Chapter 15: Unmanned Factory Zone
A spirit in the form of a woman, her hair of splashing water swaying softly, fixed her gaze on the two lifeforms placed before her.
“Ch, at least a Type-5 spirit!”
Jason, having regained his senses, said as he raised his shield.
“There wasn’t supposed to be a fight! I’ll hold it off, so get out of here!”
As he said that, he stepped forward, placing himself in front of me.
Unlike Jason, whose face was taut with tension, I calmly observed the water spirit.
‘Hmm……. So that level counts as a Type-5 spirit.’
Among elemental spirits whose ranks grew stronger as the numbers increased, Type-5 was by no means a low level.
Part of me wanted to clash with it right then and there, but I needed that spirit for the work scheduled for tomorrow.
If I neutralized it now, coming all the way down into this deep sewer would be for nothing.
“Get out first!”
Jason shouted as he blocked the high-pressure jet of water blasted out by the water spirit with his shield.
Even if he hadn’t stepped in, that attack wouldn’t have injured me, but whether he knew that or not, Jason was faithfully carrying out his role.
“Don’t worry about me, hurry!”
‘At least this man might be trustworthy.’
Leaving behind that brief impression of the orc I’d just met, I turned around and headed out of the sewer.
Jason, shield in hand, confirmed that I had retreated to a safe distance, continued blocking the water jets to the very end, and then finally turned and withdrew himself.
A short while later, at a playground inside an apartment complex on the verge of collapse.
Alfred Park, who had arrived first, asked with a startled expression.
“Ar, are you all right?”
Since the place he’d gone to wasn’t a sewer, he didn’t look nearly as wrecked as Jason and I did.
“I’m fine. How was the river side? You must have installed the same device as us.”
“Fortunately, nothing happened on my end.”
[The android side hasn’t been activated yet.]
Zeon muttered as he walked out from the apartment entrance.
“What the hell happened here?”
When Jason asked Zeon in a pleading tone, he shrugged as if it were nothing and replied.
[Unexpected accidents happen sometimes. What’s the problem? That’s what you’re being paid to deal with.]
He wasn’t wrong.
But there was a need to clearly address why this had happened.
Thinking that, I spoke.
“This wasn’t an accident. It was your mistake.”
[What kind of nonsense is that?]
“Looks like you miscalculated when inputting the values into the machine.”
[What? My numbers were accurate!]
“They were. If that place had been a sewer in some quiet rural area.”
Before getting out of the sewer, I had examined the machine Jason had installed using my newly acquired electrosphere projection ability.
“This used to be an apartment complex where people lived densely. You should’ve lowered the spiritual energy fluctuation value by about half.”
As I recited the results of my analysis from earlier, Zeon stood there blankly, at a loss for words.
“Is this your first time dealing with spirits, by any chance?”
Or maybe he’d done it on purpose.
But I didn’t bother saying that out loud.
At that, Zeon clenched his fist tightly.
[That’s enough! Today’s work ends here, so dismiss yourselves!]
With that, he stormed off into the distance, seething.
Jason, watching him go, shook his head and started walking, while Alfred Park set off with a strange smile on his face.
[Insolent bastard. Insolent piece of shit. Insolent, damn bastard.]
Mechanical muttering echoed through a pitch-dark room.
Then a mask dropped with a dull thud onto a messy bed.
“Who the hell does he think he is……. Shii…….”
An immature voice then filled the room.
“Who the hell does he think he is, preaching at me like he’s something special……? I’m the leader of this job. I’m the center leading this operation. Just because he got lucky and succeeded in a few jobs after meeting good teammates, he gets all full of himself and starts staring straight at the leader and lecturing him point by point……. How dare heeee…… Kyaaaaah!”
Unable to contain his rage, he screeched metallic noise at the empty air.
Then came the hurried sound of footsteps heading toward the bathroom.
“Uwek! Uweeeek!”
For a long while, he retched violently.
“Huff, huff……. Those eyes, that expression, I remember them all…….”
Staggering into the living room, Zeon roughly grabbed the cyberdeck lying on the desk.
Then he began moving his golden-glinting hands busily.
“Good. I’ll ruin everything. Let’s see how that confidence-filled face changes. Huh? It’ll be worth watching. Really. Don’t you think? Haha, hahahaha, hahahahaha!”
On the day of the operation, near the unmanned factory zone in northern Gyeonggi.
I was riding in a taxi driven by a human, heading toward the rendezvous point.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a passenger asking to be dropped off around here. This whole area’s nothing but automated factories run entirely by machines. You do know that, right, sir?”
The profession of taxi driver had almost vanished with the advent of autonomous vehicles and androids.
However, since there were stubborn types who couldn’t trust machines and insisted on using taxis like this, a small number of drivers had managed to survive.
“Our society going to ruin is all because of those machine bastards. Before they ruled the world, it was such a good place to live. If you think about it that way, this place is like an advance base that destroyed the human world. The roads are all dark too—looks just like a demon’s lair.”
‘I really need to buy a vehicle.’
Listening to the taxi driver’s nonstop chatter, I made that resolve.
There was a reason I’d deliberately taken a human-driven taxi.
Android taxi services run by corporations left behind records that were a hassle to erase through hacking.
There was no way I could ride one of those anywhere near a job site.
The taxi I was in now lacked even a basic driving assist program, let alone navigation—an entirely de-electronized taxi.
“Where should I stop for you?”
“Go about three more blocks and stop there.”
“Yes, sir.”
So I could get out immediately upon arrival, I took out my wallet card containing qubits in advance and got it ready.
“I don’t know what brings you here, but be careful. There are rumors that ghosts appear around this area.”
When I frowned at the baseless rumor, the taxi driver seemed to take it as interest and excitedly began explaining.
“Back during the Third World War, a lot of people died around here. That’s why so many ghosts supposedly gathered here. There were so many that even after the invasion stopped, Ghostcatchers practically lived here for a while, or so they say. But even then, there were just too many ghosts to deal with them all, so instead they covered the whole place with an unmanned factory zone where no people live. So you be careful too. You never know, right? There really might be ghosts.”
Covering it with factories to deal with ghosts.
They weren’t beings that could be dealt with that way.
The taxi driver stopped the car before he even finished his muttering.
While he was distracted by his own talking, I sprayed a memory-confusing perfume onto the qubit card and handed it over.
“Ah, thank you very much. If you happen to need a ghost-repelling talisman, I know a very effective place. How about it, should I give you the contact infor……. Uh……. Uh…….”
As the Magic took effect, the taxi driver’s face went slightly blank, and he slowly began blinking his eyes.
A mental-type item so weak that it was embarrassing to even call it Magic, one that wouldn’t work properly if the target had even a little resistance.
But on an ordinary civilian taxi driver, it worked just fine.
That man would soon completely forget why he had come here and return to the place he’d originally been.
After getting out of the taxi and confirming that the car drove far away, I started walking.
I still had a bit more distance to cover to reach the rendezvous point.
As I walked, Ar poked its head out from inside my clothes and spoke.
〈Ar, uncomfortable.〉
It seemed to be a bit taxing, with large volumes of machine signals being detected from the factory zone drawing closer.
〈Go back into the Electrosphere for a bit. There’s no need for you to step in for this job.〉
〈No. Master needs Ar.〉
At that, I stroked Ar’s head.
〈You little thing. Just bear with it a bit. I’ll give you lots of stabs once we’re back.〉
At those words, Ar’s eyes sparkled as it slipped back into my clothes.
Near the entrance of the unmanned factory zone.
Under the pitch-black night sky, three Ghostcatchers gathered.
“Where is Zeon?”
“He said he’ll be giving control instructions from the rear today.”
A hacker didn’t necessarily need to step onto the front lines, but the benefits of having one on-site were greater than expected.
When hacking by directly jacking into a device rather than hacking through the Electrosphere, it was possible to bypass several firewalls installed on the machine.
Moreover, when situations turned urgent, verifying and responding with one’s own eyes was far faster and more accurate than exchanging words over communications.
“He’s still nearby, though.”
Jason waved his hand toward a fairly tall abandoned building to the north.
[Zeon, can you see us?]
[Yeah. I see you clearly, orc.]
‘So he’s hiding over there.’
That might actually be for the best.
With that awful personality of his, he’d definitely just get in the way on-site anyway.
Thinking that, I turned my head.
“Then, shall we get moving?”
At Alfred Park’s words, I stepped forward first.
The remaining two Ghostcatchers followed me toward the entrance of the factory zone.
The achromatic factories lined up here were buildings that cared nothing for aesthetics, designed solely to maximize efficiency.
Even so, as the night laid its darkness thickly over them, masking their rough, uneven flaws, a nightscape that was decent in its own way emerged.
Once we properly entered the factory zone, the pungent stench of chemical substances began to fill the air.
In response, Jason and Alfred Park activated the filtration systems attached to their respiratory gear, while I put on a special mask I’d prepared in advance.
Not only the air quality, but the noise as well had reached a level that couldn’t simply be endured.
The sound of metal being cut by saws, the sound of presses crushing something, the sound of steam venting from hydraulic cylinders…….
If there had been human laborers working here, they would have complained of severe hearing damage within a few hours.
[Looks like it’s going to rain.]
Just as Jason said, one droplet, then another, fell from the sky.
Rain falling in this area was something you absolutely couldn’t let touch you.
It was mixed with all kinds of toxic substances spewed out by the factories.
[Come over to my side.]
I raised a single finger, inscribed Magic at its tip, and spread it out like an umbrella.
At the same moment, rain began pouring down from the sky.
The strongly toxic raindrops bounced off, unable to pierce the hemispherical magic barrier surrounding me.
“Hm. What kind of Magic is this?”
“It’s a commercially sold magic umbrella.”
Strictly speaking, it was a work that applied the basic defensive Magic inscribed on that umbrella, but there was no need to explain that much.
“With the ground getting wet like this, it’ll be good for us.”
“That’s true, but it won’t rain much. There was no rain in today’s forecast. Probably just intermittent showers.”
Just as the orc said, by the time the destination—the wastewater treatment facility—came into view, the rain stopped abruptly as if nothing had happened.
The facility was surrounded by tall walls.
According to the briefing information, they were about ten meters high, and there were motion-detecting sensors attached along the top of the walls.
[Is this it? The wall looks higher than I expected.]
As Alfred Park looked up at the wall and spoke, Zeon immediately countered.
[No, it’s exactly as I predicted.]
The wall was wet from the recent rain, making it look difficult to climb.
[I’ll hack and disable the sensors, so get ready to jump over. Confirm the crossing position carefully.]
Zeon marked a signal containing positional information onto the team’s virtual interface.
[Jason, use your brute strength to lift the others up first. Android first, then the mage, orc last. Calculate the landing positions precisely, and watch the noise when you make contact.]
At that, Jason approached the wall and took a stance to lift the others up.
[Alright, step down with all you’ve got.]
Perhaps reinforced prosthetics were installed in the orc’s arm muscles, as the outerwear he was wearing swelled up as if it were about to burst.
[3, 2, 1. Now.]
In sync with Zeon’s signal, the Ghostcatcher’s body leapt up onto the wall.