Tap, tap-tap.
The station attendant wearing plastic goggles tapped on the keypad. A moment later, he looked back and forth between Kim Yi-hyeon’s face and the terminal with sleep-crusted eyes.
“Kim Yi-hyeon, Class 4 citizen. You look better in person than in the photo.”
“I looked pretty grimy back then.”
“Back then...? The issue date is today, though?”
“I just arrived in Cilicia today.”
“Huh. Then why not go sightseeing?”
The station attendant wore a strange expression, as if he had witnessed some unknown creature. He pushed up the nose bridge of his goggles and spoke again.
“Cilicia is overflowing with entertainment. You could lose track of time here. Usually, locals who’ve only lived in one region go around belittling their hometowns, saying there’s nothing there, but people here are different.”
He looked up at the blocked-off ceiling.
“Men and women of every skin color, all kinds of alcohol and food. All sorts of things come in every day. Just when you’re about to get bored, some new amusement appears. Rookies pour into the League every year too, so even if you try to get tired of it, you can’t.”
“Working as a station attendant doesn’t look that fun.”
“You saw right. I hate the underground. If my wallet had been thick enough, I wouldn’t have come down to a place like this.”
“I guess I’m in the same boat.”
At Kim Yi-hyeon’s answer, the station attendant went blank for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
“Haha. Money really is the enemy. Still, no matter how badly you need quick cash, it’s been a while since I’ve seen someone come underground on their first day. Most people would rather aim to become a League competitor than a bounty hunter.”
“Is this an interrogation?”
“Ah, sorry if I was rude.”
He said this while touching his shaggy hair.
“When you work here, how should I put it... your personality gets stranger over time. Bounty hunters are especially like that. I don’t want to talk with people whose screws are already loose beyond saving, so I talk as much as I can with rookies like you.”
The talkative station attendant kept speaking while his hands operated the terminal. Even if his attitude was poor for a public employee, he seemed used to the work.
Kim Yi-hyeon decided to answer him moderately. For a while from now on, he would be coming in and out of Metrocity constantly. There was no harm in becoming familiar with him.
“I hate standing out in things like matches. But I don’t feel like doing contract labor either.”
“Aha. Well, I hear popular competitors don’t have private lives. Just going to a club can start a scandal, so even I’d get annoyed.”
Beep, beep-beep.
A beeping sound rang out. The station attendant held out the terminal and pen, telling him to sign. Kim Yi-hyeon skimmed it roughly and quickly signed.
There was no need to check it carefully. Any casualties that occurred during work were his own responsibility. The authorities had no obligation to guarantee his safety......
It was all obvious stuff.
“Registration is done for now. Normally, there’s some data I’d transmit to you... Do you have a terminal?”
“No.”
It was an item similar to a smartphone used in Cilicia. It could also link with the bracelet-type ID received upon entry, and was a convenient device that could even make calls.
Of course, there was no way he had one.
“If you have the money, you should get one as soon as possible. Any work you want?”
“I’d prefer something I don’t have to wait too long for.”
“Then let’s see... Ah, here we go. Escort duty for a freight car departing in two hours. It might be bland, but wouldn’t it be perfect for a first job?”
A bounty hunter’s work was not limited simply to catching outlaws. Rather, odd jobs were more common.
In fact, taking corporate jobs paid better than hunting outlaws.
At the same time, they were safer. No one knew where in the underground the outlaws might be lying in wait, or how many there would be.
Freelancers without affiliation usually received work from station attendants like this. Meanwhile, there were cases where they were scouted by security companies or PMCs.
It was not something he needed to worry about right now. Kim Yi-hyeon was only a drifter who had just entered Cilicia today.
“I’ll take that one.”
For now, his track record came first.
***
Clatter, clatter.
A railcar carrying wooden crates ran along the tracks.
The tunnel was long and longer still. The farther they went, the harder it became to see far ahead. They had left the central area, and the number of lights had decreased.
Most subway stations in Cilicia existed solely for transporting goods. Metrocity was the only place that had developed so splendidly, like a downtown district.
Compared to the surface, this was a dark and damp space. This was a bounty hunter’s workplace.
‘I think this side suits me better.’
A city where countless people walked beneath neon lights. There were some familiar East Asians as well, but the ratio was extremely low.
As he walked through the streets, he could not help feeling alienated. As if the person named Kim Yi-hyeon were being swept up in the currents of a faraway country.
‘Is this also a kind of social anxiety? I get why Asterike made such a fuss earlier.’
The underground’s damp air was far better than the sickeningly mixed scent of perfume. The silence gave Kim Yi-hyeon comfort.
However, it seemed there were people who thought differently.
“Damn it, why does this piece of junk shake so much? My stomach already doesn’t feel good.”
The cargo compartment of a small-to-medium railcar. A man sitting in front of the wooden crates grumbled.
Including Kim Yi-hyeon, there were three bounty hunters in the cargo compartment.
“Are you people fine?”
“The ride comfort is one thing, but I wish they’d do something about this nail gun. It’s not like I’ve fired one often, but it really doesn’t feel reliable.”
One white young man clicked his tongue while pointlessly turning the nail gun in his hand back and forth. It was the weapon issued through the “team leader” when they took on the escort job.
The person who commanded bounty hunters as a middle manager was called the team leader.
The company that posted the job either dispatched personnel separately or negotiated with a freelancer in advance and appointed them.
The team leader here did not seem inclined to enforce discipline. After finishing the job explanation, he had only been chewing gum beside the driver’s cab.
The bounty hunters, who had been reading the mood, began talking one by one.
“They say this nail gun is industry-standard equipment, right? Last time, they told me to pay 150,000 credits because I accidentally broke one.”
“Wow, 150,000? Damn. Your whole day’s pay must’ve vanished.”
“So I struck out that day. I can’t say which company it was, but there’s a limit to how much of a thug they can be. If it’s an expensive item that costs 150,000 to repair, they should just give us real guns. Don’t you think?”
“There’s a lot of talk about that too. If you look closely, it feels like they’re deliberately leaving the outlaws alone. What do you think?”
Their gazes suddenly focused on Kim Yi-hyeon.
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen your face before.”
“True. Are you new?”
Kim Yi-hyeon sighed inwardly. He had stayed quiet because he did not want to join in, yet what kind of disaster was this?
“Yes, well. That’s right.”
“Oh my. Why’d you come down underground?”
“Because of money, obviously. We’re all in the same boat. What’s your name, rookie? Have you never seen outlaws before? Is this your first job?”
A barrage of questions poured out of one mouth. He was an especially noisy guy.
The man did not even wait for an answer.
“My career isn’t anything impressive either, but I’m still your senior, so I’ll give you one piece of advice. Those outlaw bastards, if you run into them, just shoot them. Don’t think of them as people like you. You can’t.”
“Right. They’re criminals to begin with.”
“There are idiots who try to act smart, saying they’re a necessary evil and all that, you know? That we live thanks to outlaws. It’s all bullshit. Security officers don’t thank criminals, do they?”
Kim Yi-hyeon silently nodded.
They were right. But he also knew that the world did not run only on right and wrong.
Outlaws, bounty hunters.
Security companies, Metrocity.
Leaving aside the distinction between good and evil, this was a thriving business in Cilicia.
Clatter, clatter!
The railcar kept jolting.
The talking did not stop either. When Kim Yi-hyeon’s reaction proved far from satisfying, the two began chatting only with each other.
‘Are all small jobs like this?’
The solemn atmosphere he had expected was nowhere to be found. Well, of course. This was a simple job that only involved transporting a few wooden crates. They were not even entering a danger zone.
To begin with, a newcomer with no track record at all had been included in the headcount. Those two were likely far from deserving to be called veterans.
‘If nothing happens, this is a pretty easy job.’
He only had to ride a freight car for a while, and he could receive a day’s pay. The promised compensation was 200,000. The other two seemed reasonably satisfied.
That meant they usually received about this much. No matter how unreliable the nail gun was, it was more than enough to deal with one or two Speeders.
To say it again, it was an easy job.
On the premise that nothing happened.
The compensation a bounty hunter received included danger pay. That did not change even if the job was only an odd task transporting a few wooden crates.
“......We’re going pretty far.”
Kim Yi-hyeon pointed it out first. He drew the map of Cilicia’s underground lines in his head. He had received a briefing on the destination before departure.
It was close on the map. Even so, the vehicle had been running nonstop for about an hour.
“Huh? What did you say?”
“The route shouldn’t normally be this long.”
“I wondered what you were talking about.”
The young man looked around, then snorted.
“You must be anxious because it’s your first time. Everyone’s like that. The car is slow and even rattles, so it feels like another hour or two has already passed.”
“Let’s see... It’s been about an hour. It is delayed. We should arrive once we pass this tunnel.”
“The problem with this damn underground is that once you leave Metrocity even a little, you can’t tell where anything is. I’ll ask the team leader.”
Just as the young man was about to stand up,
Screeeeeech!
A sharp sound of friction burst out.
Sparks flew over the rails. As the railcar shook from sudden braking, the young man fell on his backside.
“Ow! Wh-what the hell!”
“No, what kind of idiot suddenly stops like that?!”
The two bounty hunters shouted as they barely steadied themselves.
On the other hand, Kim Yi-hyeon lowered his posture as much as possible and dealt with the impact. His finger rested on the nail gun’s trigger so he could fire at any time.
His sharpened hearing caught a high-pitched sound spreading from afar. The tunnel lights shattered one by one.
His field of vision narrowed in an instant.
The remaining light sources were the railcar’s headlights and the few lights immediately nearby.
In the darkness, human shadows appeared one by one.
They wore dull gray cloth. They walked out from behind the pillars lining both sides of the tracks.
“O-outlaws?”
“Where the hell did these bastards come from...!”
Within a few dozen seconds, the composure drained from their faces. The two frantically whipped their heads around. They gripped the nail guns they had complained about as unreliable with both hands.
They looked entirely focused on the suspicious figures. Meanwhile, Kim Yi-hyeon was on guard against the front of the vehicle even more than the outlaws.
Click.
Out of nowhere, the headlights went out. The light they had relied on most disappeared.
The door of the driver’s cab opened, and the team leader walked out confidently from inside.
The team leader raised his nail gun. Not at the outlaws surrounding the vehicle, but at the bounty hunters in the cargo compartment.
“Kneel. Put down your weapons......”
The order was not completed. Before the team leader aimed at the bounty hunters, there was someone who had aimed at his head one step faster.
“Mm. I thought there were only small fry.”
Even at the team leader’s words, Kim Yi-hyeon showed no particular reaction. Holding the nail gun, he remained conscious of his surroundings.
Using the railcar’s railing, he had positioned himself so that his blind spots would not be exposed to the outlaws as much as possible.
“So, what are you going to do now?”
The team leader chuckled leisurely.
“Even excluding me, there are seven more. On your side, there are only two pieces of baggage who know nothing but how to complain. Are you confident you can lay a hand on me and still get out of here in one piece?”
Far from being frightened, he likewise pointed his nail gun at Kim Yi-hyeon. Kim Yi-hyeon did not stop the team leader’s movement and simply let him be.
That was his answer.
“Are you saying you’ll let me live if I don’t lay a hand on you?”
“We are not particularly interested in you people.”
Kim Yi-hyeon fell into thought. The conclusion came quickly. In the end, he lowered the nail gun.
“You thought well. Wise choice.”
Naturally, the team leader judged that Kim Yi-hyeon had tucked his tail because he had no chance of winning.
That was not entirely wrong.
If he shot the team leader, he would have to risk his life from that point on. Even if he used his skill, the unfavorable situation would not be overturned.
The outlaws’ skill was unknown. Their armament had not been confirmed either. The claim that there were seven people might also be a bluff.
The chance that he could survive was very low. But there was another reason too.
‘I definitely saw it just now.’
On the wrist revealed beneath the team leader’s sleeve, there was a tattoo. A rare white tattoo.
To Kim Yi-hyeon, the shape was familiar.
‘Wait, is this connected to that story?’
Had he fallen into the center of a huge current without even realizing it?
At his ear, he seemed to faintly hear the sound of gears turning.