Chapter 124
The Man Hunter was the notorious Ronin who gave me the nickname “hand Butcher”.
It was an Ultra-small Storage Device I had accidentally found in a Hidden Space inside his severed prosthetic arm.
I guessed that the slush fund of Man Hunter Alexgey—a Bounty Hunter whose skills were as outstanding as his behavior was foul—was hidden inside this Memory Device.
Because of that, I had asked Tony—a former net runner with skills that could easily chew up and spit out even the most prominent hackers—to unlock the Memory Device,
“And as I saw how Tony had called me all the way here, shouting in excitement, "Done! I cracked it!"...”
He must have succeeded in unlocking the Security Lock.
"Is it all done?"
I tried to ask as Calmly as possible, but my voice still trembled.
And rightfully so, as it was the slush fund of a first-rate Bounty Hunter.
It was a literal Treasure Trove in the palm of my hand one that even the Ever-pessimistic Tony said, 'It'll have hundreds of thousands of City Dollars in it, at the very least.'
Of course, since quite some time had passed since I first acquired it, there was the concern that the Man Hunter might have siphoned the money through another route, or that the item in question contained something else entirely instead of a slush fund.
But it was Fine.
According to Tony, although quite some time had passed, we were still within the Golden Time.
Even if the Man Hunter had siphoned money from the Slush Fund Account, he wouldn't have been able to move all of it.
He explained that Black Money of this sort usually requires incredibly tedious procedures to Transfer through unofficial channels, meaning that unless he hired a top-tier hacker, he'd be lucky to salvage even half of it due to time and manpower constraints.
That meant even in the worst situation, half of it would still be left.
I didn't expect to swallow hundreds of thousands of dollars whole anyway. Even if I only got a portion of it, and even if I had to split that with Tony, it would still be an overwhelmingly generous spoil of war for a Common Citizen like me.
I could be fully satisfied with just that.
After all, it wasn't money I had earned through blood, sweat, and tears, but rather something closer to side income.
It was better to just consider it an Unexpected windfall and move on rather than getting greedy.
And even if the data inside wasn't a slush fund but something else, that was actually better.
There was no way he would go through the trouble of hiding ordinary data using a Secret Compartment inside his prosthetic arm.
If it wasn't City Dollars, it would be some other form of asset that held even more value than a Secret Account.
There was the issue of how to Process it, but I could just Leave that to Tony, an expert in this field.
Either way, I had Nothing to Lose, and now that Tony had disabled the last remaining risk factor, there was nothing but profit to be made.
It wasn't like I had absolutely no concerns about the Man Hunter's retaliation, but that was a problem for later.
"Then why else would I have called you? Who do you think I am? Of course it's all done. Hah!"
Now it was time to check the contents.
Tony's arrogance was piercing the sky in an annoying way, but in this moment, I had no choice but to acknowledge him.
"Tony."
"Did you call for me?"
"It seems the greatest genius in history, one who defies even the gods, isn't me, but you, Tony."
"You only just realized that?"
He brushed it off as if it were obvious, but when I saw his nostrils flare, he was definitely thrilled by my Praise.
After I threw in a few more flattering lines, Tony, completely drunk on the Praise, waved his hand dismissively.
"Hey, that's enough. Stop overdoing it and just treat me normally. We don't have much time, so hurry up and open it. I haven't even looked at it yet because I was waiting for you."
"Yep."
"I've already finished everything, so all you have to do is press that one button. Then it'll show what's inside."
As I looked around, just as Tony said, there was a button marked with an 'O' like on a Gamepad at the bottom of the terminal.
I looked back, and he nodded to confirm it was the right button, so I took a Deep Breath and pressed it firmly.
"...!"
In an instant, unrecognizable strings of text scrolled rapidly up the Terminal Screen.
Panicking at the Incomprehensible array of 22nd century programming languages and symbols, I looked back, but Tony said it was the Process of automatically decrypting the contents and that the results would appear on their own if I just waited without touching anything.
I did as he said.
About 30 seconds passed. The endless stream of Alien Languages finally came to an end.
The only thing left was a chunk of text.
2107-03-21
WBX57714-{chatter.message}
[05:11:27] [Client thread/ERROR]: Transmission to Box No. 5 complete.
[05:13:01] [Client thread/ERROR]: Entry pass attached.
What kind of bullshit is this?
I waited, wondering if there would be more, but that was it.
There were no Slush Fund Account and no City Dollars. Just two lines of an unidentified message.
"..."
It was a situation where anyone would feel disheartened, but perhaps because I hadn't expected much, I was less disappointed than I thought I'd be.
In fact, Tony, who had squeezed in next to me shouting, “What is it, let me see too!”, was even more furious than I was that there was nothing of substance.
Leaving Tony shrieking behind me, I fell deep into thought.
There was definitely nothing there.
And that made it even stranger.
The Man Hunter wasn't an idiot, so he used the Secret Compartment in his prosthetic arm just to hide this?
That didn't make any sense.
* * *
"Or wait, does it Make Sense?"
What if the Man Hunter actually was an idiot?
Wasn't that why he got reverse-swept by a Common Citizen like me and had his hand cut off, because he was an idiot?
Or maybe it wasn't a Secret Compartment to begin with.
Just like sewing a pocket inside a piece of clothing, maybe they just built a storage space inside the prosthetic finger as a complimentary service.
Just as some people Carry random junk in their pockets, maybe the Man Hunter just stuffed whatever Memory Device was rolling around into that space in his prosthetic arm.
Since it crossed my mind, I put my hand in my pants pocket.
A small City Dollar Chip I had received as a tip popped out. It was a measly 10 dollars. Based on the Dusk Cost of Living, it was barely enough to buy a can of cola.
The unidentified Memory Device that had made Tony and me so excited might have held exactly that much value to the Man Hunter...
Whoosh—
Just as I was having that thought, the City Dollar Chip resting on my hand disappeared.
I'm not lying; I literally closed my eyes and opened them, and it was gone.
Dumbfounded, I blinked once more, and the next moment, I was holding Synthetic Mint Leaves and a tool to crush and pound them—a muddler.
And on the table in front of me sat a Stainless Steel Cup filled with Artificial Sugar.
What is this?
It's not like it's Rocket Delivery, but things are suddenly popping up right in front of my eyes.
"...!"
Only then did my stalled brain start working, and I realized what it meant.
Ah, it means get to work.
I had been resting for a long time.
I hurriedly moved my limbs.
I put the leaves in the glass, crushed them several times with the sugar to extract enough juice, and then passed it to my left.
Sey took it naturally, added Crushed Ice, and poured in the whiskey.
After placing a few leaves on top as a garnish, she handed the finished cocktail, a Mint Julep, back to me.
I quickly checked the table it needed to be served to, placed it on a tray, and dropped it off.
When I returned to the inside of the bar, the City Dollar Chip was back on the Serving tray.
I opened my mouth with a bitter smile.
"I'm sorry, I'll concentrate."
There was only one person who would scold me like this.
Looking to the side, Sey had a Cold expression and didn't even glance my way, but I could still see her give a small nod.
It was a relief she didn't seem too angry.
She probably did that to wake me up because I seemed too distracted by other things. It was embarrassing.
It was my first time working as a Barback, and I had already gotten lost in my thoughts and almost caused a disruption.
I really ought to concentrate.
I shouldn't let my Attention get drawn to the side income I got as a spoil of war and let it interfere with my main job.
As for the “other possibility” that Tony had mentioned—I insisted that this couldn't be it and that there must be a clue in that short message—it would be best to set that aside for now, too.
I shouldn't think about it for a while.
Looking around, I noticed the tables were emptier than before.
The menacing ronins and the Shaolin Machine Monk who had been bothering me seemed to have left while I was talking with Tony—did they pay properly?—but the place was still full of other customers who couldn't be Taken lightly.
I shouldn't let my Guard down just because things have gotten easier than before and I have gotten a bit more used to the work.
As if to prove that fact, a few hours later—right before Closing Time—the Customer who threw the door open and walked in was someone I completely hadn't expected.
"..."
A heavy silence fell the moment he appeared, dripping with rainwater.
He was 2.5 meters tall, a height that forced him to awkwardly hunch his back and bend his knees just to pass through the entrance.
Likewise, he was a brute who looked close to 0.2 tons, and the floor linoleum of the bar let out a feeble groan with every Step he took.
An immense sense of intimidation could be felt.
Not even that massive Chainsaw Man Ronin, nor our President in her heavy Dragon Suit, was on that level.
The man walking right before my eyes was a Brute reminiscent of a giant mountain—and on top of that, he possessed absurdly massive muscles and a monster-like skeletal frame.
And he introduced himself as the grandfather of the man whose arm had been cut off.
Which meant,
He was Alexgey's grandfather.