Chapter 168

Beep, beep, beep.
An electronic sound emanated from the sensor on the cafe’s automatic door. A yellow light flickered for a moment. The color changed to green, and the door opened on its own.
In less than three seconds, the system checked your citizen’s information against the server’s records to see if you were wanted. If you were found to be a criminal on the run, an alarm would have sounded.
“Phew, I’m not getting used to this….”
Yudahi craned her neck unnecessarily as she entered the café. She was told that the alarm was a recent addition to the city’s security measures, but she didn’t like it.
The city-state of Kilikia.
It was so different from the Kilikia I’d always known: a forest of neon lights and tall buildings lining the streets. A city that should have been destroyed long ago was still standing.
“It’s weird from the get-go.
The current year we’re looking at is 2047.
Chronologically, we’re in the middle of the story. But Kilikia, who collapses early on, is intact, and Parasite, who doesn’t appear until the end, is not.
It was chaos.
“There’s got to be a reason for this mess.
I stared at the kiosk’s screen, lost in thought.
When I checked the price, all my thoughts went away.
“Far, far, far, far, eight thousand. On the topic of Americano….”
Yoo Da-hee is a day laborer. He works as a laborer for the uncles. In the original world, she would have been paid a salty salary for her harsh labor, but things are different in Kilikia.
The crew chief pouts, and you’re left with 7,000 credits.
I could fly bricks for an hour and not get a cup of coffee….
For the poor, the prices on the high street were murderous.
I seriously considered leaving the cafe, pretending to be busy.
After deep anguish, she made a tearful decision.
“Don’t eat lunch tomorrow.
It’s a necessary expense for research, because it’s in a prime Dustborne Corporation location, and you have to order something to get a table. It’s a necessary expense.
“Oh, I’m going to cry.
I felt sorry for myself.
I sit in my window seat, my beanie pulled down tight. On the table was a notebook I’d recently rescued from the dump. It was broken and wouldn’t turn on, but it was good enough for camouflage.
‘Dustborne Corporation. Dig in there and you’ll find something.
Even if I have to go back to work 12 hours from now, and even if I’m suffering from daily body aches. I may be broke, but I’m confident in my persistence.
Then 5 minutes, 10 minutes…. 30 minutes…….
“……Ahhhh!”
I woke up with a start.
I don’t know when it happened, but all the ice in the cup had melted. The drooling and jawing must have been hilarious, because I could hear laughter from the other tables.
My face is burning.
You’re embarrassed, but you’re also angry with yourself. How could I pay for a place to sleep at this crucial stage of my life, and for what kind of money…!
‘Mom, Dad. Honga.’
It was a time when I missed my parents and my dog.
“Uh, uh, it’s out!”
A man emerged from the building that Dustborn claimed to occupy. Yudahi clung to the window, not wanting to miss him.
His dark eyes and dark hair were all too familiar, and his appearance alone gave him away as a stranger, yet his gait as he moved among the citizens was unmistakable.
The man crossed the street, closing the distance. Yudahi quickly put her head down on the table. She rolled her eyes and stole a glance at the man, pretending to look at her notebook.
You walk past the cafe and get further and further away.
At this rate, you’ll soon miss it.
Wasting money without earning anything.
Tomorrow I have to start flying bricks again in the morning. The damn foreman didn’t even care that she was a woman, and there were rumors behind his back that he was taking bets on when she would quit.
The thought of a shitty workplace made her sick.
“What’s the point?
I haven’t always been so lucky.
Every four days or so, I get caught up with a drunk.
As you walk, steel collapses in front of you and pots fall.
If you’re walking down the street at night and feel like you’re getting a bad vibe, there’s always a news story a few days later about a murder, kidnapping, or something else that happened there.
But I’ve never been caught up in it myself.
Yoo Dahui was a man who was resistant to bad luck.
“Try …….”
I ran out of the cafe and started chasing him in earnest. The adrenaline rush of doing something I’d never done before elevated my spirit.
Before you know it, it’s dusk.
Off the beaten path,
Entering a dark alley,
Less people and less CCTV,
“Huh?
You notice that things are eerily quiet around you.
“Hey.”
A voice came from right behind me.
Digging!
“Gah gah gah gah gah gah!”
For a moment, Yudahui could not resist the electric current that surged through her back. His vision blurred, and he collapsed uncontrollably, his tear-stained eyes reflecting a pair of black-brown eyes like his own.
“He, uh, yeah, he said he was going to die. Didn’t….”
His voice breaks before he can finish a sentence. He was completely unconscious. Kim Yi Hyun removed the [Pulse Waver] and put his arm around the shoulders of an unnamed Dongbu person.
“He’s talking nonsense. You don’t have enough kids.”
It’s easy now that I’ve done it a few times.
* * *
Dustborn’s reputation is spreading far and wide.
Kim’s influence in Kilikia is much stronger than before, and he has become a powerful figure in the city, able to pass various deterrents.
To give a specific example of “pushy”.
Kidnapping people to deserted warehouses and destroying evidence was easy. That’s assuming you don’t get caught and reported, but Kim wasn’t too shabby.
It’s not exactly cluttered. For a couple years now.
“I don’t mean to kill you.
Kim Yi-hyun looked at the stunned woman with complicated eyes, unaware of the situation. No matter which angle you looked at her, she was a trendy person, a dangerous person in more ways than one.
“It’s not that I didn’t expect it.
Part of it was a jab at the developer and the guy who threw himself into the Polaris, but there were other reasons as well.
Quite simply, it was an aggro.
If a “drifter” like him was in Polaris, or a newcomer. They might hear a familiar name and approach you.
Initially, we were going to work with each other in most cases…….
‘The world isn’t all that great.
We all have different circumstances and different values. And different abilities. If the risks outweigh the rewards, I might have to make an unfair choice.
“Let’s get this out of the way first.
Kim wore a gas mask that he had packed in advance. She even wore a drab military uniform. She looked at her reflection in [Glitchknife] and nodded.
It was a legion that looked like a painting.
“Wake up, asshole!”
Bam!
With a yell, Kim kicked the chair to which she was tied, causing it to tip over and hit the floor with a thud. The woman’s eyes widened as she finally came to her senses.
“Hmph, what, what. This is…….”
In the eerie scarlet light, my eyeballs swam back and forth in disorientation. But only for a moment. The approaching blade focused my attention.
“You’re so carefree. You don’t even realize you’ve been captured, you’re just sleeping it off, eh?”
“Hee hee! Les, Legion…!”
“You know us after all.”
Kim smirked meanly.
“Answer the question. For your own sake, you might as well come clean. You don’t want a blade in your throat, do you? I don’t want to walk around with a sore throat, either. Help me out.”
The pupils flashed in the mask, which had fine lines near the eyes.
“He’s been doing some interesting things, Hyun. He’s been following this guy. Do you know him?”
“Meh, I’m not being followed. I’m nothing.”
“Once.”
Bam!
The dagger lodged next to the woman’s right ear.
“Last chance, don’t sugarcoat it, just tell the truth, because we feel bad for him. We can’t be nice to him.”
The shadows cast over her body looked as if they would chew her alive. Keeping his face as grim as possible, Kim watched the other man closely for a reaction.
A pale complexion, pupils dilated and constricted. His whole body shows his confused emotions. He still doesn’t seem to be able to recognize his situation.
“You don’t look like you’ve had any special training…?
Suddenly, Kim’s brow furrowed.
An unnatural change occurred before my eyes. Her eyes, which had been vacillating inexplicably, steadied. As if the emotion of panic had been pinched out with tweezers, without any real foreshadowing, the woman steadied herself.
“Uh-oh…. You scared me, man.”
Until you breathe a sigh of relief.
“What is this woman?
I couldn’t understand what had just happened.
It’s possible that they realized the threat was false based on some clues. But the problem was “flow. By definition, there should have been a reaction as the incident unfolded.
All of the doubt and agonizing was eliminated.
It was like a lightning bolt of realization.
It didn’t end there.
“Is this… [glitchknife]?”
The other man cocked his head and stared at the knife.
“It’s a tem that I wouldn’t give away, but it’s different in person. Where did you get it? I thought it was supposed to be a hard-to-find 1-star setting. I’ve never seen it before.”
I could tell as he spoke. I could see the fear in his voice, the fear that he couldn’t quite put down despite all the talk.
Still, she’s convinced.
The monster in front of you is not a Legion.
He’s a Polaris user from the same world as you.
At this point, Kim also realized something important.
“Don’t you know how to craft [special weapon]?
We can’t rule out the possibility of bluffing. It would be too convenient to assume that the same drifter had the same abilities, and that he was the only one with them. If so, that leaves only one possible explanation.
“There’s a whole other spelling.
The woman had just used an unrecognizable spell. She understood her situation and regained her composure. So quickly that Kim, who was watching right in front of him, missed her reaction.
“There, the strings of the Dustborne Corporation. Polaris User. You’re right, right?”
There are only so many clues to infer.
His physique, his eyes through the gas mask. The whole idea of him being kidnapped by the Legion while chasing after Kim Yi-Hyun is pretty far-fetched.
[Glitchknife] is the most conclusive proof.
“I brought it up to find out.
I can’t believe I’ve been so blindsided.
“Is this similar to Nephrite?
You do not possess the power of foresight. It is predicted by spells that manifest within you and are completed without affecting the outside world, such as crafting equipment or igniting a flame.
“Wow.
That’s funny, man.
Kim took one look at her, then sheathed the knife. After stepping out of the way of the woman, he pulled the chair back upright. His muscles had gotten stronger since he became a five-star, so he was able to do this.
“I’m sorry for being harsh. I sincerely apologize.”
He removed his gas mask to reveal his bare face.
The woman gasped in genuine relief.
“If you untie the rope, too… why not?”
“That’s going to be hard. I just saw you for the first time today.”
I dragged a lumpy chair across the room and sat down.
“And I’m sure you’ve done your own research, but I’ve got a lot of family. I don’t want to let my guard down and have something happen.”
“What? No, I wasn’t really thinking about that.”
“If you wanted to have a healthy conversation, you should have come to my office in public, in high traffic, with witnesses and all the CCTV on the street.”
The viciousness of Kim’s demeanor has vanished. In its place was a stoic coldness. She felt a different kind of pressure from the first time.
“If it feels unreasonable, so be it. This is not a world where you can be nice to just anyone.”
I have to be more cautious and sometimes even radical than there. Because you never know when and how you and your people will be in a crisis.
When she heard him talk like that, she felt a stiffness in her heart. It was so different from her own life, where she earned a day’s wages from menial labor.
If you say she’s adrift and wandering.
Kim was adrift, but he had long since adjusted.
“…Are you the one who was playing the game?”
“Yes, I’m Korean, I’m Yi Hyun Kim. And you?”
“Oh, yes. My name is Dahui Yoo. I’m 25 years old.”
Kim flinched at the oddly familiar name.
“……Laugh if you want to, I’m used to that reaction.”
“Nothing to laugh about.”
It’s not a particularly unusual name.
“I was born in 1998 by your standards. I’m comfortable with that.”
Moment.
There was a nickname that stuck in Yudahi’s mind.
“No mom or dad from ’98…?