Chapter 7: A Deal with a Hacker
So that thing was an Electrosphere Spirit like Ar.
When I looked closely, intermittent grayish-white noise flickered off it, just like Ar.
Sis approached the spirit lying there, stroked the armor that looked solid, and said,
“This spirit is one I rescued from a certain corporate laboratory. So you could say it’s a free spirit that isn’t under contract right now.”
“A free spirit……. But even so, it didn’t return to the Electrosphere.”
At Diesel’s words, Sis nodded.
“Yeah. I’m not imprisoning this kid. It’s deliberately binding itself to the material world. As if it doesn’t want to return to the Electrosphere.”
“Why?”
She turned around and looked at Diesel.
“That’s what I want to find out. Through your spirit.”
Her expression was markedly serious, unlike before.
“My request is simple. I want the spirit you’re traveling with to try talking to this one.”
When Diesel gazed quietly at the spirit, Sis continued.
“I wish I could do it myself, but unfortunately, I don’t have a contracted spirit. My spirit sensitivity isn’t that great. I’m also a bit negative about commanding spirits through contracts. Ah, I’m not criticizing you. At least your spirit looks happy.”
She smiled faintly as she looked at Ar.
“And as you know, Electrosphere Spirits aren’t that common in the world. Hackers are the ones who usually deal with them, but those hacker bastards all have something wrong in the head. Aside from them, the only positions that handle Electrosphere Spirits are a small number of magicians like you, with high spirit affinity and a strong interest in the Electrosphere—and those people are even harder to find than hackers with sane minds.”
A bitter smile surfaced on Sis’s face.
“I want to save this spirit, no matter what.”
As I looked at her, I got a somewhat peculiar impression.
A hacker who would readily give up valuable items to save a spirit, in a world where gold worship was taken for granted.
Maybe it was similar to the environmental activists of the past.
‘Well, it doesn’t really matter to me.’
What mattered was the artifact Sis said she would give me.
If anything, this kind of work that didn’t leave a bad taste was welcome, no matter how many times.
“So you want to find out why this spirit is binding itself, right?”
“That’s exactly it.”
It was a simple task that only required communing with a spirit.
But I wasn’t satisfied with that.
‘Should I try pushing the deal a little more.’
With that thought, I said,
“And the compensation?”
“……?”
Sis looked at me as if I were saying something absurd.
“I believe I already presented that.”
“No.”
While meeting her eyes, I turned my gaze toward the spirit.
“I mean the compensation for when I free this spirit from its bondage.”
“What……?”
At that, Sis burst into laughter.
“Haha……! You’re already thinking that far ahead? That’s some impressive confidence.”
“…….”
“Fine. If you go as far as freeing the spirit, I’ll give you one more gift on top of that.”
That offer was way too vague.
As I was thinking that, Sis spoke as if she had read my mind.
“You won’t be disappointed. I guarantee it.”
“In that case.”
I called out to Ar in my mind.
〈Ar, what do you think?〉
〈Umm…….〉
Ar hesitated to answer, then circled around Skeljunger.
〈It is not hostile. But it is not cooperative either.〉
〈Is it sleeping or something?〉
〈Spirits do not sleep. It simply lacks the will to move.〉
Then at least conversation was possible.
〈Can’t you talk to it directly?〉
At my words, Ar slowly approached Skeljunger.
〈Uuuum…….〉
But soon, it drooped its shoulders and came back.
〈I feel bad.〉
Then it slipped straight into its master’s arms.
‘Looks like I’ll have to do it myself.’
I moved closer to the whale, placed my hand on it, and gently closed my eyes.
Then I began to feel some kind of energy swirling around the spirit.
‘This is…….’
What word would be appropriate to express it.
It was probably something that could be called ‘emotion’.
As I synchronized with Skeljunger’s state of mind, that emotion grew stronger and stronger.
It was like the sound of scenery rustling in the wind.
Like the orange glow of a sunset illuminating a mountain ridge at dusk.
Like the cold smell clinging to someone who had just come in from outside in midwinter.
‘Why would a spirit have memories like these…….’
〈Those are not the spirit’s own.〉
Not the spirit’s own.
From Ar’s words, which had read my thoughts, I realized something.
Right. These were memories I possessed.
More precisely, memories that surfaced as I synchronized with the spirit’s emotions.
That meant this spirit was currently reminiscing about the past.
A past that had once been peaceful.
‘What does that mean.’
I stepped a little deeper into the spirit’s mental imagery.
This time, negative emotions came rushing in.
Pain, loss, and regret.
Dark emotions, like facing the deep sea.
When I took a single step toward that swirling vortex, violent emotions crashed over me like waves.
Just approaching it slightly caused this much.
Sensing that it would be dangerous to go any further, I stopped the mental synchronization.
When I regained my senses and opened my eyes, tears had already formed at the corners of my eyes.
‘Hmm……. I see.’
Now I understood why the spirit was binding itself.
After organizing my thoughts, I spoke quietly.
“By any chance, that laboratory you mentioned……”
“Hmm?”
“Were there any other spirits besides this one?”
At that, Sis fell briefly into thought.
“Um……. When I went there, it was just this child.”
That answer was sufficient.
Looking at the spirit, I came to a conclusion.
“This spirit is repenting right now.”
“Repenting……?”
“It was probably mourning at first.”
I reached out and gently stroked the spirit’s skin, which was like armor.
“I don’t know how long ago it was, but there were a considerable number of spirits in that laboratory. And aside from this child, none of them survived.”
Countless lingering regrets could be felt.
Did beings like spirits also have something akin to family?
Skeljunger was trapped in deep guilt over not being able to protect them.
“Can you hold out your hand for a moment?”
While keeping one hand pressed against the spirit, I extended my other hand toward Sis.
She stepped closer and gently took hold of it.
“If you do this, you’ll be able to feel the emotions too.”
“…….”
‘Mental Transference’, a technique that could only be used by someone whose spirit sensitivity exceeded a certain level.
It was the ability to convey the emotions held by a spirit to another person.
“Ah…….”
As she directly faced the profound sorrow held by Skeljunger.
Sis let out a small, unconscious gasp.
“It’ll probably release its bindings once this repentance is over.”
“I see…….”
“Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.”
“…….”
After saying that, I let go of Sis’s hand.
Then, a completely different tone from before came from her lips.
“Poor child.”
A single tear fell from the corner of her eye and traced down her cheek.
“My name is Andreina Apergis.”
As if handling something precious, she gently stroked the spirit’s armor and whispered,
“I swear upon my true name.”
Then, without her gaze changing in the slightest, she threw out chilling words.
“Those bastards who were there. I’ll find every last one of them, tear them apart limb from limb.”
Even with me listening right beside her, she revealed her true name without hesitation and forged that oath.
Anyone could tell it wasn’t empty bravado.
What did Electrosphere Spirits mean to her?
It was clear that she cherished them enough to stake her name.
I felt that I should step aside to give the two of them some private time.
Just as I turned toward the elevator.
Little Sister called out to me.
“It’s different from the original terms, but…….”
With a flick of her hand, a round drone appeared from somewhere and began printing a card in midair.
“Take it. This is my small token of sincerity.”
She picked it up and handed it to me.
“If you show this to Fuzz, he’ll give you one item from the catalog for free, no matter what it is.”
Was this some kind of shop-designated selection ticket?
Items I hadn’t even dared to consider earlier because of their prices floated through my mind.
“I’ve already told them about the artifact too, so just go find it on your own.”
“Thanks. I’ll make good use of it.”
“Your name was Diesel, right?”
She gave me a faint smile as she looked at me one last time.
“Let’s meet again.”
“Sure.”
With that as our final exchange, I turned around and got onto the elevator.
‘Phew…….’
Letting out the breath I had been holding, I muttered quietly.
‘I should never handle spirits carelessly in front of that woman.’
Maybe it read its master’s thoughts.
Ar, who was in my arms, looked up at me intently and said,
〈Master, were you going to handle Ar carelessly?〉
〈No, well……. That’s not what I meant.〉
Crunch……!
While the elevator ascended, Ar bit my hand several times.
There had been some unexpected gains in the Underground Great Hall.
The ‘Cantra’s Sixth Molar’ I received from Sis was an exceptional artifact.
A tooth-shaped prosthetic that granted an enormous awakening effect when activated.
It let you think at an absurd speed, as if you had taken an awakening-type drug, yet the side effects were almost nonexistent.
The downside was that it had a limited number of uses.
‘I should only use it at the most critical moments.’
After receiving the item, I immediately had the artifact implanted in a makeshift operating room.
The newly replaced silver molar looked completely natural, as if it had always been there.
At the same time, I underwent a ‘port plug’ procedure that allowed me to connect to the Electrosphere.
Since it involved tampering with the brain, it did feel a bit unsettling, but I couldn’t keep wearing smart glasses forever.
In this world, the only people without port plugs were those with certain convictions, or a very small number who were congenitally incompatible with electronic prosthetics.
From young children to elderly people with half-white hair, even beggars wandering the streets had port holes drilled beneath their ears.
Lastly, after using the ticket I received from Sis to purchase a brand-new tactical durumagi with magic protection functions, I finished my shopping in the Underground Great Hall.
When I came back outside, a steady drizzle of heavy-metal-laced rain was falling from the pitch-dark night sky.
Standing on the soaked asphalt, I hailed a taxi and planned my next step.
‘Securing a place to live is the most urgent thing.’
I couldn’t keep staying in motels.
The electricity needed to feed Ar was the problem.
Before long, rumors would spread through the lodging industry about how any place a certain man stayed at would get hit with a massive electricity bill.
‘In the end, it’s money again.’
There was no time to rest easy.
I got into the taxi that stopped in front of me and headed for an unnamed dumpling shop in Sector 13-5.
“Good posture. You can rest when you’re dead.”
Boss Kim laughed heartily as he handed me a briefing data chip.
When I took it and inserted it into the newly made hole beneath my ear, various data appeared before my eyes.
“Do you want jobs that end quickly but pay small, or jobs that take a long time but pay big?”
“I’d like something fast with big pay.”
“You’ve got guts. For that, nothing beats this.”
As he waved his hand around, several ID photos of people appeared before my eyes.
“They’re wanted fugitives with bounties on their heads. Kill or capture, the pay’s about the same. The number of digits in your earnings depends on how dangerous the target is and how quickly you deal with them.”
The Dwarf stroked his beard and continued,
“They’ve all committed heinous crimes, so it should feel a bit less unpleasant taking them out.”
I flipped through the photos and began examining the targets.
A fanatic who kidnapped people to offer human sacrifices.
A drug addict who used runaway teenagers for digital drug experiments.
A psycho who paralyzed bodies through hacking and then cooked and ate human flesh while the victims were still alive…….
Looking at the list that kept appearing, it finally felt like I had truly stepped into the world of Ghostcatchers.