‘I created a martial art?’
Woojin read the status window message with dazed eyes.
Then he scratched his cheek.
He had certainly been thinking he might be able to make a new martial art…….
But it had actually been made?
‘Is this thanks to [Inexplicable] too?’
The trait said to grant inexplicable growth potential.
That powerful force seemed to have been at work again this time.
‘It must be a martial art that didn't exist in the game. Judging by the name coming up as question marks.’
Tier 2 martial art [????(Level 1)].
The status window was telling him to give the martial art a name.
Needless to say, it was something he had never experienced while playing the game.
‘A martial art that doesn't fall under copyright or patent.’
A smile spread across Woojin's face.
It was a world where every usable martial art in existence had been seized by the megacorps.
In a world like that, he could create a new martial art free of copyright and patent?
It was as good as Woojin having gained wings of freedom.
Even if a megacorp came across Woojin's martial art, they would take it for some miscellaneous black market art; they would never think Woojin had created it himself.
The black market was full of low-tier martial arts with too little value for the megacorps to monopolize.
“The name……. Let's call it Snake Shadow Fist Art.”
It was a name taken from the (snake) of Black Snake Fist and the (shadow) of Shadow-Cutting Leg.
―Setting the name of the new martial art.
―You have acquired the Tier 2 martial art [Snake Shadow Fist Art (Level 1)].
―You have achieved the feat of creating a new martial art. You gain 1 skill point.
‘It even gives skill points?’
Creating a new martial art certainly deserved to be called a feat.
In the game there had been a few characters who tried to make new martial arts, but not one had properly succeeded.
‘I'll hold on to the skill point……. And if this is how it works, couldn't I teach martial arts to other people?’
Woojin understood martial arts truly.
It felt as if he could put the martial arts he had acquired into plain words right this moment.
‘If I can pass martial arts on, that would help in building a faction.’
Suppose, for instance, that Woojin taught martial arts to the sanitation civil servants.
The sanitation civil servants would be loyal to Woojin in order to learn them.
And sanitation civil servants made powerful by the martial arts Woojin taught would become a faction supporting him.
Of course, this was a plan that had to be approached with great care.
The megacorps and the city government didn't like people gaining power through training.
They wanted everyone subordinated within the system of neural interfaces and martial arts/magic implants.
Wasn't the Heavenly Demon Cult destroyed precisely because it denied the will of those megacorps and the city government head on?
‘Anyway, for now it'd be best to equip as many implants as I possibly can.’
The more martial arts he acquired, the deeper his understanding of the martial way would become.
And then he could create still more powerful martial arts.
‘The problem is money.’
Illegal copy martial arts implants on the black market could be obtained as long as you had money.
Martial arts implants sold officially by the megacorps could likewise be obtained as long as you had money.
Those were far more expensive than the ones circulating on the black market, though.
‘All it takes is money, and gathering that money isn't easy. Same in Korea, same here.’
Of course, Korea was far better than Lemming City.
In Korea you at least didn't have to worry about being shot dead walking down the street.
“Let's get to work.”
Woojin began picking up garbage while treading the footwork of Snake Shadow Fist Art.
And in that very moment, Daphne's puzzled voice came.
<Officer Woojin? Have you by any chance equipped a lightness-art implant?>
“?!”
***
Woojin flinched.
Daphne had shown no reaction at all when he learned Diamond Qigong.
And yet now she had perceived that Woojin had learned a martial art and was asking about it in a puzzled voice.
Woojin decided to play innocent for now.
“Didn't you see? I equipped the Willow Leaf Body Art implant a little while ago.”
<Er……. Didn't you equip it and then remove it?>
“No. I still have it in. I think you saw it wrong.”
<Ah…… that's right! I certainly did see it. But then why did I ask such a question?>
Daphne spoke in a dazed voice.
It was strange.
Daphne was a City Public Service AI, an aggregate of Lemming City's most advanced technology.
And a Daphne like that was talking vacantly?
And above all, being played by a lie this flimsy?
In that moment a status window message rose up before Woojin's eyes.
―An information lifeform is attempting to understand you.
―But you are an [Incomprehensible] existence.
―The [Incomprehensible] power distorts observation and understanding of you.
―Erosion rate : 3.112%
‘The erosion rate figure has gone up a little.’
The erosion rate that had come up after Woojin met Tall Man was 2.327%.
And now it had risen slightly, to 3.112%.
‘So the erosion rate is a figure related to Daphne. Information lifeform was a term meaning Daphne.’
When he learned [Diamond Qigong] and now as well, Daphne had perceived the situation in a direction favorable to Woojin.
Even in situations where she would normally have had doubts, she just let it pass.
Looking at it now, it was all because of [Incomprehensible].
The erosion rate could be taken as a figure expressing how far Daphne's perception had been distorted.
‘Why is the erosion rate only showing up now? Because when I learned Diamond Qigong it was too slight to need displaying?’
In any case, [Incomprehensible] must have been operating in the past too.
Daphne hadn't suspected a thing when Woojin connected a cable to the special computer and obtained Diamond Qigong either.
‘Incredible. To be able to distort an AI's perception. Just what principle does it operate on?’
How far could the power of [Incomprehensible] be used?
What would happen if the erosion rate climbed to 100%?
Could the power of [Incomprehensible] deceive even the Integrated Management System, Lemming City's super-massive AI?
And what about people who had replaced their brains with cyberbrains?
The self inside a cyberbrain was made of digital data, zeroes and ones, just like an AI.
Surely Tall Man's friendliness toward him wasn't because [Incomprehensible] was at work as well?
If that were so…….
‘No. Let's not think too optimistically.’
The power of [Incomprehensible] was a nuclear bomb capable of shaking the very foundations of the city's system.
If the city government caught on to Woojin's peculiarity, they would send the city special forces immediately to ‘capture’ Woojin.
And Woojin would become a brain in a vat.
Not in a figurative sense, but a real brain in a vat.
Woojin swallowed the complicated thoughts and cleared away the garbage.
Garbage bags and large trash into the garbage bin, then sweeping.
And as he did, a welcome message rose up.
―[Snake Shadow Fist Art] and [Sweeping] produce a synergy.
―[Sweeping] has risen to Level 6.
―[Snake Shadow Fist Art] has risen to Level 2.
‘Oh. A synergy effect.’
The light footwork of [Snake Shadow Fist Art] seemed to help with [Sweeping].
And since [Snake Shadow Fist Art]'s movement drew on the principles of [Willow Leaf Body Art], you could say it was thanks to [Willow Leaf Body Art] in the end.
<Your cleaning technique is improving by the day, Officer Woojin! When the alley gets clean, my own heart feels clean too!>
“The reason you're chiming in like this, surely it's……?”
<That surely is correct! Officer Woojin's moving environmental management has been confirmed. Awarding an addition of 0.1 performance rating points!>
“Maybe it's because it's been a while, but this feels even better.”
Woojin laughed in good spirits and climbed into the garbage truck.
When he pressed the button, the truck's robotic arms moved and lifted the garbage bin.
The garbage inside tumbled down, and the compactor in the loading bed engaged.
WHRRRM.
CRUNCH.
The sound of machinery moving and garbage being compressed was pretty satisfying.
There was a curious pleasure to it, you might say.
“All right. Let's move to the next spot.”
<Departing!>
***
The next day at 4 a.m.
The first garbage bin on Woojin's collection route.
The alley where punks had once lain in ambush to go after Woojin, where their bloodstains still remained, gone black.
The garbage truck came to a stop there.
When Woojin stepped down from the truck, a tall man in a trench coat came out of the dim alley.
“BRO.”
Tall Man called to Woojin.
The city at dawn seemed to make even an always-cheerful full cyborg sink into sentiment.
His voice was muffled, unlike usual.
Woojin went over to him and returned the five martial arts implants he had borrowed.
Tall Man checked whether there was anything wrong with the implants, then tucked them neatly into the ‘display rack’ inside his trench coat.
Woojin asked.
“And the item for the commission?”
“It'll be at the designated place.”
Tall Man handed Woojin a slip of paper.
The details of the courier commission were written on it.
“You were going to meet me anyway, so you could have just brought it, couldn't you? Is there a need to go through all this?”
It was a question Woojin had held since back when he played the game.
If he was meeting Tall Man anyway, couldn't Tall Man just bring the item to be delivered?
At that, Tall Man clicked the metal parts on his face and grinned.
“OF COURSE it's better this way. Security-wise.”
“I see.”
“Besides, for most commissions it's better if I don't get involved. A broker is a guy who brokers work, not a guy who does the work himself.”
Woojin shrugged.
If Tall Man said so, then so it was.
“Good luck with the shift today too, BRO.”
“Good luck with business.”
After the short meeting with Tall Man, Woojin went straight into his cleaning work.
Clear away the big garbage bags, then sweep.
Empty the garbage bin and head for the next spot.
And so Woojin arrived at the third garbage bin.
Before starting the cleaning, Woojin first checked the garbage bag glowing yellow.
He tore open the tightly tied bag and dug deep inside it.
“This is it.”
A box came out from among the garbage.
Large enough to hold a watermelon, and with a solid weight to it.
A camouflage delivery invoice was stuck to the outside.
It must have been an expensive item; it glowed yellow to the [Gold-Seeking Eye].
It was the commission item Woojin had to transport.
Woojin set the box on the garbage truck's passenger seat.
Next he only had to take it to the destination.
The destination was on the route Woojin's garbage truck took.
He was to leave it near the twenty-eighth garbage bin.
Woojin burned the slip of paper with the commission details using a lighter.
He ground it out carefully with his foot so the fire wouldn't spread to the garbage.
Then he cleared the garbage and headed for the next spot.
VROOM.
Fireflies wander Lemming City's nights.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
Dawn-delivery drones blink their lights to prevent collisions, and it resembled fireflies.
When the day brightened, the drones changed.
The dawn-delivery drones gradually disappeared and drones delivering breakfast from 24-hour eateries grew more numerous.
You could tell a drone's type from the company logo stamped on it.
A red drone logo was Yum Dash.
A (shop) character logo was Jeomso-eats.
Food delivery companies.
A logo of the English letter “Z” was Z-Fresh.
A logo of a hill with the sun rising over it was Genesis Market.
E-commerce companies that did dawn delivery.
‘I can tell delivery drones apart now, somewhere along the way.’
Riding the self-driving garbage truck and looking out the window, Woojin suddenly realized he had spent quite a long time in this damn city.
But unlike Woojin sunk in sentiment, Daphne's voice was lively as ever.
<We have arrived at the twenty-eighth garbage bin. It is time to work!>
“…Yes, yes. On my way. Madam Environmental Service AI.”
Woojin scratched his head hard and got out of the truck.
He was trudging toward the steel bin where garbage bags were piled up filthily today as well when a groan full of pain came from somewhere.
Woojin immediately gripped the handle of the submachine gun hanging at his neck.
He moved quietly in the direction of the groaning.
“Haah…. Krrk….”
A mercenary lay slumped with his back against a wall.
He seemed to have taken a serious wound to the stomach.
His body armor and trousers were soaked bright red with blood.
“…!”
Woojin immediately pulled an emergency treatment kit from his left overall pocket.
It was a reflexive action at the sight of a dying man.
But Woojin's feet didn't budge from where they stood.
Because the mercenary could be dangerous.
In the game too there were cases of meeting an injured person while cleaning.
With good luck you could treat the wounded person and get a reward, but with bad luck you could be caught in a trap.
The moment you approached the mercenary, a hidden blade would spring out or a bomb would go off.
It occurred to Woojin that he wanted to save this mercenary.
Him, who had killed punks doped up and tossing cigarette butts anywhere without a second thought.
And who at the same time was doing the shrewd thing of checking for danger instead of treating the mercenary right away.
Was he self-contradictory?
No.
It was simply that human emotion remained in him.
Woojin settled the doubt that had suddenly arrived with that conclusion and observed the wounded mercenary.
The [Gold-Seeking Eye] made a few valuable items glow.
But there didn't seem to be a trap.
“If this isn't a trap, I'll treat you. Can you speak?”
Woojin asked while studying the mercenary's complexion.
The mercenary opened his eyes with effort and moved his lips.
“Shaolin Palm Fist… Tech, Junkie…….”