Volume 8 / Chapter 230

TL: LightCafe

Editor: Hungry Panda

“... Where is this?”

Cha Jun Sung’s eyes and voice are full of wariness.

He did not pull out Hades or show combative behavior however.

He is positive this is an unfamiliar place, but it doesn’t have an atmosphere of danger.

It is just a little uncomfortable.

The three choices for a Lifer who completes a mission are reality, briefing room, and Mechanic City.

There is nothing else.

Of those, the return locations for reality and Mechanic City are different according to summons locations, but they aren’t in places that Lifers don’t know about.

“It this a hotel?”

The overall configuration is that of a large, luxurious room comparable to that of the royal or diamond room of a top hotel.

Its difference from a modern hotel is that it is a little more futuristic.

It is like a newly-built hotel, as if it is completely outfitted in Life Mission store products.

No. It really is.

“Odin. Odin?”

Cha Jun Sung kept calling for Odin, but he doesn’t respond. He looked at his PDA, but it only functions as a watch. It doesn’t do anything.

It won’t go into the store, and he can’t contact Odin. His return is blocked as well.

Only the number indicating the time in reality changes.

“What is it now?”

“I apologize. I invited you, but it isn’t an invitation that I got consent for.”

Cha Jun Sung was surprised by the sound coming from behind him, but he didn’t react.

It is just seriousness in which he can’t sense animosity.

“Hologram?”

A hologram in the form of a person, smiles at Cha Jun Sung.

It is amazingly clear.

It is as though a real person is standing in front of him. It is so clear that if he hadn’t been wearing his battlesuit or if he wasn’t a Lifer who had gone through body modifications, he wouldn’t have been able to tell if it were a real or virtual image.

“I’ll apologize once more. It is bad manners not to go out to greet a guest, but please understand that I cannot do that.”

“What are you?”

It is a middle-aged man.

He looked older than himself, so Cha Jun Sung addressed him as an elder.

“We don’t have much time. I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to explain everything. Take a seat.”

The man walks.

Cha Jun Sung follows. He directed Cha Jun Sung to sit across from him in a gentleman-like gesture.

“I’ll skip the small talk and get straight to the point. Odin will explain the rest.”

Cha Jun Sung nods.

If time is limited, he needs to hear what is important.

Cha Jun Sung doesn’t know anything at this point, not even why he is in this place.

However, he doesn’t need to hear the information he can get from Odin. He’ll hear what he can’t from this man, and then fit everything together like a puzzle.

“Great. You make decisions quickly. I didn’t know we’d meet like this, but it’s a pleasure. I’m Jigneon, the General Manager of Life Mission.”

***

Meeting General Manager Jigneon.

The chance of this happening is like that of getting stabbed randomly in the street. But even if Cha Jun Sung had been expecting this to happen, he would have been surprised anyway.

The person who created Life Mission, which is inexplicable with modern science and is something that might appear in the story of a , is right in front of Cha Jun Sung’s eyes.

And that person is telling him something incredible.

“Are you saying that this Borteth went against a promise the supervisors made, got out of control, and ‘started interfering’?”

“That’s right.”

“But this sounds like an issue within your group. Why are you telling me? The officials can just figure it out among themselves.”

Cha Jun Sung shows a little antipathy toward Jigneon. He is going through missions of his own will, but he doesn’t like that he is being used as a specimen for experiment.

Jigneon didn’t continue speaking right away. He took a sip of the tea he had been stirring in his hand. He was drinking tea in real life, too.

“There are two reasons.”

“Two?”

“You’re the only Lifer who can resolve or interfere in this matter, and you will be affected by this intervention.”

Cha Jun Sung frowns.

They are speaking without his battlesuit, so his expression shows. action

“Borteth has a lot of ambition. As one of the three Life Mission supervisors, he wants to surpass Gabenu and me in getting the top results.”

A moderate amount of ambition can become a source of power. Not having that amount of ambition means that the person does not want it enough.

But it is severe in Borteth’s case. It goes beyond ambition to greed.

“The process doesn’t matter as long as the results are good, so Borteth does annoying things and he always get some kind of result. Even if he fails, so he doesn’t feel discouraged. It seems that’s why he won’t leave it alone. He’s breaking all of our promises too.”

If entrepreneurs who want to become rich commit crimes in order to succeed, most will come under judgment of the law.

It isn’t right to compare with Life Mission, but a collision is inevitable if everyone is going on a righteous path and only one person tries to stray from that.

If that collision becomes an emotional fight, it could ruin everything.

“It isn’t good to ignore the processes. I’m not talking about rules or promises. Those are important, but there is something else that is truly important.”

“Are you referring to order?”

It is a part that Cha Jun Sung doesn’t understand as he listens.

“It’s similar. According to the way you put it, everything has an order. But what do you think will happen if we ignore that order? The warped order might be visible in the beginning, but it becomes harder and harder to keep track of as it becomes more entangled.”

There are things that the three supervisors need to consult each other on while proceeding, but Borteth is acting alone.

“One of those independent actions was the Heavy Gravity in North America.”

“Oh!”

“We gained a lot of data from that battle between you and the level 8s then. The result is good, isn’t it? What do you think happened to Borteth after that?”

“Punishment...”

“He did receive punishment even if it wasn’t very drastic. The problem started from there.”

Borteth had already shown severe opposition, but getting punished by Jigneon after getting clear results made him revolt.

On top of that, he formed bad feelings toward Cha Jun Sung, who is the source of his punishment. Cha Jun Sung had become a subject for him to vent on.

Cha Jun Sung was speechless in disbelief.

“I’ll refer to them as investors to make it easier for you to understand. Those investors are looking kindly on Borteth’s independent actions kindly as well. You understand why, right?”

It’s because the results are good.

Jigneon gave him punishment but it was released quickly. There’s a reason why he acts on his own ridiculously even when he is being threatened.

No matter how much they don’t like it, Borteth is one of the three people who created Life Mission. He is a major shareholder with 33.3% of shares.

“You understand that you’ll be disadvantaged, right? If we leave him alone now, he’s sure to take his anger out on you.”

“What a crazy bastard.”

He’ll always have to be on guard, but it’ll be really dangerous if Borteth interferes while he is fighting a level 8 like last time. He doesn’t want to make a supervisor into the enemy.

If helpers are the messengers of god in Life Mission, the supervisors are those gods. The future is clear if the creature makes the creator into the enemy.

“Did you secretly bring me here to help me?”

Jigneon had matched Cha Jun Sung’s return time on purpose.

It would have been too obvious if he got summoned from reality, so he used the point when the gate opened.

“Borteth chose a Lifer to act on his behalf. He means to act from the shadows rather than showing himself on the forefront. This means that if something goes wrong, he’ll be able to cut it off from the tail. This will make it more frustrating, so what will you do? I have to choose one too. You.”

There is a saying that a shrimp’s back bursts in a fight between whales.

Cha Jun Sung felt strange because it was as though a mere human was being placed in the middle of a fight between gods.

“Is the Lifer Borteth chose a Ranker?”

“I heard he is a Ranker.”

“World Federation? Bloody Kingdom?”

“Which do you think?”

It doesn’t seem like he would be from World Federation. All of the Lifers there are honest. A few have strange personalities, but none would be willing to do whatever Borteth told them to do as if they were machines.

“The latter.”

“Right. Will you be able to figure out who it is?”

“Blood King? Dark Side?”

There aren’t many in Bloody Kingdom who are both skilled and smart. The two he just mentioned are the best.

“Neither. Borteth needs an avatar that’ll do what he wants on his behalf. Those two are smart. They would probably just pretend to obey Borteth and calculate their options instead.”

“Then?”

“It’s no fun if I tell you. I have a video to show you. Once I show you this and tell you what I need to say, our conversation will be over.”