episode_0012

“참나… 누가 개새끼인 줄 아나.”

Ji-hoon was crouching on the stairs, grumbling.

Next to him was a small shop called ‘Laundry Shop’. As Sonagi went inside, he said, ‘Don’t cause trouble and stay still until I call you’ and then went inside.

At first, he thought it would come out soon, but Ji-hoon started getting bored when it didn’t come out for over 5 minutes.

‘Let’s try a quest… I think it’s to neutralize an ICE with a security clearance higher than common…’

The laundry shop happened to be on a street where a lot of people were passing by. No one was approaching the stairs where Ji-hoon was sitting, but…

Looking towards the main street, I could see quite a few people. Their clothes were either very flashy or bizarre, fitting the term fin-de-siecle, cyberpunk, but…

If you keep looking at them, you’ll start to think that they look pretty good.

‘hmm…’

Ji-hoon wiggles his fingers with serious eyes.

The smartphone screen displayed the ‘IDs’ of numerous people. Just like Sonagi’s ID was ‘Problem Solver-02077’, various IDs displayed in English, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese caught my eye.

Since I’m going to hack anyway, I want to hack women as much as possible.

Ji-hoon starts choosing IDs that look like ‘female names’ at first glance.

【ICE Grade: Poor】

[Do you want to hack?]

【ICE Grade: Poor】

[Do you want to hack?]

【ICE Rating: Poor】

[Do you want to hack?]

“What the f*ck… why is everything ‘sloppy’? Are you crazy?”

ICE is a means to protect against hacking. So, of course, you should upgrade your ICE level to protect yourself in the cyberpunk world where netrunners like you rule.

Ji-hoon is so dumbfounded that he presses his hand against the side of his head.

Is it because they are women? I had the same thought and checked with a few men, but since they were all rated ‘poor’, it was completely meaningless.

“What are you doing there?”

Just as Ji-hoon was falling into despair, a shower came out of the laundry shop.

“No.. I was just scanning the area to try something out, and why do the people living here have such low ICE ratings?”

“That’s because it costs money. There are a lot of people who don’t want to pay money to a ripperdoc even when their implants break down, so why would they care about security?”

“What the heck is Ripperdoc?”

“Ripperdoc… Don’t you know when you hear it? He’s a doctor who repairs. He fixes broken implants or replaces them with new ones. It’s so hard to get a license that all the guys working here in Incheon are just quacks.”

After finishing her cool explanation, Sonagi pointed to the laundry shop with her thumb as if to tell her to go inside.

“How do you level up to ICE? It costs a lot of money.”

“You need to change your brain chip. It costs a lot of money. The chips that the government supports are too common.”

The inside of the laundry shop was ordinary. There was a woman standing there with a kind smile on her face, which made me feel a little warm.

Sonagi passes by the woman and goes inside. After lightly moving the clothes hanging everywhere, he goes inside and sees a bright red door.

“Then I’ll get hacked by people passing by. Is that okay?”

“Why would someone who can disable and hack ICE, unless they’re an idiot, hack a passerby? It’s not like it’s going to make any money.”

“Ah…”

“The program is expensive, and hacking isn’t something that can be done easily. They’re risking their lives, so where in the world are there people who would risk their brains to make 2,000 or 3,000 won?”

Contrary to Sonagi’s words, Jihoon was not at any risk from hacking.

‘Wait a minute… I’m safe because I hack with my smartphone, but… these guys called net runners hack with the computer in their head… like chips? That seems really dangerous. Won’t their brains burn out?’

Just thinking about the computers we use today, it’s immediately clear that they’re dangerous.

When you play high-spec games, your brain chips get hot as if your CPU and graphics card are screaming for help. In this world, ‘hacking’ is a very dangerous skill.

“Rain shower. But what happens if you can’t neutralize this thing called ICE?”

“Uh.. You’re a net runner, so you know better, right? There are many different types, but there are some that can be infected with a virus and turn you into a cripple, or they can simply overload and turn your brain chip into a hot lump of iron. The worst ones are the ones with tags, but those are used by corporations, right?”

Sonagi put her hand on the red door to explain.

“If you get tagged, your location will be tracked. It’s obvious what the corporations will do with that, right?”

“I don’t even want to imagine it.”

Sonagi opens the door and Jihoon follows her in. The room doesn’t have the kind of interior you’d expect from a laundry shop. The wallpaper and floor are strangely overflowing with red glamour, and at the end of the room, an old lady with pure white hair is sitting.

She was typing or checking her monitor, wiggling her fingers while wearing large glasses, and she smiled slightly when she saw Sonagi and Jihoon come in.

“Are you the young man that Sonagi was talking about?”

“Ah… . Yes, that’s right, Grandma. ”

“Ho, hohoho.. What a healthy and smart looking guy, Sonagi would love that.”

“Ah, what the…! You’re talking nonsense! Hey, Grandma, tell me something. Quickly.”

Ha, Grandma. The woman who was called that still smiled and looked Ji-hoon’s body up and down.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a healthy man in Incheon. This old lady must have been acting up.. Hahaha, forgive me.”

The old lady speaks and raises her left hand. With a light tap, she touches the sky, and a red hologram reveals a map on the guest table in front of her desk.

“Can you see? It’s the biggest bank in Incheon. I can go in there alone and cause trouble, but I can’t take out the money, so I just made a plan.”

“Wait… Is this a real bank? I thought it was meant metaphorically. They don’t even use paper money or coins.”

Thinking of a convenience store, Sonagi showed the barcode on her wrist and used that to pay.

“Who uses cash these days? Of course, it’s electronic money. This bank is where the server that manages that electronic money is located.”

“Huh.. Then how do you get it to explode?”

Grandma Ha, who burst into laughter at the question, was soon holding a teacup in both hands.

She wiggles her finger while drinking yuzu tea, which smells strangely refreshing.

“Electronic money is invisible, so it is not easy to steal. All you have to do is upload the ‘laundry’ program we prepared to the server.”

“You can hack into a physical server and upload the program. The problem is that you have to access a closed network used by the bank.”

“So you’re saying that I have to see that server with my own eyes, and that I have to upload the program myself?”

Sonagi nodded. Jihoon felt uneasy at the thought that he had to do the hardest work, but he couldn’t help it.

“You’re saying you couldn’t rob the bank because you couldn’t find someone who could upload the program?”

“That’s right. The problem is that the company’s security guards are there, but even if you kill those guys and go inside, you won’t be able to hack the server, so you won’t be able to make any money. ”

Sonagi’s eyes, as she spoke to Jihoon, did not seem to be lying. They were the same as yesterday, and Sonagi was not the type to deceive anyone in the first place.

‘I don’t think I’m the only one getting screwed… If I go in, the rain will come with me.’

If there was anyone suspicious, it was ‘Grandma Ha’.

“Grandma, who planned this operation?”

“Haha, you’re being presumptuous. Of course I planned it. I was asked to rob the central bank in Incheon whenever I wanted, and I was just waiting for mercenaries who could do this.”

Ha, looking at Grandma’s kind voice and expression, I felt reassured, but on the other hand, I began to feel suspicious.

“Oh, don’t worry. The fixers won’t trick us. The fixers, me, and the clients are all in a symbiotic relationship.”

“Why?”

“The people who make requests don’t want to get their hands dirty or commit crimes themselves and get in trouble with the police or the government, and problem solvers like us don’t have many ways to get golden information.”

“Because it’s a win-win for both of us. There’s no reason to betray?”

“What good would it do if you decided to betray them? Rumors would spread among the Fixers, and if you get caught by Future Corporation or Lucky Venus, even if you run away to Japan or China, assassins will come looking for you?”

Ji-hoon was convinced for a moment. It was a chance to make a lot of money. If he missed this opportunity, he might have to live in Incheon sucking Sonagi’s breasts forever.

Of course, that’s a good thing too. It’s a lot happier than living a life of playing games in a studio apartment and working part-time at a convenience store.

But, there is a smartphone in your hand. An app that allows you to hack countless women in the cyberpunk world at will…

It would be a shame not to aim a little higher.

“Okay, I get it. Let’s do it. I don’t know how much I can make, but I’ll do it.”

“Oh, Grandma. She said she’d do it too. Request. Can I accept it?”

“I don’t know how many years I’ll have to wait to see Net Runner in Incheon. Sonagi, please.”

Ha, Grandma’s fingers move. Woo-wook! Ji-hoon’s smartphone rings with a sound.

──────────────────────────────

[Pixar’s Request]

☆ The requester wants you to hack the physical server of Incheon Central Bank. Please prepare thoroughly.

● How to complete the quest

– Complete all conditions below

Ⅰ. Obtain the blueprint of Incheon Central Bank.

Ⅱ. Find a way to connect to the physical server.

Ⅱ. Start the heist.

Ⅳ. Be sure to hack using the program requested by the client.

──────────────────────────────

‘Fuck this… I’m so confused…’

Although the story is divided into four stages, Ji-hoon was an ordinary young man from South Korea.

Turning a bank. That was a dreamlike story you’d only see in a million movies.

“Grandma, send the program to him.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone with an external device. Looks like they have some circumstances.”

Grandma Ha moves her fingers again while drinking her yuzu tea. The smartphone vibrates again.

“Uh.. Are you talking about this external device?”

“Yeah, that. In this day and age, there’s no one like you… Anyway, that. There’s no such thing as carrying an external device. I don’t know about old-fashioned net-slingers. ”

“Ho, hohoho! These days, you don’t see people carrying around such odds and ends. But I heard they do a good job, so I’ll believe them.”

It was a bit strange to see the two women playing with their smartphones as if they were new objects, but from their perspective, Ji-hoon, who didn’t use a brain chip, was the stranger person.

In Ji-hoon’s world, it was just like how people would think of you as a weirdo if you didn’t use a smartphone and carried a black walkie-talkie around in modern times.

“Anyway.. what’s up. I got the program. But Sonagi. Where can I get the blueprint and physical server locations?”

“We’ll have to figure that out from now on. But didn’t I tell you? This has been planned for quite some time.”

Sonagi puffed out his chest and snorted. It seemed like he was going to show off his skills without holding back.

“There’s a branch manager at Incheon Central Bank? This woman. See? Park Ji-hye. I know this woman’s house and commuting hours perfectly. ”

“Hey… You… ”

“What the hell, I’m going to kidnap her. The blueprints of Incheon Central Bank are in this woman’s head. It’s such important data that no one but the branch manager has it. Even when repairing, they only show it to her in parts.”

“But there’s no way the blueprint shows where the physical server is.”

“Don’t worry about that either. I can just extract it from the black box stored in the brain chip. You just have to hack the woman and upload the program as I tell you. ”

Sonagi said with a smile and looked at Jihoon as if to say, “Can you do it?”

This is a crime. Kidnapping a woman, stealing files from her brain, and going through her memory data, even though we don’t know exactly what they’re doing?

No matter how you think about it, it’s a crime. It’s not a petty crime like stealing a wallet, it’s a serious crime that will send you to prison if you get caught.

“That… Ah… Fuck.”

It wasn’t easy to say that I could do it. But when I saw Sonagi’s sparkling eyes looking at me, I couldn’t help it.

‘I was the one who said that. Damn it! Neo, you should go to Seoul so you can live a little more comfortably.’

Ji-hoon controlled himself internally and reached out his hand.

“Okay, let’s give it a try! How can I make a lot of money by living honestly!”