The terms of the bet between Jinwoo Martinez and Victor Kruger were as follows.
After one week, Jinwoo Martinez's performance rating would be measured.
Starting performance rating, 43.2.
The performance rating rose or fell depending on how quickly he finished his work.
If the performance rating dropped below 40 points, Victor's win.
In that case, Jinwoo Martinez had to submit to a neural hack from Victor.
Terms no different from becoming Victor's slave.
If he kept it at 40 points or above, Woojin's win.
Victor had to pay Jinwoo Martinez 1,000,000 credits.
And if the performance rating rose above 43.2 points, he had to pay an additional 2,000,000 credits for every point gained.
‘Obviously Victor wins.’
‘How is a new guy supposed to win? And the new guy has to work alone on top of that?’
‘There really are a lot of lunatics in this world. Making a bet this stupid against Victor.’
‘Before the bet started the new guy did seem to finish work faster than you'd expect……. Nah. No way, though.’
The sanitation civil servants naturally assumed Victor would win.
Right up until two veteran sanitation civil servants, George Miller and Harvey Garcia, entered the betting.
“You two are betting on the new guy?”
“That's right.”
“But……. Why?”
“No reason. Nothing wrong with it, is there?”
“W-well, no. If nobody bets on the new guy there's no bet at all.”
At George Miller's blunt answer, the organizer of the betting flinched back a step.
At that, several cleaners spoke up timidly.
“I'll bet on the new guy too. 30,000 credits.”
“I-I'll do 10,000 credits.”
“Fine. I'm taking the long shot. 100,000 credits. Long shot, let's gooo!”
“Fuck, have you all lost your minds?”
Just then a loud voice came from one side.
Leo Vance and Jax Miller of Victor Kruger's faction were walking toward the gamblers.
“There's no way Victor loses! These bastards are spouting absolute nonsense!”
Leo raised a fist and threatened the cleaners.
The cleaners' faces twisted.
Leo was ten months in, only just past looking like a beginner.
They only kept out of his way because he was riding on Victor's authority.
Without Victor, Leo was the sort who would have gotten a fist-massage from his seniors.
The organizer of the betting gave a wry smile and held Leo back.
“It's a bet, Leo. Without the other side it doesn't work.”
“That's exactly what I don't get. Why bet on the new guy? Because you think he'll win?”
“The odds are high, aren't they. If the new guy wins we take a big cut. You don't know long shots? Long shots.”
“Stupid bastards…….”
Leo glared sidelong at the cleaners, and especially at George and Harvey, who had put money on Woojin.
George and Harvey were the ones who hadn't joined Victor's faction no matter how many times they were invited.
Neutral, they said.
What a load of nonsense.
“Fine. Then I'll put money down too. 500,000 credits! I'm going to suck those stupid bastards dry!”
Leo made a loud show of it, as if wanting to be heard.
And while he did, he glanced back at Victor behind him.
He was checking whether Victor was taking proper note of his loyalty.
“…….”
“…….”
George and Harvey watched Leo blankly for a while, then drifted away from the gambling.
They stood in a spot with few people around and put cigarettes between their lips.
The sight of a brat throwing his weight around was irritating, granted.
But the two of them had no intention of taking either side between Victor and Woojin.
They had only thought they might earn a bit of pocket money.
The gamble was already decided.
They had confirmed with their own eyes how quickly Woojin finished his shift.
Stay out of a bet when the money was plainly there to be made?
They weren't intent on keeping their neutrality that seriously.
“He's coming.”
“Mm.”
WHIRRRRRRR.
The garage door opened along with a warning siren.
Woojin's garbage truck rolled into the garage with every cleaner watching.
***
A human parks in a slightly different spot every time, but an autonomous driving system stops the vehicle in exactly the same place each time.
The garbage truck was like that.
Inside the vast garage, dozens of garbage trucks were arranged as perfectly as stones on a Go board.
The sight was almost like a temple of some kind.
The garbage truck garage had a high ceiling to begin with, and the space between the evenly spaced trucks was wide enough to play basketball in.
Thanks to cleaning robots running twenty-four hours a day, the gray floor was polished without a single speck of dust.
In that almost holy, spotless place, cleaners in fluorescent half-coats had gathered without so much as washing up after their shifts.
Tromp. Tromp.
Woojin stepped down from the truck and walked into the middle of their gazes.
‘Quite a turnout.’
Which meant Victor's authority was that considerable.
A new guy challenging the great Victor.
It would make a spectacle.
Just then a text message came up on Woojin's neural display.
<Please win. I've got money on you.>
‘Hm?’
<You were able to hold at around 40 rating points, right?>
<I don't like that bastard Victor, so I bet on you.>
<Long shot, let's gooo!>
<You're okay, right? Say something!>
The sanitation civil servants were sending Woojin messages.
‘I thought there was nothing but Victor's side here. Apparently not.’
Quite a few of them seemed to hold grievances against Victor.
Understandable.
A sanitation civil servant basically only had to do his own job well.
The City Public Service AI assigned the cleaners their work and handed down the evaluations anyway.
And yet Victor formed a crowd in the name of building a faction and interfered with other people.
He had probably been making aggressive use of the fact that he was connected to a gang.
It was no surprise bastards who hated Victor had appeared.
For Woojin, who had kept contact with the other cleaners to a minimum, it was quite welcome information.
Just then Victor walked up in front of Woojin.
“I'll give you credit for showing up instead of running. Saved me the trouble of coming to get you.”
Victor stood up straight and folded his arms.
His thick forearm and his prosthetic arm crossed on the diagonal.
“Or did you come to get on your knees and beg even now? Thinking I might cancel the bet if you did?”
Victor bared his yellow teeth in a grin.
The cleaner underlings lined up behind him shook their shoulders and snickered.
“Let me laugh too. Ha ha ha.”
But then Woojin started laughing along with them.
Shaking his body, exaggerated.
Thinking this was probably how Tall Man would do it.
“Heh heh heh. Hee hee hee! HAHAHAHAHA!”
At that, the faces of Victor's crew went cold.
Victor glared at Woojin and spoke.
“Has this bastard lost his mind.”
“I haven't lost my mind. I'm laughing for a reason.”
“What reason.”
“First I'll give you the boring, pedantic explanation. Let's see if you can follow it.”
Woojin raised an index finger and began.
“Over this past week I've been getting back to the dormitory a lot later. Around when the bet started I was pretty quick, though. That was camouflage.”
“What did you say……?”
“It's a simple story. Finish work fast, then stop somewhere else and kill time before coming back. Of course, somebody might have seen me at the incinerator……. Seems my luck was good.”
Woojin glanced around.
He let his gaze rest on George Miller and Harvey Garcia a moment, then looked at Victor again.
“…….”
Victor was staring at Woojin with a hardened face.
Woojin smirked.
“Looks like it never once occurred to you that I might win?”
“You're running some scam. You think that will make me take back the bet?”
“Take it back? Who would?”
WHIIIIINE!
Just then a small drone came into the garage through a window.
The drone moved between Woojin and Victor and projected a hologram of a woman.
The face of a middle-aged woman in a suit and glasses.
The middle-aged woman's hologram spoke in a voice worn down by exhaustion.
“I am here from the Joyce Law Office. I will now witness and enforce the contract made between Mr. Jinwoo Martinez and Mr. Victor Kruger. Are you ready?”
Woojin and Victor nodded.
“Very good. The key point in this contract was Mr. Jinwoo Martinez's performance rating. Below 40 points, Mr. Victor Kruger wins; 40 points or above, Mr. Jinwoo Martinez wins. And should the performance rating rise above 43.2 points, 2,000,000 credits per point.”
“…….”
“…….”
“I will request access to the Lemming City Integrated Management System to confirm the performance rating.”
A moment later, Daphne's voice came through the drone's speaker.
<This is City Public Service AI Daphne.>
“Would you tell us Mr. Jinwoo Martinez's performance rating?”
<Yes.>
The watching cleaners held their breath.
Victor folded his arms and narrowed his eyes.
Woojin stood there at ease.
<Officer Jinwoo Martinez's current performance rating is 51.7 points.>
“…What did you say?”
Victor muttered it blankly.
So Daphne said it once more.
<I said Officer Jinwoo Martinez's performance rating is 51.7 points.>
“That's impossible!”
Victor bellowed and stepped forward.
At that, his underlings behind him came surging out after him like thugs.
Victor protested toward the drone the voice was coming from.
“Quit talking nonsense! A performance rating that was 43.2 points went up 8.5 points in one week? That doesn't make sense!”
<It is true. Officer Jinwoo Martinez does his work very well, and his work speed keeps getting faster. That is why he received additions to his performance rating.>
“Bullshit! If he got additions for a week it should be 7 points, so why is it 8.5!”
<Because on the seventh day, that is, today, Officer Woojin finished his shift within 11 hours.>
“What……?”
<As you know, finishing a shift within 12 hours adds 1 point to the performance rating, and finishing within 11 hours adds 2 points. Officer Woojin finished his shift within 12 hours from the first day through the sixth. His speed kept increasing, so on the last day he was able to finish within 11 hours. The 0.5 is an addition for exemplary work conduct.>
“There's no way! That crazy City Public Service AI has thrown an error!”
The law office employee who had been watching let out a scoff of disbelief.
“Hah. An error in a City Public Service AI? You're talking nonsense. It is absolutely impossible for a City Public Service AI to throw an error or to take a particular person's side.”
“But……!”
“The conclusion has been reached. This contract is a victory for Mr. Jinwoo Martinez. Mr. Victor Kruger must pay the base stake of 1,000,000 credits plus an additional 16,000,000 credits for the 8-point rise in performance rating. A total of 17,000,000 credits. I will enforce it.”
In that instant a pleasant message came up on Woojin's neural display.
<17,000,000C has been deposited into the account of Mr. Jinwoo Martinez.>
Conversely, money seemed to have drained out of Victor's account.
Victor stared into empty air and howled.
“Gaaah! My money!”
The law office employee paid Victor no mind at all.
She simply said goodbye in a businesslike voice and vanished.
“Then I will take my leave. Please continue to make use of the Joyce Law Office.”
The law office's drone departed.
An uneasy silence settled over the garbage truck garage.
The cleaners watched Woojin and Victor with tense eyes.
Victor glared at Woojin as if he would kill him.
Woojin tilted his head at an angle and dug at his ear with his little finger.
Victor spoke as though chewing the words and spitting them out.
“So you ran a scam. Who's behind you? There's no way you finished your work within 11 hours alone.”
Woojin smirked.
“A notary from a law office confirmed it and left, and you're still not right in the head, talking nonsense?”
“Someone must have helped you. I took a hit. I should have thought so from the moment you offered me a bet.”
“It really isn't that.”
“Whoever is behind you, I'll find out soon. And you'll come to regret it.”
“Hah……. So you weren't a bastard who could follow the boring, pedantic explanation after all. Then die.”
“What……?”
Woojin shot forward as though gliding.
A fist carrying the principles of [Black Snake Fist] extended straight out like a viper going after prey.
But Woojin's fist wasn't snakelike.
Because Shaolin's [Diamond Qigong] didn't match well with a crooked martial art like [Black Snake Fist].
If anything, [Diamond Qigong] had swallowed [Black Snake Fist] whole.
A single monstrously powerful fist, very faintly resembling a viper, detonated against Victor's solar plexus.
SLAM!
Victor flew like an artillery shell and crashed into the underlings behind him.
Victor's crew toppled and tangled like bowling pins.
Among his underlings there were some who foamed at the mouth and fainted from the impact.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The watching cleaners froze stiff as if struck by lightning and couldn't say a word.
Then someone finally forced out a sentence.
“The long shot hit……!”