How To Live as a Cyberpunk Solver

114. lack

What Leonard needed was a break.

He didn’t admit it, but he really needed a break. It wasn’t physical exhaustion, it was mental exhaustion. To be more precise, the Hexagon module installed in the brain chip overheated several times, putting a strain on the cyber synapses. The main reason is excessive use of RAM, or in other words, too frequent hacking.

“The module cannot be obtained or repaired in a surface city. Do you know?”

“It’s military equipment.”

“Why does anyone who knows that do that?”

“…The nagging is also updated day by day.”

Leonard was half-lying on the sofa, legs stretched out. But it didn’t look very comfortable. A number of connectors were connected to sockets under the ears and behind the neck. Max stepped away and sucked his finger.

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning memory. I also check the pollution status of the net.”

Although it does not significantly relieve fatigue or improve performance by leaps and bounds, it is often recommended because it has the effect of clearing and clearing the mind.

“If there was such a thing, I shouldn’t have done it before.”

“During that operation, users and assistants are caught off guard. It is inappropriate in a place exposed to danger.”

“100 million? That means…”

The word sigma means defenselessness when eating or sleeping, but Max, who had no knowledge of the body, accepted it as a level of defenselessness with his limbs restrained and his mind intoxicated. As the key members of the Walker family were disarmed, they stood up with a determined expression.

“It means that you need me to recover safely. under! Do not worry! I will risk my life to protect you two!”

He brought his gun bag, packed ammunition, and hovered around like a bodyguard. Leonard cursed at him to go away because he was crazy, but Max clicked his tongue and loaded the double-barreled shotgun, saying that the new chimpanzee was like that again. The lesson for the day was that you shouldn’t play with guns in the house.

“Leonard! Leonard Walker! I’m doing something but I’m not answering the phone… Ugh! Surprise!”

Unaware of the usefulness of the doorbell, the broker opened the door and rolled over in surprise at the double-barreled barrel. As the heavy implant rotated at high speed, the strict shoe cabinet was smashed.

“Play well. Play well.”

Leonard sighed at the broken credits today. No matter how you think about it, it was the people who were the problem, not the work.

“Mr. Jake? What are you doing without contact?”

“Is that what I am going to say? What’s wrong with not getting a call!”

Leonard waved his right hand roughly on the sofa. Jake, an experienced broker, immediately grasped the situation and smiled shyly.

“Are you checking? Then you have to say yes.”

“I’m checking it, but how do you talk?”

The broker left Max, who was being possessed by a VIP bodyguard and searched, and said.

“You said you’d call me when I got to work.”

“Work? As you can see, it’s a bit difficult right now.”

“It’s a big deal. Don’t you need credit?”

Sigma made a metal eyebrow into a V. Something didn’t seem right. Unwitting, Max raised his shotgun vertically and gave a modest salute.

“no problem! Go through!”

“Ah, thank you. ensign.”

“thank you! General!”

Since we were of similar mental age, our hands and feet matched perfectly. Sigma, the youngest—had been in operation for less than four years—said firmly.

“Mr. Leonard’s care expert AI warns you. Leonard needs at least 15 days of rest and professional implant maintenance.”

“You’ve never set up an AI like that before? Are your functions increasing?”

“If you play for 15 days in Junk Town, you will starve to death.”

Humans and machines haggled for a while. Normally, I would press it with absolute user rights, but now most of the functions were paralyzed and I couldn’t control it. Eventually, a compromise was attempted.

“Isn’t it okay if it’s not hacking? Unless it’s hacking? We’ve come this far, but let’s hear the story.”

“If you take away the hacking from Mr. Leonard’s function, what is left?”

“…I know a lot of things besides hacking.”

Even without the 3 laws of robots, the user’s respect remains narrow, so it has taken a step back. Leonard pointed across the sofa and asked Max for a coffee.

“No coffee?”

“Then bring me a beer. You know what Noah bought.”

The broker said, ‘Noah? Noah Lucas? That she brought beer?’ After muttering misleading information such as

“There are strange rumors in the back alley these days.”

“There are all sorts of rumors there. The Earth is flat, the Old Man is an alien, the Great War is a lie…”

“It’s not a rumor, it’s a conspiracy theory. It’s the broker’s job to find out what’s credible in such gossip.”

The broker leaned his upper body forward. Even though the only people listening were Leonard’s gang, the atmosphere was alive.

“There will be a ‘farm’ in our city.”

“……”

Leonard’s expression darkened. Outdated information has now arrived. The broker turned up the volume in anger at the unexpected response.

“This is reliable information. There’s a company that’s buying abandoned land outside of Junk Town. It seems to be going under different names to prevent market manipulation, but you can’t fool sensitive gangsters and brokers that way.”

“That… How is Elia?”

“Elaia Garden? Busy playing tag with terrorists. why?”

It seems that he did not share information with the middleman. I didn’t know if there was loyalty or not. ‘Are you indifferent because it’s someone else’s city?’ The broker, on the other hand, said, ‘Is that you, not Noah?’ I cleared a misunderstanding with my back and shook my head.

“Anyway, it’s not normal. Listen seriously.”

“Oh, yes. Serious enough.”

Leonard warned Max not to wink at him and say nonsense. If you find out that you have been silent all this time, you will be very upset.

“So who are you commissioning? Twins?”

“Do you think so? no. It’s Action.”

An unexpected name came up.

“Aktion is not a gangster.”

“A gang is a gang. It’s because the organization is at the level of a grain of sand.”

They are vicious criminals from Orange Prison, and they often call themselves gangs because they become psycho cyborgs, but they were more like scavengers than gangs. There may have been some consensus as comrades in prison (?), but since they did not function as an organization, there were only three or four people in the group.

“For some reason, those psychopaths are requesting something like that… I can’t believe it…?”

I knew they were building a farm in Junk Town, but I didn’t know where. If you think about it, it was a simple thing. The downtown area is densely populated, and the land in Junk Hill is not good, but there is a reasonably quiet place at a reasonable price. The broker drove a wedge.

“The place where companies buy under borrowed names is on the 29th and 30th streets. It is the Aktion area.”

@

What the residents of Junk Town were afraid of wasn’t the FAP carrying a War Machine and sharpening a minigun when bored, nor the mutant monster crawling through the sewers, nor the sticky pollutants blowing from the wasteland. I was prepared for that kind of thing because I often go through it in my life.

“What about Orange Prison? Do you know how many vicious criminals are being held there?”

“Three thousand? No, four thousand?”

Action, who was released because he was at least moderate, becomes a psycho weapon of mass destruction that can be smashed at random if his eyeballs are overturned, but life imprisonment in prisons who cannot even be released were a living disaster itself. There were a few guys that Leonard had captured, so I knew them well.

“If the corporate guys had an idea, they wouldn’t release the prisoners. Prison is not what the client is worried about.”

“Then what?”

“If you get kicked out of 29th Street, you have nowhere else to go other than the wasteland.”

Since the standard of culture became the economy, housing has always been a major issue. Leonard and Max are humbled by their recent experience of something similar.

“Isn’t it a request to fight a company to protect the gang’s house?”

To be humble is to be humble, and to face reality straight. The opponent was Megacorp, a large corporation with famous solvers such as Lowell and Rogers.

“There is no such thing as common sense. I want you to negotiate to get the compensation right.”

“Isn’t that a broker job? Need a fixer?”

“It wouldn’t be necessary if companies negotiated through intermediaries.”

Since they started by overthrowing the gang-twins of Junk Town, there was no consideration of party, validity, or legitimacy. There seems to be no power to notice any more, and it seems that he has started a time-honored trick.

“How many are there?”

“seven.”

“barely? You’re going to clean 29th Street with it?”

“They don’t seem to be normal guys.”

Well, since the twins were fucked with two people, seven experts of a similar level could have taken down Action. One of them seemed somehow familiar.

“Even if it’s Mr. Leonard, seven people are a bit…”

I thought of the DM (Drone Master) who simply blocked Leonard’s pursuit and disappeared. Of course, it was a hack with a big demerit, but it was still of a higher level than the goofballs I’ve dealt with so far.

“If you do, I will also hire Noah Lucas.”

“Then is it 2 vs. 7?”

“There must be some useful friends among Aktion.”

“I’m not expecting that… Are there any fixers out there?”

“Our fixers are all busy… aren’t these days suspicious?”

“Then, is it the end for me and Noah?”

“no. there are a few more He’s a wasteland solver, and he’s said to be quite good at it.”

There was one person who came to mind when I was a wasteland solver. Leonard found a name in old memory.

“Bennington Holly?”

“uh? Anyone know?”

“I’ve seen it once before.”

It was a gunman in the wasteland who briefly brushed up with the Azdek company potato request, and then warned of the Wild Kid & Bandit raid.

“This bastard, you have really wide feet, don’t you? Is this because you’re a veteran?”

“This floor must be too narrow.”

Then it was 3 to 7. It’s better than being alone, but I didn’t like it.

“Why 3 vs 7? do i have 4 to 7! 4 to 7!”

“Oh yeah.”

Leonard waved his hand dryly. Even including Max, he was still thirteen. Leonard thought for a while before asking.

“Does the client have any credit?”

“Since the residents of the town came together to collect it, it will be quite a while. I may not be able to take care of you as much as the company, but…”

The broker raised four fingers. 40,000 credits was a huge sum of money for the scavenger. Even if others avoid it because it is a lawless zone, it seems that a house is a house. There were many Aktion and 29th Street residents who participated in this work.

“That’s enough to hire one more person.”

“Does anyone else know?”

I don’t know if my feet are wide or the bottom is narrow, but there was one person that came to mind. He was an expert in a position similar to that of Elia Garden. Leonard rose from the couch, pulling the jack at the back of his neck.

“Logan Mays. A-038 City’s a fixer for farts, so it’ll be helpful.”

Sigma let out a small sigh as he tidied up the wires. Just listening became a big deal. If you were human, your heart would have been aching with worry.

There was not enough accumulated data to know that what I am doing now is also worrying.