Chapter 79
As I’ve already mentioned several times, Black Square’s layout is quite complicated and bizarre.
Therefore, to reach the innermost part of Black Square, we couldn’t simply travel on foot; we had to use a strange mode of transportation that looked something like a cable car.
Clunk.
The cable car was not particularly large.
There was me, Gio, Cat, and an unnamed female member of the Black Star Society.
When all four of us boarded the cable car, the small cabin began to move slowly.
Whirrr….
The higher the cable car rose, the various neon signs displaying all kinds of phrases outside the window gradually disappeared from view.
The scenery of the streets slowly changing.
It didn’t take long for the view of Black Square below the cable car to change from the back alleys of an exotic night market into a well-maintained tourist attraction.
Although the change was quite fascinating, honestly, the night market had been much more interesting to look at.
Eventually losing interest in the scenery, I took my eyes off the window and turned my attention to the other people inside the cable car.
“Wow, wow, wow….”
Beside Gio, who looked as though he wouldn’t notice even if a huge bug crawled into his mouth.
“……”
“……”
The cyber ninja and the Black Star Society member sitting shoulder to shoulder were engaged in a strange battle of nerves.
Why did the atmosphere feel like that of a Western gunslinger standoff?
It was probably because Cat kept trying to grab the hilt of the katana.
‘Good grief.’
Since it seemed difficult to make conversation, I had no choice but to reach into my pocket for my terminal─.
“…!!”
Flinch!
The Black Star Society member’s shoulders shook violently.
The moment my hand went into my pocket, the Black Star Society member’s face began to turn deathly pale.
She looked so anxious that her pupils seemed to multiply.
The direction of her gaze was far too blatant for me to casually think, ‘Hmm, I suppose she’s afraid of heights….’
Slowly, calmly.
I took the ‘terminal’ out of my pocket.
…Gulp.
Did she think I was going to pull out a pistol or something?
Just how far had the infamous ‘Hot Dog Man’ spread for her to react like that?
I let out a silent sigh.
…Could this tense atmosphere be because of me, rather than the cyber ninja?
Still, that couldn’t be it. Probably.
In any case, if I smiled brightly now to tell her not to feel awkward, I might only make the atmosphere twice as awkward.
I simply tapped away at the terminal’s screen, intending to kill some time.
‘No, but how has this gotten so slow already? It hasn’t been that long since I bought it.’
Had some strange malware been installed on it?
But there weren’t even many apps I had downloaded separately….
My terminal was even emitting heat like a hot pack.
This must be why people preferred smart chips over outdated terminals.
But as the saying goes, “The body, hair, and skin are gifts from one’s parents”─ (the rest omitted).
Since I had no intention of implanting a machine in my head, I patiently stared down at the lagging terminal screen.
[🙄]
Come to think of it, this emoji is still showing up.
A symbol representing the emotions of the artificial intelligence connected to the terminal in the form of an emoji.
Its shape was roughly that of a side-eye….
Perhaps Nova at the grocery store was trying to find out where I had disappeared to.
I snickered at the emoji’s state, searched for the ‘Black Star Society’ on the cyber web, and continued waiting.
And then.
“You’ve all arrived.”
“Ah.”
I resolved to tell Walter to replace my terminal as soon as I returned to the grocery store.
[😓]
* * *
Following the Black Star Society member’s guidance, we arrived at a gigantic mansion built in a Chinese style.
Everywhere I looked was covered in red, making it easy to guess the owner’s tastes.
Before long, we reached a long corridor.
The member gently blocked Cat and Gio’s path.
“I’m sorry, but the Mountain Lord wishes to meet Hot Dog Man alone. I apologize, but could you proceed alone from here?”
“…You insolent wretch!”
Cat was the first to explode in anger at the request.
An emoji with a sharp expression appeared across Cat’s visor.
“We have yet to even hear why you summoned our leader…, Hot Dog Man, here! There is a limit to being discourteous!”
“…I swear on the name of the Black Star Society that we did not invite Hot Dog Man with any intention of causing him harm. Please understand with a generous heart.”
“Words are cheap. With raindrops becoming the Sanzu River, how can I send Hot Dog Man alone……”
“Enough.”
I cut off their conversation midway.
We had already come all the way here, anyway.
There was nothing to gain from making a commotion.
Then I pointed toward Gio and added,
“Take care of the kid while I’m gone.”
“…As you command.”
After patting Gio’s head once,
I began walking along the corridor, where a red carpet had been laid out at length.
Soft string music echoed from somewhere, giving the surroundings a rather solemn atmosphere.
‘The Black Star Society’s Mountain Lord….’
Perhaps thanks to my experience knocking down the Hakugakumi squad leader with my bare hands.
Compared to when I first met Luciana, the boss of the Sparo Rapido Family, I wasn’t particularly nervous.
Of course, it could also have been thanks to the 【Mind of Steel】 trait.
“……”
No.
Come to think of it, even now, meeting the boss of a mafia family still felt a little frightening.
What was the difference?
While I was thinking about the reason on my own,
a massive door appeared at the end of the corridor before I knew it.
‘I should knock first, right?’
Since there was no intercom in sight, I raised the back of my hand to knock on the door.
Just then, a gentle woman’s voice seeped through the slightly open gap in the door.
“You may come in.”
The door opened before I could answer.
At the same time, a thick floral scent burst out in every direction.
The scent was stronger than heavy perfume and more intense than living flowers, making me frown hard without realizing it.
‘…Ugh.’
It was difficult to describe, but if I had to force a comparison, it was like having a ‘rotting flower’ held right beneath my nose.
Therefore.
I instinctively covered my mouth.
“I merely wish for the two of us to have a conversation……”
“Urk.”
“?”
“Fuck.”
What was this smell?
Even Michael, who had lived inside a large trash bin until recently, would smell fresher than this.
“…Why are you doing that?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I took a calm, deep breath to clear my head…, urk.
This went beyond having unusual tastes.
‘Should I just go back?’
I seriously considered it, but.
In the end, I had no choice but to force my reluctant feet forward.
Pshhh….
Ugh, that smell….
Mixed in with the heavy floral fragrance,
there seemed to be the nauseating smell of sweat, the fishy scent of night-blooming flowers, and even the faintest trace of blood.
‘What the hell did she do in here….’
For now, my first-impression score was close to negative.
Anyway.
The inside of the room was extremely spacious and also dark.
At first, I thought it was because the ceiling was so high, but upon closer inspection, there were simply very few lights.
Large and small monitors filled the walls, and the bundles of wires connected to them ran toward a pile of cushions in the center of the room.
A frail woman who seemed completely out of place with the atmosphere stared intently at me from a bed made of soft cushions.
She seemed quite flustered by the profanity that had slipped from my mouth, but she did not appear to have lost her composure.
“Welcome…. I would like to say that I’m truly grateful you accepted my invitation.”
Objectively speaking, she was quite a beautiful woman.
Unlike the Western beauties one could see around the grocery store, she was closer to an Eastern beauty.
The darkness of the surroundings made her snow-white skin stand out even more.
The woman, presumably the Mountain Lord of the Black Star Society, covered her lips with a shy, youthful gesture.
“And this may be a little embarrassing to say, but you have such a unique nickname that I, a young lady, have been keeping an eye on Hot Dog Man for quite a long time.”
Her flowing clothes slipped down.
Her pale, soft skin was subtly visible through the translucent fabric.
“Please come closer. There’s no need for you to stand so far away.”
An overt seduction.
But the smell alone was so vile that it made my head spin.
Objectively, this wasn’t a bad fragrance.
For some reason, however, it felt extremely unpleasant.
Still, I needed to find out why she had called me here, so just as I was about to force my heavy feet forward.
Whirrr….
The terminal in my pocket vibrated faintly.
Earlier, it had frozen every time I tried to search something and infuriated me, but now it was working perfectly again.
Looking at a terminal in front of someone was quite a rude thing to do, but I unconsciously pulled it out.
It was a kind of intuition.
There was.
───────────────
Title: ㅡㅡ
Ten steps back.
───────────────
A message with simple content had arrived.
When my expression stiffened, a strange curiosity appeared on the Black Star Society Mountain Lord’s face.
“Why are you…….”
Her words did not continue to the end.
The Black Star Society Mountain Lord, having noticed something strange, turned her head toward the building’s exterior wall.
After checking the sender of the message, I had already stepped backward.
KABOOM!!
A shockwave burst out.
A long shadow slowly emerged through the hole that had been blown open.
A blonde woman appeared, stepping over the collapsed debris.
Unlike usual, the mafia boss wore an expression that suggested she was in a foul mood.
That made her even more frightening.
I wasn’t the only one startled by her sudden appearance; the Black Star Society’s Mountain Lord wore a flustered expression and could not hide her shock.
“Y-you, what are you doing here?”
Luciana calmly dusted off her hands.
A large number of mafia members in suits could be seen climbing down from a tactical helicopter.
“Indeed. I suppose someone got angry because a certain person had an awfully presumptuous thought?”
The sound of footsteps rang out clearly through the heavy silence.
“I know the collapse of Hakugakumi has left your head spinning….”
“Th-there seems to be some misunderstanding….”
Even if they were all part of the same three major organizations, perhaps there was a difference in scale that I didn’t know about.
The Black Star Society Mountain Lord’s answer was extremely composed.
That did not stop Luciana’s actions, however.
“A misunderstanding?”
She tilted her head to the side as she spoke.
“A mistake, surely.”
BANG!!
She did not hesitate even for a moment before the gunshot rang out.
Enough to startle even me, who was watching from beside her.
I asked Luciana with a dumbfounded expression in the sudden situation.
“…This is really okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. This isn’t even her real body. The real one is probably hiding somewhere farther inside.”
No, what the fuck.
That bastard?
Only then did I manage to inspect the condition of the Mountain Lord—or rather, the android that had been the Mountain Lord—which lay collapsed with a hole in its forehead.
Black electrolyte flowed downward.
But Luciana still seemed angry, gnashing her teeth repeatedly.
“Hakugakumi and the Black Star Society…. Ha. They’re all experts at scurrying away like rats. I especially left the Black Star Society alone because they seemed impossible to catch unless I blew up all of Black Square….”
Something like an ember glowed faintly in her red eyes.
“…But after this, it’ll be hard for me to let it slide.”
I instinctively realized that Luciana was seriously considering cleaning out the Black Star Society, even if it meant accepting casualties among the citizens of Zone 49.
For Gio’s sake, since he lived in Black Square, it seemed best to change the atmosphere quickly.
·
·
·
“Hey.”
Before that, I wanted to ask about the thing I was curious about.
“Hmm?”
“But how did you know about this place and come here….”
Her speed had been completely absurd.
Even if I assumed she somehow knew that I had arrived in Black Square,
only a few dozen minutes at most had passed between the Mountain Lord of the Black Star Society inviting me and my arrival here.
Luciana narrowed her eyes and stared at me.
There was a hint of playfulness in her gaze.
“Who knows?”
No way.
“Did you hack my terminal….”
“You certainly have a vivid imagination.”
Fortunately, that did not seem to be the case.
Then the reason my terminal had slowed down really was simply its hardware specifications.
“I don’t monitor my family members separately. Unless I happened to see it ‘by chance.’”
“I suppose you wouldn’t─.”
…Wait a minute.
Family?
When exactly had I become a member of the mafia family?
“At most, I might check the city’s surveillance cameras or determine your location via satellite….”
“Huh?”
“I’m joking.”
A bead of sweat ran down the back of my neck.
Was it because she was a mafia boss?
Even her jokes were terrifying.
“Hahaha.”
“Hehe….”
…That was a joke, right?
I could only hope it was.
* * *
“By the way, why did you come here?”
“I wanted to replace one of my subordinate’s implants….”
“Hmm, sounds good. Shall we look around together?”
“……”
“Answer.”
“…I-I’d love to.”