【To Do: Retrieve the Church’s Symbol.】
【Completed】
After checking off the completed task, Evan organized what he needed to do next.
【Things to Remember:
□ [Added] Ask Around for a MedTech
□ [Added] Find a Netrunner (Sam will report back)
□ Find Yender’s Amulet and Return Home】
There were two tasks before him.
He decided not to concern himself with finding a MedTech immediately.
That meant finding a netrunner was the important one.
His original goal was to decrypt the contents of the Golden Cross’s data chip and, while he was at it, hack the corporate man’s laptop so he could access the city’s internet.
‘It’ll probably be easier to find information about the amulet on the city’s internet.’
Evan closed the note software and checked his wallet balance.
【Wallet Balance: 524,000c】
While playing the game, he had never paid much attention to the amount itself.
Money had accumulated naturally as he played.
But now that his survival depended on it, things were different. His food, clothing, and shelter all depended directly on this number.
It was not yet enough to accomplish anything significant, but it could sustain his immediate needs.
That gave Evan a small measure of relief.
‘I should rest for a while.’
At the very least, he could afford to relax until Sam returned with information.
Since he was already out, it would be better to have a drink than to return to his lodging immediately.
“One glass of vodka, cut half with water.”
Stella brought over a glass and poured his drink.
Then she leaned her elbows on the bar and looked at Evan.
From Evan’s perspective, her face was uncomfortably close.
However, openly avoiding her would only make the atmosphere awkward, and he disliked that even more, so he left her alone.
“Could you hold out your wrist?”
Evan stared at Stella with the glass held awkwardly to his lips before extending his left hand.
Stella scanned it with a reader.
【SYSTEM: Verified currency deposited into Virtual Wallet.】
【+4,500,000c】
【Wallet Balance: 5,024,000c】
“What is this?”
“What else would it be? Fair compensation for completing a request.”
What request?
When Evan stared at Stella, she burst into soft laughter.
“A client commissioned us to find the person responsible because their child had died inside the church. But that child returned to their parents, and the client asked us to give the reward to whoever saved them.”
“……Ah.”
“You have some idea who that might be, don’t you?”
Evan nodded but said nothing.
“……Do you think there could be good people among mages?”
“I don’t know enough about mages to say. And I’m not a good person.”
To Evan, a mage was merely a character class optimized for the magic-engineering skill tree.
It was not that he was unaware mages were objects of hatred.
However, Evan was a black mage.
A black mage was somehow ‘good’ compared to an ordinary mage?
That was absurd.
How could a being that fundamentally consumed lives be good?
Evan had already steeled his resolve.
That determination was what allowed him to take human lives without so much as blinking.
But after hearing his answer, Stella merely smiled without saying anything.
“Hehehe.”
An unpleasant laugh seeped from the inner pocket of his cloak.
“You idiot. Can’t you tell just by looking? That woman’s completely fallen for you. And you’re just sitting there swilling booze?”
Curious about what it planned to say, Evan remained silent and listened.
“Why aren’t you throwing her down and— Graaargh! Aaaaaargh! Sorry! I’m sorry!”
When Evan suddenly grabbed his cloak and began twisting it repeatedly, Stella stared at him for some time as though a question mark floated above her head.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Stella, about that fellow Sam.”
“Did he cause trouble again?”
Oh, bingo.
But that was not what Evan wanted to discuss right now.
“When does he usually come here?”
At that moment, someone pounded on the back door.
BANG, BANG.
Stella placed the cup she had been cleaning upside down on the bar.
“He usually appears whenever someone mentions him. I’m not joking. It’s practically a jinx. Sometimes I wonder whether he’s listening from somewhere.”
Stella went to the back door for a moment, and Sam truly appeared.
His greasy belly and curly, matted hair made a powerful impression.
“Eek! Y-you were here.”
He entered hesitantly, only to suck in a breath when he spotted Evan.
The moment Stella saw his reaction, she began berating him as though she had been waiting for the opportunity.
“You raccoon-looking bastard. Didn’t I tell you to pick your targets before you start shit? Do you even know who this man is?”
“I-I was threatened too! They put a blade to my throat! What was I supposed to do?!”
Evan had no intention of blaming him any further, nor did he want to waste time.
The moment Evan rose from his seat, Sam spoke.
“I found someone. Netrunners already live in hiding, so it was a little difficult…… but I happen to know one.”
“Are they trustworthy?”
“I think so, but it would probably be better for you to confirm that yourself.”
Evan nodded.
The network was effectively the city’s exclusive possession.
The satellite districts clinging to it could do little more than scrape up its crumbs.
Under such circumstances, simply finding a netrunner was something to be grateful for.
“I’ll know once I meet them.”
Evan straightened the hem of his cloak, rose, and followed Sam outside.
***
Who were the least trustworthy people in this world?
Most people would naturally answer mages, but Evan believed there was an even worse group.
‘Netrunners.’
Simply put, it was the term used for hackers in a cyberpunk world.
In this world, computers were no longer equipment one merely viewed with the eyes and operated with the fingertips.
This was an age in which the brain and nervous system could be connected directly to devices when necessary.
Before worrying about being caught by the police, netrunners often had to worry about triggering the wrong firewall and having their spines and brains burned to a crisp.
That was the decisive difference between the ‘hackers’ Evan knew and the ‘netrunners’ of this world.
Could anyone who did such things truly be sane?
It was only natural that Evan was wary of netrunners.
For that reason, it was also perfectly natural that meeting one left him somewhat bewildered.
“You’re the guy who asked our pig bastard for a favor?”
A woman sat in a chair and looked up at Evan.
Her thick red hair had been carelessly pulled up and tied, and she wore a shirt so oversized—or perhaps so stretched—that one shoulder was exposed.
Freckles covered her cheekbones and nose. She was short and gave off a delicate impression.
There was one more striking detail.
Headphones with pink cat ears.
“……You have unusual taste.”
“I’ll take that to mean you like it.”
They were in the basement of some building.
It was filthy and cluttered with junk, yet abnormally spacious, nearly the size of an underground parking garage beneath a commercial building.
‘It looks like she’s illegally occupying an empty space. It wouldn’t be surprising if she left at any moment. She isn’t the type to remain in one place.’
Evan turned his head slightly and looked at Sam, who stood beside him.
“Lora’s a friend I’ve known since I was little. She was the only person who matched the conditions you gave me, Mr. Mage. You told me to bring you to her first, so…….”
“It’s Lara, you bastard! Lara! It’s been over ten years, and you still can’t get one name right? And…… this guy’s a mage?”
Lara frowned and stared intently at Evan again.
“……Those fucked-up eyes certainly make him look like one.”
Who was calling whom fucked up?
Evan restrained himself from asking what drug she had taken, because it looked like good stuff.
“Hey. Of all the people you could bring here, you brought a mage freak? I told you I didn’t want to work with mage freaks.”
“Uh…… He’s a little different.”
“Different, my ass. A mage freak’s still a mage freak.”
Sam explained what had happened at the church and in the back alley.
After hearing the story, Lara looked at Evan again.
Her gaze had changed slightly.
This time, it carried something closer to curiosity.
“This guy’s the ‘Church Purifier’? Hmm…… You’re saying a mage really did that?”
“Tch.”
Lara pulled both knees onto the chair.
“Well, I don’t care. I only need to make money. What’s the job, mage?”
Evan handed her the Golden Cross data chip and the corporate man’s laptop, then briefly explained the request.
“Break the encryption inside them. I want to examine their contents.”
Lara faced the monitor, roughly inspected the files, and nodded.
“Three days. That should be enough.”
It was faster than Evan had expected.
Moreover, she did not appear to consider the possibility that she might fail.
‘Is she that confident in her skills?’
There was nothing wrong with that.
Evan had noticed something else unusual about her.
After examining her soul, he asked,
“I don’t see any cybernetic parts. How do you intend to hack them?”
Netrunners usually hacked by connecting their brain-neural interfaces directly to a device.
However, Lara appeared to perform all her work with a single old computer.
Rather than a netrunner, she resembled a hacker from the twenty-first century.
“You’ve got enough sense to recognize a woman’s charms at a glance. Your girlfriend must love that.”
Lara chuckled.
“MedTechs crack open several people’s skulls every day and implant neural hardware into their brains. But do you know something? Those bastards keep the inside of their own heads perfectly clean. Shoving that crap into your brain is insane. It’s a means for the biotech corporations to control humanity.”
“You must be an Innocent.”
Innocent was a term for human-body purists.
They were people with a strong aversion to inserting machinery into their bodies.
“Some bastards call us that. I don’t particularly care. Besides, anyone who relies on implants is a half-assed hack with no confidence in their skills.”
That actually made her seem more trustworthy.
At the very least, it meant she would not shove Evan’s data into her own brain.
Moreover, if she had known Sam for ten years…… it meant she had remained in Asle for at least that long.
Working with a netrunner always involved accepting a certain amount of risk.
Evan knew this world well enough to understand that Lara was on the safer end of the spectrum.
“Then I’ll trust you with it.”
“Five hundred thousand. If I run into anything troublesome, the price might increase, so keep that in mind and prepare the money.”
“I’ll return in three days, Lora.”
“It’s fucking Lara! Lara! Is my name that difficult?”
After stepping outside, Evan spoke to Sam.
“The items I entrusted to her are quite valuable.”
“What?”
“I’m telling you that if anything goes wrong, I’ll hold you responsible.”
“Y-yes, sir! You don’t need to worry! She really is trustworthy! Would I gamble with my own life? Of course not!”
Evan parted ways with Sam and rented a worn-out room.
He sat on the floor and opened his palm upward.
Blue beads slowly revolved in individual circles above it.
Evan currently possessed three souls in total.
The damaged soul of the corporate man, which he was using for transformations.
And the souls of two street thugs.
This meant Evan could currently perform three kinds of black magic rituals.
‘It is inconvenient.’
Mages could cast magic reliably within established frameworks whenever they wished.
However, whenever a black mage performed a ‘ritual without a predetermined form,’ a soul absolutely had to be sacrificed.
In other words, black magic offered vastly greater flexibility in its results, but there was nothing Evan could do without souls prepared in advance.
That represented a constant underlying risk, and Evan wanted to solve the problem.
He looked at the hamster sprawled spread-eagle across the bed.
After listening to Evan’s concerns, the hamster propped its head on one arm and lay on its side.
“What do you expect me to say? You already perform rituals however you please without even preparing them. Still, the one thing I know is…… a black mage’s ritual always requires a soul. That applies even when manifesting a familiar. There are no exceptions. That is causality.”
“Is that so?”
“Well, I suppose you could play around with souls or scraps of emotion. But that would be all.”
Evan understood what it meant.
He had nearly lost consciousness when manifesting that hamster without making any sacrifice.
And that was despite not having manifested it properly.
‘Causality took effect.’
Because Evan had sacrificed nothing, his own soul had begun burning away instead.
How many souls would he need to control the familiar safely?
Dozens?
Hundreds?
In any case, it was not something he could easily achieve at present.
This merely meant that one more possibility had been added to Evan’s potential.
“To begin with, controlling a being of my stature as a familiar is already absurd at your level. Consider it an honor and offer me one delicious soul every morning.”
“Hamsters are among the cheapest pets to keep.”
“Yeah, I’m really going to kill you someday.”
“I should get some sleep.”
Starting the following day, Evan took simple commissions and spent his time in something close to rest.
Now that he had some money in his pocket, the quality of his lodging improved as well.
That offered a small measure of comfort to Evan, who struggled to sleep at night.
Whenever he had time, he searched for information about Yender’s Amulet, but he achieved no meaningful results.
‘Do I really have to enter the city?’
He was beginning to feel the limitations of the outer districts.
He could no longer avoid considering entry into the great and radiant Floor City.
Several days later, Evan visited the Rosegold Pub and happened to receive news about Lara.
“Mr. Mage! Mr. Mage! Lora…… Some men just broke into Lora’s place!”