How To Live as a Cyberpunk Solver

75. subcontract

Leonard’s hexagonal pupils expanded and contracted repeatedly. But it didn’t work.

It was deep in a back alley, and it was a remote place around a corner, so there were no surveillance cameras or cargo drones passing by. There are a few Junk Town residents snooping on the gunshots, but I didn’t want to touch them. In the end, the classic method was used. I checked the angle of the dead novice solver’s hit.

“Did you find it?”

“It is certain that it is over there.”

“I know that.”

“Isn’t it the second floor?”

Max’s muzzle went up. However, like the back alleys of a junk town, small villas on the 2nd and 3rd floors were densely packed. Even the implanted eye with a built-in sniper scope could not find it, let alone the living eye.

“It’s difficult to see it here.”

If Max could see it, the sniper over there could see it, so that was more dangerous. Leonard wakes up from a pile of scrap metal after a brief moment of thought.

“Mr. Leonard?”

Max freaked out and grabbed the hem of his coat. It was natural that he looked like he was about to commit suicide. However, Leonard, who was wearing a state-of-the-art bulletproof coat, had a corner to believe. I pressed the hood deeply and moved to the oblique line. By changing the stride length slightly, the threat of sniping was minimized.

“What do you want! Is it a junk machine?”

I couldn’t see it, but I was sure of one thing. One gun was aimed at Leonard. Leonard gave Max a signal with his finger. ‘Right building. 2nd floor rooftop. Check it out a little further.’ Even Max, who was dull with such hand signals, was serious when he was serious. I moved the muzzle slowly.

“I want junk machines and information.”

A loud voice came from across the alley. It was a good voice to gossip around the neighborhood.

“Information? You should look for information from a broker, why look for it from me?”

Laughter echoed at Leonard’s pretentiousness.

“Don’t play boring jokes. Even if Leonard Walker is a legendary solver, there’s no way he could catch a target like that in one day, right?”

“Isn’t that a legend because it’s possible?”

“I don’t believe in legends!”

“Oh, what are you talking about?”

The more I looked at it, the more it resembled Leonard. So I didn’t like it. Is it homophobia or self-criticism?

“This is the last consideration to treat you as a senior in the industry. If you refuse, I will kill you and retrieve the memory chip.”

Leonard stopped walking.

“Where are the seniors and juniors on this floor?”

It was a similar subject, so I could tell the lie right away. As soon as I stopped walking, I quickly lowered my body. A 7.62mm sniper bullet went through Leonard’s head. Taaang-!

“Did you avoid it?”

Leonard Walker was no ordinary hacker. Like that bizarre analogue taste, I believed in ‘intuition’ or ‘sixth sense’. Judging from the fact that he had survived so far, that feeling was not unreliable.

“found.”

Max’s sniper rifle followed and roared. Taang-! Two shots were fired, but only one victor. Max cheered as he pulled the reloader.

“I got it! I did it!”

Leonard didn’t praise. It’s not because he’s heartless, but because he’s busy dealing with hackers from the other side infiltrating with brain chips.

‘Aren’t you afraid to fight first?’

When a friend or subordinate failed to snip, it seems that he tried to give him another chance by grabbing his ankle with implant hacking, but he made two mistakes.

One was to underestimate Max’s marksmanship. There were no second chances in front of a top-notch sniper. And the other one was trying to hack Leonard Walker no matter what you believed.

The moment Leonard’s brain chip tried to interfere with radio waves, the current location and implant module were seen through, and the infiltration began in reverse.

The unknown rookie hacker tried his best to block and delete the hacked files, but he couldn’t keep up with Leonard’s upload speed. At some point, I gave up attacking and only defended, but even that didn’t last long. As a last resort, the brain chip function itself was down. It was literally a last resort.

“after…”

Leonard holstered his revolver and let out a deep sigh. Seodang-gae 3 years later, ahem ahem! He said he knew how to do it, and even without a brain chip, Max noticed what was going on and his eyes twinkled.

“Did you win?”

If I had lost, smoke would have come out of my eyes, nose and mouth, so of course I won.

“Let’s go pick it up.”

It wasn’t ‘catch’, it was ‘pick’. Max laughed because he found the subtle difference in tone interesting.

The fearless newcomers were two blocks away.

Leonard and Max saw a sniper caught on the railing of a second-floor rooftop, then an SUV on the opposite street, and a bag of blood and unknown oil spilled on the floor. It’s like some sort of coolant, injected directly into the ear to cool the overheated brain chip.

“This is a tough guy.”

“I don’t have any loyalty.”

It seems that it was quite urgent to abandon the vehicle and companions and run away. Leonard took out a lollipop and put it in his mouth.

“When you take someone else’s, you have to be prepared for yours to be taken away. Be it life or property.”

The car, gun and implants were quickly retrieved. The most important of these was the memory chip. It was time to find out who broke the ‘rules’.

@

A crazy day has come to an end.

Turned in the Junk Machine to City Hall’s Department of Police and received a bounty in the name of ‘Broker’ Jake. Even taking this and that off, it was 22,750 credits. By disposing of the SUV at the garage and selling rookie weapons to the gunsmith, he was able to raise an additional income of 6,000 credits.

“Hee hee! The hard work is worth it!”

Even so, Max, who received 20 to 30 credits of pocket money, liked it as if it were his own. Leonard, who actually earned high profits, frowned.

“We had to catch that hacker.”

The memory chip that I painstakingly retrieved was clean.

The daily records are intact, but the data was wiped clean right before the operation was executed. Since it was not a function provided by the manufacturer, it must have been the work of an expert.

“Then you don’t know what will happen tomorrow?”

“yes. It got annoying.”

A fearless newbie will keep taunting you as some virtuous broker is spreading Leonard and junk machine information. Even if it wasn’t an open attack like this time, there was a good chance of stealing or interfering with the target.

“I’ll have to change my plans.”

“uh? how?”

Leonard called his broker, Jake. Well past midnight was no problem. As someone said, we haven’t seen each other for a day or two.

-You rude man! What time is it!

Well, since I answered the phone, we’re close friends.

“QWER.”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“This is the junk machine information unlock code you gave me yesterday.”

The broker was silent for a moment, as if unlocking a file.

“…with passwords…”

Leonard casually disclosed the top secret of the Old Human Alliance and made his demands.

“Extract that source and publish it to the broker network.”

“Wait, you said to wait three days?”

“It is no longer necessary. It has started to rot.”

As an experienced broker, I knew right away.

“If you sold it earlier, you would have earned the price of meat. But what about the source?”

“I think there’s still something to get out of there.”

Originally, I was going to get a share by the 2nd day and dig into the background on the 3rd day, but I couldn’t because the risk increased. If the junk machine’s personal information is revealed, it will be safer than today because it will chase the disclosed junk machine scavenger rather than chasing Leonard.

“The most delicious thing is to eat later, but it can’t be helped if chopsticks keep getting in.”

Leonard looked back and forth between Max’s wide-eyed eyes and Sigma’s mechanical sound.

“I will be busy tomorrow too. go to bed early.”

@

According to information received from the living saint of Junk Town, the nameless righteous man, the protector of beggars and orphans, ‘The Philanthropist’, there was a visitor every Friday evening.

The public purpose is electronic drug addiction treatment, but in reality, he was a pure person who had never even inserted a memory chip.

“Are you purist?”

“They’re like religious people.”

They said that the body is just a tool, so it can be operated as much as you like, but the mind is the expression of the self, so the soul should be kept pure.

Compared to religious people who refuse all implant procedures and die early as they are, they are more tolerant, but according to common sense in the 21st century, they were not normal either.

“Oh, so you’re developing junk machines that aren’t affected by brain chips?”

“It is foolish.”

Without a body, there was no mind.

Implant hackers knew the true value of the body because they could cross hardware. It was a dangerous act to define ‘me’ just by thinking. I don’t recognize the existence of ‘I’, but what is the ego and what is the soul.

“Anyway, it seems that the scavenger modification results are reported and funds are raised through that author.”

“Then, if we catch him, everything will be settled?”

The easiest way is to lurk and catch them on a Friday evening. So I deliberately made a plan for the third day.

However, with more eyes to see, it became impossible to turn off the time. I don’t know how much information power there is, but it will disappear as soon as it knows that the location of the junk machine has been revealed.

“There’s a good chance they’ll be targeting the philanthropist for silence before then.”

“Ah, no way, could it be that cruel? That, of course, is cruel!”

Max concluded with an advisory answer. Because right now, two jet-black sedans have come crashing into the philanthropist’s house.

It was not a vehicle suitable for scavenger dens snooping around with scraps without credit to visit the junk town salon. Suspicion was confirmed by the six submachine guns he got out of the car.

The philanthropist’s patients who saw the gun screamed and fled. But the gunmen in black didn’t care and pulled the trigger. Tutututututu-!

Buildings built after ground reclamation are generally strong, but they were not aimed at protecting users. Windows were broken, interior furniture was smashed, and it became a mess in no time. Max pulled out his sniper rifle and jammed the bullet clip into it.

“What are you doing? We have to save it quickly!”

Leonard remained calm even as he watched the rain of bullets. He even stopped Max from adjusting the scope.

“Leave it.”

When Max looked at him in bewilderment, he explained the situation.

“The name alone is charitable, but he’s not a particularly good person, is he? Let’s sell it even if we die. I got all the necessary information anyway.”

“Wow, is that Mr. Leonard?”

Leonard’s personality didn’t seem like he was going to let him die, even if he could die. Leonard Walker was too good of a human being, but this time he was right.

“I have a bodyguard attached.”

“A bodyguard?”

The gunman in a black suit entered the charity villa, changing the magazine of his submachine gun. As Max frowns and tries to ask again, the gunman bounces off the building on triple rewind. Even if he was lucky to survive with his back bent at 90 degrees, he was in a position where he would have to suffer.

Max looked at the bodyguard who made a soft-bud-sound with an exceptionally large fist. Unlike the fearless hacker rookie, he was a troubleshooter who knew how to properly treat seniors.

“Mr. Skinhead!”

‘Skinhead’ Kruger dyed his charge arm red and provoked the gang in black suits. The numbers seem a bit reckless, but the operation went off without a hitch.

“We just have to wait and catch up over there. If you do well, you’ll be able to hit the head at once.”

The young assistant was able to learn the work of a skilled fixer today.

“Hand over the hard work to a subcontractor?”

“…Use people in the right place at the right time.”

Could that be the word?

It was not convincing because he was a vicious president who works as an assistant for 30 credits.