ch9

“God damn it…. Fuck…. You piece of shit…!!”

BANG BANG!!

The man, unable to hide the trembling in his voice, kicked his hoverbike roughly. But despite the repeated kicks, the engine remained silent. He was truly, with the comfortable Harvest Planet right in front of him, stranded in this sandstorm-ridden wasteland.

“Fuck… fuck…!”

His teeth chattered, and his voice grew fainter.

A citizen left alone outside the city, with no system or witnesses. To make matters worse, he had his company ID card hanging proudly around his neck, lest he be harassed by the gate guards. If he were discovered by a gang or outlaw… at best, he’d be executed as a corporate dog, or perhaps tied up alive and have all the Implants in his body ‘harvested.’

A shiver…!

He frantically looked around, feeling as if the imagination would become reality any moment.

If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have been so careless, thinking it was just a simple unmanned food plant inspection. He should have just used the taxi service. It’s all the company’s fault, spouting nonsense about how hazard pay and travel expenses are included in the base salary. May those Credits-stealing bastards rot in hell.

Shuffle… shuffle….

How long had he been dragging the troublesome bike like that? In the corner of his vision, blurred by the raging wind and sand, he saw something crude… like structures.

“Huh…?”

Then the memory returned.

It was definitely a settlement not far from the city gate. When he went on a business trip to the plant, he avoided it, thinking it was a suspicious outpost where anti-corporate activists, system haters, and people without citizenship huddled together… but compared to the threat of real lunatics, there was no need to spell out which one was more trustworthy.

First, he frantically pulled off the ID card that would be of no help and shoved it into his inner pocket. Then, he cautiously entered the settlement.

Because of the damn storm, there weren’t any passersby to ask for directions.

What he needed right now was… not a motel, but a mechanic shop to repair his hoverbike. Fortunately, he managed to connect to the settlement network without any special authentication and quickly found the shop he wanted.

[Orthodox Machinery Shop. Repair and maintenance, basic Implant procedures, and modification requests all in one place!! Ps. Cyberware upgrades and vaccine services have also started!]

“Ah. Fuck….”

Unlike the trustworthy-sounding name of the shop, he sighed at the introduction filled with all sorts of services. He wasn’t expecting a corporate-run store outside the city, but to have to entrust his beloved bike to such a suspicious neighborhood general store…!

Grumbling, he diligently made his way to the shop with its rough exterior and knocked on the firmly closed iron door.

Knock knock…!!

“Is anyone there?! Customer here, customer!! If you don’t want to clean up a corpse suffocated by sand, let me in!”

“Yes~ I’m coming out now…!”

“……?”

The man’s head swiveled at the soft and gentle voice, a million light-years away from what he had expected.

Goodness. Those successful people who earn Credits in big cities have their voices and appearances surgically altered as they please… just how eccentric of a pervert would someone have to be to live in a place like this and waste Credits like that?

But… as the door slid open with a creak, he had no choice but to change his mind.

“Welcome! I don’t want to clean up again either!”

“…….”

There… was a little angel.

Following her fluttering gestures, he moved blankly as if drawn in. He couldn’t take his eyes off the unreal beauty.

A petite figure that seemed to fit perfectly in his arms, with fair skin. Neatly arranged but flowing hair. Eyes like jewels that he wanted to gaze into forever.

The clothes, which looked luxurious and expensive at a glance, helped him guess at her affluence. But the voice that matched that beautiful appearance… was too perfect to be the result of surgery. Even the famous models who often appeared on city billboards wouldn’t be as attractive as her in this place.

“Sir? Sir…? What can I help you with…?”

“Uh…. Well… the repair of this hoverbike… please….”

“Bike repair request, confirmed~ …Grandpa! We have a customer…!”

“Oh…! A customer from outside in this weather?”

The angel disappeared with a rustle, and a gruff and shaggy old man filled her place. What the hell, give me back my angel.

Whether the man was disappointed or not, from there on out, it was solely the old man’s turn.

“Goodness… running an air-injection vehicle in a storm like this!!”

The engine failure was this… the aging jet nozzle was that… the durability of the air compression fan was blah blah… the fuel concentration was yadda yadda…. In the end, an estimate predicting a huge Credits expenditure was drawn up, but the man was too busy speculating about something completely different.

If this is a shop run solely by a grandfather and granddaughter… who would be in charge of the Cyberware upgrades and vaccine procedures written in the introduction…?

“So… adding up the parts cost and labor, it’s a total of 82,400 Credits! …What do you say?”

“Huh…? Yes. Please repair it. More than that… um… Cyberware checkup. Is it possible to get one…? It’s been a while since I’ve had it checked by an expert….”

The awkwardly added excuse drooped. He had checked his Cyberware thoroughly right before coming out on this business trip. Besides, this isn’t some kind of nighttime entertainment establishment, so why is he acting so hesitant…? It’s not too late. He should take back his words and just take the bike….

“Ah! You’re getting a Cyberware checkup too!”

“Yes!! Please, I beg you…!!”

There was no room for regret, as the angel, who had been listlessly sweeping the cluttered floor, had reacted.

Leaving his cherished bike to the old man, he lay down on the long cot.

He had heard that one had to pay a huge amount of Credits just to see ancient works of art. If that’s the case, he had already seen the angel’s smile, so he wouldn’t get angry even if the checkup was shoddy….

“Excuse me…!”

“…?!”

Small, soft hands gently wrapped around his face, and a signal requesting access to his Implant system was received.

In the midst of fervent acceptance and fading consciousness. He deeply reflected on how narrowly and with what prejudice he had been judging the world outside the city. The warmth and fulfillment that he had difficulty experiencing even in the establishments he frequented to relieve stress every night were here. …Perhaps he should consider making regular outings, he thought, as he enjoyed a short break outside the system.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

“Ahem…! Miss! What would you like for dinner…?”

“……Something as cheap as possible, please.”

“I’ll pay, so don’t worry! You’re growing, so it’s important not to neglect eating…!”

Clunk…!!

Along with a hearty laugh, the sly mechanic grandpa left the shop. …Where had his initial wariness gone? It was laughable how he nonchalantly entrusted the empty shop to a temporary partner of only a few days.

It’s not like he explicitly threatened, ‘If you don’t need an employee, then a partner…!’ He wasn’t in a position to do that.

He had simply shown that he was confident in customer service and cleaning, drawing on his part-time experience. And to prove that he was capable of Cyberware-related procedures, he had also subtly turned off the Paradise Corporation’s malicious ‘loan reminder system’ in the mechanic grandpa’s Cyberware.

A program that forces you to watch Paradise product advertisements for 5 minutes a day until you pay off the loan is mandatory…? He wondered if they sold off Care Bots if the customer really went crazy.

In the end, even though our first meeting was… a bit one-sidedly annoying, I think we have a decent working relationship now. The grandpa not only allows me to run my business alongside his in the shop, but he even gave me an empty room to stay in.

……Why is the way I address him so presumptuous?

…Funnily enough, we don’t even know each other’s names yet. No one took the initiative to decide, but this awkward family play is somehow continuing.

He willingly accepted the unidentified person who suddenly appeared. And I didn’t bother to ask why a hoary old grandpa was still struggling with loans, or… why there was an empty room full of things that seemed to belong to a girl.

There’s no need to try to gauge the weight of the burden on someone else’s shoulders.

A simple relationship will be less burdensome when it falls apart. …After all, people must learn from past mistakes.

“……Hmph.”

It’s just… that instead of the 110,000 Credits needed for citizenship, which was the original goal.

I’ve simply revised my plan to earn a generous 300,000 Credits, including the expenses needed to get from Harvest Planet to Neo Haven, the ongoing food costs, and… the room rent that I’ll subtly leave behind before leaving.