How To Live as a Cyberpunk Solver

22. mutation

Leonard pulled out the cylinder of a Gun & Guns ‘Army’ revolver and pressed the casing removal rod.

45AP rounds for anti-cyborg were removed and replaced with 45HP rounds. Even if it was a mutation in the contaminated area, it was only an organism, so there was no need to use expensive bullets. The advice, not the advice of the facility manager, also played a role.

“Hollow bullets are more useful than armor-piercing bullets when catching living people or animals. The same goes for shotguns.”

I removed the big beautiful slug rounds and replaced them with 12 gauge buckshot. Max, who was not a machine, had to wear leather braces on his limbs and even wear a gas mask. Naturally, dissatisfaction arose.

“Does this make it difficult to breathe?”

“Better than being unable to breathe.”

Leonard checked the choke on his shotgun, then pulled the pump and fired a single shot. With this, the mutant hunting preparations are over.

“There is a third discharge at 19:00, so please come back before then.”

The facility manager opened the sewer hatch. There was a clicking sound as the mechanism engaged, and a hole large enough for five or six people to dive into at the same time appeared. Of course, I don’t have the hobby of diving into the sewer, so I used a ladder prepared for Goi. It was wet and a little slippery, but not to the point of being dangerous. Leonard went down first, followed by Max.

“More than I thought… Whoa… It’s deeper, isn’t it?”

It was about 7 or 8 meters, but it felt deeper than the actual depth because of the darkness. Fortunately, Leonard’s prosthetic eyes were military, so they could detect infrared light. As soon as I heard the click, I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. bang-!

Twelve balls of lead were fired closely through the choked muzzle. The mutant rat, who first encountered the threat from the ground, could not even react. His skin was torn and his bones were broken, and he rolled across the floor. It must have been a shocker.

When the pump was pulled, the plastic cartridge case fell to the floor. It was dark and quiet all around, so I could clearly hear the sound of tung-tong-degur-.

“Oh, surprise. Did you catch it?”

Max hissed. Leonard nodded, then realized what he couldn’t see, and spoke.

“Your role is a backup. Leave the muzzle behind and guard the rear.”

“Old-sear!”

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Just in time, the emergency lights came on. It’s time to start hunting.

@

The Hexagon is not an ordinary hacker fiddling with computer holograms in a closet, but a soldier. He was an elite soldier who only had implant hacking as his long-term skill, knew how to handle personal firearms, common firearms, tactical equipment, and explosives, and had practical combat experience. Thinking of playing hide and seek with federal cyborgs armed with various heavy weapons in the ruins of A-002 and A-003, the hunt for sewer mutants was close to play.

bang-! bang-!

A mouse disappeared with each spark that burst from the muzzle. Even if you hide in fear, you cannot avoid infrared detection, and even if you believe in your size and attack, you cannot be faster than bullets.

“Wow, this guy is really big. What did they eat to get so big?”

“rear!”

“Eh, I know.”

Kwakwang-!

Max’s double-barreled shotgun also exploded frequently. Maybe it’s because they taught me how to fight against cyborgs, so I just fired two shots in a row. The poor mutant gutter rat exploded with excess firepower.

To be honest, I didn’t bring it with high expectations, but the skill was good. It was because he was too accustomed to the vision of the implant, but Leonard was not confident in hitting the target accurately with only the emergency lighting.

“With this, 27 animals. You crawled in a lot.”

“So 4,700 credits in total?”

The fixer and assistant laughed without dignity. The credits made me laugh even in the gutter, so it must have been a good thing.

The client told me to catch all the rats hiding in the basement, but it wasn’t possible and I didn’t think it would be possible, so I thought of cleaning up the 9th Street sewer.

“You have some time left. Let’s go around the other side of the aisle and get out.”

As Leonard made a new turn, Max grabbed the coat.

“Uh… too deep? You’re not getting lost, are you? It’s underground, so there’s no navigation, right?”

“Don’t ignore my sense of direction.”

It was an implant function, not something particularly innate.

“And the traces left like this, what are you worried about?”

The young assistant remembered the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Just as a clever brother and sister marked the path with a piece of bread, a burst and torn mutant corpse guided the path. Even in the worst case, if you followed that, you could return to the ground. Max was relieved and took the lead.

“Then let’s go! These rats! They are all dead!”

“You are a backup! rear! rear!”

@

The sewage system is a place where the final waste that can no longer be recycled is dumped, so it was dirtier and smellier than any other district in any province. Now it’s raining and it’s less because it’s been released several times, but it wasn’t pleasant enough to stay for a long time.

“By the way, Mr. Leonard?”

Max called out as if he had suddenly remembered. Leonard responded by inserting one cell into the shotgun tube.

“why?”

“Hansel and Gretel. You’re so clever, why didn’t you go home?”

Perhaps because of his age, his memory chip was weak.

“Um… is it because of the witch? Is there a candy store?”

“Nope. Before meeting the witch. You got lost in the woods.”

“Ah, the mountain bird picked up and ate the bread crumbs scattered on the road.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the sewage system. Mountain birds also lived in the sewage system. I was sure as I came back from the end of the drain. The mutated rat corpse is gone. Max asked with a worried face.

“Are you lost?”

“…This way is right.”

Leonard, with infrared vision, saw more. There were bloodstains, shotgun casings, and wet footprints. The first two were made by Leonard and Max, but the second one was not. Leonard’s feet weren’t that big or pointy.

“How did you say it ended easily?”

It wasn’t just rats that came in. Leonard whispered to Max, who kept asking him something.

“Exit quietly.”

“What about the request?”

“Fighting unknown mutants is not part of the quest.”

He sounds like a coward when he says that, but his war experience and career as a fixer warned him of the danger.

“Judging from the fact that he swallowed a rat, he is no ordinary guy. Besides, if there are five missing rats…”

It could be that it wasn’t just one unknown mutant. The foreboding fit oddly well.

“Don’t move.”

Leonard attached Max to his side and used Rykov’s thermo-optical camouflage modules. The light refracted dizzyingly and settled into place. Leonard and Max disappeared. It’s the first time I’ve used it in practice, but fortunately it worked well.

thud…

The sewer shook lightly. The water stream falling from the ceiling lost its direction and swayed left and right. Leonard adjusted the hem of his coat and Max swallowed heavily. A shadow appeared beyond the reddish emergency lighting. A large round head, a long neck and a flat waist, relatively short forelimbs and bulky hind feet, and a long tail following like a symbol are similar…

‘lizard?’

It was also not a normal lizard. The body height is close to 2 meters, but the size of the body was much larger with a longer tail than the body. I wondered how that hulking got into the sewers.

‘What I’m more curious about is…’

Leonard carefully raised his shotgun.

‘Do lizards smell well?’

It differs from species to species, but generally has a well-developed sense of smell. However, it was raining and wastewater was flowing, so they couldn’t find ‘prey’ by smell. In this case, the only thing to rely on is sight, but the dim emergency lighting could not see through the thermal optical camouflage. Leonard’s prediction was correct. The lizard blinked its large eyes twice, once horizontally and vertically, and passed Leonard and the others.

“Whoa… whoa…”

Max let out a breath. The breath coming out of the septic tank was hot. It also seems to smell a bit. Leonard shoved the grumpy assistant away and tried to stay calm.

“Is this your first time seeing a lizard?”

“What kind of lizard walks on two legs!”

“When I watched the documentary, he sometimes walked on two feet.”

It is also different for each species, but it was meaningless to argue that it was a mutation. Max cast a warlike look at the missing lizard.

“Can we catch one of those?”

“When you catch it, even if you catch it, you have to raise the ransom.”

“A ransom?”

Leonard checked the time and hurried on his way.

“Let’s go out at once. Because I don’t want to swim in polluted water.”

@

There is a refutation of the claim that Leonard is ‘the best solver’, but there is no disagreement that he is an ‘excellent solver’. Basically, he was capable, reliable, and knew how to get a decent ransom. For reference, the last excellence was an evaluation between solvers.

“Pay more credit?”

Leonard was always confident, unless he strayed from his morality.

“A mutant lizard about 7m in size roaming around? Its teeth are about 1.5m long and its scales are about 7cm long, so it looks like it won’t even get stuck in an armor-piercing bullet.”

Max looked up in admiration. ‘I don’t even put saliva on my mouth…’ The facility manager poured out a bowl full of doubts.

“Do lizards have teeth?”

“…It’s a mutation.”

“The diameter of the drain pipe is less than 3 meters, so how can a 7-meter beast get in?”

“Isn’t it because you came in when you were young and grew up?”

“In one day?”

After all, the White Town intellectuals were not easy. Leonard skipped serious negotiations and went junk town.

“Anyway, I can’t do without credit! Oh, no!”

The facility manager’s expression became ferocious. The discharge is over today, so there will be an inspection tomorrow. The classy white-collars won’t like to have mutant beasts roaming under their buttocks, and will hold the facility manager accountable. Moreover, the evening time passed. I don’t know if Junk Town has set working hours, but it’s too late to find a new fixer. Unless he had to go down the drain with a gun himself, he had no choice but to comply.

“That monstrous lizard costs 500 credits.”

“800 credits. Is it not the normal size?”

“Uh… that’s good. However, if you don’t solve it today, I won’t give you a penny.”

The ransom Leonard said was a mutant ransom. With this, a total of 5,500 credits were requested. Leonard smiled happily as he refreshed his armament.

“A very wise decision. I’ll take care of it neatly.”