty years have already passed.”
“There used to be a café on the first floor of that building. Looks like it’s gone now… though the sign is still there. Starbucks.”
Listening to Jeon Bongsik’s nostalgic explanations as we moved, it felt almost like a tour.
As we passed the athletic field—
An unbelievable sight unfolded before us.