Chapter 173

Ample funding was the surest way to enrich a player’s heart.

This was true not only for games but for Trials as well.

The more money one had, the wider the range of strategies available for the conquest.

The Young God had caused a massive accident, but since it had already happened, my only thought was to make the most of.

The Young God was equally thrilled, captivated by the gold coming to life before its eyes.

Pushing back the Young God, who was frantically trying to burst out, I pointed the camera at the monsters.

Then, I belatedly noticed a gaze.

Cecilia was staring intently at me, pulse gun in hand.

She had been standing far off, tinkering with the circuits of the kiosk.

But in my excitement, I shouted for the Captains.

My voice had been loud enough for Cecilia to hear.

Cecilia approached me, leaping across the display shelves as if they were stepping stones.

Holding a light in one hand and the pulse gun in the other, she asked,

"You’re filming, right?"

Without waiting for an answer, she immediately began setting up the lighting.

I decided to secure the gold in front of me first.

As for the Captains, they were already moving with practiced ease, having rolled through several Trials with me.

Mo Hae-in used the Black Moon Blade to fish out slates rolling on the floor from among the monsters, and Kwak Han-mook was already picking out a monster he liked and thrusting a boom mic toward it.

"Hyung-nim. Let’s film this guy first."

The way the word Hyung-nim flowed naturally from Kwak Han-mook’s mouth as he pointed the boom mic at a writhing tentacle was quite seamless.

Since he often called me Hyung-nim as a joke, it didn’t feel particularly awkward to me.

Just as I was about to start filming the tentacle monster Kwak Han-mook had chosen...

Clunk. The display shelf I was standing on shook violently.

I realized a slight problem had occurred.

The monsters summoned by the Young God had a great interest in me.

However, it wasn’t the good kind of interest.

I could feel a greedy hunger emanating from the monsters creeping toward me.

They wanted to tear me apart and eat me.

Every single monster swarming the giant convenience store extended a gloomy aura toward me.

Just as a tentacle, having climbed the shelves with fierce intensity, was about to wrap around my ankle

Boom!

A violent collision occurred.

I looked down in bewilderment.

With prayer beads wrapped around my waist, I was floating in mid-air; below me, the Black Moon Blade had split the display shelf in half.

Beside it, a tentacle hit by a pulse gun beam was writhing in pain.

"Holy shit. You almost became an actual roasted chestnut."

Kwak Han-mook confirmed my safety with colorful language.

Mo Hae-in, gripping the Black Moon Blade, glanced up slightly at Cecilia.

The two women, who had attacked the tentacle simultaneously, stared at each other for a moment.

Cecilia prepared to fire the pulse gun at the tentacle again.

Holding the camera, I shouted urgently,

"Don’t kill them!"

In my haste, the informal speech slipped out. I began bossing around the high-and-mighty Captains with the mindset of the Young God.

"I’ll film while suppressing the monsters. Can you control the boom mic and lighting with the prayer beads?"

"Fuck yeah, I can."

"Good. Noona, make sure the monsters can’t get close to me. But don’t kill them."

"Don’t worry and just film, Chestnut. I’ll make sure not a single hair on your head is touched."

"And Hae-in! After you hit the slate, please help Noona keep the monsters in check."

I looked at Mo Hae-in with somewhat anxious eyes.

Seeing my face, Mo Hae-in let out a small chuckle and replied,

"Got it."

Fortunately, she didn’t use that title. I felt inwardly relieved and tightened my grip on the camera.

The filming began in earnest.

With incredible control of the prayer beads, Kwak Han-mook moved the boom mic, the lighting, and me all at once.

He skillfully avoided the monsters rushing at me, capturing the perfect angles for filming.

Feeling as if I were suspended by wires, I captured the monsters’ movements realistically, incorporating high-angle shots.

Meanwhile, Cecilia and Mo Hae-in moved busily to prevent the monsters from interfering with the shoot.

However, accidents kept happening.

Zzzzt!

At the same moment Cecilia fired her beam gun, Mo Hae-in swung the Black Moon Blade.

The two women’s eyes met. Mo Hae-in stared at her silently. Cecilia spoke nonchalantly.

"My mistake."

The pulse gun beam had narrowly grazed Mo Hae-in.

After staring at Cecilia for a moment, Mo Hae-in swung the Black Moon Blade without breaking eye contact.

"You should be careful too."

She replied in an indifferent tone, brushing away a monster trying to entangle everything like thread.

"Because I think I’m about to make a mistake soon, too."

Witnessing this, the Young God inside me burst out and screamed,

"My subordinate..!"

Just as it looked ready to punish Cecilia on the spot, Kwak Han-mook yanked me back with the prayer beads.

Pulling me to his side, he made a half-hearted attempt to stop it.

"Geez, Hyung-nim. She said it was a mistake. Let’s just let it slide."

But his words were merely a facade; he was subtly egging the Young God on.

Having barely calmed the Young God down, I called out to Cecilia.

"Noona..."

"My Casta?a! Sorry for startling you."

Cecilia replied with a tender voice and gaze.

But I knew her jealousy.

While she would never deal a fatal blow to Kwak Han-mook or Mo Hae-in, I could clearly see a future where she would continue to poke at them.

If Cecilia actually ended up hurting my subordinates...

I didn’t think I could stand it.

In the end, I spoke to her as if I was reasoning with her.

"I told you, they’re my siblings."

The moment I said that, Cecilia’s expression stiffened. She looked at me and slowly moved her lips.

"I’ll be careful."

Then, she averted her gaze.

I wanted to soothe her, but there was no time.

First, I had to finish the filming quickly.

I worked the camera without a moment’s breath.

Knowing exactly how to edit the footage to make the most money, I captured only the necessary cuts with precision.

And finally, the moment the last scene was filmed.

"That’s a wrap, so now..!"

Before anyone could suggest withdrawing, it happened.

The moment I declared the end of filming, Cecilia pulled out another pulse gun and held one in each hand.

Nimbly changing the settings of the pulse guns, she immediately pulled the triggers.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Beam rounds flew in all directions like a machine gun.

After the frenzied burst fire ended.

Not a single living monster remained in the convenience store.

Slowly lowering the muzzles, Cecilia turned to me and smiled brightly.

"Chestnut."

She whispered in a voice that was both sweet and eerie.

"Shall you and I have a little chat, just the two of us?"

I had been planning to soothe her anyway.

But before I could answer, Mo Hae-in called me.

Using that title...

"Oppa."

As I stood there, dazed as if my soul had been ripped out, she continued nonchalantly.

"Let’s talk together. I can’t let you go alone."

Swinging the Black Moon Blade downward to shake off the sticky fluids, she spoke without blinking.

"That unnie is weird."

***

The video caused a massive sensation.

I sold it exclusively on the condition that photos be published in the newspaper and the video be aired on a TV channel of the same conglomerate; it achieved numbers I had never even seen in the game.

A phenomenal number of copies sold, staggering viewership ratings, and incentives that could be described as a windfall of money poured in.

There was enough money left over even after paying the restoration costs for the ruined convenience store.

Furthermore, the Captains and I experienced a massive rise in social status.

[Labor Grade: Level A.]

We had jumped from Labor Grade Level E straight to Level A.

"Chestnut! You worked hard!"

I looked at Cecilia, who was as happy as if it were her own achievement.

She had come to the shelter, and we were talking privately in a room.

Although we had filmed a great video in the midnight convenience store, the relationship between Cecilia and the Captains had become irreparable.

That day, I had barely managed to pull Cecilia away as she tried to quietly fire her pulse gun, and I had hurried back to the shelter with the Captains.

Since then, Cecilia and the Captains had been ignoring each other under a tacit agreement.

Kwak Han-mook would occasionally offer a breezy greeting or try to start a conversation, but Cecilia didn’t particularly react.

I wanted to mediate between them somehow, but it was a difficult task.

Cecilia’s jealousy was considerable; she couldn’t stand it for a moment when I prioritized my subordinates.

For some reason, the Captains were subtly pushing back whenever Cecilia acted that way, making mediation even harder.

Worrying internally about what to do, I expressed my sincere gratitude to Cecilia.

"Noona, thank you."

It was entirely thanks to her acting as an excellent intermediary that the story made it not only to the newspaper but to TV as Cecilia shrugged and replied,

"You’re the one who did well. You have to be more careful from now on."

Once it became known that a rookie stringer had covered this story, he immediately received an enormous amount of attention.

Interest was focused on who on earth had covered such a scoop.

If it were revealed that the rookie stringer was a Young God, future reporting would become difficult.

It seemed I would have to move carefully to avoid attention as much as possible.

Although I was hiding in the shelter Cecilia had provided, I felt as if I were starting to be tailed.

Suggesting that we move our residence once more soon, Cecilia handed me a newspaper.

"And read this."

It was the Day News.

I expected to see articles about the Young God or the convenience store explosion, but a completely different story was dominating the front page.

Before I could even read the text, the massive photo caught my eye.

My lips parted instinctively.

It was the Tower of Hyper Eden.

However, as usual, it wasn’t in its pristine, noble state.

Jet-black lines were drawn haphazardly across the Tower. They were very familiar cut lines.

I hurriedly read the article.

[Exclusive] Mysterious Black Lines Engraved on the ’Tower’!

A strange phenomenon occurred at the Tower last night.

Dozens of black lines were simultaneously drawn on the Tower’s exterior walls.

According to witness testimony, the moment the black lines appeared, mechanical signals around the Tower were temporarily paralyzed.

The black lines in question remained for several seconds, looking as if the entire Tower had been sliced into rags, before disappearing like a lie.

The shock delivered to the entire city is immense.

This is because the target of the phenomenon was none other than the ’Tower’.

The entire city is in chaos over the incident that occurred in the absolute sanctuary where the Mad Messiah resides....

I skipped over the parts about the citizens of Hyper Eden being horrified and worrying about the Mad Messiah.

At the very end of the article, a tipster was mentioned. It had been reported by another stringer who covered mysteries.

I looked at the photo in the article once more.

’He must be lonely.’

I couldn’t even imagine how lonely he must be, separated and alone.

I felt as if he would be upset that I was only sticking with the other subordinates.

I wanted to storm the Tower right now.

To go there, pat his head, and praise him for waiting well....

’Ah, seriously, stop it.’

I pushed the Young God’s thoughts away.

Naturally, my desire to save Je Hyeon-oh was desperate.

But as I was now, there was no way to enter the Tower until the Black Block opened it.

With the Young God’s power, it might be possible to open the Tower’s door, but if I did that, I might disappear.

Or my body might not be able to withstand it before then.

Still, I didn’t think the Black Block was treating Je Hyeon-oh poorly.

Because it would know that I would never forgive it if it harmed him even slightly.

However, the fact that he couldn’t fly freely in the sky weighed most heavily on my mind.

How suffocating it must be for my subordinate to be trapped in the Tower....

With a heart full of worry, I sent a message.

[Lt. Col. Je, are you alright? I saw the article in the newspaper. Is my subordinate very lonely? You mustn’t get hurt.]

I was sending greeting messages to Je Hyeon-oh three times a day morning, noon, and night.

The messages might not even reach inside the Tower, but doing this was the only way both I and the Young God could feel somewhat at ease.

As I looked back at the newspaper with a clouded expression after sending the message, Cecilia called me.

"Chestnut."

"Yeah?"

"You’re a god, so why do you like and cherish your subordinates so much?"

She spoke as she took the newspaper away from me.

"Actually, that kind of thing... isn’t very god like behavior. For the sake of the future, it would be better not to be tied down by subordinates."

It wasn’t simply jealousy toward the Captains.

Cecilia was giving me advice out of genuine concern for me.

I think I understood how she felt.

Even now, I was taking reckless actions because I wanted to save my subordinate.

But no matter what I said, I wouldn’t be able to convince Cecilia.

So, I simply answered with a smile.

"I’m not sure myself."

Cecilia looked at me with somewhat yearning eyes.

She seemed to want to persuade me somehow, but after staring for a long time, she let out a long sigh.

"Have you decided on your next assignment?"

"Not yet."

With the convenience store video, I had skipped several steps in progress.

Since I had advanced straight to TV, the difficulty of the next quest was bound to increase significantly.

Just as I was recalling the reporting quests given for mystery themes...

Cecilia handed me an envelope made of luxurious paper.

It was the appearance of a very analog object that didn’t fit the cyberpunk world.

"Open it."

Taken aback, I took the envelope and opened it to find an invitation inside.

The moment I read the first line, I immediately looked up at Cecilia.

She looked at me with eyes mixed with tension, fear, and a hint of anticipation.

"Can you cover this?"

At that moment, a quest window popped up.

◆ Main Quest: Cover the greatest mystery of Hyper Eden at the Masquerade Ball.

[Find the banquet hall in the Central District using the map.]

[Caution! Your identity must absolutely not be discovered! Be careful not to show any signs of being from the slums.]

It was an invitation to a charity event hosted by the owner of Hyper Eden, the Mad Messia.