Chapter 114
Miss Siri?
Because of his small fra, I thought he was a boy, but his appearance belonged to a young man. Perhaps he had undergone Cybernetics surgery, because the vertical line running across his face left a strong impression.
Still, he was soone I didn’t recognize.
“Who are you?”
“……Who? Ha, you’re asking who I am?”
As if he had heard sothing he never should have, a crescent smile spread across the young man’s lips.
Drawing a sly and vicious curve.
A face was a mirror reflecting one’s life, and it let roughly infer how the young man had lived up until now.
As expected, unlike the friendly way he had approached , the young man imdiately started picking a fight.
“For fuck’s sake, you’ve got no basics. You don’t know ? Even after entering this line of work? Just because you’ve got a bit of skill, everyone looks like a pushover to you? Think you can do everything on your own?”
Words that were rude to the extre.
When I narrowed my eyes, the young man exaggeratedly waved both arms around.
“Look at those eyes? Damn scary, real scary.”
It was then that Fernandez slamd down the vodka martini with a thunk.
“That’s enough, Johwang. I don’t recall giving you permission to cause trouble in my establishnt. Or are you planning to keep going and break the unspoken rule?”
Though his warning tone was deliberately cold, the young man, Johwang, showed no sign of backing down as he continued.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Fernandez, the guy who wrapped up my junior so tightly he wouldn’t even let see him.”
“He’s not your junior. And it’s not that I was trying to keep him hidden.”
“Whatever. I wasn’t trying to bully him either. I was just teaching him the manners a junior should naturally have toward his senior. Seriously, does it make sense to stand there with your head held high without even greeting your superior?”
At the unreasonable outburst, Fernandez stepped forward to defend .
“Ga-on deserves to be treated that way.”
“Looks like you’ve completely fallen for him. Talent really is scary, huh?”
Hehehe.
Chuckling obnoxiously, Johwang lightly jabbed my side.
“I don’t know what Fernandez told you, but that guy isn’t a broker, he’s a volunteer worker. He only takes requests from people with tragic circumstances that don’t even make money.”
That much I already knew.
Altruism was practically the phrase that represented Fernandez himself.
Still, admitting it obediently would’ve been boring, wouldn’t it?
Especially in front of soone suddenly showing hostility.
“Or maybe your skills are only worth that much.”
“Wow, what a man. Yeah, you’re pissed because so random guy suddenly showed up and started talking shit, huh?”
After looking up and down, Johwang clicked his tongue.
“I heard there was a promising rookie, so I ca to check your face out, but you’re bland as hell. Your Slot looks diocre, you’ve never had genetic modification, and your equipnt is pathetic. Yeah, I guess I can give you about 30 points.”
Johwang rose from his seat and slowly turned around.
As though he wanted to react.
But I remained completely indifferent.
Eventually, after Johwang left Columbus, Fernandez encouraged .
“You endured that well. There’s nothing to gain from clashing with a guy like him.”
“When soone barks that much, it actually kills the mood instead. And it happened to be right when patrol drones were passing by.”
“Don’t tell …….”
“Yeah, he provoked on purpose. Like he was begging for to take the bait. If I’d lost my temper and swung a fist, we’d have gone to the Public Enforcent Office together. No, considering how confidently he started it, maybe he’s got a Sheriff he knows there.”
But my self-restraint was far too deep to play along with him.
And—
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
His overbearing attitude from beginning to end and his vicious choice of words.
It was a form of breaking soone in.
You could also call it an initiation ritual or territorial hazing.
I couldn’t help but think, now of all tis—
But the density of incidents I’d experienced since arriving on Mars had been so high that it was easy to forget only a little over a month had actually passed.
The timing for people to start feeling threatened by was appropriate enough.
“He was probably stimulated after seeing your recent accomplishnts. In this industry, every capable problem solver is a potential rival.”
Just as Fernandez said, things really had picked up after I accepted Baek Seol’s request.
Kenji and Baek Gi were exceptions since their matters couldn’t be made public, but even so, I was soone who had entered Hyphen Colony alongside Alonso and Gustak and returned alive.
That alone was proof of strength.
“More importantly, do you know him?”
“As you heard, his na is Johwang. He’s a problem solver known by the alias Destroying Demon. When he first entered the industry, I personally brokered jobs for him.”
“The fact that you said ‘when he first entered’ makes it sound like that’s no longer the case.”
“Correct. At so point, he started going astray, and eventually ford a crew with unsavory people.”
“And by unsavory people?”
“People who mainly work under contracts with parties that can’t be openly discussed. You could call them a sort of subcontracting company.”
“So basically underlings for criminal organizations?”
“Exactly. That’s why there’s nothing good about getting deeply involved with them. Those people are the kind of problem solvers who’ll do absolutely anything.”
“Problem solvers who’ll do absolutely anything, huh…….”
After draining his vodka martini to the last drop, Ga-on quietly stared down at the glass.
For so reason, he had a feeling they would et again.
***
A flea market opened every weekend in District 31.
A aningful day where households cleared out their belongings along with the dust piling up on them.
Even Ga-on, who lived in District 32, could never ignore such an event.
Belongings were things forgotten in mory.
And forgotten objects ant their value and origins were equally uncertain.
Perhaps because of that, countless antiques were being sold for dirt cheap even at this very mont.
The antique market was peak season with no off-season.
The one who found treasure first was the winner, and so Ga-on wandered around like a bee searching for honey.
This was a sacred ritual carried out every single Solweek.
And today, he even had an adorable companion with him.
“Oppa, there are cassette tapes over here! And they’re all dleys from the 2030s! And these are only 100,000 Pia?!”
As expected of Miss Retro.
Living up to that nickna, she was fully enjoying the scenery of the flea market.
Squealing while looking over the displays, genuinely throwing herself into bargaining negotiations.
The only sha was that, ard with sunglasses and a mask, her various expressions couldn’t be appreciated.
Still, considering the popularity she had only recently begun to gain, it was an unavoidable choice.
Co to think of it—
“Is it okay for a popular idol to be wandering around like this? What about your schedule? Didn’t you say you had a music show today?”
“Ah, that? The performance will be replaced with a prerecorded hologram. Apparently that’s how they do things these days. It’s not like every mber of a group can match schedules all the ti.”
Recording a live stage as a hologram only to broadcast it again as a hologram.
What kind of absurd creative economy was this?
Shaking his head at the technology modern society boasted about, Ga-on continued.
“You’ve been restraining your ability since then, right?”
“Yes, I’ve been careful.”
Then she mid zipping her mouth shut.
Naturally, she also rubbed up against him, asking to be praised.
Good job, good job—
As Ga-on stroked Sakuya’s head, her latest updates poured out like a magic lamp being opened.
“To be honest, I don’t even have ti for useless thoughts anymore. The mont I wake up, I have to go straight into schedules.”
Sakuya complained that she didn’t even sleep four hours a day.
Ga-on had also seen news about Mystic through various dia outlets, so he knew just how fiercely she was throwing herself into her activities.
Not long ago, hadn’t they been invited to a festival hosted by the Board and perford the opening stage?
Though seeing her get excited over antiques made that hard to imagine.
After chatting for a while like that, Ga-on skillfully gathered antiques into his arms.
Mostly items related to the Olympics or the World Cup.
Since those festivals no longer existed in the 24th century, there were many people interested in them.
If he targeted the right buyers, he could easily earn several tis his investnt back.
Startled by the amount he was collecting, Sakuya asked,
“You’re not planning to decorate your house with all that, are you?”
“It’s for collecting purposes. Things like these double in value later on.”
He had even rented a storage warehouse already.
Having traveled the world and stashed treasures in every Do, it was now ti to plant seeds in the Colony as well.
Although Ga-on had imnse love for items that continuously appreciated in value like this, he never purchased stocks.
No matter how thoroughly he erased traces, as long as records remained in the system, eventually soone would grab hold of the tail.
In the past, he had tried various ways to circumvent the issue through borrowed-na accounts, ghost companies, bearer bonds, or proxy representatives, but after realizing the candle was costing more than the cake, he cleanly gave up on all of it.
It was then that Sakuya brought over a round coin.
“Oppa, look at this. I got it for 500,000 Pia.”
“This is…….”
There was no way he wouldn’t recognize it.
After all, it was the last item he had sold before leaving Earth.
Yes, what Sakuya had brought was a commorative coin distributed by Second.
A gift delivered by an alien civilization thousands of years more advanced than humanity.
It was also one of the primary materials used in Hexagondice.
But—
“It’s fake.”
“What?! This is fake? But it looks exactly like the images I searched online!”
This was an era overflowing with information.
Anyone could sit in one place and accumulate deep knowledge, but experience itself could never be replicated.
“The texture is different.”
Actually touching it was part of that.
When Ga-on spoke firmly, Sakuya’s gaze naturally turned toward the peddler who had sold the commorative coin.
But nobody was there anymore.
Realizing she had been tricked, her shoulders drooped.
“Well, I guess there’s no way sothing like this would end up in a flea market.”
“They were selling sothing worth 5 million Pia for 500,000 Pia. You should’ve gotten suspicious from that point onward.”
“Hiiing.”
Once again, Sakuya was growing through firsthand experience of society’s cold realities.
Then suddenly, as though sothing had occurred to her, she clapped her hands.
“Co to think of it, if you can tell the difference, does that an you’ve seen a commorative coin before, Oppa?”
“Yeah.”
“Then have you seen Second too?”
“As if. Those guys just built an embassy and never co out.”
Of course, that was a lie.
When Second visited in 2158, Ga-on had also been there.
Even now, he still rembered the speech they gave back then.
The extraterrestrial lifeforms who ca from beyond the cosmos, Second, had been friendly toward humanity.
So much so that it was difficult to understand why.
There had been no threatening declaration.
No lawless invasion.
They simply wished for one thing.
[We desire humanity’s ‘transformation’!]
—uttering words anyone would find ominous.
[We apologize. Once again, we desire humanity’s ‘prosperity’!]
It was only a difference of two syllables, and ones difficult to distinguish at that, so nobody pointed it out.
As expected, corrected reports soon appeared, claiming it had rely been poor word choice caused by translation issues with Housol.
Ga-on had believed that too.
But little by little, ever so slightly, the information—the truth—changed.
In the end, even the history of it having been a mistake disappeared entirely.
All that remained was Second’s congratulatory ssage wishing for humanity’s prosperity.
The original version could no longer be found anywhere.
A deliberate distortion of information.
But nobody noticed it.
Since no obvious consequences had appeared even after more than a hundred years, Ga-on had gradually forgotten about it too.
Still, whenever he occasionally rembered it, it felt like a fishbone lodged in his throat.
[We desire humanity’s ‘transformation’!]
What they had said back then.
Was it truly a mistake?
Or their true intention?
***
After finishing his date with Sakuya and returning to District 32, Ga-on had no choice but to stop in front of his house.
Today was the day Sera was supposed to make a business visit.
He had even received a ssage saying she would enter first and tidy things up, so the lights should have been on.
But the house remained completely dark.
Opening the front door and stepping inside, Ga-on felt his entire body tense at the strange presence.
The mont he sensed an icy chill lingering through the room—
Thud, roll roll.
Sothing the size of a soccer ball rolled over and stopped at his feet.
It was soone’s head.
“……Miss Siri?”
His throat tightened involuntarily.
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