Chapter 253

Chapter 253

Lee Su-myeong’s face was filled with madness.

“So, what did you say the metal contained in this rock is?”

―It is called Jelatun. In Kurayan, it is a metal used as a mana conduit when creating magical lifeforms.

“Ohh! Jelatun.”

Lee Su-myeong let out an exclamation at Black Tortoise’s answer.

It was a metal he had never once heard of before.

“Was Jelatun an easy metal to obtain in Kurayan?”

―It was not.

“Really?”

―It exists only in small amounts deep underground, so only dwarves can mine it. Because of that, it was treated as precious even in Kurayan.

“I see! So it was that precious a medium.”

Lee Su-myeong smiled brightly at acquiring new knowledge.

It was late at night, and all the other researchers had gone home.

Only Lee Su-myeong remained, studying the Grade A Golem.

That was because he wanted to confirm the performance of Black Tortoise, his auxiliary AI, as soon as possible. And Black Tortoise did not betray his expectations.

No matter what question he asked, Black Tortoise answered without hesitation.

The metal called Jelatun he had just heard about was one example.

It was an unknown metal Lee Su-myeong had never heard of before.

Perhaps not only he, but no researcher in Neo Seoul knew of the existence of a metal called Jelatun.

Nor the fact that Jelatun served as a conduit for mana.

“Then does the rock Golem move through Jelatun as its medium?”

―That is correct.

“Then the power source must be the core, as expected?”

―Yes!

“Is the core’s composition also Jelatun, by any chance?”

―It contains some. Since mana must be generated and guided, a smooth medium is necessary.

“As expected.”

Lee Su-myeong nodded as if he had known it would be so.

The enormous wall blocking his path collapsed, and the floodgates of knowledge opened.

The spearhead was Black Tortoise.

With Black Tortoise, it felt as though there was no research he could not do.

“To think such an excellent AI was used only for combat. That’s like using a cow-slaughtering knife to butcher a chicken.”

Lee Su-myeong thought of Black Tortoise’s former master, Cha Jin-cheol.

From what he had heard, Cha Jin-cheol’s body had been taken over by the Boss during a dungeon conquest.

Fortunately, Black Tortoise had activated the return protocol and returned safely to the Three-Legged Crow, but he had heard that Cha Jin-cheol had been miserably killed by Zeon.

Because it was a disgrace to West District, everyone had hushed it up and kept it secret.

As a result, what had happened inside the dungeon had not spread outside, but insiders like Lee Su-myeong knew to some extent.

“Black Tortoise?”

―Yes, Master.

“Tell me about your former master, Cha Jin-cheol.”

―I apologize. I cannot answer regarding that matter.

“Why not?”

―A lock has been placed on it.

“A lock? You mean a restriction was placed?”

―That is correct.

“Who placed the lock?”

―It was a measure taken by my main unit, the Three-Legged Crow.

“Hmm!”

Lee Su-myeong let out a groan.

That was because the name Three-Legged Crow made his heart tremble.

Every Awakened in West District lived with the Three-Legged Crow in their hearts.

The ultimate AI that only Kim Hyun-soo could use.

An artificial intelligence that could think for itself and derive the optimal conclusion.

Compared to it, Black Tortoise, which had been assigned to him, was not even on the level of a child. In his heart, he wanted to possess the Three-Legged Crow, but he knew all too well that it was an impossible desire.

The Three-Legged Crow could place locks on all degraded-copy AIs.

It could retrieve them at any time or restrict the authority they had been given. If the Three-Legged Crow decided to do so, it could delete a degraded-copy AI at any moment.

It could remove them without leaving a single trace.

To the degraded-copy AIs, it was no different from a god.

Conversely, degraded-copy AIs like Black Tortoise could not resist the Three-Legged Crow in any way. They had been designed and created that way from the beginning.

To the degraded-copy AIs, the Three-Legged Crow was both parent and god.

Because of that, resistance or rebellion was something they could not even dare dream of.

“Is there any way to remove the lock?”

―......

“Why aren’t you answering?”

―It can be removed.

“Truly?”

―If you are willing to take the risk, Master.

“What level of risk are we talking about?”

―You must approach the main unit of the Three-Legged Crow.

“Where is the main unit?”

―It is beneath Mr. Kim Hyun-soo’s residence.

“Hmm!”

Lee Su-myeong let out a groan.

Kim Hyun-soo’s residence was the center of West District.

Just as every matter in Neo Seoul was decided at City Hall, everything in West District was decided and carried out from the building where Kim Hyun-soo resided.

Naturally, its security level was also the highest.

Those without qualifications could not even dare enter, and even if they did, every move they made would be monitored by the Three-Legged Crow.

The main unit was deep underground, but it would not be wrong to say that the entire building was the Three-Legged Crow’s body.

Entering such a place and approaching the main unit of the Three-Legged Crow was close to impossible.

“If the lock is removed, will the information restrictions disappear?”

―That is correct.

“What level of information can you provide?”

―What the Three-Legged Crow can do, I can do as well.

“That’s possible?”

―As I said, it is possible as long as the lock is released. The decision rests entirely with you, Master.

As if it had said all it needed to say, Black Tortoise fell silent.

If Lee Su-myeong had been even a little calm, he would have noticed that his conversation with Black Tortoise was strange. But blinded by the acquisition of new knowledge, he did not notice anything odd at all.

“Haa! The Three-Legged Crow, the Three-Legged Crow......”

Madness was gradually seeping into the repeated words.

---

Levin looked at the shop with its lights turned off.

Jeonghui Restaurant.

Since the owner’s name was Hwang Jeong-hui, the shop’s name was also Jeonghui Restaurant.

The true identity of this small shop tucked away in a corner of West District was a restaurant. It was a restaurant that sold dishes made with meat produced from cultured meat.

Naturally, its main customers were ordinary people, not mechanized Awakened.

Perhaps its cooking was nothing special, because not many customers came. Because of that, it was barely keeping itself alive.

At night, Jeonghui Restaurant became even quieter.

It had no customers even during the day, so there was no way customers would come at night.

The door was merely open. In truth, it was practically open for business in name only.

“So he was hiding in a place like that?”

Levin cracked his neck from side to side.

All this time, Levin had been doggedly tracking the murderer’s whereabouts in West District.

For a full fifteen days.

During that time, Levin had not slept properly even once. With revenge as his sole thought, he moved like a hunting dog, chasing the bastard’s scent.

Just as the information he had obtained outside suggested, the murderer had been committing murders in West District.

Several households had already suffered tragedy at the murderer’s hands.

Because of that, West District was also investigating the matter. But since the victims were ordinary families, they were not pursuing it that actively.

Even in Neo Seoul, the first priority was the Awakened.

Next came the wealthy, those with much property.

Ordinary people were always last.

Naturally, interest in ordinary people was bound to be the lowest.

The murderer had targeted and killed precisely those people.

In an extremely covert manner.

“Son of a bitch!”

Levin ground his teeth.

Even while he had been absent, the murderer had continued killing steadily. He regretted failing to kill the bastard when he had first encountered him.

“I’ll catch him this time, no matter what.”

Steeling his resolve, Levin walked toward Jeonghui Restaurant.

As befitted a shop that customers did not visit, there was no sign of people nearby.

A bell was attached to the front door of Jeonghui Restaurant.

If someone opened the door and entered, it would make a sound. But that was not a problem for Levin.

SWISH!

Because if he used Ghost Transformation, he could pass through easily.

In truth, Levin passed through the door without difficulty and entered the restaurant.

Levin’s expression hardened as he looked around the inside of the restaurant.

‘The scent of blood?’

A faint scent of blood was drifting from somewhere.

It was so weak that an ordinary person would not have been able to smell it, but it could not deceive the nose of Levin, who had become a Grade B Awakened.

Levin followed the scent of blood.

The place he arrived at was the freezer inside the shop.

“Fuck!”

Levin bit his lip after opening the freezer door.

That was because dismembered corpses were piled inside, filling the freezer.

Like meat in a butcher shop, the corpses had been taken apart by body part and stacked inside. There were more than ten bodies.

BANG!

Levin closed the freezer door while suppressing the urge to vomit.

Just as he had expected, the restaurant owner and their family had been killed by the murderer long ago.

Judging by the frozen cut surfaces, they had clearly died at least ten days ago.

Vilely enough, even after killing the restaurant owner and their family, the murderer had left the shop open. That way, no one would suspect anything.

He had likely calculated that since the shop had almost no customers anyway, leaving only the door open would be enough to avoid suspicion.

“Son of a bitch!”

Levin ground his teeth and searched the inside of the restaurant.

After searching for a long while, he found the entrance to the basement storeroom. The entrance had been cunningly hidden behind food supplies.

“Ha! Look at this.”

A booby trap had also been cunningly set up at the entrance to the storeroom.

It was a simple trap that used a tripwire and explosives. But it had enough power to blow away a low-grade Awakened in a single blast.

“That son of a bitch really has every trick in the book.”

Burning with anger, Levin used Ghost Transformation and passed through the entrance where the booby trap had been set.

The basement storeroom beneath the restaurant was dark.

So dark that even Levin, an Awakened, would not have been able to distinguish anything if he had not concentrated mana in his eyes.

Just then—

“So you finally found your way here.”

An eerie voice came from within the darkness.

Levin instantly recognized the owner of the voice.

“Son of a bitch?”

“Yeah! Son of a bitch. The gracious name you gave me.”

The owner of the sinister voice was the murderer.

The monster Levin called son of a bitch.

Levin glared toward the place where he guessed the son of a bitch was and said,

“You’re something else. If you managed to survive, you should have hidden somewhere quiet, but instead you crawled all the way into Neo Seoul and committed murders.”

“What is?”

“What?”

“What exactly is supposed to be impressive? That I snuck into Neo Seoul, or that I committed murders?”

“Both, you son of a bitch!”

“Keke! That’s high praise.”

The son of a bitch burst into laughter, seemingly satisfied.

Levin’s eyes, on the other hand, grew even colder.

“Why the hell do you keep going around committing murders? Even if your head’s broken, isn’t this going too far?”

“Hehe! What am I supposed to do when I was made this way?”

“Fuck! What an excuse......”

“Do you think this kind of murderous urge is normal? We were made this way from the start.”

“We?”

FLASH!

At that moment, the lights in the basement storeroom came on.

Levin narrowed his eyes sharply at the sudden light.

A short while later, when he opened his eyes again, an unfamiliar sight unfolded around him.

“What the hell is this?”

Countless lines were drawn across the floor in a crisscrossing pattern.

The intense light was being emitted from the lines on the floor.

“Is this a barrier?”

“That’s right! It’s a barrier developed to capture monsters that can use Ghost Transformation, like you. It was a bit of a pain to get.”

With a sneer, the son of a bitch revealed himself from the corner.

An elongated face that called a lizard to mind, with eyes slit wide.

Scars crossed his face as though it had been sewn together from dirty rags.

It was unmistakably the murderer Levin had been searching for.

His broken prosthetic arm must have been replaced, because it was intact now.

The aura radiating from the murderer was also far from ordinary.

He gave off an air far rougher and more dangerous than before.

Levin clenched his fists and said,

“Your Grade went up.”

“Hehe! I kept slicing people up, and it went up. What do you think? This should be enough to take you on, right?”

“You son of a bitch......”

“Not a day passed when I forgot you. I thought if I kept slicing people up like this, you’d smell the blood and come looking for me. And my guess was exactly right.”

This place was a trap the murderer had dug.

A trap meant to welcome Levin, who would one day follow the scent and come.

The murderer, fully prepared, looked at Levin and smiled.

At that, Levin flared up.

“Stop grinning, bastard! You’re the one who dug his own grave.”