Goblin Library - Chapter 182

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 182

Choi Tae-sik had been eating meals with the Administrator for several days. Sometimes lunch, sometimes dinner.
Choi Tae-sik deliberately avoided discussing anything related to The One, simply sharing meals and casual conversation.
And today….

Choi Tae-sik was entering the White Rice Restaurant with the Administrator.
“The portions here are generous and the rice is delicious.”
At Choi Tae-sik’s words, the Administrator nodded and glanced around curiously.
“Is this your first time here?”
“Yes.”
The White Rice Restaurant was a place frequented by exam students, located on the 1st Floor basement. Though called a basement, it wasn’t the underground level of some larger building—rather, it was accessible by descending a single staircase in a small building.
The reason for choosing this location was that the entrance was just one staircase, making it easy to observe who was coming in.
And there was one more thing… this establishment had no surveillance cameras.
With miso soup and kimchi stew placed before them, Choi Tae-sik sat positioned to see the entrance.
With the food between them, Choi Tae-sik pulled out his phone and quietly slid it across to the Administrator.
Startled by the phone suddenly pushed toward him, the Administrator’s gaze shifted to it with confusion.
Then the Administrator’s face went rigid. Complex computer code scrolled across the phone’s screen in white text against a black background.
Seeing the Administrator’s shocked expression, Choi Tae-sik smiled and spoke.
“Don’t look so surprised. Let’s just eat comfortably.”
Despite Choi Tae-sik’s words, the Administrator couldn’t tear his eyes from the phone. The computer code displayed on the screen appeared complex to an ordinary person, yet it conveyed this message:

“Don’t be alarmed. I am ML15.”

Inside Jang Ma-ru’s operational van, Lee Hye-eun watched the monitors and asked a question.
“What exactly is ML15?”
“The meaning is open to interpretation, but for me, it stands for Maru 15.”
“Maru 15?”
“It’s a hacker alias I created when I was fifteen years old.”
“You operated under the alias ML15?”
“As a hacker, yes.”
“Isn’t hacking supposed to be done in secret? Can you really create and use an alias like that?”
Jang Ma-ru scratched his head awkwardly as he spoke.
“It was a phase.”
He continued with a smile.
“Hackers want to prove how skilled they are at hacking. But if you just break in, do your work, and disappear, no one knows who did it, right? So sometimes we leave an alias like a signature.”
“But wouldn’t that get you caught?”
“Whether you leave an alias or not, if your hacking skills are good, you won’t get caught. If they’re bad, you will either way. Besides, I don’t use the ML15 alias anywhere else.”
“So you’ve been hacking since you were fifteen?”
“Yes.”
“How on earth did you become so skilled with computers at such a young age?”
“I’m not sure. I just found computer languages more comfortable and easier than Korean.”
Jang Ma-ru paused in thought before continuing with a smile.
“You know those child prodigies at Go who beat adults in their twenties and thirties? They probably just know more than adults. It’s just that their minds work better in that direction. I guess my mind was wired for computers.”
“There certainly are people who are geniuses in specific fields.”
Lee Hye-eun nodded and looked back at the monitors.
“But will they know it’s you?”
“Come on! Even though I look like this, I had a decent reputation in hacker circles. Look—they’re responding.”
As he spoke, text composed of English letters and numbers began scrolling rapidly across the monitor.
Jang Ma-ru started typing on the keyboard as well. Of course, what he wrote was equally incomprehensible to Lee Hye-eun.
In this way, Jang Ma-ru conversed with the Administrator in computer language.
Then Jang Ma-ru nodded and typed again before speaking.
“You can come out after you eat.”
[Did the conversation go well?]
“They gave me an internet address. They want me to hack into it at noon and talk there.”
Since the Administrator couldn’t be certain whether I was actually ML15 or not, they instructed me to hack into a site of their choosing.

At midnight, Lee Hye-eun returned to the Study Hall Dormitory, while Lim Sung-un and Jang Ma-ru along with Choi Tae-sik watched the monitors at the Safe House.
“It’s midnight.”
At Choi Tae-sik’s words, Jang Ma-ru cracked his knuckles and began tapping away at the keyboard.
Jang Ma-ru accessed the site the Administrator had provided and quickly began his hacking assault.
“The site is a facade.”
“A facade?”
“They just created a dummy site. But the firewall is quite robust.”
“Can’t you break through it?”
“It’s difficult, but I can manage. Besides, there’s no need to cover my tracks here… In a way, it’s easier than The One. I think they’re trying to verify if I’m really ML15.”
The One had been difficult to hack because I needed to hide my traces. But this site was an invitation—there was no need to conceal my presence.
“They’re probably watching me hack right now.”
Even as I spoke, characters scrolled rapidly across the monitor. After about ten minutes of swift keystrokes, I announced:
“I’m in.”
With my words, a chat window appeared on the screen.

“Are you ML15?”
“That’s correct.”
“I’ve heard much about you. Your skills are truly impressive. There aren’t many in Korea with the ability to hack a site like this.”
“Looking at the coding, you seem to be the one who hacked the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, aren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“As I thought… I’ve heard plenty about that too. This feels like meeting a celebrity.”
“The feeling is mutual. ML15… But how did you find me?”
“I recognized you from the firewall coding of The One.”
“You hacked The One?”
“That’s why I tracked you down to the Study Hall Dormitory.”
“Your skills are even greater than the rumors suggest. I couldn’t even detect the hacking traces…”
“Before that—are you currently trapped at the Study Hall Dormitory?”

The chat window fell silent for a moment before a response appeared.

“Why should I trust you?”
“As I mentioned this evening, I reached out to you in the language of computers to earn your trust. I’ve also revealed my identity, ML15. After witnessing my hack of this site, do you still think I’m a fraud?”
“No. That hacking skill… you’re definitely ML15.”
“Then trust me. Right now, I and my team are the only ones who can help you.”
“A team? Who are you people?”
“We’re people who help those in need and send the bad ones to prison.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said. Think of us as heroes in the darkness.”

Lim Sung-un’s eyes narrowed at Jang Ma-ru’s message.
“Don’t joke around.”
“I’m not joking. This is how I see our team.”
Jang Ma-ru typed with a smile.

“We’ve already found the memory card that Administrator hid.”
“You found a memory card? When?”
“The fact that you didn’t know about it is proof that we’re heroes in the shadows, isn’t it?”
“Where did you find it?”
“In the inner pocket of Administrator’s coat at the Study Hall Dormitory. We also found some adult videos and adult magazines, but we left those as they were. Oh, of course we only made copies and put the memory card back.”

No response appeared in the chat, as if he were flustered. Whether he was shocked at the discovery of the memory card without his knowledge or something else, I couldn’t tell.

“You’re serious.”
“A hacker like you used such a pathetic program for important data. That’s why I thought you needed help. Do you need help?”

After a moment, Administrator’s response appeared on the monitor.

“That’s right. But why are you trying to help me? Or are you tracking The One right now?”

Lim Sung-un pulled the keyboard toward himself and typed directly.

“Yes. While tracking The One, we discovered your existence. And now we need more of The One’s data and evidence that you have.”
“Then I’ll die.”
“Our team can extract you.”
“I’m afraid.”
“Don’t be afraid.”
“You don’t understand. Those people tore a person to death right in front of me.”
“Tore to death?”
“Literally tore them to death. And they made me clean up the corpse.”

At the chat filled with fear, Jang Ma-ru smacked his lips.
“Our side is weak in this kind of genre… but that’s definitely scary.”
Then he looked at Choi Tae-sik and asked.
“Do you think they really tore someone to death?”
Choi Tae-sik nodded in response to Jang Ma-ru, whose eyes narrowed as if he felt a chill.
“They probably did. If they wanted to instill fear, they could do worse than that. Looks like it worked.”
At Choi Tae-sik’s words, Lim Sung-un typed in the chat.

“Will you continue to stay with those fearful people? They’re controlling you through fear. That means… they’ll do worse things to instill more fear in you going forward.”
“Worse things?”
“If they tore you to death this time, next they could crush you with a press. Or they could even put a knife directly in your hands. The more fear you feel, the better you’ll follow their orders. Is that what you want?”

The Administrator seemed to be in serious internal conflict, and for a while, no response came.
Without pressing, I waited quietly, and eventually the Administrator asked.

“I don’t want that. But how?”
“Why are you bound there? Do you have a hostage?”
“I’m alone. But I have a tracking device implanted in my body.”
“Inside your body?”

Lim Sung-un looked at Jang Ma-ru. At that glance, Jang Ma-ru grabbed the keyboard with a puzzled expression and tapped away.

“We haven’t detected any wiretapping devices or GPS signals.”

Of course, I hadn’t thought it would be inside the body, but if it were emitting radio waves, we would have caught it.

“It’s deactivated normally. They only activate it when needed.”

‘If they kept it on all the time, they’d have to perform surgery to replace it every time the battery died, which would be difficult. Besides, if it’s small enough to fit inside the body, the battery wouldn’t last long either.’
Along with Jang Ma-ru’s murmur, Lim Sung-un wrote out the text.

“Where in your body was it implanted?”
“I don’t know.”
“If they implanted it, there should be scars on your body.”
“When I woke up after the implantation, I had several similar surgical scars on my body. Five places—my forearm, thigh, buttocks, abdomen, and back.”

‘They made scars in multiple places so you wouldn’t know where it was implanted.’

“Can you feel it?”
“I can feel something round like a pill, and it’s hard.”
“All five places?”
“All five places.”

Jang Ma-ru started typing on a different keyboard on the other side of the chat.
‘Should I ask if you know what it is?’

“Do you know what this is?”
“There are so many similar types that I can’t say for certain. Based on the size and shape alone, it looks like something the CIA uses.”

Choi Tae-sik muttered in response to the Administrator’s message.
‘The CIA, really?’
‘It’s expensive, but their products are quality. Oh! The earpieces our team uses are from them too.’
‘Is that so? Man… money really does solve everything.’
Jang Ma-ru searched for similar products on his monitor and spoke.
‘There are definitely a lot of products with similar designs. It’ll be hard to confirm unless we open it and check directly.’
‘So what do we do? Won’t you activate this the moment you realize the Administrator is missing?’
‘Probably. But because it’s small, we’ll only be able to track the location within a certain range.’
‘How far is that range?’
‘I can’t say exactly, but it shouldn’t exceed 10 kilometers. Anything beyond that would require a larger device.’
At the mention of 10 kilometers, Lim Sung-un paused in thought before nodding.
‘We extract him tomorrow.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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