ch8

Booaaang—!!

Screeeeeech…!!

A sharply designed sports car drifted roughly and came to a halt in front of the research center’s main gate, where fire extinguishing and data recovery operations were in full swing. A peculiar person who would drive a tire car in a wasteland with no proper roads, someone who could freely access the heavily guarded territory of Mega Corp.

If you still can’t grasp the situation after seeing this, look at the Droids on hoverbikes guarding the sports car and the combat helicopters hovering imposingly in the air. A VIP among VIPs, a member of the Enama Corporation’s ruling class, had personally arrived.

The person in charge, who had been wearing a serious expression while trying to manage the scene, rushed over and bowed deeply to the young man who was getting out of the sports car roughly.

“There was absolutely no need for Amagi-nim to come in person…! I will arrange things immediately!”

“……”

The man’s eyebrows twitched, and he carefully examined the person in charge’s face. Then, after taking in the sight of the research center’s exterior, which was excellently charred, he asked in a calm voice.

“…You. Is this your first time seeing me?”

“Yes…? Yes…! That’s right! It’s my first time serving someone affiliated with the board of directors! I am truly honored to see Amagi-nim’s face….”

“Enough.”

“Cough?!”

The man, who had been called Amagi twice, roughly grabbed the person in charge’s hair and made him lift his head. Unlike his youthful appearance, he met the person in charge’s eyes with his sticky, dark gaze and said clearly.

“…First time, you say… I’ll be lenient just this once. From now on, call me Edamatsu-nim. Calling me Amagi reminds me of my father. And….”

Edamatsu Amagi kindly. Personally moved the person in charge’s head to look at the employees and the research center, who had frozen in their tracks.

“The Mobile Suppression Strike Force dispatched due to suspicions of asset and research data leaks, annihilated. The trackers and recovery team dispatched as reinforcements, also annihilated. The research center is half-destroyed. Really. Was there no need for me to come and check in person? Huh?”

“I… I’m sorry…!! I misspoke!”

“I don’t know if I should tolerate you making two mistakes in one go.”

He brushed aside the person in charge, who had started chattering his teeth, and busily moved to inspect the scene himself.

Smashed security robots and Hovercrafts, and troops who had died without even entering the interior. Bullet-riddled barricades, melted corpses, and, as the crowning touch, lost research data.

“……What a mess.”

For this to happen in the Delta Sector he was in charge of…. In order to find even the slightest clue about the mastermind, Edamatsu’s brain gathered the remaining traces. The enemy was excessively thorough. It was only natural, considering they had deliberately sought out and occupied a remote Mega Corp property. But to not only erase the surveillance camera recordings but also smash the heads of the deployed corporate soldiers….

“……Indeed.”

The corners of Edamatsu’s lips twisted.

The resurrection technology that revives humans from their brains is a top-secret service on the verge of completion that has not yet been disclosed to other Mega Corps. The only ones who know about this are the closely monitored research team and Enama’s royal family. If this were to be released to the world, they would rake in Credits, so some infighting to claim a larger piece of the sweet pie before that happens is, in a way, a predictable course of events.

He grinned.

Which of his siblings should he probe first…?

Even though he was making completely wrong assumptions due to his paranoia, the mad dog who simply… had a reason to bare his teeth. Seemed happier than ever.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

“Um… Mister, miss. Can you really promise me that if I install this, no one will come looking for me later…? I haven’t even paid off the loan I borrowed from Paradise yet…!”

“……If you keep refusing the procedure like this, I can’t guarantee anything either.”

“Ah… I understand! I understand…!!”

Clunk…. Whirrrrr…!!

The flustered mechanic grandpa hurriedly manipulated the panel, and the shop’s equipment started operating with a slightly worrying noise. A light anesthetic was administered, and a mechanical arm with a bunch of laparoscopic surgery tools approached and made a slit in her thin wrist. Soon after, a film with a thin barcode-like pattern was injected and sealed with a laser. In an instant, the installation of the future world’s simple wallet was complete.

Beep…!

She used the Implant she had just installed to pay the Credits to the still-trembling grandpa and left the shop.

She understands his worries. A pretty girl who doesn’t even have a basic Implant that even three-year-olds have. He probably saw her as a runaway rich daughter’s whim… Thanks to that, she didn’t have to give him hush money separately.

…Seriously, that’s so lucky. I don’t even have enough Credits to eat and die right now.

[ Balance: 893,600 C ]

“Hoo…….”

Not bad considering she earned it in just one day since being born. In fact, it’s not just not bad, it’s a level of balance where she doesn’t have to worry about eating and sleeping right away… but there’s a very important problem.

“Ugh…!!”

Filled with resentment and injustice, she glared at the horizon.

The vast and tall walls and skyscrapers of the metropolis that more than filled her vision. The terrifyingly spewing factory smoke. The various neon lights that looked like fireflies from this distance. It was a majestic sight that seemed to make her realize how powerless an individual was.

That wasn’t the largest metropolis, Neo Haven, but Harvest Planet, another city nearby? The Great War may have devastated most of Earth and human civilization, but it clearly made a significant contribution to technological advancement.

Now, here’s a question. Where am I, looking at Harvest Planet? The answer is a settlement near the city! Then, what do you need to enter the city? That’s right… citizenship!

And… the price demanded by the professional broker who creates that citizenship is a whopping one million Credits. It’s cheap for creating a plausible life story and background through an agent. …Of course, she would have tried it herself if she had known how to write a citizenship.

“110,000 Credits…….”

It’s quite difficult even when she mutters it out loud.

Most of the Credits she currently has are from scraping together the gun prices. The Hovercraft, which should have been the most expensive, was sold to her at a price almost similar to the scrap car cost… because the junk shop owner was too reluctant to touch Mega Corp’s stuff.

Should she go back now and demand a higher price…? But if she did that, and the owner held a grudge and reported her to the company, the tail she barely managed to cut off might be caught again.

“……”

Perhaps because she was standing blankly in the middle of the day, passersby kept glancing at her. She had a bad thought: what if she hacked about a thousand Credits from everyone’s wallets and gathered a Spirit Bomb…?

Clatter….

However, that devilish idea. Vanished like a bubble at the sound of the canned food rattling in her arms.

She could rip off companies or outlaw bastards as much as she wanted, but she couldn’t rob the lifeline of these refugees who were just trying to make a living day by day and save up Credits to buy citizenship like her.

Money is Credits, Credits are credit, the value that human has. In a world where crops don’t grow unless it’s in a controlled environment, running out of Credits is the same as facing the immediate risk of starvation.

She… really wanted to be proud when some foolish AnDroid woke up….

Look, your master, even in the most dire circumstances. Did not lose her humanity, her brilliance like you. Know it as an honor and serve her well…!

“Pfft…!!”

She felt happy and full of energy just imagining it.

If she wants to earn money, she has to work, why is she thinking about stealing from the start… Maybe she’s the perfect talent for this world.

The game Neo Haven was naturally an open-world game set in Neo Haven-Emerald City-, but there were also stories and quests related to other metropolises. The information about citizenship and brokers wasn’t something she suspiciously asked around for here in the settlement, but something she already knew, so if she retraced her steps well, she could come up with a way to legitimately. Earn 110,000 Credits in a short amount of time.

So… how did I, level 1 Anastasia, manage to afford the outrageous upgrade costs and equipment setup expenses?

“……Ah.”

Shit. Her face flushed with heat. Her arms automatically wrapped around her body.

She can gain energy from imagination, but how embarrassing is it what she actually did in the past. No… back then, this body was my ideal character, so I earned Credits by doing those kinds of things while saying ‘Ooh yeah ooh yeah!’!

“!!”

First of all, because the surrounding gazes started to be interpreted in a completely different meaning, she couldn’t stand it and ran back into the shop and asked the mechanic grandpa, ‘Do you happen to need an employee?’

Of course, she was rejected.