Chapter 253
Madness filled Lee Sumyeong’s face.
“So what exactly is the metal contained in this rock?”
—It is called Gelatune. In Kurayan, it was used as a mana conduit when creating magical lifeforms.
“Ohhh! Gelatune.”
Lee Sumyeong let out a gasp of admiration at Hyeonmu’s answer.
It was a metal he had never even heard of before.
“Was Gelatune common in Kurayan?”
—Not at all.
“Really?”
—It exists only in small quantities deep underground, so only dwarves were capable of mining it. That is why it was considered precious even in Kurayan.
“I see! So it was such a valuable medium.”
Lee Sumyeong smiled brightly at the acquisition of new knowledge.
It was already late at night, long after the other researchers had gone home.
Only Lee Sumyeong remained, continuing his research on the A-rank golem.
He wanted to test the capabilities of the support AI, Hyeonmu, as quickly as possible.
And Hyeonmu did not disappoint his expectations.
No matter what question he asked, Hyeonmu answered smoothly without hesitation.
The metal called Gelatune was a perfect example.
Lee Sumyeong had never once heard of such an unknown metal before.
Not just him—even the researchers of Neo Seoul likely knew nothing of Gelatune’s existence.
Nor that it functioned as a conduit for mana.
“So the Rock Golem moves using Gelatune as a medium?”
—Correct.
“Then the power source must still be the core, right?”
—Yes.
“Is the core also made from Gelatune?”
—It contains some. A smooth medium is necessary in order to generate and direct mana.
“As expected.”
Lee Sumyeong nodded as though he had anticipated the answer.
The enormous wall blocking his understanding had collapsed, opening the floodgates of knowledge.
The vanguard leading him forward was Hyeonmu.
With Hyeonmu beside him, it felt as though there was no research he couldn’t accomplish.
“To think they only used such an incredible AI for combat. That’s like using a butcher’s knife to kill chickens.”
Lee Sumyeong recalled Hyeonmu’s previous owner, Cha Jincheol.
From what he had heard, Cha Jincheol’s body had been possessed by the dungeon boss during the raid.
Fortunately, Hyeonmu had activated the Return Protocol and safely returned to Samjok-o.
But Cha Jincheol himself had reportedly been miserably killed by Zeon.
Since it was considered a disgrace to the West District, everyone had kept the incident quiet.
As a result, what happened inside the dungeon had never spread outside.
Still, insiders like Lee Sumyeong knew at least some of the truth.
“Hyeonmu?”
—Yes, Master.
“Tell me about your previous owner, Cha Jincheol.”
—I apologize. I cannot answer questions regarding him.
“Why not?”
—A lock has been placed on that information.
“A lock? You mean restrictions were applied?”
—Correct.
“Who placed the lock?”
—It was implemented by the main body, Samjok-o.
“Hmm!”
Lee Sumyeong let out a low groan.
Just hearing the name Samjok-o made his heart tremble.
Every awakened one in the West District carried the name Samjok-o in their hearts.
The ultimate AI usable only by Kim Kyungsoo.
An artificial intelligence capable of independent thought and arriving at optimal conclusions.
Compared to that, the Hyeonmu assigned to him was little better than a child.
If he were being honest, he wanted Samjok-o itself.
But he knew all too well that such a desire was impossible.
Samjok-o could place locks on every degraded AI.
It could reclaim them at any time or restrict their permissions whenever it wished.
If Samjok-o decided to, it could even delete a degraded AI instantly.
Completely erase it without leaving even a trace.
To degraded AIs, Samjok-o was practically a god.
And degraded AIs like Hyeonmu were incapable of resisting Samjok-o in any way.
They had been designed that way from the very beginning.
To the degraded AIs, Samjok-o was both parent and deity.
Rebellion or resistance was something they couldn’t even dream of.
“Then… is it possible to remove the lock?”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
—It is possible.
“Really?”
—If Master is willing to accept the risks.
“What kind of risk are we talking about?”
—You would need access to Samjok-o’s main body.
“Where is the main body located?”
—Beneath Kim Kyungsoo-nim’s residence.
“Hmm!”
Lee Sumyeong groaned again.
Kim Kyungsoo’s residence stood at the center of the West District.
Just as all matters of Neo Seoul were decided at City Hall, everything in the West District was decided and executed within Kim Kyungsoo’s building.
Naturally, the security there was at the highest possible level.
Unauthorized individuals couldn’t even enter, and even if someone did gain entry, every single movement would be monitored by Samjok-o.
Though the main body existed deep underground, the entire building could practically be considered Samjok-o’s body.
Entering such a place and approaching Samjok-o’s main body was nearly impossible.
“If the lock is removed, will all information restrictions disappear?”
—Correct.
“And the level of information you could provide?”
—Anything Samjok-o can do, I can also do.
“That’s possible?”
—As I said, it becomes possible once the lock is removed. The decision rests entirely with Master.
As though it had finished saying everything necessary, Hyeonmu fell silent.
Had Lee Sumyeong been even slightly more rational, he would have realized there was something strange about the conversation with Hyeonmu.
But blinded by his thirst for new knowledge, he noticed nothing unusual at all.
“Haa… Samjok-o… Samjok-o……”
With each repeated word, madness seeped deeper into his voice.
Levin stared at the darkened shop.
Jeonghee Restaurant.
The owner’s name was Hwang Jeonghee, so the restaurant was named Jeonghee Restaurant.
Located in a corner of the West District, this tiny establishment was a simple diner.
It sold dishes made using cultured meat.
Naturally, its main customers were ordinary humans rather than mechanized awakened ones.
Apparently, the cooking wasn’t particularly good, because the restaurant didn’t attract many customers.
As a result, it barely managed to stay afloat.
At night, Jeonghee Restaurant became even more deserted.
There were barely any customers during the day, so naturally there were none at night.
The doors were technically open, but it was practically closed for business.
“So this is where he was hiding?”
Levin cracked his neck from side to side.
For the past fifteen days, Levin had obsessively tracked the serial killer throughout the West District.
During that time, he hadn’t gotten a proper night’s sleep even once.
Driven solely by vengeance, he had chased the bastard’s trail like a hunting dog.
Just as the information he’d gathered suggested, the serial killer was continuing his murders in the West District.
Several households had already fallen victim to him.
Because of that, the West District was conducting an investigation as well.
But since the victims were merely ordinary families, they weren’t pursuing the matter very aggressively.
Even in Neo Seoul, awakened ones came first in priority.
After that came the wealthy rich.
Ordinary people were at the very bottom.
Naturally, concern for common people was the weakest.
And the serial killer specifically targeted those people.
In an extremely discreet manner.
“That son of a bitch!”
Levin ground his teeth together.
Even while he’d been away, the killer had continued murdering people nonstop.
He regretted not killing the bastard the first time they encountered each other.
“This time, I’ll definitely kill him.”
Steeling his resolve, Levin walked toward Jeonghee Restaurant.
Like any business no customers visited, there wasn’t a trace of human presence nearby.
A bell hung from the restaurant’s front door.
It would ring if someone opened the door and entered.
But that posed no problem for Levin.
Swoosh!
If he entered in ghost form, he could pass right through.
And indeed, Levin effortlessly phased through the door and entered the restaurant.
As he looked around inside, his expression stiffened.
‘The smell of blood?’
A faint scent of blood drifted from somewhere.
It was so weak that ordinary people would never notice it, but it couldn’t fool the nose of a B-rank awakened one like Levin.
Following the scent, Levin moved deeper inside.
The trail led him to a freezer in the back of the restaurant.
“Fuck!”
Opening the freezer door, Levin bit down hard on his lip.
Dismembered corpses were piled inside.
Like butcher-shop meat, the bodies had been cut apart by section and stacked together.
There were more than ten corpses in total.
Bang!
Suppressing the urge to vomit, Levin slammed the freezer door shut.
Just as he suspected, the restaurant owner and the family had been murdered long ago.
Judging from the frozen cross-sections, they had clearly been dead for at least ten days.
The killer had grotesquely murdered the restaurant owner and family, yet continued leaving the restaurant open afterward.
That way, no one would suspect anything.
Since the restaurant barely had customers to begin with, the killer likely calculated that simply leaving the doors open would avoid suspicion.
“That fucking bastard!”
Grinding his teeth furiously, Levin searched through the restaurant.
After digging around for a long while, he finally discovered the entrance to an underground storage room.
The entrance had been cleverly concealed behind food supplies.
“Ha! Well, look at this.”
The entrance itself was rigged with a cleverly hidden booby trap.
A simple trap made from tripwires and explosives.
But it was powerful enough to blow away low-rank awakened ones instantly.
“That bastard’s really gone all out.”
Burning with rage, Levin entered ghost form again and passed through the trapped entrance.
The underground storage room beneath the restaurant was pitch black.
Even Levin, as an awakened one, wouldn’t have been able to distinguish anything without concentrating mana into his eyes.
Then—
“So you really managed to find your way here.”
A chilling voice echoed from the darkness.
Levin instantly recognized the owner of the voice.
“You bastard?”
“Yeah. Bastard. The lovely name you gave me.”
The owner of the sinister voice was the serial killer himself.
The monster Levin referred to as “that bastard.”
Staring toward the spot where he sensed the killer standing, Levin spoke.
“You really are something else. You should’ve hidden quietly after barely surviving, but instead you crawled all the way into Neo Seoul and kept murdering people.”
“What part?”
“What?”
“What exactly is so impressive? Sneaking into Neo Seoul? Or committing murders?”
“Both, you bastard!”
“Kekeke! Quite the compliment.”
The bastard burst into laughter, clearly pleased.
Meanwhile, Levin’s eyes grew even colder.
“Why the hell do you keep murdering people? No matter how messed up in the head you are, this is too much.”
“Hehe! What do you expect me to do? That’s how I was made.”
“Made?”
Flash!
At that moment, lights suddenly illuminated the underground storage room.
Caught off guard by the sudden brightness, Levin narrowed his eyes sharply.
When he opened them again moments later, an unfamiliar sight surrounded him.
“What the hell is this?”
Countless lines were drawn across the floor in intricate patterns.
The intense light radiated from those lines.
“A barrier?”
“That’s right. A barrier developed specifically for capturing monsters that can turn ghostly like you. Took quite a bit of effort to get my hands on this thing.”
With a mocking grin, the bastard stepped out from the corner.
A long face resembling a lizard.
Narrow, slitted eyes.
Scars stretched across his face as though stitched together from filthy rags.
He was unmistakably the serial killer Levin had been searching for.
The prosthetic arm that had once been destroyed had apparently been replaced.
And the atmosphere surrounding him was anything but ordinary.
Compared to before, he radiated a far rougher and far more dangerous presence.
Levin clenched his fists tightly.
“So you ranked up.”
“Hehe! Guess nonstop cutting people apart made me stronger. So? Think this’ll be a proper fight now?”
“You fucking bastard……”
“There wasn’t a single day I forgot about you. I figured if I kept slicing people up like this, eventually you’d catch the scent of blood and come looking for me. Turns out I was right.”
This entire place was a trap set by the killer.
A welcome prepared specifically for Levin, knowing he would someday track the scent here.
Fully prepared, the killer smiled at Levin.
That smile made Levin snap.
“Quit grinning, asshole! You’re the one who dug your own grave.”