Sinuiju Free Market (14)

“Ghk… Do you really think you’ll get out of this unharmed after doing this?”

The manager being dragged along by Hyeonyeong demanded in a voice like a growl.

“Uh, I think we’re going to be extremely unharmed.”

Hyeonseong answered carelessly. Up to now, she had never once seen a guy who talked like that and was actually frightening.

‘Seriously, I don’t know why guys like that always have such an obvious repertoire… Ah, well, they were the kind of people who gave the auction house such an obvious name in the first place.’

The group was able to reach the office quickly enough. Once they arrived in front of the office, Hyeonyeong instructed the manager to open the door.

The manager tried to resist. But after Hyeonyeong lightly resorted to force, he immediately raised a white flag. As befitted someone who worked in a place like this, he had absolutely no integrity.

“Well then, now it looks like we can finally have a serious conversation in peace.”

Hyeonseong said as she locked the office door.

“First order of business…”

Then Hyeonseong held out one open palm toward the manager.

“You should hand over what you promised.”

The reason all this chaos had broken out in the first place was the auction house entry ticket. So they had to receive that problematic ticket somehow.

But the manager tried to hold out without giving them anything. Since it was the response she had expected, Hyeonseong did not get particularly angry.

“Well, if you won’t give it willingly, then we’ll just have to find it ourselves.”

Hyeonseong began searching through the office here and there. Seeing that, the manager curled up the corner of his mouth as if mocking her. It probably meant, go ahead and try finding it if you can.

Hyeonseong did not care about that reaction either. He seemed convinced that they would never find the thing he had hidden. But when it came to places where people hid things, they were usually pretty obvious.

‘Guys like that always think in obvious ways.’

Hyeonseong checked places like drawers first, then asked Hyeonyeong whether she could sense any suspicious mana flow or anything else hidden by magic in the room.

“I don’t think there’s anything hidden with magic. But…”

“But?”

“It feels like there’s an empty space behind that wall over there.”

Hyeonyeong pointed at one section of the wall with her bare hand. The moment Hyeonyeong pointed in that direction, the manager’s mouth stiffened for an instant.

He quickly relaxed his expression as if nothing had happened, but Hyeonseong had already caught that fleeting moment of stiffness.

“Really? So your taste runs more toward secret safes or secret rooms than secret drawers.”

Hyeonseong called Haesu over and approached the wall Hyeonyeong had indicated.

“Have you ever robbed someone else’s house or safe before?”

Hyeonseong asked Haesu.

“Well… I’ve robbed empty houses or stores a few times…?”

Haesu answered awkwardly. Hearing that answer, Hyeonseong shot him a sidelong glance. She had heard that his criminal record covered more than one kind of offense, and apparently burglary really was on the list too.

“…Then that makes things simple.”

Suppressing the urge to report him to the police yet again, Hyeonseong jerked her head toward the wall. Seeing the signal, Haesu began feeling along the surface.

“Oh, here it is.”

In less than a minute, Haesu pressed one of the decorative wall tiles. Then the wall split apart around the pressed tile, revealing a door leading into a hidden room.

“Looks like this door has to be opened separately too…”

As the door appeared, Haesu muttered while turning the handle. The distinct clacking sound of a locked latch came from the doorknob.

“The fact that there’s no keyhole or keypad means…”

“It means it’s a door opened by one of three things: biometric, mana, or voice recognition.”

After hearing Haesu’s answer, Hyeonseong naturally turned her gaze to the manager.

“Bring that guy over here for a second.”

At Hyeonseong’s words, Hyeonyeong immediately dragged the manager in front of the hidden door.

“What do you think, Mr. Haesu? Which one seems like the right answer?”

Hyeonseong asked Haesu again.

“Hmm… Since there’s something that looks like a recognition panel under the handle, I’d guess either biometric or mana recognition.”

After hearing Haesu’s answer, Hyeonseong turned her head toward Hyeonyeong. Hyeonyeong immediately pulled the glove off the manager’s hand.

As soon as the glove came off, the manager tried to curl his hand shut in a hurry. But Hyeonyeong was faster in dragging the tips of his fingers toward the hidden door’s panel.

—Kiiing—

When the tip of the manager’s index finger pressed the panel, the hidden door unlocked with a sharp mechanical sound. Hyeonyeong pulled the manager’s fingertip away from the panel. A small drop of blood was visible on the fingertip that had touched it.

‘Looks like it was blood-based recognition.’

“Let’s go in.”

Hyeonyeong opened the hidden door and entered first. She did not forget to take the manager with her. Hyeonseong and Haesu followed after them.

A long corridor stretched beyond the door. After walking all the way down the straight corridor, they came upon a ramshackle-looking elevator.

Hyeonseong first examined the area around the elevator, which had no proper door or walls and was surrounded only by railings about waist high on an adult.

“This place is the lower level… and it looks like it’s set to go up.”

“This thing looks way too flimsy… Can all of us even ride it?”

Haesu seemed quite uneasy about the poorly built-looking elevator.

“Well… if it comes down to it, we’ll just have to float our way there.”

“You can do that?”

At Haesu’s question, Hyeonseong brought up the item list of the compartment inside Infinite Corridor where she kept miscellaneous disposable items.

‘If it’s a levitation-type item, I should have a few.’

Items with true flight ability were rare, but items with simple levitation that merely lifted the body were relatively easy to obtain.

Levitation abilities also had quite a few applications when clearing dungeons, so Hyeonseong always kept a few levitation items in Infinite Corridor.

“Here.”

Before long, Hyeonseong found a balloon-shaped levitation item and held it out to Haesu.

“Oh, that’s what you meant?”

“What else were you expecting?”

“No, well… I thought maybe you had some other unusual skill card…”

“I wish I had something like that too.”

Answering Haesu absentmindedly, Hyeonseong turned her gaze toward Hyeonyeong. Hyeonyeong immediately got onto the elevator with the manager. Hyeonseong and Haesu boarded after her.

“It’s not moving.”

After pressing the button to go up two or three times, Hyeonyeong shook her head.

“Figures. There’s probably a weight limit.”

With an expression like she had expected that, Hyeonseong activated the levitation item. Her feet rose about one span off the floor. Seeing that, Haesu also activated the item Hyeonseong had given him and lifted himself into the air.

Only after the two of them lifted their feet off the floor did the elevator begin to move. Since Hyeonyeong and the manager were still standing on the floor, that meant it could only carry about the weight of two adults.

‘Meaning it was made to carry one manager… and maybe one or two heavy cargo items at the same time.’

The elevator, creaking as it rose, eventually reached its destination. Hyeonyeong got off first with the manager, and then Hyeonseong and Haesu disembarked.

“What do we do about this? It looks like there’s still quite a bit of time left on its duration.”

Feeling along the wall as he stepped out, Haesu glanced sideways at the levitation balloon.

“Let’s try moving like this for now.”

Hyeonseong answered that way as she pushed the wall and moved forward. Just in case, she intended to avoid touching the corridor floor while the levitation effect lasted.

‘A place entered in a way like this can’t possibly be just some simple storage room.’

As they moved through the corridor, Hyeonseong observed the surroundings.

Unlike the lower level, this corridor was not a single passage. There were side paths branching off here and there. Most of them led to elevators or stairwells similar to the one the group had ridden up.

But there were also paths that did not connect to other floors. Since they had continued going straight and come upon a stairwell, the group had to turn back and change direction.

‘And that bastard…’

While moving through the passage, Hyeonseong also kept an eye on the manager.

His scruff was still held in Hyeonyeong’s hand. Since he had failed to escape no matter what he tried, he had become somewhat docile for the moment.

He did not show them the proper route, but neither did he display the overtly defiant attitude he had shown earlier.

Of course, the fact that he was quiet now did not mean they could relax. There was no telling how he might change once they reached whatever place lay at the end of this corridor.

‘Still, at worst it’ll probably just turn into a fight. Or they’ll come at us trying to kill us.’

By the time she had gone that far in her thoughts while walking, the duration of the levitation items had ended. From that point onward, Hyeonseong and Haesu also had to walk the corridor on their own feet.

After wandering the corridor for quite a while, the group soon discovered a door beyond it.

“This isn’t another place where we go down or up again, is it?”

Hyeonseong muttered.

“Who knows. It looks pretty different from the ones we’ve seen so far…”

Hyeonyeong grabbed the handle and turned it. The door opened naturally, without catching on anything.

“…At least it’s not a stairwell.”

After looking inside first and apparently deciding it was safe, Hyeonyeong opened the door wide. Then Hyeonseong was also able to see the scene beyond it.

“This… what am I even supposed to call this?”

As Hyeonseong entered the room, she quickly looked around inside.

In truth, there was not much to look at for long. The only things in the room were a desk and a computer on top of it, various mechanical devices connected to the computer, and a large cylindrical device of unknown purpose installed in the center.

The cylindrical device was hollow inside, making it look like a chamber for containing a large experimental subject or perhaps some kind of spatial-transfer device. It looked similar to objects that occasionally appeared in dungeons themed around futuristic or scientific worlds.

‘It doesn’t really feel like a laboratory, so maybe it really is some sort of spatial-transfer or transmission device.’

Naturally, it was a device that could not yet be made with the technology and resources of modern Earth alone.

But if one used information and resources brought back from dungeons, along with support from Constellations, it was possible to create a degraded imitation of something similar. The device before their eyes could very well be one of those imitations.

“Unni, what about that?”

Hyeonyeong pointed at the computer and the machinery. She seemed to be asking whether they could investigate it with Nemesis’s ability.

Hyeonseong immediately summoned Nemesis and ordered it to investigate the machinery in the room. Nemesis quickly returned with the results.

‘So that big thing really is a two-way transfer device, and it’s connected to the computer? And the computer’s linked to auxiliary devices that drastically raise its data-processing performance and security…’

Perhaps because of the high level of security, Nemesis could not obtain any more detailed information than that. It seemed they would have to be satisfied with identifying the machinery’s basic nature.

“If it’s a transfer device…”

“It looks like important objects are exchanged through this room.”

As Hyeonseong said that, she cast her gaze toward the manager. The manager’s eyes were fixed on the computer.

‘Looks like if anything’s going to be done in this room, it has to go through the computer.’

Hyeonseong’s eyes narrowed.

They had absolutely no idea how to operate the computer. So if they wanted to do anything, they had no choice but to leave it to the manager.

But considering the manager’s attitude, if they let him use the computer, he would surely try something the moment he could that would put them at a disadvantage.

‘Still, it doesn’t seem like a good idea for us to start touching it ourselves either.’

Hyeonseong turned her head toward Hyeonyeong again.

“What should we do?”

When Hyeonseong asked that, Hyeonyeong dragged the manager in front of the computer.

“It looked like he’s been dying to use this for a while now.”

When Hyeonyeong sat him down in front of the computer, the manager looked up awkwardly at Hyeonyeong standing beside him. Since Hyeonyeong only crossed her arms and quietly looked down at him, he began operating the computer with stiff movements.

When the computer screen turned on, the manager again watched Hyeonyeong’s reaction. When Hyeonyeong gestured with her head for him to go on, he clenched his fist tightly. Then he tried to keep operating the computer.

[Well now, this has turned into quite an amusing situation.]

Before the manager could even open a program, a dialog box appeared on the screen.

“Hhk…!”

A startled cry slipped from the manager’s mouth.

[I’m quite certain the order we gave was ‘eliminate them’… and yet instead of eliminating them, you’ve come back dragging them along like a burden. My, my.]

When the next message arrived, the manager’s gaze darted busily between the monitor and Hyeonyeong’s face.

[Looking for a way out only now? Regrettable, but you’re too late. The moment you failed to shake those people off, you became useless.]

“W-What nonsense is this…!”

The manager was aghast at the continuing flood of messages.

[And leaving things as they are doesn’t seem like it’ll be particularly entertaining, either.]

“…!”

The moment that message was displayed, Hyeonyeong ran toward Hyeonseong and Haesu. She pulled both their heads in and covered their eyes.

“Ghk…!”

The instant both of their eyes were covered, the manager let out a groan full of agony. By any hearing, it sounded like the dying scream of someone just before death.