WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Max-Level Swordsman of Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 9
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Netrunners.
People who plugged network cables into sockets at the backs of their heads and pushed their minds into the blue computer network.
People who slipped through gaps in locked servers and scraped up signals left inside electronic devices.
They were called netrunners. They threw their minds into the unknown depths of the Net and swam toward their destinations with no guarantee they would ever return.
Naturally, ordinary hackers couldn’t compare to them when it came to bypassing security, gathering information, spying, restoring records, or taking over surveillance networks.
The problem was that they used their own bodies as processors, so every time they performed a net dive, their body temperatures shot up like crazy.
That was why netrunners worked with their bodies submerged in ice water.
While their minds crawled through the network, their bodies cooled in the icy water until they were close to death.
“Kabel. Is this woman the netrunner you said you worked with?”
“Yes.”
Kabel set down the glass.
“She’s also a creditor of Raden Beck, the man you brought in.”
Amy waved from where she lounged on the sofa.
“Nice to meet you. I’d heard a lot about you, but I didn’t know you were actually that good.”
“You can save that until after you’ve paid me.”
“Already paid. Through Kabel.”
Amy chuckled. A message appeared on Kang Doseok’s terminal, confirming the transfer. He tapped the notification away, revealing Amy’s business card in his recent items.
♡♡♡ AMY ♡♡♡
♡ NET-RUNNER ♡
♡ Corporate Security Infiltration / Internal Data Retrieval ♡
♡ Frozen Account Unlocking / Money Trail Tracking ♡
♡ Deleted Log Recovery / Connection Record Tampering ♡
♡ Surveillance Network Takeover / Tracking Signal Blocking ♡
♡ Identity Laundering / Surveillance Network Access / Cybernetic Prosthetics Shutdown Available ♡
♡ Junkies Welcome Too, as Long as You Pay ♡
A brief silence passed.
Kang Doseok spoke.
“You’re not very good at making business cards.”
Amy’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“...How am I supposed to make them, then?”
“Creatively. Make them catch the eye.”
“I used lots of hearts.”
“It’s too cluttered. No good.”
“...That’s harsh. I don’t use cheap business cards like you in the first place. I just made that now, to mess with you.”
“Cheap?”
“Honestly, your business card design sucks. You agree, right, Kabel?”
Kabel watched the two of them quietly.
“It does hurt the eyes a little.”
Kang Doseok turned his gaze toward Kabel.
Kabel raised the glass and quirked an eyebrow.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“You just glared at me like you wanted to kill me.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Oh, enough! Kang Doseok! You did a clean job, so I’ll give you a gift.”
Amy crooked a finger. Blue letters appeared and vanished rapidly across her eyes.
“What kind of gift?”
“Information. I want to be on good terms with you.”
“Why?”
“I need someone like you. Sometimes things outside the Net need to be settled with a sword. Like today.”
Perched on the arm of the sofa, Amy continued.
“Someone posted on the Net looking for information about you recently. More specifically, the areas where an unaffiliated player named Kang Doseok operates, his home, business contacts, recent jobs. Things like that. I’ll give you the information on whoever wrote it. Just a second.”
Blue circuits flashed rapidly inside Amy’s eyes.
Fragments of light in her eyes moved with her fingertips. Letters, numbers, and broken images appeared for brief moments before disappearing.
Only a few seconds passed before Amy smiled.
“Found him.”
Kang Doseok’s terminal buzzed again.
Bzzzt.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
It showed a man with a thin face. His hair was disheveled, his eyes deeply sunken, and dried blood stained his face.
He held an anti-materiel sniper rifle, a weapon that could easily blow someone’s head off with a single shot.
“His name’s Kim Hanrim. An unaffiliated player. He’s registered as a sniper, but what he does is closer to an explosives specialist.”
The screen changed. Several more photographs appeared. In one, he had a rocket launcher braced against his shoulder.
[Kim Hanrim]
[Unaffiliated Player]
[Long-Range Sniping / Explosive Placement / Numerous Anti-Personnel Contracts]
[87 Confirmed Successful Contracts]
Amy added, “His records aren’t clean. A lot’s been deleted. But one thing’s certain. This bastard blows people up for money.”
Kang Doseok looked at the sniper rifle on the screen.
He remembered.
The corpse collection area. The sniper round that had come flying at him just as he was about to catch Mort.
Then the rocket launcher that had followed. There was no doubt.
“So it’s him.”
Kabel looked at Kang Doseok.
“Someone you know?”
“Yes. He shot at me.”
“Oh dear. Then all he has left to do is die at your hands.”
Kabel laughed, and Kang Doseok looked at Amy.
“Why’s he looking for information on me?”
“How would I know? Players kill each other for stars, don’t they? Maybe he thinks he can kill you.”
Amy smiled as she continued.
“Skill Stars. They’re fascinating. Nothing like that used to exist in this world. I wonder why nobody’s caught some players and dissected them.”
“If you lined up all the players dissected in corporate laboratories, they’d fill the back alleys of Sector F.”
Kang Doseok added, “And they still haven’t figured out a thing.”
“Really?”
The blue circuits inside Amy’s eyes blinked briefly.
“What a shame. If they’d learned something, they might’ve been able to reproduce those mysterious powers artificially.”
Amy stood.
“Anyway. I gave you a gift. Remember me, Kang Doseok, okay? I’m off.”
With that, she strode toward Raden Beck. Then she raised her foot and kicked him in the face.
Thwack!
“Ghurk!”
“Get up and walk, you fucking loser!”
“A-Amy. Please. I’m still...”
“Walk.”
Raden Beck pushed against the floor and staggered to his feet. His legs seemed to have given out, and he nearly fell several times, but Amy didn’t wait.
She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him toward the door.
At the doorway, Amy turned only her head.
“Kang Doseok.”
“What?”
“I’ll call you next time I need something handled outside the Net.”
“Are you a junkie?”
“No.”
“Then bring money. You’re always welcome.”
“I like that.”
Amy smiled, and the door closed.
Raden Beck’s faint, muffled screams faded down the hallway.
Quiet settled over the office again.
Kabel raised the glass and took a sip.
“I didn’t expect you to handle it this quickly, Kang Doseok.”
“Have to earn my pay.”
“What now? Shall I give you another job?”
“No. I’ve got something to do today.”
“Where? Doing what?”
Kang Doseok didn’t answer. A brief silence passed before Kabel asked, “You’re not going to get new business cards printed, are you?”
“...That’s not it.”
“Glad to hear it, then.”
Kabel couldn’t hold back a laugh.
Without another word, Kang Doseok opened the door.
Click.
Just before it closed, Kabel’s voice followed him.
“Even if you change the design, don’t add hearts. They don’t suit you.”
Slam.
The door closed.
* * *
Kang Doseok drove his sedan down the road. After parking, he stepped into an elevator. It led to his home, the penthouse.
The doors closed, and the signs casting their painfully bright lights began to fall away at speed.
Beyond the glass walls, Netron City’s gloomy sky came into view.
The rain had stopped, but the sky still hung low. Black clouds were gathering toward the outskirts.
News played on the screen inside the elevator.
[Breaking news.]
Kang Doseok raised his head.
[The Netron City Meteorological Agency predicts that the storm will pass through the eastern contaminated zone within eighteen hours.]
The screen showed the eastern outskirts of Netron City.
Unauthorized settlements and abandoned factory districts. Beyond them stood the enormous barrier separating the city from the contaminated zone.
The projected path of a massive storm cut straight across it.
A red line traced its route through the outskirts.
[The city government has urged citizens to limit their activities on the outskirts. In particular, citizens staying in illegal settlements near the eastern contaminated zone are advised to evacuate immediately.]
Kang Doseok looked away from the screen. Then the elevator doors opened. He stepped into the living room and muttered, “Shabel’s Storm already. Time flies.”
Everyone in the know was aware of it.
Storms sweeping into Netron City from the contaminated zone weren’t unusual. Once or twice a year, one would scrape past the outskirts. Acid rain would fall, communications would go down, and a few outlying residential areas would be swept away.
That was all.
But this storm was different.
Shabel’s Storm.
A major event closely tied to the main story of Chrome Blade Saga.
In the real world, Chrome Blade Saga had been running for twenty years. When the game first launched in South Korea on January 1, 2000, the in-game date had been year 68 of the Chrome calendar.
Then came January 1, 2020.
The day the players had been dumped here.
The in-game date should have been year 88 of the Chrome calendar.
But they had landed in year 68.
That meant the players who had ended up here knew, to some extent, what would happen over the twenty years following their possession of these bodies.
Which corporations would collapse. What policies the city government would introduce. Which disasters would strike, and what rewards would become available afterward.
Shabel’s Storm was one of those disasters.
What set it apart was that it would open up Chrome Blade Saga’s first battlefield. It was the opening shot for the events to come involving the contaminated zone on the outskirts.
[The Meteorological Agency has stated that this contamination storm is not a normal atmospheric phenomenon.]
The anchor’s voice continued from the screen on the living room wall.
[This storm, named Shabel’s Storm, brings highly concentrated contaminant particles, acid rain, and powerful electromagnetic interference. It may have a particularly severe impact on the weakened ground in the eastern contaminated zone.]
Without taking off his coat, Kang Doseok walked to the window.
Black clouds covered the outskirts.
Once that storm passed, the ground in the eastern contaminated zone would be torn apart. At the same time, a laboratory belonging to a corporation that had vanished centuries ago would be exposed.
And a new star would emerge from within it.
There was no way the players would sit still.
Neither would the corporations or the city government.
[There are confirmed indications that some corporations have deployed private security forces around the eastern contaminated zone. The city government has warned citizens to stay away from the area.]
A convoy of armored vehicles appeared on the screen. The corporate troops were practically a military force in their own right.
The corporate logo had been blurred out, but everyone knew which corporation it was. It was one of the megacorporations that dominated Netron City.
Kang Doseok chuckled at the screen.
“Crawling out already.”
Citizens would flee the storm.
The corporations and city government would go after what it left behind. The players had a rough idea of how those groups would move.
Which meant things would soon turn into a complete mess.
Bzzzt.
His terminal buzzed.
[Your express drone delivery from Fisher Tiger Tech has arrived.]
[Delivery Location: Penthouse Exterior Delivery Area]
Kang Doseok approached the window.
A small cargo drone hovered beyond the glass. A gray metal box hung beneath it.
When he touched the panel beside the window, the lock released.
Hiss.
Part of the window slid sideways. Damp night air rushed in.
Kang Doseok raised his terminal to the drone’s sensor.
[Recipient verification complete.]
[Transferring package.]
Clack.
The cargo box slid onto the rail inside.
The drone immediately turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Kang Doseok closed the window and placed the box on the table.
He released the lock, and the lid opened.
There were three things inside.
A Fisher Tiger Tech contaminant purification mask.
Replacement filters.
A high-concentration neutralizing agent.
Kang Doseok took out a mask.
It was a black full-face mask. It completely covered the mouth and nose, with filter slots on both sides.
He opened the filter box and checked the quantity. There were enough.
Finally, he held the bottle of neutralizing agent up to the light.
Clear liquid swayed inside.
“Everything arrived as ordered.”
He needed at least this much to enter the contaminated zone.
Simply breathing the air there would burn his lungs. Rainwater would melt his skin, and prolonged exposure would twist the cells inside his body.
With bad luck, he would die.
With even worse luck, he would become a mutant.
Fisher Tiger Tech’s purification mask cost 500 million relic.
It was an insane price for a single mask, but cheap compared to the dangers of the contaminated zone. Money meant nothing if one wrong breath there cost him his life.
Most players would have bought one already.
Plenty of them would be crawling into the eastern contaminated zone once Shabel’s Storm passed.
Kang Doseok set the filters neatly beside the mask. Then he closed the box.
Clack.
It happened at the exact moment the lock clicked into place.
A flash. Something caught his eye. Kang Doseok turned toward the window.
The rooftop of the building opposite. A small light flashed through the rain.
A lens. No, a glass surface that looked like a scope had briefly caught the neon light.
Someone was watching him. Only one person came to mind. Someone who would find a sniping position and take a shot at him...
“...Came to me yourself, did you?”
Kang Doseok’s hand moved slowly toward his sword hilt.
“What an impatient bastard.”
The next instant.
Kraaaash!
The window shattered into countless pieces. Kang Doseok immediately swung his sword.
Claaang!
The incoming bullet struck his blade and changed direction. The gunshot followed a moment later.
Baaang!
Then the bullet that had bounced off his blade flew back through the rain.
Toward the bastard who had just shot at him.
It was one of Kang Doseok’s skills, Ricochet Reflection.
Whiiish!
The bullet cut through the air. Kang Doseok never took his eyes off it.
About four hundred meters away, a faint figure stood on the rooftop.
Thwuck!
Blood sprayed from the shoulder of the shooter who had aimed at Kang Doseok.
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