Ch.3131. Cyberpunk and Mercenaries

Amon fundamentally prefers to overwhelm his enemies with superior specs.

Overwhelming power and firepower that doesn’t allow even one chance in a thousand.

That was the play style Amon preferred.

Because of this, he always prepares escape routes in case his specs aren’t sufficient.

Conversely, if his specs are sufficient, Amon doesn’t avoid fights that come his way.

From a third-floor window of the building, Amon looked down at the gang members.

When humans are on alert, they often only look front, back, left, and right, but rarely think to check above or below.

The gang members chasing Amon were no different.

They were looking around without noticing that Amon was watching them from above their heads.

Amon mentally mapped their positions.

Five personnel.

One sword, two guns, one hacker, one mage.

Looking down at them, Amon recalled that reality is not a game.

Therefore, those he was looking down at weren’t NPCs.

So he didn’t even expect them to react stupidly like NPCs would.

But even in their irregular movements, there were certain patterns.

Amon quietly waited for the right moment.

And when the gang members’ attention briefly turned forward, Amon dropped behind the mage who was positioned at the rear.

If lethal force had been permitted, he would have put his weight into slitting the throat, but since killing was forbidden, he instead kicked the back of the mage’s head in mid-air.

With a thud! One person fainted.

At the sound, the other gang members immediately turned toward Amon, but he was already holding the unconscious mage.

“???”

While the gang members were confused, he threw the unconscious mage at the gang member with a gun.

Then he fired the pistol he borrowed from Kathy toward the lower part of the swordsman.

Bang bang bang!

One of the three shots hit the knee.

As the swordsman knelt down, Amon jabbed him in the solar plexus with his sword still in its sheath.

Even with a sheath, a wrong thrust could kill someone, but having carried a sword in the Sapeng world, he was confident in his control.

As Amon expected, the swordsman just rolled his eyes back and passed out.

After neutralizing the swordsman, Amon drew his sword and ducked forward.

A bullet passed through where his head had been.

Amon immediately turned around, firing his pistol wildly while charging at the shooter with his sword held in reverse grip in his other hand.

After emptying the magazine, he continued running with his arm covering his face.

Bullets struck his body but couldn’t penetrate his clothes.

Enduring the excruciating pain, he approached the shooter and stabbed the sword into his instep.

“Aaaagh!!”

He knocked out the screaming gang member with an elbow strike to the jaw, then looked toward the gang member who had caught the thrown mage.

By the time he had barely managed to put his comrade down, Amon had already dealt with two people.

And before he could draw his gun again, Amon’s thrown sword pierced his knee.

“Arghh!!”

The gang member collapsed.

Now only the hacker remained.

Amon shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the hacker.

The hacker was desperately trying something against Amon, but it had no effect.

Of course not.

There were no mechanical devices in Amon’s body.

As if thinking it impossible for a pure human body to be capable of such feats, the hacker kept trying to hack Amon.

But he couldn’t achieve anything even as Amon approached right in front of him.

Amon put his hand on the bald hacker’s shoulder and said:

“Shall we have a talk?”

All the hacker could do was nod.

*

The conversation with the gang ended well.

The misunderstanding was somehow resolved based on the fact that Amon could have killed the gang members but deliberately chose not to.

The hacker’s role was to relay the facts to his boss, while Amon did the same to the manager, setting up a dialogue between them.

“I’ll handle the details with their boss.”

The manager said from his creaking wheelchair.

The young man Amon knew from 50 years ago had somehow become a seasoned businessman.

‘Who would have thought that punk would turn out like this.’

The son who once troubled his father by insisting on living as a gang member rather than a mercenary had come to his senses after his father’s death and taken over the family business.

Still, connections from those days don’t just disappear, which is how this situation with the gang could be resolved.

Broken bones and pierced limbs were no issue at all.

This was partly because it was Amon’s legitimate self-defense, and partly because they were still breathing, so it didn’t matter.

After the incident was resolved, the manager praised Amon endlessly.

“Indeed, talent shows from the start! I haven’t seen someone this capable in 50 years!”

If Amon had killed any gang members, things would have gotten complicated, but thanks to Amon’s excellent handling, they avoided escalation.

The manager already disliked “kids these days,” but he viewed Amon favorably as the only one who acted with proper principles.

Because of this, he prepared several gifts for Amon on this occasion.

“What’s this…?”

“Requests. I personally selected them, so if you handle these, you’ll reach silver grade in no time.”

Amon gratefully accepted the manager’s goodwill.

Requests selected by the manager himself were very meaningful.

In this world, requests themselves don’t have grades.

So what are mercenary grades?

The bronze, silver, gold, and platinum grades for mercenaries are merely credit ratings.

They only indicate how high a mercenary’s success rate is, not directly correlating to strength or experience.

Requests are processed when someone entrusts a job to a brokerage, and a broker working there selects an appropriate mercenary for the job.

It’s a structure that disregards the mercenary’s safety.

It’s the broker’s job to judge whether a mercenary can handle a request, and it’s the mercenary’s job to determine if they can survive it.

The grade only has meaning similar to a credit rating from a bank; even platinum-grade mercenaries can die quickly if they don’t know their limits.

‘Just choosing a good broker increases survival rate exponentially.’

Usually when mercenaries die, it’s partly due to their own recklessness, but more often because brokers are malicious or just assholes.

They often deliberately withhold information they should provide, and many brokers intentionally put mercenaries in danger to fill their quotas.

There are even ship bastards who lure mercenaries into traps for human trafficking.

Therefore, finding a safe and diligent broker was as good a measure of a mercenary’s skill as anything else.

In such an industry, the manager’s offer was extremely welcome to Amon.

A broker personally “selecting” requests was a declaration of special management that prioritized the mercenary’s convenience.

Plus, the manager’s reliability as a broker was certain.

Even in Part 3, though he troubled his father by admiring gangs, his ability and loyalty were solid.

He would only assign Amon requests that were relatively safe and within his capabilities.

Amon accepted the manager’s goodwill as it was.

“I’ll strive to become your ace mercenary, sir.”

“Heh. Ambitious, aren’t you? Do you know who my ace mercenary is and still think you can catch up?”

“Well, as long as it’s not the Mercenary King, I’m confident I can catch up to anyone.”

“Haha! The more I see you, the more I like you.”

The manager burst into hearty laughter and gave Amon his compensation.

It was the payment that should have gone to the mercenary who died in this incident.

Amon received it and left the manager’s office.

Coming down from the upper floor to the lobby that doubled as a bar, Kathy, who had been waiting for him, waved happily from a corner seat.

Amon headed to that spot and sat across from her.

“How did it go?”

To her question, Amon answered with his usual smile.

“This case was resolved well. Now I’m told to stop running errands and start taking on requests.”

At those words, Kathy clapped as if it were her own achievement and congratulated him.

Then, as if realizing something, she looked at Amon nervously.

“Oh, right.”

“What is it?”

“Then who’s going to teach me?”

“You can learn while running errands, can’t you?”

“By myself?”

“Errands are usually done alone, aren’t they?”

“You can say that even after what happened today!?”

At her words, Amon was about to object but held back.

Strictly speaking, today was a special case.

Until now, Amon had never been in any danger.

In contrast, since this was her first errand, she would naturally feel differently.

Perhaps because of this, she showed signs of fearing errands.

For her sake, Amon thought of a solution.

“Then come run errands focused on the requests I take.”

That would be safe enough.

Her expression brightened at Amon’s suggestion.

“With you, I can feel safe.”

“In exchange, treat me to meals once a week.”

“Once a week? No way! Every two days… is too often, so I’ll treat you once every three days.”

“I look forward to working with you, Kathy.”

“Looking forward to it too, Amon.”

***

Several months had passed since Amon began his full-fledged mercenary activities.

Thanks to a competent broker, Amon quickly reached silver grade.

During that period, Amon’s armament changed slightly.

Previously, Amon wouldn’t have given guns a second glance, but now he carried a sawed-off shotgun on his hip as a secondary weapon.

Sometimes a gun was better than a knife.

The changes in his mercenary life didn’t end there.

“A~”

“Welcome, K.”

Kathy approached Amon as he was preparing for today’s mission.

While Amon wiped the oil from his hands with a napkin, she took out a prepared map and explained the operation to him.

This was the turning point in Amon’s mercenary life.

Originally planning to work solo, he somehow ended up taking Kathy as a partner.

After frequently talking with her when she came to run errands while he was completing missions at the same grade, he grew attached to her before he knew it.

As partners, Kathy and Amon worked very well together.

Since she built her foundation on Amon’s tips, they couldn’t help but be compatible.

The map on the table was proof of that.

Wary of hacking risks, Amon preferred to handle important missions in this analog way.

Having learned from watching him, Kathy always prepared briefings in analog format as well.

The two thoroughly reviewed this mission and promptly stood up.

While Amon checked the condition of his blade, Kathy verified the state of her folding spear and reattached it to her waist.

Eventually, the two waited for the right moment while taking cover at the entrance of an alley.

Three, two, one…

And when Amon’s hand signal indicated zero, they both simultaneously rushed into the alley.