Chapter 48
Above the violently swirling rapids, someone urgently thrust his head above the water.
His limbs, made of cybernetic prostheses, were twisted this way and that, and one leg had even been severed by something sharp.
They were injuries that were by no means minor.
But the man who had robbed a megacorp warehouse and been ambushed on his way to Black Square─, Marcus Vogel, leaned against the wall and pushed himself upright with one foot, as though his injuries did not bother him at all.
“Fuck, this fucking bullshit….”
He merely kept muttering curses in a low voice.
What could have made him this furious?
Was it because he had pointlessly lost a huge opportunity that could have changed his life?
Was it because his pride had been wounded after losing the fight yet surviving miserably?
Or was it because of the megacorp task force that would relentlessly pursue him from now on?
Naturally….
“That fucking bastard…!!”
None of those was the answer.
Marcus viciously slammed his broken fist against the sewer wall.
A large crack appeared, worsening the injury to his fist, but for some reason, he seemed unable to feel any pain now.
Marcus, his face a complicated mixture of anger, humiliation, and frustration,
furtively checked beneath ‘himself.’
Of the external mammalian reproductive organs that a man absolutely had to possess, that he could not possibly do without, and that he had left untouched even while replacing his entire body with cybernetic prostheses─.
one part was ‘entirely’ missing.
At the mark left behind as though a peanut had been plucked out, Marcus clenched his teeth.
Crunch.
As a molar cracked, the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.
“…Fucking shit, fuck! Fuck!! Aaaagh!!!!”
His fiercely swung fist created countless cracks in the wall and
he vented his rage at the loss of ‘himself.’
Marcus's fierce anger was directed at only one person.
“I’ll definitely, definitely kill him. …Definitely!!”
Marcus slowly moved through the sewer of District 50 with a staggering gait.
The bastard wearing the black smile mask.
…firmly vowing to at least put him in the same state as himself.
* * *
Just as Son Goku had the Dragon Balls, Nobita had Doraemon, and Luffy had roast meat─.
In this unprecedented situation of being pursued by a megacorp, I, too, had someone to rely on.
“Boss, thank you so much for everything up to now….”
[…Why are you saying that this time?]
Of course, I did not believe she would solve every problem like a character from a manga.
It was simply that
I felt I ought to sincerely apologize for how things had turned out.
In any case, I was not the grocery store's real owner. Christine was.
Assuming the megacorp later smashed through the grocery store entrance shouting, ‘FBI, OPEN UP!!’, they would surely investigate this grocery store as well.
Then the megacorp's reach would naturally trace back to Christine.
That would be no different from repaying the kindness of the boss who had looked after me out of pure goodwill with betrayal.
For now, I planned to somehow handle things on my own so she would not be harmed as well.
I had only intended to tell her to stop paying attention to the grocery store for a while….
[Hmm, an android made by Beltech. You brought back something even better than I expected. …But did they also make autonomous androids separately?]
“Boss, that’s not what’s important right now….”
[The CEO there was a toolist technopol who believed machines were merely tools and people had to operate everything, as I recall. So they make things besides security androids, too.]
Christine's reaction was considerably more lukewarm than I had expected.
Honestly, I had steeled myself for a thorough scolding before calling her.
[Well, good job. I thought you were contacting me because you couldn't find an android body again.]
“…….”
Maybe I should have done that instead.
When I quietly shut my mouth, Christine's snickering voice came through the terminal.
[So, are you worried about the megacorp's pursuit?]
“…I contacted you in advance because the repercussions might reach you as well, Boss.”
For reference, Michael was also running around as though his feet had been set on fire.
Fortunately, this was District 49, where most of the city's surveillance cameras were out of order, and Michael said, sweating profusely, that as long as we were careful of privately operated machines, wiping our tracks clean would not be all that difficult─.
“Also, I wanted to apologize….”
[Enough.]
Christine's firm answer cut me off mid-sentence.
[Ever since I saved you the first time, I decided I would simply put up with a certain amount of trouble.]
…As expected of my boss!
As my loyalty soared through the heavens,
a beeping sound came from the other side of the terminal, as though someone were pressing something.
And then.
[Yes, I picked up─. Huh? Why did you contact me, Senior? You must be busy with a mission. Are you perhaps finally going to start cherishing your one and only partner……. ]
“…Who is this?”
I asked that without realizing it.
It was a man's voice I had never heard before.
I had definitely been talking with the boss alone.
[Huh? What is this? This is Senior's number, isn't it? It is, but why does it sound like there's a man's voice? How strange. Did I spend too long on that deep exploration last time? My information contamination level was still fine….]
Perhaps he had always been talkative, because he kept muttering to himself.
In the meantime, the boss's voice followed.
[I connected you.]
[…Right? I must have misheard, then. Well, of course, there was no way a Senior busy working could have called with a man─.]
[That is also true.]
[…….]
A heavy silence stretched on.
Soon, a reluctant voice popped out.
[…Yes? What kind of bird─no, who?]
[My subordinate.]
[Wasn't I your only work partner, Senior? Did those bastards in the city government deploy you on another secret operation again….]
[The grocery store in District 49.]
[Ah.]
Perhaps he was well acquainted with Christine's circumstances, because he clamped his mouth shut at that one word.
Speaking of which, the city government…?
Just as I was trying to focus on the conversation while reading the mood after suddenly hearing about Christine's workplace situation,
[I have something I was busy working on right now.]
[…Right. I heard you went on a mission outside the city alone.]
[So, look after him for me.]
[What? Hello? Senior? Hey, you crazy─.]
No one answered the man's desperate calls; Christine, who always did things at her own pace, seemed to have ended the call and left without a care.
He quietly muttered in a trembling voice.
[…Hello?]
“…Yes, I’m listening.”
[Fuck.]
Only two complete strangers remained.
I never expected us to start swearing at each other before we had even properly exchanged greetings.
Soon, a deep sigh came from beyond the terminal.
[Ahem, anyway, Mr. Senior's subordinate. I am sincerely sorry that we have to talk like this.]
“…Yes, likewise.”
Still, it seemed there might be quite a bit we had in common.
The man asked me in an incredulous tone,
[…So what exactly is going on here?]
That was the question I wanted to ask.
In any case, it seemed the boss had connected me with this man because she wanted to help me,
so I calmly began explaining the situation I was in.
* * *
The man's name was Troy Mason.
He introduced himself as Christine's ‘one and only proud’ work partner.
[How many years has it been now? I don't even remember anymore. Anyway, you could say the two of us are inseparable now. “Risk City's greatest duo”—that's the epithet that refers to us.]
“Yeah, yeah.”
Since he had switched to speaking informally halfway through, I answered dryly as well.
Perhaps he failed to notice the weariness in my voice, because Troy rambled on about himself without being asked.
[This is a real secret, but we're the ones who solved the ‘Worst Week Ever,’ something no one living in this city could possibly not know about. Ha, I really thought I was going to die back then….]
“The worst what?”
[…Did you perhaps live in another city and move here recently?]
“Something like that.”
I had moved here from Seoul.
[W-well, then, I suppose you wouldn't know.]
Anyway.
Troy seemed to run out of things to say when I answered that I knew nothing.
This was how little I knew about this world, and Christine in particular.
At most, I knew only that she was the benefactor who had saved my life and that, because of her poor lungs, she constantly kept a cigarette made by blending medicinal herbs between her lips.
I didn't know what she did for a living, what special skills she excelled at, what hobbies she had, or even the name of her favorite food.
‘…I should ask her next time.’
I nodded slightly as I pictured Christine.
Then the sound of fingers tapping away at a keyboard continued to ring out.
Had a few dozen seconds passed?
[Hmm…. Still, you didn't leave much of a trail. There are fewer cameras in District 49, too.]
Gulp, gulp.
A sharp, fizzy crackling sound followed, as though he were drinking a beverage.
[Well, never mind. At least you won't be pursued because of the ‘truck’ anymore.]
“Oh, thanks.”
When I offered my brief thanks, an incredulous laugh came from beyond the terminal.
[……Ha, an eighth-level Web Spider is doing this kind of pointless labor. If people find out, I'll be teased for years.]
“Is that high?”
[…Did you perhaps live in an entirely different world and move here recently?]
“…….”
This guy was pretty sharp.
But this time, perhaps my silence sounded like a joke to him, because Troy snickered and added,
[Anyway, I don't know how a guy working part-time at a grocery store ended up being pursued by a megacorp like Beltech.]
A new contact appeared on the terminal.
[Next time, don't go through all this trouble to call me. Just leave me a message. Ha, this would normally cost money, too….]
It seemed he couldn't bring himself to ask for money because Christine had ordered him to do it.
“Seriously, thanks.”
[Forget it. I don't want to ignore my Senior's words and suffer the consequences later.]
“…Isn't the boss an incredibly kind person?”
Otherwise, there was no way she would look after someone like me who kept dragging trouble in with him.
At my answer, Troy raised his voice.
[The Senior? Pfft, pffft…. That's genuinely the funniest thing I've heard lately. What that person is really like is─.]
[I'm curious too.]
[…Huh??]
My breath caught in my throat.
…She hadn't hung up?
Of course, unlike me, who used the terminal with his hands, other people connected calls using a brain-computer device called a smart chip.
In other words, it was not strange for her to leave the call connected while continuing whatever she had been doing.
The fact that she had merely listened silently all this time was still downright creepy.
Still.
[No, what is this….]
[What kind of person am I?]
[…Please wait a moment. I'll just delete the data stored in the external cloud, the disks I've collected over the years, and my Cyber Web history.]
Troy was in a slightly better situation than if he'd been caught badmouthing her.
Even in a cyberpunk world, apparently the line in a will saying, ‘Please put my computer tower in water,’ remained unchanged.
I quietly prayed for his soul.
* * *
Having successfully evaded the megacorp's pursuit, I trudged down from the grocery store's rooftop.
When I reached the ground via the metal stairs installed on the outside of the building, I saw Michael still scurrying around busily.
Oh, right.
Perhaps Michael had spotted me at the same time, because he hurried over.
“Hot Dog Man, there you are.”
“It’s okay. I’ve already taken care of everything. There won’t be any megacorp pursuit for the time being.”
“Huh? How did you─? No, more importantly.”
Although his face was as expressionless as usual, a bead of sweat trickled down Michael's forehead.
“There’s an even more urgent matter at hand.”
“…Huh?”
What could possibly be more urgent than the megacorp's pursuit?
This damn grocery store really never ran out of incidents.
Thinking the homeless people might have started another fight by the collars, I followed Michael without thinking much of it.
And then.
“…….”
“…….”
I found Rivera and Nova staring intently at each other without saying a word.
The air was incredibly heavy.
Heavy enough that breathing suddenly felt difficult.
Michael, who had quietly crept up behind me, whispered,
“…They’ve been like that for ten minutes now.”
“Ah.”
It really was an urgent matter.