"Yes, Director. Yes. ......No, sir. Yes. You're always working so hard. No, I don't think that's the case. Still seems to be focused on that. Yes. The Silver Cylinder will continue to be maintained too. Appears to have been in contact with the local police station. ......No. Doesn't seem to have given up for now and is working on some other scheme, but I don't know the details yet either. Yes. I'll contact you as soon as I find out. Yes. Take care. Yes."
***
"What did you call me all the way out here to propose?"
The tipster was still wearing her foil hat. It was hidden under a ball cap at the moment, but if you looked closely you could tell. I never thought I'd meet this person a second time. And at my own request at that.
At our last meeting she'd seemed to dislike crowded places, so this time I deliberately didn't name a place and we just walked together.
Seoullo, a little past quitting time, was more walkable than I'd thought. No office workers wandering in search of restaurants as at lunchtime, just at most runners from who knows where and a few passersby hurrying to cross to the other side.
Watching the cars pass from atop the overpass, I picked my words for a moment.
"You said your younger sister went missing because her brainwaves were controlled through the game Brigantes Chronicle."
"You remember that sort of thing well. When you don't even believe it."
"Of course I don't believe it."
"Then why did you call me all the way out here—"
"But I do think Goldrish Games and Goldcrest bear responsibility for your sister's disappearance."
The tipster paused. Her sharply edged tone softened little by little.
"......Do you truly believe that? Why? Has someone around you disappeared, Reporter, or something."
"No. It's nothing like that."
How should I explain this? Feeling somehow awkward, I watched the lump of headlights passing on the road as I continued.
"Because I'm the reporter who posted the Goldcrest allegations myself."
"What?"
"That article you said you saw, I'm the one who posted it. The exposé on the cult allegations. Abuse within the organization. Investigating it and filing it was fine, but within 14 minutes of posting, the editorial department took it down."
"That reporter was you, Reporter Seo Jae-won? But why did you talk last time as if it was someone else?"
"Because it was embarrassing. That got me demoted within the company and left me unable to write any more articles."
IT/Games News Team. A department hastily thrown together at Proin News the day before my demotion was decided.
All I could do there was send out incoming press releases as they were. Writing articles myself and going out on stories or meetings weren't allowed. The reason was simple.
-Cleaning up the mess you made was hard, Reporter Seo, so for the time being, go back to square one. Develop an eye first for telling which articles you can and can't write. Huh? You understand what I'm saying, don't you?
......From the company's standpoint, they want to cut a reporter who might cause trouble any time. They can't fire him on the charge of writing an article, so they slowly squeeze him into leaving on his own. When I clenched my fist out of the tipster's sight, my nails dug into my flesh.
"Anyway, so I do know Goldcrest and Goldrish Games are suspicious. What I need is hard evidence. Not absurd talk like controlling brainwaves, but evidence you can see with your own eyes and record."
"Evidence."
The tipster reflexively fiddled with her hat's brim and turned her head. The foil glinted faintly.
"But how can you do that? The police say there's no evidence, and there's nothing on her phone. Even the messenger chats with her friends showed nothing at all about going missing."
"I know. Even that there's CCTV of them leaving the house or building, but the moment they get out on the road, they vanish as if evaporated."
"Wh, what? How do you know that?"
"I'm a reporter, Ms. Tipster."
"Ah."
The tipster hurriedly composed her expression, but I'd already seen the face suspecting I was a stalker. Broadly speaking, leeching onto police and prying out cases, maybe it's not that different.
"Anyway, in a situation with strangely little evidence, there's only one thing we can do. Make the evidence ourselves."
"Perjury?!"
This woman?
"Who said anything about that? Stop cutting me off. If only people who've played Brigantes Chronicle go missing, we just pose as players. We play Brigantes Chronicle ourselves and collect evidence right up to going missing."
"What if you really disappear doing that?"
"Alone, that's what would happen. But if two or more people help each other, we can prevent going missing without a sound or rumor."
"But isn't it still too dangerous? You don't even know where the missing people went, and you're just going to blindly play the game?"
"All reporting comes with risk."
"You said you were demoted over the Goldcrest exposé. Will you really be all right? Even if you're lucky enough to get hard evidence and write an article, what will you do if pressure comes down on you again, Reporter?"
That's definitely a sore spot. I was already warned once and demoted; if I did the same thing again, a recommended resignation goes without saying, and Goldcrest might sue this time for sure. Even hiring a lawyer, one individual taking on a big corporation's legal team in a court fight would obviously be a terribly tiring and hard path of thorns.
But.
"I've taken it once anyway, so can't I take it twice?"
If I'd been going to worry about things like that and just copy down safe press releases, I wouldn't have picked the profession of reporter in the first place.
Reporters of more than 20 years ago lived off tearing into the motto that the pen is mightier than the sword, but for modern reporters, there remains only the duty to prove that the pen is mightier than money. Me too.
Being human, I couldn't say I gladly shoulder that even if my mouth tore open, but at least can't I try to keep this pen I've gotten from breaking? Even if the motive isn't particularly good, even if I'm clinging on this stubbornly because it's tied to my own gain, I don't care.
Curse me if you like. Who can call ugly the rebellion against the people who sent me down to a new department, the desire to prove I wasn't wrong, the will to let the public know the truth?
The tipster gave no answer for a long while. Only after a stretch of time, I couldn't tell whether she was hesitating or picking out what to say, did she slowly hold out her hand.
"......I'm Yeon Seo-rim. If there's anything I can do, I'll help with anything. Thank you."
"I'm Reporter Seo Jae-won. I'm the one who should be asking for your help."
The hand I clasped was cold. A hand a little sweaty from nerves. For the first time since we'd met, she showed a faint smile. She seemed a bit relieved to think of me as a comrade digging into the disappearances. I felt reassured too, having met someone I could at least trust.
When Yeon Seo-rim took off her ball cap and foil hat, jet black hair spilled down. As I was admiring hair so long I wondered how it had all fit in the hat, the foil hat was suddenly thrust right under my nose. What's this?
"Why are you giving me this?"
"To prevent brainwave control...... just in case, for you to wear, Reporter Seo."
A shy answer. For a moment I looked up at the sky full of light pollution. The hazy ceiling where not even pigeons flew, so different from the clear jet-black sky of the Brigantes game.
"......I don't need it."
She is someone I can trust...... right?
***
The day after shaking hands with Yeon Seo-rim, I applied for vacation as soon as I got to work.
Working on the Online News Team I'd never had time to use my annual leave, and there was a limit to melting it off bit by bit with substitute days off or year-end vacation, so I'd only meant to use it all up at this chance, but.
[HR Song Ji-won: Hello, Reporter Seo Jae-won. I've checked the annual leave request you just submitted for approval. I just wanted to ask whether there's a particular reason for taking such a long break?]
Using 34 days of annual leave straight at one go was a bit much, wasn't it?
After thinking for a while, I slowly typed on the company messenger.
[IT/Games Seo Jae-won: No. It's a family matter. The IT/Games News Team has no superior above me, so I applied and approved it myself; is there some additional procedure needed?]
[HR Song Ji-won: If you're using annual leave because of illness, the unpaid sick leave system is available, so I wanted to let you know in advance.]
[IT/Games Seo Jae-won: That's all right. It's not sick leave, so please approve it as is.]
[HR Song Ji-won: Okay~]
Good. On top of the title of Proin News's first-ever demotion, I get to take the title of first person to take an ultra-long vacation too.
But it's not my fault. Due to the nature of a reporter's job you have to go to events and the field even on holidays, so you just can't find time to rest, yet the labor law gives reporters 15 days of annual leave a year without fail, so blame that.
Or it's the fault of the company president who, a mere news outlet or not, introduced a leave carryover system in pursuit of advanced journalism. It's got to be one of the two, doesn't it?
Soon an alert rang out that the approval had gone through. As I was now comfortably monitoring Goldrish Games articles without having to watch anyone's face, the phone beside my laptop rang once.
I thought it might be Yeon Seo-rim, but what showed up on the alert was a different guy. Hwang Hyeon-seok. This tiresome fellow.
[Hangover soup for lunch today?]
[Had a dinner meeting with my beat last night so I need a hangover cure TT]
[Or kimchi stew is fine too]
Well, well. Talking about hangover cures in front of someone who can't even go to meetings. Either he has no sense, or I should see treating me normally as considerate. I promptly called him.
-Ahem, hello. Proin News, Hwang Hyeon-seok speaking.
"What're you doing?"
-......Jae-won? What are you doing calling from the office next door? Hold on a sec.
Rustling sounds. He seemed to be leaving his seat.
-What's up? Want to eat a menu too grand to talk about over messenger?
"Like there's anything so great around the office. I'm on vacation from lunch."
-What? Really? Without even telling me. That's too much. You're not sick or anything, right?
"You're asking the same thing as HR. I'm not sick, just. I'm going to dig into that missing persons case you gave me in more detail. All I do here is sit eight hours a day anyway, right? I'd rather use my annual leave with a clear head and investigate as I please."
-It's good that you're working hard, but aren't you wearing yourself out too much? What are you going to do this time? Go back to the police stations and sit around?
This guy. Who did he hear from that I was making the rounds of police stations before lunchtime?
"No way. I thought of another method. I'll tell you later when it's more certain. I might need your help."
-Got it. How long's your vacation?
"34 days. I used up all I had saved. I'll probably be back next month or...... the month after."
-......Wow. You still had all those? Instead of taking the allowance? I took the money long ago.
"You got a problem? If it bugs you, go tell HR."
-I don't have the guts to go to HR, so that's impossible. Instead, I'll drop by your place now and then on days I get off early or on holidays too. That's okay, right?
"Why would you come to my place?"
-Because I'm worried. Once you get into something, you charge straight ahead without looking back. Same when you wrote the Goldcrest article. Don't you remember when you nearly passed out on the stairs from drinking nothing but energy drinks and I caught you?
"I don't, bastard."
-I'm coming this weekend, to clean your place while I'm at it. If there's anything you want to eat, message me. Okay? Get plenty of sleep and eat your meals. Ah, the chief's calling me now. I've got to go!
The call cut off in an instant. Does this guy have a talent for saying just what he wants and hanging up?
Leaving the shabby warehouse-style office, I saw Hwang Hyeon-seok talking with the chief in the Online News Team. Until a few weeks ago I'd been in that spot, but now that I was gone, Hwang Hyeon-seok was the ace, so whatever. I shrugged once, turned around and left the company.
Close to noon. I passed through the crowds, took a strangely empty subway and came home. Pretending not to notice the old laundry kicking around my feet and the empty disposable lunch containers, I sat down at my computer.
I'd asked Yeon Seo-rim for help, but in the end I'm the only one leading the investigation of this case. At this point I'm also the one who knows the most about Goldcrest and the Brigantes game.
And so, in order not to go missing as a player and to find the link with Goldcrest that was the most important evidence, I spent five straight days redesigning my investigative method and forgot to log in to the game.
When five days had passed and all the items I needed had been delivered.
Only after texting Yeon Seo-rim asking if we could meet did I at last put in the connected lenses. I meant to enter Brigantes Chronicle, just report to Erman that I was alive and log out right away, but.
"......Now where's this?"
Opening my eyes,
I was lying on a dark, damp floor in Albion's form.