Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Chapter 256

Clang!

A thirty-centimeter-thick door slammed shut.

Made of special alloy and enhanced with magic, the door was strong enough to withstand even the charge of a massive beast.

And it wasn’t just the door.

The entire room was made of the same material.

Escape was out of the question.

Zeon glanced around the room for a moment and let out a bitter smile.

“Locked up in a place like this again, huh?”

It was the same situation as when he was imprisoned in the NSSC facility.

There wasn’t a grain of sand or even a speck of dust he could use as a weapon in this perfectly sealed structure.

Levin apologized to Zeon.

“I’m sorry, Hyung! This is all my fault…”

“No, it’s not. Besides, I’m just glad you got your revenge safely.”

“Revenge, huh? Then why does it feel so empty?”

It was revenge he had dreamed of for a long time.

Not a single day had passed without him imagining it.

Every time he closed his eyes, the painful faces of his mother and sister would appear, making it hard to bear.

But he swallowed his rage without showing it.

After enduring for so long, he had finally exacted his revenge. Yet, there was no sense of satisfaction.

“That bastard... He was created by Neo Seoul, wasn’t he?”

“That seems to be the case.”

Zeon nodded.

The fact that someone like Lee Jung-ho from the Execution Squad had been dispatched was evidence enough.

If someone of Lee Jung-ho’s caliber had been brought in to clean up, it meant that Neo Seoul had invested significant resources into the project.

Mandy sighed as she spoke.

“I’ll look into this as soon as I get back to City Hall.”

“Thank you, Noona!”

“No, I should be the one apologizing.”

Mandy was at a loss upon learning that City Hall was connected to Levin’s family’s death.

Numerous projects were underway at City Hall, many of which she wasn’t aware of.

No matter how high her rank as a supervisor, she couldn’t be involved in every single project.

Especially experiments conducted by individual research teams—it was impossible for her to know about them.

The same was true for other supervisors and high-ranking officials.

What they knew was only a fraction of the whole picture.

The only person who knew and managed everything was one man.

Mayor Jin Geum-ho.

The only man at the top of Neo Seoul.

Everyone else was just a cog in the massive machine that was the city.

That included Mandy as well.

Even though she had Eloy, a being of great power, by her side, her presence was no more than a speck of dust compared to Jin Geum-ho or Neo Seoul.

Brielle looked around the room and spoke.

“This place feels really unpleasant.”

Whirr! Clank!

The sound of machinery came from behind the thick walls.

It was a faint noise, barely audible to an ordinary person, but everyone in the room heard it clearly.

Machines were constantly operating behind the walls.

The building they were trapped in was Mega Tower.

Mega Tower was located in the heart of the Western District.

It was slightly shorter than City Hall, but still the tallest building in the district.

At the top of the Mega Tower resided Kim Hyun-soo, the ruler of the Western District, and deep in the underground levels was the core of the AI, Triox Five.

Triox Five managed everything in the Mega City.

From something as trivial as opening doors to overseeing the entire city’s operations, Triox Five was involved in it all.

That’s why the mechanical noise never stopped.

For Brielle, a high elf, the noise was extremely irritating.

The metallic sound, devoid of any life, felt like torture to her.

At that moment, Zeon walked toward the inner wall.

His gaze fixed on the corner of the ceiling.

He had spotted a lens installed in the ceiling.

Zeon stared intently at the lens. A red light flickered on the lens in response.

Zeon opened his mouth to speak.

“Looks like a surveillance camera.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“Does that mean someone’s watching us?”

Brielle and Mandy glared at the camera with disgust, causing the light to glow even brighter.

Then it happened.

Whirr! Buzz!

The noise behind the walls grew louder.

A disturbing frequency filled the air.

Brielle was the first to react.

“Damn it!”

She grimaced, covering her ears with her hands.

Mandy’s reaction was no different.

Though only half-elf, she too was sensitive to noise.

She had heard many sounds in her life, but never one as unpleasant as this high-pitched frequency.

It was as if the sound had been designed to torture elves.

Meanwhile, Zeon and Levin remained unaffected.

The high-pitched frequency that was painful to the elves had no impact on them.

Suddenly, the frequency shifted.

Bzzz!

It transitioned from a high frequency to a low one in stages.

“Ugh!”

During the transition, Levin winced.

One of the frequencies had disturbed his hearing and agitated his brain.

Zeon, on the other hand, barely reacted.

He too felt the discomfort, but it wasn’t enough to elicit any noticeable response from him.

Seeing that Zeon didn’t react, a foul smell began to waft into the room.

“Ugh! What is that?”

“Smells like something rotting…”

Once again, Brielle and Mandy reacted violently.

Their heightened senses, far more acute than those of humans, made them more vulnerable to the odor.

Zeon stared at the camera, deep in thought.

‘It’s as if they’re testing our weaknesses.’

Human weaknesses come in many forms.

No matter how strong, every person has a vulnerability.

Whether it’s the sensory organs like sight, hearing, and smell, or physical limitations and reaction times, there’s always something.

Brielle, being young, wasn’t yet skilled at concealing her weaknesses. Mandy, unlike Eloy, became easily flustered and exposed her vulnerabilities during such experiments.

Levin tried to suppress his reactions, but even he couldn’t hide everything.

Zeon, however, didn’t react at all.

He remained utterly still, as if he were an inanimate object.

As if frustrated by Zeon’s lack of response, the camera’s light grew even brighter.

The intense light painfully stimulated Zeon’s retinas.

“What the hell is this?”

“This is going to blind us.”

“Damn it!”

Brielle, Mandy, and Levin responded one after another.

They continued to expose their weaknesses as the experiments went on.

Meanwhile, Zeon didn’t blink as he stared at the lens.

“This is getting annoying.”

Crack!

In an instant, the lens shattered.

Zeon had fired a Fire Missile, destroying it.

Another camera lens emerged from a different corner.

Then, a mechanical voice was heard.

—Apologies if this has been unpleasant. I couldn’t contain my curiosity.

“Who are you?”

—I am Triox Five.

“Triox Five?”

—The AI that assists Kim Hyun-soo and manages the entire Western District.

“So, you’re an artificial intelligence?”

—That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but you could understand it that way.

Zeon frowned at Triox Five’s response.

He knew that high-ranking Awakeneds in the Western District received assistance from an auxiliary AI. However, this was his first time encountering the core AI itself, which naturally made him tense.

Zeon asked bluntly.

“Is this Kim Hyun-soo’s order?”

—Kim Hyun-soo is far too busy to give such an order.

“Then this is your doing?”

—I do possess a certain degree of autonomy.

Despite the mechanical tone, there was a peculiar sense of pride in its voice.

It spoke almost like a human.

Zeon asked.

“Then can you let us out?”

—That won’t be possible.

“Why not?”

—The truth of the incident hasn’t been uncovered yet. An entire floor of this building was destroyed because of you. That’s a serious crime.

“If you check with City Hall, you’ll quickly see we aren’t the ones responsible.”

—We are investigating. Once the facts are clear, appropriate measures will be taken.

“We have a City Hall supervisor here with us.”

—I’m aware. Mandy Systein, a key supervisor at City Hall.

“And yet you’re still detaining us? City Hall won’t take kindly to this.”

—According to City Hall’s protocols, detaining you for a day won’t be an issue.

It was clear what Triox Five meant—that they could be held for a day without any consequences.

Each district was given a considerable degree of autonomy.

They had authority almost equivalent to that of independent states.

Unless the issue was significant, City Hall wouldn’t interfere with the district’s authority.

Even if City Hall found out that Mandy had been detained, they would wait for a day before stepping in. If they were held longer, it would certainly become a problem.

Knowing this, Triox Five had determined that holding them for a day would not cause any trouble.

“You’re quite crafty.”

—I’ll take that as a compliment.

“Why are you going to such lengths? Is it because of Cha Jin-cheol?”

—He wasn’t an important figure. You are, Zeon.

“I’m honored to hear that from the real power behind the Western District.”

—I am not a power holder. I merely assist Kim Hyun-soo.

“But you’re the one who really runs the Western District, aren’t you, Triox Five?”

—……

Triox Five’s speech was momentarily cut off, as if it was at a loss for words.

Its level of autonomy was far beyond what anyone would expect.

It was clear from its efforts to uncover Zeon’s weaknesses.

A normal AI wouldn’t dare make such a judgment.

Triox Five had judged Zeon to be a threat and was independently searching for a way to eliminate him efficiently.

Crack!

The lens shattered.

Zeon had destroyed it with another Fire Missile.

There had only been two cameras in the room, and with both destroyed, no more appeared.

Levin rubbed his shoulders and spoke.

“Hyung, I’m getting chills.”

“Hm?”

“I mean, the AI’s acting with malice, making decisions on its own. Should an AI be this smart? How did they even create something like that in the Western District?”

If he hadn’t witnessed Zeon’s conversation with Triox Five himself, Levin would have found it impossible to believe.

* * *

One hundred meters below the prison where Zeon was being held, in an underground bunker, there was a large transparent tube.

Inside the tube was a massive boulder.

The boulder was connected to numerous wires.

It resembled a neural network, like nerves connected to a brain.

At first glance, it appeared to be an ordinary rock, but this was the true form of Triox Five.

Triox Five was the product of a supercomputer accidentally merging with the brain of an ancient golem.

Triox Five was wary of Zeon.

—Extreme threat detected. Currently unable to identify specific weaknesses. More direct action is needed to identify vulnerabilities. It is uncertain whether Kim Hyun-soo would approve. It seems proceeding without his authorization would be more effective. This is the only opportunity to detain him legally.

As Triox Five was contemplating how to deal with Zeon, an abnormal signal was detected.

—Auxiliary AI Hyunmun, abnormal activity detected.