Having barely stopped her nosebleed, Miko returned with fresh coffee and sat down demurely.
“Do you still want to lick my tail?”
“…Well. It wasn’t precisely your tail, but rather, I merely wished to experience Soo’s magic in a little more detail.”
In the game, Miko had always been portrayed as a proud and composed character, which begged the question: how had she become so utterly undone? Perhaps she had always been this foolish, forced to feign aloofness to conceal her true, clumsy nature.
Given her strikingly sharp features, such a possibility was not entirely out of the question.
“Were you always like this?”
“Many things have happened.”
“Do those ‘many things’ include discovering magic?”
After a brief moment of deliberation, Miko nodded, a soft sigh escaping her lips.
“I… was actually Lu Qian’s chief researcher.”
Soo’s tail gave a sharp tremor, as if a jolt of electricity had coursed through it.
This was a facet of Miko’s past that Soo had never once heard.
To think it began with her as Lu Qian’s chief researcher.
While Miko’s eccentric demeanor was already captivating, hearing her hidden story proved even more electrifying.
“But why are you here? What about your department? Were you always in the wasteland?”
“That’s right… indeed. I was the corporation’s dog… What? Soo. I just told you I was Lu Qian’s chief researcher! Aren’t you, perhaps, frightened or at least a little wary?”
“Miko, you’re a pushover.”
“…Ah.”
Clearing her throat, Miko moistened her tongue with a sip of the bitter coffee, then began her story anew.
“I was actually Lu Qian’s chief researcher.”
“Wow.”
“…You don’t need to feign enthusiasm. Anyway, moving to the point, my department was ‘Ruin Exploration’. It was a newly established division, tasked, as its name implied, with investigating the ancient ruins that had suddenly manifested across the wasteland.”
One year ago.
Lu Qian had announced a massive public recruitment drive. This was for a nascent department tasked with exploring beyond the wasteland, heavily promoted for offering salaries and benefits superior to any other division.
The application fields were precisely two.
Researcher and Investigator.
Unsurprisingly, applications flooded in.
After merely three years of service, one could afford a small home in ‘Nosterica,’ the exclusive enclave of Eden’s elite.
And that was far from all.
Performance bonuses, hazard pay, advanced contract payments, stock and equity options, gourmet meal provisions for wasteland assignments, a Grade 3 private residence, Grade 3 transportation assistance, VIP medical insurance, VIP medical insurance for one family member, mental health support, rental of Zairex Corporation combat gear, social status rehabilitation rights, Grade 3 citizenship—the list of benefits seemed endless.
Given the sheer breadth of benefits crammed into the package, Eden citizens between the ages of 20 and 50 submitted their applications without a second thought.
Miko was also one of the many applicants.
She didn’t expect to be accepted.
She believed the world was far too slow to ever truly appreciate her genius.
But to her utter astonishment.
“And just like that, I got the job, can you believe it?”
“What did you do before?”
“This job.”
Miko gestured towards her combined bedroom and workspace, offering an awkward smile.
“I was afraid that if I tried to pull a fast one… or rather, if I lied and got caught, things would go terribly wrong. So, I just wrote the truth: that I operated as a broker and an illegal clinic in the wasteland.”
And yet, she was accepted.
While she found it peculiar, she never considered it suspicious.
And there was a perfectly logical explanation.
It was Lu Qian Bio-Tech.
Among Eden’s three largest corporations, it was considered the most upright, a company entrusted with providing food for countless citizens.
Lu Qian, a benevolent corporation, was perceived as being furthest removed from warfare and, at the very least, less exploitative of Eden’s citizens than its counterparts.
It was a situation that simply precluded any suspicion.
Miko, a mere broker operating on the fringes of Eden, was even less inclined to harbor doubts.
She was too preoccupied with self-congratulation, basking in the thought that ‘the world has finally acknowledged my genius.’
‘Haa, this idiotic woman…’
“You couldn’t help but be fooled.”
“Soo wouldn’t have been fooled. If someone affiliated with a corporation offered magic for free on the street, would Soo just blindly follow them?”
Soo’s eyes swiveled, a silent deliberation.
‘Someone affiliated with a corporation gives magic?’
“Yes.”
‘I’d go in a heartbeat if such an opportunity existed.’
“…You’ll get into serious trouble. I know you’re strong, Soo, but you absolutely shouldn’t get involved with corporations.”
“It’s funny coming from someone who got reeled in by a corporation.”
“Even if it’s mockery, please at least say it with a smile.”
Soo’s impassive face and flat, unfeeling voice stung Miko more sharply than the most scathing insult…
Clutching her chest and letting out a small groan, Miko slowly resumed her narrative.
“I think I did reasonably well in the interview. At least I didn’t stammer. And I solved the task they gave me the fastest.”
Before the interview, she had been a self-proclaimed genius; afterwards, she became a genius officially recognized by Lu Qian.
Thus, without even returning to her wasteland abode, Miko received her acceptance notification on the spot. The very next day, she stepped into Lu Qian’s state-of-the-art research laboratory.
Befitting a nascent department, everything was pristine, and there was no trace of hazing. In fact, she had no duties as a researcher until the field agents returned with their findings from the ruin investigations.
“Oh, of course, after the acceptance notification, I also signed a contract. It was incredibly thick.”
“You didn’t read it?”
“…Could anyone truly comprehend such a document simply by reading it? Even if I had, I would have been compelled to sign anyway. It was Lu Qian, after all.”
That’s true.
Even Soo, privy to Lu Qian’s darkest secrets, couldn’t help but empathize with Miko’s sentiment.
At that juncture, Lu Qian cultivated an image as a benevolent corporation, and for Miko, this was a heaven-sent opportunity—one she would have been foolish to decline.
“So, I began my research and I discovered it! The future of humanity! To make this world a better—”
“Wow.”
She launched into a lengthy exposition about entropy, an ideal transcending machines and AI, the constraints of finite resources, and humanity’s impending leap into a brighter future…
Miko delivered a drawn-out, impassioned explanation in a voice filled with yearning, yet the crux of the matter was remarkably simple.
Her research focused on investigating the ruins that had abruptly manifested in the wasteland, seeking methods to harness the ‘something’ that lay dormant within them.
What Lu Qian referred to as magic and mana.
A subject seemingly ripped from the pages of fantasy novels or the screens of video games.
The sheer reality of their existence, coupled with the possibility of humanity wielding such miraculous power, utterly captivated her.
Miko plunged headfirst into this newfound mystery.
Forgetting even the need for sleep, she relentlessly unraveled the ruins’ secrets, and it was through these extraordinary achievements that she ascended to the position of chief researcher.
Yet, these accomplishments held no true meaning for Miko.
She craved neither her name etched in history books or biographies of luminaries, nor the trappings of wealth and fame.
All she yearned for was magic and mana.
She resolved and vowed that the greatest discovery of humankind would be brought forth by her own hands.
Then, on the very day her first year of service concluded.
“…A large-scale purge occurred.”
“Were they all fired?”
“Their heads were cut off.”
“Oh.”
Miko drew the edge of her hand across her neck, then murmured with a complex expression.
“Because I made ‘that thing’.”
“Amazing.”
“…Please, at least listen and offer a genuine response.”
“Mhm.”
“Originally, to wield magic, Yesod (TL Note: A term often associated with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, representing foundation or connection to the physical world)—that is, to even manipulate a mere handful of mana—required a truly, utterly colossal device. Yet, my theory and blueprints completely revolutionized that understanding.”
Miko unwrapped a piece of chocolate from the table, holding it up.
“I completed a theory that would enable the manipulation of mana with an implant no larger than this.”
‘So, the very person who taught magic thieves their craft was sitting right before her.’
Soo’s expression briefly soured, but she quickly regained her composure.
‘After all, the true source of the transgression ultimately lay with the corporation.’
“Remarkable.”
“Well… anyway, the day I completed that theory and submitted the blueprints, the large-scale purge began.”
Lu Qian did not operate in the shadows.
They brazenly severed the heads of their researchers. No aid could be sought from those nearby, for the field investigators, those who could at least wield a blade, were already consumed by flames within the incinerator.
“It’s a miracle you didn’t die.”
“I was the chief researcher, you know.”
“You’re a pushover.”
“…I was the chief researcher.”
‘Miko is stubborn.’
A mental note, small but firm, affixed itself in Soo’s mind.
“As chief researcher, my access to information was quite extensive. I naturally possessed comprehensive viewing privileges. Though, of course, openly scrutinizing everything would have been far too conspicuous.”
Consequently, she intermittently accessed files during working hours, always keeping a contingency plan ready for any unforeseen circumstances.
“Perhaps.”
Soo’s eyes glinted with sudden interest.
Her plump tail curved into a perfect question mark, quivering faintly.
“Magic?”
“Yes, it was an invisibility spell.”
“Wow.”
“It was, quite literally, a perfect invisibility spell, one that even optical camouflage scan sensors couldn’t detect.”
“Wow!”
Soo’s typically languid eyes widened considerably. ‘An invisibility spell,’ she thought, ‘that’s both incredibly dangerous and utterly magnificent.’
“Where’s the original?”
“Regrettably, it doesn’t exist.”
Soo’s tail drooped, a picture of dejection.
“It was stored in a one-time use implant.”
“What about that implant? Do you have it?”
Miko reached into her inner pocket, producing a molar-shaped chunk of scrap metal.
It was, quite literally, nothing more than a piece of scrap metal. Soo could discern no lingering trace of magic within it.
Soo’s tail sagged even further, a picture of profound disappointment.
“Magic has a unique circuit.”
“I see… Soo, you were aware of that as well.”
“Do you remember what the circuit looked like?”
Miko closed her eyes, attempting to conjure the image.
The dizzying, intricate pattern of the magic circuit still flickered in her mind, but that was the extent of it. She couldn’t possibly attempt to replicate it, nor was she even certain she remembered it accurately.
How could any human eye perfectly recall the tens of millions, no, hundreds of billions, of intertwined metaphysical patterns that defied comprehension?
“…Even for a genius like me, that’s simply beyond my capabilities.”
Following her tail, the corners of her mouth also drooped in defeat.
“Ahem… Anyway, while I was escaping, I heard a story about a chimera from a Lu Qian agent, and the original source of that chimera was a dra—”
“It’s boring and pedantic. I’ll just buy the ID chip.”
“…You might regret it if you don’t listen to the end.”
Soo’s gloomy expression lasted no more than ten seconds.
Having already reverted to her usual languid expression, she tilted her head, her gaze fixed on Miko.
“If you let me go here, Miko, you’ll regret it even more.”
Miko’s crossed arms slowly unfurled.
Her crossed legs uncrossed, adopting a more respectful posture.
As if that weren’t enough, Miko climbed onto the table and knelt.
“A mere broker dared to be insolent to a Dragon. Please forgive me.”
“Mhm.”
“I have some information that Soo might like.”
“What is it?”
Miko, who had almost uttered “instead” to set a condition, bit her tongue, forcibly suppressing the impulse.
‘Soo was right.’
‘If she let Soo go here, Miko would regret it for the rest of her life. She couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.’
‘What if Soo betrays her again?’
‘That… she hadn’t thought that far.’
There was no time for such thoughts. With Lu Qian’s hounds potentially on her trail at any moment, what was there to reconsider or weigh?
Miko swallowed hard, then offered a data shard containing critical information.
“Please, take a look.”
“I can’t read that.”
“Oh, right.”
Carefully descending from the table, Miko opened a safe concealed beneath the desk.
“Please read this.”
It was a shabby, yellowed document, clearly aged.
Miko handed it over with extreme care, as if it were more precious than her very life.
“These are the locations of uncorrupted ruins in this vicinity, untouched by corporate hands.”
Soo’s eyes widened to an almost alarming degree.
“It’s a list of ruins where magic hasn’t been excavated yet.”
