Life is a garbage game.
That was what Silver Wolf thought as she looked at the middleman in front of her, black suit, black shades.
Most middlemen on Scrap Mountain dressed like that, as if they’d been stamped out in batches on the same assembly line.
Even their expressions looked copy-pasted, forever wearing that smile that never reached the eyes.
“You have to prove you’re worth something first.
Then we hand out jobs.
Otherwise every stray in the sector would come around here looking for a piece.”
The brush-off in his tone was obvious.
He pushed his shades up and let his gaze sweep over Silver Wolf and Felutina.
LV.0.
A player with nothing to her name, plus a pretty girl who didn’t even own a cartridge, plus four or five teammates who existed purely in the imagination.
Silver Wolf had introduced her vast and formidable crew with a completely straight face, and the middleman clearly hadn’t bought a word of it.
She was still working out how to package herself a little better.
Felutina, standing beside her, had no such patience.
A rasp of steel!
A broken-bladed sword slid free, and a razor edge of pressure cut past the middleman’s flank.
He flinched and glanced sideways on reflex.
A shallow line had appeared in the smooth floor beside him.
His lips moved with nothing behind them.
Fine beads of sweat gathered on his forehead, and after a long hesitation, all he managed was a nod.
“Nice sword!”
“So can we take a job now?” Felutina asked, all smiles.
“Y-yes.
You can.”
He nodded hard, pulled out his portable data terminal, and swiped through it fast, hunting through the flood of listings.
He was only a Scrap Mountain middleman.
He had some muscle, but not much, and he hadn’t even been able to track that sword stroke.
One more swing and he’d be looking at a full life Remake.
Besides, his salary was what it was.
Why die for it?
“Just give us the hardest one you’ve got.”
Silver Wolf sounded thrilled, excitement bleeding through every word, silver eyes gleaming behind her visor.
This was one small step for Silver Wolf on Punklorde, and the opening frame of the legend of the Great Beloved αWolf!
Rake in a pile of cash first.
Then a big place to live, the top-tier console, the newest games, and a couch big enough and soft enough to sink into.
Don’t forget to buy Felutina a new sword.
Silver Wolf glanced at the ruined blade in Felutina’s hand and filed the reminder away.
A chunk of it was missing, the edge was nothing but notches, and it looked ready to shatter at any second.
Fighting with a thing like that was just embarrassing.
“Ah, well, that’s…”
The middleman looked troubled.
He glanced at Felutina.
That sword stroke had been genuinely terrifying.
He was certain she’d hidden her real level.
The strong hackers always kept their cards face-down.
Though Felutina didn’t look remotely like a hacker.
Felutina gave him a small nod.
This was Silver Wolf’s story, after all.
If she’d made it to the main plot line, she always found a way out of trouble.
And anyway, Felutina was here.
Years of sword training, a whole pile of miscellaneous skills picked up along the way.
The sky had cleared, the rain had stopped, and she was feeling capable again.
“Fine.”
The middleman nodded and, exactly as Silver Wolf wanted, pushed over the highest-tier job his clearance allowed.
“The Slag Gang punks have been getting bolder lately.
They actually had the nerve to reach into Scrap Mountain.
Go teach them some manners.”
Silver Wolf slipped on her holographic visor and tapped at empty air with slender fingers, reading the job title aloud to Felutina while she worked.
On Punklorde there was no difference between day and night, and no border between the virtual and the real.
Hackers believed, absolutely, that life was a game.
Put on a hacker’s visor and the whole of Punklorde compressed into a game of visualized data.
“Mm.
Not bad.”
She glanced at the payout and smiled, satisfied.
The reward was as hard to imagine as the risk.
“Let’s go, Felutina.”
She waved a hand and turned on her heel, too impatient to wait.
The ragged hem of her coat swung with the movement, showing the washed-out T-shirt underneath.
“Mm.”
Felutina answered and looked at the system screen only she could see.
The corners of her mouth lifted.
[Popularity Event unlocked.]
[αWolf Online is now live!
Join your companion and take the first step toward a legendary epic.
Clear the beginner village!]
[Quest: Reach LV.10 together with Silver Wolf]
[Quest Reward: Exclusive four-star Light Cone, “Our Game Life”]
The girl raised a hand, swept the screen aside, and quickened her steps to catch up with Silver Wolf.
“Silver Wolf, how many people are in the Slag Gang?”
“No idea.
The job description doesn’t say.”
“Are they strong?”
“Doesn’t say that either.”
“Isn’t the quest guidance a little bad?”
“Standard.
Life’s a garbage game.
It forces me into a high-difficulty start like ‘Wandering Orphan,’ hands me a starter cartridge, and makes me grind the EXP bar by hand.
Way too much grinding.
Would it kill the thing to let me have some fun?”
Silver Wolf ranted, indignant, then fell abruptly quiet once the words ran out.
She hadn’t talked this much before.
…Probably all Felutina’s fault, for turning a home that was supposed to be lonely into somewhere so noisy.
Silver Wolf said nothing more, and Felutina had the tact not to start a new subject.
They just walked slowly down the street, watching the buildings on either side grow shabbier and shabbier.
Silver Wolf stopped at the mouth of one street and raised an eyebrow slightly.
“We’re here.”
“So do we have a plan?”
“Yep.
Stealth, then blast everybody.”
Silver Wolf nodded with total gravity.
“Uh, when you say blast everybody, you mean…?” Felutina hesitated.
“I mean, splat, and they’re all handled.
You got a problem with it?
Don’t worry, every one of them has dozens of lives on his hands.
Textbook red-name players.”
Silver Wolf looked her over, rose on her toes, and patted Felutina’s shoulder with great consideration.
“If you really can’t stomach it, I can go in alone.
Seriously, don’t sweat it.
A game’s only fun if it’s hard.”
“…It’s fine.
Let’s move.”
Felutina shook her head.
What actually worried her was Silver Wolf.
“Nice.”
Silver Wolf bobbed her head, mouth curving up on its own.
She raised her right hand and closed it around nothing, and a hand cannon with heavy cyberpunk styling materialized along her forearm.
“Let’s make this exciting!”
A ball of light gathered at the muzzle, condensed into a shell, and slammed into the front gate of the Slag Gang’s hideout.
The blast tore the already-flimsy gate off its frame and sent it spinning through the air.
Silver Wolf strode forward into the smoke, swaggering.
“…Wasn’t the plan stealth?”
Felutina blinked, and the complaint slipped out anyway.
“If we take out everyone who sees us, that counts as stealth!”
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