Om nom nom—
Listening to Soo crunch on her caramel, Enoch swallowed hard.
It wasn’t that the sound bothered him.
On the contrary, he found it a relief. Without that endearing little noise, Enoch felt he might have simply collapsed.
“But… why would the story unfold that way? While I admit the possibility crossed my mind earlier, this bastard is ultimately just a Chrome Psycho.”
“The blue smoke emanating from that imbecile’s body isn’t due to an implant malfunction or error. It’s a type of drug Zairex will be releasing. I don’t know its name, but I do know it’s a drug that emits blue smoke.”
‘Will be releasing,’ she had said, not ‘has released.’
Indicating it was a drug not yet on the market.
Yet Irina had known about it far in advance.
And information, no less, that was intertwined with the three mega-corporations.
Enoch’s eyebrows twitched as he stared at Irina.
“Do not ask about the source of my information. Even if you don’t believe it, there’s nothing you can do, and I am no fool who would expose my livelihood.”
“…What are the drug’s effects?”
“It’s a simple amplification and harmonization of the senses. Colors are heard as sounds, sounds are felt as touch, and tastes are seen with the eyes. They say it offers an ecstatic experience. The sensation of the air caressing one’s entire body is supposedly particularly intoxicating.”
To Soo, it sounded like an incredibly mystical tale.
So much so that she forgot to chew her caramel.
For Enoch, however, it was not.
Drugs like that were a dime a dozen in Eden.
“A common drug, then.”
“While the effects may be common, the quantity we’re currently smoking, just a single stick, provides four hours of effect, meaning it’s far from ordinary. Furthermore, the price is low. We estimate 300 credits per stick. That’s a price even the vagrants of Sector 11 could afford. Add to that its ability to numb pain and boost implant performance, and it would likely be quite useful for military purposes as well.”
Enoch could certainly smoke it without issue.
With each dose lasting four hours, only five sticks a day would suffice, excluding sleeping hours.
Given such a groundbreaking price, this drug’s release into the world would undoubtedly have significant repercussions.
It’s highly probable that smaller corporations involved in the drug trade would collapse en masse.
“You possess quite dangerous information.”
“I merely looked around, hoping to short-sell (TL Note: A financial term referring to selling borrowed assets in anticipation of a price drop to buy them back cheaper later) and make a quick profit.”
“Huh.”
‘Short-sell?’
Enoch didn’t understand the term, but it didn’t matter. He knew it was some nonsense related to stocks, and more importantly, he knew it was merely an excuse.
“I don’t understand.”
He couldn’t discern a connection between Hakon taking the drug and its entanglement with a corporation.
Even if one were to add the speculation that becoming a Chrome Psycho was a side effect of the drug, and Zairex was killing them to conceal it, it still made no sense.
Such a fatal side effect would also incur losses for Zairex. While it was a mega-corporation that even the government couldn’t easily touch, other mega-corporations certainly could.
Neonix and Lu Qian Biotech.
Those two corporations would relentlessly exploit Zairex’s mistake.
“A corporation of Zairex’s caliber wouldn’t release such a drug and then mobilize its vast resources to control information. You’re withholding more from us.”
“Hmm.”
Irina’s gaze shifted to Soo.
Enoch had just said ‘us.’
A word that included Soo, not just Enoch alone.
Of course, she had assumed there was some reason for Soo’s presence, but she hadn’t expected them to be partners.
‘Well, it’s not my place to pry.’
Since Irina hadn’t shared her own story, she had no right to demand theirs.
“I’m not withholding anything. Didn’t I say we were in this together from the start? I intend to reveal all the information connected to this matter.”
Amidst the swirling smoke, Irina continued speaking.
“I don’t know the reason. I only know that Zairex is bullying Lu Qian’s business operations.”
“Bullying?”
“Zairex has centered its operations around Lu Qian’s facilities and released a drug with maximized side effects, having removed its inhibitors.”
Only after hearing that did a tense expression finally settle on Enoch’s face. A childish power struggle between corporations, he had called it. That had been an accurate description.
“Hah…”
Enoch, having smoked his cigarette down to the filter, casually stubbed it out with his fingers and exhaled the last puff of smoke.
Meanwhile, Soo, having finished her caramel, opened her mouth.
“Irina.”
“Yes, Soo.”
“Does Zairex’s drug only react to specific Lu Qian medications?”
A flicker of surprise crossed Irina’s eyes.
A thought occurred to her: perhaps this one, not the other, was the true mastermind.
“Indeed, you are truly clever. That’s correct. The drug Zairex has modified only reacts to Lu Qian’s specific immune boosters and muscle growth agents.”
“So, they’ve been fighting in places we’re unaware of.”
“Yes, isn’t that a common occurrence?”
While common, for mercenaries, it was a situation that could drain the blood from their faces. After all, what they thought they’d merely ‘handled’ could turn out to be entangled with a corporation.
Of course, for mercenaries with ‘pure brains’ (TL Note: A humorous Korean expression implying naivety or ignorance), knowing nothing, it would be just another ordinary day.
Enoch, by nature, had once been that type of mercenary. But not anymore. He could no longer afford to be.
He had indeed set foot on the path to becoming an Edenic Legend. Yet, simultaneously, he felt twice as close to the firing line.
His very first request, the one that etched his name into the Connector’s records, was entangled with the three mega-corporations.
Enoch’s face grew pale and cold.
Soo, conversely, wore a subtle, enigmatic smile.
‘Did they fall for my trick?’
Not long ago, in the wasteland, Soo had destroyed a grotesque creature sent by Zairex, leaving behind traces of an experimental subject that Lu Qian might have been developing there.
Zairex couldn’t possibly have failed to find those traces. They must have known it was Lu Qian’s doing.
They couldn’t have just let it slide.
Because this was a matter of corporate pride.
But they also couldn’t openly retaliate.
Whether it was a monster or an experimental subject, it was all being conducted in secret.
Thus, Zairex couldn’t emerge into the open, resorting instead to such petty bullying.
Of course, other reasons might have been involved, but Soo didn’t bother considering them.
‘I completely fooled them.’
To think that such a trivial act could set a mega-corporation in motion and shake the world. It was something she had never experienced in a game.
And what if it was, in fact, accomplished by her own hands? Didn’t that make her feel like a veteran net-watcher operating in the shadows?
Soo’s chest swelled with a sense of grandeur.
“So, Irina, you want to choose one of them to appease, then?”
“…That’s right.”
Irina let out a hollow laugh, then pulled her hands from her apron pockets.
“Since I said we’re in this together, I’ll give you the choice.”
Two data shards.
Like a scene from a movie where an old man offers a red pill and a blue pill, Irina extended both hands.
“Sifting through Zairex’s information, or inserting false data into Lu Qian’s database. Which will you choose?”
To raid Zairex’s information and deliver it to Lu Qian.
Or to plant false information in Lu Qian’s database and deliver that to Zairex.
“Ah, there is a third option, of course.”
She didn’t need to explain it.
The third option was to head out into the wasteland.
If they fled to the wasteland and hid effectively, they could evade corporate pursuit.
Enoch’s gaze fell upon Soo.
Soo had been watching Enoch from the start.
“First, let’s discuss—”
“Enoch.”
Soo smiled.
It wasn’t a beaming grin, nor a shy, coy smile. It was a languid, yet somehow teasing smile.
With that smile, she whispered.
“Do you want to become an Edenic Legend?”
“…What the—”
Enoch couldn’t finish his sentence.
It was partly because it was so different from her usual demeanor, and partly because her smile was breathtakingly beautiful… but ultimately, it was the sheer embarrassment of answering in front of a Connector that overwhelmed him.
‘An Edenic Legend.’
‘A mercenary who advanced under the moonlight.’
Such words were only uttered by… greenhorns just stepping into the mercenary world.
Yet, he couldn’t deny it.
Enoch wanted to become an Edenic Legend.
“If it’s the two of us.”
And Soo.
She showed no trace of such hesitation. ‘An Edenic Legend.’ As if there was no shame in uttering those words, she simply whispered softly.
“We can become one, no matter what it takes.”
Then, with light steps, she walked over and chose a shard.
****
“Haa…”
The room, painted over with layers of color, was thick with hazy smoke. She had chain-smoked for ages, losing track of how many she’d gone through.
Irina pressed her throbbing, dizzy temples, looking down at the shard resting before her.
It wasn’t a shard containing weighty information.
It merely contained the details of the request Enoch and Soo had undertaken. The process of their arrival, their discussion, and their choice between Lu Qian and Zairex.
That was all the shard held.
While this information would be worthless elsewhere, not even fetching the price of the shard itself, it was quite valuable to the corporations involved in this matter.
They could grasp the information early and create an opportunity to screw over the opposing corporation.
Of course, if that happened, Enoch and Soo would surely die. Irina, conversely, would somehow survive.
If she just continued to live quietly like this… she would only be under a little surveillance, able to eat well and live comfortably, painting garbage landscapes in peace, just as before.
The answer was obvious.
Send this shard to the corporations, enjoy some fine wine with natural cheese, and then sleep soundly.
Even though everything would be over by the time she woke up in the morning… Irina was still agonizing over the decision.
She had always lived rationally and calculatively.
Thanks to that, she had survived until now without a single bodyguard. But for some reason, doing things as usual was proving difficult.
–Things that cannot be touched or felt are sometimes even more magnificent.
Soo’s words pierced deep into her mind.
Words that only fools chasing romance would utter.
Yet, wasn’t Irina herself chasing romance, painting foolish landscapes?
“An Edenic Legend… Hmph, what utter bullshit.”
What had become of the mercenaries called legends in this world?
They had all died.
They could only become legends in death.
Humans who, when alive, had never even reached the pinnacle of the mercenary world, let alone become legends, had become Edenic Legends with a single, grand decision.
Of course, it was debatable whether such a thing held meaning once they were already dead, but unlike them, those who survived, however unsightly, were forgotten.
To become a legend in death.
Or to live and be forgotten, erased.
“Damn it.”
Crack— Irina shattered the shard before her.
‘Because Soo’s words lingered in her mind?’
‘Because the voice that asked if he wanted to be an Edenic Legend, and that languid smile, still shimmered before her eyes?’
‘Perhaps I, too, alongside them…’
“Tch.”
She didn’t know why.
Perhaps she simply desired cheap synthetic meat and beer, rather than fine wine and cheese.
–Enoch, it’s Irina. I’m contacting you because I have additional information to convey.
Yes, she just wanted to do that.
****
“What did she say?”
“She said it would be better to head to a different research lab. It’s right next door, so it won’t disrupt our schedule.”
Soo furrowed her brow.
After a moment, she offered a faint smile and nodded.
“That works out well.”
Enoch wanted to ask what exactly ‘worked out well,’ but decided to let it go.
Now was the time to meticulously complete the thorough preparations they hadn’t been able to make before.
“Here.”
Looking where Enoch pointed, Soo tilted her head.
“Didn’t you say we were going to your place, Enoch?”
“I did.”
“But this is a warehouse.”
Ah, so the plan was to stop by the warehouse, finish preparations, and *then* head home? She looked at Enoch with that thought, but it seemed she was mistaken.
Enoch’s eyebrows twitched as he grumbled.
“It’s just not quite cleaned yet, but it’s home.”
In the game, Enoch had lived in a slightly shabby but distinctly lived-in home.
In Picker Town, Sector 10 of Southpeak.
However, that seemed to have been a mere game mechanic.
Now, Enoch’s home was a large, torn tent, dark, dingy, and damp, tucked away under a bridge.
“…Oh.”
The old car was a luxury by comparison.
Right now, his home was the most urgent matter.
