* * *

Na Kang-in clenched his fist.

“Anyway, now I know I’m really strong. No wonder it feels light even when I shake a frying pan full of rice.”

College hacker Ahn Sung-hwan blinked. Those terrifying guys were flung into the corner of the office.

But he couldn’t just be happy about it. To him, Na Kang-in also looked like someone who had come to capture him.

‘Police? Or a government agent? Did they come to catch me for hacking?’

He remembered the things he did back in middle and high school.

Ahn Sung-hwan shouted urgently.

“I really didn’t do many bad things before! I mean, I did, but even when I hacked, I didn’t steal systems or data! I just left a note asking for security checks!”

[There is an 88% probability he is telling the truth. He is presumed to be a white hat hacker.]

Na Kang-in asked AI Zinji.

“You can tell the difference?”

[I have skills to analyze facial expressions and behavior to judge the reliability of information from confessions. The more cornered the prisoner, the higher the accuracy.]

Ahn Sung-hwan was currently cornered, so the analysis accuracy was high.

“So, there’s about a 12% chance he’s lying?”

[There is no technology that can analyze the facial expressions and behavior of countless humans with 100% accuracy.]

Na Kang-in asked Ahn Sung-hwan.

“Why are you here?”

“I was tricked by a security check part-time job offer and have been held here for three days.”

Ahn Sung-hwan pointed to the suits and shirts and shouted.

“Those bastards are really bad guys! Even after this job, they were going to keep making me do bad things!”

“What bad things were you going to do with them?”

“Stock manipulation.”

“Huh? Them?”

Na Kang-in looked back at the crumpled guys.

“They don’t seem smart enough for that.”

“They told me to create a program to manipulate stock forum comment rankings. They personally went to install it at the PC bang.”

Na Kang-in also felt a bit uncertain.

“So they’re not stock manipulators?”

“There must be someone behind them. They’re just subcontractors.”

Na Kang-in had come here because someone had paralyzed the internet at his temporary base.

But when he found the culprit, it turned out the target wasn’t the PC bang.

[The safety of the temporary base has been secured.]

“I can’t just let these guys go, and I need to deal with the people behind them too.”

But he didn’t have to handle it personally.

Na Kang-in told Ahn Sung-hwan.

“Hey.”

“Yes!”

“Report this.”

“What?”

“Call 112 and say you’ve been kidnapped. Then tell the police everything you saw and experienced.”

Ahn Sung-hwan hesitated.

“Well, um, then what about you….”

“Me?”

“You’ve beaten up two people badly, so won’t you get in trouble….”

The two guys were lying among the broken desk pieces. They didn’t look in good shape.

Na Kang-in asked.

“Do you know my face?”

Ahn Sung-hwan quickly shook his head.

“No. You’re wearing a mask.”

“I’m just someone passing by who saved you. I heard noises of you getting beaten up and came in to check. Then I saw you getting hit and saved you.”

“Oh! Thank you!”

“Use those guys’ phones to report it, and I’m leaving.”

Ahn Sung-hwan was bewildered again.

“What? You’re leaving?”

“Do you think I’ll stay until the police arrive?”

“No. It’s better if you go. Um, but….”

“What now?”

Ahn Sung-hwan asked cautiously.

“Can I hit those guys a bit too?”

“Just hit them, why ask?”

“What if they wake up after I hit them?”

“Can’t you see their condition? Even if they wake up, they won’t be able to get up. They won’t even be able to block with their arms. Go ahead and hit them hard.”

—

The local police who responded to the report were taken aback by the scene.

“No, these people are….”

“Crushed?”

“They’re alive. Contact 119.”

One of the officers asked the college hacker Ahn Sung-hwan.

“What happened here?”

Ahn Sung-hwan tearfully recounted the events he had endured.

“Those bastards… They locked me up here and forced me to create a program to manipulate stock boards. They beat me and threatened to kill me with that knife over there if I failed.”

“Oh my… So, what’s your occupation?”

“I’m a first-year computer science student at Korea University.”

A first-year university student has only just crossed the threshold of adulthood and might still be a minor. If he is a minor, the case becomes even more serious.

Moreover, the situation involves suspicions of hacking and securities crime.

As soon as it was confirmed that this was more than just a simple assault case, the police dispatched a detective team, and the cyber investigation team joined them.

The leader of the newly arrived detective team looked around the scene and said,

“These guys wouldn’t have tried to manipulate stocks by themselves. Something smells fishy. There’s definitely someone else behind this.”

Detective Park Ki-jung agreed.

“That’s right.”

“When those guys wake up in the hospital, question them immediately. If you talk to them while they’re still groggy from the drugs, they might spill something.”

“Understood.”

Park Ki-jung asked,

“But, sir, who could have beaten them up like that?”

“The victim doesn’t know?”

“No. A passerby heard the sounds of a fight and intervened to rescue the student, during which he beat those guys up.”

“And their lives are not in danger?”

“They have some broken bones, but they won’t die. They were the ones who first used the knife. What should we do?”

“Secure the CCTV footage and find out who it was. We don’t need to arrest them, but we can’t just overlook this.”

Park Ki-jung replied with a troubled expression,

“There’s no CCTV in this building.”

“Then check the nearby CCTV cameras.”

***

The AI electronic guide informed Na Kang-In,

[There is CCTV ahead. Turn right.]

The AR lens displayed not only the navigation route but also the CCTV surveillance areas. By clearly seeing where to avoid and where it was safe, he could move without being caught on CCTV.

He returned to the Zijin via a route with no witnesses or CCTV. Once there, he sat back in the corner seat he had been using earlier.

After a while, the night shift worker, who had said they would be late, arrived.

Cha Eun-seo handed over her duties to the worker and sat next to Na Kang-In, holding a paper bag filled with special assorted snacks.

Cha Eun-seo said while eating the snacks,

“These are really tasty. I’m trying to savor them.”

“I’ll make more for you later, so don’t hold back.”

“Awesome!”

Collecting information from the internet is difficult when someone is next to you. If someone sees you repeatedly scrolling through documents without reading them properly, they will find it odd.

“You finished your shift, so why aren’t you going home?”

“I’m curious about something, oppa.”

“I’m just playing.”

“Don’t you play games?”

“Games?”

Most customers come to this Zijin to play games. There are people who browse the internet, watch dramas, or check stock boards, but the majority come to play games.

Na Kang-In had been busy gathering information and hacking into government networks, leaving no time for games.

He glanced at another customer’s screen, where they were playing a survival battle royale game.

“That game looks fun.”

Cha Eun-seo exclaimed,

“I’ll teach you!”

“Huh?”

“I’m really good at it. Come on, let’s start. You need to verify your account to create one, so take out your smartphone and give me your number.”

“Smartphone? I don’t have one.”

Cha Eun-seo was taken aback.

“What? Why? Are you from the Joseon Dynasty?”

Na Kang-In thought for a moment. He had an identity here, and his fingerprints matched.

“Maybe you had a smartphone?”

“I lost it.”

“When? Today?”

“No, a while ago.”

“Then you need to buy a new one! Let’s go buy one tomorrow.”

The AI guide spoke up.

[A portable information collection device is necessary. With a smartphone, you can collect information outside of this base as well.]

Na Kang-In said,

“Then let’s play this game after I buy a smartphone tomorrow.”

“Okay. Let’s play a game that doesn’t require verification.”

Na Kang-In ended up creating an AOS game account. It was a foreign game that allowed account creation without a phone.

Cha Eun-seo sat next to him, explaining the gameplay.

“You split into two teams of five and fight each other.”

At first, he didn’t know how to play, so his game character kept dying. Although characters revive, dying repeatedly worsened the battlefield situation.

Cha Eun-seo, watching from the side, grumbled,

“It seems like the opponent’s ADC is using a secondary account.”

“Secondary account?”

“It’s when someone with a main account creates a new account. Their level is beginner, but their skill is not. This round is lost.”

“Is that why we’re losing? No wonder. I wouldn’t lose in a real battle.”

“Oh, I need to take this call.”

Cha Eun-seo left her seat. The game battlefield situation worsened.

The AI guide spoke,

[That’s not the way to do it.]

“The opponent’s ADC is using a secondary account.”

[At this rate, this battle will be lost. Requesting temporary control of your hands. I will win for you.]

“Screw off.”

The game was quite fun. Na Kang-In played until dawn, then went to sleep after the AI guide’s rest recommendation.

The next day, Na Kang-In worked for two hours as a Zijin chef.

In the afternoon, Cha Eun-seo suggested,

“Let’s go buy a smartphone.”

“Aren’t you working?”

“Didn’t I fill in for you last evening? That’s why she came in early today.”

Na Kang-In is paid for the hours he works, but he hasn’t worked for long.

“Hmm… I still don’t have enough money to buy a smartphone, though.”

“You can get one on a 24-month installment plan. Let’s go.”

The cellphone store displayed a variety of smartphones.

Na Kang-In asked AI Zijin while looking at them.

“Are there any of these that you can control?”

[Real-time bidirectional input/output through direct wireless connection is strictly prohibited.]

“I know, it’s because of hacking prevention. I was just wondering since you said it would be good to have a smartphone. I thought you might be able to do something with it on your own.”

He spoke while looking at the displayed smartphones.

“Which one should I buy…”

Virtual arrows appeared above two smartphones. It was an augmented reality image created by AI Zijin using AR lenses. The two indicated by AI Zijin were the latest models released by two major domestic companies.

“They’re more expensive than the others.”

[Using equipment with relatively faster processing speed improves information collection efficiency.]

“I still have to input everything manually. Will it still be faster?”

[A slight efficiency improvement is expected.]

“You’re just saying you want the latest smartphone, aren’t you?”

[I made a tactical decision. Better equipment increases the success rate of operations.]

“So, you do want the latest one.”

* * *