episode_0032

A supercar, into which he’d invested nearly half the money he earned from capturing Bram Stoker.

Although it was a used car bought through a car dealer, its good condition suggested it was something a wealthy person from the Upper City had driven.

They said they got tired of it after about a month and put it up for sale cheaply.

Even that cheap price was enough to make my hands tremble, so it really seemed that the wealthy people living in the Upper City were truly on a different level.

When I started the engine, a low, deep rumble and vibration spread, pleasantly traveling up my butt and arms.

“You’re about to get a body soon. Don’t you have any thoughts on it?”

[Assisting Jwabudong is sufficient in the current state, so having an organic terminal merely increases the available resources and therefore holds no significant meaning for this AI.]

“You boring ass…”

[Would you like to switch to humorous mode?]

“You have something like that?”

[No.]

Good heavens. A strong AI inside my head making a joke.

Truly, it’s the end of times.

I had left the discarded Little Vampire prototype, which Bram Stoker had stolen from Xenotech, with Mason.

It takes about a week to create an identity and other things, he said.

It was best to ask Mason to ensure that its unique properties wouldn’t accidentally be discovered by other illegal clinic operators or megacorps.

“By the way, are you male or female?”

[This AI does not possess a gender.]

“No, well… even so, wouldn’t there be an orientation? In this PC world, even a strong AI could deliberate over… how many was it? Seven hundred? Gender identities.”

[Gender or orientation are not data required to assist Jwabudong, and thus have not been set.]

They say technology has regressed decades due to the war, yet this trend of conflating idiotic orientations with gender has only deepened, making it an absolute mess.

I didn’t have much interest, but I wondered about the lodger in my head; perhaps such things simply didn’t apply to an AI.

Since it learns based on big data, I could only vaguely guess that perhaps it might still be set to heterosexuality by default, as that has the most data.

With such meaningless thoughts, I pressed the accelerator and raced along the roads of Eclipse Point.

As expected from an expensive supercar, the performance of its driving assistance system was superior to that of most average cars’ systems.

Of course, it couldn’t compare to the crazy maneuvers of someone like Jay Q, who was obsessed with direct control of cars and drones, but even on the densely packed roads, which were perfect for accidents, I could comfortably watch the street scenery and press the accelerator without encountering any dangerous moments.

Of course, Ayakashi subtly hacking the traffic signals and road cameras for an even more comfortable drive also helped.

Japan Town.

Along with Nexus Block, it was an advanced street in the Lower City where the well-off gathered, and unlike Centum Street where I lived, there was plenty of entertainment, attracting a large transient population seeking amusement.

As if to prove it, even in the evening hours when twilight was settling over the Upper City, people were flocking in and out of the various enticing entertainment establishments.

“Yawn… Everyone’s so diligent. Now that I’m a bit older, around this time, I just want to eat and sleep.”

[Negative. The nanowear inside Jwabudong’s body breaks down uric acid and beta-amyloid, making you free from physical and hormonal fatigue.]

“Do you think people move if you just oil them and roughly hit them?”

[Affirmative.]

You should move if you oil up your stomach and give them a good payday.

“That’s true. But people aren’t like machines, so they need to rest when it’s time to rest.”

Even if you do that, if you tell them to work 112 hours a week without rest, they’d go crazy in less than a month.

Huh. It seems everyone’s already doing that, though.

I parked my car in a terribly expensive paid parking lot that cost 5 credits an hour and started walking the streets of Japan Town.

The street scenery, honestly, didn’t really exude a Japanese atmosphere; it was more like the signs were simply written in Japanese, or a few shops had lattice-frame paper windows or tatami mats as a concept.

Of course, the whirring of anime-themed pachinko machines or the 3D cherry blossom tree modeling displayed on large panel screens were indeed hard to see on other streets.

‘By the way, there are a lot of people with unusual modifications.’

In truth, unusual modifications had already become a domain of fashion, but only to the extent of replacing arm and leg forms with mechanical ones, or creating unique colors with cybernetic tattoos or artificial eyes, or changing one’s hair.

If one had truly grotesque tastes, there were some who did things that would mentally exhaust you just by looking at them, but such extreme tastes were not mainstream in this era.

‘It wasn’t that extreme, though…’

Rather, it could be said that these modifications were more focused on the realm of fashion.

I saw quite a few people with bio-parts mimicking animal features.

‘Isn’t that just replacing parts with animal ones?’

There were differences in degree even among them, so some looked like clothed beasts walking on two legs, but it didn’t seem all that uncommon, as they were strolling the streets normally.

As I observed these people whose atmosphere differed from other streets, I arrived at an arcade game center in AM Kabukicho, my assigned location, and savored the thought.

2,000 credits a day.

It was money I barely earned in a month when I was a salaryman, working until I was on the verge of death from overwork, but considering the jobs I got from Luna’s team, it seemed small.

Still, 10,000 credits in just 5 days meant that my financial sense had truly become strange, rather than this being a small amount of money.

I could only thank the client and hope they would employ me for as long as possible.

Changing my mindset as a mercenary, I stepped into the game center, where various people were coming and going.

*Thump* At that moment, someone bumped into me.

“Hm?”

Perked white ears tickled my chin, and a strong alcohol scent mixed with artificial fruit fragrance filled the air.

“Hmm~? Oh, we bumped!”

The one who caused the collision was a woman in a rather provocative outfit, wearing mesh reaching to her collarbone, very minimal hot pants, and a padded jacket over an off-shoulder camisole shirt, and she appeared to have undergone a procedure for white fox ears and a luscious tail part.

If I glanced down, her underwear was visible, but this was within the realm of fashion, so it wasn’t particularly special.

The fox woman, lifting a visor with a Japanese phrase transliterated into English whose meaning I didn’t know, looked up at me with surprisingly sensual red eyes.

“Sorry~ I got drunk and bumped into you~”

The fox woman shook the chuhai can she was holding in front of me.

Peach flavored.

“It’s sweet, so you get drunk quickly if you drink it like that. I like it too, but they say Japan Town has been chaotic lately, so it’s dangerous to wander around like that.”

“Heh heh. It’s fine~ Still, thanks. Take this~”

“You were drinking that.”

But as if she had no intention of hearing my last words, the fox woman pushed the chuhai she was drinking onto me and then disappeared with stumbling yet light steps.

They say there are a lot of strange people in Japan Town, and it might indeed be true.

*Sip*

Of course, I drank it because it would have been a waste to leave half a can.

[This action is not recommended due to the risk of pathogen infection.]

‘I won’t die.’

The sweetness of the artificial sweetener and the strong cheap artificial peach flavor made it clear that Luna’s highballs were still tastier than this product.

Should I recommend it to her if I see her again later?

I completely emptied the peach chuhai can the fox woman had given me before leaving, and then entered the game center.

The interior of the game center was akin to a chaotic space indiscriminately filled with the background music of arcade games and the sounds of controllers being busily moved.

Even with full-dive technology developed, I wondered if these arcade games would be popular, but whether it was retro sensibility or a different kind of enjoyment from coming here directly to play, there weren’t few people.

‘By the way, there are a lot of people wearing fox parts.’

As I walked through the game center looking for the client, about half of the people had undergone procedures for fox parts or at least had accessories like masks or keyrings modeled after foxes.

I could only cautiously guess if it was some kind of mark.

‘They said he was the owner of this game center, didn’t they?’

I discreetly watched the arcade enthusiasts and couples having their credits drained while playing games, and looked for the counter.

Even the counter staff, lazily almost lying on a chair and eating snacks, had a fox hologram model displayed on the table and was roughly wearing a fox mask.

For some reason, it felt like a game center where a bronchial filter would be absolutely necessary.

“If there’s a problem with a game machine, don’t tell me, tell the management office over there.”

“Then what do you do?”

“Watch if many customers come.”

What a good life.

I never knew such a cushy job still existed in the world.

“Unfortunately, I’m not a customer, so it’s not your job. I’m a mercenary who received a request. The client seems to be here. Is that you?”

When I sent the mission brief file I’d received from Luna, he scratched his head and grumbled, then said he’d check and went up the stairs.

“They don’t seem like the type to be dealing with anything important enough to require an escort…”

Since the gatekeeper was so sloppy, it was obvious what the inside would be like.

In fact, most street organizations were like this, but perhaps it was because the organizations I had seen were the reckless Neo Shinsengumi, capable of casually occupying Nexus Block, or Hellstream, which possessed the potential to wage war against a gang alliance from an entire administrative district.

How many minutes had I waited?

What came down wasn’t the sloppy gatekeeper, but a woman who had undergone a procedure for black fox ears and a tail.

And she looked exactly like the drunk white fox woman who had just given me the chuhai can.

“Did you dye your hair in the meantime?”

“We’re twins.”

The black fox woman, as if accustomed to it, clarified the mystery and gestured for me to follow.