Ch.328Epilogue – Back to Los Angeles (1)

Noah Verami stared at himself in the mirror. Not much had changed from five years ago, or even from yesterday. As he gazed intently at his reflection, Noah asked himself.

What’s different? Have my shoulders gotten heavier? No, the shoulders themselves have become lighter. Since switching to lightweight components, my body feels much more balanced.

Nothing had actually changed. He simply wanted to prove to someone he hadn’t seen in a long time that he too had changed considerably, that he hadn’t wasted half of his twenties.

Even though the other person wasn’t one to judge him… Noah decided to use the word “nevertheless” this time. It was a word tinged with lingering attachment, a sticky word… but occasionally useful.

They definitely said they’d stop by a bit earlier than work hours. Noah muttered to himself before gathering his equipment. Since he’d be working with Nightwatch again today, he needed to prepare everything.

He tucked a high-frequency dagger into his waist—true to Kanun’s logo, it was slightly larger than the standard tactical dagger, with a longer blade. European-made. Ah, he should mention that he now knows how to choose weapons too.

As Noah was slowly contemplating what to say, someone wrapped their arm around his neck from behind. It was Riley. Her playful voice brushed past Noah’s ear.

“Just when I thought you’d become a somewhat reliable boss, why are you suddenly back to being a pure-hearted twenty-year-old kid again, Noah? Hmm?”

Riley’s prosthetic fingers lightly pinched Noah’s cheek before letting go. Noah didn’t have a particularly high modification ratio.

Originally, despite having Wilderf, who loved big and powerful things and used industrial exoskeletons for combat, and Riley, who had been using prosthetic arms since childhood after an accident, Noah had only become modified five years ago.

“That’s because I’m going to see someone who only knows that twenty-year-old pure-hearted kid, Riley.”

“Don’t be silly, Noah. They’ll know all about how we worked with Nightwatch, right? And when we sent them Kanun patches, they sent this back. See?”

Riley tapped the patch attached to the edge of Noah’s mirror. It was the patch of the call sign Boogeyman, considered a legend in the industry since the fall of Hollowwood Creek. Something sold even at the Hive.

But it was different from other patches. Perhaps finding it cute that Noah’s gift had been a mercenary company patch, the call sign Boogeyman had sent a wedding invitation along with his patch.

Just as Noah had called him a mentor, Boogeyman had indicated that Noah was someone he could invite to his wedding. Though the wedding hadn’t gone quite as expected.

That wasn’t to say it was bad. The venue at Belwether headquarters was nice, and for a legend of the industry, it was modest and simple… was it modest and simple? Noah mulled over the memory.

There were at least five people at the wedding whose faces Noah couldn’t see. And Polaris had sung the congratulatory song. Like a small diamond isn’t modest, though small in scale, it was definitely not simple.

Just as Noah was getting used to that luxurious atmosphere, it lasted until the end of the wedding when Ms. Eve threw the bouquet. Was it when Mr. Volla jumped in asking if this was a modified human performance competition? No, it was before that.

It must have been when call sign Revenant, who had thrown off his formal jacket right after the photos were taken, started growling with his modified body, blatantly acting as if the bouquet was his. That was certain.

As Noah recalled, Volla jumped in first, and Riley leaped up grabbing Volla’s shoulders. After that, call sign Revenant jumped in, stepping on the reinforced suit of Polaris’s bodyguard. It was chaos.

Call sign Revenant had dragged Riley along like an ox pulling a plow, holding the bouquet and went all the way to Polaris, who created a silent zone and whispered something that made him almost throw the bouquet to the ground before stopping.

After all the commotion ended, Riley came back, leaned on Noah, and smiled with a mix of satisfaction and disappointment saying, “The performance gap is bigger than I thought.” That face… was the prettiest Noah had ever seen on Riley.

Why? It was just a tired face. Maybe it was because the reason for catching that bouquet had occurred to her. Noah finally finished adjusting his clothes and stood up, holding his bulletproof vest.

He steps out of Kanun’s office, which no longer needs insulation tape to block smog. He boards the bulletproof van with everyone from Kanun and heads to Nightwatch’s office. Now it’s a building where Nightwatch occupies two floors.

The top floor was taken by Mr. Enzo’s accounting office, certified by three corporations. Though he still prioritizes Nightwatch and Kanun’s work, he now has quite a few clients of his own.

The feeling when the Cash Wizard called drones that dropped anti-reinforcement firearms from the sky while a gang was resisting with some corporate-grade machine guns they’d found somewhere and reinforced armor… it was truly amazing.

As Noah was recalling past jobs and remembering that exhilarating moment, flexing his hands unconsciously, Kanun’s bulletproof van arrived in front of the office building. Arthur was visible as soon as they exited the parking lot.

Next to him was Ms. Eve; the two were standing in front of the window of an unmanned laundromat attached to the first floor of the building. It had been a while since Noah had seen children born rather than cultivated after leaving federal land.

Creating children through cultivation tanks was convenient. If you couldn’t pay the lump sum and had to pay installments over ten months, a Panacea Meditech employee would bring the child to your home once payments were complete.

On the other hand, such… traditional methods were almost a luxury. You could form an emotional connection with the child, and any aftereffects could be remedied by cultivating and transferring to a new body, but still, it was a luxury.

Noah clenched his fist unnecessarily. Enabling a loved one to indulge in luxury must be everyone’s dream. Noah had a decent guideline before him on how to achieve that dream.

He wanted to say his palm turned pale from clenching his fist so hard, but the artificial skin covering his prosthetic hand, which didn’t bleed, didn’t turn pale either. Noah quickly unclenched his fist and waved.

“It’s been a while! I, uh, heard you left Belwether… are you returning as a freelancer? Or are you joining Nightwatch’s work today…?”

Arthur let out a small laugh at those disjointed words. Noah envied even that composure. It was inevitable since he didn’t think his own image three years from now would be like that.

“This time I retired without dishonor. And my goal is to just enjoy life with a nameplate as an external advisor to Belwether Los Angeles branch’s security and audit teams.”

Even as a joke, the fact that the position title he could attach to his joke was an external advisor to a megacorporation branch made Noah feel intimidated. Noah stood even straighter.

Indecisiveness and hesitation had never helped in the mercenary business or in life. No matter how impressive the person before you, no matter how much you look up to them, you must stand with your chest out.

Only then did Arthur’s eyes scan Noah’s appearance up and down. Noah suddenly remembered that his mercenary experience was five times that of Arthur’s. It was a laughable thought.

Arthur’s short mercenary career was because he had completely flown beyond the life of a mercenary. In just half a year, he had received certification from five megacorporations, killed one megacorporation, and then disappeared.

Knowing that Noah wanted careful judgment, Arthur slowly examined Noah’s appearance before reaching out to pat his shoulder. Only then could Noah exhale and stand comfortably.

“Noah looks like a veteran now. The records of working with Nightwatch are good too… and it seems you’ve stopped just attaching Fitts & Morrison attachments to Belwether standard equipment, and you’ve survived for five years.”

“That’s because someone was there to keep me from going off track during the most unstable times… Without you, Mr. Arthur, I would have been collapsed on some street. Not now, but five years ago.”

He deliberately didn’t mention “in front of Fitts & Morrison security team’s gun barrels.” Not because the two didn’t know, but because there was no need to consider worst-case scenarios in such a setting.

Perhaps hearing their voices, call sign Revenant walked out from inside the building. So… this was also Mr. Arthur. Should I call him Mr. Solberson? Noah pondered only in his mind.

With one forearm replaced by a thermite grenade launcher like T-Enter’s assassins, and the other arm completely swapped for a flexible prosthetic used by T-Enter’s patent department, Revenant was quite famous among mercenaries.

Of course, the reason for the fame was… somewhat different. Whether using an unknown cultivator or not, the face was uncommonly pretty even among pretty faces, and being well-dressed and strong made Revenant famous.

Noah realized only now that he too was part of this city’s privileged class. After all, he knew that she was Polaris’s girlfriend. It was a secret that made his tongue itch.

Boogeyman approached Revenant and reached out his hand. Revenant tried to block it with the patent department prosthetic, but… Boogeyman was much more skilled. He ruffled Revenant’s hair thoroughly before speaking.

“Seems like you’re making good use of the arm I gave you, and your love life seems to be going well too… but where’s that mercenary who said ‘it’s cheaper to just modify than to get a new body and modify it’? What I see now is…”

“Why do you always come at me like this when you haven’t seen me for a while?! Do you spend your time thinking about how to ruin my mood every time you come to Los Angeles?!”

“You should watch your language, Arthur-2. You don’t kiss Mia with that mouth, do you?”

At those words, Revenant swung out a high-frequency blade from the tip of the prosthetic, but Boogeyman dodged it very lightly. He ruffled Revenant’s hair again as she growled.

The way he skillfully avoided the swinging prosthetic, even with the high-frequency blade actually vibrating, while keeping his hand on her head, seemed somewhat impressive to Noah. At the same time, it also seemed rather trivial.

“And, shit. It’s best to go to the same cultivator you’ve used before. What’s wrong with going to someone who has all the face modeling I’ve used?”

“The problem is that guy is our Jerome.”

“What matters is that he saved me, made me… no, forget it. He saved me! That’s all. I’m just repaying a favor by getting cultivated there, you… annoying bastard.”

Even to Noah, that excuse seemed flimsy. Revenant seemed to notice Noah’s expression but didn’t swing the prosthetic at him. She had swung at Boogeyman because she believed he could dodge it.

At the same time… seeing how well she was following the advice to watch her language, Noah could somewhat understand why Polaris liked Revenant. This time, Noah hid his expression.

Because he felt that even if he just thought such things, let alone saying them, a high-frequency blade-tipped hand would come flying at him. Fortunately, the argument ended there.

As Arthur picked up Eve lightly and began climbing the stairs to Nightwatch’s office, Riley playfully spread her arms toward Noah.

Since she didn’t really intend to be carried, when she saw Noah tensing his prosthetic muscles, she just burst into laughter as if finding it cute and patted him instead. Noah and Riley were always like this.

The office scene was also as usual. Wilderf, who had gone up ahead of Noah and Riley, was fueling his modification desires by discussing new prosthetic parts with Volla, and in one corner were Mr. Kay and the pale-white hacker.

That is… she was Silverlining’s hacker. Noah barely recalled. It would be Ms. Sarah. Though they didn’t often take jobs with Silverlining, which had at least three freelancer-level members, she was a frequent visitor here.

On the contrary, it was rare to see Neonsnake. For the first two years, they never showed their face at all, and after that, they started taking on a lot of work, saying they regretted wasting time until now.

Still, Dean’s face, appearing after two years, looked bittersweet. Even the statement about having wandered enough to put a period on it seemed quite cool to Noah. It must be because he was also a freelancer, Noah was certain.

Anyway, just because Mr. Arthur had been away from the city for a few years didn’t mean everything had fallen apart. For Noah, such predictions, assumptions, and imaginations were… nothing short of personal insults.

Kanun in its own way, and Nightwatch in its own way, knew how to live their lives. Everyone was moving forward in their own way and achieving something in their own way.

If everyone around a person collapsed miserably just because that one person disappeared, it would be the fault of those who collapsed. It would only mean they hadn’t even learned how to live alone.

With these swirling thoughts, Noah clenched his fist again, and only when Riley lightly leaned on his shoulder did he look around as if coming to his senses. Riley’s laughter was always comforting.

Ms. Nadia walked out from inside the office. Without opening her mouth, she gave a look to Mr. Arthur, who responded only with the voice module at the nape of his neck.

Ms. Nadia was an anomaly former. She could have removed the anomalous formation by replacing her heart, but she just wore a pacemaker and a computational assist device.

She had said that displaying the old heart was enough for her sister. A fitting statement from the sister of an engine-hearted former circuit racer.

Though it’s a new realization, Nightwatch’s office is always quite busy. I heard it was even more so right after Mr. Arthur left.

The fact that the legendary Boogeyman had worked there spread at an incredible speed through the Hive and the Net.

Still, Nightwatch’s President Yoon, instead of taking on new recruits, collaborated with the still somewhat inexperienced Kanun. Thanks to that, Kanun was able to grow to where it is now.

The reason was that Kanun, which could potentially bring in connections from Fitts & Morrison, was a much better choice than the riffraff who came targeting the industry legend… but that didn’t feel bad.

It always felt good to be useful, and now it was time to prove that usefulness. Today too, LA has many criminals who deserve to be shot. Fortunately, there’s never been a shortage of bullets.

After the story of Boogeyman catching a technomancer spread, quite a few copycats emerged who admired that technomancer. While the original technomancers conducted research for righteous purposes, these were not.

They were guys who wanted to become these necromancers of the early 22nd century, seeing only the technomancer’s bizarre form and ability to revive and control corpses. That wasn’t all.

Although some undertakers had converted to El Sueño faith, Santa Muerte faith and undertakers were still going strong. Brain prison transport vehicle attacks were also happening more frequently than expected.

All of them need to be made to pay the blood price. Noah considered it a personal insult that such guys were living in the same city as him without any worry or hesitation.

Kanun is the name of the bloody revenge for that insult. As Noah steeled his resolve to collect the blood price, the clock moved steadily toward Nightwatch’s business hours. It was time to work.