Chapter 100: When Whales Fight, Shrimp Get Crushed (7)

The two battalion commanders looked utterly perplexed.

They kept shooting Lee Taebaek glances, demanding further explanation with their eyes.

…Dive?

What the hell was a dive?

It sure as hell wasn’t scuba diving, not in this situation.

Even as they raced smoothly along on Red Hare, the pair’s stares prickled the sides of his face like needles.

But Lee Taebaek ignored them with a bright smile, eyes fixed straight ahead. It was a stark reminder of the gap between the Resistance and Megacorp tech savvy.

‘Well, Dive tech hasn’t been commercialized yet.’

Dive meant infiltrating a virtual world.

It was a term hackers used when breaching information networks. Not your run-of-the-mill hack, though.

It referred to breaking into heavily fortified networks or massive unique barriers from the outside.

And just as networks were often likened to oceans…

Intruders were called divers.

‘This is five years before the main story.’

Dive technology was still too early for widespread use. Thanks to the time lag between his brain’s knowledge and reality, Lee Taebaek held this informational edge.

So there was no easy way to explain it to the two full of suspicion. Hell, baring his teeth with time of the essence felt wrong.

Still, perhaps thanks to their swift charge…

Lee Taebaek reached the first fork. Kang Hyeonseong’s drop-off point. He nodded at it.

“See that alley back there? Head in.”

“No… I mean, yeah. Got it.”

Kang Hyeonseong nodded readily and hopped off the sidecar.

Right before ducking into the alley, he shot Lee Taebaek a sullen look. Then burst out laughing.

“I’m trusting you ’cause it’s you, Taebaek. You know I’m not usually like this. But you’ve proven it time and again. That’s why. Not ’cause I’m backing down.”

“Man, hold onto that grudge why don’t you. Fine, go. Call up the 9th Battalion guys too.”

“Was gonna anyway, you punk. Folks might think you’re the battalion commander. This is insubordination, y’know.”

“Wanna keep your seat? Do it right.”

“Damn, you’re giving me chills.”

“Go, asshole. Hurry.”

Lee Taebaek grinned back, and Kang Hyeonseong quickened his pace. As his figure vanished into the dusk, Lee Taebaek revved the engine again.

A knife-edge wind lashed his cheeks. Snow falling already—it felt exactly like winter biking.

‘My ears are gonna freeze off.’

Just as warmth became desperately needed, Tang Jihye spoke up from the sidecar.

“Lee Taebaek, you know you seem really suspicious, right?”

“Suspicious? Leave it to the 8th Battalion Commander then.”

“…That’d just be a corpse investigation.”

Tang Jihye hemmed and hawed before continuing.

“I mean suspiciously good.”

“Suspicious is suspicious. What’s this positive spin?”

“You really can’t let even one word slide. You’ve got real social issues. Y’know that thing trending with teens lately? The sixteen personality types.”

“…Even here…?”

Earth knowledge popping up here too?

Lee Taebaek shuddered for a second but shook it off. Team Leader Seo must’ve been into that stuff—probably her doing.

More importantly, the jab at his social skills stung. He was a hardcore gamer otaku, and like them, he got defensive.

“Well, guess the Commander-in-Chief was charmed by my weirdo side.”

“Think whatever.”

“Yeah, yeah. My stop’s up there, right? Don’t slow down.”

“…?”

Tang Jihye stepped onto the sidecar seat. Crouched in a spring-loaded stance, she launched herself at the perfect moment.

Too late for Lee Taebaek to react.

By the tail light, she was already a dot.

‘Right, Tang Clan kid.’

Chuckling wryly, Lee Taebaek refocused on driving. Countless scenarios flooded his mind.

Gamers were like that. Roadblocks just pumped the adrenaline.

Lee Taebaek was reaping the benefits of that twisted trait. Second life around, after all.

* * *

From Jasbi’s mouth hole to the water’s surface stretched a long bubble trail. She was submerged.

Korrr…

Even submerged, data flooded in relentlessly. This wasn’t mere seawater. Each bit was a data fragment—salty as hell.

Ten Wings’ Illusion Master.

He wasn’t your dime-a-dozen mage. He’d fused magic and science.

But you can’t have it all. So he’d imposed the ‘restriction’ of abandoning martial arts to bind magic and science.

The result: this monstrous unique barrier.

Not even the Kergel Magic Tower Master could match its scale and realism.

Thus, the Left Luminary was born—a freak with a single-tool unique barrier, no martial prowess.

Even in Kergel Magic Tower, he was somewhat sidelined. Mages still hailed from the martial world at heart.

They subtly looked down on a mage who ignored fisticuffs.

But who’d openly scorn him?

He was Left Luminary.

One of the tower’s twin pillars, no matter what.

“Humans endure water longer than you’d think.”

The voice echoed, layered like cave speech.

“But ordinary folk don’t drown when dumped in the sea—they die of shock. Humans choose death when mentally cornered.”

Kororok…

“Yet you’re utterly fine, miss. This confirms it. You can’t possibly be human.”

With that, silence fell. Pitch black all around.

Inky unease. Then a pair of eyes lit up like prow searchlights.

‘Wha…le…?’

Its mass defied physics.

Body length at least 100 meters.

Jasbi had no nerves, yet goosebumps prickled anyway.

“I’ll impose a trial.”

“…!”

“Tough for a human, but feasible if you’re not.”

The whale’s maw yawned leisurely.

Sudden suction yanked Jasbi in. The Left Luminary in whale skin devouring everything.

She thrashed desperately, but hurtled into the whale’s mouth at speed.

I’m dying, gonna die!

Split-second.

– Jasbi.

A voice in her head.

Hearing it, Jasbi’s eyes welled up despite the water. Forelocks tumbling, she clapped a hand to her ear.

And screamed desperately.

“Creator! Why aren’t you here yet?!”

– Just ten minutes since you called.

“You gotta warp in three minutes flat when I call! That’s why humans are so slow—why AI’s gonna replace you soon!”

– Look at those impatient thoughts spilling out.

“Sorry… sorry! Please save me. That Left Luminary’s a total psycho! Kidnapping me to the tower for dissection!”

– Could be a good thing.

“Huh?”

– Kidding.

What kinda creepy joke was that!

– Enough chatter. I’m at Silver Nose Bar, but you two are MIA?

“Oh, his unique barrier’s different from standard ones!”

– How so? Make it quick.

“Links his brain to the tower’s database, creates a space severed from reality! Same 3D plane but isolated. Know quantum mechanics?”

– Nope.

“Argh, shit! Can’t explain without that!”

Gravity intensified. Darkness closed in.

– ……

“Sorry! Sorry! Don’t need quantum crap. Please. Pleeaaase save me. Virtual space or not, sucked into that thing and I’m toast! Personality annihilation!”

– Non-human worried about personality wipe.

“Pleeeaaase!”

– Quit whining and Dive me into that space.

“You, Creator?”

– You can do it.

“Me…?”

Her chest tickled warmly. Lungs full of seawater, yet cozy inside.

Passing the whale’s teeth, Jasbi’s eyes gleamed faintly.

“Repeat after me!”

She bellowed at full volume.

“Link Start!”

– ……

“Creator?”

– Been fun, Jasbi.

“You ba—”

Shadow loomed over her head. She tilted back slightly.

Palate filled her vision. Whale’s mouth closing.

“You X bastard!!”

Palate rushed down. Sky literally collapsing.

Jasbi squeezed her eyes shut instinctively.

Instant.

– %＃^%^＃%^＃%^

Machine-gun mutter.

About to be swallowed by the abyss. A hand seized her nape.

Kuuuung…!

The whale’s maw finally shut. Foam-choked torrent engulfed Jasbi.

Before relief could settle, a chilling voice licked her ear.

“X bastard?”

“……”

Jasbi creaked around like a waterlogged machine.

Seawater felt warm against killing intent gushing blue from his eye sockets.

“Heh heh.”

“Laughing?”

Chills raced over her frame.

“Sorry.”

Jasbi dangled by her nape in Lee Taebaek’s chicken-neck grip. A slight squeeze and her neck would snap.

She flashed a fawning smile.

“Deathly sin committed. Spare me, and I’ll serve Creator forever.”

“Hack lotto numbers weekly then.”

“System blocks that illegal crap—”

“Whale chow it is.”

“Will hack and deliver.”

Bubbles rose with their banter. Breathing was fine.

This was no real sea—an ocean of data. Cyber Space. Awareness alone enabled breath.

Formed so close to reality, most mentally drowned.

AI Jasbi and barrier-breaching Lee Taebaek knew it clearly for Cyber Space.

“An impossibility has occurred.”

The voice drilled deep, seawater-lashed.

Lee Taebaek and Jasbi quit talking, faced forward.

Lighthouse-sized whale eye glowed perilously white. Size alone was oppressive.

So-called Illusion Master Baekgyeong Mode.

Locking eyes rattled alarm bells in his skull.

“You’re the Illusion Master. Learned illusions ’cause martial arts were lacking.”

Lee Taebaek taunted anyway. Had to buy time.

“……”

Illusion Master Left Luminary stayed silent. Observing gaze. Their stares clashed across boiling bubbles.

“It’s you.”

Whale maw cracked open. Like a sneer.

“The one the Tower Master eyes.”

“…Tower Master knows me…?”

“Questions are the victor’s privilege.”

“I see.”

Lee Taebaek extended a hand. Jasbi slung over one leg, he mouthed.

Crack. The sea began freezing. Ink-blue turned pale, pigment sucked dry.

Clustered bubbles cooled to grains, shivering before scattering on collision.

With the sea iced, the whale too was glacier-trapped. Beyond the ice wall, whale sclera gleamed transparently like glass.

“Question again.”

Lee Taebaek slowly lowered his arm.

“Does the Tower Master know me?”