Chapter 82
Kusanagi’s Sword (3):
“Here we are. This is the place.”
They had arrived in a bustling commercial district.
It was filled with flashy restaurants and cafes, reminiscent of Itaewon or Hongdae.
Proving just how popular the area was, people of all kinds—friends, couples, families—were taking photos, fully absorbed in sightseeing.
To hide a data center in such a busy area… it was undeniably bold.
Sehyeon handed back the borrowed helmet and asked,
“Where do we go now?”
“Huh? We’re here. This is it.”
“I mean, which building is the data center?”
“Hehe~ Curious? But first, just a moment…”
Konoha clung to Sehyeon for a moment, then—
Click!
She took a selfie and began tapping on her phone.
“Hey, what are you suddenly doing…?”
“Check this link.”
At the same time, a notification sounded—ding!
[Link]
[Would be great if you hit follow too~★]
For some reason, a Starsta link came from an unknown number.
Following the link, it was an account with over a million followers.
The ID was @bikeriding_ninja04. Literally: “biking ninja,” perhaps.
“Not as many followers as Inha, but still quite a lot.”
The posts were filled with photos of travel spots and restaurants, mostly with her on a green motorcycle.
And the most recent post was the one she had just taken with Sehyeon:
[A photo with a lost tourist oppa~★
He’s looking for his friend ㅠㅠ
By the way, isn’t he kinda cute? haha
#Friend #GloomyFace #WannaDrink #Don’tCry #CheerUp]
↳ So kawaii~ I want to help him find his friend
↳ Ninja-chan is even cuter lol
↳ By the way, use hashtags properly lol
↳ Ninja-chan~~ post more stories too~~!
↳ If I get lost, will Ninja-chan find me too? lol
The sheer influx of comments made Sehyeon’s head spin.
He had managed Inha’s Starsta account before, but never checked every single comment.
“Usually I only check DMs for business emails… looks like influencers have fun like this.”
Anyway, posting someone else’s photo without permission—well, that could be overlooked. But—
Tap tap tap!
Konoha continued tapping on her phone, only exchanging DMs.
After promising to take them to the data center to gather information, she seemed so distracted.
Was this an SNS addiction?
Scary, scary. I must not be like that.
“Hey, Konoha.”
“Hm?”
“Your Starsta obsession’s fine, but I’m kinda busy. If you’re not helping, I’m leaving.”
“Ah, I know, I know. I’m looking for it, just wait.”
She said it, yet her eyes and fingers were glued to Starsta.
“Phew… looking for it, huh? Commenting counts as looking?”
“Yes. Exactly. Looking.”
“…What?”
She showed Sehyeon a DM someone had sent her.
“…What’s this?”
It was full of messages discussing the Kusanagi sword.
Sehyeon looked at her posts again.
But no matter how much he checked, Konoha hadn’t mentioned Kusanagi at all in her posts.
“How did you do that?”
“Pretty amazing, huh?”
She swept her hair behind her ear and grinned.
“Look closely. The hashtags.”
“I saw them. Mostly just chatter.”
Gloomy face, wanna drink… silly hashtags.
“Take the first character from each hashtag.”
“First character?”
Konoha’s posts and hashtags in Japanese:
#暗い表情 (kurai hyōjō / gloomy face)
#酒飲みたい (sake nomitai / wanna drink)
#泣かないで (nakanaide / don’t cry)
#気持ち直して (kimochi naoshite / cheer up)
The first kanji/character from each: 暗, 酒, 泣, 気 — Kura(i), Sake, Naki, Kimochi.
Sehyeon’s eyes widened as he finally realized:
“No way…!”
“See it now?”
Ku. Sa. Na. Gi.
She had hidden the keywords in hashtags.
“There’s that saying: hide a tree in the forest, right? The sea of information, the forest of info… Starsta is perfect these days.”
“Even so…”
Sehyeon glanced through Konoha’s other posts, then looked around.
“You’re telling me the data center isn’t a single building on this street…”
“Yep. The entire district.”
This wasn’t just hiding a tree in the forest—it was more like hiding sand in a desert.
Who could call an entire commercial district a data center?
“There are a few influencers acting as information agents like me. Posting from this street is the first signal of a request.”
Starsta tracks the location of uploaded photos. Posting from a busy district would look natural.
Most of Konoha’s posts were from this location.
“A hashtag like ‘#Friend’ means looking for a person. If it were an item, it would be something like ‘#Candy.’”
The hashtags gave minimal keyword hints…
“This way, other agents can spread the post or gather people via other posts to collect info.”
“…Never heard of this method before.”
Even Sehyeon, who had met various agents in his past life, had never heard of it.
During the apocalypse, with all internet and communication cut off, such info-gathering was unimaginable.
“You’re pretty capable.”
“Ahem! Praise me more!”
“You’re a local informant, huh? This way, you could search all of Japan. So this is what it takes to become an agent under Chester?”
“Under? We’re partners, equally!”
Konoha pouted, clearly offended.
But a bite of a local parfait quickly cheered her up.
Soon, her phone buzzed again.
“Hm?”
Checking Starsta, she leaned toward Sehyeon.
“Sehyeon oppa, you should praise me more.”
“What?”
“I think I found a clue already. About Kusanagi.”
Less than an hour after arriving in Japan, they had a lead on Kusanagi.
“If we go to Atsuta Shrine, I think something will come up. You know what kind of place it is, right?”
“Of course.”
Atsuta Shrine—well known as the place where the Kusanagi sword was sealed.
It was a famous tourist site, visited by many, making access easy for anyone.
‘Feels like the National Gallery in London.’
Hiding in plain sight, mingling with the crowd—classic player behavior.
And the Kusanagi family had managed it for years—a well-known fact among players.
Sehyeon, however, felt puzzled.
“Isn’t that too obvious a place to find info?”
“Well, we’ll see when we get there.”
True, the area under the lamp is always dark; even a thousand-mile journey starts with a single step. Searching the obvious first might be the best strategy.
‘Then why hire an informant?’
They had hired her to avoid going in circles.
Slightly disappointed, he let it slide. If the informant judged this best, it still saved time.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
They drove about two hours to the entrance of Atsuta Shrine.
Passing through the tall torii in the serene forest, they approached the shrine.
Tourists prayed or whispered quietly as they passed.
“Hmm… this place is way too touristy.”
Unlike the National Gallery with its unique astral spaces, this was fully open. Could there really be a clue here?
At that moment, Konoha ran over to someone.
“Excuse me, miss. This is the place, right? Where the Kusanagi sword is sealed?”
“…Yes, I guess…”
Startled by the sudden question, the girl hesitated.
Konoha’s social skills were remarkable.
“But is the Kusanagi sword really here?”
“Well… it’s just a legend, so I can’t say it’s real. But I’d like to believe it.”
“Oh, thanks!”
She bowed and ran to ask other tourists the same question—man, woman, elder, child.
Sehyeon watched in disbelief.
“Are you really gathering clues like that?”
Quite different from the Starsta ‘sea of info’ method.
No clue seemed to go as expected.
Sehyeon considered asking someone himself, when—
“Excuse me, sir. Do you know anything about the Kusanagi sword?”
“……What?”
A man who looked like he could be a yakuza frowned.
“…No way that exists. If it did, someone would be rich.”
“Hmm, I see.”
She smiled knowingly and approached Sehyeon.
“So, any luck?”
“Hehe~ Not much…”
She glanced around like checking someone’s reaction.
“Ah, looks like what’s here isn’t the real deal. Then the Kusanagi sword we have must be genuine, right?”
“…What?”
“Hey, what are you saying…”
“Shh!”
She covered Sehyeon’s mouth and whispered.
“Just play along for now. I have a plan.”
“…What…?”
Then, in an awkward tone as if performing, she spoke aloud:
“What should we do? Other players don’t seem to know this, right? Oppa?”
“……”
Continuing to wink, Konoha urged him to respond.
Turns out it wasn’t about the real Kusanagi sword—they didn’t know he had it.
Whatever her plan, there was a reason.
“Yeah. That Kusanagi sword looked impressive, huh? That’d cost a fortune.”
“Right? Who should we sell it to?”
Speaking of which… she acted really poorly in her ‘performance.’
After a few awkward exchanges, Sehyeon pulled Konoha’s earlobe close to his mouth.
“What are you doing, seriously?”
“Watch. They took the bait.”
Looking around, the tourists were gone.
Instead, yakuza in black suits appeared one by one.
“Here’s a quiz. What’s the most cost-effective way to gather info?”
“Most cost-effective way?”
“The answer… ask the ones looking for info.”
Konoha smirked at the yakuza.
“…So that’s why?”
Finally, it was clear why she had been poking around.
The info Konoha gathered: ‘Someone is also looking for the Kusanagi sword,’ and the place: Atsuta Shrine.
Thus, she had loudly mentioned Kusanagi, attracting the bait.
The yakuza narrowed the encirclement, and one took out his phone.
“Confirmed. They have the Kusanagi sword.”
Just bring them in alive.
“Yes, boss.”
Sehyeon stepped forward, but Konoha nudged him and went ahead.
“Stay still, Oppa. We still have to earn our fee, right?”
“Right, I suppose.”
No need to stop her if she insists on handling it.
Konoha swung her arms provocatively toward the yakuza:
“Come on, let’s finish this quickly, gentlemen.”
