Daphne spoke in a startled voice.
<Officer Woojin! Just what have you done? Your cleaning time has become tremendously faster than yesterday!>
“Hah hah hah. Who knows. Strength is just pouring out of my body all of a sudden.”
Woojin played dumb while clearing garbage without a break.
<Are you not overexerting yourself? You may have taken in too much caffeine and be unable to feel fatigue while continuing to move.>
“That's not it. My body's just in good shape, I suppose? I don't think you need to worry. Whew!”
<If that is so, then I am relieved…….>
Daphne seemed to be unaware that Woojin had learned [Diamond Qigong].
Last night Woojin had rolled on the ground in agony learning [Diamond Qigong], and even though his body had put on more muscle because of it, Daphne felt nothing strange.
It was odd.
An AI as developed as Daphne would naturally be able to find some link between the two phenomena.
It seemed to be because of the [Incomprehensible] trait.
[Incomprehensible]
No one can grasp the true power you possess.
‘This goes beyond keeping people from grasping my true power, doesn't it? Daphne can't even perceive it.’
Would the result have been different if an ordinary person had observed Woojin instead of the AI Daphne?
That was something to be seen going forward.
Daphne spoke again in a startled voice.
<You really do look all right! Remarkable! If you can steadily maintain this pace, you will be able to cut your work time considerably!>
“Whew! Think I can earn a rating point?”
<More than possible! You can comfortably raise your performance rating by a full point!>
“Hah hah hah. A point a day for a week is 15,000,000!”
The base stake in the bet with Victor was 1,000,000 credits.
On top of that, Woojin would earn an extra 2,000,000 credits for every point he raised his performance rating.
He could earn 15,000,000 credits in a single week.
“Kyah! Thanks to Victor I won't have to worry about the deficit for a few months.”
<But that is a story for the best-case scenario. The question is whether you can maintain this pace.>
“I think I can manage it easily enough.”
If anything, he expected to get faster.
―[Hauling] has risen to Level 5.
The first skill that had helped Woojin in his work.
[Hauling] had gone up another level.
At that, the speed at which he grabbed garbage bags and carried them got marginally faster.
―[Diamond Qigong] and [Hauling] produce a synergy effect.
―[Diamond Qigong] has risen to Level 2.
‘Oh. So there's such a thing as a synergy effect?’
Well, [Diamond Qigong] was an external art that tempered the body.
It could only match well with [Hauling], which was pure physical labor.
Perhaps that was why [Diamond Qigong]'s level had risen so quickly.
‘It's subtle, but I feel something. So this is qi.’
As [Diamond Qigong]'s level rose, Woojin could feel something seeping into his skin and muscles.
The feeling of very tiny particles of power spreading through his whole body.
They were making his body light.
‘Looks like you can feel qi from Level 2 of [Diamond Qigong].’
Internal-arts martial arts were said to circulate qi along the meridians, while external-arts martial arts seemed to have the effect of spreading qi through the whole body to make it sturdy.
And it goes without saying that his physical abilities had improved further than at Level 1 Diamond Qigong.
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!
He cleared the large garbage away at practically a run.
Next came the sweeping!
The sweeping went faster than usual too.
SWISH, SWISH!
―[Sweeping] has risen to Level 4.
The alley, where garbage bags had been rolling about and beer cans with cigarette butts stuffed in them mixed with vomit to give off a sour reek, had become spotless.
Daphne spoke in a delighted voice, as though she had been waiting for this.
<That is truly remarkable, Officer Woojin! To process one garbage bin this quickly and clean its surroundings on top of that!>
“Oh? Is this something I can look forward to?”
<Heh heh. And what would you be looking forward to?>
“We're friends, aren't we! Can't you give me a little performance rating bonus?”
<I cannot give you a performance rating bonus on the grounds of friendship.>
“Well, no, I suppose not.”
Daphne was an AI, after all.
She couldn't step outside the rules her program laid down.
<However, giving you a performance rating bonus in accordance with the sanitation civil servant work regulations does seem possible! Officer Woojin's exemplary environmental management has been confirmed. Awarding 0.1 performance rating points.>
“Heh! That feels good. About ten more of those and I'd feel a whole lot better.”
<Performance rating bonuses are not something I can give out that often!>
“Firm as ever.”
Woojin smirked and climbed into the garbage truck.
The truck's robotic arms lifted the garbage bin and dumped all the garbage into the loading bed.
Compactor engaged. CRUNCH!
“Good. Let's head to the next one!”
<Departing!>
***
Woojin was lucky that day.
He found three whole green items while collecting garbage.
An artificial muscle part for a prosthetic arm, a camera part for a prosthetic eye, and a gold ring set with a gem.
The two parts were broken, but since they glowed green they would fetch a certain value.
‘If I could repair these myself and sell them, I could make much bigger money.’
For that, there were conditions.
First, a rise in the [Machine Repair] skill level.
This needed time.
Because he had to raise the skill level through practice.
Precious skill points had to be spent on more important skills.
Second was equipment.
At home there were only the most basic tools, things like pliers and a hammer.
Repairing a computer or a prosthetic would require professional equipment to match.
‘Professional equipment takes up a lot of space, so I'd need a workshop too.’
The civil servant dormitory Woojin lived in had space for exactly one person.
Not only would it be hard to fit repair equipment in, leaving equipment there would tank his quality of life.
For now, picking up broken prosthetics and selling them was the best option.
‘Still, this much should be enough to buy a weapon.’
[Diamond Qigong] was an external art, in other words a kind of passive skill that boosted physical ability and durability.
To fight enemies he needed a weapon.
The most basic weapons in [Steel Sweeper] were firearms.
They were the player's friend, giving solid help right to the end even after learning martial arts or magic.
Martial arts/magic implants came later.
They were simply too expensive.
‘If I get 15,000,000 credits from the bet with Victor, I should be able to buy at least a basic martial arts implant off the black market.’
Thanks to Victor, it seemed he could pull the timing of getting a martial arts implant way forward.
But why had Victor wanted to make Woojin obey him?
And how had he known Woojin ran a deficit every month?
<We have arrived at the incinerator.>
While Woojin was lost in thought, the garbage truck pulled into the incinerator.
The enormous pit where the whole city's garbage gathered.
The truck backed into its parking spot in front of the refuse bunker.
Sit in the driver's seat, press the discharge button, and the day's shift was over.
But Woojin got out of the truck and went around to its rear.
He set the compact computer into the truck's compactor and pressed the external button to run it.
CRRRUNCH-KRK!
The blue-glowing compact computer was caught between the compactor's steel plates and forced into the loading bed.
It was the special computer that had held the data for [Incomplete Diamond Qigong].
‘It's a waste, but this has to be scrapped.’
Diamond Qigong was a flagship product of Shaolin Prosthetic Science, the megacorp that ruled Lemming City.
And if he sold something like that and they caught his trail?
Shaolin Prosthetic Science's private special forces, the Three Thousand Arhats, would come to seize him.
Then they would fully hack Woojin's brain and neural interface and comb through everything: whether he had ever touched the [Diamond Qigong] data, whether he had copied it, where the data had gone.
Selling the special computer would bring big money, blue item that it was, but considering the risk, scrapping it was the right answer.
‘Besides, I already have [Diamond Qigong].’
If anything, Woojin found himself confirming the power of the [Inexplicable] trait all over again.
Just from touching the incomplete data of a martial arts implant, Woojin had obtained [Diamond Qigong].
Equip another martial arts implant and he would probably acquire that martial arts skill just as fast.
Woojin pressed the garbage discharge button.
The discharge hatch opened and the loading bed tilted at an angle.
CLUNK. RUMBLE RUMBLE.
Compressed garbage dropped down into the refuse bunker.
No blue light was visible.
The various parts of the special computer had been destroyed in the compaction process and lost their value.
<Well done, Officer Woojin! You have cut a great deal of time!>
Just then Daphne spoke up in a delighted voice.
<The current time is 15:45! You have ended your shift in 11 hours 45 minutes! You have finished a full 15 minutes faster than the standard working hours!>
“Hmm? And what does that mean?”
Woojin asked as if he didn't know, even though he did.
<If you work faster than the standard working hours of 12 hours, you are awarded 1 performance rating point! With this, your performance rating has become 44.3 points, Officer Woojin!>
“There it is! 2,000,000 credits, sweet as can be!”
<This is a truly astonishing result! Yesterday your shift ended at 19:17, did it not? Today there was no combat, granted, but you have cut a full 3 hours and 32 minutes off your record! In fact, yesterday was faster than projected as well!>
“I really am something.”
Woojin smirked and looked at the refuse bunker.
Garbage gathered from every corner of Lemming City.
Red scraps of flesh were mixed in among the plastic film, the plastics, and the metal.
Which meant other sanitation civil servants were collecting corpses all over the city too.
Within that grisly sight, Woojin felt the thudding of his chest.
‘My heart…… seems to be all right?’
A secondhand artificial heart past its service warranty.
Even though he had run around all day in a body strengthened by [Diamond Qigong], the artificial heart was beating normally, without overloading.
Woojin forced down the unease creeping up on him.
‘Right. It'll be fine. Diamond Qigong is a martial art modified for prosthetic users.’
As you could tell from the character (machine) sitting in the name Diamond Qigong, this martial art had been modified to suit prosthetic users.
The same went for its higher martial art, Diamond Indestructible Qigong.
Diamond Qigong was a Shaolin Prosthetic Science martial art to begin with, after all.
Being a prosthetics company's martial art, it took the harmony of flesh and prosthetics into account and had the power to strengthen not only the body but even machine prosthetics.
‘If it had been some run-of-the-mill external art floating around the black market, I'd have had to worry about my artificial heart.’
Learn an external art and the heart is tempered along with the body.
But a machine heart didn't grow stronger no matter what external art you learned.
Because a machine's performance was fixed.
An imbalance between a strengthened body and an artificial heart.
To resolve it you had to keep upgrading the artificial heart.
The same went for other prosthetics: upgrades were essential if you wanted to get stronger.
It was why prosthetic users needed so much money, and it was also why Shaolin Prosthetic Science raked in a fortune.
On that count, Woojin was on the lucky side.
‘Thanks to Diamond Qigong it'll hold out for a while. Though someday I'll have to replace it.’
They said [Diamond Qigong] strengthened the artificial heart, but naturally that power had its limits too.
It wouldn't protect the artificial heart indefinitely.
<Officer Woojin. I recommend that you get inside the garbage truck soon. The air pollution near the incinerator is severe.>
“Ah, damn. No wonder the smell is so vicious. Ahem! Hm!”
Woojin shook off the gloomy thoughts along with a cough and quickly climbed into the truck.
Its day's work done, the garbage truck ran along the city expressway that stretched all the way into the innermost depths of Lemming City.
***
After parking the garbage truck at the dormitory, Woojin washed up in his room and went out onto the street.
Finishing his shift early let him indulge in the luxury of wandering around outside like this!
“Daphne. Have you ever thought about wanting to become human?”
<Not at all.>
“Not even about wanting a body? A robot body or something.”
<Not at all. I am satisfied with my existence as it is. A mechanical robot body, and a body of flesh too, has to be maintained every day, doesn't it? Extremely inefficient. An AI, on the other hand, only needs its servers managed properly.>
“Hmm. Is that so?”
If Daphne ever became human, he might have to nag her to wash every day.
Woojin walked the streets with that pointless thought in his head.
A sunset sky.
The street, blanketed in the shadows of buildings, sparkled with neon signs.
Office workers and civil servants heading home walked the street with weary faces.
What differed from the scenery of Earth was that every one of them had metal stuck to the back of their neck — a neural interface.
Their pupils vibrated rhythmically.
They were probably watching videos on their neural displays, or playing games, or reading news or web novels.
Or else enjoying electronic narcotics in a way that didn't show on the surface.
In any case, on the surface District 251 was a neighborhood fit enough for people to live in.
Being the neighborhood with the civil servant dormitory, a minimum standard of environment was guaranteed, you might say.
The flower shop Woojin had been looking for was there too.
Flowers of every color were growing above a transparent hydroponic system with nutrient solution running through it.
Mist sprayed from old, rusted pipes, and the light of purple UV lamps scattered through the mist.
As Woojin was agonizing over which flower to buy, Daphne spoke up.
<But why are you suddenly bringing that up?>
“Because the person I'm going to meet tomorrow is that sort of person. He wants to remain human, you might say? He keeps wanting to have it proven that he's human, you might say?”
<Hmm? What a strange person.>
“Anyway, that's why I came to buy a flower. Give him a pot of living flowers as a gift and he'll be over the moon.”
<Is he someone close to you?>
“No. I feel a certain inner closeness, but for now tomorrow will be our first meeting.”
<Then why give him such a gift?>
“If I make a good impression, it'll be easier to knock the price down, won't it?”
<He must be someone who sells things?>
“That's right.”
Weapons, prosthetics, implants, information, commissions.
A broker who bought and sold everything circulating in Lemming City.
Woojin was planning to go and meet him.