Chapter 37 - Familiar Side Profile
Jin paused at the voice coming through the terminal.
Then, scanning his surroundings, he asked,
"...Have you been following me this whole time?"
If this were a drama Jin knew, the response would have been a clumsy "Of course."
But fortunately, Khalifa didn't answer that way.
[It's not like that. It's just...]
She trailed off.
Was that a small sigh?
Then, steadying her voice, she continued.
[This isn't something to talk about over the phone. Can you come to Anekdote?]
"Right now?"
[Soon, a Solo will be arriving there. Bring him and Baldy back with you. Think you can manage?]
As Khalifa asked this—
Jin, who had been glancing around, suddenly stopped as his eyes caught something.
Beyond a broken wall.
A single CCTV camera, mounted high on the ceiling.
The lens behind the plastic dome, void of presence, met his gaze.
Jin waved.
He didn't know who was watching, but a greeting seemed appropriate.
At the same time, he heard a soft chuckle in his ear.
[I'll take that as a yes. See you later.]
"Sure."
Just as Jin was about to pull the terminal away from his ear, a hurried voice followed.
[Ah, Jin? About the Solo arriving soon. That one's... a bit unusual. So, um... just don't be too surprised. Really hanging up now.]
"...What?"
Jin frowned at the now disconnected terminal.
Just then, a loud clamor erupted in the distance—
Shouts about finding the boss, catching the intruder.
A belated commotion.
Still more of them left?
Clicking his tongue, Jin glanced over his shoulder at the noise.
Of course, reinforcements didn't have to be stationed inside the building.
It wasn't surprising that more were arriving.
Releasing his grip on Baldy's collar, Jin clapped the dust off his hands and stood.
Ugh!
Ack!
Argh!
Guh!
Suddenly, cries of pain rang out in rapid succession—
Each in a different voice.
Which meant someone was taking out multiple enemies at high speed.
Then, with a final choked scream, someone tumbled noisily down the stairs.
"....."
A guard, blood gushing from his mouth, locked eyes with Jin.
There was a theory, once proposed by a certain doctor—
That the dying go through five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
The guard's eyes flickered through those stages at an accelerated pace.
Denial seemed to have passed.
Next was anger.
What was step three again?
Resignation?
A desperate attempt at reasoning?
As Jin pondered—
Crunch.
A slipper-clad foot stomped down on the fallen guard's face.
Hairy legs.
Hawaiian-style shorts and a matching shirt.
And lastly, the face.
A large black helmet.
With a visor that was actually a display screen.
And on that screen—
[Jin? Jin? Jin?]
The same name, three times, each in different colors, scrolling from the right to the left before reappearing.
Jin blinked.
What the hell?
That's got to be the Solo.
It took him just a second to accept it.
"I'm Jin."
The helmeted head clapped its hands.
The display changed.
[Nice to meet you nice to meet you nice to meet you]
"Oh, my eyes. Just once is enough, alright?"
As Jin replied, his brow twitched.
The guard, whom he thought was steadily progressing through the five stages of death, had apparently gotten too enraged about having his face stomped.
With fury twisting his expression, he extended an arm.
Given all the blood he'd lost, it was practically a last spasm—
Or maybe he had enhanced his body and was just that tenacious.
Either way, what mattered was the gun in his hand.
His shaking aim landed right between the palm tree patterns on the Solo's shorts.
Thud.
The guard's eyes widened.
Then, he stopped breathing.
A blade had embedded itself deep into his temple.
Jin was now sitting on the guard's back, was looking at the helmeted head.
A movement like a mirage, skipping all the in-between steps.
The way he spun the dagger, freshly pulled from the temple, in his hand was anything but ordinary.
"Oh."
Jin murmured in admiration.
Once again, letters flashed across the display like an LED billboard.
[Return, return]
Jin smirked.
At least it was shorter this time.
***
It had been a while since he'd been at Anekdote like this.
And even longer since he'd had cookies.
An array of treats, each looking more appetizing than the last.
Jin's favorite among them was the s'mores cookie—chocolate-based, and when split in half, marshmallow stretched between the halves.
First, it was sweet, which was always a plus.
Second, it reminded him of Choco Pies.
Honestly, Jin's age wasn't quite old enough to wax nostalgic over tear-soaked Choco Pies, but still, wasn't that one of the signature snacks from home?
So naturally, chocolate plus marshmallow always brought that to mind.
Of course, the handmade cookies tasted far better than mass-produced factory snacks.
As he took a big bite, relishing the sweetness spreading in his mouth, Khalifa let out a soft sigh, watching him in silence.
With a slightly weary look, she spoke.
"...So, to summarize, you were chasing down the truth behind the RumPumPumPum terror incident and naturally ended up at King's groom. Along the way, you got help from a BH editor."
Jin simply nodded.
If he answered out loud, crumbs might fly from his mouth.
After taking his time chewing, he finally swallowed and spoke.
"My turn now?"
Khalifa nodded.
"Ask whatever you want."
"Let's start with that one."
Jin pointed at the sofa—specifically, at the helmeted figure nodding off atop it.
On the screen behind them, against a night sky background, the words [Zzz…] scrolled by at a sluggish pace.
"Eric. Like I said, he's solo. If you hadn't moved first, he would've flipped King's groom upside down."
"...What's up with his face? Some kind of theme?"
Jin asked, staring at the onomatopoeia floating across the screen.
Kalifa, sharing his gaze, replied.
"Eric underwent a lot of physically taxing procedures a long time ago. He lost and sacrificed many things because of it, one of which was his voice. Since he can't speak, he expresses himself this way."
She shrugged and looked away.
"Even when offered a vocal implant, he refused—said it wouldn't be his real voice. So, what can you do? Annoying or not, it is what it is.
But despite how he looks, his skills are solid."
"What's his level?"
"Four."
Whoa.
Jin whistled involuntarily.
Higher than Fenrir.
Jin had picked up enough knowledge over time.
Now, he had a rough idea of what Level 4 meant.
Level 1: A promising rookie or decent fighter.
Level 2: Stronger than Level 1!
Level 3: Even stronger and a veteran!
Hmm.
Wait a minute.
Was this ranking system even meaningful?
At this rate, Level 4 would just mean better than 3 but worse than 5, so hold on a second!
What was certain was that Level 5 was fundamentally different.
At that point, they no longer appeared in the solo intranet, their numbers drastically decreased, and they began moving based on personal criteria rather than money.
Po had once mentioned that Level 5 marked a shift beyond a certain threshold.
But in the end, the conclusion was the same: Level 4 was better than 3 but not as good as 5—a pointless realization.
Damn it.
Jin scrunched his nose and spoke.
"Alright, I get that he's impressive. Next question. How did we all end up here? And why did Po take that bald guy?"
Khalifa didn't answer immediately.
She seemed to be gathering her thoughts, but rather than just standing there, she grabbed a bottle from the display, poured herself a drink over ice, swirled it around, took a sip, and then spoke.
"...Do you remember Eric Nilsson? Your first job."
Jin nodded.
He had already suspected similarities between that case and this one.
"Then this—? The extra—"
"The 1 million credits."
Jin answered without hesitation.
He had an uncanny knack for remembering things like this.
Wasn't that what let him buy Gravis?
"Right. 1 million credits. But I didn't give you that money just because you did a good job. It was a fair deal. More specifically, it was the price for Edmund Nilsson's body."
With that, Khalifa tilted her glass slightly, wetting her lips.
Her next words carried a subtle, sweet aroma.
"If you work as a Linker, there are moments when you have to dig deep into something. Information is power, after all. Back then, that 'something' happened to be Edmund Nilsson's corpse."
If it had been Jin from two months ago, he might have tilted his head and gone, Huh? A corpse?
But now, things were different.
Hadn't he seen firsthand what Jenny could uncover with just the single eyeball that Jecki had retrieved?
Because of that, he could roughly guess what Khalifa had been thinking.
Leaked arcane magic, the data chip containing it, and Berserk.
With all that in mind, wouldn't it have been worth investigating?
And judging from what she was saying, that was exactly how it had played out.
"It's not like I hit the jackpot from the start. As you know, Nilsson was just a small fry. And most records of him were destroyed because of Berserk. But what could I do? His body was the only thing I had. So I dug in, sifting through the tiniest scraps of evidence. After coming up empty-handed multiple times, I finally hit on something useful."
Jin leaned forward against the table and asked,
"And what was that?"
"The disappearance of a mercenary."
"Huh?"
"A man who went by the alias Rune Bear. Real name, Walter Gray. He told his comrades he was a pyrokinetic, but in truth, he was a distant relative of the Solard family. Despite his diluted bloodline, he managed to awaken the family's unique traits. He was recognized for his talent as a child and even learned several of the family's magic techniques. But in the end, he was cast aside—just another half-blooded outcast."
What the hell is she talking about?
Jin was momentarily thrown off, but he wasn't the type to miss the bigger picture.
He began piecing together the scattered events in chronological order.
A missing mercenary from a noble family.
Illegally traded data chips.
Raging flames.
A mere gangster skilled enough to go toe-to-toe with a Solo.
Deduction required a bit of imagination.
Jin let his mind wander, and as it turned out, Khalifa's next words aligned perfectly with his thoughts.
"Someone kidnapped Walter, extracted the information from his mind, and turned it into data. Then it started circulating—with Berserk layered on top."
Khalifa took a sip from her drink, likely to quench the dryness in her throat after that long explanation.
Jin watched in silence until she set her glass down, then spoke.
"Alright, I get the gist of it. But how did you end up contacting me?"
"Right, that part's left."
A faint smile appeared on Khalifa's face.
And with that, the final explanation began.
Looking back—
From Edmund Nilsson's corpse to the missing mercenary Walter—
Khalifa had tenaciously pursued flimsy clues, unraveling the case piece by piece.
It wouldn't have been easy.
So, of course, she hadn't just stumbled upon the broker by chance.
She had been keeping an eye on King's groom all along.
But without solid proof, she had chosen to wait for the right moment.
Then, the incident happened.
A gang member, clearly infected with Berserk, went on a shooting spree in a neighboring district.
Upon hearing the news, Khalifa acted fast—bribing the cleaners to secure the perpetrator's corpse before anyone else.
Although she didn't find any direct evidence of a transaction, she uncovered multiple circumstantial clues linking the guy to King's groom.
That was enough.
She immediately commissioned Eric, a reliable professional, and as a precaution, hacked into King's groom's CCTV with Po.
What they discovered—
Was a familiar side profile, repeatedly slapping the bald man who was supposed to be captured alive.
"At first, I thought I was seeing things. But nope. When I called, you actually picked up."
At that moment—
(Complete!)
A fanfare rang inside Jin's head.
This much was familiar.
The problem was, it didn't stop at just once.
(Complete!)
Getting hit once hurt.
Getting hit in the same spot again hurt even more.
And getting hit when you least expected it?
That could knock you out cold.
Overwhelmed by the rush of dopamine, Jin accidentally dropped the cookie in his hand.
His eyelids twitched.
His toes curled in his shoes.
Then, without warning, a status window popped up in his face.
「(Omen!) Contagious Will 4」──────Assist the client in finding Walter.
Reward: Perk XP 6,000─────────────────
Jin Evernight.
Thanks to a diligent Linker who did all the groundwork, he got to skip a whole quest.