Chapter 40
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Title : Help!!!!!
(A screenshot of a character kneeling and bowing)
I was looking for a quest in District 49 and ended up at some remote black market??
This newbie got lost....
Fast travel doesn't work, and no taxis are coming,
I got pissed off and even installed a mod that shows the map, but I have no idea why this fucking minimap displays the upper and lower levels overlapping each other....
I've been wandering around for two hours already....
Help this newbie.....
─ The 48794646541321684th recurring case of a lazy-ass who doesn't read the announcements
─ Why would a newbie go to District 49 lol
─ If you check the gallery announcement, there's a post compiling maps of the inside and outside of the Black Market area.
└ (OP) I already saw that... There are like dozens of map posts in the announcements, so I can't read them all... It's too hard... *sob*
└ You chose to enter the Black Market, so yeah, just grit your teeth and tough it out.
└ (OP) ㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅜㅠㅗㅗㅗ
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Title : Let's Learn About the Black Market
(A screenshot of a cartoon character looking bewildered after getting trapped in a complicated 3D maze)
Let's stop learning about it now.
─ I got out just by following the exit signs. Is this really a maze?
└ (OP) Signage: Sometimes it says to go left, right, and up at the same time.
└ Ah lol, ignore the old signs.
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Title : I'll Tell You Exactly How to Escape the Black Market
(A screenshot of a male character sitting atop dozens of corpses and smiling brightly)
¿The answer?
Kill everything you see nearby.
─ Aaaagh!! Call the police!!!!!
└ Info) There are no police in District 49
└ You should call the city government's special forces for this.
─ Can this actually get you out?
└ “Get outt” x “Get out” o
└ (OP) Yeah, seriously.
└ If you keep killing them, NPCs dressed in suits will appear. Do a speech check on them, then tell them you're lost, and they'll sigh and tell you the way.
└ Why is this actually true?
└ Heixinghui takes a mysterious L;;
└ (OP) What the fuck does that even mean?
└ The organization managing the Black Market, dumbass;
─ You sound like someone who installed illegal malware wrong in his head and went completely insane.... Perfectly accurate
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* * *
The Black Market.
According to a rough search through the Cyber Web Wiki, the entire stretch of streets around here is collectively called the “Black Square.”
It's not Times Square or anything.
It's so huge that updates to the navigation app have officially been discontinued.
Apparently there are even guides inside who specialize in giving directions around Black Square.
Figures.
The buildings' floor-area ratio defied imagination.
Even the Old City streets had felt a little cramped deep down, but here, every time I took a step, it felt like the floor-area ratio was jumping by dozens of percentage points in a domino effect.
“This is really dizzying.”
[I will search for a map app that supports a layout map of Black Square. …Search results: 0.]
I looked down at the terminal.
On the terminal screen, a very simply designed female emoji (👩) was staring at me.
[The Cyber Web street rating for this area is 1.3 stars. The main reviews left by visitors are as follows.]
The turret connected to my terminal─Nova.
Nova's voice, which had been continuing in a gentle, calm tone, suddenly changed.
[Damn it, I heard there were lots of rare cybernetic bodies here that have been discontinued, so I came all the way from far away. They're all knockoffs, aren't they? ■■, you want me to rate the area? One star is too generous!]
[The moment you enter Black Square, everyone is divided into two categories regardless of their status: sellers and suckers. Whether they're sherpas, stall owners, or even fellow tourists, they're all desperate to rip you off, so tourists visiting here are advised to hire a trustworthy guide. Personal rating: one and a half stars.]
[Huff, huff…. I barely, barely escaped…. Huff. Never casually accept food from other people. Never recklessly enter alleys you don't know well. And never trust anyone. Huff…. Damn it, the bleeding in my stomach won't stop…. Panacea service probably won't come here either…. ……Oh, Martha.]
The genders, ages, and content all varied, as if it were playing back review data left by other people.
The voice data from the last one in particular sounded like I should call an ambulance immediately.
“The main reviews?”
[These are user ratings sorted by recommendation count.]
“…You've got to be kidding me.”
I was starting to miss the peaceful grocery store.
I increasingly wanted to turn around and go back.
For the record, I hadn't come here with Rivera or Michael today, either, so the only person I could trust and rely on was Nova, chattering away inside the terminal.
Rivera was busy dealing with the donation I'd made to the orphanage (not an orphanage).
- It's actually pretty good….
- Ahem.
And for some reason, Michael had also been very busy lately.
- Unfortunately, I have a prior engagement.
- …What kind of schedule does a homeless person have?
- This is merely my personal opinion, but I think I'm much busier now than I was when I worked for the corporation….
I really had no idea what he was going around doing.
‘A homeless person's schedule….’
Maybe he was out looking for some usable scrap metal.
Anyway, since I couldn't grab people who were busy for no reason, I decided to go with just Nova.
If I told Michael I was going alone, he would probably assign some other homeless people to me.
I'd slipped away while watching for the right timing.
I shifted my gaze from the terminal and checked the enormous sign above my head.
[Black Square Complex 9, Zone E, No. 72]
In other words.
In this street (or the inside of a gigantic building), which felt like I'd entered Kowloon Walled City in its heyday, there were at least nine different complex numbers,
the zones were numerous enough to run through the alphabet,
and, as if that weren't enough, the sections were further divided by number─that was what the sign said.
“Wow.”
A light exclamation escaped me.
And there were so many people.
“A marketplace” was exactly the right description.
From the entrance, the touts' loud voices rang out as they tried to lure in customers.
If I stood still, passersby would bump my shoulders, so I had no choice but to let the crowd carry me naturally forward.
“Ugh, I feel like I'm going to get motion sickness already.”
[You could simply purchase a corporate android body through the Cyber Web….]
“They don't deliver to District 49.”
Technically, they did.
The standards were especially strict for products like androids.
Nova hadn't said that without knowing, either.
Nova was that worried about me, I supposed.
Come to think of it, there really are a lot of people….
‘With this many people, I wouldn't even notice if someone picked something out of my pocket while passing by─.’
At that moment.
My hand shot out like a tightly compressed spring.
It went straight behind me.
I only realized what had happened after my hand moved first, so I pulled the wrist I'd caught straight toward me with a dumbfounded look on my face.
“Aw, shit….”
I had grown quite tall, and the owner of the wrist was unusually light.
The legs of the “kid” who had tried to put a hand in my pocket dangled in midair.
It obviously wasn't the sort of sleight of hand you'd see in an online game; they seemed to be after the thick wad of bills in my pocket.
For the record, my roomy pocket contained an enormous sum the kid couldn't even imagine (a bundle of bills worth $100,000).
There was absolutely nothing strange about my sensitive reaction.
At the same time.
The kid bit down on my hand with a crunch.
“What the hell?”
“……”
Chomp, chomp.
It looked like they were trying to chew through an extremely tough steak.
For the record, it didn't hurt much.
Even then, the wave of people continued to surge around us.
I slowly walked forward while holding the kid by the wrist.
A terminal in one hand, a kid in the other.
It was a highly suspicious sight, but fewer people than expected paid attention to me.
At most, they just shot me a sidelong glance.
I asked the kid another question.
“What are you, kid?”
“…Ptooey.”
The kid spat on the floor and muttered irritably.
“It’s not like your fingers are made of steel. I definitely checked that there weren't any machine signals….”
The child, who seemed to be in the middle of a growth spurt, had one eye dyed an unnatural color.
It was clearly a cybernetic mechanical eye.
Seeing that not only adults but even kids were replacing their bodies with machines made me frown involuntarily.
‘Now I'm starting to worry about the smell of spit.’
I shook the kid's wrist forcefully from side to side again as they tried to bite my finger off.
Since they were so light, the kid's body jerked violently like an articulated doll dancing.
“W-whoa!!”
“Like a carousel spinning round and round, as if it would go on forever~.”
After shaking them around like that for a while, the kid's eyes were spinning too.
I raised the wrist even higher and looked at the kid's face from close range.
‘Definitely not in their twenties, probably mid-to-late teens….’
Even if only because of my past mistake in guessing Rivera's age.
I examined the kid's face closely.
Yep, definitely a teenager.
Although the kid's circumstances─having to steal wallets to survive in a world called the Black Market─were unbearably pitiable,
life is always a real battle.
“A shop that specializes in selling android bodies.”
“W-what are you talking about….”
That wasn't the answer I wanted.
I put more strength into the wrist again.
“Round and round~.”
“Aaaaargh!!”
* * *
Package tours are guided by guides.
The Egyptian pyramids are guided by tomb robbers.
Airports are guided by Koreans yelling, “Hurry, hurry!”
Then who should guide us through Black Square?
The boy said it should be left to local guides known as “sherpas.”
“Sherpas?”
This place doesn't look like the Himalayas.
The boy nodded at my muttering.
“Because of the nature of the job, sherpas have to know every dangerous part of the terrain, so it requires a high level of expertise.”
“Use honorifics. Before I put you on the carousel again.”
“…Yes, sir.”
Of course, this boy wasn't a professional sherpa.
At least he was better than me, who knew absolutely nothing.
I cautiously watched the back of the kid walking ahead of me.
“That's not what you mean.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“It's a difficult job, so you're asking me to make sure I pay the guide fee properly.”
……
My words had struck the kid's
**
core
**
or something.
Soon, they fell silent like a clam.
“You were trying to put your hand in my pocket, yet you're unnecessarily cocky.”
“…I got caught before I could put it in.”
“Tsk.”
“Yes, sir.”
The one-word replies kept popping out, never stopping, perhaps out of habit.
If this had been sixteenth-century medieval Europe, I might have cut off the kid's wrist, put them on the executioner's block, and dipped bread in the blood that ran down,
but fortunately, this wasn't sixteenth-century medieval Europe,
and I was also a twenty-first-century Korean.
I might have given them a knock on the head, but
it wasn't easy to break the kid's wrist, either.
So I decided to have them guide me.
“Anyway, you said there's a shop specializing in android bodies right up ahead?”
“More precisely, go straight up the stairs from here, take Elevator 3 down, then go to the fifth alley on the left and─.”
“Stop.”
Even an American English textbook would be easier than that.
Go straight and turn right and whatever….
Anyway.
Following the complicated route the kid gave me as I explored Black Square, I soon arrived at a place where the entire street was packed with cybernetic bodies.
I was planning to find Nova a body here.
* * *
“A new female android? They start at $150,000. And they're even more expensive in a fringe section like this. I could give you a better price for a used one, though….”
“Ah.”