Chapter 45: Great Port (1)
A bar somewhere in Incheon, overlooking the night sea of the West Sea.
When Diesel approached the cocktail bar in the corner, a bartender whose face was half gleaming with chrome plating spoke to him in a friendly tone.
“Whaddaya have!”
“One Jack and Coke. With a slice of synthetic lemon.”
“Got it! Coming right up.”
As soon as the freshly made cocktail arrived, Diesel took a sip and glanced around.
A Dwarf and a panda beastman gambling over drinks, an orc and an asura arm-wrestling, a horn-cut demon and a dark elf trading something in the shadows…….
An ordinary bar scene you could see anywhere in the world.
Into that scene stepped a small shadow wrapped in a black hoodie.
At the same time, someone contacted Diesel through his comm network.
[Ah, ah, Diesel-niim……? Can you hear meee……?]
[Yes.]
[Um……. I arrived here, but where do I go nowww……?]
[The left corner.]
[Leeeft cooorner……. Uuum……. Aaah……!]
Valkyrie Herja, who had been looking around restlessly, spotted Diesel and scurried toward him.
She gave him a deep bow down to her navel, then struggled her way up onto the tall stool.
At that moment, the bartender from afar approached and asked,
“Whaddaya have!”
“Ah……. I, um…….”
“The same as mine. Without alcohol.”
“Pardon? A Jack and Coke without alcohol?”
“…….”
“Isn’t that just cola with ice?”
“Yeah. Leave out the lemon too.”
The bartender shrugged, then in an instant slapped together the drink and left again.
“Th-thank you for the drink……!”
The moment Herja received the cup, she gulped the drink down with her squirming lips and made a blissful expression.
“Kaaah……! Ghuuk……! Haa! I’m sorryyy…….”
She blushed, embarrassed by the small burp that escaped her, but Diesel paid it no mind and looked out the window right beside him.
“Waa…… the sea is really prettyyy…….”
“It’s almost time for the appointment.”
“You’re rightyy……. Umm……. You said it was an electric jet ski, righttt……? It’s Herja’s first time riding one, so I’m a liiittle nervousss…….”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s a model with minimized noise, so it won’t shake much.”
“Ahh……. I seeee…….”
As Herja gazed at the sea with Diesel, she spoke cautiously.
“By the wayyy, Diesel-niim…….”
“Yes.”
“How long are you going to keep using honorifics with meee……?”
She looked up at Diesel with sparkling eyes.
“There’s a huge age difference between me and Diesel-niim……. You can talk to me more casuallyyy……!”
“…….”
For some reason, Diesel couldn’t feel comfortable around this valkyrie.
It was as if his instincts themselves rejected it.
She was only four years old and looked utterly harmless, yet somehow she was extremely difficult to deal with.
“I’ll see how things go.”
“Okaaay, whatever you’re comfortable with……! Herja doesn’t mind at allll……!”
Herja beamed brightly, then turned her head back toward the sea.
She took another sip of her drink and murmured softly.
“Looking at it like this, it feels like the stars are floating upside downnn…….”
As she said, lights from the buoys were shining like stars across the pitch-black sea.
Blink, blink, blink…….
The lights blinked at a steady rhythm.
“…….”
Then the glowing pattern suddenly changed.
Two blinks, silence, then two more blinks, and silence again.
‘It’s a signal.’
A secret sign indicating the smuggler had arrived.
Diesel noticed the subtle change in the lights and was about to say something.
But before he could—
“Diesel-niim.”
Herja called his name with a serious expression completely unlike before.
Had she noticed the small signal too?
When Diesel looked at her, she merely gave him an innocent smile.
“You’ve arrived, this way!”
A dark shoreline where you couldn’t see even an inch ahead.
From afar, an orc dressed like a sailor approached, holding a flashlight.
“H-Hello……!”
Herja placed her hand on her navel and bowed deeply.
“Oh my, what a polite little friend! Is she your daughter?”
“……Yes.”
When Diesel answered vaguely, the orc burst into hearty laughter.
“I’ve got a niece about that age myself. What a troublemaker she is—just the other day she chewed up the link phone I bought her with her teeth! No matter how itchy those new tusks are, you’ve gotta watch what you bite, you know……. Well, it’s only her dad’s back that ends up bent.”
“Eeeh……. That sounds like a big problem……!”
“Sure is. A real big problem! Hahaha! And another time, you see…….”
The orc, who had suddenly launched into his own story, chatted with Herja as he guided them toward a secluded stretch of the shore.
Before long, a secretly hidden concrete dock appeared before them.
“Oooh……. Is that the electric jet ski……?”
“Sharp kid, aren’t you? That’s right. Now then, sir, you get on first.”
At his gesture, Diesel climbed onto the jet ski.
Then the orc lifted Herja up and set her down on the rear seat.
“Up you go. Hold tight to daddy’s waist, okay?”
“Yeees……!”
After briefly checking the safety gear, the orc sat in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Soon, the jet ski quietly sliced through the water and moved forward.
“So, where are you heading with your daughter?”
The orc, who believed Diesel was trying to stow away to another country, struck up conversation.
Diesel didn’t feel like indulging in small talk, but he loosely played along.
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“That does sound like a tough decision. These days, everywhere you go is hell. Over in Oceania, cities have been almost completely wrecked by tidal waves, and Hong Kong—well, there are ugly rumors going around about monsters that leaked out from the Central Plains and are roaming the streets. And America’s a total wasteland right now because of an independence war. At least Singapore seems to be doing a bit better.”
Some of the orc’s information was wrong, and some of it was right.
After going on for a while about his knowledge of the global situation, the orc suddenly lowered his voice and whispered.
“From here on, we need to move quietly.”
“Yees……. Shhh…….”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
A heavy silence settled over the sea as we passed through it.
Before long, lights of the Great Port began to appear in the distance.
With practiced skill, the orc steered us through only the dark spaces untouched by light.
After a short while, we arrived at a corner of the harbor. He let me and Herja off, then whispered softly.
“Go carefully. I wish you good luck.”
He gave a kindly smile as he said it.
At that moment.
Herja tossed out a chilling remark over the closed channel.
[Shall I kill him now?]
[……?]
When I turned around, I saw the valkyrie smiling innocently at the orc.
[He’s seen our faces. Shouldn’t we take care of him?]
“Be careful yourself, kid. Listen well to your father.”
The orc greeted Herja.
Completely unaware that a conversation deciding his life and death was taking place.
[You don’t have to worry about the body. I’ll kill him and clean everything up neatly.]
Herja slowly raised her hand toward the orc.
But before she could do anything, I stepped in first.
[No.]
[Huh?]
[If we kill him, it’ll be a problem. This orc is a carrier River frequently uses in Incheon.]
[Ah.]
Herja waved the hand she had raised high over her head.
[Th-that’s how it is……!]
By then, the orc had already climbed back onto the jet ski. Seeing Herja, he waved back at her in return.
[It’s a good thing I asked first…… I almost just killed him without thinking, you know……?]
[…….]
[I’m glad this is team work…… actually, it’s Herja’s first time doing team work……! So please keep teaching me well from now on too, Diesel-nim……!]
With various thoughts surfacing in my head, I moved my body into the enormous port.
The Great Port looked several times larger than it had from the air.
Gigantic cargo ships of absurd size docked at the unloading area, and containers stacked so high they blocked out the sky.
Standing between them felt like being inside the Grand Canyon.
[Diesel-nim, have you arrived?]
I replied to the closed-channel message from River.
[Right in front of it.]
[That’s good. The target has started moving as well.]
[Any variables?]
[None so far. You can proceed according to plan.]
[Got it.]
[Herja-nim is doing well too, right?]
[Yeees……! Herja is learning a lot from Diesel-nim……!]
[That’s good to hear. Then I’ll be counting on you.]
After the brief communication, the destination—E-7 Warehouse—came into view.
I hid myself for a moment in the shadow of a container and looked around.
‘There’s no real need to hack, but…….’
Just in case, I used an electrosphere projection to peer into the CCTV installed in front of the warehouse.
The firewall protecting it was Grade 4.
By now, it was a level I could break through easily enough, but the problem was whether there might be ICE inside.
〈There probably isn’t any ICE.〉
〈How do you know?〉
〈Call it a spirit’s intuition.〉
〈Intuition from a spirit?〉
〈I translated ‘a prediction value derived from statistics’ into human language.〉
Trusting Ar’s words, I attempted to hack the firewall.
I lightly closed my eyes and connected to the electrosphere linked to the CCTV device, and the polygonal walls of a fortress-like firewall spread out before me.
〈Do you want help?〉
〈No.〉
I placed my hand against the firewall and began searching for a weak point.
It wasn’t that simple.
From Grade 4 onward, these were levels with serious defenses.
‘Still, if I keep knocking…….’
My avatar moved as if teleporting, inspecting the area around the barrier.
Then I found a single, tiny gap.
A small blind spot created by trying to protect everything.
‘Good.’
I slipped my finger into the gap.
Then, carefully, I created a crack without letting the system notice.
〈From here on, delicacy is important.〉
〈I know.〉
I pried space open and sealed it at the same time.
A contradictory act, like wounding something while healing it.
Just as Ar said, this was work where delicacy mattered.
〈Mm……. You’re quite good now.〉
〈So I wasn’t before?〉
〈You failed so many times when you practiced with me. And this is your first real operation, Master.〉
As soon as there was enough space for my avatar to pass through, I slipped inside.
At this point, the hacking was essentially a success.
As long as there was no ICE guarding the inside.
〈Like I said, there isn’t any, right?〉
〈Yeah. There isn’t.〉
Once I confirmed there would be no further interference, I began properly examining the device.
What I had infiltrated wasn’t the server network, but a single CCTV guarding the front of E-7 Warehouse, so there wasn’t much information to be gained.
I first swapped the feed to looped playback, then took control of the CCTV to look around.
‘Nothing special.’
When I finished hacking and pulled out of the electrosphere, I opened my eyes.
“……?”
I met eyes with Herja, who was staring intently at my face.
“Hehe…….”
She was so close I could feel the breath coming from her small mouth.
[What is it?]
[Aahh……. N-no, nothing……! You were spacing out for so long, Diesel-nim……. I was wondering what you were doing……?]
[I was just checking the surroundings for a moment.]
[Ahh, I seeee……. I thought maybe…….]
Then Herja said something very strange.
[I thought you might have been using some special ability.]