episode_0026

Tony Boney A Sector.

It was the center of Tony Boney, a slum, but compared to other sectors with low public safety, it was a place where one had less to worry about regarding gangs.

Here, too, the intense pollution still scattered the light, hurting the eyes, but it was at least better than other places.

We dismounted from Jay Q’s beloved car. Although we had limited our search to Sector A, we still felt annoyed at the prospect of having to explore such a ridiculously vast area, yet we put our heads together and strategized.

“What Bram Stoker seems to have committed are vampiric attacks and kidnappings. For the past month, they’ve accounted for 75% of the kidnappings here. And cameras show that when they attack a victim, they subdue them on the spot, ensuring the victim isn’t hurt as much as possible, and then take them somewhere.”

“The problem is we don’t know where that ‘somewhere’ is.”

“But since we’ve determined they’re gathering in Sector A, we’ll have to hide beforehand and follow them.”

“Undercover investigations are boring.”

The memory of hiding in a room corner for an entire week, munching on grasshopper chips, came to mind, and I shivered as I complained, but Jay Q scoffed as if amused and patted my side.

“If it’s 300,000 credits for a bit of boredom, then of course it should be boring. And since the EPSB has officially sanctioned the bounty, mercenaries will flock here. If you don’t want our money stolen, keep your eyes wide open.”

“I know, so stop nagging. I’m considering putting on my auditory filters right now.”

Only after blocking my ears from Jay Q’s incessant nagging did I finally feel relieved. I consulted with the other three, and we decided to wait on the rooftops of buildings within a 500m radius of each other.

Although the visibility wasn’t great, the advantage of high ground remained.

It was also a strategy based on data suggesting that there was no simpler way to transport victims to Sector A without being detected than by running across rooftops.

“I always think this, but can anyone actually live in this damned Tony Boney?”

[“What are you rambling about now?”]

Perched on the rooftop railing, feeling as if I were above the clouds, I gazed at the faint neon glow barely rising from below, already discarding a pack’s worth of cigarette butts onto the rooftop floor.

“Think about it. Every day you wake up, instead of a clear morning, it’s just gloomy with thick smog, making it impossible to see ahead. There might even be hallucinogenic components from some factory in the smog. It’s truly a shitty place to live, isn’t it?”

[“Wouldn’t hallucinogenic components be good? Drug addicts would happily drink it up.”]

“Hmph.”

Indeed, perhaps the mindset of Eclipse Point residents was different.

Well, if hallucinogenic components were mixed in, drug addicts would have guzzled it down like free drugs.

No, wait. If that were the case, wouldn’t MegaCorp collect the smog, extract only the hallucinogenic components, and start selling them?

Even I thought it was an innovative business idea.

To be able to generate profit from trash as drugs.

“Anyway, 300,000 credits must be a lot. Mercenaries are already swarming into Sector A.”

[“And you, without an aerosol bypass vision system, are seeing quite well.”]

Of course, I couldn’t see properly down there with my eyes.

But I was using Ayakashi to hack all the surrounding surveillance cameras as a substitute for vision.

A man in a suit, walking nonchalantly among fierce-looking mercenaries, despite his gentle smile and harmless impression; a giant with a chainsaw sword strapped to his shoulder and a shark’s head from a bio-ware procedure; a woman hunched over, seemingly searching for prey like a spider, and so on.

One by one, extraordinary-looking mercenaries were roaming the streets.

They quietly passed each other as if non-interference was the rule.

Their numbers increased day by day.

If on the first day the ratio of pedestrians to mercenaries was 9:1, after a week of inhaling smog on the rooftop, half the people walking the streets were mercenaries who had come for the bounty.

Ordinary citizens must have felt the grim atmosphere by now, as the number of people roaming the streets gradually decreased, which would further increase the ratio.

“Even though we came early, we ended up at the same starting line with no special gains.”

This thick smog is the problem.

Even though we secured the high ground, we couldn’t even see 10 meters ahead properly, so even if they were moving on the rooftops, we couldn’t catch them.

As if aware of this, the Bram Stoker incidents steadily increased, and perhaps gaining confidence, damage occurring in Sector A also began to appear.

And it was targeting the mercenaries who had come to catch Bram Stoker.

“Damn it. What if someone else snatches it?”

On the rooftop floor of the building I was assigned, hundreds of cigarette butts were already strewn about, nervously crushed.

Moreover, I had even developed a habit of restlessly bouncing my leg out of anxiety.

I had boasted to Emily, the TNEP reporter, that I would get her an exclusive on Bram Stoker. How embarrassing would it be if I couldn’t even get close to Bram Stoker and it was snatched away by other mercenaries?

‘If I just silently eliminate the mercenaries first and pin it on Bram Stoker…’

That anxiety made me even consider eliminating competitors, but even so, that crossed a line.

“What’s more, were the constructions in this damned slum done shoddily? Buildings collapse all the time.”

Listening to news from Tony Boney while getting free paid channels at an electronics shop, the daily reports of building collapses were always mixed in.

The series of collapses, which strangely seemed to be getting closer to Sector A, felt a little bothersome, but soon it became so boring that I dismissed it.

[At midnight today, Chairman John Wheeler Garcia granted temporary permission for the air purification system to operate in Tony Boney from the Upper City.]

“Hmm?”

[In simple terms, tonight will be clear. At the same time, this matter is a Class 2 secret of Eclipse Point, so it is believed that no mercenary knows this information.]

“That’s good news.”

Just when I felt like I was losing my mind in the stagnant situation.

I curled the corners of my lips at the story from Ayakashi, the resident in my head, a story that made it feel like I could grasp the hand of Lady Luck.

Tonight is the chance.

Finally, a day I can run wild.

***

*Whirrrrrrrrrrr—*

The enormous fluid intake system above Tony Boney activated, sucking in the smog that had settled over Tony Boney in an instant, as if flaunting its immense power.

It was a political strategy by Chairman John Wheeler Garcia to raise his approval ratings within Tony Boney, but thanks to it, Tony Boney could gaze at panels displaying a clear night sky from the Upper City floor for the first time in nearly 10 years.

With the thick, toxic smog that had made breathing difficult even with bronchial filters gone, it was a night where one could truly understand what it meant for the air to “taste good.”

With the opened visibility, the eyes of the mercenaries who had been crouching and waiting for their moment sparkled, and a massive battlefield was about to unfold with Sector A as its stage.

“Shit. If it could be handled this simply, why didn’t they do it right away?”

“Providing services like this to beggars like those in Tony Boney doesn’t make money, you perverted cross-dressing bastard.”

Blake, who was kicked by Jay Q again today, picked up the rifle from his arms and licked his lips, but unfortunately, their deathmatch couldn’t commence.

Because they had spotted a black figure running across a building rooftop in the distance.

Whether it was a mercenary or truly Bram Stoker, we didn’t know, but having always been stymied in the progress of the case since arriving in Sector A, our eyes glinted, and we began to chase it.

“Follow it! Don’t lose sight of it!”

“I know, I know.”

“I’ll go first. Let the person who catches the fucking Vampe first take more.”

With Blake, a giant, quickly scaling the rooftops, Raleigh already flying, and Jay Q angrily sending out drones, complaining about being late, I too finished preparing to depart.

‘I just hope it’s not some strange mercenary sabotaging things.’

And then, treading on the hard rooftop, I sprinted and leaped!

The streets of Tony Boney, uncomfortably clear and illuminated by neon lights.

Soaring above them, I battled air resistance, then rolled onto the opposite building’s rooftop, landed, and immediately got up to run again.

*Flap!* Each time I leaped between buildings, the hem of my bulletproof coat fluttered, and something moved swiftly within the neon light.

The mercenaries, moving quickly like wolves scenting blood.

‘Ayakashi. Cut the power to the area.’

[Confirmed. Power supply to Block C-37 terminated.]

*Click- Click- Click- Click-*

One by one, the block’s lights vanished, and in the densely packed streets lined with buildings, only the faint starlight from ceiling displays remained as a light source, casting a deep darkness.

Even in the pitch-black darkness, I could sense the confusion of those below.

Ultimately, it was a game where the first to reach Bram Stoker by following the moving evidence would win.

And I had a super-AI outside the game board helping me.

With my competitors’ movements hindered, Blake, Raleigh, and I could easily catch up to the sprinter running atop the buildings.

Prosthetics on its head, moving on all fours as if reason had flown away, and what looked like a bloody lump of a victim being dragged along.

“Found it…!”

A creature similar to the one that attacked Emily was clearly heading towards a destination.

Now, if only I could follow it from a distance without being noticed…!

“Hmm~ Is that the vampire that’s been causing such a stir in the city lately? What was its name again… Ah, Bram Stoker?”

“When…!”

Was he East Asian? He had the same black hair and black eyes as me.

The man in the trench coat, with a gentle smile, was somehow speaking beside me.

[“What is this all of a sudden?”]

“You’re a mercenary who came to catch Bram Stoker too, aren’t you?”

“You’re…”

*CRACK!* As I tried to pull away from the sudden appearance of that guy, a thick hand shot through the rooftop floor and grabbed my ankle.

“Argh…!”

“Hahahaha! Sorry, but I want to catch Bram Stoker myself. Competing with skilled people like you is quite bothersome~ Couldn’t you just give way?”

The guy laughed, cupping his hands to his cheeks, as if mocking me.

But I couldn’t move.

The monstrous strength of the hand gripping my leg was so immense that even my enhanced body couldn’t break free!

“Ah~ And could you tell your friend to turn that muzzle away? They look scary with that gas mask on.”

“Fuck off.”

*CRACK!* With the sound of an electromagnetic accelerated metal pellet firing from a sniper rifle, the rooftop collapsed, accompanied by the immense force pulling me downwards.

Amidst fragments of reinforced concrete, still used in 2099, I saw a monstrous-looking creature wearing a mask with its lower jaw split open, exposing its gums and white teeth, gripping my leg. And then I saw the East Asian man, pulling out what seemed to be a massive modular axe from nowhere, deflect Raleigh’s sniper shot with a *CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-*.

*THUD!*

“Gah!”

Slammed into the ground, I exhaled the air from my lungs, rolling through what seemed to be the interior of a house, turning it into a mess.

“Haa… I thought this might be easy.”

Making money is hard, as expected.