BEEP— BEEP— BEEP—
Only a sound resembling a hospital's vital-sign monitor echoed through the silence. Lara did not particularly dislike the quiet. She was not fond of social interaction to begin with, and there was also the naturally reclusive disposition unique to elves.
BEEEEEP—
The moment the input device fell silent after the final beep, Lara disconnected the citizenship card and held it out to Evan.
“Done.”
Evan accepted the citizenship card.
The Blank Citizenship Card, which had previously displayed nothing but empty space and intermittent bursts of static, now showed Evan's personal information—or more precisely, his fabricated personal information.
【Citizen Registration Card】
Name: Alan Arcan
Citizen Registration Number: 9286-1047772
Citizen Grade: C
《Approved by Floor City Hall》
Evan took out the citizenship card belonging to the low-ranking Vertex Corporation employee who had been the first victim in Asle and compared the two. Even to the naked eye, there was no trace of forgery.
“You don't need to worry. It doesn't matter whether you trust me, mage. You only need to trust that thing.”
“You're mistaken. I'm not worried about getting caught using a forgery.”
“Then what?”
Lara had been focused on her monitor while organizing some other work for Evan, but her gaze shifted toward him. Her large eyes blinked with a hint of concern.
“What kind of name is this?”
“What? What's wrong with that name? Do you know how much thought I put into it before you got here? Do I need to lecture you on Innocent's philosophy again?”
“Do I really need to explain what's strange about it?”
“You think this is strange?”
Evan stared into those yellow eyes. From the emotion contained within them, he sensed innocence.
“What?”
Naturally, he meant that in a bad way.
“This is why elves…….”
“Racism out of nowhere?”
He still truly disliked it even after looking at it again, but he tucked it into his inner pocket without further complaint. Lara looked deeply betrayed by the unfavorable review and rating.
“IthoughtaboutthatnameforsolongandIdidn'tevenchargeyouisn'ttheleastyoucoulddojustacceptitwithoutcomplainingseriouslythisisunbelievable…….”
Lara continued spewing an endless stream of words even as she turned back to the monitor to finish her work. Evan spoke to cut her off.
“More importantly, there's one more commission I want to give you…….”
“100,000.”
“…….”
“I don't know what it is yet, but I'm charging another 100,000 credits or more.”
“Find the shop that sells the best hot dogs in Asle.”
“Now that's a challenging request. About 1.2 million should be enough.”
“Do big ears always come with narrow minds? No, that was a joke.”
When Lara genuinely began glaring daggers at him, Evan decided that provoking her any further would be unwise. He stopped amusing himself and got to the point.
Lara stared at the golden chip held between Evan's fingers.
“What's that? A Skill Chip? It looks incredibly expensive. Is it loot from this job?”
“Just check whether there's a virus inside.”
“You're the first person I've met who worries about viruses in a Skill Chip. You must really care about your health. That's very mage-like of you.”
Lara took the chip from Evan and inserted it into a computer slot.
“I'll send the money now, so…….”
“A laundry that charges for a couple of stitches goes out of business. I'm not that narrow-minded. For someone with such big ears, anyway.”
Lara glanced sideways at Evan as she spoke. When a hint of awkwardness seemed to appear beneath his expressionless face, her expression softened and she snickered.
“I'm joking. It's a Skill Chip for mages?”
“Can you see what's inside it?”
“Let's see…… Huh?”
Lara's yellow pupils widened.
“My god…… How much is this thing worth?”
Dizzying strings of characters flowed across the monitor. From within what appeared to be a random stream, Lara extracted meaning.
“The effect is a bit…… outrageous.”
“Is it some kind of self-destruct device? There are people who walk around with things like that installed in their heads.”
“Too bad. It isn't anything that entertaining. It's the type that gets installed into your system. To put it simply, it's a buff that makes you perceive time as moving more slowly. Have you ever played games? It'd be easier to understand if you had.”
Time slowed down.
It was easy to understand what that meant.
“To be precise, it overloads the nervous system and receptors, accelerating the user's perception. Mages usually go looking for things like this. Being able to take one extra turn in an exchange of moves is a decisive advantage. Of course, not just anyone can use it. It's a skill only the tougher ones can handle.”
“What are the side effects?”
“You might black out for a while, or your system might reboot. In more serious cases, the system OS could become completely corrupted. It shortens your lifespan, dries out your skin, thins your hair…….”
“I should sell it immediately.”
Lara burst into a peal of laughter.
“I'm joking. I wasn't lying, but none of that applies to you. Hannibal told me everything.”
Lara tapped her temple with one finger.
“You've got Mind Defender High-End V2 inside your head, don't you? With something that powerful, the problems caused by most system-load skills shouldn't amount to more than minor inconveniences. Here, catch.”
Evan caught the chip Lara lightly tossed toward him.
“No viruses and no adware. You don't need to worry about your vision being covered in advertising pop-ups or porn suddenly playing during a date.”
Evan nodded and stared at the chip for a moment.
‘A skill that slows down time.’
It was simple and powerful. Even in the game, it had been close to an ultimate skill acquired during the later stages.
He had obtained a skill of that caliber this early.
Moreover, he could use it immediately. It was not merely a painted rice cake forever beyond his reach. He had never expected that spending nearly his entire fortune on a high-end system would pay off like this.
In any case, a good thing was a good thing. Evan pocketed the chip and the citizenship card.
“And this.”
The final thing Lara held out was the first commission Evan had entrusted to her.
“The Golden Cross data. I finally decrypted it. Seriously, I took a loss on this job. I should've charged ten times more. Believe it or not, I didn't check the contents, so don't worry. I'm not particularly interested in whatever kind of fetish you have.”
Lara looked at Evan with the corners of her mouth slightly raised.
“That's everything you needed to do here. You're going to the city now, right?”
Evan nodded.
“How are you planning to deal with the gate inspection? They'll confiscate all your weapons first.”
He was already aware of that problem.
The gate inspection did not permit unauthorized weapons.
Of course, that was not the real issue.
“Slipping a few credits into the pockets of the bastards collecting money there won't be enough. Go back and forth a couple of times and you'll go bankrupt.”
What the inspection officers fundamentally wanted was not order, but a show of sincerity deposited into their pockets.
The degree of that sincerity determined whether something was considered an authorized weapon, merchandise, or drugs.
Evan had an even greater problem.
「Hey, you black mage bastard. Are we really going to the city? I've never been to a human city before. I've heard the slum bastards talk about it a lot, though.」
Taking the rodent currently chattering excitedly from inside his cloak could also be considered a problem.
Of course, this creature was a Familiar before it was a rodent, so he could probably work something out…… but Evan did not want any troublesome incidents.
Moreover, passing through once would not be the end of it.
He intended to travel back and forth to Asle repeatedly. As Lara had said, after only a couple of round trips, he would go bankrupt even if he survived on nothing but one hot dog a day.
“What are you going to do?”
Without speaking, Evan held up the data chip Lara had just handed him.
Lara looked at it and fell into thought for a moment before smiling.
“You said that contains data on the routes the gangs use to sell their ‘tonics,’ right? Some of those routes pass through the city?”
Evan nodded.
“Drugs aren't the only things that can be distributed illegally.”
“I suppose a few body parts travel along those routes occasionally. Sometimes, those body parts might make up an entire person.”
Lara cackled after making the rather chilling joke.
“I'll contact you the next time I have business here.”
“You think a bastard who's about to get high on the city will come back to Asle? I'd sooner believe you're a woman dressed as a man. Don't come back.”
Evan smiled faintly before leaving Lara's basement.
***
Asle District C.
It was the most wretched place in Asle, a settlement made from garbage, but people still lived there.
Wherever people lived, they needed hope in some form. One of the places that served as a symbol of that hope was the church.
Evan stood before the church doors for the second time and observed the building for a moment.
The traces of the previous battle still remained. The windows that had shattered then were still broken. The corpses had been removed, but bloodstains that had not been completely cleaned away remained on the rusted iron doors.
「I didn't think we'd come back here.」
“Does it feel like coming home?”
「If I had to choose, it feels more like returning to prison.」
While the hamster grumbled, the church's main doors creaked open.
A slightly potbellied middle-aged man greeted Evan with a benevolent expression.
“You are someone I have not seen before. Are you a new brother?”
His clothes were worn, but they were unmistakably clerical garments.
Evan had heard that after he became the Savior of the Church, this church had finally resumed its proper role.
The sight of two figures dressed in black facing each other created a strangely peculiar scene. Evan quietly studied the priest, smiled faintly, and pulled the hood of his cloak over his head.
“Uh, brother?”
The priest became flustered. It was not merely because Evan strode boldly into the church.
SKRRRRR—
A massive sledgehammer dragged across the floor, filling the church with a skin-crawling noise.
It was held in Evan's left hand—a metal hand gleaming with an ominous black sheen.
Evan stood before the altar and raised the hammer.
“Brother? No, brother! What are you doing……?!”
THUD!
The ground caved in.
Even accounting for the additional strength provided by the exoskeleton suit, the floor gave way far too easily beneath a single hammer blow.
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
And when the floor finally collapsed, what appeared beneath it was…….
A bag filled with white powder.
A mine cart packed with those bags.
And a railway that appeared to lead into a mine from the distant past.
“Whew……. Asle is still Asle. Isn't that right?”
Evan steadied his breathing and sneered at the priest.
“If I start talking about this, you'll be in trouble too, won't you? That makes us friends now. Do I need to explain what I mean?”
The man in the priestly garments shook his head, his face deathly pale.
No matter how much the church served as salvation for the poor, Asle was still Asle, and cyberpunk was still fucking cyberpunk.
Evan jumped down.
The remnants of this abandoned mine formed a safe path leading into the city—a route that was now guaranteed to remain open for Evan.