Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Plan (2)
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Antonio del Piero could be called the weirdo behind the "Dimensional Beast Awakening" incident.
The monsters operating in Academy City each had their own roles.
In Aria's case, it was delivering orders to the monsters active in the city and managing them.
Baek Do-hyun's role was human trafficking.
Antonio's was distributing Experimental Awake and the like.
The monsters belonging to the secret society each took on various groundwork tasks to achieve their goals.
The moment the news broke, I logged into the Secret Society.
Baek Do-hyun's mission had been kidnapping Psykers in Academy City, but white powder suspected to be Experimental Awake had been found in his semi-basement.
Baek Do-hyun was surely connected to Antonio del Piero.
That was my thinking.
And sure enough, in one of the Secret Society's features—the "user chat room"—a conversation log between Baek Do-hyun and Antonio remained.
For reference, Baek Do-hyun's nickname was Dracula, and Antonio's was Goat.
I skimmed through the chat log.
💬 User Chat Room — Dracula Sold the whole batch you gave me last time. — Goat Fr? — Dracula The full 30kg you gave me, all sold lol. Got a solid Psyker to spread it thick around Arcana. kekeke — Goat Hmm... — Dracula Wire the payment quick pls... Running low on blood money... Gonna dry up and die... ㅠㅠ... — Goat Appreciate the help with the job, but doesn't kidnapping make blood easier to get? Why you need cash so bad? lol — Dracula TBH I can only drink type A lol... Psykers got too much B kek... Anyway doc jacked up prices, gonna go nuts... Might just rip his head off if he keeps pushing lol — Goat Gourmet lmao Check your BTC wallet — Dracula 0.5 BTC... Thx so much ㅠㅠㅠㅠ... Blessings upon you!!! — Goat Hit you up again next time~ From the log, I could see why Baek Do-hyun had threatened the king and sloppily spread the drugs at Arcana.
It was because of the blood packs filling his fridge.
When you're desperate for cash, people get sloppy.
I figured it was more than enough reason for Baek Do-hyun to get nabbed by Yubyeol-ha.
Now I could finally draw a clean conclusion.
And I made up my mind.
Their chat log oozed a friendliness you'd see between people who'd spent years together, but at their core, they were a druggie harming people and a kidnapper.
Guys taking part in a mad plan to reduce humanity's numbers to 1/1000.
Don't get fooled by their human sides...
> I vowed that to myself.
I hammered the keyboard and messaged the goat.
Dracula: Yo
A reply came instantly.
💬 User Chat Room — Goat Hey Looked like the goat was online too.
This would let me move things along quickly.
I mimicked Baek Do-hyun's chat style as best I could and lit the fuse.
The topic with the goat was, naturally, the recent "Ark raid" incident.
— Dracula Saw the Academy City news this time? All our hard work's finally paying off lolol — Goat Yeah it's working rn cracking open a beer to celebrate lol — Dracula Grats lolol — Goat Saw the raw news footage? — Dracula Yeah — Goat That monster's size looked more like grade 3 or higher, not 5. You knew that right? — Dracula " ! " — Goat I even know who turned into that monster kek — Dracula Gasp... Who?? — Goat Too much info, but basically some C-rank scrub Psyker. C-rank awakening to grade 3... hmm... — Goat Arcana's full of A and B-ranks, so if the stuff you spread hits right... Could even see grade 1s right? lol Dimensional Beasts are graded from 1 to 5.
Grades 4-5 are opponents a skilled Psyker can handle without much trouble, but starting at grade 3, unless you're a seasoned hunter, your odds of dying in a fight jump to 80%—the combat power gap widens that much.
A grade 1 is so overwhelmingly powerful that no one short of a special-class hunter like Lee Gyeo-ul could face it solo.
If, as the goat said, a grade 1 Dimensional Beast appeared, even Academy City—with all its anti-Dimensional Beast setups—couldn't avoid massive damage.
— Dracula Grade 1 Dimensional Beast lmao Hope I get to see one with my own eyes someday Of course, the "grade 1 Dimensional Beast showing up in Academy City" the goat was hoping for never happens in the original story either.
Because Arcana had the sharp-eyed Yubyeol-ha.
Anyway, time to wrap up the pleasantries with the goat and get to the point.
— Dracula So you stopping the drug sales then? — Goat Nah just came back from picking up more — Dracula Lots of monsters gone missing in Academy City lately, you sure it's safe? Federal Guidance Bureau's watching hard... — Goat Aria told me to watch out too. Said don't sell if shit gets real yeah — Dracula Wanna lend a hand? — Goat Fr? — Dracula Got standby orders cuz area's too dicey lately. I'm good to go lol — Goat Cool handle 10kg then. Details irl gg — Dracula Sure After that, I tacked on various excuses and managed to snag the goat's contact info too.
Thanks to the goat's preexisting fondness for Baek Do-hyun and my social skills shining through.
— Goat Don't usually give it to guys lol The more intel you have on enemies, the more cards you can play later.
Couldn't hurt to have it.
And so, I set up the meet with the goat.
Back to the present, I headed to the rooftop of the abandoned mall where we'd agreed to link up.
Climbing the creaky old stairs to the third floor, a rusted iron door blocked the way to the roof.
I brute-forced it open and reached the rooftop.
"Hey there."
The goat was waiting on the rooftop.
The goat was a young boy.
Maybe 130cm tall, with short blond hair and the soft, chubby cheeks typical of a kid.
He was munching on a lollipop, fiddling with his smartphone as he waited for me.
As an original artist of Red Ark, if I had to sum him up in one word: the kind of shota that deranged Twitter aunties would lose their minds over.
"Been well?"
The goat was the opening villain who fired the first shot in chapter 1, but oddly, he had no standing CG despite his role.
He was a character described only in friend glow text, so seeing him in person felt fresh.
"I've been good. How about you?"
"Same."
The goat pulled a vinyl-wrapped bundle of white powder from his backpack and handed it over.
"The promised 10kg. Launder the cash through Aria like last time, send it as coin, and I'll toss you 0.5 when it's all cleared."
It was the real deal—the same drug I'd seen in the semi-basement.
I carefully tucked the Experimental Awake away and, to pry info, asked him,
"Leave it to me. Oh yeah, I sold to about 10 at Arcana?"
"Yeah."
"How many Psykers total do you think we've hit?"
"Hmm..."
The goat spread his hands and started counting on his fingers.
After folding and unfolding all ten fingers about five times, he answered.
"Roughly 50 just from the ones I remember, but why?"
"I'm aiming for 100 this time."
I said it half-jokingly, and the goat smirked at my words.
"Dracula-nim as expected... Surveillance is tight, so stay careful."
"You too, Goat."
"?"
The mood chilled.
Wait, didn't Baek Do-hyun call the goat "Goat"?
With his naming sense—saving Aria as "bitch"—I figured he would...
Luckily, the goat didn't make a big deal of it.
Guess I need to watch nicknames when dealing with 21st Century Secret Society folks.
Though grunts like Baek Do-hyun wouldn't know anyone besides the goat and Aria.
Anyway.
"Well then, let's keep it up this time too. Let's push till humanity's down to 1/1000~"
"See ya."
The goat's shota looks belied his reality: something beyond an elder over 200 years old.
His current speech was community-addict vibes because he'd been consumed by his concept as a monster.
Someday I'd love to see his "Goat Horns" that'd come out later, I thought as I saw him off.
Once he was fully gone from the abandoned building, I quietly opened my mouth.
"Now, how much trust have I earned with you?"
Then, a girl who'd been hiding in the shadows of the abandoned building revealed herself.
A petite girl with red hair tied in twin tails stared at me with golden eyes full of wariness.
"Long time no see, Yubyeol-ha."
I greeted Yubyeol-ha casually.