Chapter 86
Paul Lucas began leisurely walking down the street, which had been dyed gray-white by the falling snow.
It was because he had parked his van in an alley right near the grocery store last time and drawn the suspicious gaze of a homeless man who had once been a corporate mercenary.
If rumors spread that someone from a corporation was secretly watching a grocery store, Paul Lucas would naturally be the one in trouble.
In the end, he had no choice but to move the van several blocks away.
If he had checked the information he received from the Web Spider even a little sooner, he would have taken precautions beforehand, but unfortunately, by the time Paul Lucas learned about “the corporate mercenary homeless man camping at the grocery store entrance like a lunatic despite the heavy snowfall,” it was already too late.
Paul Lucas let out a small sigh.
For some reason, he felt a tickle at the tip of his nose.
‘This happened earlier, too. I keep feeling like I’m going to sneeze.’
Paul Lucas manipulated his built-in temperature-control implant and drove the chill from his body.
That was the destination he eventually reached.
A grocery store with an 『Open』 sign─.
As usual, Paul Lucas entered the grocery store saying, “Ugh, it’s cold,” but then he noticed something and stopped short.
“…….”
It was a very crude notice, apparently scribbled roughly on the back of a flyer.
Paul Lucas slowly read the words aloud.
“…The staff member is currently away.”
A question mark appeared above his head.
His usually bright smile quickly hardened.
‘Then where am I supposed to buy my snacks…?’
For Paul Lucas, who came to the grocery store three times a day without fail to replenish his low blood sugar, it was truly a bolt from the blue.
“…Huh?”
However, the grocery store door was not locked.
When he entered the lit grocery store, he could feel warm air flowing out from inside.
‘The indoor heating is running, too.’
Paul Lucas looked around once.
There was no sign of a person anywhere, but apparently that did not mean the store was closed.
‘Unmanned operation….’
It was a rare arrangement in Risk City.
Unless the store was located in the well-policed center of the city, it was practically begging to be robbed.
Of course, for Paul Lucas, who had almost gone home empty-handed, it was excellent news.
Paul Lucas grabbed a huge amount of snacks and another huge amount of drinks, then walked to the counter.
Beep, beep─.
His gaze briefly shifted toward the warehouse behind the counter.
Unfortunately, the warehouse door was made of metal, making it difficult to detect any presence beyond it.
Unless he got a little closer, that was.
“Ah, where are the bags….”
He casually muttered to himself and slipped his head behind the counter.
At the same time.
[Dyu.]
A large turret descended from the ceiling with a rumble.
Paul Lucas had known for some time that multiple electronic signals could be detected inside the grocery store, so he looked up at the turret without panicking.
‘Well, even if the store is unmanned, clumsy scavengers won’t dare come near it like this.’
Paul Lucas looked at the turret’s red lens and asked in an indifferent tone,
“Where did your master go?”
Naturally, he received no answer.
Only a strange notification sound continued.
[Dyu.]
“Well, of course it wouldn’t answer. They wouldn’t install artificial intelligence in a turret like this.”
It seemed no one was in the store, so he had intended to take advantage of the opportunity and look around a little.
But this made things look rather difficult.
‘A military turret developed by Jolt Industry? External hacking would be difficult, too.’
He thought he understood why the security wall had been so sturdy.
Paul Lucas gathered the snacks and drinks he had finished paying for and continued looking behind the counter.
‘But why did they leave?’
He had been planning to sound them out about something else this time.
The thought briefly crossed his mind that they might be deliberately avoiding him.
“Hmm….”
[Dyu.]
Even after finishing his payment, he showed no sign of leaving, and a series of metallic clicks came from inside the turret guarding the grocery store.
Oh no.
Paul Lucas quickly left the grocery store before an unnecessary commotion broke out.
His footsteps were fairly light.
‘There isn’t even one person inside…. Who knew the atmosphere could feel this much lighter?’
It was astonishing.
All because of the presence of just one person.
(Of course, in reality, it was the presence of several people.)
Paul Lucas had only ever felt this sort of thing from megacorp chairmen, special agents sent by the city government, or members of the great families.
‘I should look into the Crosspell family, too.’
The Delta Team members were probably no longer in this world by now, likely dismembered limb by limb by bottom-feeding scavengers after the crash and sold on the black market, just as Paul Lucas had told them.
There was a reason he was moving so cautiously.
If a family from the city center was involved in this matter, it would be difficult to meddle carelessly.
‘Didn’t they say the eldest daughter of the Crosspell family was searching especially diligently for her younger sibling, the second child, who had run away from home?’
If things went well, the matter might be resolved more easily.
Most people in society wanted to coast through their assigned work somehow or other.
He was ultimately just another businessman.
Perhaps it was because he had become so caught up in that expectation.
Paul Lucas failed to notice until the end that one of the homeless men who appeared near the entrance every day had disappeared.
* * *
“…….”
“…….”
There’s a brown bear here.
The moment I saw that terrifying face, that was the only simplistic impression that came to mind.
After receiving the Winter Soldier serum from the grocery store’s owner─, Christine.
I had grown to nearly two meters tall, but the enormous lump standing before me was, at a glance, at least two handspans taller than I was.
That would make him roughly two meters and thirty centimeters…?
At least, it was obvious by this point that he was closer to a brown bear than a human.
Even though he was hunched over, his eyes were still far above mine.
Shaggy hair and beard, listless eyes.
As far as I remembered, he was one of the homeless men who had been around the grocery store for quite some time.
I hadn’t seen him around the vacant lot much lately. Hadn’t he returned to his homeland, the Soviet Union?
“This is Mikhail Romanov.”
“Ah, well….”
I didn’t know his name, so I simply nodded.
Michael showed no fear even in front of the brown bear─, no, Mikhail, who looked as though he could fold me over four times and swallow me.
Apparently, he was fairly accustomed to brown bears.
Because of the difference in their heights, Michael struggled to pat him on the shoulder before continuing in a calm tone,
“He apparently had severe chrome junkie symptoms from the beginning and kept to himself, but after Mr. Walter finished treating him recently, he’s almost back to normal.”
“Aha.”
The foundation of our grocery store had always been homeless people, after all.
So it wasn’t anything particularly strange.
Michael’s first encounter with me had been when he found me rolling around in a large garbage bin, too.
And this wasn’t even the first time that such unusual homeless people had come looking for me and offered to help.
‘A chrome junkie….’
I reflexively recalled Markus Vogel’s appearance last time.
But the Mikhail standing before me did not seem to be in such an unhinged state.
He was simply so taciturn that he left even his own introduction to someone else.
“So why is he here?”
“I asked around separately, and apparently he even used to be a corporate mercenary.”
“Huh?”
Well, there was no way someone that size was ordinary.
Even Markus Vogel, who had fallen to rock bottom while snorting narcotics, had once been a promising corporate mercenary.
I had managed to claim an easy victory in the end, but when I first met him at Black Square, the wall represented by a corporate mercenary had felt truly enormous.
As soon as I heard that, I checked the distance between Mikhail and me.
It was obvious that I wouldn’t stand a chance in a contest of strength.
Was flicking marbles the answer after all……?
“He apparently even used to take jobs from several megacorps as a freelancer, so I brought him along because I thought he could help with this matter.”
The fact that fighting was my first thought meant I had become completely steeped in this world, too.
I lightly shook my head to clear it, then quietly approached Michael and asked,
“…But wouldn’t it be worse if more people found out about this? Even if we are all part of the same homeless family─.”
Michael lowered his voice along with mine and muttered softly,
“…Well, even if you whisper like that, he’ll hear all of it. He was a corporate mercenary, after all.”
“Ah.”
I discreetly raised my head and checked on Mikhail.
But just as when I had first seen him, he merely wore a sullen, expressionless face.
Look at the size of those trapezius muscles.
I definitely shouldn’t try a back joke.
“And I wasn’t the one who called him…. He came to me first and offered to help.”
“Huh?”
“He said the atmosphere around here had been strange lately.”
“No, even so….”
Still, there were things I had to question.
I extended my thumb to the side and pointed at Mikhail.
“Why doesn’t he speak for himself? Is his MBTI an I?”
“MBT…, excuse me?”
Michael, flustered, cleared his throat briefly.
“Ah, he injured his throat badly and temporarily replaced his vocal-cord implant…. I heard his voice earlier, and I think I understand why he doesn’t want to speak in front of Hot Dog Man.”
“…Well, then, forget that.”
Even so, this was dangerous business related to a ‘megacorp.’
It was fine for Michael, Rivera, Nova, Cat, and the others to help me, since I knew exactly what sort of people they were.
But I did not want to drag another homeless person into this matter unnecessarily.
“I appreciate you offering to help, but this isn’t an ordinary matter, so……. Huh?”
As I continued speaking in a tone that suggested I was about to refuse,
Mikhail Romanov suddenly began moving forward with heavy, deliberate steps.
He was heading toward the place where I had hidden the weapons I stole from the megacorp truck.
‘…This should be his first time entering the warehouse.’
He seemed to understand with perfect accuracy what had caused this whole situation.
At the same time that a gun barrel sprang from Nova’s wrist, Rivera grabbed a sharp blade from somewhere I had no idea about.
“…No, wait.”
I stopped them to protect the warehouse.
We had to feed our homeless people, too.
And.
Another reason was that I detected no sign of anything that could be called ‘hostility’ from Mikhail Romanov.
He naturally opened the sealed box and
pulled something out as if he already knew what was inside.
The small box had the words ‘HE Grenade’ printed in large letters on it─.
“?”
Before I could say anything,
he dumped the egg-shaped remote-detonated high-explosive grenade straight into his mouth.
It was too large to swallow even for someone of his size, but he gulped it down in one bite, as if a brown bear had been reincarnated as a human.
Then he calmly handed me the switch.
It was a fairly shocking situation.
I muttered involuntarily,
“…What, is he another new kind of lunatic?”
“The craziest person here is probably…….”
When I looked at Michael, he fell silent again.
Anyway.
What could it mean for him to swallow a remotely controlled high-explosive grenade and then hand me its switch?
It was no different from entrusting me with the power over his life and death.
Entrusting the power over someone else’s life and death….
No, that wasn’t it.
“What if it detonates during digestion….”
Of course, it was far more likely that it wouldn’t be digested in the first place.
When I muttered that, Mikhail Romanov approached Michael and whispered something very softly.
He was even blocking the direction of his voice with a hand like a pot lid, so no matter how good my hearing was, it was difficult to overhear him.
Soon, Michael relayed the message to me.
“He says he has an internal combustion implant, so he’ll be fine for a few days.”
“And after those few days?”
More whispering.
“He says he’ll swallow another one….”
“Damn it, forget it.”
Is this some Mad Max universe?
Of course, I had heard that similar wastelands appeared if you went outside Risk City.
I had no intention of treating Mikhail that way.
At any rate, I understood his resolve perfectly well.
‘Good grief….’
Well, if they were normal people, they wouldn’t have come down to District 49 and become homeless.
I let out a deep sigh at the fact that there were so many lunatics at the grocery store besides me.
Then I narrowed my eyes and glared sharply at Mikhail Romanov.
“How did you know where the weapons were?”
“He says the smell of gunpowder is overwhelming only around that area, so you can tell at a glance.”
He wasn’t even an actual brown bear.
Were all corporate mercenaries just like this….
This time, I turned my head toward Michael.
“…So what exactly are we going to do?”
Pitting a megacorp against another megacorp.
Getting them to fight each other sounded easy when you put it that way.
“They aren’t idiots, either, so if they notice anything suspicious, they’ll suspect us immediately.”
In other words, we had to aim for a perfect crime.
“Can that really be done?”
“Even if it’s difficult, we have to make it work somehow. If we do nothing, Hot Dog Man is in danger of being caught just as he is.”
“…….”
That was true.
* * *
[The operation is flawless. Miss Nova will provide support from the rear, Miss Rivera will infiltrate and manipulate the data, and Mikhail and Hot Dog Man will leave the item in the warehouse.]
“Sounds good.”
It was somewhat lengthy, but still a simple enough operation to summarize in a single line.
Moreover, as long as no unexpected variables arose, there was no danger of anyone discovering us….
A truly near-perfect operation.
Perhaps that was why.
“…….”
“…….”
I rolled down the window because Mikhail’s enormous bulk in the passenger seat was making things cramped, only to
run into a familiar face in the driver’s seat of the truck on the other side.
“Uh……, so.”
His name was….
That’s right.
“Vance Kim?”
The complexion of the red-crested bartender I had encountered at the Hakugakumi Club turned deathly pale.