Chapter 4: A New Name
“Ho ho. You’re quite a bold one, aren’t you.”
“One million Qubits total. Let’s set the advance payment at half.”
If I roughly converted it into the old won, would it come out to about a million won as well?
The moment I spoke up using a currency unit that was still unfamiliar to me, Boss Kim’s smiling face stiffened slightly.
“Hey, kid. Sounds like you don’t really know the market around here yet. This kind of job only needs about fifty. And that’s me being generous.”
“It’s a convenience store clerk android, a combat-type model. And from what you were saying earlier, there’s always a chance of unexpected variables, isn’t there? So I think I should receive some hazard pay in advance.”
At my words, the Dwarf let out a groan.
“Let’s do eighty. That’s really stretching it as is.”
“Then please get me one usable firearm as well. I don’t have a weapon yet.”
As I continued to push shamelessly, Boss Kim let out another ho-ho laugh.
“You really are a vicious one. Haa……. Fine. Eight hundred thousand Qubits, and I’ll throw in one decent pistol. This is only because the Magic you showed earlier left a strong impression.”
The Dwarf spread his arms as if fed up and trudged off into a corner.
Then he slid a handle mounted on the wall to the side with a drag, revealing a display case filled with all kinds of weapons hanging from it.
From among them, he picked up a revolver that looked particularly sturdy.
“Model 6 Unique. A classic automatic revolver. It’s made by the Megacorp ‘Spelltech,’ famous for magical engineering, so it’s extremely compatible with enchantments. And it’s a one-hundred-percent mechanical weapon—no electronic components at all. You hardly see guns like this these days.”
A mechanical handgun.
Sure enough, a weapon without a single electronic component was rare.
After all, this was an age where even drinking straws had semiconductors in them.
The advantage of mechanical weapons was that there was no risk of being hacked.
This automatic revolver seemed to have sacrificed the various auxiliary functions of electronic firearms in exchange for higher reliability.
“I’ll even throw in about a box of ammo, just for you.”
Boss Kim took out an ammunition box from beneath the display case and handed it over along with the pistol.
I took the revolver in hand and tried assuming a firing stance.
‘Mm……. Not bad.’
Perhaps I had learned marksmanship in the past—my older brother’s body reacted naturally before I even thought about it.
After I gathered my things, Boss Kim stood by the refrigerator doorway and spoke.
“The job date is four days from now, exactly 23:00. Don’t forget to be punctual.”
He then jerked his chin as if telling me to follow and headed toward the back door of the shop.
The area behind the dumpling shop, where I followed him to, was extremely quiet.
A dark alley illuminated only by a single, feeble streetlight.
Surrounded tightly by high-rise buildings, it felt like a well-hidden hideout.
“When you’re done with the job, come here. Not the front—use this back alley.”
Boss Kim pulled out a rectangular card from his pocket and held it out to me.
Judging from the English word Qubit written on the surface, it looked like a wallet card containing the advance payment he’d mentioned earlier.
When I accepted the money, the Dwarf extended his thick hand, asking for a handshake.
“So, what should we call you?”
A name.
As my older brother’s great-granddaughter had said, I couldn’t use my true name.
‘Hmm……. What should I go with.’
As I pondered that—
Just then, a single word caught my eye from an abandoned gas station in the distance.
The name of a fuel that had once driven the entire world, but was now pitifully forgotten.
It felt fitting, in its own way, to commemorate my older brother, who had once been the owner of this body.
Lee Hajin took Boss Kim’s hand and spoke his new name.
“Diesel.”
---
Diesel secured a reasonably priced motel not too far away.
‘Four days…….’
Long if it was long, short if it was short.
‘During that time, I need to figure out as much as I can about Magic.’
I put on the secondhand smart glasses I had bought at the Dongmyo flea market, sat on the edge of the bed, and accessed a website.
What was now called the web—internet—had become a relic of a bygone era.
Most people operated within a new digital space known as the ‘Electrosphere.’
However, to access the Electrosphere, one had to undergo a separate procedure so the brain could interpret electronic signals.
So for now, the only place I could obtain information was the internet.
After wandering through the antiquated web for several hours—
‘Mm……. There’s almost nothing useful.’
I hadn’t expected to easily find high-level information akin to Magic on the internet, but this was scarce to an absurd degree.
Just as I was thinking I might have to visit a crumbling national library instead—
I discovered one very peculiar homepage.
「Electrosphere Spirit Guide」
A blog by some Indian man, with the most recent post dated about seventy years ago.
Judging by it, this must have been a time when the Electrosphere hadn’t yet completely replaced the internet.
‘Electrosphere spirits…….’
Intrigued, I carefully skimmed through the contents. The blog’s owner claimed that spirits also existed within the Electrosphere.
「Spirits that aid Electrosphere hacking, such as information theft, security neutralization, computational assistance…….」
But it seemed that people at the time hadn’t believed him, as no one had shown any interest.
‘It’s not completely absurd.’
Spirits were beings of spiritual essence that resided in certain worlds.
So it made sense that spirits could exist within the Electrosphere as well.
The Electrosphere wasn’t a space invented by humans, but a newly discovered, unique realm.
With that thought in mind, I continued browsing the blog and found a video.
The moment I pressed play, English spoken with an Indian accent flowed out.
[Today, to prove my theory, I will attempt to summon an Electrosphere spirit myself. This video was filmed using a lens imbued with a special Miracle that allows one to see otherworldly spirits…….]
After rattling off theoretical explanations for a while, the man in the video suddenly threw off his shirt.
Then he abruptly splashed a bucket of water all over the computer.
‘What is he doing?’
Even someone ignorant of electronic devices could tell it was an obscene act.
After that, he continued a series of bizarre behaviors—offering prayers, singing, dancing.
‘No wonder people didn’t believe him.’
But as I kept watching, the situation changed.
From the Indian man’s actions, certain ‘characters’ began to appear.
Characters that only Diesel’s ability allowed me to recognize.
‘This is…….’
A linguistic system completely different from the one Lee Hyena had inscribed.
It almost felt like I was looking at a computer programming language.
Through his strange actions, the Indian man wrote out those characters.
But in the end, he failed to summon a spirit.
‘Hmm…….’
Diesel replayed the video over and over, beginning to analyze it.
‘The language was correct, but the grammatical system was wrong.’
After reaching my own conclusion, I raised my hand and began writing characters into empty space.
There was no need to dance like the blog owner had.
‘It seems the method of writing characters varies from person to person.’
Writing the characters of another world was a kind of spiritual act.
And in spiritual acts, ‘belief’ was extremely important.
Belief that a Miracle would occur if one did things this way, even if it looked ridiculous to others.
The Indian man’s gestures had carried that belief, which was why he had been able to use the language of Electrosphere spirits.
But just because belief allowed one to write a spirit’s characters did not mean the spirit would always respond.
What mattered more than that was spirit resonance.
In other words, the ability to sense a spirit’s heart—to know what it wanted and what it disliked.
‘First comes the purpose of this sentence.’
At the opening, I clearly specified the purpose of summoning the spirit.
After that, I wrote information about the real world: the true name of the one writing the sentence, the current time, the location, and so on.
Just as polite phrasing was important when writing Confucian Miracle scripts, I had a feeling that precise context was crucial for Electrosphere spirit summoning scripts as well.
So Diesel filled in the summoning script with a clean style, without a single wasted word.
‘This should do it.’
I placed a period at the end of the completed spirit summoning script.
At that moment, a mysterious crackling sound began to form in the air.
‘Oh…….’
There were no flashes of electricity, no scattering sparks.
As Diesel watched it, an impression suddenly came to mind.
‘It’s like a television after a broadcast ends.’
Black and white dots crossed rapidly, creating the illusion of a grayish hue.
If one were to visually express a world made of digital elements, would it look like this?
That was the pure form of an Electrosphere spirit that had yet to properly take shape.
The ash-colored crackling gradually grew larger.
After watching the primitive spirit form for a while, Diesel instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
‘By now, it should be starting to take shape…….’
But the spirit continued to remain unstable, sparks scattering in all directions.
‘I can’t leave it like this.’
I immediately closed my eyes slightly and attempted to commune with the spirit in front of me.
Then a faintly trembling emotional disturbance brushed against my own feelings.
Fear of a world it was stepping into for the first time.
Curiosity born from an inquisitive nature.
And confusion from not knowing what to do.
After carefully reading those emotions, Diesel reached a conclusion.
‘It doesn’t know what form it should take.’
That was understandable.
The Electrosphere had to be a completely different world from the real one.
Until now, it had existed solely as information.
In that sense, it was only natural for it to be confused.
‘What would be good.’
After a brief moment of thought, Diesel added a few new characters to the summoning script.
The noise subsided, and its form began to change into something consistent.
While maintaining that mysterious ash-gray hue.
Soon, its shape became clear enough to recognize.
A small inverted triangular face with large eyes attached to it.
Two ears perked up above.
A sleek, elegant body and a long tail to match.
The Electrosphere spirit took on a form resembling a cat.
The spirit landed lightly on the table, blinked its eyes, and looked up at Diesel.
Then, in a clear voice, it spoke directly into its master’s mind.
〈Unknown world, requesting information.〉
“An unknown world?”
Diesel felt puzzled by the spirit’s words.
Among the information circulating within the Electrosphere, data about the real world should have accounted for the largest portion—so how could it be unknown?
“What do you mean?”
Instead of answering, the spirit gently swayed its long tail, from which ash-colored noise crackled.
In response, Diesel said,
“Try searching the keyword ‘real world’ in the Electrosphere.”
〈Electrosphere? Unknown information.〉
“What? You don’t even know the Electrosphere?”
A spirit not knowing the place it lived in.
It was a situation that made no sense by common standards, so I explained it step by step.
“The place you originally belonged to is the Electrosphere. An infinite network space made of information.”
At that, the spirit curled its body up like a ball.
〈Beginning learning.〉
It held itself tightly for a while, then soon muttered again.
〈Learning about the Electrosphere complete. Based on learned data, numerous pieces of information regarding the ‘real world’ discovered. Beginning immediate learning about the real world.〉
‘Something feels off…….’
Ordinarily, spirits were beings that had lived for an extremely long time within their own worlds.
That was precisely why their knowledge of their world was unrivaled.
That was the very reason people made use of spirits.
The reason Lee Hyena had summoned spirits to write Confucian Miracle scripts was because those spirits possessed profound knowledge of Confucian Miracles.
But the spirit before Diesel’s eyes looked like it knew nothing at all.
‘Don’t tell me…….’
Soon, the spirit rose from its spot and padded lightly toward Diesel as it spoke.
〈Requesting a definition of existence.〉
“What does that mean?”
When I asked back, the spirit uttered words shocking enough to surprise even Diesel, who was still adapting to this world.
〈A designation known as a name is required.〉
‘Good heavens…….’
A spirit asking to be given a name.
If an expert were to see this, it would be enough to turn the entire academic world upside down.
Spirits were made of spiritual essence, and thus possessed an extremely strong sense of self.
For a spirit without a physical body, losing its sense of self was equivalent to losing itself entirely.
That was why most spirits absolutely detested having their names mispronounced—let alone being called by nicknames.
And yet this spirit was asking to be given a name.
There were only two possibilities.
Either Diesel had suddenly lost his mind and was engaging in a delusional conversation—
Or else…….
〈Existence, recently born.〉
The spirit before my eyes had only just been born.
‘Ha……. Is something like this even possible.’
As Diesel let out a hollow laugh, the spirit tilted its head.
〈Awaiting response.〉
A tone with a hint of irritation mixed in.
In response, I gave it a suitable name.
“Your name is ‘Ar.’”
There was no deep meaning behind it.
It simply meant to go and retrieve information when asked.
〈Ar…….〉
Upon hearing its name, Ar made a catlike purring sound and curled its body up tightly.
〈Ar will resume learning. Ar requests that the master not interfere.〉
‘Hmm……. Its tone feels kind of cheeky.’
Was that because I had set its form as a cat?
Diesel found himself briefly wondering what it would have been like if he had chosen a different animal.