#193: Gray Area 2

Yoon Tae-ha used her psychokinesis to pry up the marble tile on the floor. A carrier then appeared from inside the floor. Pushing aside the debris, she saw two 24-inch carriers stacked one on top of the other, neatly stored.

Nox, standing beside her, picked one up, and Yoon Tae-ha pulled the other from the floor. She hastily unlocked it and unzipped it. Finding the carrier, which seemed to have been hidden, finally allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Cheoltan prepared this,” she said.

Nox seemed unconvinced. “That man?”

“Definitely.”

Each carrier was meticulously packed with spare clothes and shoes, cases for pistols and magazines, wallets, and basic tactical supplies. The arrangement showed an effort to squeeze in as many items as possible. The wallets were thick with banknotes.

Tactical outfits, one male and one female set, were prepared. As wearable clothes appeared, Nox quietly pulled his tattered cloak from his shoulders.

“Check the items. I’ll be back in a moment.”

The man took his share of clothes and left the armory. Hearing his footsteps fade, she pulled out a first-aid kit from the bottom of her carrier.

Opening the box, she found the elixir Cheoltan had packed for her. There were five of them. Soon, she discovered a note attached to the inside of the first-aid kit’s lid. She hastily peeled it off and unfolded it, revealing the man’s hastily scrawled handwriting. The note was brief.

<“The enemy has discovered our location. We are relocating our base to the pre-arranged point. Everyone is safe. The crew members are also safe. The weather is rough and the waves are violent, but they are doing their part. However, the atmosphere inside the ship is chaotic.”>

“Ship” and “crew members” referred to Ark and its affiliated agents. Yoon Tae-ha breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed there were no casualties within the guild or the Alpha Team.

<“Do not reveal yourself. Assume all electronic devices are bugged. Contact us through an operator.”>

Her eyes welled up as she read the last sentence.

<“I pray that you are alive and reading this.”>

Missing agents in anarchist zones were generally processed as officially deceased faster than those missing elsewhere. This was due to the judgment that the probability of their survival was extremely low.

Cheoltan had left this behind, even knowing the possibility of his own death. He hadn’t given up a glimmer of hope. With an even heavier heart, she put the note away.

Afterward, she changed into clean clothes. The attire fit her perfectly. As she was putting on a vest reinforced with light bulletproof material, Nox returned, neatly dressed.

He had managed to procure two large backpacks, and he was even wearing a hat and sunglasses, seemingly to conceal the color of his eyes. He set one of the bags down in front of her. Yoon Tae-ha began to pack her selected belongings into the bag Nox had brought.

“We need to go find the deceased woman’s belongings.”

“My...”

She started to say “my mother” but quickly changed her words. “Could there be important weapons among the belongings left by Researcher Hyeon Yi-jeong?”

“She was a brilliant researcher. It’s unlikely that the items such a woman left behind as she was dying would be mere toys for a young child. She surely left you clues to track the enemy. You must get your hands on them before anyone else does.”

“Your brother seemed close to her.”

“That level of closeness was unexpected even for us.”

Thinking of Raphael made her feel uneasy. He had helped her mother, but he had given her a ring that drained her stamina.

Did he decide not to care about other people’s lives after Hyeon Yi-jeong’s death? Perhaps he harbored negative feelings because he thought Hyeon Yi-jeong died because of her. Since the person to ask was dead, dwelling on the questions was pointless.

“I will modify the design of the ring.”

Just then, Nox extended his hand. Yoon Tae-ha, having roughly finished packing, reluctantly handed him the ring. The black ring began to spin rapidly clockwise on the foreigner’s palm. Then, black lines resembling spider silk shot out. Nox skillfully manipulated them.

“It’s designed to quickly drain stamina. It’s a trap that’s hard for your eyes to notice.”

“What will improve if you fix it?”

“Have you ever felt your stamina drastically deplete when using a specific technique?”

“When I manifested a shield, I felt like I was drained.”

“The same thing will not happen again in the future.”

The lines, which had been forming irregular shapes, soon changed into unrecognizable characters. Nox reached out and modified the appearance of a few letters floating in the air.

“Is my brother sad that he didn’t help you?”

“I was just surprised.”

Having finished the modifications, Nox returned the ring to its owner. Its appearance remained unchanged. She put it on her index finger and said,

“There’s a place I want to check by myself. Meet me on the rooftop of this building in an hour.”

________________________________________

The first place she headed was a street lined with bars. She planned to enter Lightning Rod Street, where newspaper vending machines were installed, through there.

There was much she needed to find out: why the city had turned out this way, when the Black Lion had left, and where the Special Forces and Cheon Geon-yeong currently were.

Laborers, finished with their day’s work, stirred through the alleys, chatting noisily as they returned to the city. Three heavily drunk men were in front of her. Yoon Tae-ha lowered her head to avoid unnecessary trouble. Just then, the man in the middle shouted happily,

“...It’s a good thing they left! If those guys had stayed, we would have had to move to a new city!”

“Are you sure the Fire Mage is gone too?”

“Definitely! I got confirmation from the混宰 (Honjae)! How many times do I have to tell you I have a girlfriend on their info team?”

“Even a less-evolved guy like you has a girlfriend. Amazing.”

They were loud men. Yoon Tae-ha passed them, then stopped for a moment, focusing on her hearing. Then she changed direction and stealthily followed the men. It was fortunate that there were many people on the street.

“What’s up with that bastard? Does he have a grudge against the lab? Is he someone who bet his life on stocks? Is it just to vent his anger?”

“If he were an industrial spy, he wouldn’t have attacked so openly. He was blazing with fire from head to toe, as if he wanted to advertise his whereabouts... And he’s got good stamina. Whether a psychic or a normal person, being young is indeed good.”

“I’m just grateful he’s gone now.”

The men changed the topic, exchanging news that the daily wage for collecting waste from the destroyed lab was quite good. Yoon Tae-ha stopped following them and moved to Lightning Rod Street.

Lightning Rod Street had physical currency newspaper vending machines for those who didn’t use electronic accounts. Standing in front of a red vending machine, she inserted a banknote and pulled out a newspaper. Then, she teleported to the rooftop of a nearby building and immediately unfolded the newspaper. After frantically scanning the articles, Yoon Tae-ha’s hand, holding the newspaper, dropped powerlessly.

There were two articles about Cheon Geon-yeong. His identity seemed to have been revealed within the psychic society. The man who could use both abilities was given embarrassing nicknames like “savior” and “messiah.” People praised him unstintingly, as if they had been waiting for such a being for a long time.

There was also an article about Ark’s internal affairs, published after the body of missing agent Iroa was found.

One of Ark’s agents, identified anonymously, was interviewed stating that the suspect in Iroa’s murder was highly likely an insider. Yoon Tae-ha realized how Ark had decided to handle Iroa’s case. The hand holding the paper trembled faintly.

She immediately took the newspaper and urgently headed for their meeting place, where Nox was waiting for her. As his gaze landed on the crumpled newspaper, she blurted out,

“I’ve been named as the culprit in Iroa’s murder.”

Nox also seemed to have grasped what was happening while Yoon Tae-ha was away.

“It appears the Special Operations Department has raised suspicions about you. They used the fact that Kali’s spear looks similar to yours.”

“It was their plan to frame me from the start. From the Director’s perspective, this would have been a good opportunity to eliminate the true body, who knows too much.”

“True body?”

“It seems you haven’t heard the latest news.”

Yoon Tae-ha threw the newspaper to him. Nox unfolded the crumpled paper and began to scan its contents. She tried to wait calmly, but it was impossible.

“A psychic who was named as a suspect was found in the basement of a research lab. In a weakened state. Ark began an investigation into her, and they came to a truly surprising conclusion.”

A violent impulse to destroy everything simmered within her. She hated herself for thinking, every time she faced misfortune, that nothing worse could happen, and to just endure.

She fidgeted with the wristwatch Cheon Geon-yeong had given her, trying not to lose self-control. But the more she thought of him, the more cruel her situation seemed. The moment when her anxieties, which she had dismissed as delusions, became reality. It was impossible to act calmly.

“The psychic active in Ark was a chimera created by Orca, and she worked as a spy for five long years. During that time, the ‘true body’ was confined in Orca’s secret lab and became a test subject. The article states that the moment the ‘true body’ and the chimera were swapped is presumed to be five years ago during the battle with Kali.”

Nox lowered the newspaper and affirmed with disgust toward the enemy,

“The Director intends to swap your position with the chimera’s.”

At that moment, one of the billboards near the rooftop flickered erratically, then extinguished with a pop. A darkness deeper than before settled upon their shoulders.

However, after a brief moment, Yoon Tae-ha managed to regain her composure, driven by the thought that she couldn’t show her loss of control, and asked,

“Is it possible for a chimera to have superior abilities to the true body?”