How To Live as a Cyberpunk Solver

90. maybe

Leonard clenched and opened his left fist.

I received repairs as soon as possible, but the sense of difference deepened. The tactile sensation was strange and the reaction speed was slow. I can manage everyday movements, but in a situation where my life comes and goes, it seemed better to trust my two legs.

“Tail Town is also very big. Can I find one such video?”

Max asked, clutching the steering wheel. I got two lumps on the top of my head from driving with my cheeky arm, and I had a good posture.

“We need help from the locals.”

“Are you local? Oh, you mean Leila?”

The only person he knew well in the outskirts was Layla, the ‘gunsmith’.

“My neighbors like her because she’s pretty and has a good personality.”

“I like it because it has a lot of guns.”

Bondi, when there is a loaded gun, interpersonal relationships are easy. However, the search could not be started blindly, trusting only one gunsmith.

Leonard looked at the little implant-bodied man sitting in the back seat. If you look at her face alone, she is at least in her 40s, but everything is small except for her head, as if she hasn’t changed her body since she was 12 years old. I wouldn’t be short on credit due to my job, and it seems like I have a bizarre fetish, but I wasn’t particularly curious about it.

“If that person cooperates, it can be surprisingly easy.”

“My, why me? Why should I cooperate?”

“Do you really want to live?”

His name is Nicolas Vande or Vande, but people around him just called him ‘the dwarf’. Leonard politely rebuked the frightened dwarf.

“You sold e-drugs in the Twins district without the Twins’ permission. As an example, the head and spine should be pulled out, but I was lucky.”

“…Nimiral.”

It was an electronic drug dealer that the twins rushed to airlift. Originally a salesman for the Volcano gang, he was expelled for “losing” the goods at will, and worked as a freelancer.

It was often like that. Junk Town is so deep and dark that even the largest gangs with thousands of gangs couldn’t keep track of every root. So, a dwarf-like small merchant picked up the goods and delivered them to the deep alley. It is a drug addict who skips meals but does not skip medicine, so if he catches a good customer, he scoops up his credit.

“The dealer’s profit is pretty good, but is it true?”

Max was curious. He seemed to be thinking about finding a side job as the fixer’s income was not very good. The dwarf jumped up.

“Who is it? Who? It’s the gangsters who rip things off when you hand them over, rip them off when you sell them, and rip them off when you sell them? Even if you sell ten boxes, you have nothing left!”

The dwarf vomited his anger at the unreasonable electronic drug distribution system. I don’t know why they shout justice and fairness for doing something they are proud of, but I could understand why they were caught in this way.

“So you’ve been getting chips out of the reach of the gang?”

“Electronic drugs can be copied without limit if you have the original program, so does it make sense to sell them at a price dozens of times higher?”

I couldn’t agree with that dwarf since he had betrayed the scavenger at tens of times the price. Still, I liked one thing.

“Contact the Psycho Chip distribution network with that enthusiasm. It’s about figuring out the needs of your industry and figuring out who supplies them.”

The dwarf’s face darkened rapidly at Leonard’s request.

“Well, how to say, psycho chips are hard to come by. I don’t know which gang made it, but only a small amount is released, and the people I’m looking for are all vicious guys…”

“Don’t worry about that. Because I have an idea too.”

I didn’t expect that a third-rate dealer dwarf would find the body of the liberation front that even corporate public security couldn’t find. So, the plan was the opposite.

If there is an e-drug dealer looking for a psycho chip they made in their hideout, they will contact them to stop rumors.

“This sounds dangerous…”

As much as he was involved in a gang, he had a sense of his own. It was a well-developed nib. It was because it came with the hint that Leonard would be very angry if he refused.

“I’ll try it, but if it’s dangerous, I’ll jump right away. Really. It’s not a mistake to kill the twins in a completely unknown place.”

There was no solver to accept the claim. The dwarf added in a hushed voice when there was no response.

“…maybe.”

@

Leonard’s group went to the gunsmith on South Third Street as planned. It’s been almost a month since I haven’t been looking for him since Max’s shooting training was over.

Gunsmith Leyla pouted when she found a regular customer while repairing a .32 caliber ‘Good Rifle’ she had recently bought at a bargain price.

“I wondered if he had a girlfriend somewhere else because he didn’t come so much.

“Were we jealous of that?”

“…You didn’t come because you had a real boyfriend?”

I didn’t know if the lover meant a person or a gun, so I didn’t answer. There was nothing special about either of them.

“I need help.”

“If you need help, you have to find a fixer. Why are you looking for help at a gun store?”

“Because I am the fixer?”

“Then you can solve it yourself.”

Maybe it was because he wasn’t a guest, so the reaction was harsh. Then, I decided to become a guest first.

“Just give me a box of 12.7mm bullets, a box of 60 45-caliber armor-piercing rounds, and 30 individual 12-gauge slug rounds.”

It was Leonard who knew how to handle a woman’s heart. The gunsmith’s face gradually brightened.

“And I need one piece of information, they are looking for an uninhabited building.”

“If you go out and enter any house, there is a 30% chance it will be empty.”

“It’s not just an empty house, it’s a very large and hard-to-find empty house. I don’t know the exterior, but the interior structure is roughly like this.”

Leonard sent a pre-prepared photo with the gunsmith brainchip. For those who might misunderstand, it wasn’t hacking. It was an open channel open to customers who came to buy guns.

The gunsmith swiped through the floating photos and quickly put them away.

“I’m not doing real estate, so how do you know something like this?”

“That’s right. Then can you find a real estate agent?”

In any case, getting help from the locals was the answer.

@

Few people bothered to live on the polluted outskirts of the Federal Highway.

Even if they settled down for some reason, as the gunsmith said, there were empty houses, so it was enough to just move in to the place you liked without permission. So out-of-town realtors were as rare a job as volunteers in junk town, and there wasn’t really much to do.

“You said you were looking for a house?”

An old man drunk on industrial ethanol welcomed a visitor after two years. Max pinched his nose at the sour smell of disinfectant. It’s new, but if you drink something like that, you’ll go blind and your organs will get damaged.

“I don’t know if it’s a house or a factory yet, so I’m looking for a place like this.”

“what? If it’s just a consultation, I won’t accept it!”

“What if 100 credits?”

“Sit over here!”

After all, nothing was as important as credit. He chose the chair that was in the best condition, offered a seat, and quietly held out the bottle he was drinking.

“alcohol? My little guest, would you like some juice?”

“Do you have any juice?”

“If you drink it here, it is subtle and smells good.”

It seems like a waste to tremble while offering a sip. Leonard politely declined and sent the gunsmith exactly what he had shown.

“Uh huh, how do you find a building with indoor photos? At least bring something that is in good condition.”

“I think there might be some clues?”

“Well, it’s a very large place.”

That seems to be the clue. Instead of being mean, Leonard transferred 50 credits up front. The effect came out quickly.

“A building this big was built during gas mining.”

“Gas mining? Aren’t you going to catch it now?”

“How many years ago was that? Everything that can be harvested is mined. Did this town have to be like this for no reason?”

The old man carefully took out a wad of paper from the bookshelf where empty bottles were piled up. It was a map of Tale Town. It is also strange to have a paper map in this day and age, but there were various stains on what was eaten and spilled.

“It’s a bit old, but since nothing has changed in 10 years, it should fit roughly.”

Leonard frowned. It was difficult to read a primitive flat map because I was used to digital maps that can be enlarged and reduced in 3D and rotated up, down, left and right. However, the real estate inspiration, an old man, drew a line on the map as if there was no problem.

“About 17km along this road from here will be a factory complex. I’m not sure this is there, but there aren’t many sunny places on such a large lot, so it must be somewhere in the neighborhood.”

“Are there any residents there?”

“That’s a carrot! It’s been 30 years since I came here as a miner and settled down, and it’s like my hometown.”

There was nowhere to go, as the real hometown had been reduced to ashes or turned into a mutant den. Leonard spent 150 credits on the toothless grin.

“uh?”

When the credits were twice as much as promised, a dumbfounded voice came out. Leonard grabbed the map and put it in the inside pocket of his coat.

“That’s an advance payment, too. Let’s do one more favor.”

“This is better than introducing the house. What else?”

“Please spread a rumor in your neighborhood.”

Now that the fishing grounds were found, it was time to sow rice cakes. If drug dealers hit the drug, they will come in droves.

@

Max, as always, had his doubts.

“Can’t we just go and search?”

It was strange that they didn’t attack after finding a powerful place. However, Leonard wasn’t the Ryan Bourne who charged with a heavy weapon.

“You can rummage and rummage.”

Even Ryan Bourne was reckless. It is not that there is no technology and there is no lack of funds, so the factory must have been fortified. Even if they weren’t so cautious, it wasn’t easy to find a double-digit terrorist in that vast industrial complex.

“Let go of the bait first, and if there is no response, then try it.”

“Then what if you notice and run away?”

“You have to be careful not to do that.”

It was also a good thing to have local acquaintances. Even if your friends don’t agree.

“Are you serious?”

The gunsmith frowned. Even if a beauty wore a frown, she was a beauty, so she didn’t feel bad. Leonard swept his bangs and looked straight ahead with those classy eyes that could make everyone fall in love.

“Can’t you tell by looking at these eyes?”

“If you believe in implanted eyes, you are an idiot.”

Especially the implant hacker eye. Leonard spared no comments for fishery management.

“If it is difficult to bring it into the house, you can stay at the store.”

“Is that more difficult? I know what to steal.”

“Shall I do something harsh with my child?”

The quick-witted kid blinked innocent eyes. If I was only 3 years younger, I would have been cute, but now I honestly feel gross.

“Are there a lot of empty houses over there?”

“If you live in an empty house, you will be noticed by the locals.”

“Even if you come into a house where a woman lives alone, you can stand out.”

“Can’t we just call her lover?”

“I don’t want to have a lover like this.”

When the fixer duo and the gunsmith started talking at the same time, it was crazy. Leonard brushed off his lies to save the credits and confessed with good conscience.

“There must be only one outsider. That way, the other side will move safely.”

On the other hand, the dwarf, who became an outsider and became a bait regardless of his will, became a pitiful spectacle covered in black contaminated soil dust.

“Me, how long do I have to wait? Have you already started?”

In any case, it attracted attention, so the operation began.