NOVEL NEXT C11
#11. The Path of a Hero, The Path of a Villain -1-
“Huff, huff…”
I looked over my shoulder while holding a pen tightly in my pocket.
By this point, it seemed like Han Yu-jin was no longer chasing me.
Haha, what a lack of perseverance. Becoming an enhanced human and losing to a normal person in endurance, what a waste.
Looking out the window, I could still see numerous reporters holding cameras, trying to capture images of Last.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too late yet. Maybe I have a talent for making it just in time.
I blended into the crowd after changing my face and voice with a visual tracker mask I had prepared in advance.
My target wasn’t public broadcasting channels like KB* or MB*. They’re just puppets of the three major corporations anyway, so my story might be blocked before it’s even published.
My target was the Lexer channel. On Arc, a video platform like Minos’ YouTu*, I’ll aim for an Archer with millions of subscribers.
For today, I had memorized the faces of well-known Archers.
[1 person matches your information]
Of course, not me, but the status window.
Thanks again today! Thanks to you, even an idiot like me can make a living!
‘But only one person came?’
Perhaps it’s too dangerous a place for an ordinary Lexer to visit.
Tsk, tsk, the brave ones get the beauty.
I had no choice but to swim through the crowd to find the one Lexer who was there.
‘There they are.’
I was able to find the Lexer sooner than expected.
“Come here, come here~”
“Uh…? Wait a minute… Ahhh…!!”
I grabbed the Lexer by the nape of their neck and dragged them out of the crowd.
The Lexer showed signs of resistance, but the crowd was so chaotic that no one offered a helping hand.
And so, we reached a secluded parking lot behind the courthouse.
“You’re Agio, right?”
I finally released the Lexer’s neck.
“Cough, cough…!! Agio? The Archer with three million subscribers? Th-that’s not me! Why do you think it’s me?”
The Lexer, Agio, coughed as if their neck was sore and answered.
“Come on, did you think you wouldn’t be discovered just because you covered your face with a visual tracker in your videos? Everything can be found out if investigated.”
“Uh…”
Agio fell silent at my reproach, seemingly at a loss for words.
But looking at them now, this Lexer’s face seemed familiar somehow.
‘No way…this person…isn’t this the part-timer I saw at the convenience store last time?’
It was a thousand times fortunate that I approached them with my face and voice changed.
Status window, you useless thing, you should tell me these things! What are you doing?
‘But why would an Archer with three million subscribers be working part-time at a convenience store?’
Don’t Archers make money unlike YouTubers?
“Ahem!”
Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat and continued speaking.
“Anyway, is this what you want?”
I took out a small pen-shaped camera that I had been holding tightly in my pocket.
“Wh-what is that?”
“Ah, maybe you don’t recognize it like this.”
-Click.
I took out a memory chip from the camera in the pen and handed it to Agio.
Agio received the memory chip with a suspicious look and inserted it into the connector under their ear.
“…!!”
Then, with a completely changed look in their eyes, they grabbed my hand and said,
“H-how much…!! How much do you want…!!?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking how much are you selling it for…!!”
What? They want to buy it?
I hadn’t thought of that…
“Would 1 million won be enough…? 10 million…? 100 million…? Please sell it to me…!!”
“W-wait…wait! Please calm down.”
I pushed Agio away and took back the memory chip.
Each time I did, Agio followed along as if their soul was in the chip, sticking to me like sticky rice cake.
No, I wasn’t planning to receive money.
But now that they’re showing such a strong desire to purchase, I feel like I should charge something.
“Stop… sticking to me. I’ll sell it for fifty…no, 1 million won.”
“Th-that cheap…?”
“Don’t you like it?”
“N-no…!! No!! I’ll transfer the money right now! I’ll give you clean money that doesn’t need laundering!”
Agio immediately opened a terminal in the air, made a few touches, and transferred 1 million won to my account.
[You have committed an evil act!]
[Extortion, blackmail… (see more)]
[Evil points increased by 5]
[Shop function reactivated]
Hey, man.
You’re making me feel like I’m a bad person.
I looked at the 1 million won in my account with satisfaction and handed the memory chip to Agio.
“Yeah… yahoo…!!”
Agio looked at the memory chip in their hand with such joy that they seemed about to jump.
If you’re that happy, I’m happy too.
Isn’t this what a world where everyone is happy looks like?
“B-but…”
Agio seemed to have a question, and after carefully storing the memory chip, they asked,
“Why…are you entrusting something so valuable to me…?”
“Reason?”
“Yes…If you sold it to other private broadcasting stations instead of a Lexer like me…you could get a much higher price…”
“Ah, was that an option? I’ll refund your money if you want to return it.”
“…!?”
When I reached out my hand for them to give it back, Agio hugged the bag containing the memory chip tightly to their chest and shook their head vigorously.
“I’m joking.”
“…Why would you joke like that?”
They visibly deflated.
This guy is fun to tease.
Is this the person who runs a Lexer channel with three million subscribers?
Ah, not a person. They’re a Vitaloid.
-Defendant, please say a few words!
At that moment, a commotion began to be heard from the direction of the broadcasting crowd in the distance.
It seemed like it was time to retreat.
“You’re going to make a video with that, right?”
“What? O-of course…!! More people need to know about this news…!!”
“Then please put in extra effort and make it pretty.”
With those final words, I left the Supreme Court without any lingering attachment.
I think I heard Agio’s voice asking me to wait from behind, but when you turn around once, you should never look back again for the sake of coolness.
“They’re gone…”
Agio, left alone, checked the recording on the memory chip that the nameless resistance member had left once more.
It contained footage that would cause quite a stir in the city but what really caught Agio’s attention was not that.
-I think there are people who know my face.
It was the woman who appeared interrupting the middle of the trial.
Of course, the content of the video was shocking.
Acknowledging the existence of enhanced humans without safety nanomachines attached?
The implications of this verdict for the future of the city were beyond the imagination of a mere Vitaloid’s thinking apparatus.
However, Agio had originally come to the Supreme Court for a different reason.
“Her name is…Chae Yu-ha.”
The CCTV footage of the department store hostage incident seen recently on Arc.
There was the image of Chae Yu-ha, who was taken hostage.
A hostage is an important witness to an incident. Agio thought there was a possibility she would visit the court.
And this was the result.
“Hehe…”
Agio rubbed the memory chip against their cheek and laughed lasciviously.
Thinking about how to edit the video once they got home, with happy contemplation.
That smiling face seemed similar to Chae Yu-ha’s.
About three days later.
-> Wow, when I watched the trial video released by Cheongang, I couldn’t understand why ENIAC ruled like that, but this happened?
-> I thought it was strangely edited, not the full video.
-> I get turned on by women crying (This comment has been deleted by the administrator)
-> Looking at the CCTV lady hitting again, I still want to kill her lol
-> But seriously, no matter how I think about it, is that verdict right?
-> I think it’s somewhat right…Honestly, the hatred for enhanced humans and Vitaloids in the city was too severe
-> That first generation might tear your family apart and kill them.
-> They could also save you…
-> I’ve never cried since receiving the enhanced human procedure, but tears are coming out
-> Hey, are you crying?
-> If you’ll excuse me, I’ll cry a bit too
-> Who is that woman?
-> Don’t know
-> Why isn’t her identity revealed immediately when asked this time?
-> Don’t know
-> What do you know?
“Wh-what is this…?”
The CEO of Cheongang Group, Cheon Tae-woo, muttered in bewilderment as he watched the critical video displayed before him.
It was something he had proceeded with, calculating that obtaining a sample of the first generation would more than make up for any image damage.
The forced trial, ignoring public opinion, had already dealt a major blow to the company’s image. And ENIAC not only essentially acquitted the problematic first generation.
Someone had secretly filmed the trial content and exposed it on the internet?
“Cheon Yusil!!”
Cheon Tae-woo shouted his daughter’s name in a voice filled with anger and malice.
“What the hell is going on here? Did the courthouse security guards negligently check the belongings of the spectators? Did the civil servant who was recording the trial content take bribes from outside reporters? Explain this to me!!”
“…Father.”
“What the hell!!! Is going on here!!!”
-Bang!!!
The desk that Cheon Tae-woo struck collapsed with a cloud of dust.
Cheon Yusil fidgeted as if watching her father’s mood, then carefully said,
“For the time being, we’ve been told to do nothing and remain quiet.”
“Is this the time to say such things? At least until we find the rat who secretly filmed this video…”
“Directly from the head of the Noah Group.”
“……”
At Cheon Yusil’s words, Cheon Tae-woo, who had been yelling loudly, froze.
Then he walked weakly to the sofa and collapsed powerlessly.
“Ha…hahaha…”
A self-deprecating laugh escaped from Cheon Tae-woo’s mouth.
“It’s been a while…since I’ve been properly bitten…”
“…For these reasons, the president says to remain quiet and just focus on your assigned tasks diligently.”
In a personal room on the 25th floor of the Cheongang Tower’s Technology Research Wing, Cheon Yusil’s voice echoed from a screen glowing alone in the dark room.
“Research Director Nazha?”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. I’ll handle it myself.”
The one who answered was Nazha, a technician belonging to the Cheongang Group and the mother of nanomachines.
“Did you really understand?”
“Are you my mother? We’re not that different in age. I said I’ll handle it myself.”
Nazha was pretending to listen to Cheon Yusil while intently looking at some blueprint.
“Sigh…Then I’ll assume you understood and hang up now.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay.”
-Beep.
As soon as Cheon Yusil ended the call, Nazha immediately folded the blueprint she was looking at and put it in a desk drawer.
Then, with her arms crossed, she frowned and muttered irritably.
“Sigh, I had been preparing this carefully for a long time. Someone beat me to it.”
In her hand was a notebook containing all the articles related to the unidentified enhanced human rampage incident, clipped and organized.