The Spatial Ability User Who Puts Safety Above All Chapter 70

Shadow Worker (2)

 

Seon Yul used Shadow Worker No. 1 to investigate all the limitations and possibilities the shadow workers possessed.

Even simply keeping them summoned consumed magic stones, but since he needed to learn these details beforehand to avoid even greater magic stone consumption later, he invested both time and money to check everything very thoroughly.

The conclusion he reached was: “This is incredibly good!”

The shadow workers were extremely useful. They were so helpful that even during everyday life, they made things far more convenient for Seon Yul. Each worker consumed 0.1g of intermediate-grade magic stone per second… meaning a ridiculous hourly wage of 3.6 million won, yet even so, they were useful enough that he still wanted to keep using them.

However, since he still had to conserve resources where possible, Seon Yul reluctantly dismissed them after finishing all the tests.

After confirming the efficiency of the shadow workers, Seon Yul used three more superior-grade magic stones to increase the number of shadow workers to four.

Shadow Worker No. 2. No. 3. No. 4.

He didn’t think he would need to use all four immediately, but since he had plenty of superior-grade magic stones anyway, he decided to fill the maximum limit in advance.

After finishing everything related to the shadow workers, Seon Yul finally expanded the size of Absolute Space by a bold 100 pyeong.

Because he had installed the railgun and was storing three self-propelled artillery units, one tank, and various weapons and ammunition, Absolute Space had begun to feel cramped, so he decisively expanded the area this time.

He spent 100kg of intermediate-grade magic stones to increase the area by 100 pyeong, bringing the total size of Absolute Space to 205 pyeong.

As a result, the amount of intermediate-grade magic stones he possessed decreased to 727kg, but in exchange, he secured a very comfortable space.

With that, Seon Yul finished organizing everything related to the Frozen Cave hunt and left Absolute Space with a light heart.

His level had increased significantly, and he had obtained plenty of rewards, so he planned to relax on Jeju Island for a few days.

However, while Seon Yul had been busy moving around and taking care of various things by himself, a major incident had erupted in neighboring Japan, causing quite a stir in many places.

Japan, while not quite at the level of the Republic of Korea, was still one of the countries that had been handling the Gate crisis relatively well.

Japan’s Gate Management Bureau had been developing an artificial mana ability system for quite some time.

In fact, artificial mana ability systems were the newest magitech technology being developed simultaneously by nearly every country with sufficient technological capability. In Japan’s case, however, under a project named the EVA Project, they were developing a new concept, the ‘Mana Suit’, that combined nanotechnology with magic stones.

This was somewhat different in direction from Korea’s Project R, which was developing a multipurpose mana power system.

In some ways, it resembled the M-Type currently being developed by the United States, but the difference was that the American M-Type was surgically implanted into the human body, while Japan’s mana suit was worn by a person.

Korea’s Project R was also ultimately planning to either create suits based on the mana power system or insert special devices into the human body through procedures, so in truth, almost all artificial mana ability systems were quite similar.

Human technology tended to converge in similar directions, so it was difficult for completely new concepts to appear.

In any case, the organization leading Japan’s EVA Project was, naturally, the Magical Engineering Research Division of Japan’s Gate Management Bureau. However, after determining that completing the EVA Project with their own strength would be difficult, they formed a consortium with private magitech companies.

After that, the pace of development increased significantly.

Thanks to that, Japan has recently finally completed a prototype of the EVA Project.

Although there were still some unstable parts, if development continued at the current pace, a proper first-phase result of the EVA Project would certainly emerge within a year.

But then, at that very moment…

Their joint laboratory was robbed.

Unknown assailants infiltrated the laboratory that the Japanese Management Bureau had been operating in strict secrecy and stole most of the research results of the EVA Project.

They even stole the prototype.

This shocking incident was reported to the community through a tip-off from someone, and the community became extremely noisy because of it.

Naturally, the Japanese government and the Management Bureau denied that anything like that had happened, but no one believed the announcement.

Instead, community users were discussing who could have carried out the raid on Japan.

And a large portion of those opinions pointed to one suspect.

Old Blood.

There was no direct evidence. But there was circumstantial evidence.

A situation where there was no physical proof, only suspicion.

Nevertheless, most users strongly suspected that Old Blood was the culprit.

“Will it be usable immediately?”

At Old Blood’s headquarters, located in a remote region of France.

They were currently discussing how to utilize the EVA Project they had seized from Japan.

In the end, the suspicions of the community users were correct.

It was Old Blood that had stolen Japan’s EVA Project.

To carry out this theft, they had spent an enormous amount of money over several years to recruit one researcher who was participating in the EVA Project research.

As the number of Gates and mana users increased, Old Blood’s influence continued to weaken; in contrast, they had already been planning this operation with everything on the line for several years.

The only thing Old Blood could truly boast about was its strong financial backing, and if this plan had failed, even that might have been endangered.

They had gambled everything.

But in the end, they succeeded, and before their eyes now stood EVA Unit 1, the product of Japan’s painstakingly developed EVA Project.

EVA Unit 1 was a full-body mana suit.

The overall material was carbon nanotube, and inside the suit was a device that, when equipped with a magic stone, artificially converted mana power into physical force.

“So it can be used immediately?”

“Yes. This prototype can be used right away. And since we’ve already secured the detailed technology as well, if you give us some time, we should be able to establish a production system to some extent.”

“Hm… So if someone wears this, they’ll be able to display power similar to mana users?”

“Yes. More precisely, it should allow someone to use power similar to a reinforcement-type mana user. Since it’s not a product that has completed precise performance testing yet, it’s difficult to say for certain, but based on the specifications written here by the Japanese, it should be capable of producing power comparable to a C-rank reinforcement-type awakened ability.”

“Oh? Even that sounds impressive, doesn’t it?”

“It is impressive. Especially if we can mass-produce it… Then we too will finally possess the proper strength to oppose the Management Bureaus.”

“Then we should begin mass production as soon as possible. Ah, but before that, could you produce around ten suits as quickly as possible? It doesn’t matter if their performance is somewhat inferior.”

“Yes. Under those conditions, if you give us about a month, we should be able to produce around ten suits in advance.”

“You called it EVA Unit 1, right? Anyway, once this one plus those ten suits are ready—so about eleven suits in total… we should hold an event to clearly announce our intentions to the world.”

Jacques Rocard, the leader of Old Blood, had recently been extremely dissatisfied with how much Old Blood’s activities had shrunk.

So he intended to start an event that would properly awaken the world’s mana users to a sense of alarm.

“Humans are eternal!!”

“Humanity is immortal!!”

Jacques Rocard shouted Old Blood’s slogan, determined to demonstrate the dignity of pure-blood humans himself, and the subordinates beside him shouted the same response together.

That…

had happened exactly one month ago.

 

***

 

Recently, Korea has experienced many difficulties due to several new events occurring consecutively, but in the end, it has cleared all of them perfectly, and its evaluation has actually improved.

Now, within the community, there was an atmosphere acknowledging Korea as the next magical power after the United States and China. Among the reasons, the newly emerged rising star from Korea…. AbsoluteSafetyFirst was being singled out as the strongest rookie, and Korea’s growth potential was receiving high marks.

The prevailing evaluation was that if things continued steadily like this for just a few more years, the seven stars currently shining in the world would increase to eight.

Of course, the person in question, AbsoluteSafetyFirst, had absolutely no interest in such things, but regardless, the overall atmosphere in Korea recently was very positive.

Even Seoul, where the invasion event had occurred, had recently seen not even small gates appear, and it continued to maintain the lively and peaceful appearance of a bustling city.

Jamsil L Tower.

As always, countless tourists visited L Tower.

The observatory at the top of L Tower was one of Seoul’s tourist landmarks, so it was always crowded with people.

But at that very L Tower, people of various nationalities with a certain ‘purpose’ were gradually gathering.

They had all come from different places, but in reality, they had gathered here under orders from the same organization.

Moreover, they were not ordinary civilians but individuals who had undergone special training.

Including the Frenchman who had arrived first and was waiting for the others, there were exactly eleven of them.

The purpose for which those eleven people had come to L Tower today was extremely clear.

“The preparations are already finished… and exactly 30 minutes remain until showtime.”

The Frenchman checked his watch.

He was Jean Philippe, the leader of Old Blood’s Special Operations Team.

There was only one reason he had come here.

An order from Jacques Rocard, the leader of Old Blood.

He recalled the conversation he had with Jacques Rocard before coming to Korea.

“I plan to hold an event in Korea to announce that we are still alive and well.”

“May I ask why Korea?”

“You know that several new events have occurred consecutively in Korea recently, right?”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“Then do you know the reason those events occurred consecutively?”

“Isn’t it because of that powerful mana user who recently appeared in Korea?”

“Exactly. That’s right. But Korea is denying it. And they’re even supporting that powerful mana user with all their strength. So I plan to send Korea a warning.”

“What kind of event will you hold?”

“We’ll do it in the way we do best. That way it will be more convincing, don’t you think? First, we’ll take hostages and demand that they bring that mana user. AbsoluteSafetyFirst, was it? Anyway, we’ll demand that they bring him.”

“No matter how many hostages we take, I don’t think AbsoluteSafetyFirst will come.”

“Of course not. I don’t expect him to actually come either. This is merely a small arrangement to plant seeds of conflict among them. After all, the final objective isn’t AbsoluteSafetyFirst, but to reveal the new power we’ve obtained to the world.”

“You mean… revealing the EVA Project?”

“I’ll only show them a small taste for now. For that purpose, we hurriedly produced ten mana suits for the event.”

“Then what should I do?”

“You wear EVA Unit 1 and quietly manage things from behind. Never reveal your identity. The ones who will wear the ten-event suits have already been selected.”

“Puppets.”

“That’s right. Perfectly trained puppets. They’ll be easy to control. And when it’s time to finish things, we’ll simply have those puppets self-destruct together with the bombs installed in the mana suits.”

“Then I’ll manage them and quietly withdraw afterward.”

“You’ve done it many times before, haven’t you?”

The thing Old Blood’s Special Operations Team had done the most was exactly this kind of terrorism.

Especially suicide attacks like the one they were planning now… it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them Old Blood’s specialty, so naturally, they had plenty of experience.

“But what if AbsoluteSafetyFirst really shows up?”

“Then order the puppets to rush him, grab him, and self-destruct.”

“Understood.”

…

…

 

Jean briefly recalled the conversation he had with Jacques Rocard, then organized his thoughts and checked his watch once again.

“15 minutes left… I suppose it’s time to start preparing.”

Jean’s role was simply to secretly control the puppets from behind.

The puppets had already been thoroughly conditioned to obey Jean’s commands, so controlling them wasn’t particularly difficult.

The L Tower suicide terror event.

That was the surprise event Jacques Rocard had planned.

Through this event, he intended to announce to the world that Old Blood was still alive and well, while simultaneously sending a warning to Korea.

It was deeply ironic that Old Blood, an organization that claimed to exist to protect the dignity of humanity, was carrying out a suicide terror attack capable of slaughtering ordinary humans.

But Old Blood, already consumed by madness, did not care about such things at all.