Chapter 2 : Anger. Kidnapping

I quickly got out of bed, shoved the revolver into my back pocket, and cautiously opened the door.

“Hehe. You’re here, unnie?”

“Unnie? Are you calling me unnie now? Ridiculous. When did you ever call me unnie?”

A woman with bright red hair that almost looked like it was on fire glared at me with crossed arms, scanning me from head to toe with an annoyed look on her face.

Her long hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she was wearing overalls, probably because she was fixing something broken in the motel building. She must’ve heard the gunshot and rushed over.

“So, why the hell did you shoot the gun in your room again? Please don’t tell me you’re making bullet holes instead of nails on the wall again?”

“Do you really think I’m crazy enough to do that?”

“Right? Even you wouldn’t make the same crazy mistake twice.”

“I heard something annoying on TV, so I shot it once.”

The landlord, Yulie, looked at me with a confused expression, wondering what on earth I had just said, and then glanced around my room.

“Wow, you really destroyed the TV?”

“Yep!”

“Good job. This is better. Well done.”

“Eh?”

What’s with the calm reaction?

If she had thrown a tantrum, I would’ve felt more at ease. But now, I feel a weird sense of anxiety crawling up my back.

“Last time, you shot the wall and cracked it, and I couldn’t even get an estimate on how much I’d have to pay. But breaking the TV is easy to calculate. Pay up for the TV, you idiot. It’s $1.5 million.”

“One… one million fifty thousand?”

$1.5 million?? How is that even possible for such an old TV?

I’d rather never watch TV again! I can’t pay it! No way!

“What, you have a problem with that?”

“Of course! But I have to pay for the TV. Hehe.”

In my imagination, I was confidently shouting “I won’t pay!” while lying flat on the floor, but in reality, I reluctantly gave in with a depressed voice.

If I had left while shouting that, my stomach might really be sliced open.

Even though the motel room is old and covered in dust, finding a place in Haven City for $400,000 a month to sleep comfortably is almost a miracle.

“I’ve opened the account. Send the money now.”

A blue light appeared in Yulie’s eyes, meaning she was using a multi-chip.

“Hold on.”

Do I even have money in my account?

I quickly checked, following Yulie’s example.

Balance: $10,850.

Hmm, I don’t even have enough for the $1.5 million.

“I don’t have that much.”

“You don’t have $1.5 million? Didn’t you have a lot of money?”

“Well, a religious person’s pockets have a bigger hole than the entrance, so more goes out than comes in. So, good sir, might as well treat it like a donation.”

“You fake nun. Now you’re even aiming for a monk’s seat, huh? Do you even know what ‘Namu Amida Butsu’ means?”

“Uh, no?”

“And you’re talking about donations? Get out! Get out, you idiot! Go out and make some money!”

“Ah! Ouch! Alright—”

I ducked and twisted to avoid Yulie’s hard slap on my back and eventually had no choice but to jump out the window of my room.

Whoosh, thud!

“Why do you keep going out through the window instead of the front door? It’s the third floor! You’ll get hurt!”

“If you were worried about that, you could just leave the door open!”

Beep—

I stuck my head out the window and stuck out my tongue to tease Yulie, who was looking down at me with a dumbfounded expression. Then, just in case she came after me, I quickly ran through the alley.

“Alright. Let’s find some work.”

I focused and immediately thought of the community site.

Welcome to the Beilboard.

» Recommended requests.
» Simple requests.
» High-paying requests sorted.
» Nearby requests sorted.
» Special─Heaven’s Abyss.

Even on the Beilboard, which gathers all the illegal and shady requests, requests from this neighborhood get special treatment.

Of course, not in a good way. Nobody really wants to step into this hellhole, so the trash piles up and gets separated from the rest.

» Latest “Heaven’s Abyss” requests.

I had already checked the request list a few days ago, so now I just needed to look for the new ones.

After sitting down in the alley and resting my chin in my hands, I started browsing the requests. About 15 minutes later, I noticed something odd.

“Wait…”

Was I seeing this right? I scrolled up and down, rereading it, but I was sure I had seen it correctly.

“This is…”

Double request!

A rare situation where two groups are competing for the same item on the Beilboard.

This time, both parties were requesting to find the same little girl.

One is a gang. The other… maybe the biological father?

» Requestor: Circuit Lambs.
» Goal: Yuna Chevalier (9 years old, female), living or dead – doesn’t matter.
» Content: Find Yuna Chevalier, who disappeared on 5/2/2075. As long as you bring the body, alive or dead, it doesn’t matter. If you can’t get the whole body, bringing the torso or head is fine.
» Reward: $10 million.

» Requestor: Yui Chevalier, Folklinda Chevalier.
» Goal: Yuna Chevalier (9 years old, female), living only.
» Content: Looking for their daughter, Yuna Chevalier, who went missing on 5/1/2075. Last seen playing near Mild shopping center. Bring her back alive, if not, just breathing is fine.
» Reward: $3,773,700.

The parents don’t seem to have much money, so the reward is a bit low.

But for a double request like this, the key is to play both sides, going back and forth and making up lies to increase the reward.

Let’s go for Circuit Lambs first.

I felt good about this job, thinking it wouldn’t be too hard.

What kind of people are the Circuit Lambs?

From their name, I could guess they were a bunch of weirdos obsessed with some strange cyber-religion. They believe the internet and cloud world is a paradise and that an invisible god lives in it.

Each of their gang members is a computer expert, and 90% of the hacking tools and programs in the illegal market come from them.

Naturally, they’re also into cyberware and body modifications, so their appearance is mostly mechanical, making them look like robots rather than humans. You could spot them from 300 meters away.

As I walked around the Mild shopping center, I immediately spotted one of them.

“Ah! Ahh! Aah! He’s coming! I can feel the data flowing through my circuits! This is definitely a blessing!”

“Ugh, crazy idiot.”

The guy, with multiple antennas sticking out from his shiny bald head, was messing with a circuit box behind an old building, connecting cables to his head like some sort of weird ritual.

“Ugh… it’s… it’s coming!!”

Suddenly, the guy who had been yelling nonstop went silent, and I saw his pants begin to wet.

It wasn’t enough to be pee, so I figured it had to be something else.

“Oh, shit.”

I didn’t want to mess with the Circuit Lambs gang, but this was too much to ignore.

Bang!

The guy who had been lost in his cyber-world suddenly returned to reality with a broken leg, rolling on the asphalt in agony.

“My leg! My leg!!”

“Yeah, that’s why my revolver’s name is Dali. Say hello.”

With one shot to the shin, I made him squirm in pain, screaming about my Dali. It’s a perfect name for it.

“Ahh! It hurts! It hurts!”

Is this guy really a gang member? He’s whining way too much.

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll make your other leg match the first. Three, two, one.”

“Huff… huff…”

“Good, that’s much better.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

I squatted down in front of the whimpering gang member, matching his height, and smiled sweetly.

“Yuna Chevalier. A 9-year-old girl. Where is she?”

“Who?”

“Yuna Chevalier. The girl you guys kidnapped on 5/1 and lost on 5/2.”

When I compared the two requests, I realized something.

The parents lost their daughter on 5/1, but Circuit Lambs lost her on 5/2.

Obviously, they kidnapped her on the 1st and lost her the next day.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Yeah, I don’t. If a 9-year-old girl goes missing around here for two days, she’s either going to end up in a snuff film or worse!”

As I listened to him, I got disgusted and was about to retort, but he wasn’t wrong, so I didn’t know what to say.

I just felt even worse.

Bang!

“Aaaah!! My leg!! Why are you shooting again, you crazy b*tch!”

“If you keep talking like that, I’ll shoot your head next. Think carefully before you answer.”

The gang member, now missing both legs, nodded weakly, holding back tears.

“Two days ago, on May 2nd. Was there any trouble at your hideout, anyone running away, or anything?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Tell me.”

“A group of Raiders suddenly attacked our hideout, taking everything valuable, including some of our members.”

“Raiders?”

“Yeah, those crazy people who eat humans. They live in the outskirts, in places without electricity.”

…shit.

So, this gang couldn’t even handle it themselves and had to post a request on the Beilboard. That’s bad.

But the fact that the Raiders took them means they went beyond the outskirts.

District 10…

Officially, it’s an area that the city has abandoned. People eat human flesh there.

In District 10, even if you call HCPD, they won’t come.

“We’ll bring the teachings of our great leader to District 10.”

Time for the lovely Sister Reilia’s mission.