Chapter 51
《Has everyone eaten? Another pleasant and peaceful day in Risk City. This is Doble-Doble, your radio-tower guardian, bringing you the latest news from Area 49 in real time!》
《First, let me start with some boring news. After all, you have to cleanse your palate with an appetizer before eating the main dish.》
《What? You don't know what that is? For listeners like you, I recommend the Cyber Web's paid subscription service! Codex Wiki! Prepay for six months right now, and we'll give you Doble-Doble's ultra-rare autograph absolutely free!》
《Oh my, some subscribers are still asking whether this is an advertisement. Of course it's an advertisement!!》
《Then, the first piece of news!!》
《Hall-Paradise, famous as a respectable place of business, apparently went bankrupt overnight! Oh dear, listeners staying on the old-town streets, you'll have to get much better acquainted with your own hands from now on!》
《The truth is, they had built up far too much bad karma! They were merely clinging precariously to their image as a necessary evil!》
《Where could all the androids in the building have gone? Could this have been the work of some pervert trying to take all of Hall-Paradise's androids for himself? No one knows the truth.》
《But… we can make guesses!!》
《Now for the second piece of news!》
《The all-out power struggle between the Sparrow Rapido Family and Hakuga-gumi is apparently becoming visible little by little! Crossing between the old town and the new town, they say the number of buildings caught in the crossfire is already more than one or two!》
《Those of you who have listened to Doble-Doble's radio for a long time naturally know that Hakuga-gumi was the organization backing Hall-Paradise, which we reported on earlier.》
《Hall-Paradise was a very, very sweet source of collection money for Hakuga-gumi! The Sparrow Rapido Family cut that line cleanly in one stroke!》
《That is how Doble-Doble Radio speculates the all-out war between the two gangs began. Anyway! Dear listeners, please refrain for a while from sticking your faces out the window to breathe in that musty fine dust!》
《And now for today's final piece of news!》
《It's quite a coincidence that the final piece of news is also related to a gang! In Area 49, your neighbors are gang members themselves, so I suppose it can't be helped!》
《The Black Star Society, which operates Black Square, has placed an absolutely, extraordinarily, unbelievably enormous bounty on whoever stole their “goods”!!》
《Unfortunately, since no surveillance-camera data remains, they apparently created a composite sketch based on unreliable eyewitness accounts from citizens.》
《The detailed characteristics are as follows! A black smile mask! A raincoat in the form of a coat! And the most credible information of all is that this person is a purist with not a single implant in their body!》
《The dream of instant riches! Unlike the RCPD, the thugs of the citizenry who sometimes even pocket bounties, the Black Star Society has never once delayed a bounty payment! If a purist suddenly appears near any of you listeners… well, shouldn't those who want to live be allowed to live?》
《That concludes today's news!》
《Thank you to everyone who listened. This was your radio-tower guardian, Doble-Doble!》
Click.
The voice flowing from the terminal cut off.
At the same time.
【You are now hostile toward Hakuga-gumi!】
【A bounty has been placed in the name of the Black Star Society!】
【Special random encounter chance increased!】
【Special random encounter chance increa….】
The grocery store's warehouse─.
Lying around on a (picked-up-somewhere) sofa, I realized that all three pieces of news delivered by that Doble-Doble-or-Bubble-Bubble fellow were connected to ‘me.’
“…Mm.”
Apparently, I had been going out too often lately.
I made an unrealizable plan to hole up in the grocery store and live the life of a shut-in for a while.
‘A yakuza organization, a triad, and the special forces of a terrifying megacorp.’
I never expected to become this popular.
If this had been the world of a romantic-comedy manga, it would have been the happiest moment of my life, but unfortunately, this was a fusionpunk world built on a cyberpunk city.
And that wasn't even all of them!
I slowly reached toward the hot dog resting on top of a box of cat food.
Whhhhh…
A unique sensation dominated the space.
A feeling of omnipotence, as though I could control the flow of all the air however I pleased.
Before long.
A tiny vortex of telekinesis moved the hot dog from far away onto my palm.
For the record, not a single drop of sauce fell onto the floor during the process.
Although this was my first time using telekinesis since picking peanuts, I could control it as freely as if I were moving my own hand.
As I swallowed the hot dog in one bite,
I thought of the final faction targeting me.
‘…And the city government.’
Why would the government that managed the city hunt down psychics?
I had no idea.
If they were going to do that, they should at least manage the criminals properly.
Anyway, even I, as laid-back as I was, had begun to feel that I needed to level up.
* * *
When I gently closed my eyes, countless rootlike tendrils began appearing like pictures across my pitch-black world of consciousness.
The roots, each formed in a different shape, gave me the impression of looking at murals created by an artist from ancient Rome.
They pulsed red like blood vessels, and.
‘Pistols, bombs, fists, swords, men, strange chipsets… There’s even one shaped like some kind of ninja.’
They actually looked remarkably similar to the UIs from various role-playing games.
Then my gaze turned toward a solitary ‘gray, heart-shaped’ root.
When I focused my consciousness intensely on it, the heart-shaped root rapidly approached me, as though I had stepped onto a moving walkway.
At the very center of the heart, the trait labeled 【Telekinetic】 sparkled like the North Star.
I tried selecting a new trait as an experiment, but it was still gray, apparently because I had no points left at all.
‘Superhuman, psychometry, pyrokinesis….’
And so on.
With piles of traits from other categories besides the heart-shaped root, my dissatisfaction grew larger and larger, like a snowball rolling downhill.
‘This is a totally garbage game.’
Just how many gang members had I defeated by now?
I didn't understand why there were so many traits to choose from in a game where leveling up was already so difficult.
‘Unless….’
Just like when the First Kill achievement appeared.
Maybe experience only increased when I killed someone.
‘That seems fairly likely.’
Once I thought about it that way, a sigh escaped me.
This might be a game world, but going around killing people indiscriminately for the sake of leveling up was a little—no, it was seriously wrong.
It wasn't as though I were a psychopath….
“Huh.”
Then I discovered something new.
【Telekinetic】 【6%】
There was a percentage near the Pistachio Peanut Opener trait that had saved my life, one I had not noticed before.
This was obviously…
‘Proficiency.’
A system completely separate from levels.
There was no harm in experimenting.
I lay sprawled on the sofa and made a hot dog fly into my mouth on its own.
About thirty minutes passed like that.
【Telekinetic】 【7%】
It had definitely increased.
“Yes.”
Even if it was only 1%, it had still gone up.
There was still plenty of room to become stronger without leveling up.
Maybe there were other systems like this too.
Thinking about the game's systems, I muttered jokingly,
“Save─.”
“Hot Dog Man, are you inside?”
“Blrk.”
Michael's voice came from the back door as he knocked.
Ow, I bit my tongue again.
The parade of hot dogs flying through the air was neatly stacked back inside the box.
It was almost a reflexive action.
“Mm, I'm here.”
“Then please excuse me.”
Michael, his expressionless face looking as though he were wearing a mask, opened the back door and entered the warehouse.
“What are you doing here by yourself?”
“…Just using my handphone.”
“Handphone? That is a somewhat unusual expression. Not cellphone (CellPhone), either.”
The Korean patch seemed to be a little awkward.
Handphone itself was a Korean-style expression, after all.
Anyway.
Since it would be troublesome if the conversation grew any longer, I naturally pointed at the object Michael had brought and asked,
“What's that? Why did you bring something else?”
“Ah, I found it lying in the grass outside the vacant lot, so I brought it with me.”
“……”
And I thought, what now.
Such was the cold reality of Area 49, where even a capable corporate executive had no choice but to change careers and become a junk dealer….
Well, he seemed fairly happy with it himself.
While I was looking at Michael with the pitying gaze one used for a poor beggar,
Michael hung the ‘dartboard’ he had brought on one wall, looking oddly excited.
“You will find it enjoyable if you try it.”
“You seem to like it.”
“Well, it has been a hobby of mine for a long time.”
Michael enjoyed a wholesome hobby completely at odds with cyberpunk society.
How had someone like him ever managed to work in a corporate executive office?
He certainly was competent enough, though.
“Is hitting the center the best?”
Hearing me mutter, Michael suddenly turned around and stared straight at me.
“The bullseye is worth 50 points. If you look at the upper part of the dartboard, you will see sections worth 20 points. Hitting the red area there is called a triple, and earns you 60 points.”
“Oh.”
“The structure of earning points by throwing darts is the same in every event.”
The veteran player who had found a new newbie carefully concealed his feelings and handed me three darts.
“Try throwing one first.”
I had thrown a basketball a few times at an arcade.
But darts were a first for me.
As I fiddled with the darts, Michael continued explaining in a chuckling voice,
“Darts are a simple yet subtle game. Even if you calculate the distance with a smart chip and improve your accuracy with cybernetic prosthetics, in the end, there are many aspects that rely on your own senses, so─.”
Michael's words stopped halfway.
The dart I had thrown had landed precisely in the red section worth 20 points.
“…I was actually about to tell you to come over here because it is too far to throw from there.”
The distance between me and the dartboard was clearly well over ten meters.
Then.
The two darts I tossed roughly also landed in the red section worth 20 points.
“……Huh?”
The next round.
When the same result unfolded in the round after that as well,
Michael quietly took down the dartboard.
“…I apologize. I was extremely presumptuous. How dare I sully Hot Dog Man's eyes with my inadequate and insufficient skill.”
“No, it wasn't that bad….”
“I will practice and work harder before I return.”
After the loser left,
I felt a little sorry for having used telekinesis to throw the darts.
【Telekinetic】 【8%】
In any case, I had increased my proficiency.
But this was Area 49 of Risk City….
An inhuman hellscape where the weak could never survive.
* * *
Fortunately, nothing particularly special happened at the grocery store for the next few days.
The problem was,
the proficiency of the trait, which had risen smoothly at first, gradually began to slow down.
【Telekinetic】 【24%】
Even though I continued using telekinesis in secret so no one else would notice,
the proficiency that had reached 24% showed no intention of going any higher.
“Hot Dog Man, what has you so deep in thought?”
As we distributed expired food to the homeless again today,
Michael quietly approached after noticing my dark expression.
I couldn't very well say I wasn't thinking about anything.
“Where are Rivera and Nova?”
“It seems the two of them went for a walk again today.”
“What kind of walk do they take every day….”
Wait, was taking a walk something people normally did every day?
Although Area 49 had poor public safety, I didn't think the two of them would get hurt.
After Nova had gone for a walk alone last time, Rivera seemed to have started accompanying her.
I was happy as long as the two of them got along.
Just then, a homeless man in shabby clothes stopped in front of Michael and me.
“Ugh….”
Michael naturally stepped forward.
“What is it?”
Anyone who lacked food could simply take some from the box themselves.
Since someone occasionally high on drugs caused a disturbance, Michael stared at the man warily.
“You look like a completely new face, so let me explain the rules here─.”
At that moment.
A strange heat appeared in the homeless man's eyes.
【Random encounter!】
Oh, for heaven's sake.
Right then, the hot sun that appeared from behind the clouds once every few hours made the blade thrust from the homeless man's clothes flash brightly.
I pulled Michael backward by the shoulder,
and caught the jackknife between my fingers without hesitation.
“Wow, nice knife.”
It didn't match his shabby clothes at all.
Had that yakuza organization called Haku… whatever finally sent an assassin after me?
But for an assassin sent by a yakuza organization, he was rather clumsy in several ways.
His appearance was no different from that of a genuine homeless man, too.
After I stopped the blade with two fingers, the homeless man gripped the handle with both hands and grunted,
and only after pulling back so hard that he nearly fell onto his rear did he manage to get the jackknife back in his hand.
Ah, it slipped.
I roughly wiped the oil from the blade on my pants and opened my mouth.
“So where did you come from, and what are you, swinging a knife at me without warning?”
His bloodshot eyes writhed as though they were looking at some other ‘thing’ instead of me.
He looked far more absorbed in something than the drug addicts commonly seen on the streets.
And then.
The man casually pressed the jackknife to his own neck.
Like a fanatic from an old news report.
“For our god and truth!!”
A stream of blood spurted out along with his resolute voice.
I wiped the blood from my cheek with the back of my hand and looked at Michael.
“What kind of situation is this?”
“…I will find out immediately.”
Now some weird cult had shown up to cause a scene too.
Fusionpunk or not, I should have just played Animal Crossing….
Today, of all days, I found myself missing the villagers.