How To Live as a Cyberpunk Solver

55. responsibility

If you find the culprit and reveal the culprit in this kind of request, 70% is over. The remaining 30% is for securing and transporting cargo, which was usually solved by waiting.

“I’m going to where I hid the car. We’ll be chasing you with surveillance cameras, but you might miss it, so pay close attention.”

“Nung, nung, I understand.”

Max pursed his lips about three inches and pouted in reply. I was so excited at the clothing store, and then it came and went like a summer shower.

“why? What are you complaining about?”

“Are you complaining? Do I dare to complain?”

“…just tell me.”

“These clothes!”

Max tugged at the shorts under the chest rig. His movements were large and ferocious, but he was careful not to stretch his neck.

“If common sense tells you to buy clothes, of course you buy them! Wow, do you dishonestly give me 20 credits of pocket money and let me buy it with it?”

“It’s your clothes, why am I buying it for you?”

“Then give me some pocket money!”

“Then pay for food and bullets.”

Going deep, the short Max couldn’t breathe. But even beating a 15-year-old wasn’t particularly happy.

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t mess around. Heh.”

No, it seemed a bit happy. However, the feeling of victory did not last long.

“…a thief came out.”

A gangster came out of the underground gun shop. The clothes advertising ‘I’m a gangster’ and the motion promoting ‘I’m suspicious’ were the culprits. He looked the distance left and right and moved at a pace that was not befitting of his size.

They snooped around the market and wandered around the alleys, saying they were careful about the appearance, but they couldn’t even beat the 7-year-old fixer who took control of all the surrounding cameras. Judging that there was no surveillance, the criminal sneaked out of 12th Street and passed under the overpass that separates 14th and 15th Streets.

“Where are you going?”

“It must be out of sight of the Blast Gang.”

No matter how much smugglers cooperated, it was difficult to work in crowded places. He needed a place to hide his luxury car and work secretly. There were plenty of such places in Junk Town.

“You picked a plausible place.”

Leonard zoomed in on the drone footage at 22 meters. At the entrance of 17th Street, which is rare, a hideout was created by stacking containers in a zigzag pattern. From the outside, it looks like a cramped abandoned warehouse, but if you go in a little bit, there is an empty lot where you can park five or six mid-sized cars. I don’t know if it was a place I made myself or a place I was looking for, but it wasn’t an impromptu theft.

There was a gangster who came first in the sinister gangster hideout. Judging from their appearance, they are the same Blast Gang, but they didn’t seem to be very happy with each other. When the culprit held out his fist, he knocked it off and protested with exaggerated gestures. As if he had not received proper discussion education during his school days, the culprit also became angry with loud voices and loud movements.

“Is that a comrade from ‘One shot of life’?”

“What is it? What is it? See you too!”

Max was always stuffy at times like this. Leonard made a quiet gesture and continued watching the silent film. Now was the climax. The culprit removed a tarp from one side of the clearing. The latest muscle car from Air Halls, which shines brightly, has appeared. The picture of a brown bear holding a machine gun against a 20th century cartoon-like explosion background was impressive.

“found.”

I wonder if it was necessary to carve the Yuchippongjjak emblem on that beautiful car, but thanks to that, I was able to accurately identify the target.

“It’s time to pay for your pocket money.”

“Worth 20 credits?”

Leonard pointed to one of the containers. Max groaned and carried the guitar bag. I listened well even if I said this and that.

Leonard checked his two revolvers in turn and walked to the thief’s hideout. There were only two gangsters. I was able to subdue him without even pulling out my gun. I was not overconfident in the name of Hexagon.

“You did well to get out of the gang area. The detention center is not far, so even if you search, you won’t come this far.”

“Who, who are you!”

I praised it, but I didn’t like the thieves of ‘One Life’. I took out a pipe gun and a knife toward the container entrance. It was fun stealing a vehicle worth about 200,000 credits and using a weapon worth 30 credits.

“How do you know this place…!”

“You stupid bastard! You were followed!”

“Whoa, whoa, don’t fight. I’ll get along with you.”

Leonard completed the suppression with a motion to calm down. I tried to fire the pipe gun, but my fingers wouldn’t move. I was whitewashed to see if I had ever had a similar experience.

“C-Paw! Hacker!”

Instead of this, I tried to throw the gun because it was gum. Leonard, who was wrapped in Kevlar synthetic muscle, wouldn’t get hurt if he hit it, but he didn’t feel good, so I stopped him. His hands were pulled behind his shoulders, stiff.

“I got the culprit, I got the car back, can I get 12,000 credits?”

“Twelve thousand? Only 12,000? Shit! release this! I’ll give you 30,000 credits, no, 60,000 credits!”

It was a tempting condition, but I was not fooled. These two gangs weren’t the only ones involved in this affair. The evidence just came out.

Taaang-!

Leonard knelt down and drew his revolver. ‘sniping!’ I wonder if Max was dissatisfied with his pocket money and caused a scandal, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t a gunshot aimed at Leonard in the first place. The thief who bargained for credit that was not his own went over to the back. Then there was a crackling sound. To da da da da da-!

Another thief, who abandoned his friend and was on the run, collapsed into a beehive. The sticky blood and lubricating oil slowly pooled.

Leonard gently pulled the revolver ball and moved next to the muscle car. If you’re credit-savvy, you won’t be gunning for cars with as low as 150,000 credits.

“Is that the fixer man? You found it before us.”

A new gang has appeared to the right of the container entrance Leonard entered. It was a middle-aged man wearing a black fedora and a zebra-like suit and a gangster wearing an air jacket. It was invisible from Leonard’s direction, but on the back of the jumper was the same emblem as the muscle car. It was the Blast Gang.

“I can solve it, so I’m wasting my money. Tsk tsk.”

The middle-aged man smoked a cigarette and murmured. It was a sound to hear at a time like this. It was as arrogant as it seemed. Should I say it’s like a boomer in the style of the Third Continent?

“Did the client send it?”

“You mean Matthew Dyson? It’s similar.”

Leonard kicked the culprit with a hole in his temple. As he turned his head, the bullet marks were clearly visible.

“I was the one who caught him.”

“I am finished.”

Leonard frowned. Not because I feel bad. All the gangsters with submachine guns hacked, but no snipers were firing the rifles. Judging from the angle of the shot, it wasn’t too far away to not be scanned. It was evident that it was using a thermo-optical camouflage module. The middle-aged man chuckled and shook his cigarette. Now I see that it was a real cigarette made from tobacco leaves.

“It makes a big impression… It doesn’t cost a penny. Wouldn’t that be so unreliable?”

“Then can I take this car? I have to show it to my client.”

“Is that necessary? I’ll bring it to the owner of the car, so the fixer, please get off work.”

Leonard shrugged and put the revolver in his holster. The middle-aged thugs also relaxed and lowered their submachine guns. Leonard asked as if he had just remembered it as he was walking outside through a group of gangsters.

“Oh, but what is your name? If a client asks who you gave the car to, you have to answer.”

“You mean my name? Bruce Bean. You should be able to say that.”

Leonard stopped walking and smiled. He safely hid between the container walls. Even if you don’t know where the sniper is hiding, there won’t be a hole in the back of the head.

“Isn’t that Mr. Martin Osvan?”

“You bastard!”

All three submachine guns turned back in unison. It’s a luxury 9mm submachine gun from Big Ground, but it didn’t show its power because it was a fool who gave time to hackers. Right before he pulled the trigger, his eyeballs exploded and his eardrum melted.

“Kwaaak

Leonard drew his revolver and pulled the trigger. Because the gun was stored while being pulled, the percussion was very fast. bang-! Without releasing the trigger, he fired the gong directly with his left hand. Bang bang- bang-!

It was a panning shot often seen in western movies. The chamber was empty in 0.7 seconds. Leonard was not the main character of a western movie, so the hit rate was lower than expected. I knocked down three nearby thugs, but the middle-aged man didn’t even get hit. I was frightened and ran away.

“Oh, that bastard! shoot! Kill them!”

There was also a corner to believe. Leonard covered his head with his right arm and drew an Air Force revolver with his left arm. With two guns, there was no need to reload.

Taang-!

The bullet lodged in the right forearm. It was a 5.56mm FMJ that my gut would tell me. Probably right, as the twins couldn’t penetrate the reinforced titanium & vernadium alloy skeleton. Of course, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.

“Damn it…!”

Leonard fired the revolver in his left hand before he had time to block the pain. Infrared, ultraviolet, and thermal sights were used, but the sniper was not caught. It was an expensive product that was several times better than the camouflage module used by Leonard. I recognized them when they were smoking ‘real’ cigarettes, but they were a gang of real rich people.

‘What’s wrong with a guy like that, stealing a muscle car!’

Taaang-!

A second gunshot rang out. Because I fired back in time, it narrowly missed under the armpit. Soon after, a third gunshot rang out. Quaang-!

Leonard’s gut roared again. It was a 7.62mm armor-piercing bullet. The shooting position was also not frontal. Dirt and rust dust fell from above. The clicking sound of pulling the reloading handle was clearly audible.

“Max!”

At 11 o’clock, the sniper fell. A hole pierced his forehead and his brain chip flew out. Naturally, the thermo-optical camouflage also disappeared. It was an instant death.

The place where Max set up as a sniping point was, of course, the upper part of the container where Martin’s gang entered. It was an exquisite position undetected by gang snipers. You wouldn’t have thought there would be a sniper overhead.

It wasn’t just luck, though. It was Max’s skill that broke the thermo-optic camouflage that even Leonard couldn’t find. When he shot Leonard, he found the location with the muzzle flash and the muzzle flame and shot him in reverse.

“Ahem! Ahem! Boss, you owe me!”

Hearing the chattering above my head, my gratitude vanished. Leonard opened the revolver cylinder and turned it. The brass shell casings, which were still hot, fell in chunks.

“Hee-!”

The middle-aged man crawled on the floor backwards, no, backwards. With the bodyguards gone, he was just a pot-bellied old man.

At one time, he must have been a gangster who roamed the back alleys, wrapping violence as courage and crime as loyalty.

“Hey, wait! Isn’t there anything like this? take that car! I’ll give you the commission right away! No, no, I will give you twice the commission fee!”

Leonard filled the cylinder with bullets and turned it again. The face of a middle-aged man in a fedora, Martin Osvan, became red. The implants were also of the highest quality.

“I’m not interested in whether he was trying to make pocket money with that car, trying to fuck a competitive executive to get him out of office, or washing his hands and becoming a law-abiding citizen.”

“That, right? Let’s pretend we haven’t seen each other. I’ll give you plenty of examples…”

“But you shouldn’t overturn someone else’s bowl.”

It wasn’t just the gangs who had to respect the ‘territory’. He had to take responsibility for intentionally interfering with the solver’s request. By the way, in Junk Town, the responsibility is not the complaint, but the bullet bit.

bang-!