Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 169

171

Having finished the second round of the last league match against the Peace Griffins with a victory, Beom-seok pretended to be injured as planned, feigning pain. Susan, the team doctor, felt strange when he suddenly complained of pain after being perfectly fine until returning to the dugout. However, she couldn’t imagine him faking an injury in such an important game, so she put him on the injured list and transferred him to a nearby hospital.

Seizing the opportunity, Beom-seok quickly took the team’s flying car, which was waiting inside the stadium, and headed to Kelvis City. Then, he switched to Gade’s car and headed to Serie City.

‘Hmm. I’m a bit nervous.’

A parking lot on the outskirts of Serie City’s sports park. Beom-seok, covered in an aerial mobility suit of mixed orange and blue, got out of the car and looked at the sun in the mid-sky. His watch indicated 6 p.m., but due to the time difference, it was broad daylight here. It was difficult to carry out an infiltration operation during peak activity hours, but he didn’t care much. Today was a weekend, so the target, the LHN Building, would be empty.

‘Ah. No time to waste.’

Beom-seok ran north along the road where people were occasionally jogging. Then, he spotted a blue van parked and grabbed the door handle. It was today’s command vehicle, with Amyeong and Lexter inside.

Opening the door, he saw a woman tapping on a virtual keyboard in the back seat and smiled faintly. She was an Asian woman with long black hair reaching her waist, quite beautiful as Lexter had said.

A petite figure, just under 160 centimeters [approximately 5’3″], with exceptionally clear black eyes. Her small, casual attire made her look even more slender, with a delicate neckline. Snow-white skin and an oval face framed by red horn-rimmed glasses that seemed to highlight her features. She seemed like an unusual person, unlike anyone he had met before. In this era, vision correction surgery was well-developed, so it was rare to see people wearing glasses.

Giving her high marks for her appearance, he waved his hand lightly and greeted her.

“Hello. Are you Amyeong?”

Amyeong confidently raised her head and looked at Beom-seok. Until now, she had been reluctant to show her face due to the risk of exposing her identity, but the situation had changed. He was about to become a serious criminal infiltrating the LHN headquarters building, so he was in no position to report her identity to the police.

“Yes, that’s me. You’re Gladiator Oh Beom-seok, right? I’ve seen you a lot on TV.”

At those words, Beom-seok grinned from ear to ear. He couldn’t have been happier to hear her call him “oppa” [an affectionate Korean term used by younger women to address older brothers or male friends].

“Hahaha. Nice to meet you. What’s your name?”

She found his overly friendly attitude strange, but Amyeong brushed it off. She had often encountered people who relieved their tension in this way.

“Margaret.”

“Oh, Margaret. That’s a pretty name.”

“Thank you.”

After a brief greeting, Margaret lowered her head again and began working. With Beom-seok’s arrival, the operation would begin soon, so she wanted to check the system one last time. This mission targeted the LHN headquarters building, which boasted thorough security, so there could be no mistakes.

Meanwhile, Beom-seok opened her information window to check the details.

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Name: Margaret Bizny.

Classification: Human (20 years).

Affiliation: None.

Fame: 3840.

Notoriety: 14870.

Favorability: 48.

H Status: None.

Stamina: 877/900.

Social Skills: 51, Strength: 8, Constitution: 9.

Agility: 7, Sense of Balance: 6, Intelligence: 97.

Mental Strength: 88. Judgment: 94, Skill: 94.

Luck: 64.

Current Skill/Potential: 518/649.

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Trait: IT Genius.

Special Note: Her father, who was in business, committed suicide after being denied loans by the bank, causing her to harbor animosity towards banks. To seek revenge, she learned hacking skills day and night from a young age and has now become Amyeong.

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‘Oh. She’s definitely a world-class hacker.’

Margaret’s abilities were, in a word, amazing. As an ordinary human, her physical abilities were extremely low, but her mental abilities were comparable to or slightly ahead of the Black Society members, who were the best talents in the world. If she had taken an interest in studying instead of hacking, she would have likely become a member of the Black Society and met him as an enemy.

Moreover, the trait ‘IT Genius’ was very interesting. It had an option to increase electronic product, program creation, and information technology skills by +50%, so she would likely be very successful if she worked in the IT field. However, one disappointing thing was that it couldn’t be used for the God Knights team.

‘Tsk, what a waste. She seems like a great talent…….’

However, since she also had a decent appearance, and there was a way to include her in the group with Lexter, Gloria, and Natalie, he thought it might be good to continue the relationship.

Beom-seok subtly moved closer to her and spoke.

“By the way, where is Inspector Lexter?”

Margaret, still working on the system test, replied.

“I’m not sure. He came earlier, but he said he was going out for coffee to calm his nerves. He’ll probably be back soon.”

“Oh, really? Then when will the operation start?”

“As soon as the Inspector arrives.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than the car door opened and Lexter came in. He looked around, saw Beom-seok, and handed him a can of drink.

“Oh, Beom-seok, you’re here. Here, drink this.”

Margaret glanced at him and intercepted the drink in the middle.

“No, you can’t. If Beom-seok oppa drinks that, he’ll have to take off his helmet, and then hair or skin cells could fall into the suit. Then it could get on the moving vehicle, and if the police find it, we’re done for.”

Lexter scratched his head, realizing she was right. One of the purposes of Beom-seok wearing this suit was to conceal his movement and appearance, but it was also to prevent genetic information such as naturally shed hair or skin cells from falling into the hands of the police.

“Th-that’s right. I almost made a mistake.”

“As the Inspector knows, from now on, we really have to be careful. If we slip up even a little, we’ll all be behind bars immediately.”

“Sigh~ I guess so.”

Margaret, having finished the system check, carefully vacuumed around the neck of Beom-seok’s helmet with an air suction device she had prepared. It seemed unnecessary since it was so tightly sealed, but one could never be too careful.

After completing this task meticulously, she took out some electronic equipment from the bag in front of her and handed it to Beom-seok.

“Oppa, take this.”

“What is it?”

Margaret first handed him a small, matchbox-sized black box with a small jack attached and said.

“If you plug this hacking box into the external terminal of the CCTV, I can monitor the inside of the LHN headquarters building from the outside. That means I can see where the security guards are moving.”

“Oh, can you really do that?”

“Yes. The CCTV in the LHN headquarters building is expensive and state-of-the-art, so each camera has a central processing unit. By manipulating this and infiltrating the CCTV system, then intercepting the command system, it’s easily solved.”

Beom-seok smiled brightly. Currently, there were a total of about 120 security guards working in the LHN Building, of which about 30 were human males and the rest were elves. No matter how good he was, it was very difficult to deal with 90 elf security guards at the same time, so it was better to avoid them if possible.

“So, if I have this equipment, I can avoid the security guards appropriately?”

“Yes, that’s right. But you need this equipment.”

Beom-seok tilted his head as he received the next piece of equipment. It had a similar shape to an electronic notebook, but it had far fewer external input devices, so he couldn’t figure out its purpose.

“What’s this?”

“If you plug the jack into the external terminal in the suit, you can communicate with us, so we can tell you the location information of the security guards. And the internal floor plan of the LHN Building is built-in, so you can look at it if you get lost.”

Beom-seok quickly took it, judging it to be necessary equipment.

“Useful. What else do you have?”

“There’s one more thing. It’s a beam cutter, a device that can cut through steel plates like paper. You can decide how to use it.”

It was a device that didn’t need to be judged. It could be used to open locked doors or easily break glass windows during escape, so its utility was very high. Beom-seok carefully put the equipment she gave him into the pockets in his suit and prepared himself.

Soon after, the flying car they were in soared into the sky and quickly moved to the center of Serie City.

The city center, where the LHN Building was visible right in front of them. Beom-seok boarded a gray small flying car that was waiting nearby. It was the one to be used for this infiltration operation, which Margaret had hacked from a parking lot in a nearby building and brought before him.

After taking a deep breath, Beom-seok waved to the operation vehicle visible far behind him and slipped inside.

– Welcome, Master.

Beom-seok chuckled and leaned back in his seat comfortably. As soon as he did, the door closed and the flying car he was in slowly began to rise.

‘Hoo~ Here we go.’

Beom-seok watched the rooftop of the LHN Building, which was slowly getting closer, with nervous eyes. He was worried about the chase that would unfold inside the 156-story building. He was alone, unable to rely on anyone, and there were more than 100 security guards to deal with. Thinking about finding his way to the chairman’s office through them made him feel overwhelmed. If the police’s mobile strike force joined in after being notified, he wouldn’t know what to do.

‘The time until the police are notified and arrive is about 3-5 minutes. In the meantime, I have to find the chairman’s office and secure Chairman Balbar. I can use him as a hostage in case of emergency.’

However, taking a hostage was a serious crime, so it was better to avoid it. No matter how crazy Gade was, he might not want to rot in prison for years. If that happened, the confession would be out of the question, and it might be difficult to construct a perfect crime.

‘Well, I’ll have to figure it out somehow.’

Before he knew it, the flying car Beom-seok was in landed in the rooftop parking lot of the LHN Building. Slowly getting up and going outside, he walked towards the entrance door visible in the distance, cutting through the strong wind. Then, looking at the CCTV camera in front of the door, he began to rummage through his pockets. It was to install the equipment Margaret had given him.

“Hehe. Lucky. To find the camera right away.”

In fact, it was hard to say he was lucky. CCTV is a system that monitors people entering and exiting, so putting a camera in front of the entrance door is not uncommon, but very natural. However, Beom-seok, who did not realize this, began to attach the equipment Margaret had given him with a triumphant expression.

While he was finding the external terminal of the CCTV and installing the hacking box, a man in a black suit popped out. He had come out because he was suspicious of Beom-seok, who was wearing a suit and loitering on the screen.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

That’s it for now. I’ll upload the next chapter as soon as I see the revisions.