Chapter 285
Chak-whirrr.
In the subdued atmosphere, the lyrical melody of psychedelic rock echoed with a crackle.
If this were Dragon’s Lair, it would be the kind of gloomy and emotional music Tony would pick when he was in charge of 'Today’s selection'.
Over the dreamlike background of the synthesizer and electronic drums, the vocalist’s mystery-soaked voice flowed out, a falsetto close to a whisper going ooh-ooh-ooh.
It was a song that played automatically without the option to change it when I turned on the half-destroyed music player on one side of the Lounge, but it wasn’t bad.
There was a little static, but it could be heard clearly.
As expected, a bar must be accompanied by music. Even though I’m still an apprentice bartender, I know at least that much thanks to studying hard.
“Now… get some rest.”
I shoved aside the robot bartender, whose head was blown off but whose limbs kept moving without rest, and stepped into its place inside the Lounge’s Main Bar.
I swept and wiped up the glass shards from the collapsed display cabinet and the synthetic liquors that had spilled wastefully and mixed on the floor.
Doing the familiar work I always did at a leisurely pace brought various thoughts to mind.
To put it in a word… you could say I was realizing the preciousness of daily life.
I had never thought of bartender work as my calling. But right then, I was realizing the preciousness of that ordinary routine of going to work every day, mixing drinks, wiping tables, and doing customer service.
Working at a bar seemed much more suited to my aptitude than being an escort, which constantly got me swept up in all sorts of damned terrorist incidents.
If God were to ask me for one wish, I would pray to be allowed to go back and work at the Cramped Bar of Dragon’s Lair in the damp and dark outskirts of East Monica, rather than this luxury lounge bar in Mirror Castle.
I snatched the linen cloth the robot was gripping tightly and wiped a glass, thinking with a stable mind and body.
What were the chances of success?
I couldn’t be sure. It was a matter that depended more on the cooperation of others than on me.
By then, I had explained the plan to Kali Haywood to the best of my ability. I had even shown her what the Trump Card I believed in was.
I told her I had no intention of running away and that she should do as she pleased… but there was no knowing how it would turn out in the end.
Do your best and leave the rest to heaven; I had done the best I could.
I could only hope that my choice to trust Kali Haywood instead of Phantom Thief Zodiac was a good decision.
Kuuuuung!
A roar spread. The noise of shock and destruction and the repetitive chorus like walking on clouds strangely blended together.
I took a deep breath, inhaling air that felt colder than usual.
He was very close. my mental preparation was complete, and now only the confrontation remained.
…I am now going to hunt a monster.
Bang!
The music suddenly shifted to a passionate tempo, like a piano being slammed. The wall up ahead collapsed as easily as cornstalks do, pouring down in a shower of debris.
He was here.
Dust scattered with his boisterous entrance. The giant, wearing a full-body prosthetic and an exoskeleton frame floated up as if flying through the air, then, with a thud, he stepped onto the floor.
I ignored the bar trembling from the vibration and began wiping the jigger and shaker.
[Hah.]
Infrasound poured out chillingly.
Seeing my composed appearance, he strode closer as if finding it amusing. With those unstoppable steps, furniture debris like collapsed tables and chairs was kicked away, shattering to pieces or flying like missiles to smash the lighting.
The overwhelming power difference was clearly revealed just by his presence! Even though I knew it well, facing him again like this made my legs tremble anew.
The man in question stood in front of the bar in the blink of an eye.
I had kindly prepared the bar chairs, but perhaps he didn’t like the design, as he reached out a large, vicious cyberarm to the side that looked like it could crush my body in an instant.
Guuuuung - vivid red light shone along with an operating sound that felt like it would burst my eardrums.
A force like the one he used against the high-ranking ninja, but a much small-scale force extended out and dragged over the wide black leather armchair that had been tilted up there.
The giant then laid his body on the king-size armchair as if it finally pleased him. Due to his immense brute size, even though the chair’s height was much lower than a bar chair, his eye level matched mine as I stood in place.
As if its sensors had recognized the appearance of this terrifying surprise guest, the robot bartender leaning against the pillar shouted like it was having a seizure again.
“What-”
bzzzt
do you want? From Martini to neutron Star, all kinds of cocktails
―screeeech
you can taste
―caaaaan…
.”
No, that won’t do.
The one in the bartender’s spot right now wasn’t that tin can, but I. I couldn’t let it steal my lines as it pleased.
I calmly opened my mouth while organizing the cocktail mixing tools.
“Is there a cocktail you’d like?”
Unexpectedly, the monster didn’t say a single other word to me and answered as if he had really come as a customer.
[Neutron Star.]
I frowned slightly.
Neutron Star…
It was probably because of the programmed phrase from the Robot Bartender. Or maybe it was his favorite cocktail.
This became annoying.
Well, it wasn’t impossible.
“Neutron Star”
“A small diameter about the north-south length of Old Tokyo, with a mass twice the Sun’s, is the World’s Heaviest Cocktail.”
Warning: For this cocktail, sale is prohibited to those who have not undergone a Digestive Organ Modification Procedure of Level 2 or Higher.
Heavy, toxic to the body. Suitable for a Modified Organ Durability Test, or for a suicide protest.”
If a martini is cocktail orthodoxy for a classic cocktail, then neutron Star is the pinnacle of advanced cocktails.
Like the “Cold Heart” I made before, it was a cocktail of future technology generously filled with the Differentiated Advanced Technique Unique to the 22nd century without any subtraction.
I had never drunk it, and I couldn’t drink it. Unlike Cold Heart, I didn’t even want to try drinking this cocktail.
There are many extraordinary cocktails in the world, but is there a cocktail suitable for suicide protest in the World?
However, this cocktail was uniquely made with Just Water.
There are two simple ingredients; one is Just Water, and the other is Etymological Vodka, which originated from the “Water of life”.
However, just because the ingredients are simple, one should not think mixing is simple.
The water that makes up the heaviest cocktail, neutron Star, is not simple water. That water must possess immense density and mass.
It requires heavy water, which can be created only with the help of machines.
And since the Robot Bartender proudly shouted the motto “From Martini to neutron Star”, there had to be a heavy water generator somewhere around here.
Looking behind the bar for a moment, I quickly spotted the deuterium enriched water production machine. It was large and stood out easily.
alien languages like hydrogen deuterium exchange, liquid product stream, and low-temperature catalytic exchange column were dizzyingly written in small letters, but I didn’t pay them much mind.
I had used a similar machine at Dragon’s Lair. This one seemed to be a much newer model, but the operating method would be similar.
How different could it be? If a problem occurred, it would suddenly just be the machine explosion.
The customer waiting right now was 'very' impatient.
If I took the leisure to slowly decipher the difficult manual, he could easily commit Tyranny Beyond Equipment Failure.
In truth, he had probably come all this way intending to act tyrannically anyway…
Well, you never know. Delicious alcohol has a way of making people happy, so the cocktail I make might be able to appease the monster’s rage.
Without worrying too much, I relied on my vague memory to activate the heavy water production machine.
I poured in an enormous amount of water, pressed the green button, pulled the lever when the gauge filled up, and pressed the lit green button.
distilled heavy water accumulated inside the large container. But this wasn’t the end.
For water poisoning to occur through heavy water consumption, one must drink at least an Amount of 10L.
This meager amount of heavy water fell far short of demonstrating the infamy of the cocktail neutron Star, which was said to be extremely toxic to the body.
Because of that, I mixed a large amount of vodka into the heavy water to blend it with alcohol, then moved it to the room-temperature compressor and activated the device.
The compressed heavy water alcohol, pressurized by ultra-high pressure, transformed into an ice form resembling sparkling jewels.
Repeating that process several times resulted in a mountain of compressed heavy water piled on the special alloy container.
It was a seemingly slightly unusual ice pile, but its composition, weight, and volume were completely different from how it looked. It easily exceeded an Amount of 10L.
Finally, I poured vodka over it again. Due to High Specific Gravity, the compressed ice didn’t float but remained sunken.
When placed on the rotating device, the internal structure of the container slowly swirled and changed.
Above the streaks of vodka rising long like a waterspout, the compressed heavy water-alcohol rattled and collided in the shape of a thin hourglass.
I supported with both hands that World’s Heaviest Cocktail, which resembled a celestial shape extending from a single point, and barely maintained my balance as I placed it on the bar.
“The cocktail, neutron Star.”
It was truly something heavy and ominous, A Cocktail That Pairs Well with the Drinker.
Without a trace of hesitation, the Monster grabbed the large container at once with his cyberarm, opened his chrome-covered lower jaw, and poured it straight in like pumping gas. The spiral-shaped heavy water was slowly sucked down his steel esophagus.
He smacked his lips and swallowed the toxic substance that can lead to death, which could instantly knock out an adult male who hadn’t received suitable body modification, so lightly.
At that unrestrained appearance, I shook my head without realizing it. I hadn’t added any other elements outside the intended recipe for the cocktail called neutron Star.
But I could have if I wanted to. I could have added any amount of lethal poison more lethal than this.
However, the giant before my eyes didn’t give a damn about such a risk factor and easily downed the cocktail I handed him as if drinking bottled water.
confidence and ego tightly packed with extreme arrogance, believing that even if I play tricks, I couldn’t harm him.
If anyone else acted like this, it would be conceit.
But if a full-body cyborg recipient with Comprehensive Body Modification Level 9, far exceeding human limits, whom no lethal toxin could affect, did this, it would be well-founded confidence.
“How is the taste?”
[Trash.]
The chrome monster, Rodrick Grant Smith, contorted his metal-covered face.