Chapter 34
Trash
***
***
“Hoo.”
I lowered my practice sword and awakened from mories of the past.
They were now faded recollections.
In this era, martial arts were nothing more than efficient body movents.
They were easy to acquire as well. Once you downloaded the relevant martial art through a device, that was the end of it. The need for repeated practice had not changed, but the fact that the process itself had been shortened was not even worth belaboring.
Martial arts were this easy to access, yet no one existed who had seen their end. Let alone recognizing that there was any possibility there at all.
Humans simply lacked the lifespan to achieve it.
Not talent, not environnt, but lifespan.
But for , lifespan was sothing I had in excess.
The reason I was able to reach a realm originally unattainable for humans was because I had spent countless years.
Others might call it a delusional goal, but I had already tasted its fragnt through the old man.
The ancient-style martial art I learned was one of the martial arts that Kumarajiva, known as China’s first Tripitaka Master, had passed down to a small number of lama monks.
Though it bore traces of antiquity, it was not a technique completed on the mainland.
It had rely drifted into Tibet by chance along the Silk Road.
Its origin lay in India.
The founder was Gautama Siddhartha.
Yes, what I inherited was a martial art that Shakyamuni had refined before entering nirvana.
However, no matter how remarkable its history was, as it was passed down orally it lost its original form and na, leaving behind only its residue.
Regrettably, the swordsmanship I wielded could also be called an imitation.
What I learned from the old man were only the basic movents and a few applied forms.
The concept of rotation was sothing I incorporated much later, after a long ti had passed.
I was not even sure whether it was correct.
When he split the rock in two, the old man had not rotated. Of course, at the ti I had been young and inexperienced, so it was possible that I failed to notice it even while watching.
In any case, uncovering that process would be a task for the future.
And—
‘ta-human.’
The secret I had heard from Koln in the past instilled a sense of vigilance in .
Certainly, the fervor with which the Millennium Code Gate and the municipal governnt pursued was irrational.
There was no denying that I had challenged their authority, but even so, it did not seem sufficient reason to spend tens or hundreds of billions to hunt down.
However, if they were pursuing not Yang Hu, but a ‘ta-human,’ it beca understandable.
They likely had not uncovered the fact of immortality, but they must have vaguely inferred that I possessed abnormal regenerative abilities.
No—
‘Did they analyze my swordsmanship as well?’
In a way, the fact that I failed to obtain a sword this ti could be called a stroke of luck.
If a common denominator with Yang Hu were discovered, the identity I had worked so hard to obtain could turn into nothing more than kindling.
To beco a true immortal, I needed a grand narrative. A narrative so grand that anyone would nod along without suspicion.
To construct that chain of causality, it went without saying that I needed to establish myself quickly.
The need to carefully deliberate my future activities had not changed either.
After quenching my throat with an ion drink, I wiped my forehead with a towel.
***
Despite the harsh conditions of needing a secret storage space for equipnt, a basent with an ergency generator running, and a yard to train in, Sera ultimately managed to find a property that t those requirents.
A small house located on the outskirts of District 32 was proof of that.
Of course, as the price for that effort, I also had to squeeze my soul dry and take out a loan—
“Not bad.”
“What exactly is not bad?”
“The house.”
“Looking at this state, you really have the nerve to say that.”
Sera deliberately pointed to a spot with her index finger.
Just as she indicated, disposable containers were piled up like a mountain on the table.
However, I paid it no mind and opened another lunchbox.
The contents were a colorless, odorless lump of gelatin. The only thing inside it was well-balanced nutrients.
I took out the patch that ca with the lunchbox and stuck it onto my tongue without hesitation. The patch lting away and a new function activating on my device happened almost simultaneously.
In an instant, the gelatin lump that should have had no taste at all transford into a superb bulgogi rice bowl.
Such a greasy al for only 800 Pia.
It could truly be called a victory of food engineering.
“Are you listening?”
“Yeah, I’m listening.”
It was true that I had not been able to clean because I was pushing my training hard. But wasn’t this how the life of a man living alone usually was?
A free life, like a beast roaming the wild.
In so ways, it could be called a romance.
That was, until Sera, who had suddenly shown up, volunteered to be my housekeeper, making it seem like her claim of being in charge was not a lie.
At least three tis a week, thanks to Sera’s business visits, resting never truly felt like rest.
“It seems the function called cleaning is not installed in Ga-on-nim after all.”
Sera let out a sigh as she picked up the towel I had tossed aside and put it into the laundry basket.
“I didn’t do it because it was still fine, you know?”
“Trash.”
“Hey, I feel like I just heard sothing I can’t overlook.”
I protested quietly, but Sera ignored completely and disappeared. She reappeared shortly afterward.
This ti, what Sera was holding was not a laundry basket, but a cardboard box.
“A delivery arrived.”
“That was fast.”
What I had purchased was nothing special. Just a few sets of clothes and several kinds of dicine.
I also wanted to purchase the integrated blade managent storage locker, ‘Blacksmith,’ but I could not even consider it due to budget constraints.
“Even though you have plenty of miscellaneous items, you don’t have any protective gear. For a fixer, the most important thing should be your own life.”
Only after Sera voiced her doubt did I realize my mistake. In truth, it would have been more accurate to say I had never even considered it.
For soone like , who was immortal, protective gear was neither here nor there. Even if I suffered severe damage, my body regenerated imdiately.
The only thing that broke was the protective gear itself.
Put bluntly, it was a waste of money.
However, having only recently beco aware of my own identity, I could not help but hesitate.
“Now that you ntion it, I guess I do need that too.”
“You’re saying you forgot sothing directly tied to your life? Are you already getting forgetful? How about implanting a sub-brain or sothing?”
“I was actually thinking about getting cybernetics surgery anyway.”
“You don’t have any money left, do you?”
Sera did not want to know about soone else’s bank balance, but she had seen sign the loan docunts.
“But you do.”
“Have you already forgotten? That I blew my entire fortune commissioning you, Ga-on-nim.”
“No, but you’re a salaried worker. Don’t you get paid every month?”
At my shaless question, Sera turned her head away.
“Trash.”
***
Around the ti the sun set and darkness crept in, the first thing that caught my eye when I arrived in District 39 was a faded neon sign.
There was also an augnted reality signboard implented right in front of it, but sothing seed wrong, as it did nothing but crackle incessantly.
At a glance, it was a run-down area.
You could tell just by the fact that there was no Hyperloop stop nearby. The fact that you could only reach it on foot ant, in other words, that there was no reason to co here without a specific purpose.
Sure enough, as soon as I entered the alleyway, a familiar sll brushed past the tip of my nose.
That was when an indescribable sound echoed from far away.
It sounded like soone’s scream, or perhaps the noise of machinery.
Either way, it was unsettling enough, yet to it felt oddly cozy. A distinctive atmosphere that could only be felt once you stepped outside the bounds of law wrapped itself around my entire body.
One way or another, I was soone who had spent a lifeti lurking in the shadows.
Even though the stage had changed from Earth to Mars, the instincts I had accumulated did not disappear.
There was, however, one unexpected variable.
‘ta-human.’
It was also the reason I had newly resolved to undergo cybernetics surgery.
I did not want anything extravagant like a major slot.
What I needed right away was sothing like a hormone regulator.
I had heard that there were people who modified devices originally developed to compensate for defects in the pituitary gland and used them while constantly consuming drugs.
If I applied that idea, the hassle of having to seek out and consu Nuclase one by one would disappear as well.
As long as I did not leave genetic information outside, I could shake off most tracking attempts.
However, such a demand lay in a realm that could not be legally requested. An illegal slot was the only answer.
If I used Sera’s—no, Maximum Noise’s—connections, I would not have to take a long detour, but I had no intention of soaking in the comfort provided by a gacorp.
All of that beca a weakness.
One that would soday return as a leash.
“Let’s see.”
Despite it being early evening, the streets were largely deserted. If there was anything unusual, it was that no one walked alone.
Unfortunately, information about District 39 was limited. Even if I scoured the internet, all that ca up were vague place nas.
There were no proper signboards to speak of, and no signs either.
There would be nothing openly discussed online, so everything must have been shared quietly offline.
It seed I would need to beco an insider first to learn the detailed circumstances.
There were many ways to seep into the underworld, but from my experience, personally crashing into it was the best.
So I made it obvious that I was loitering, deliberately moving deeper inside.
With the hope that soone would follow .
Perhaps that wish reached the heavens, because just as the patrol drones disappeared and human presence thinned out, an angry voice rang out from behind .
“Hey, coat. Stop right there.”
Blocking my path were three people. Judging by how many tis they had undergone cybernetics surgery, alien tal emitted a dull sheen from various parts of their bodies.
It was then that a man with tattoos carved into his face stepped forward as their representative and spoke.
“Don’t recognize your face.”
“Really? I find you familiar.”
The man hesitated at my unguarded response, but after taking in my appearance, he relaxed. Clean limbs and a neat face. I gave off a strong impression of being untainted.
It was a type I ran into from ti to ti.
“A fixer wannabe?”
“I’m unknown, so I guess you could say that for now?”
“Ha, this bastard’s got rocks for brains.”
At his words, the other two doubled over laughing.
As if emboldened by their reaction, the man closed the distance a little more and bared his tal teeth.
“So what, you here for a field trip? Thinking, ah, so this is where I’ll be handling requests in the future?”
“No, I said I’m familiar with this.”
“From where I stand, you look like you got lost and wandered in. Heh, this line of work is sothing else. Seeing punks like you pour in every quarter.”
“I feel the sa way. Even back where I was before, I tried to be diligent about sorting trash, but garbage just never seed to decrease.”
The man’s voice dropped in an instant.
“You calling us that? Right now?”
“Let’s think about it rationally. If I wasn’t confident, there’s no way I’d deliberately co this deep into an alley like this.”
“Everyone says that until lead gets lodged in their body.”
The man growled as he pulled a handgun from inside his clothes.
“If you don’t wanna die, hand over everything you’ve got.”
***
“P-please, we ssed up.”
I only spared the man. There was no reason to leave three mouths alive.
Judging by how he had tried to intimidate earlier, he seed like a local, right?”
“Yes, yes.”
The man glanced at his fallen companions and answered, flinching as if about to collapse at my every word. He had not even seen how it started, nor how it ended.
Only the pathetically broken wrist hinted at the fight that had just taken place.
“Is there an unlicensed clinic nearby? I’d prefer one with good skills.”
“If, if it’s that, I know a place.”
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