Chapter 213
Jin Gaw was one of the most peculiar people I had ever met.
Jin Gaw, Director of the 4th Imperial Research Institute—he was the head of a research institution directly under the Imperial Household. A high-ranking figure in the Empire, and so old that even his full-body prosthetics were nearing their lifespan.
Anyone who had reached such a position in the Empire was bound to be cold and mechanical.
However, Jin Gaw possessed a boyish side, along with an unpredictable vitality that made it impossible to guess what he would do next.
That didn’t mean he was a man who acted recklessly, relying solely on his abilities. He moved freely, yet never defied the order of the Empire.
‘In the past… I once benefited from Jin Gaw’s whims.’
Jin Gaw was not my enemy, but he was even further from being a friend.
‘There’s no way he’d take a loss for my sake.’
For a fleeting moment, countless thoughts raced through my mind.
And Jin Gaw’s first words were just one simple phrase.
“…So, we meet again.”
At that moment, my brain felt like it was overheating, on the verge of exploding. It was as if fireworks were going off in my head.
Jin Gaw looked at me with a cryptic smile.
I was wearing a mask. On top of that, my physique had grown since before.
‘He won’t recognize me.’
I faced Jin Gaw in silence.
“Ah, when I said we’ve met before, I was talking about that sword. The Firelight series—I’ve seen it at an auction before. I wanted to get one, but they don’t exactly allocate budget for buying toys. Mind if I take a look?”
Jin Gaw’s gaze fixed on the hilt of the Firelight Saber.
“I don’t particularly like handing over my sword to others.”
“A warrior would say that. But don’t be too harsh with me. If not for me, you wouldn’t have been able to get inside. I asked Sigma to grant you access because I wanted to examine the Firelight series.”
So, it was indeed Jin Gaw who had arranged my entry.
Click.
I detached the Firelight Saber from my body and handed it over to him. I kept my words to a minimum, trying not to reveal too much of myself.
Kiing.
Jin Gaw drew the Firelight Saber. With an awkward grip, he extended the blade forward and examined it.
“A beautifully flawed creation. But this is the true spirit of progress—not doing something because it’s possible, but challenging the impossible, striving for what lies beyond.”
With an exhilarated expression, Jin Gaw swung the Firelight Saber this way and that. His untrained movements were dangerously reckless.
‘This man hasn’t changed.’
It wouldn’t have been surprising if the Firelight Saber flew out of his grasp at any moment.
“At this rate, you’re going to destroy your own lab.”
Sigma, though expressionless, showed a hint of unease.
"Haha, look at this, Sigma! The blade faintly glows just from air friction. Thanks to Ignium, of course. The universe is vast and full of wonders. We've barely scratched the surface. Ah, why can’t I live forever?"
Jin Gaw spun around, his limbs loose, as if he were a drunken man.
Screech!
His grip slipped, and the Firelight Saber flew out of his hand, hurtling toward a complex mechanical apparatus.
Snap!
I had already been prepared. I reached out and caught the Firelight Saber midair.
"Are you satisfied now?"
I twirled the sword as I spoke. Jin Gaw casually tossed me the scabbard he had been holding in one hand.
Swish. Clack.
Reversing my grip, I swung the sword to meet the scabbard’s trajectory, and the blade slid in smoothly.
"You’ve got some skill, nameless young man. I’m just a passing scientist. And you?"
"Just a passing young man."
"Not a soldier? You move like you've been in the military."
Jin Gaw grinned playfully. I cursed inwardly.
'Does he recognize me or not? This damn snake…'
Even my intuition couldn’t decipher Jin Gaw’s true intent. Whether he recognized me or not, he would speak in the same roundabout way.
"I'm not here for small talk."
I made my displeasure clear.
"Ah, right, you came for maintenance. I may not be part of Machina, but I know a thing or two about prosthetics."
Every word out of his mouth was irritating. It was as if he was deliberately trying to get in my way.
I wanted to be alone with Sigma. Whether through threats or negotiations, I had to obtain the full-body prosthetic surgery records.
The frustration made my stomach churn.
Stay calm. Think rationally. I am not the Luka of my childhood.
I had dealt with countless people like Jin Gaw. They pretended to know what they didn’t, using subtle prodding to stir anxiety and extract the truth.
'There's no way Jin Gaw recognized me.'
His interest in the Firelight Saber was genuine—his personality made that clear. And he loved to joke around, which explained his comment about us having met before.
Asking if I was a soldier was also a reasonable guess. After all, I had unconsciously slipped into military habits, influenced by the familiarity of the Empire.
Alright. My thoughts were in order. My mind was calm.
"In truth, the prosthetic maintenance was just an excuse. I came here for a different purpose."
I spoke evenly.
Jin Gaw was grinning from ear to ear, while Sigma continued to stare at me with a blank expression.
"This is quite something. It seems Machina has truly fallen. A nobody of unknown origin dares to lie to us and propose a deal?"
Sigma’s pupils glowed red around the edges. He put some distance between us.
Jin Gaw, sensing the tense atmosphere, also began to step back.
"Hmm, I suppose this is no longer my concern."
As always, Jin Gaw's sense of self-preservation was impeccable. He was trying to remove himself from the situation.
I had no intention of letting him go.
"…More than that, I’m curious. Why is the director of an Imperial research institute here? From what I know, Deus Ex Machina is an organization at odds with the Imperial Household."
Jin Gaw didn’t recognize me. That meant it was my turn to test him.
He froze.
Jin Gaw had been in the middle of turning away but stopped abruptly, staring at me. His smile remained, but he stood perfectly still, like a paused video frame.
Sigma also watched me in heavy silence. Their minds must have been racing.
'For a high-ranking Imperial officer like Jin Gaw to be in contact with Deus Ex Machina… it could be a personal affair. Even if the Imperial Household turned a blind eye, it wouldn't be something he could openly admit.'
Jin Gaw finally moved his lips, breaking out of his mechanical stillness.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Then it seems I’ve mistaken you for someone else."
I had taken control of the situation. This was my domain of expertise.
Jin Gaw and I were both human, yet our perspectives were so fundamentally different that we might as well have been separate biological species.
Jin Gaw belonged to the ruling class—the policymakers and administrators. He was not a hunting dog, quick to track shifting realities.
People like him observed from afar, reading the grand currents of history, but they lacked the ability to sense the fleeting, subtle changes in the present.
To put it simply, I was a field operative. Jin Gaw was a bureaucrat.
Handling unexpected variables and responding to the unpredictable—that was always the job of the people on the ground.
I could feel his unease. He never expected to run into someone here in Border City who recognized his face.
To Jin Gaw, I was an unknown, an enigma. That fear would shake him.
‘This is exactly what Kinuan used to do to others.’
Revealing nothing about yourself while digging into others.
Asymmetry of information grants dominance in negotiations.
Now I was certain—Jin Gaw didn’t recognize me. I had only wavered for a moment under his wordplay.
"So, you’re saying you’re here for something other than prosthetic maintenance? What business do you have in this perilous machine fortress?"
Jin Gaw finally asked me directly.
"The full-body prosthetic surgery records handled by Machina. Within the past six months will suffice."
Jin Gaw stroked his chin, looking to Sigma as if seeking his opinion.
"Breaking in here and demanding records out of nowhere… I have no reason to listen further. This absurd intruder will be eliminated."
"Hold on a moment, Sigma. I’ve held a high-ranking position in the Empire for over a century."
Jin Gaw no longer bothered to hide his title as Director of the Research Institute.
"Border City is full of riffraff like this. There’s no need to entertain him."
For once, Sigma revealed an expression—he furrowed his brows in irritation.
"You wouldn’t understand, having spent your days holed up in this mechanical fortress, focused only on research. I had to protect my position amid politics and power struggles. And every time, what saved my life wasn’t rational thinking. It was an instinct that even I found difficult to comprehend."
Jin Gaw rummaged through the pocket of his lab coat. He pulled out a pistol. A thin transparent strip along the barrel shimmered with energy particles—it wasn’t a conventional firearm but an energy weapon.
"What are you—"
Sigma didn’t get to finish his sentence.
Whirr. Thunk!
Jin Gaw pulled the trigger. Energy particles coalesced at the muzzle before shooting out in a spherical blast.
Sigma’s head was obliterated. The projectile was slower than a typical bullet, but the weapon's power was overwhelming.
I silently observed Jin Gaw commit murder. His energy pistol was a single-shot type, and after firing, the depleted energy cartridge ejected from the bottom.
Clack.
Jin Gaw reloaded the pistol and handed it to me.
"In a little while, use this to blow off my arm. That way, I can claim I was coerced. Now that the interference is gone, we can have a proper conversation. You’re operating under His Majesty’s decree, aren’t you? Then I’ll cooperate."
Jin Gaw’s judgment was impressive. And for a high-ranking administrator, his decisiveness was remarkable.
‘A man like him couldn’t have survived in the Empire just by grinning and playing the fool.’
He had a suspicion about my affiliation. And I had figured out which unit he was referring to as well.
"I’m under Commander Carthica. That’s all I can disclose."
"I figured as much. Ilay Carthica… The rising star with ambition. Even I don’t fully know what that guy is up to these days. But I always knew he’d go far—from the moment he stabbed his closest friend in the back."
Jin Gaw grinned. A sharp glint flickered in his narrow eyes.
I stored his words in my mind, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on emotions.
"Can you neutralize Machina’s security and surveillance systems? I want to get out without unnecessary conflict."
"Leave that to me. I’ve already set up decoys in Sigma’s lab. As far as the control room is concerned, we’ll just be having a friendly chat."
"As I said before, I need Machina’s full-body prosthetic surgery records to carry out my mission."
"That won’t be difficult. It’s not exactly top-secret information."
Jin Gaw pulled a terminal from Sigma’s corpse and began fiddling with it.
"It would be wise for you to minimize your contact with Machina."
I casually remarked as I tossed him a data transfer chip.
"I know, I know. But they’re amusing to watch. They’re the perfect example of a house of cards. They parade around with grand ideals and values, but in reality, it’s nothing more than stubborn delusion, detached from the real world. These people idolize machines because they themselves are inherently flawed as humans. Their mechanical doctrine isn’t rooted in superiority—it stems from their own inferiority complex. Inevitably, they’ll collapse. We, on the other hand, shouldn’t abandon our humanity—we should transcend it."
"I don’t see much of a difference between abandoning and transcending. Sounds like wordplay to me."
I responded without thinking, then immediately realized my mistake. Adding personal opinions could reveal too much about myself.
Jin Gaw said nothing and focused on his task. He finished transferring the data onto the chip and handed it to me.
"Is it done?"
"For now… Wait—!"
Before he could finish speaking, I swiftly aimed the pistol at him and pulled the trigger.
The spherical energy round blasted his right arm clean off. The energy scorched his right cheek and neck, leaving them charred black.
"Kuh…! Guh…! Dammit! You didn’t even cut off my pain receptors yet!"
Jin Gaw staggered, shouting in frustration—a rare sight.
Strangely enough, it felt like a long-buried stress had just been released.
Apparently, I held quite a bit of resentment toward this man.