Vol 6 Chapter 23

#(2)

Jin Je-hwan roughly pulled the handlebar, sharply turning the motorcycle to the side. With a sharp sound of tires burning, the body twisted more than 90 degrees in an instant, barely stopping without crashing into the building.

The stunt-like motorcycle handling skills drew the attention of passersby, but the man didn't even glance at them as he pulled out the bike key, tucked it into his chest, and walked into the building. The receptionist at the counter, seeing Jin Je-hwan's face, quickly released the elevator restriction without asking anything, and as soon as Je-hwan got in and went up, she pressed the intercom to notify the president's office.

"The president's second son has just gone up."

[ Yes. I'll let him know. ]

The communication ended with a beep. The employee watched the elevator numbers changing as Je-hwan went up, muttering with a worried face.

"He always looked expressionless, but his mood didn't seem that bad... This is unusual. I work here partly for the pleasure of occasionally seeing that handsome face, you know."

While the elevator was moving, Je-hwan once again scanned the contents of the small VT electronic notebook he had taken out of his pocket.

[ [Summons] New important information related to the job has come in, so come to the headquarters immediately. - Seo-hwan ]

The job, of course, would be collecting information on Saturn's THE MIST. Although he had hardly shared any information he had obtained, Je-hwan had already predicted that his meticulous brother Seo-hwan and their father would have planted other informants here and there besides himself. It seemed that one of those tentacles had dug up some important information this time.

However, the reason for Je-hwan's hardened expression wasn't because of this. His eyes were on the screen of the notebook, but his mind was filled only with thoughts of the man he had been meeting before rushing out on the pretext of this summons.

- Ding.

While he was just opening and closing the notebook, unable to organize his chaotic thoughts, the arrival signal sounded and the doors opened. Je-hwan immediately opened the door of the president's office right in front of him and entered. Inside the office, his father and brother Seo-hwan were already sitting face to face. Although Je-hwan had barged in without knocking, their expressions showed not the slightest disturbance.

"Sit down."

As Je-hwan sat down in an empty seat among the sofas in the office, Seo-hwan narrowed his eyes, looking at his younger brother over his glasses.

"What's the new information that came in?"

Je-hwan got straight to the point. Although it didn't seem like a situation where the information would sink in well right now, he had to know this information for later.

"You probably knew that we've been creating many of our people in Saturn. This time, one of them in the GM department sent some quite useful information. This is it."

With his answer, Seo-hwan held up the bundle of documents he had spread on his lap. Je-hwan's eyes widened slightly as he read the writing on it.

[ It seems we'll be able to obtain information on the inspection log of operator access capsules installed in the GM department soon. Planning to attempt around the 23rd... ]

"The most crucial and mysterious issue was the problem of access capsule technology. We couldn't figure it out even by direct disassembly. If this person succeeds, we might be able to get hints about it from that data. Quite a big catch, isn't it? Along with this, information came in from other places too, but those were just trivial things about the game's interior, so this is all we got this time."

Seo-hwan, who had been carefully observing Je-hwan's expression as he nodded almost imperceptibly, smiled without hiding his cold gaze.

"But you haven't reported anything new lately. What have you been doing?"

"I remember saying that I wouldn't report separately until some definite progress was made."

The voice answering with an expressionless face was as smooth as if it had been prepared in advance.

"Right. That's true. But when I saw the information I happened to obtain recently, I couldn't help but have doubts."

Je-hwan stared straight back at his brother's eyes, which kept scanning him as if searching for something, even as he spoke in a leisurely voice. Sparks flew silently, like two hot saws clashing in mid-air.

"...I'm curious about that information."

"There's nothing I can't tell you. It was information about who that man from Saturn, Yoon Seok-ho, had been in contact with. And in the process, I learned a very unexpected fact. You probably know that there's a project Saturn is carrying out in secret, and the prevailing opinion is that it's probably related to a special capsule that no one has properly seen the reality of."

"..."

"I think the one directly moving this project is Yoon Seok-ho. But externally, Yoon Seok-ho is publicly in charge of another huge project. That's the main quest of THE MIST that was recently announced. So I thought he was putting out the main quest as a smokescreen while proceeding with that unknown secret project behind the scenes, but while I was looking for an opportunity to find evidence to support this idea, I found out that he had contacted a very unexpected number a few months ago."

At that moment, Je-hwan's eyes sank coldly. Seo-hwan smiled like a hunter cornering caught prey.

"Jin Je-hwan, why did that cunning man from Saturn call a number two months ago that was registered under the name of your maternal grandmother's sister's grandson, a number that doesn't actually exist? ...And with such good timing, right after you asked to remove the Circuit Eye that was following you."

Je-hwan's expression remained impassive. However, inside his cold exterior, his mind was spinning furiously, calculating the expected results depending on how he answered.

"What makes you think it was me who received that contact?"

"It can only be you. The name on the number is related to the maternal grandmother who raised you, and you're the only one with the skills to shake up the computer network like that. Do you have anything more to say?"

"..."