Chapter 159
“You talk to the Customer. I’ll get ready to welcome him.”
Sey said that and pulled out a black liqueur bottle with German writing from the kitchen display cabinet.
As far as I knew, that was one of Sey’s liquor collections - a genuine article, not synthetic liquor.
What exactly was the situation, and what was she thinking?
Sey’s attitude of opening the door for the uninvited guest who had come right up to the house door and numbly telling him to come in was mixed with a sense of alienation that was hard to describe in words.
It felt like the Sey I knew, yet at the same time, it felt like I was seeing a completely new, unknown side of her.
[Uh-huh-huh, it must have been an unexpected visit, but to be welcomed so warmly, I don’t know what to do with myself from the overwhelming gratitude! Thank you, you two.]
But honestly, this wasn’t the time to worry about Sey. I have my own problems right now.
I forced a smile and welcomed the Machine Monk as he awkwardly shuffled in. While explaining something to him as he marveled at the size and neat interior design of the penthouse, I found my mind was entirely elsewhere.
'Shaolin Monk…'
It was one hundred percent the monk from that time. There was no way there were two monks who acted that suspiciously.
Beggar
“Ah, you can sit here.”
[Oh, then excuse me for a moment. It wouldn’t do for the chair to get dirty because of this monk… heup-cha.]
Making a fuss, he dusted off the seat of his monk’s robe and carefully sat down in the armchair, looking ridiculous.
[My word, it seems I am always receiving help from the patron. How to repay this grace is my current worldly agony.]
“When I saw you last time, your arm was stuck in the drink dispenser of the pink vending machine.”
[Indeed. It was cold, damp, and my arm was creaking… looking back, it was truly a torment, so I thank you once again. I shudder just imagining what would have happened if the patron had not helped me then.]
The way he spoke while sniffing made it seem like there wasn’t the slightest chance he would cause harm to anyone.
But as expected, I couldn’t let my guard down.
I still couldn’t forget the atmosphere of the bar that turned icy and the stiffened expressions of the Ronin just from the Shaolin Monk’s appearance on that unusually rainy day.
The troublemaker detective, who knew all the underground and acted like an explainer or something akin to a Pokédex, had also lowered his voice and spoken to me seriously.
'That Shaolin Monk is fucking strong.'
Dentist’s Office
Because he had scared me so much, I had a serious feeling of anxiety that he might be targeting me, having come all the way here through Tracking Militia’s aching tooth - the stolen confidential data from the research institute.
Although the one who ultimately launched an attack on me wasn’t the Shaolin Monk or the mafia boss 'Red Mountain' Goran, but a suspicious cyborg ninja who appeared out of nowhere.
Now that quite some time had passed, the Dead Cell-Militia Incident seemed to be roughly wrapping up.
Like the Cyborg Ninja, there might have been pursuers who found the connection between me and the incident, but perhaps thanks to the attack and theft I experienced, no one paid more attention than necessary to me, who had been robbed of the Man Hunter’s Hand.
Even the old man Red Mountain merely expressed minor regret when I told him we could no longer make a deal.
The atmosphere in East Monica was similar.
Even though the DCPD and the Ronin scoured the vicinity like they were hunting for lice, there were no significant results for weeks, and eventually, everyone lost interest.
Only the urban legend rumor circulated that the Dead Cell Hero who stole Militia’s confidential data had been uploaded to cyberspace and had become something like a net ghost or a demon.
The prevailing theory was that Militia Research Institute’s confidential data was either a false rumor or a fabricated play that never existed in the first place, or even if it was truly stolen, it had already been handed over to another corporation or obtained by the Dead Cell Headquarters and was in a state where it couldn’t be recovered.
No one could possibly imagine that the winner of that fierce struggle was a mere apprentice bartender of a bar, me, Jo Aaron, and that an artificial intelligence that had absorbed all that confidential data was scurrying around inside my head.
[Of course. Unless the Dusk Watch steps in, no one will be able to catch even the slightest trace left by this System Assistant.]
But putting that differently, didn’t it mean we could get caught if the Dusk Watch did step in?
Tsk. I don’t know.
Anyway, thanks to that, the nightmares of getting stabbed by a cyborg ninja in the middle of the night had decreased a lot, and I was wondering if I could slowly start expecting peaceful and comfortable days.
To think the Machine Monk would visit at such an unbelievable timing.
'How much does he know?'
I stole a glance at the monk’s expression, keeping my smiling face. He was still suspiciously gentle.
To put it a bit more bluntly, he looked lacking.
The way his lenses widened as if he was seeing something like this for the first time when the armchair comfortably reclined back under his weight showed exactly that.
Did he do seclusion training in a temple for a hundred years or something? Recliners existed even in the 21st century.
“How did you find your way here?”
When I asked carefully, the Machine Monk smiled good-naturedly and replied.
[It is said that Buddha strolled with a Wheel with a Thousand Spokes attached. Zooming around like roller skates! How wonderful would that be, right? this monk may not possess the soaring divine movement, but I have my own talent in movement. The secret is for the body to follow wherever the mind goes!]
What the hell kind of bullshit is this?
I don’t know if I can’t interpret it because I’m inexperienced with city slang, or if he’s just talking like crap.
[I believe it is the latter.]
It seemed even the System Assistant, who was fundamentally the same artificial intelligence, couldn’t understand the monk’s words.
It was when I was giving a half-hearted reply like, 'Haha, I see. That sounds like a very nice saying.'
Sey, having finished preparing for the guest, approached with a tall foamy glass on a tray.
Peculiarly, it looked like a small shot glass was sunk inside the glass upside down.
The large glass was filled with yellow beer, and the dark German liquor lurked ominously inside the small inner glass as if trapped.
The name of the cocktail vaguely came to mind.
'U-boat!'
True to its name, the dark brown liqueur submerged under the beer was reminiscent of a submarine.
It was a strong and potent bomb shot that I had only seen or heard of but never actually drank.
It didn’t seem like a fitting cocktail for welcoming a guest, but Sey’s expression and actions were resolute.
“I prepared this because I heard you like grain tea. You’ll be able to enjoy the full flavor if you down it all at once.”
She was handing a high-proof, masculine cocktail named after a weapon used during wartime to the uninvited guest who had appeared out of nowhere.
Anyone could see this was an eviction order rather than socializing/bonding, or a message to stop playing games and quickly state his purpose.
Or even more than that, it could be a threat that she had put something in the alcohol, so if he came with bad intentions, he should get lost right now.
[Oh my! It is not as if this monk enjoys grain tea that much… I do not know where such false rumors spread from. It is a pity, but I cannot ignore your goodwill. Since drinking it all at once is the proper way, I cannot just take a moderate sip, either. Haha, setting aside my shame, then.]
Whether he noticed that meaning or not, the Machine Monk just smiled broadly, looking crazy for alcohol, and willingly downed the U-boat cocktail.
Every time he gulped it down his throat, the golden beer disappeared from the glass, and the black liqueur filled its place. Finally, after cleanly emptying the bomb shot that had turned completely black, the monk set the glass down with a flushed face.
[Ooh? For some reason, I feel an obsession that I must tell everything without resistance…]
It was at that moment.
Chak! A hand reached out without hesitation.
After spinning the armchair the Shaolin Monk was sitting in upside down like lightning, Sey lowered her voice toward the monk who was dizzy from being flipped upside down.
“Why did you come here?”
[Uh-huh-huh, patron. Pitifully, this monk has long since mastered the discipline of resolution to sever all such obsessions. Relying on external objects is…]
But before he could even finish his sentence, a chilling mechanical sound abruptly cut him off.
It was the sound of cocking a bolt.
In one of Sey’s hands was a heavy tech pistol, and in the other was a booming dagger. They were cleanly aiming only at the monk’s forehead and chest, his fatal vital points.
It was such an incredible speed that even I, who had been fully tense, couldn’t see it properly. I couldn’t gauge whether she had used body acceleration cyberware or if her simple hand movements were just this swift.
“Speak.”
When Sey coldly muttered, the Machine Monk was momentarily speechless, but as she gradually pushed the vibrating blade into his chest as if to show it wasn’t a simple threat, his metal skin grinding away, he soon turned pale.
Shaolin Monk versus Sey?
What I had worried about in the past was just laughable.
It was an astonishingly overwhelming, complete victory for Sey.
Perhaps because he was caught off guard, the Shaolin Monk couldn’t even put up any resistance.
How reassuring, to think this is my senior.
Fucking awesome.
[I… I will tell you everything! I absolutely did not come for a bad reason! How could I do that to the patron I owe a debt of gratitude to? this monk merely came to deliver an invitation on someone’s behalf!]
“An invitation? What is that.”
When Sey frowned, the Monk hastily tried to pull a black letter from his robes but missed and dropped it.
It was a luxuriously sealed letter stamped with a wax seal, something I hadn’t seen in Dusk City, let alone in 21st century Korea.
As Sey reached out to pick it up, the Machine Monk spoke tactlessly.
[Um, it is an invitation for the other patron, not the scary female patron… Eek. No. Do not mind this poor monk. Haha.]
Immediately tilting the cold gun barrel to teach the naive Monk a lesson in tact, Sey whipped her head around to look at me and pushed the dropped letter with her foot.
The letter slid right to my feet as if it had been calculated.
Such fucking charisma.
That’s why men fall for her.
“He says it is, so you read it.”
I carefully broke the seal of the black letter and read the first word.
There was one word that caught my eye.
It was Schneider.