Ch.28Chapter 28 – Investigation

Traitors of Humanity.

When Eden was invaded by Hell, there were vile races who abandoned their human conscience and identity to side with demons.

Whether they desired the power to destroy others,

Were driven by madness they couldn’t suppress,

Or wished to continue their wretched lives in any shameful way,

Their reasons varied, but they were consistently dangerous and fearsome enemies.

The people of Eden called them Mains (魔人, Demon People).

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, part of the Papal administrative body, dispatched inquisitors to judge these Mains.

But there weren’t enough personnel to chase all the Mains, and each Main was terrifyingly powerful, so their numbers only grew over time. Despite the inevitable doom awaiting Mains, humans couldn’t resist immediate temptation.

Evil deity worshippers, demon contractors, and the fallen are typical examples of Mains.

Evil deity worshippers served the demon god Rohim and attacked humans. Though individually weak, they never traveled alone. Academic groups studying mysticism would glimpse forbidden knowledge and collectively descend into madness, forming evil deity worship groups.

They would massacre entire villages as sacrifices or conduct wicked rituals within city walls to summon high-ranking demons from Hell. Disguised as ordinary citizens, they were troublesome entities for feudal lords.

Those who contracted with demons were mostly mages. During the “Mage Massacre” era when the fallen indiscriminately hunted and slaughtered mages, many made pacts with demons to escape being targeted.

Gaining knowledge from Hell, they became black mages. Their magical power corrupted into dark magic, and their brilliant minds filled with contempt for humanity. Having glimpsed evil truths, they craved more knowledge. They would commit any evil deed to obtain demonic wisdom.

Even clergy couldn’t escape life’s temptations. Clerics who abandoned Eloach to serve the evil god Rohim were called the fallen. Priests became dark priests cursing the light, and holy knights became dark knights wielding demonic swords.

Even the most noble holy knights of the era sometimes turned to darkness. Originally, the deeper their faith in Eloach, the greater magical power they gained.

The higher a bird flies, the deeper it falls.

***

“Civilization’s Military Power stat stuck at Level 0, 99.9%. What does this mean…?”

“A-rank Hunter Yeo Dong-yeon appears on ‘A Day in a Hunter’s Life,’ achieving 16% viewership!”

“Korea’s only S-rank Hunter, Kim Jae-min. Is it right to keep sending him abroad?”

“Debate intensifies over S-rank Hunter mercenary theory.”

“JG increases defense budget again. Is this acceptable?”

“First-term Congressman Han Moon-seung establishes orphanage. One good deed after another…”

The mouse about to click on the sensational headlines suddenly stopped.

‘Let’s look at this a little later… First, I need to finish Cha Eun-kyung’s request.’

Shin Jae-hyuk exercised a bit of self-discipline to suppress his curiosity. His motto as a problem solver was to focus on work during work hours. Instead of clicking the news links, he moved the mouse pointer to the search bar.

He typed “Incheon Port” and pressed enter. Search results unfolded. His eyes scanned the list until they fixed on one item.

“Incheon Port decides to close some container terminals.”

It was news from a few weeks ago. In a peaceful world, it would have been quite newsworthy, but in today’s world, it was just one of many stories buried under more sensational news.

Following his intuition, he clicked the hyperlink. The screen filled with the article text. His sharp eyes scanned down the page.

“Incheon Port decides to temporarily close some facilities.”

“On March 12, Incheon Port finally decided to temporarily close some facilities including docks and container terminals… Professor Jo Park-sun of Inha University’s Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department expressed regret, calling it ‘an unavoidable measure.’ Professor Jo explained that due to the impact of the ‘Kraken Incident’ in the Pacific Ocean in February, international trade has slowed… The closed terminals range from 1G to 9M, totaling 54…”

“Hmm.”

Gates mostly opened on the ground near densely populated cities and residential areas. Almost as if showing a determination to exterminate humanity by any means.

But not all gates were like that. In some regions, gates appeared over the sea, and some appeared in high mountain areas. And monsters emerging from such gates could occasionally swim through the ocean or fly through the sky.

Hunters dispatched to deal with them handled most cases, but some monsters successfully escaped and disappeared. Though such incidents were rare, they became an invisible terror and a real threat to maritime and air trade. The incident where a giant octopus demon escaped to the Pacific Ocean and destroyed several cargo ships proved this threat.

“Are there any more related articles?”

Shin Jae-hyuk searched through the results but found only two or three more articles with the same content, nothing new.

“Doesn’t seem like there’s anything else to find…”

Having given up on finding new information from the news, Shin Jae-hyuk began the next phase. It was time for professional and illegal work.

“Ah, found it.”

While searching through internet communities, he discovered a post presumably written by a member of the Black Snake Faction. It was a boastful post about being promoted from a low-ranking position within the organization.

‘I can’t tell if it’s true or not, but it’s worth a try.’

He copied the poster’s ID and pasted it into a personal information tracking program. It was a program combining the National Intelligence Service database with web crawling and macro technologies.

When he ran the program, a circle spun around, and profiles of individuals likely to be the account owner were listed.

“Not this person, not this one either…”

Comparing information and filtering one by one, Shin Jae-hyuk finally reached one profile.

“Good. This looks like our guy.”

The person was named Oh Dong-su. He enlarged one of the profile photos. It was a selfie the man had posted online.

The man in the photo had a tattoo on his arm. A black snake tattoo wrapping around his forearm. It was shaped like a viper with its fangs piercing where the wrist artery passes.

‘This must be the Black Snake Faction’s logo.’

Convinced by the snake tattoo, Shin Jae-hyuk pulled up Oh Dong-su’s information. After checking the IP address of the computer he frequently accessed, he skillfully attempted to access his computer.

“Oh. Lucky me.”

Fortunately, the target’s computer was turned on, allowing him to infiltrate. Shin Jae-hyuk searched through various folders.

After examining some files, he concluded that the man was likely a low-ranking member of the Black Snake Faction. No useful information emerged. He needed to check a higher-up’s computer.

“There must be a computer where important files are collected.”

Organization management requires accounting, even for criminal organizations. Somewhere, there must be a computer belonging to an executive who stored those accounting documents.

Shin Jae-hyuk typed rapidly. Traveling through the network, he infiltrated another PC connected to the same network. It would be a computer in the same building as Oh Dong-su.

“Damn, this person is a dead end too.”

Another low-ranking member. Still, the fact that this computer’s owner was also a Black Snake Faction member confirmed that the building using this network was definitely a hideout of the faction.

He repeated the same process to find an executive’s PC. The tedious process continued.

“Shit… So many people. Oh!”

After several hours, he finally found a computer belonging to someone who appeared to be an administrative executive.

“Finally!”

Shin Jae-hyuk, delighted to escape the repetitive task, checked his findings.

===

C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Administrative Work

-Member List.xlsx

-March Transaction History.xlsx

-March Collection History.xlsx

-Precautions.hwp

…

===

First, he clicked on the Member List file at the top.

Under the name Ryu Chang-geun, there was an organizational chart organized by department like a company. Shin Jae-hyuk quietly repeated the name of the Black Snake Faction’s chairman. Ryu Chang-geun… Okay. Memorized.

“The combat department’s personnel has increased dramatically over the past few months. Did they arm them with guns?”

Shin Jae-hyuk then checked the next file. An Excel file named March Transaction History.

“A file summarizing smuggling activities.”

He quickly scrolled down to check the contents.

===

Transaction # | Date | Item | Quantity | Location

…

21329 03.15 Log 1 7G

21330 03.15 Dog Food 5 5I

21331 03.15 Supplement 2 8K

21332 03.16 Log 1 2H

…

===

The transaction history was full of smugglers’ code words. As the scroll moved down, Shin Jae-hyuk’s face rapidly hardened. “Dog food” was code for firearms, and “logs” meant corpses. What this record revealed was clear.

The Black Snake Faction was trading large quantities of guns and bodies.

“Are they using money from organ trafficking to buy ammunition? Disgusting.”

The act of buying and selling humans made him nauseous. It was a human issue before being a holy knight issue.

“Just as the lady said. There is something going on…”

Smuggling was actively taking place. Especially, the quantities of “logs” and “supplements” were substantial.

“But what is ‘supplement’?”

Even for Shin Jae-hyuk, who knew most underworld terminology as a problem solver, this was an unfamiliar code word.

“That’s something I’ll have to find out.”

His focus continued to the strange symbols in the location column. Pairs of numbers and letters. 7G, 5I, 8K, 2H. What was the relationship between these four combinations? Did they indicate some coordinates?

He racked his brain, struggling. Something, something seemed about to come to mind…

“Ah! That article!”

He exclaimed as he recalled the news article he had read hours ago. The article about closing some terminals at Incheon Port.

“…closed terminals range from 1G to 9M, totaling 54…”

“They’re terminal numbers! Yes, the Black Snake Faction has been trading in the closed container terminals!”

Shin Jae-hyuk quickly accessed the Incheon Port Authority website. He wanted to confirm if his guess was correct.

First, he checked the officially registered port usage records. As reported in the article, the terminals were indeed recorded as being out of service.

Shin Jae-hyuk rapidly hacked into Incheon Port’s control computer. The firewall was easily breached, giving way to Shin Jae-hyuk.

“As expected, no usage records here either.”

It seemed that the Incheon Port management was unaware that the Black Snake Faction was secretly using the port. Field supervisors who received bribes must have omitted reports.

“Then, this time.”

Shin Jae-hyuk disabled several more layers of port security and checked the electricity usage by terminal.

“Just as I thought…”

Despite being supposedly closed container terminals, there were traces of massive electricity usage. And on the exact same dates as the Black Snake Faction’s smuggling operations. There was no doubt.

Having detected the pattern, Shin Jae-hyuk carefully examined the transaction dates in the Excel file.

One day, two days, one day, two days.

“If this pattern continues, the next smuggling date is… tonight?”

It was just a few hours away. Shin Jae-hyuk quickly opened a map.

From home to Incheon Port was about 40 minutes by taxi.

“That’s enough time.”

Shin Jae-hyuk copied all files that might help with arresting the Black Snake Faction and turned off the computer. Then he changed into black clothes and prepared to leave.

It was time for field practice.