How To Live as a Cyberpunk Solver

51. gunman

Leonard and Max hid for two full days in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of A-038 City.

It’s a well-spoken hotel, but bedspreads that haven’t been washed for three years, moldy floors, and families of cockroaches roaming around even in broad daylight were nothing better than a ruined city. I missed the neat 11-1st Street Villa managed by Sigma. However, there was no other choice. Because the cargo truck is wanted and can’t move.

“What can I do here?”

said Max, wearing a cowboy hat and munching cactus-flavored cookies. Maybe it’s because he was young, or maybe it’s his nature, but his ability to adapt was amazing. That hat was also a gift from the owner of the hotel. Leonard took his hat and put it on his head.

“If it’s that good, Max lives here.”

“Oops! Do you pamper and throw it away like that?”

Unlike Max, who is easygoing, Leonard was quite busy. He hid a wanted cargo truck in the wasteland and looked at the trends of A-044 City through Sigma to find inspiration as a smuggler.

“I thought you’d come right away because you were happy to find the cargo…”

“How desperate is that inspiration? We can’t move until corporate public security gives up the search.”

Of course, Leonard, who wasn’t willing to wait that long, threatened to burn the cargo if he didn’t come within three days. It was the limit of the solver’s patience.

“Let’s eat and think.”

“Good idea.”

@

A village outside the city of A-038, I don’t know what it’s called here, but I ate every meal in a place that was about Head Town by Sodom standards. It’s a restaurant half buried in dirt, and the name was just ‘restaurant’.

As if there was no restaurant like this in the vicinity, there were various groups of people, including retired miners, wasteland bandits, mutant hunters, gangsters expelled from the city, and immature people claiming to be fixers.

I glanced at Leonard and Max as they opened the creaking door and entered. The person who had an expensive prosthetic eye secretly even scanned it. Leonard planted a hacking program on all of them and sat down at the bar.

“What I always eat.”

Anyway, it was 3 days. The restaurant owner smiled and served us two plates of pasta made with a protein mixture. It doesn’t look hygienic, but it wasn’t a wasteland to care about. Table manners were the same.

“Leonard Walker? right?”

Leonard put down his fork and looked to the side. Even when Max, who was of a very hungry age, stole the sausage, he let it go. A man in a poncho suitable for the wasteland was sitting sideways. The lever action rifle worn around the waist and the leather holster hanging down the thigh were impressive. ‘Are you a western fanatic?’ I was born in the wrong era.

“Do you know me?”

“You’ve met before.”

Leonard turned the face stored in the memory chip. Not only the facial features but also the type of implants were compared, and there was no way they could not find the records if there were records. The result was ‘Unknown’.

“I don’t think so.”

“I heard that the Hexagon module is great, but it doesn’t seem like it.”

Leonard’s right hand disappeared into the court. There were no normal guys among the guys who approached knowing that they were hackers. The poncho man shook his hand.

“Azdex Corp. Cargo Request. Do you remember?”

“A request for potatoes?”

I don’t have memory, but I remembered. It seems that this is the fixer hired by the Azdek company in the wasteland.

‘You saw me on that street?’

Perhaps reading Leonard’s thoughts, the Wasteland Fixer pointed at his eyes.

“Because my eyes are a bit special.”

It looks like the bottle cap was turned upside down, but I couldn’t figure out the model even after scanning it. It was an eye as special as Leonard’s.

“So what do you want me to do?”

“What’s the matter… I just pretended to know because there was a face I knew.”

“Are you free?”

“You don’t look too busy either.”

Leonard was not free. Max, who was not satisfied with the sausage, had to steal the noodles and squeeze them. Ordered another plate from the restaurant owner and saw the Wasteland Fixer.

“The city of Azdek must be A-022, are you from there?”

“You don’t belong to the same city, you wander here and there.”

“You’re not a fixer, are you a mercenary?”

“What, isn’t it similar?”

Strictly speaking, it was different. A fixer is a ‘profession’ approved by the corporate government, but a mercenary is a mercenary with a good tongue, and a savage not much different from a bandit in the wasteland. If you work with credit, you are a mercenary, and if you rob someone with credit, you are a bandit. Not only could he not receive requests from brokers, but his activities in the city were also restricted. That’s why he didn’t come into A-044 City when he was commissioned by Azdex.

The Wasteland Fixer continued the conversation regardless of occupational prejudice.

“I heard that A-044 City is making a lot of noise fighting the Wildkid gang, right?”

“It seems like that…”

Leonard was moderately evasive. One of the two fixers accompanying Ryan Bourne is from A-038 City, so you must have heard about it.

‘Is Shining Star also from this city?’

If Max found out, he would make a fuss about going downtown, so he kept his mouth shut.

“The Wildkid gang is notorious here, too. Its main activity is A-044 City, but when the opportunity arises, join hands with the Wasteland Bandit and plunder nearby cities.”

“With Bandit? Don’t you have the ability to organize?”

Unlike urban gangs with hundreds to thousands of people, bandits consisted of only a few, at most 2 or 30 people. In the first place, not many people live in the wasteland, and even if there are many, there is nothing to eat. The organization needed an income to survive.

“If you gather even such a small gang, it will be quite a lot.”

“It will take a lot of work. What are you doing that for?”

“I didn’t tell you earlier. Because your city is fighting the Wildkid Gang.”

The restaurant owner brought a new plate. Leonard brushed off Max, who naturally took the fork, and rolled the noodles.

“No way, to make up for the power that Ryan suffered with Bandit? You look so stupid?”

“Why are you stupid?”

“How can I catch a solver with a bandit that I couldn’t even catch with War Machine?”

At first glance, the bandits look terrifying, but they were a poor wasteland gang, so their weapons and implants were poor. As we saw when helping Jackson ‘Old Man’ toner, most of them were close to living beings. The wasteland solver, who couldn’t have known that, made a subtle expression.

“You don’t know that. Because bandits have their own way of fighting.”

Leonard put the pasta in his mouth and ordered a drink of water. One of the characteristics of the outskirts of the city was that clean water was more expensive than food. This is because there is no water purification system. The Wasteland Fixer straightened his slanted posture and put a hat on his head.

“It interfered with eating. It’s just like that. Do not take it to heart.”

“I will.”

The Wasteland Fixer sent credits to the restaurant owner and woke up. It seems that they finished their meal long before Leonard arrived. In other words, this was an intentional meeting and a gesture to ask to know what was intended. Leonard lived up to expectations.

“Oh, wait. What is your name?”

The Wasteland Fixer grabbed the brim of his hat and slightly bowed it.

“Gunsling Holly. Bennington Holly.”

@

Leonard and Max’s non-vacation ended with three plates of pasta. The old smuggler sent someone exactly on the third day after Leonard made the bluff. Three smugglers in one van, one of which was a familiar scavenger. He was the mechanical prosthetic gatekeeper of the 12th-9th Avenue Underground Gunsmith.

“Hey, I really didn’t know I’d get this back…”

“You shouldn’t say that. You want us to die.”

The smugglers giggled and set to work. Although there is little meaning in existence, the license plate, which is not omitted in terms of form, was replaced, painted with lacquer spray, and the design was changed by covering it with a tarp. It was an instant, as if it hadn’t been done for a day or two. Even after seeing it from the beginning, it has become an unbelievably different car.

“An expert is an expert.”

The machine prosthetic gatekeeper loaded the junk and camouflage items he had removed from the cargo into the van and shook his hands.

“Even if I do this, I can’t go to Sodom right now, so I have to go somewhere else.”

“Then what about us?”

“I will take you home.”

“Let’s go to Wing Town instead of you. My car is there.”

The machine prosthetic gatekeeper said something to his colleague and climbed into the driver’s seat of the van. The solver’s expression brightened. I could go home now.

“Oh, my boss told me to come to the store when the time is right. I heard there is a present, but you like it.”

“Damn it, I already had it and hid it.”

It was a gang of smugglers who had skills but could not be trusted. The mechanical bill gatekeeper did not deny it.

“So you’re not going?”

@

Leonard and Max returned home after a total of five days. A friendly city and a friendly house made me tearfully happy. The old adage of suffering when you leave the house felt desperately. And I saw the miracle of the second-generation Android’s expressionless expression being loaded with emotions.

If the owner went out to visit the market and suddenly robbed the public security checkpoint and ran away to the next city and disappeared for five days, any android would do that. However, the careless fixer paid attention to the new product.

“This is the M66 heavy machine gun. It fires 12.7mm rounds at 12 rounds per second and can grind super-heavy cyborgs like tomatoes. yes. I can change Ryan Bourne too.”

“Why are you chasing a strict person?”

“He can grind a little bit.”

Leonard and Max took out a palm-sized .50 caliber bullet and liked it. Perhaps because of my mood, the shade on Sigma’s face deepened.

“How much did you pay for that scrap metal?”

“Is it scrap metal? What a luxury weapon this is…”

“how much. give. purchase. did Are you?”

Is the sounding device broken? It was strangely dreary. Leonard unknowingly excused himself.

“I took care of one thing and bought it cheaply. It’s almost cost. I can’t find it anywhere else, but I just got a chance…”

Sigma didn’t sigh. You can sigh as a kind of gesture, but you didn’t do it unconsciously. That means it’s sincere.

“Mr. Leonard is overdoing it. I desperately need a break.”

“It’s because of the hotel contract.”

“So I give you my advice. Spend less credit and relax in the spare time.”

Leonard took out a candy with a disapproving face and asked. Too cocky for a machine.

“…I’ll think about it.”

It was the best expression of dissatisfaction that could be given to a caring machine. Sigma’s tone returned to normal.

“Shall we prepare breakfast?”

“yes. I’m tired of eating only pasta for three days.”

“Energy bars are good for you.”

“It didn’t taste better than an energy bar.”

Then Max protested, asking why I ate it all. He even stole and ate some of the canned food Max bought.

“But how much did you really pay for it?”

“What?”

“That scrap metal…”

“Don’t keep trying to find out.”

I couldn’t say for sure, but it was the amount that Sigma’s advice would end up as a ‘thought’. After playing for five days, it was time to work.