Chapter 3
The moment I took a strong bite of the sausage bun I’d been handed, its juices burst all over my mouth.
On top of that, it had a peculiar aroma unlike anything you could find in ordinary bread.
The greasy sausage tasted even better to me than the no-brand hamburgers sold at convenience stores back home.
But what is this made of? Artificial meat?
‘Anyway, it’s edible.’
On a five-point scale, I’d give it about 3.5 points.
Munch, munch.
That was a pretty high score.
Since it was food from a cyberpunk world, I’d expected something steeped in capitalism and utterly devoid of flavor.
At this level, it was honestly good enough to eat with genuine satisfaction.
It took only a few seconds to wolf down a hot dog like a starving man,
Ding!
and I saw a new hot dog arrive right in front of me, steaming hot as the microwave timer finished.
“If it’s not enough, eat more. I’m heating a few more anyway.”
“Thangsh.”
“…Swallow before you talk.”
Thus, my one-line review was decided.
Hot dogs weren’t something you ate; you drank them.
Only after silently letting out the burp that had naturally risen up could I completely fill my stomach, starved for an entire month.
‘No, maybe it was a little lacking….’
But after seeing the empty box sitting beside me, I felt too guilty to ask for more.
(For reference, that box had been filled with hot dog buns.)
“If you’ve eaten, get up now, okay?”
“Yep.”
My body was overflowing with energy the moment I’d filled my stomach.
At this rate, I could probably go toe-to-toe with myself from the time I reached my physical peak during my military service in Cheorwon.
Anyway.
The expressionless woman, Christine, seemed to have finished her meal with a tube-shaped convenience food while I was devouring every last hot dog.
Fortunately, the paper-straw cartel seemed to have failed to expand its influence in this world, because she slurped the contents of the tube through a straw that looked like it was made of metal.
‘…72 random flavors, Neo-Life-Gel, which gives you nutrition and fun at the same time! Subscribe now!
This product uses synthetic protein and alternative ingredients, so depending on your constitution, side effects such as indigestion, vomiting, and skin rashes may occur─
.’
Alongside its flashy logo and advertising copy, the nutrition tube had a lengthy warning written in extremely tiny letters.
Strangely enough, I could read every single one of those tiny letters without missing any.
Had my eyesight always been this good?
Of course not.
Apparently, just as the treatment had made me taller and bulkier, it had also improved my eyesight considerably.
Christine casually tossed the completely collapsed nutrition tube into the trash can, then shook a few other supplements into her palm.
“Hmm, want to try these too?”
“…I’m okay.”
“They’re really good for your health, but suit yourself.”
You might wonder who chews supplements with their teeth, but in a one-eyed world, a person with two eyes is the abnormal one.
She habitually tried to light her herbal cigarette, but stopped when she saw me.
I suppose this counted as consideration in its own way.
“Ahem. All right, then, before we head out….”
Christine took a fairly familiar metal tool from an old drawer, despite the fact that I had never touched one in my life.
“Here, take it.”
“This is….”
She tilted her head at my question.
It was a pretty cute gesture, but I couldn’t see the thing in her hand as cute at all.
“You’ve never seen a handgun before?”
I’d seen them plenty of times in movies and games, but this was my first time seeing one in real life.
I’d never gone to a shooting range, either.
Unless you count an 81mm mortar or a K-2.
“It’s not the first time I’ve seen one, but I’ve never actually held one.”
“Interesting. Even the beanpoles living topside carry at least one handgun for self-defense.”
Christine spun the handgun around several times with practiced ease.
Whirr.
She soon gripped the handgun by its short barrel and extended the handle toward me.
“Now, watch closely. This is the trigger.”
“…….”
Somehow, it felt as though my image in her eyes had dropped significantly—once, no, maybe twice.
Well, if I had to teach someone how to use a computer and had to start with the most basic mouse click, I would have found it pretty awkward too.
Click.
Since it was a handgun from a cyberpunk world, I’d wondered if it had some kind of special function, but contrary to my expectations, it was a perfectly ordinary gunpowder-fired handgun.
“There’s no holster, so if you’re carrying it in your pocket, don’t forget the safety. If you want to dye your pants red, just leave it off.”
“Mm.”
I absolutely mustn’t forget that.
Come to think of it, I’d only just noticed,
the clothes I was wearing now were ones I had never seen before in my life.
It wasn’t as if I’d never seen shirts or cotton pants before, but these were so worn-out that you could probably use the whole outfit as a rag instead of a top and bottom.
“Clothes? Buy some later. The ones you were wearing were all torn up and covered in blood. They weren’t fit for a person to wear.”
My precious tracksuit (market price: 35,000 won)…
Well, clothes weren’t important.
I shoved the handgun I’d been given into my pocket and watched Christine walk ahead.
What on earth did she want from me that she was showing me this much kindness?
I couldn’t understand it.
‘If something was going to happen, it would’ve happened a long time ago.’
If she’d had some other ulterior motive, I thought I would’ve run into trouble dozens of times by now.
Even so, I didn’t let my guard down completely as I followed her.
Hmm.
Come to think of it,
“Then, by any chance, was changing my clothes also….”
“…….”
Whether Christine hadn’t heard me or simply didn’t think the question deserved an answer, she kept walking without slowing down.
I felt a little awkward.
* * *
Following Christine, I saw an alley with the bizarre atmosphere of a one-night stand between 1980s American Harlem and twenty-first-century neon signs.
Every building I could see seemed to have a high floor-area ratio.
Put kindly, they had been expanded. Put less kindly, it looked like someone had attached chicken coops and anthills to perfectly intact houses.
The atmosphere on the street was quieter than I’d expected.
If anything, I sensed more people in the direction of the alley than on the ordinary main boulevard.
- Ugh, it’s getting cold….
- How’s it going these days? Find anything good?
- Aaaagh, medicine, medicine! Give me medicine, not food….
Most of the people visible inside the alley were dressed in shabby clothes like mine.
Christine, walking boldly ahead of me, was so completely out of place in that kind of street that not a single person came toward us.
I only saw a few vagrants hiding in the shadows cast by the neon signs and rolling their eyes as they took an interest in her beautiful appearance.
“Hmm.”
While scratching my itchy nape, I noticed a wound that looked like an insect bite.
‘Are mosquitoes fucking huge in the cyberpunk world?’
Fortunately, that thought turned out to be a mistake.
After roughly examining the wound on my neck through a dirty window,
it looked less like an insect bite and more like the mark left by some kind of vaccination shot.
And a rather large vaccination shot at that.
I instinctively realized that the wound was deeply connected to the condition of my body.
Leaving a scar on my neck was probably better than ending up in an intensive care unit that insurance wouldn’t cover.
…….
No, but it was much itchier than I’d expected.
Insect bites were always itchier once you noticed them than when you were unaware of them.
As I scratched the back of my neck and followed Christine, we arrived at the destination she had chosen before I knew it.
『Edible groceries for sale.』
『Preparing to open』
…Of course groceries are edible. Are there groceries that aren’t?
The store had probably opened recently, because its exterior was remarkably clean.
It didn’t seem to have a proper name,
and the only thing flashing with neon light was the sign 【Grocery Store】.
I thought the store’s clean condition resembled Christine quite a bit.
An incredibly beautiful woman who didn’t fit in with the filthy street.
And a grocery store whose spotless condition was the exact opposite of that filthy street.
They had a certain similarity, at least.
Anyway.
As Christine approached the entrance of the grocery store, a massive turret suddenly emerged from the empty ceiling.
Fuck, that startled me.
The turret was practically the size of a person.
‘At this rate, even customers who were on their way here would run away.’
But Christine proceeded calmly toward the entrance as if the enormous turret didn’t frighten her at all.
The red lens mounted on the turret glinted.
[Dyu.]
Upon closer inspection, turrets were tucked into every corner inside the grocery store as well.
They were mounted like CCTV cameras.
‘A grocery store at the end of the world….’
When I stopped walking, Christine calmly beckoned to me.
“It won’t fire unless you’re a robber, so stop looking so nervous.”
“…Isn’t it a little strange to fire at robbers, too?”
“You can’t expect law enforcement in this district.”
She shrugged and continued explaining.
“This level of security is practically standard in other districts. It even has a reasonably capable AI, so the chances of an error are fairly low.”
Just like its clean exterior, the inside of the grocery store was remarkably clean as well.
If there was one blemish, it was that the inventory hadn’t been organized properly.
As it was, the place looked more like a warehouse than a normal grocery store.
Still, it was a relief that the counter and display shelves were intact.
“Here, take it.”
And into my hands was placed an acceptance necklace—no, an apron.
“From now on, you’re the manager of this grocery store.”
“Huh?”
At last, I was going to walk the path of self-employment, the ultimate tech tree for all office workers.
…….
“No, what exactly are you talking about?”
“You heard me perfectly. What’s the problem?”
I was asking because I heard you perfectly.
“I was originally going to wait a little longer between telling you.”
Christine’s irises glowed faintly.
She gazed into empty space as if she were looking at something and continued speaking.
“Do you remember what I said earlier?”
“Uh, that I should chew before I talk?”
“That I only had a few hours left of the vacation I got after such a long time.”
Right.
“I’m about to have to go back. So even if I wanted to explain things at length, I can’t.”
Was the clean-looking exterior protected by massive violence (turrets)? Christine brushed a finger across the dust piled on a display shelf.
I scratched my head.
“No, even if you say that all of a sudden….”
The genre of this game was an open-world action-adventure RPG, not a business-management simulation.
But I didn’t deliberate for long.
This was a very good offer for me.
I’d seen homeless people in the alley earlier, and every one of them had looked frightening.
Like someone clutching a POS terminal at a baby’s first-birthday party, I answered with complete confidence.
“…Well, why the hell not? I’ll give it a shot.”
Even after entering a game, I still had to go to work.
[Dyu!]
Making a living was this hard.