Chapter 56 – 056. Code: Xtk
056. Code: XTK
It was 10 PM.
I entered the cafe where I had arranged to meet Raffles. It was a cafe located in an alleyway in Seoul.
As I stepped inside, a man greeted me. The man, wearing a black mask, scanned me with his mechanical eyes and spoke.
“Are you Taker?”
“Yeah, I’m Taker. Sorry for being an hour late. Something important came up. And you’re Anything?”
“Anything isn’t me, it’s the leader. You’ve got a pistol tucked away.”
“…I thought it wouldn’t be noticeable. Do you have X-ray vision or something?”
“It’s X-ray. You’re not a cyborg. Why do you have a smartphone? Do you like those antiques?”
“Smartphones are the most perfect things, friend.”
“You’re a crackpot. Follow me. The leader is waiting.”
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Jackie.”
“Ah. You’re a foreigner.”
“I’m Korean. Jackie is just a pseudonym I use. Names are meaningless to us.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to go by Taker while I’m here.”
I followed Jackie deeper into the cafe. There was a fairly large conference room.
Eight people were waiting for me there.
“I brought him. He looks normal, and all he has is a pistol.”
Jackie said. Their gazes turned to me.
They were all cyborgs.
There were six men and only two women. The two women were not my type at all. Not even a little bit attractive.
The man in the center approached me and said,
“Welcome. I’m Son Jeong-hu, the leader of Raffles. I’m Anything, the one you talked to. My colleagues just call me Leader.”
Anything, or rather, Son Jeong-hu, had a gentle demeanor, unlike the stiff way he spoke as a game character. He was dressed in casual clothes. You could easily mistake him for a college student.
He looked to be in his mid to late twenties, and appeared normal on the outside.
‘But in reality, he’s a cyborg with a mechanical body except for his brain.’
Son Jeong-hu was the most dangerous guy in Raffles. He was the type who could smile while massacring children or the elderly for his own goals.
“Taker, real name is Seong Yu-jin. So, I’m a member of Raffles from today, right?”
“It’s a bit suspicious. We’re meeting for the first time, right? But I’m planning to accept you into Raffles. I’m too greedy for your abilities.”
Son Jeong-hu extended his hand to me. I slowly shook his hand, remaining vigilant.
‘In the original story, Son Jeong-hu doesn’t trust his own colleagues. Even if they’ve been working together in Raffles for years, he’ll discard them without hesitation if he no longer needs them.’
Son Jeong-hu was not to be trusted. It was best not to get involved with him if possible.
I was contacting Raffles to get the Illusiter as quickly as possible. After getting the Illusiter, I would immediately end this game on auto-play. I had no particular interest in this game.
Machines that are much more advanced than in reality? I could get that in other works. There was no need to be obsessed with Code: XTK just for that.
“Wait, Leader. You said before that when accepting new members into Raffles, you’d consider our opinions too.”
It was a mohawk-styled man wearing sunglasses. His name was Mudan. He had wheels on the soles of his feet.
“…Hmm. That’s right. Mudan’s right. Sorry. I was a bit autocratic. Is there anyone who opposes Taker joining us? Raise your hand.”
At Son Jeong-hu’s words, three people, including Mudan, raised their hands.
“We usually decide by majority vote… so it’s confirmed that Taker will be one of us. But we can’t ignore the minority opinion. Mudan, Train, Hyunji. What are your reasons for opposing?”
Mudan spoke first.
“I can’t trust him. He’s too suspicious. He could be a spy from another organization, or a government dog.”
“That’s true.”
Son Jeong-hu looked at me. He stared into my eyes and asked me,
“Are you a spy?”
“No. I’m a worker at a factory that makes machine parts.”
“Why do you want to join Raffles? If you know who we are… you must know that our work is dangerous.”
“If I don’t do anything, my hacking ability is too wasted. I want to use my abilities and be active. I hate a boring life.”
“That’s not a reason to choose Raffles specifically. The government or the police would welcome your abilities. Other criminal organizations too.”
“I don’t trust the government. There are rumors that they kidnap kids for human experiments. And other criminal organizations are boring. If I’m going to join, it has to be at least Raffles.”
Son Jeong-hu smiled at me once and then turned his gaze away. His gaze landed on a large man who had taken off his top, revealing his bare chest. Wires were wrapped around his abdomen. It was Train.
“Train. What about you?”
“Purpose. We all have our own purposes for working in Raffles. We haven’t heard his purpose yet.”
“Taker. Did you hear that? What’s your purpose?”
This was also a question I had anticipated. There were many reasons: revenge for parents, hatred for the government, admiration for crime, etc. But I gave the simplest reason.
“Money. I want to make money with my hacking abilities. Except for boring things like robbing banks. I think Raffles fits my purpose to some extent.”
“That’s right. We’re a small elite group, and we divide the shares fairly. We take on contract requests and sometimes do robberies. There’s hardly any boring work. You came to the right place.”
“…It’s a bit suspicious, but whatever. The leader doesn’t seem to care.”
Train muttered and turned his head away. He didn’t seem to have much interest in me.
“Hyunji. What about you?”
“He looks weak.”
A short-haired woman who had been sitting on the desk walked towards me. Her hairstyle was a buzz cut, and half of her face and both arms were mechanical.
Hyunji stared at me as if observing me from a distance of three steps.
“You seem to have trained your body, but that’s it. You look like a normal person, not a mutant. We’re a small elite group, so we need a certain level of individual combat power. What use is a weakling who’s only good at hacking?”
“Did you say I’m weak? I can kill someone like you in 5 seconds.”
“…Oh. You’ve got some guts?”
Hyunji raised her right arm. A blade popped out of her wrist. Wiiiing. A mechanical sound came from her arm. I immediately recognized it. That blade was what they commonly called a super-vibrating blade.
“You don’t believe me.”
“I do. That’s why I want you to show me your skills, newbie!”
“That’s quite the initiation.”
I said, laughing.
This situation was actually what I wanted. It would allow me to make my abilities more clearly known to them.
[Hacking successful.]
[Hyunji’s right arm can be hacked for 11 minutes.]
Hyunji’s right arm was aimed at her own neck, not me.
“…Huh?”
Hyunji panicked and grabbed her right wrist with her left hand. But her right arm didn’t stop. There was a vibrating blade in front of her neck.
“Actually, it doesn’t even take 5 seconds.”
“No way! You can hack a cyborg? My arm isn’t even connected to a network!”
“My hacking isn’t the usual kind of hacking. It’s a superpower. Whether it’s connected to a network or not… I can hack any machine.”
“What! That means cyborgs are no match for you!”
“That’s right. And cyborgs are common in this world. Do you know a bit about my abilities now? Don’t worry about my combat power. Even without hacking, I’m not weak enough to hold you back.”
I looked around. The members of Raffles were now surrounding me, pointing their guns at me. The atmosphere instantly turned hostile.
The machines attached to their bodies were all custom-made, not mass-produced. My hacking ability’s duration decreased significantly the more complex or advanced the machine was.
‘If I were to hack everyone here… 3 seconds? That’s about the limit.’
If they were completely mechanical, I could have taken them down. I could just turn off their power. But they were cyborgs with only parts of their bodies mechanical. It was impossible to take them down in 3 seconds using hacking.
“Okay, okay. Calm down. This is just an initiation. Hyunji started it first, right? There’s no need to get serious.”
Raffles’ leader, Son Jeong-hu, intervened.
He circled around me and Hyunji, then placed both hands on my shoulders.
“Stop it, Taker. Hyunji must have understood by now. And everyone has seen your outstanding superpower. In terms of ability, you’re more than qualified to be a member of Raffles. I… no, we need your abilities.”
I relinquished control of Hyunji’s right arm that I had hacked. Hyunji’s arm lowered. She was still glaring at me with disbelief.
“Hyunji, calm down too. You guys put your guns away. Let’s welcome Taker, who has become our colleague today.”
“……”
No one responded to Son Jeong-hu’s banter. They lowered their guns and returned to their respective places.
“Hmm. The matter is settled, but just in case, I’ll ask. Is there anyone who doesn’t accept Taker as a member of Raffles?”
“……”
No one answered. No one raised their hand.
They had seen my abilities with their own eyes. A rare and outstanding superpower that couldn’t be found anywhere else in this world.
“The atmosphere is stiff. Should we order some pizza?”
•••
I munched on a potato pizza. The pizza tasted the same here as it did in reality.
“Newbie. You eat well? Do you like pizza?”
A man with a goatee spoke to me from beside me. His name was Yu Geun-tae. He was an infertile man who carried something like an oxygen tank on his back.
“So-so?”
Thanks to this infertile man, I was able to greet the members of Raffles. Though it was just a matter of saying their names.
“Okay. Listen while you eat.”
Son Jeong-hu, who had disappeared somewhere for a moment, came back and said. He projected a screen onto one side of the wall with his smartwatch.
“We just got a request. It’s an assassination, and the target’s information is as you see it.”
I looked at the screen.
There was a picture of a man with a menacing face who looked to be in his 50s. According to the information next to it, his name was Mok Shin-su, and he was the boss of Wood God, a mafia family operating in Seoul.
“The total request fee is 15 billion. We received 5 billion as a down payment, and the remaining amount will be sent after confirming the target’s death.”
Yu Geun-tae whistled at the mention of the request fee.
“15 billion? That’s a lot!”
“Wood God is a mafia that controls Guro-gu. And the deadline is tomorrow. They want him dead before tomorrow. So, I’m thinking of giving this request to the newbie.”
Hyunji was the one who protested.
“No. Wait. Why are you suddenly giving it to the newbie? We usually get applicants first.”
“It’s a test of the newbie’s skills. Of course, I’m not planning to make him do it alone. I’m thinking of adding three more people. Anyone want to do it?”
Three people raised their hands.
Yu Geun-tae, Hyunji, and Ulla.
“Perfect. Taker. What do you think? Do you want to do it? The request fee will be split among the four of you, of course.”
“I’m happy to make money. But it doesn’t seem like the money will be divided evenly?”
“That’s something you guys have to negotiate. If you can’t agree, call me. I’ll mediate.”
“Well, in that case… But Ulla is that one over there, right? She looks young, is she okay?”
I pointed to Ulla, who was behind me. She was a woman of the same gender as Hyunji.
She was a woman wearing a large gray coat, and she was only about 120 cm tall. Her face was not visible because she was wearing a deep hood.
Of course, I knew her identity. She was in her late 30s, and like Son Jeong-hu, her entire body except for her brain was mechanical. She looked like a young girl on the outside, which made her popular with fans of the original story.
She was definitely not my type.
“Ulla is an excellent sniper. She can snipe from as far as 6km away.”
“Ah. Okay.”
I said, as if I wasn’t impressed. I really wasn’t interested in her.
According to my plan, the time I would spend with these guys wouldn’t even be 30 days.
‘I have to do my best in this mission. If Son Jeong-hu thinks my abilities are lacking… he might not take me that day.’
