#146
After the room maid disappeared, the two called out Nine. They intended to tell it to control Ray and Liam again, like it had done before.
That’s impossible.
However, Nine flatly refused. It wasn’t that it didn’t want to, but that it was impossible.
“Why?”
Making suggestions related to the main character uses a lot of power. So I can’t always use it. If I were the author, it would be easy, but I’m just borrowing a little power. There’s still cooldown time left.
“How much is left?”
Shin Haejun asked with an anxious face. Nine replied hesitantly.
About a week…
A week was enough time for anything to happen to Lee Jaeha. Shin Haejun, who had naturally believed Nine could solve this, couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“As usual, useless when needed.”
Hyun Dowoon, who had been listening with his arms crossed, muttered quietly. Nine, suddenly rendered useless, spun around quickly as if angry, but couldn’t argue back knowing it couldn’t do anything itself.
“Then all that’s left is to protest to America.”
Hyun Dowoon continued in a cold voice. He planned to publicly announce that the American awakened team had kidnapped Lee Jaeha and put strong pressure on the U.S. government. If Korea protested publicly, the U.S. government would have no choice but to find Ray and Liam and pressure them.
Anyway, Ray and Liam were backed by the U.S. government, and Lee Jaeha was under their protection. They would have to search each of their mansions one by one, but tracking wouldn’t be easy. Awakened ones were already seen as potential military power for countries in emergencies, but Liam was treated as one of America’s important military assets due to his special ability. Because of this, many of their residences were famously protected like military facilities.
Given that it’s not easy to bribe people in a short time, there was a high possibility it could turn into a long-term operation. Moreover, if military lasers were used, there was a high chance of conflict between countries.
So they decided to declare war by claiming America had struck first.
Of course, Lee Jaeha himself might appear and say it was his own choice. Although Hyun Dowoon himself might face backlash, he rather hoped things would go that way. They could get new clues to track where Lee Jaeha was.
‘If it’s Jaeha… he probably wouldn’t do that.’
The Lee Jaeha that Hyun Dowoon knew wouldn’t do that. If he had intended to leave Korea publicly, he would have sent his intentions in writing or video to the press before moving. He held a faint hope that perhaps Lee Jaeha hadn’t completely abandoned Korea, and himself.
‘We can just create evidence.’
If they claimed Lee Jaeha was kidnapped while visiting for simple friendship, it would be difficult to avoid international criticism. No matter how famous Raymond’s pair was in America, if criticism persisted, they couldn’t avoid it with silence forever.
Getting a reaction to confirm new hints – that was Hyun Dowoon’s goal.
***
Being locked in a room all day made me start to lose my sense of time. It was because it was a basement with no clock, and there were no proper windows to the outside. This environment seems perfect for mold to grow. Is it not like the ordinary basement I’m thinking of? They said they always manage the machines to ensure good air purification and circulation, and the air quality seems even better than outside.
‘It’s quite inconvenient without a phone.’
This would be perfect for lying down and using a phone. I wondered if anything had leaked to the Korean media, and what those two might be doing now. They must have been very surprised? Even I didn’t think I could escape so cleanly. Honestly, I just felt incredibly lucky.
‘I didn’t even consider that Ray might refuse…’
Thinking about it now, it was an extremely naive idea. It’s fortunate that Ray roughly went along with my intentions despite the flimsy plan. If he hadn’t, I would have faced the worst outcome. Nowhere to go, constantly tracked, and possibly exposed for knowing the truth and trying to escape without achieving anything…
Thinking about it that way made me feel both incredibly fortunate and a bit chilled.
‘Sorry to Ray, but… how do I get out of here now…’
I just blindly followed along, but thinking calmly, am I not being confined again? For now, I was a bit anxious because I couldn’t see any other buildings in the surrounding scenery. I naturally thought they’d live in an urban area… They say America has vast land, but are building intervals this wide even in urban areas? I’ve never been to America even once, so it’s hard to guess easily.
Above all, Ray and Liam didn’t even tell me which state this is. I’d need to meet them to ask anything, but they left me in the room saying they’re busy now that the fight is starting.
To escape, I should check this room first. I thoroughly examined the room hoping to get even a small hint.
‘Huh?’
Just as I was feeling dejected after confirming there wasn’t a single device for escape in the room, suddenly someone knocked on the door. I tensed up a bit looking at the door, and heard another knock, probably because I hadn’t given permission.
“Co… Who is it?”
Just as I was about to say come in, it suddenly struck me that this wasn’t my home ground. When I asked cautiously, I heard “It’s Nikki” from the other side of the door.
Phew, I got nervous for nothing. I sighed and told her to come in.
“What’s the matt… A laptop!”
“It’s boring with nothing, right? I brought a laptop. I thought this would be better than a phone.”
A phone wouldn’t be bad either. It seemed clear they meant for me not to make phone calls. The welcome laptop suddenly looked suspicious. As I narrowed my eyes and stared blankly at the laptop, Nikki shrugged and put it down on a nearby sofa.
“It’s nothing special. We just added a function to block GPS and IP tracking.”
“…Really?”
Somehow I felt uneasy. As I continued to look with suspicious eyes, Nikki raised both hands and confessed honestly.
“In case you talk about something that might get discovered or contact Korean people, which would be troublesome, a bot monitors and blocks certain keywords.”
“Seeing that you’re not telling me exactly, you’re saying I should figure out what not to write that might cause problems. Are you surveilling the laptop 24 hours a day or something?”
“It’s not to that extent. America is a country that guarantees personal privacy, you know.”
Complete lies. Anyway, it seemed I could at least watch news or videos, so it would be more useful than having nothing.
“As you know Nikki, I’m Korean, right? I’m not good at English either… Is access to Korean sites blocked entirely?”
“That’s not the case. Why would we give you a laptop if that were true? We’re trying to protect Guide Lee Jaeha, not imprison you, so don’t misunderstand like that.”
If you’re going to say that, you shouldn’t have said I can’t contact Korean people…
Anyway, I nodded compliantly at Nikki’s words and approached the sofa to pick up the laptop.
“I just came to deliver this. Rest comfortably. I’ll see you again when I bring your meal later.”
“Nikki, you’re an interpreter, but you do such tasks too?”
“I’m also their personal secretary. And it’s better if as few people as possible know you’re here.”
Nikki said that and closed the door. From what Nikki said, one thing was certain. Few people in this mansion know of my existence, which might be a variable when escaping.
‘Maybe I could disguise myself as a mansion employee and escape.’
But first, before escaping, I need to grasp the current situation.
I opened the laptop. True to modern times, having any electronic communication device was quite comforting.
The desktop was very simple. As if telling me to just play games, there were only basic games like FreeCell or Minesweeper.
‘There’s no camera…?’
It’s the first time I’ve seen a laptop without a camera. They probably gave me a model without one installed, worried about hacking and such.
‘Not bad.’
I didn’t want Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon to find me through hacking either. So it was quite fortunate that there was no camera function for Ray or Liam to monitor me.
When I ran the internet, some logo-like thing popped up in English. Unfortunately, the possessor’s benefit of understanding English as fluently as Korean didn’t apply to text. It just looked like a bunch of English alphabets that I couldn’t read well.
‘I should have studied English better.’
Fitting for a laptop given by Americans, even the keyboard was in English, not Korean. I wonder how they expect me to access Korean sites like this. Fortunately, I knew the address of this world’s Korean portal site. Maybe because the author twisted it slightly, the address ‘https://www.gaver.com/’ itself was easy to remember.
‘Hmm… it looks normal?’
Did those two decide to hide that I’ve disappeared?
I entered feeling a bit tense, but the news section looked so ordinary that it felt a bit awkward.
‘The map…’
I turned on the map function to find out where this place is, but only an error message like ‘Unable to confirm nearby area’ appeared and only a map of the entire U.S. showed up. It was probably because the GPS was turned off.
I thought about trying to fiddle with the settings, but I’m not particularly good with computers, and I figured Ray and Liam would have modified it to be difficult for an ordinary person to change, so I gave up. After zooming in and out of the U.S. map here and there, I finally decided to go back to the main screen and check what’s happening in Korea.
“Huh?”
In just a moment, the main screen had completely changed. The main screen was full of my name, and there were many photos of the two with gaunt faces, as if pleading.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
