Chapter 55 – 055. Code: Xtk
055. Code: XTK
[Hacking successful.]
[You can hack the Legendary Blade for 15 minutes.]
I learned something not too long ago. Once connected, hacking allowed me to manipulate sites and games as I pleased.
I started changing my Taker character. The character’s level instantly jumped to 200. All stats became 99999, and the equipped items were replaced with the best in the game.
A seven-colored rainbow aura flowed from the character’s body.
GM Taker: Still don’t believe me?
Anything: Taker-nim. I think we need to meet in person.
•••
I made an appointment with Raffles and returned to reality for now.
There was nothing I needed to do immediately in the Code: XTK game world. I activated auto-progress.
‘Let’s spend time with auto-progress until the appointment. And there’s something I want to experiment with.’
This experiment is about auto-progress.
Avatars are influenced by my actions, attitudes, and values. When the Vampire Detective avatar is set to auto-progress, it prioritizes finding women above all else. It goes to Young Hye-jung or contacts Hera and Choi Sun-mi.
‘And sometimes, it puts on a cheap clown mask and goes to assassinate vampire hunters.’
In other words, an avatar on auto-progress follows my lifestyle. When a variable occurs, it reacts as I would. The avatar can also use the skills and traits I used in the game world. Its physical abilities are the same as mine. However, it cannot use the inventory.
‘The problem is, it’s not exactly the same. Short auto-progress is fine, but it’s impossible to predict what will happen if it goes on for too long.’
Here’s the question. What would happen if I didn’t do anything in the game world?
‘Would it act like the real me? Or would it act according to the avatar’s original settings?’
I predict it would be closer to the latter.
‘Knowing this might be useful later.’
I stared intently at my smartphone, observing the actions of Park Yu-jin, the avatar of Code: XTK.
7 AM. Park Yu-jin and his roommate wake up, have a simple meal of ramen, and prepare for work.
8 AM. He goes to the factory. A middle-aged man called the manager gathers the employees and briefly informs them of today’s schedule. Then, they start working right away.
Their job was to make machine parts. To be precise, the machines make the parts. What people do is manage the machines, load materials, and package the finished parts.
Park Yu-jin is frequently called out by the manager and gets scolded and nagged. From my perspective, Park Yu-jin didn’t make any mistakes. His job is just simple, repetitive work. The work itself isn’t difficult.
Park Yu-jin just doesn’t have a good relationship with the manager.
12 PM. They have lunch, rest for a bit, and then go back to work.
2 PM. An anomaly occurred here. Park Yu-jin used his hacking skill to check the manager’s smartwatch. Park Yu-jin discovered that he was embezzling some of the raw materials and selling them for personal gain. Park Yu-jin sent the data to the factory owner.
3 PM. The owner came to see the manager. They faced each other and talked, and their voices grew louder. The manager, despite being in the wrong, didn’t admit it and instead got angry. The owner was furious at the manager’s brazen attitude.
The atmosphere in the workplace was terrible.
Eventually, the owner called the police, and the manager, who had been puffing up his chest and yelling, instantly became a pushover. This world’s police tend to pull out their guns at the slightest sign of resistance.
Park Yu-jin chuckled to himself as he watched the manager being dragged away by the police.
6 PM. He finished work. He ate dinner at a restaurant near his accommodation and went to a PC cafe to play games. He used hacking to boost his game character’s stats and was now stomping on other players.
“…Park Yu-jin wasn’t really influenced by me.”
He used hacking, but that was it.
If I were Park Yu-jin, I wouldn’t have gone to the factory in the first place.
The manager? If he was someone I really didn’t like, I would have hacked the machine and killed him in an accident.
And I could have hacked a bank and made the money my own. In Code: XTK, the uses of hacking were endless.
‘I’m sure of it. If I don’t do anything in the game world, the avatar acts according to its original settings. And if I act diligently, the avatar will also be influenced by me and act diligently.’
It would be convenient if I could control the avatar as I wanted.
‘My appointment with Raffles is at 9 PM. Should I go meet Raffles now?’
[Starting the game.]
•••
I opened my eyes in the PC cafe and frowned.
[Hacking cooldown: 2 hours and 45 minutes remaining.]
‘This… damn it!’
Because Park Yu-jin used hacking in the game to stomp on other players, I couldn’t use hacking right away due to the cooldown.
‘I’m supposed to meet Raffles at 9, but there’s a cooldown!’
It was 7:10 PM now. The cooldown would end at almost 10 PM.
‘It’s obvious Raffles will ask me to show my hacking ability. In this case, I’ll have to go about an hour late.’
I sent a message to Anything saying I would be late and left the PC cafe.
“…Ugh.”
I frowned and covered my nose.
The city was noisy and smelled of metal. This was an industrial area on the outskirts of Seoul. It wasn’t a very nice neighborhood.
I looked around. Neon signs flashed, and there were streetlights. But the buildings were large and all looked similar, giving off a dark atmosphere.
On the streets, cleaning robots that looked like 1-meter-tall tin cans were moving around. Their AI didn’t seem very good.
‘The air is so polluted! Damn it!’
Some people were wearing gas masks. The air pollution was severe.
I frowned as I looked at one side.
‘Why are those guys shirtless and leaning against the convenience store wall? Technology has advanced, but civic consciousness has fallen in inverse proportion.’
They looked to be in their early twenties, with tattoos all over their upper bodies. And they had some kind of machine attached to their right shoulders or arms. In this world, body modification was common.
‘A world where people attach machines to their perfectly fine bodies just because it looks cool.’
It wasn’t entirely incomprehensible. Life became easier by replacing parts of the body with machines.
They looked at me. They had noticed my gaze.
They chuckled and flipped me off. I smirked and pulled out the pistol I had brought from reality from my jacket pocket and aimed it at them. They were startled and quickly disappeared into the alley next to the convenience store.
“Bunch of nobodies.”
I put the pistol back in my pocket.
In Code: XTK’s Korea, gun ownership was legal. No, gun ownership was just the tip of the iceberg. Some people had machine guns attached to their arms.
I walked down the street. The city’s air was terrible, but the city’s buildings were quite a sight with their flashing neon signs.
‘I can’t believe I actually entered a webtoon world.’
As I walked around, I stopped in front of a store.
Blade Gun Mart.
Gun Mart. It was a pretty amusing name for a store. And as the name suggested, it was a place that sold guns. I went inside without much hesitation.
The store was about the size of a barbecue restaurant, but the walls were made of steel, and there were more than five security personnel inside. All five were cyborgs.
A middle-aged man sitting at the counter looked at me. Half of his right face was covered with a machine. A red mechanical eye glowed as he stared at me intently.
“A youngster. Did you come to buy a gun for self-defense? If you want, I can recommend a pistol that’s easy for beginners to use.”
“Do you buy guns here?”
“You came to sell a gun? Well, if it’s a decent item, I might buy it. Show me.”
I placed the pistol in front of him.
HK USP.
A general-purpose automatic pistol from HK.
I don’t really care about the model of the pistol. I just grabbed this one because it was easy to carry among the guns that were piled up.
“Wow…. Plastic? It’s a complete antique. I can’t believe someone would bring something like this. It’s a first in my 15 years of running this store.”
“This is a good gun, though.”
“Good my ass. This is for display. Display. It has no advantages other than being rare.”
I shrugged, not having much to say about the pistol. I didn’t know much about guns either.
He picked up the pistol with his mechanical right arm and began to examine it.
“Oh. It’s a real antique that hasn’t even been modified. 50,000 won… no, I should give it a rare value as an antique. The condition is almost new… 1.9 million won. That’s about right.”
“…Uh, 1.9 million won? That’s more expensive than I thought.”
“This is a genuine antique that hasn’t been modified. There are quite a few people who collect guns. They would drool over this and try to buy it. HK is already a defunct company. It will probably be worth at least 7 times more in about ten years. Are you really going to sell it now?”
“I live for today, not the future.”
“Don’t come crying to me later.”
I sold him the pistol. I paid with my smartwatch.
I learned in the process that his name was ‘Kim Blade.’ I thought it was a nickname, but his real name was ‘Kim Blade.’
“For self-defense, I recommend this pistol. It’s the latest automatic pistol from Mail. It won’t break even if you put it in water, and the recoil is low. It’s perfect for a youngster.”
I frowned at the pistol he took out.
“This is too small.”
“Small is good. It’s for self-defense, right?”
“I want a combat pistol, not a self-defense one.”
Blade scanned my body up and down. He chuckled.
“You’re a normal, aren’t you? You seem to have trained your body to some extent. But in the end, it’s hard to handle a combat pistol unless you’re a cyborg. If you’re going to fight, why don’t you modify your body first?”
Normal.
It refers to a regular person without any mechanical parts on their body.
“I’m strong.”
“Well, you’re probably stronger than my dog.”
“I’m a customer.”
“…Oh! I forgot about that. I was being nosy. So, young customer, what kind of combat pistol do you want?”
Blade changed his attitude. That was right. I was a customer, and he was a merchant who had to sell me goods.
“I want something versatile. And it should be powerful.”
“Then I recommend this. The Black Kite F.”
“Black Kite F? What kind of gun is it?”
“It’s this kind of gun.”
He took out a pistol and showed it to me. It was a black pistol that looked similar to the UPS I had. The details were a bit different.
“It looks similar to the antique you brought. I thought you might like something like this. But the internals are completely different. You need to charge the battery with electricity for about 30 minutes a month. The magazine can hold most 9mm rounds, including the ones used in your antique. The power is at least twice as strong as the gun you brought.”
I held the pistol. The grip felt quite good. Most of all, I liked the electronic screen on the back of the pistol, where the hammer would be. I could check the number of rounds left through the screen.
“It’s good. How much is it?”
“7 million won. It’s a bit expensive because I modified it myself. But the stability and durability are top-notch. It can use all kinds of special rounds, and there are no heat issues even if you fire 1,000 rounds continuously. It’s the most versatile gun you could want.”
“Sounds good. I’ll buy it.”
It was an impulsive decision. I didn’t think it was bad. It would be good to have a pistol like this for collection purposes. And I might need to use it in some way in the future.
“You make decisions quickly. You look weak, but you’re bold. I’ll give you 10 explosive rounds as a service.”
“Black Kite F? Does the name mean anything?”
“Kite is my friend. He was black. That was originally an order from him. But he died fighting gangsters before it was completed. F is for Friday. The day he died.”
The origin of the name seemed a bit ominous.
Well, it didn’t matter to me.
“What kind of special rounds do you have?”
“Explosive rounds, freezing rounds, armor-piercing rounds, spike rounds, electric rounds, and so on. Among them, explosive rounds are the most expensive. 30,000 won each.”
“What about regular bullets?”
“400 won each. If you buy 100, you get 10 free.”
“Do you sell daggers here?”
“I sell a few knives, but this is a gun store.”
As I was leaving the store after paying, Blade said to me.
“I don’t care where or who you pull the trigger on. But since you’re my customer, let me give you some advice. Don’t put too much meaning into the human body. Modify your body with machines. It’s more efficient.”
It was nagging. I let his words go in one ear and out the other.
“Yeah, yeah. Sell a lot.”
