Chapter 92
Inside the old van Paul Lucas had bought with his own money to carry out his mission.
Inside it, he belatedly realized that the situation was taking a strange turn.
‘...The unidentified cargo Beltech had lost was in our logistics center?’
He was suspicious of the cargo being discovered in a place completely unrelated to his expectations.
It would have been one thing if it had been found in some suspicious grocery store warehouse.
But it had to be inside a logistics center managed by the Ryan Eliens Company….
“Phew….”
After letting out a deep sigh, Paul Lucas picked up the mechanical keyboard resting on the seat.
Paul Lucas’s publicly known official identity was that of a senior manager in the External Relations Department of Beltech International Solutions.
And not just any employee—a very capable one at that.
Therefore, he could not casually contact his actual employer, the Ryan Eliens Company.
He might lose all the trust and status he had gained through such a precarious balancing act.
But.
No matter how cautious Paul Lucas was, it was difficult to hold back from writing a report in a situation like this.
‘...The date for my regular report is still a long way off, but….’
Paul Lucas moved so urgently that he was willing to disregard that procedure entirely.
He booted up his terminal and quickly attempted to access Ryan Company’s secret internal communications network.
And then.
[ Connection error. ]
[ Reason: No authorization ]
Reading the warning that appeared on the screen, Paul Lucas muttered a low curse.
“Damn….”
Apparently, he was already one step too late.
What did this situation mean?
It meant that the connection between Paul Lucas and Ryan Company had been completely severed.
…Vroom.
A small engine rumbled outside the van.
Paul Lucas congratulated himself for leaving the van running to keep his other electronic devices warm.
Androids had a desire to survive, too.
They possessed the intelligence, will, and heart to do so.
He reflexively shifted gears, then slammed his foot down on the van’s accelerator.
Screeech!!
The wheels buried in the snow spun violently.
At the same time, when he drew back the blackout curtains covering the windows, riders on motorcycles appeared in the rearview mirror.
Along with the machine guns they were carrying, of course.
Rat-a-tat-tat─!!
* * *
Waking up to gunshots instead of birdsong announcing the morning had become fairly familiar by now.
Even in modern society, they said that gunshots rang out frequently in places like Harlem in the United States because of simple disputes, robberies, or gang activity.
I had spent my entire life in peaceful Korea, where I could walk around without worry even at night, so I had never expected to become this accustomed to the sound of gunfire.
“Assault rifle—no, a submachine gun….”
Just as a famous sommelier could identify a wine variety with the tip of his tongue, I had reached the point where I could estimate a gun’s type simply by listening to the sound of gunfire in the streets.
“Yaaawn.”
I let out a modest yawn.
Then I slumped over the counter and enjoyed my peaceful daily routine.
The grocery store had been quiet for as long as I could remember, since I never put on music.
But today, the inside of the store felt unusually quiet.
I knew the reason.
‘...Now that there aren’t any customers again, I’m bored.’
The absence of the regular customer who faithfully came to the grocery store three times a day.
When he had kept coming in and out, just seeing his smiling face had made me feel as though I were developing a hole in my stomach, but now that he had truly disappeared, I felt just a tiny bit disappointed.
Nova had told me that he had even come by as a customer while I was away briefly causing trouble.
[Dyu.]
“Yeah, yeah, Dyu-Dyu.”
[…Dyu?]
If that was the case, what did that make me, after I had returned from the logistics center and filled the empty shelves without even sleeping?
Well, come to think of it, Paul Lucas had originally been staying in Area 49 under the pretext of searching for the missing goods of a megacorp.
And once the cargo had been found at a logistics center managed by Ryan Company, it must have become difficult for him to keep slacking off on company time.
I probably wouldn’t see him at the grocery store again.
I felt rather bittersweet about it.
After all, he was a customer whose face I had seen often.
‘He could at least have said goodbye before leaving….’
I found myself thinking that.
Anyway.
Still slumped lazily over the counter, I pressed the terminal’s button to turn on the screen.
The Cyberweb news page continued posting articles about how the city was in great turmoil because of the full-scale war between the two companies.
They said several buildings had already collapsed, and the situation had gotten so bad that the city government had even issued a separate official statement saying, ‘What the hell are you two fighting over….’
People are the kind of creatures who can fight over a single glass of water sitting on a table.
That was why passionate debates on the subject continued no matter where I looked on the Cyberweb.
Except for one place completely out of step with the city’s atmosphere.
───────────────
【Risk City, Area 49, Temporary Bulletin Board】
───────────────
Title : FUCK FUCK FUCK, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO FIGHT ON THE DAY MY PACKAGE WAS SUPPOSED TO ARRIVE, FUCK
(Photo of Cyberweb shipping record)
What the fuck do they mean, lost because of bombardment?
─ LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
─ I knew this would happen, so I ordered it by drone lol
└ (OP) Those fucking scavengers kept stealing it along the way;;
└ You chose Area 49...
───────────────
Title : BREAKING NEWS BREAKING FUCKING NEWS THE REASON THE TWO MEGACORPS STARTED A CORPORATE WAR AGAIN!!!!!
Hawawa...
It’s because of adorable little me….
─ I clicked the wrong post by accident, but I really squeezed my eyes shut in case there was a shitty image
└ (OP) I just saved your life
─ Fucking... ugh
└ (OP) ???
───────────────
Title : But seriously, why are they fighting?
I was about to go to sleep, sucking down the Neo Jelly Jelly that had been delivered while browsing the latest gossip.
Why are they really fighting??
Didn’t they destroy several buildings and call a truce last time, too?
─ What time is it that you’re going to bed already
└ (OP) 23:00 by my standards lol
─ No official reason has been announced yet
That’s why the speculation keeps rolling
└ (OP) Ohh
───────────────
The bulletin board was overflowing with all kinds of conspiracy theories, but there was no speculation that came close to the truth.
Well, who could have expected it?
That the reason the corporate war between the megacorps had begun was the manager of some grocery store─.
At that moment.
【A special random encounter has occurred!】
A loud, bright female voice I hadn’t heard in what felt like ages struck my ears.
It was not particularly welcome news to me.
Whenever I heard that crazy woman’s voice while sitting at the grocery store counter, nine times out of ten, the same misfortune followed.
So my body moved first.
Beyond the glass doors at the entrance, I saw a shabby van weaving along at full speed, as though it had gotten completely plastered.
“Shit.”
Whether the brakes had failed or the driver simply had no intention of stepping on them.
The result was much the same either way.
I tried to open the door and get outside as quickly as possible, but the fact that the door was made of glass was a problem.
If I rushed out too quickly, my body might break the glass door from the opposite side.
But the two-ton van with its broken steering had already nearly reached the front of the grocery store.
“...No.”
I muttered without realizing it.
The van was simply moving faster than I was.
For a moment, the sight of the grocery store shattering into pieces flashed through my mind.
Goodbye, electronic clock….
Take care, shelves.
Bye-bye, my beautiful floor….
And then.
A massive brown bear burst out of a snow-covered alley and stopped the van with his bare body.
KABOOM!!
It was a sound difficult to believe had come from a collision between a person and a vehicle.
When he slammed his enormous fist down onto the van’s hood, the rear of the vehicle rose high into the air before crashing back down, just like a scene from a superhero movie.
“Damn it, Mikhail…. I knew I could count on you!!”
At last, the smoking vehicle came to a stop.
The vehicle had not looked to be in very good condition even before Mikhail struck it.
Not only was the windshield shattered, but oil also seemed to be leaking steadily from beneath it.
“What the hell, what’s going on??”
“Is it an attack?”
“Things have been pretty boring lately with fewer people breaking in. What perfect timing.”
As a commotion broke out at the grocery store entrance, the kids Rivera looked after poked their heads out from the rooftops of nearby buildings and other places.
Why are they over there again?
Judging by what they were saying, they seemed to have been playing soldiers or something.
“Hey, it’s dangerous, so everyone get inside!”
“...Gasp! It’s the boss’s boyfriend!!”
“Come to think of it, she said it was a secret….”
When I waved my hand roughly, the children’s heads disappeared behind the rooftops again.
I slowly approached the van, intending to see the face of the lunatic who had gone on a rampage in the street in broad daylight.
But before I could, several engine noises came from along the snowy road the van had driven down.
Vroooom!!
They were motorcycles with remarkably slender frames.
Their sleek bodies seemed to pursue functionality to such an extreme that they looked like toys at first glance.
However, the appearance of the people riding those motorcycles was extremely strange.
“Holy….”
I found myself calling out to a god I didn’t even believe in.
The parts from above their noses to the tops of their heads had been completely cut away.
The mechanical cross-sections were incredibly grotesque.
But it did not look as though ninjas had appeared and sliced off their heads; they seemed to have been made that way from the beginning.
Mikhail, who had naturally taken his place beside me, narrowed his eyes.
The deeply furrowed bridge of his nose was an added bonus.
He seemed to know the identity of those bizarre-looking androids, but just as he was about to speak, he closed his mouth again.
At least I wouldn’t have to grab the driver by the collar.
I thought I understood why the van had been driven so recklessly.
So there was no need to get involved in anything strange again. All I had to do was hand the van’s driver over to them, and everything would be resolved….
Just then, the van’s door opened, and a familiar man in a suit collapsed out of it.
“Paul Lucas?”
At my mutter, he murmured in a low voice.
“...Are you still open?”
He really was that devoted to our grocery store.
He could have at least shaken off his tail before coming here.
His entire body was covered in blood.
‘...Black blood?’
At the same time, the smell of electrolyte fluid, mixed with a vicious burnt odor unlike blood, filled the area.
Apparently, as befitted a megacorp team leader, he had undergone extensive bodily modifications.
I looked down at him and quietly considered the situation.
< Preparing to fight those strange, terrifying-looking people vs. protecting the grocery store’s one and only regular customer >
The deliberation was brief.
The answer had been decided from the start.
When I advanced with the appearance of protecting Paul Lucas, the faceless androids looked at one another.
[…….]
[…….]
A sharp ringing, like a high-frequency tone, flowed from their mouths.
Were they communicating through an internal channel?
And soon after.
Vroooom!!
They turned around and headed back the way they had come.
“...Huh?”
I had naturally expected a huge fight to break out, so I hadn’t anticipated that they would withdraw so obediently.
It wasn’t a bad outcome from our perspective, but….
They certainly did not look like ordinary scavengers who lived in this neighborhood.
“Good grief, what kind of weirdos is this Beltech team leader being chased by….”
The sight of him was so pitiful that I naturally slipped into informal speech.
No, rather, was he being chased by such weirdos precisely because he was a team leader at Beltech?
I leisurely scratched my head and looked at Mikhail again.
“Should we move him inside for now?”
Mikhail looked down at the fallen Paul Lucas with inscrutable eyes, then slowly nodded.
·
·
·
“...So you’re saying they were a mobile special operations unit from the Ryan Eliens Company?”
“To be precise, they belonged to the Risk Management Department….”
When I shot him a sharp glare, Paul Lucas stopped what he was saying and answered quietly.
“...Yes.”
Since he had spoken honestly, I had no choice but to be honest as well.
I pointed outside with a bright smile.
“Get out.”
* * *
Meanwhile, the personnel of the Ryan Eliens Company’s mobile special operations unit─.
[Why did you suggest retreating in that situation?]
[That was the correct judgment in that situation. We were completely surrounded by enemies whose identities we couldn’t even determine, including how many of them there were. I heard there was a gang operating a ninja unit in Area 49. It seems that rumor was true.]
[Confirmed. Then we should call in reinforcements to carry out the objective.]
The location had already been identified, in any case.
He answered while recalling the grocery store building.
[Agreed.]