Chapter 41
Raul Kesk.
Alias: Cutwire.
That was how his name was listed in the Magitera Public Safety Bureau’s public wanted notice records.
The unusual note appended to it was “Chrome Freak.”
However, Raul Kesk had not been a mad murderer from the beginning.
He was once a fairly well-known ACU security expert, renowned enough to receive a recruitment offer from a communications-security corporation under the White Society. He was not merely a hacker or communications technician, but a promising talent officially assigned a Tier 6 ACU.
The official name of the ACU implanted in him was Severine-6.
Its original purpose was to defend the city’s communications network, track hackers who had connected illegally, or forcibly sever a target’s neural connection port when necessary.
Severine-6 had no firepower comparable to a gun, but for someone who operated covertly, it was the finest weapon and means of defense available.
That was because, in Magitera, where everything in the city was connected, Raul could handle his ACU like a part of his own body.
Raul performed countless tasks with that power.
Back when conflicts between corporations were disguised on the surface as contract disputes, he carried out missions such as disabling a hostile corporation’s security network to open a laboratory door and steal the target, or defending corporate networks from relentless hacker attacks.
Of course, officially, nothing had happened.
But the corporations that hired him knew.
Once Raul Kesk got involved, the mission was as good as accomplished.
But.
At some point, Raul began to collapse.
No one could say exactly why such a man had fallen apart.
Some said he had overloaded from receiving too many signals and being unable to process the data.
Noise from the city that ordinary people could neither hear nor understand… Raul was taking it into his ACU every moment.
From the radio waves emitted by a vending machine in an alley to signals from some corporate network.
As all of it flowed into his head, Raul was going mad without even realizing it.
At first, it was insomnia, and then it became hypersensitivity.
The corporations that had kept a close eye on him sent their own medical teams to try to treat him.
However, the treatment ended in failure, and before long he was called this.
Chrome Freak.
And then one day, he came across a document.
[Severine-6 Retrieval Review]
[User Mental Stability Deterioration]
[Review of Possibility of Recovering ACU After Disposal of User]
After seeing that document, Raul killed his attending physician for the first time and slaughtered the security team that came to retrieve him.
From that day on, Raul Kesk was no longer a promising talent but a wanted criminal in Magitera.
From then on, Raul began hunting people.
Of course, he did not kill just anyone.
He selected his targets from among the bounty hunters who tracked him, those who mocked him, those who betrayed others, and those who offended him.
Raul sent each target a death threat first.
Along with a time limit of seventy-two hours.
His most recent target had been a man named Nicolas Drain.
Nicolas was an information broker who profited from both the Public Safety Bureau and corporations by selling the whereabouts of wanted criminals.
He foolishly began dabbling in information about Raul as well.
And eventually met his end.
And then someone else dared to challenge him.
-Here is today’s news about a publicly wanted criminal.
-Raul Kesk. Alias: Cutwire.
-A criminal notorious for seizing communications networks and broadcasting death threats.
-Mr. Raul, if you’re listening, let me offer you a piece of advice. Every time you send out a death threat, the audio quality is so terrible that no one can understand what you’re saying. Change your microphone. If you want to plunge the entire city into fear, shouldn’t you at least pronounce your words clearly?
Silas Volt.
He was Raul’s next target.
***
Kael asked without taking his eyes off the panel.
“Tell me everything you know.”
Silas hesitated, then studied Kael’s face.
Could he take the man who had been about to reject him just moments ago asking for information as an acceptance?
Perhaps Kael’s words felt like hope to Silas, because the tension soon left him and he sank down where he stood.
“I don’t know much.”
Silas set expectations first.
“I didn’t steal top-secret files from inside the Public Safety Bureau, and breaking into the White Society’s security network is… well, that’s completely impossible. If I could do something like that, I wouldn’t be standing here in front of your desk right now.”
“I’m not asking for anything major to begin with, so tell me whatever you have.”
“…If you spend a long time talking on the air, you naturally get to know useful people. Reporters with access to the Public Safety Bureau, information brokers, or the sort of people on corporate security teams who become loose-lipped after a few drinks. Well… that’s where I heard these things, but I only brought what I was able to sort out as reliable.”
When Silas manipulated the data chip again, several files appeared on the panel.
He opened the first file.
“The scale of the damage he’s caused isn’t what you’d expect from an ordinary Tier 6. Of course, people say judging combat power by tier alone is an outdated way of thinking, but….”
The victims’ names were briefly listed.
Most of them did not even have photographs.
……
[Nicolas Drain]
[Information Broker]
[Deceased]
……
Silas flipped through the screen as he spoke.
“These are the targets confirmed recently. None of them received detailed coverage in the official announcements, but I was able to find something they all had in common. They had all done something related to Raul….”
“….”
“I mocked him on my broadcast.”
Silas swallowed dryly once more, his nerves showing.
Kael indifferently scanned the list of victims.
“You said he sent a death threat before killing them.”
“Yes. Almost always. Though not through any public method…. Apparently, he has hacked into a target’s personal terminal, the speakers in their home, or their car’s navigation system and sent his voice through them.”
“What happens after that?”
“He says he finishes the job within seventy-two hours. In the cases I confirmed, most of them were killed between forty-eight and seventy hours after the threat.”
“There must be people who hide immediately after receiving a death threat.”
Silas gave a bitter smile.
“That’s why they all hid, but apparently he killed them all anyway.”
Silas immediately added,
“Of course, I haven’t checked every case. There may be survivors, and the Public Safety Bureau may have concealed records. But at least within the scope of what I found, I haven’t heard of anyone properly targeted by Raul surviving.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Silas answered immediately. When Kael tapped his head with a finger as though unconvinced, he continued.
“I really don’t know. If I knew that, I would have run somewhere far away from there instead of going to the Public Safety Bureau. Even now, I’d like nothing more than to leave Magitera, but…. Anyway, there are many stories that Raul doesn’t keep a fixed hideout.”
“Is that certain, or just an assumption?”
“Yes, it’s an assumption.”
Kael thought for a moment, then spoke.
“What is his fighting style?”
At his question, Silas fell silent for a moment, as though he was not confident himself.
“I didn’t see it myself, but…. A reporter who went to one of the crime scenes said he believed Raul wasn’t the type to fight head-on. The equipment around the target had begun malfunctioning, so he thought anyone with cyberware or an ACU would be in greater danger.”
“He can interfere with cyberware and ACUs? Is that even possible?”
“That’s what I heard, at least. Of course, I don’t know the exact principle either. I’m neither a mage nor a technician. But I did hear that Raul’s victims generally displayed similar symptoms.”
Silas stole a glance at the ACU on the back of Kael’s neck.
Of course, Silas did not know that it was a dummy.
“It may sound crazy, but the only way to fight him is to face him with your bare hands.”
Kael answered.
“That’s good information.”
At those words, a faint trace of relief crossed Silas’s face.
“And there’s one more thing.”
“Tell me.”
“…Raul seems to listen to the radio or broadcasts quite often.”
Silas spoke with a serious expression.
“That’s why he heard me mocking him. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that he happened to hear about it. There’s a high chance he was listening from the very beginning.”
“You mocked him even knowing that?”
“Of course I didn’t know at first.”
Silas gave a small cough, then quickly added,
“…Of course, I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t have done it even if I had known. I have a habit of letting my mouth run ahead of me.”
Kael looked at him for a moment, then.
“Seems that way.”
He looked at the panel again.
“What are the chances he’ll come straight to your broadcasting station?”
“I think they’re low. Since then, the broadcasting station’s security has been significantly reinforced. Of course, that doesn’t mean it can stop Raul for certain. He generally isolates his targets first, so he probably won’t reveal himself in a crowded place.”
“What’s your route?”
“I’ve already changed it. I also refused the temporary lodging the broadcasting station provided. It was too obvious. I’m currently rotating among three locations. I stored their locations separately on this chip.”
“Who knows that information?”
“The broadcasting station’s head of security, a friend who used to be my personal driver, and you.”
“Is the driver trustworthy?”
When Silas failed to answer immediately, Kael continued.
“I suppose he isn’t very trustworthy.”
“…I’ve known him for a long time.”
“Knowing someone for a long time and being able to trust them are different things.”
Silas fell silent at his words.
Kael leaned slightly forward in his chair.
“Turn off your terminal from now on.”
Silas’s eyes widened.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Then how do I contact you?”
“Don’t.”
“Is that the plan?”
“Yes. You said he hacks things like ACUs and cyberware.”
Kael lightly pushed the data chip on the desk with one finger.
Silas looked down at his terminal.
That small device contained his schedule, contacts, broadcasting-station authentication keys, personal messages, and travel records.
From the moment he turned it off, he would have to stake everything solely on the man in front of him.
Silas hesitated for a moment, but Kael calmly said,
“You said you want to live.”
Silas drew a short breath and turned off the terminal.
The small screen inside his terminal went black.
At that moment, the lights in the second-floor office flickered very briefly.
Once.
It was over as quickly as a blink.
Kael rose from his seat and said,
“He’s here.”
Silas asked in a trembling voice,
“Who?”
Kael drew the pistol from inside his coat and aimed at the area above the office door, then—
Bang!
“Who else? The man who came to slit your throat.”
He destroyed the surveillance camera that had been watching the two of them the entire time.