chapter 169
First, Kim Eun-yeon’s assigned Association staff and the shrine-maiden’s report had dispatched Association personnel.
It wasn’t only Association staff.
“Gun-woo? Ha-eun? What are you two doing here?”
“You came?”
“Ah, Mirae unnie!”
The Iron-Blood Guild, a guild that specializes in dealing with criminals, and…
“Guildmaster Shin Chae-geon. Is it really okay to touch this? Core Earth is an international company.”
“No problem. No matter how international a company is, illegally removing a doppelgänger corpse is plainly a crime.”
Like the Iron-Blood Guild, the Night Eagle Guild—also specializing in criminals and since the Taeguk Guild disbanded has become Korea’s number one guild—was controlling the perimeter.
“Where’s the driver?”
“The CCTV shows him eating at the restaurant next door. It looks like he fled when he saw there were a lot of people around the vehicle.”
“So he knew what he was carrying. Track him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Shin Chae-geon, guildmaster of Night Eagle, expertly controlled the scene. The atmosphere differed from that of the Iron-Blood Guild.
‘If the Iron-Blood Guild is close to a vigilante group, the Night Eagle Guild is closer to the police.’
The Iron-Blood Guild was a small elite group—mostly people who’d been victimized by criminals and rescued by them, who’d voluntarily gathered around leader Ji Hyung-man. Although many of their Awakened members were excellent fighters, they didn’t have abilities that aided investigations. In contrast, the Night Eagle Guild had many Awakened with investigation-supporting skills—pyrokinesis, telepathy, psychometry, and so on.
“Guildmaster.”
“What is it?”
“This truck left the Association about an hour ago, but I can’t read any events from before that. It looks like the memory was erased.”
“So that likely means the doppelgänger corpse in here was indeed one of the doppelgängers kept at the Association’s lab?”
“That’s right.”
The Association staff’s faces grew grim. If a vehicle carrying a doppelgänger corpse had plainly left the Association headquarters and yet the Association itself failed to notice the corpse’s disappearance, that was very bad.
“What? What do you mean… Yes. Yes… I see. Understood. I’ll report that.”
The Association staff member in charge of Kim Eun-yeon ended the call with a sullen expression. He must have contacted the Association headquarters; his face showed he’d heard something serious.
“They found everyone who worked in the lab that stored the doppelgänger corpses dead. All recording devices, including CCTV, were hacked.”
“…I see.”
“They must have planned the assault carefully.”
Even though many people had died, until just a moment ago nobody had noticed. That showed how covertly the operation had been carried out and how quickly the scene was cleaned up so no one noticed anything odd.
“Probably Oracle, yes?”
“Most likely.”
There aren’t many organizations with the skill to break Association security at that level. So it was natural Oracle would be a primary suspect. There were other candidates, but Oracle—possessing absurd technical capability—remained the likeliest. Yet…
“And then the driver gets caught while eating….”
“They probably didn’t expect anyone to search vehicles parked by the roadside, much less a Core Earth vehicle.”
“Not every person belonging to Oracle is necessarily competent, then.”
The finish was sloppy. The vehicle’s discovery may have been accidental, but the idea that someone transporting something as important as a doppelgänger corpse would park at the roadside and go eat… it almost looked like they wanted the vehicle to be found.
‘…I hope it’s not Albatross PMC.’
Albatross PMC were hostile to Oracle, and while extreme, they would accept any sacrifice if necessary. This incident could be Oracle trying to recover a doppelgänger corpse they’d used, or it could be Albatross PMC framing Oracle. That couldn’t be ruled out.
“……”
If Albatross PMC were behind this, it might be better to refuse an alliance with Richard, the Association Chairman of global Awakened.
‘No, that’s too far-fetched.’
That Albatross PMC could be involved was only a possibility. Besides Oracle and Albatross PMC, there was another organization worth suspecting. Thinking that, I gave an instruction via short-message to Yeon Mirae standing to one side.
“!”
Receiving my short-message, Yeon Mirae nodded, approached Shin Chae-geon and the Association staff, and asked:
“Is this vehicle really Core Earth’s?”
“…I’m not sure.”
“We’ll check.”
One of the Association staff who heard Yeon Mirae’s words made a call and gave directions to someone. It would take some time to get an answer.
‘The procedure’s complicated—probably won’t be resolved today.’
Confirming whether the vehicle was truly Core Earth’s mattered. If it was only disguised to look like a Core Earth vehicle, the problem was different than if it actually belonged to Core Earth. If it truly belonged to Core Earth, that company could be implicated, widening the scope of the investigation.
And I judged there was a possibility Core Earth was involved.
‘Core Earth… that company that was noisy for smuggling before the regression.’
I didn’t know exactly what they smuggled, but I knew many of Core Earth’s executives and even their chairman had been arrested in connection with smuggling. If it had been an ordinary product, they might have been able to cover it up by cutting loose ends, but for some reason Core Earth kept its smuggled goods and refused to give up, then collapsed completely. A doppelgänger corpse would be worth the risk for smuggling—so Core Earth could be a suspect.
‘…too many candidates.’
Oracle, the original owner of the doppelgänger. Albatross PMC, who might frame Oracle. The smuggling company Core Earth. Which organization carried out this operation?
‘I don’t know.’
All three had sufficient motive to steal the doppelgänger corpse. That made it hard to jump to conclusions.
“Let’s bring the vehicle to the Association. Investigating the Association’s lab will be more productive than investigating the truck.”
A psychometry user from Night Eagle Guild, who had just been examining the truck’s remaining memories, said so. Indeed, nothing more could be gained from the truck. If any clues remained, they would be in the lab where the doppelgänger had been stored and where the researchers were killed. Of course—
“Kids, you should head home now.”
There was no reason for us—still high schoolers—to follow to the Association, no matter that Sarang had found the vehicle.
“Yes….”
“All right….”
The kids looked uncomfortable about missing the conclusion of the incident, but they obeyed the adults and gathered their things. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to plan to sneak after everyone like characters from some detective comic.
After sending the kids away, Yeon Mirae turned to Shin Hae-jin with a grave expression. Feeling her gaze, Shin Hae-jin asked her:
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t look at the kids that way.”
“Could you avoid using such words that can be misunderstood?”
Shin Hae-jin sighed and watched the direction the children had left in.
“Specifically, I saw your disciples. Ah, those who use Aura, of course.”
The two people known publicly as Yeon Mirae’s disciples: Yi Ha-eun and Han Gun-woo. Shin Hae-jin admitted he had been looking at Han Gun-woo.
“He noticed I was watching him, too.”
Shin Hae-jin had been observing because he assumed Han Gun-woo was an Artist. Han Gun-woo—whose level was far above Shin Hae-jin—of course noticed Shin Hae-jin’s gaze, and ignored him.
“Haha… Everyone else tries so hard to get me to look favorably on them—this feeling is rare.”
How long had it been since he’d been ignored? Shin Hae-jin muttered something like that.
“…Enough. Let’s hurry to the Association.”
Yeon Mirae shoved Shin Hae-jin because she didn’t want to see a middle-aged man brooding any longer. The important thing now was going to the Association and finding clues. So all present—Association staff, Iron-Blood Guild members, Night Eagle Guild members—headed to the Association.
What they saw upon arrival was—
“My god…”
“Oh my…”
A blood-soaked research lab inside the Association building. It wasn’t merely stained with blood. The scene was so horrific that even many Awakened who had grown used to such scenes across multiple sites involuntarily closed their eyes.
“The police have arrived.”
“A murder happened here… ugh…!”
Police, who arrived to investigate following the Awakened, were taken aback by the scene as well.
“…They said they didn’t know the doppelgängers had been removed until we contacted them—so we thought they might have been quietly assassinated, but….”
This wasn’t just a stealthy infiltration assassination; it looked like someone had toyed with the corpses.
Everyone agreed with Shin Hae-jin’s observation. The bodies had been disassembled and their contents scattered—almost as if some monster that hated humans had ripped them apart beyond mere killing.
‘…Wait. Monster?’
A monster had been there—one too powerful for the lab’s personnel to handle.
“Doppelgängers! Where’s the doppelänger corpse now?!”
At that, Yeon Mirae shouted, and everyone nearby understood what she meant.
“But… that can’t be!”
“They were already dead and then the corpses were stored in parts. For such beings to escape….”
They had killed the lab researchers?
“Possible.”
An executive of the Association present pointed to the storage locker suspected of having held the doppelgängers.
“The bent, smashed part of the locker is warped from the inside out, right? That’s not damage made from outside in—it’s from inside out.”
If the doppelgängers had been feigning death… and the severed parts were able to move by themselves thanks to unusually strong vitality…
“They’d be enough to kill the researchers.”
But that wasn’t all.
“This wasn’t natural. It was intentional. And notice how the lab’s systems were all hacked at exactly that timing.”
“Whoever did it would also have the means to control the doppelgängers. They apparently unleashed them at the end of the hacking, then hid them and tried to smuggle them out by vehicle.”
An organization capable of controlling doppelgängers. Once again, Oracle. Everyone thought so.
“There’s no guarantee it won’t happen again! Burn the doppelgänger corpse now!”
“Besides that, there’s another problem.”
The head of the Korean Awakened Association started sweating and called someone.
“Not just Korea—similar incidents happened in other countries too.”
Because doppelgängers had appeared in places beyond Korea.
