WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈
Episode 102
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Early in the morning.
After arriving at the workshop, I worked on improving the prototype Railgun.
Following the Association technicians' advice, I started by modifying the batteries. I used Alchemy to increase their capacity and peak output as much as possible.
It had been a real struggle since I had to alter not only the internal components but even the casing. Still, there had been results.
"Oh, it's finally about as powerful as a .50 caliber. Should I make a few more?"
"Congratulations, Team Leader. As expected, you're amazing."
Auto, the workshop's Automaton, clapped beside me. Calling it an Automaton was a hassle, so I shortened it to Auto on my own. That somehow became its name.
At first, it could only carry out simple commands. But after Yuki kept improving its algorithm, it became capable of handling things like cleaning and carrying items on its own. Since it had a Soul Crystal inside it, there was still room for improvement.
"But did it really need a praise function?"
"There's no harm in hearing praise."
"That's true."
It had also gotten much better at the strange movements caused by tangled algorithms once we clearly set its priorities.
"If we just increase the number of batteries, this should work."
"Will the firearm's durability be all right?"
"It's disposable anyway..."
Designing it as a weapon to be used once and thrown away from the start made things easier in a lot of ways. The Tower's illegal replication made it a hassle if I built something too well.
"Have the Death Priests contacted us yet?"
"I think they will soon. Apparently, they've already gathered a sizable army."
It seemed the Hunter Lords were scared. For an allied force to come together this easily...
They must have wronged Modus plenty, huh?
Wouldn't there be even more of them than when we fought the Reapers? If that really happened, it would be a little absurd.
"Honestly, I'm not very motivated this time."
It felt like I lacked a reason to fight.
Modus and I had fought twice, but both times had ended without either of us taking any damage.
We definitely needed to throw a wrench in the Reapers' plans. But even if Modus became the Necromancer Emperor, wouldn't he govern reasonably well? He understood that if all the living disappeared, the undead would eventually perish too.
"Did that bastard's psychological warfare work...?"
"Don't worry about it. We'll just help from somewhere reasonably safe! The Hunter Lords who have grudges against him will handle things themselves anyway."
Yuki looked pleased instead.
Maybe it was right to stay a step back this time. At least Modus was definitely better than Aratib.
"All right. Let's go take a break. Auto, clean that up, then you rest too."
"Understood. Take care."
I had clearly made it as a labor Automaton, yet somehow, it seemed better at resting than I was. There wasn't much workshop management to do since I usually handled it myself anyway.
Was it about time to shoot and upload another video? When I checked my channel for the first time in a while, it was full of strange comments.
[Supreme Court Justice: I think someone used the channel owner's photo without permission. Please check...]
[Escape in 5 Seconds: This isn't the channel owner, right?]
[Fog Lake Swim Club: Pulling this while the channel owner is inside the Tower? Isn't that absolutely vile?]
"Hm?"
Yuki's eyes narrowed dangerously. Her fingers moved quickly and sharply.
Tap tap tap.
When we found the video in question, its title was ridiculous.
[Hunter Business Department: A Day in the Life of a Hunter Who Went from Unemployed to Making 30 Million Won a Month.]
I had always considered myself a person without prejudice. Yet the moment I saw that title, I frowned.
"What is this supposed to be?"
"Could it be one of those success-selling scams that are popular these days?"
"Success-selling?"
Sure enough, a young man appeared in the video, bragging about how much money he made as a hunter.
Thirty million won a month. Hunters made good money, but to earn that consistently, you'd have to be on a First-Tier Team. Maybe he had gotten lucky and made that much once.
As I watched and analyzed it, Yuki shook her head.
"Why are you taking it so seriously? It's obviously a lie."
"Oh, is it?"
"Could an active hunter really steal your photo, Benefactor? The industry is small. Word would get around immediately."
That was true. The domestic hunter industry was small.
No, it wasn't just small. The Association managed all of it.
So he obviously wasn't an active hunter. Either he was a retired hunter who had run out of ways to make money, or he was a complete fake. Judging by his age, he didn't look retired.
I kept watching the video, but I still couldn't understand it.
"So this is a scam?"
"Of course."
"But for it to be a scam, people have to give them money. How is that possible?"
Being a hunter was a famously difficult and dangerous job. That was why people didn't envy hunters much, even when they earned a lot.
The death rate was that high.
Compared to the danger, you could even say they weren't paid enough. The people who really made a lot were successful actors, singers, and athletes.
That meant the job wasn't very appealing bait for victims. A success-selling scam needed to make it look like you could earn a large amount of money easily.
"Ah, I think it's about to come out."
[You probably think being a hunter is always difficult and dangerous, right? Not at all. In fact, I discovered an incredible technique in the Tower last time...]
Was this where they started collecting money?
The video switched to reference images, and then my photo appeared out of nowhere.
"Huh? What's this now?"
It was a photo of me with my arm around the man from the video at Association headquarters. There was no way I had taken a photo like that.
The voice in the video spoke proudly.
[This is the best investment opportunity. Hunter Kang Hyun, the Alpha Team leader, has already endorsed it...]
Yuki let out a cold sigh beside me. It felt like the room had gotten ten degrees colder.
"It's an AI-generated photo. The original is a photo of you that appeared in an online article from XX Daily during the last Seoul conference."
"Uh... How did you know that?"
There had been so many photos that day that even I barely remembered them. I expected it to be AI-generated, but she had even identified the original.
Yuki silently avoided my eyes.
"..."
I realized the answer a moment later.
"Yuki, have you made edited photos too?"
"... A-Anyway, they used your photo without permission. I don't think we can just let this go."
She was right. If we left it alone, people might fall victim. The comments were a spectacle.
[Kim XX: I'm an early retiree in my fifties, and this gives me hope.]
[Park XX: I'm a woman in my forties. I just received dividends, so...]
Those were obviously shills. There was no soul in what they wrote.
Had a person even written them in the first place?
"Should we report them to the Association?"
"Then they'll only act after people fall victim. The criminal proceeds will all be moved overseas or transferred under other people's names."
"But we don't even know where they are. It looks like they're receiving the investment fees through mobile banking or something."
"It's fine. I think I can find them."
"Gasp... Really?"
I knew Yuki had hacking skills. Still, wouldn't hacking a YouTube channel be difficult?
She immediately had an AI analyze the video and identify the filming location.
"Ah, it was filmed in a rental office."
Well... scammers trying to make money wouldn't have a proper office.
"What if they've already run away and we can't catch them?"
"No. Even if they did, the rental office will have records."
"Ah."
As we headed straight for the rental office, Kim Yuna contacted us.
[What are you guys doing today? If you're free, want to go get food?]
"Hello, Yuna. We're going to deal with some scammers. Want to come?"
[What? Scammers? Wait a second.]
Kim Yuna ended up joining us.
The moment she got into the car, she asked worriedly, "Will the rental office really give us customer information? Isn't that personal information?"
"If we call the police, they'll tell us anyway. Why would a real estate owner with a respectable building in Seoul want to get involved in such a low-grade scam? The right answer is to tell the police and get rid of them quickly."
"Yeah, that's true."
Once we arrived, it felt less like a rental office and more like a shared office.
Kim Yuna looked a little dumbfounded.
"It wasn't even a rental office? It was a shared office? These guys are extreme cheapskates."
It was a large company that used the entire building as a shared office. If it was a shared office, people probably changed desks often. Didn't that mean we'd have to search almost every floor?
Luckily, we had already roughly estimated the floor.
"Based on the scenery outside the window, the AI says it should be between the tenth and fourteenth floors."
"Yuki, you're really good at using AI..."
"If you put your mind to it, Benefactor, you'd be much better than me!"
She had gotten into the habit of praising me. Maybe adding that praise function to Auto had been a good idea after all.
We found the floor without much trouble. We didn't even have to ask the building manager.
The people who had been on the same floor during the filming told us with clenched teeth.
"Oh, those guys? I remember them well. They told us to clear out because they needed to film a video. It wasn't even a private office."
"They said it would take an hour, but it took over three. When I complained, they tried to hit me. They're complete thugs."
"They were so loud too... What a bunch of idiots."
"Um, you're Hunter Kang Hyun, right? Could I take a photo with you?"
"Of course. Want me to hold a knife in it?"
"Gasp! I'd love that!"
The video had only been uploaded recently, so there was still plenty of witness information. Apparently, they had stayed in the office until the end of the month, when their shared-office contract expired.
If we had come a little earlier, we might have caught them.
"Do you know where they might be now?"
"I'm not sure... I overheard them talking. I think they live in XX-dong. They were talking about their high school."
"Oh, my college classmate went there. Should I ask them?"
"Do it quickly. Didn't one of those guys drive some kind of sports car? Yeah, this was it."
"A car like this would stand out. We should find it quickly, right?"
As it turned out, they had been notorious troublemakers since high school.
After taking plenty of photos with people, we left the shared office and headed to where the scammers gathered.
"Do you think they'll be at their hideout?"
"Definitely. From what I heard, there seem to be quite a few of them."
Usually, people could handle this kind of shady business quietly and secretly at home.
But there were too many of them for that.
They wouldn't willingly bring their entire gang into their own homes. They didn't seem like decent people either.
It made more sense to use a place they could abandon and leave behind whenever necessary.
The place they gathered was an abandoned site in the suburbs that might once have been a junkyard or an auto repair shop.
"I sense people inside. I'll use Firmament Veil."
Ssssh.
I decided to watch them first while hiding myself.
The young man from the video was hard at work doing shady business. The actor in the video was just an underling. Naturally, there was a separate boss.
"Hey, it's been thirty minutes, so hurry up and withdraw the money from the account. From now on, go once a day. Twice if possible, once in the morning and once in the afternoon."
"Twice a day?"
"If word gets out, withdrawals will be blocked fast. These days, voice-phishing countermeasures are hurting us too. If a report comes in from a bank or somewhere, we don't know when the account will get frozen."
"Can't we accept cryptocurrency?"
"Old men and women don't know how to use that stuff. We need to be customer-friendly, idiot."
Had someone already fallen victim?
At least this guy had the minimum knowledge. He seemed experienced.
"Hunters are a gold mine these days."
"Right? Everyone knows hunters make money, so we should use those bastards to make a ton too."
I wanted to pull out my dagger and stab him.
But Kim Yuna desperately grabbed my arm from beside me. When I looked closer, Kim Yuna was holding Yuki's arm too.
We retreated for a moment.
"Why are you stopping me?"
"Isn't stopping you the normal thing to do? Am I the weird one?"
"They're making money by using the Team Leader's face without permission!"
"... Someone went to withdraw money, so let's report it to the police first. Tell them it's voice phishing."
"It isn't voice phishing, so they might get released quickly. The victim didn't report it directly either."
These days, the police were extremely sensitive about voice phishing, so they would probably hold them and seize the accounts and money.
Still, there was no guarantee.
"Should we go in and have a talk?"
"Yeah, settle it through conversation. No stabbing people with knives."
It was unfortunate that fast, efficient hunter-style work was forbidden.
Someone who mocked the hunter job that put food on my table like this deserved a proper stabbing.
"Whew. All right."
When I led the way inside, they stared at us blankly.
"Huh? Who are you? This is private property, so you can't come in..."
It was truly absurd.
How could people doing illegal work have so little sense of danger? Did they think they alone were entitled to legal protections and benefits?
"You don't recognize me? You've been making money off my face without permission."
"... Gasp!"
The boss was the first to jump to his feet and try to run.
I quickly swept his legs out from under him, then pinned his back down with my knee.
Footnotes:
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