episode_0070

“Ah~ and Sonagi Yang. Come on in.”

The old man with the pure white beard smiled broadly and hugged Sonagi with both arms wide open.

“Grandpa, your body is tired now…”

After staring at him for a while, Sonagi let him go and motioned for Jihoon to sit down as she sat on the sofa.

Ji-hoon wasn’t a psychopath who disliked a warm atmosphere, so he was able to sit back, relax, and smile pleasantly.

Would someone who seemed to be friendly with Sonagi, let alone someone else, play with money? It would be impossible unless he had three lives.

” Huh, my son and grandchildren have become a dog who works in the company, but how will I empty the store.

“Really… Grandpa, no matter what, you are still my son.”

“What about your son..”

He looked at Ji-hoon, clicking his tongue blatantly. Then he opened his eyes wide.

“Oh.. Oh, is this the boyfriend I was talking about before? He looks really handsome, just like Sonagi said. Yes! It seems like he doesn’t use a brain chip, and he’s really healthy! He’s healthy.”

“Ah, yes… haha, I don’t have any cyberware treatment due to some circumstances. Nice to meet you. My name is Kim Ji-hoon.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll just… what is it, call me Grandpa.”

Stroking his pure white beard, he looked like an old wizard from a fantasy movie.

Ji-hoon felt strangely trusting of his strange appearance, but he did not go.

There is a saying that as you get older you become wiser, but on the other hand, there is also an image that older people are weak to new technologies.

What about in a cyberpunk world? Would they prefer old-fashioned methods like the 21st century elders who are not good at using smartphones?

“Oh, Grandpa. I came here to get the things that are here.”

Sonagi smiles and sends Jihoon a list of things he needs to get.

Grandpa Im looked at it silently, then nodded his head and made a “hmm, hmm, hmm” sound.

“I happen to have all of these.”

“Really? Then can you give it to me right away?”

“But… you know, even if I wanted to give it to you, this… hmm…”

He spoke weakly and sighed deeply, as if the ground was sinking.

Although he didn’t open his mouth to explain, Ji-hoon could tell that he was in a difficult situation. Where in the world would you find a store that wouldn’t give you something when you wanted to buy it?

“Nagiya, I think something is going on.”

“Grandpa, you and I have known each other for more than a day or two, right? When I came to Seoul and worked, you would sometimes fix me up when I got shot.”

“What.. That’s because Sonagi Yang brought money, so I treated her…”

“The treatment fee is 100,000 won, Grandpa.”

As Sonagi speaks, holding the chrome-plated hand of the old man, he groans and closes his eyes.

“That’s right. Miss Sonagi… You know I wouldn’t be so shameless as to ask you such a favor, right?”

“I know. My grandfather is not the type of person to ask for something like this. I also solved my son’s problem on my own.”

Seeing Sonagi say that, Jihoon decided to briefly calculate the gains and losses.

‘Can’t I get it from any other store besides this old man’s?’

If it was something that would take too much time, I should consider helping Ji-hoon since he already had the money if I could get it.

[Scanning… Scanning…]

Ji-hoon fiddled with his sunglasses and glanced around the surrounding stores.

Unfortunately, the item Hong Seo-yeon requested was not available in any other store.

It may simply be that they don’t leave it in the store, but I could tell that wasn’t the case from what the old man in front of me was saying.

“Those… CMP guys…have been locked in the warehouse for days and won’t come out…and they can’t even bring in items via drone…”

“Ah…”

Sonagi sighed and scratched his head.

“What, what is CMP? Nagi. What is that abbreviation?”

“Cult of the Mara-Papiyas, or CMP for short, there are these guys that are running around terrorizing that megacorp.”

“That’s a damn long name…”

It may be an abbreviation, but Ji-Hoon thought that the moment he heard the words cult or Mara, it wasn’t a proper group.

“But why are those guys who hate Megacorp blocking this warehouse?”

“Well… isn’t it obvious? I don’t like the stuff that Megacorp puts out here…”

“They can also be used as weapons. Isn’t that killing two birds with one stone? If necessary, they can sell them on the black market.”

At the mention of the black market, Ji-hoon pointed as if to say, “Here?”

“No, not here… There’s a really thoroughly hidden underground in the cyber network. There, they sell various items that can’t be traded in Neo Seoul.”

“You’re using it as a money bag.”

At Ji-hoon’s words, Sonagi nodded her head vigorously without saying anything.

“These days… there are cases where you can make money by opening a store in a normal way, but it’s just a small hole-in-the-wall store. What would you do in a world where Megacom is all you can eat? Those CMP guys are the ones making money with the nonsense that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body.”

“…. Last time I looked, there was a place that had a sign saying Future Company and did beauty treatments.”

Starting from a small convenience store, they manufacture and sell military weapons, which is the mega corporation of this world. It is definitely a world where even a small beauty salon or hole-in-the-wall store would have a hard time surviving.

You know, the alleyway business? In the world of cyberpunk, there’s no way to respect that, and no one thinks it needs to be protected.

“Anyway, you know… I can’t get the stuff in the warehouse because of those CMP guys.”

Grandpa Im shook his head from side to side as if he was really sorry.

“It must be the same everywhere else, right?”

“Well.. if you go down to Incheon or Busan, there might be items there, but there’s also a high chance that there won’t be.”

“It takes too long there. Is it the same as going to Yongsan and back? ”

At least Yongsan was within Seoul.

At Ji-hoon’s words, Sonagi smiled bitterly and shrugged her shoulders.

“I can’t get this. I don’t think you can get it at any electronics store run by other Megacorps. You can’t buy the Cyberware Implant separately. It’s normal to buy it while getting the procedure done.”

“Not sold separately?”

“Oh, because you can do things like illegal procedures. It’s not a problem with private money or anything like that…”

According to Sonagi’s words, the only real way to save this place was to destroy the CMP, the gang that controlled this place.

Ji-hoon is troubled.

It wasn’t a good intention to save Grandpa Im. Hong Seo-yeon said she needed these items because they were materials to create a device that could remotely control her replicants.

It would probably be quite a pain if we didn’t get it. There’s nothing more ridiculous than having the program completed but not having the device to control the replicants.

‘I really have to save it…’

If you’re really in Busan, you can go down there with a big heart and come back up, but the problem is you don’t know that.

What if there’s a gang like CMP there too, and they control it there too? They just waste a ton of time and do what they do here.

“Nagiya. How about we put in some effort?”

“…You want to beat up those CMP kids and help Grandpa? That Grandpa has a secret secret that he’s always looking for money… If we help him, he’ll take the money, right?”

Sonagi muttered, and Jihoon clicked his tongue. Grandpa Im didn’t just bring in the stuff, so he should get paid for it.

Ji-hoon, who had no intention of saying anything, just shook his head from side to side.

“Hey, but I need these parts to even start this heist. I can’t help it.”

“Haa.. That heist you were talking about earlier? What did he say? The vice president of Mirae Enterprise did something shitty with the fake Hong Seo-yeon and then killed her? ”

Ji-hoon nodded. Sonagi snorted, thinking, “That would be funny,” while stroking her hair.

If Mirae Enterprise falls into Ji-hoon’s hands, there are also benefits. Sonagi, who had been planning to help from the beginning, nodded in agreement.

“Grandpa, then let us help you. That warehouse, it’s right here, right?”

“Hehehe… Me… It would be nice if Sonagi Yang helped me without taking money… CMP… Those guys are really scary. Really….”

He spoke, clicking his tongue, and slowly got up from his seat.

‘I guess he really is a money-hungry old man… He openly says he can’t give me money…’

But what can I do?

A thirsty person must dig a well. Ji-hoon didn’t really think about ‘hinting’ to the old man who was getting old. If he could just get the item by hinting, he would have done so…

“Those guys… They’re really bad guys…”

Grandpa Lim, who got up from his seat, reached out to the display case behind him, grabbed it, and spun it around with a “Whirl!”

A display case with giant cyberware arms and legs suddenly changes.

The space has been transformed into a flashy display of black guns, sniper rifles with unicorns on them, miniguns, and more, and Grandpa Lim, with his pure white beard, smiles brightly.

“Hehehe, take the useful ones from among those here.”

“Oh…Fuck…”

“I told you I was a good person, right? I know you’re a spendthrift, but you’re also a spendthrift.”

Sonagi smiled and reached for the minigun, which seemed impossible to hold with one hand.

* * * * * * * *

“Let’s see, one… two… , there’s a lot here. Ten… twenty-five…”

Ji-hoon finished scanning with his sunglasses and shivered slightly.

He had no intention of fighting directly anyway.

He was planning to toy with humans using various machines installed in the warehouse and make a spectacular final blow to Sonagi.

“This much is easy…”

There is no need to hypnotize men.

Ji-hoon stretched leisurely and signaled to Sonagi to start.

“Then~”

Even a shower would think that this was a piece of cake.

She didn’t use the minigun on her back from the beginning, but instead ran into the huge warehouse with the pistols in both hands.

Sonagi quickly ran into the warehouse where numerous items made by Megacorp were piled up on top of each other.

“Okay then…”

Ji-hoon leisurely puts his hand on the HUD.

Men rush towards the sudden shower, blocking the door installed in front of them.

Bang bang! The men who had been making a fuss in the security office jump up in surprise at the sound of gunfire and block the door so they can’t come out.

Ji-hoon, who was connected to the warehouse’s intranet, could do anything.

The CMP gang members were able to make it so that the alarm wouldn’t go off even if they were frantically pressing the red button.

“Heeek…!”

“What, what is it! What’s wrong with the door! What are those guys in the security office doing!”

The fire door could have been slammed shut and locked in people one by one.

“Jihoon!”

You could have Sonagi signal the enemy around the corner, activate the sprinklers to surprise them, and then let her take care of them.

“Uh… Jihoon.”

It seemed like I could easily destroy the CMP guarding the warehouse and finish Hong Seo-yeon’s errand…

“Something seems fucked up.”

It wasn’t the shower at the scene. And Ji-hoon, who could check her vision, also realized something.

In front of Sonagi were men. They were men wearing pure white uniforms that looked like they came out of a martial arts movie, and they had lean, muscular bodies.

Of course, Sonagi was guarding the door, so he calmly aimed his pistol at their heads and fired.

─Whoosh

─Hook

They took a stance, dodging the flying bullets as naturally as flowing water.

A pose that looks like it came out of a martial arts novel.

“What is this…”

Ji-hoon was dumbfounded, but he had a cyber hypnosis app.

Although he was reluctant to use it on men, he quickly touched the HUD as it was an emergency.

“…uh.”

does not exist.

The men in front of Sonagi didn’t have brain chips.

“What the heck… . Foot…”

A healthy body houses a healthy mind.

Ji-hoon realized belatedly what those words meant, and he could feel deep down that CMP was truly a bunch of crazy guys.