Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Heading to Neuron Age Headquarters
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“That guy over there seems to be him?”
Paeng pointed at someone on the screen.
Geon-woo’s senses, extended to their maximum with psychic power, also picked up the fact that the man was using mana.
“Director Kang Geon-woo. I’ll handle the explanation for this incident somehow, so please hear me out first.”
As Geon-woo and Paeng focused on another screen, Baylor called out to Geon-woo with an anxious expression.
Geon-woo frowned slightly and turned his head back toward Baylor.
“I’m barely holding back from cutting the comms right now. So cut the chit-chat and get to the point.”
Unlike when he muttered to himself, Geon-woo spoke politely to Baylor this time.
It was his way of maintaining formality in an official conversation.
“Understood. You’ve already heard that Neuron Age headquarters is under attack right now, I assume.”
“Yes.”
“And that their target is the Ark Capsule control device?”
“What do you think I said when the Commander told me that?”
“Bullshit.”
Geon-woo asked, and Paeng leaned into the screen from beside him to answer.
Baylor’s face darkened at the sight of the two.
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding. You believe there’s no central control device for the Ark Capsule, Director Kang Geon-woo. So you dismissed what I told you as a lie.”
“Then you’re saying it really exists?”
Geon-woo asked with a look of disbelief.
“Of course, it’s nothing like the central control device people might imagine. But in terms of function, it’s similar.”
“There’s really something like that?”
“You know that transferring souls to Onveroad is possible with just the Ark Capsule, right?”
Baylor asked.
“Yes. Are you saying that’s not the case?”
“No, transferring souls to Onveroad is fully possible with just the Ark Capsule. But things like avatar growth or imprinting avatar abilities onto Awakeners—that’s impossible with the capsule alone.”
“Hm? Is that true?”
“It’s simple enough to understand if you think about it. What would happen without waiting rooms or sanctuaries?”
“Ah, so there’s something that manages all that.”
“Truth is, we don’t even know what the managing entity is. We just know it performs that role.”
“That thing? What exactly is it? Don’t hold back—tell me.”
“Very well. We call it the Prophet’s Obelisk. It’s located in Earth’s first sanctuary.”
“Earth’s first sanctuary? You mean the one at Neuron Age headquarters?”
The first user to achieve 50,000 soul fusion had been from Neuron Age anyway.
So Geon-woo had naturally assumed Earth’s first sanctuary would be there too.
“This is something almost no one knows, but the first sanctuary actually existed on Earth even before the Ark Capsules appeared. The sanctuary emerged, issued warnings about dimensional invasions, and provided eight soulstones along with the Ark Capsule blueprints.”
“Hmm? So that’s how it happened? Not some otherworlder coming and handing them over?”
“Exactly. The 1st Expedition Team’s starting point was the Prophet’s Obelisk in that sanctuary.”
“To think a sanctuary existed before the 50,000 soul fusion user appeared…”
Geon-woo couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief at the unexpected fact.
Baylor asked Geon-woo, who was like that.
“Does that matter?”
“Ah, no, that’s not important right now. So the attackers targeting that place want the Prophet’s Obelisk?”
“Correct. They intend to seize it.”
“For destruction?”
Geon-woo was curious about the enemies’ intentions regarding the obelisk.
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Then… possession?”
“Yes. They’re after control of the Prophet’s Obelisk.”
“That implies they can interfere with it somehow? You’ve been profiting handsomely from it up until now, haven’t you?”
Geon-woo glared at Baylor on the screen, pressing him like an interrogator.
If all they could do was occupy it without making any changes, there’d be no reason to spill blood for it.
There had to be something more.
“We’ve been skimming an invisible tax from the soulstones users obtain. That’s all.”
After a brief silence, Baylor confessed his sin as if he’d already braced himself for it.
Attaching taxes to soulstones without users knowing.
“That’s all? Ha, bullshit. That’s everything you needed to do.”
Geon-woo dropped the polite speech and burst into hollow laughter, shouting.
Nothing was more precious to users than soulstones.
Taxing them meant Neuron Age had been silently exploiting a portion of what users earned.
“Director Kang.”
Baylor urgently called out to Geon-woo, as if he had more to say.
But Geon-woo had no desire to hear Baylor’s excuses.
“So now that your rice bowl’s about to get taken away, you want my help…”
“No, no. The tax we took from soulstones was entirely used to protect Earth in the dimensional wars. Not for personal gain.”
“How am I supposed to believe that? It’s slush funds even I, with 4% shares, didn’t know about.”
“…”
Baylor had no response to Geon-woo’s sharp retort.
4% shares might seem small, but there were fewer than ten people with more.
And they’d hidden profits from even Geon-woo.
Rumble rumble rumble! Boom!
“Ugh, Director Kang, please help us out first!”
Just then, the screen shook as dust fell from the ceiling, and Baylor desperately pleaded for Geon-woo’s aid.
“Interesting. The Prophet’s Obelisk, huh.”
Even as he watched Baylor shouting urgently on the screen, Geon-woo showed no particular reaction.
Instead, he crossed his arms, looking lost in thought.
“Director Kang!”
Baylor called out to Geon-woo once more in desperation.
The screen shook even harder, sending more dust cascading down.
* * *
“Thank you. Director Kang.”
“No time, let’s go.”
“Yes, Director. Paeng, you come over here too.”
Jumper called Geon-woo and Paeng closer.
Jumper had spatial movement abilities, but he could only selectively teleport subjects in contact with him.
Meaning only the things he designated as targets among those touching him would move.
So the ground under his feet wouldn’t come along, for example.
“We’ll move now.”
Jumper spread his arms wide left and right, and Geon-woo and Paeng placed their hands on them.
The Neuron Age Guardian special team, now larger in number, joined in as well.
Whoosh!
The moment preparations were complete, Jumper leaped through space with everyone.
From the edge of the East to the center of the West.
Jumper crossed what was nearly half the Earth’s circumference in one go.
“Hmm?”
The instant they arrived, Geon-woo cast glances at two members of the special team.
He’d noticed them assisting Jumper’s energy when he used his ability.
Ability amplification—an esper power Geon-woo was seeing for the first time.
“What’s wrong?”
Paeng asked, noticing the slight shift in Geon-woo’s expression.
“Nothing.”
Geon-woo waved it off as if it were no big deal.
He then promptly opened a dimensional space.
A tattoo appeared on the back of his left hand, splitting the air open.
“Huh? Director Kang?”
Commander startled and called out to Geon-woo at the sight.
But Geon-woo ignored him and summoned his elite guard Jiangshi.
“Huh? What’s that? Something’s off.”
The special team buzzed at the sight of the ten Jiangshi stepping out from the dimensional space.
The small Jiangshi were human-sized, but the large ones towered over three meters.
Even clad head to toe in magic armor, it was easy to tell they weren’t human.
“Bio-armor?”
Commander eyed Geon-woo suspiciously and asked.
“No. Demonkin.”
Geon-woo answered.
“D-Demonkin? Really?”
“Demonkin can’t come to Earth, right? Maybe he misspoke and meant bio-armor implants?”
“No, maybe he brought them from Onveroad to Earth? But is that even possible?”
“That’s not the issue. Director Kang Geon-woo! Why are you traveling with Demonkin? Have you sided with them?”
As the special team grew confused, Attacker demanded answers from Geon-woo in a heated tone.
Geon-woo shook his head at him.
“I subjugated the Demonkin and made them my limbs. So relax.”
“Subjugating Demonkin as your minions… what does that…”
“Just know they obey my every command absolutely. You don’t need to know anything else.”
“T-That’s…”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Wow, there’s an ability like that? Turning Demonkin into subordinates?”
“The rumors were true. The owner of those Dark Phoenix mercenaries is Director Kang Geon-woo…”
“Those were Onveroad residents, weren’t they? But these are Demonkin?”
“Looks like he has an ability to enslave anything.”
“Enslave?”
“Or something similar. He said they obey commands absolutely.”
The Guardian special team couldn’t hide their bewildered expressions at Geon-woo’s elite guard Jiangshi.
“Now, we’ll clean this place up.”
But the special team’s reactions stirred nothing in Geon-woo.
He executed the plan he’d formed the moment he decided to come to Neuron Age headquarters.
Boom boom boom! Crack crack!
“Whoa. The sealed door?”
“He just broke through it like that?”
“Wh-what? Where are they going?”
“Director Kang, where did you send those things?”
“H-Hold on. Is it okay to send them off like that?”
The special team buzzed as the elite guard Jiangshi punched through the metal door leading outside.
The elite guard, receiving orders through their linked consciousness with Geon-woo, had begun to move.
Through that connected consciousness, Geon-woo had commanded them to subjugate all Demon-possessed and bio-armor implant users inside Neuron Age headquarters.
The elite guard would handle cleaning up Neuron Age headquarters according to Geon-woo’s standing orders.
“They’ll take care of it. So don’t worry—just head to where Director Baylor is.”
Geon-woo glanced at the special team, still unable to hide their shock.
He nodded at Commander.
It was a signal to guide them to Baylor.
“This way. But we might run into enemies on the route.”
Commander led the group out through the door the elite guard had breached.
“There won’t be. My subordinates will clear them out thoroughly.”
Geon-woo reassured Commander like that, but the entire special team—Paeng excepted—moved on without relaxing their tension.
“They don’t trust it, huh?”
Paeng whispered into Geon-woo’s ear.
“That tickles. They can hear everything anyway—what’s the point?”
“Hey, doesn’t this seem more friendly?”
“You want to do that right now?”
“What? It’ll be cleaned up in no time anyway. You think I don’t know your elite guard?”
Paeng shot back as if wondering what the problem was.
Geon-woo silently shook his head, and soon enough, Paeng’s prediction came true.
Corpses of the fallen began appearing here and there in the passage Commander was guiding them through.