Free Web NovelChapter 296: 296 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 7
Another year passed after that, making it two years since I came here. During that time, I steadily took requests, sold custom guns, and worked with the Maine team occasionally. As a result, money was overflowing.
"Hurry up!"
"Slow down. You’ll fall."
Lucy and I had made time and were traveling to the moon. Lucy was extremely excited.
The reason it ended up being this late was because there were no decent moon tourism packages, and they were absurdly expensive, but now, finally, a decent travel package had come out, so I could book it and go.
We took a rocket to the moon, checked into our lodging, and after resting for a day, when the next day came, we put on spacesuits and ran around on the lunar surface, having a great time.
– Wow~! I knew the gravity would be different, but experiencing it directly is really amazing.
"I know, right."
Seeing Lucy run around and play like a little girl made me feel good as well.
After playing like that, we ate, and in the afternoon, we took a moon rover and toured the lunar surface. But we couldn’t drive it ourselves — a guide drove us around, driving to various places and explaining. I understood why they operated it this way, but it was quite disappointing to be riding in a moon rover after paying so much money. But Lucy listened intently to the guide’s explanation and enjoyed the tour. If she was having fun, I decided to just be satisfied with that.
The next day, we walked around and toured the lunar base. Here, except for security personnel, carrying weapons was strictly prohibited, so we could walk around safely even without being armed.
The lunar base was larger than I thought. There were many residents, so it was large enough to remind you of a small city, and there were restaurants, bars, and even a casino for tourists. Lucy and I went to the casino and enjoyed some games. The casino itself had a jamming system and strictly prohibited the use of implants. But there was no way I would get caught, so I happily used my abilities and enjoyed the games, and as a result, I won back more than the cost of the moon trip. Instead, Lucy lost some money.
"Damn it!"
"Don’t worry, I won a lot of money."
"Are you making fun of me!?"
Lucy fumed as she walked back to the hotel — she must have been quite upset about losing the money.
We spent our time sightseeing on the moon like that, and then it was the last day. As we were walking around the base, we saw a traditional Japanese ramen shop, so we decided to eat there and went inside. It was a small shop, and perhaps because it wasn’t mealtime yet, there were no customers other than us.
"Welcome."
The owner was a young Asian woman, and as we entered, she greeted us with a bright face.
"Two tonkotsu ramen, please."
"Two tonkotsu ramen, coming right up."
After waiting a bit, the ramen we ordered came out quickly. It was tastier and better than I expected, so we were able to eat the ramen deliciously.
"Excuse me, if you’re not too busy, could I ask you one thing?"
While I was paying, Lucy asked the owner a question.
"Sure, there are no customers yet, so I’m not busy — go ahead."
"What’s it like living on the moon?"
When Lucy asked that, the owner let out a big sigh first.
"Haa... it’s hard. In a way, you could say it’s even tougher than living on Earth. Everything is expensive here. I understand that it’s because supplies have to be transported from Earth, but it’s still too expensive. The only fortunate thing is that food is a bit cheaper because it’s grown in lunar farms, but even that isn’t cheap compared to Earth. And the corporations here are also tyrannical, so I never know when I might get kicked out... and the wealth gap is huge too..."
The owner seemed to have many complaints about living on the moon, and she began to tell us about various circumstances.
"Anyway, that’s why I’m thinking about going back down to Earth."
"I-I see..."
Then, other customers came into the shop, so we gave the owner a little extra tip for the conversation, said goodbye, and went outside.
"It seems living here isn’t easy either..."
"Every place where people live is like that, I suppose."
"Yeah, you’re right."
Lucy’s face was filled with deep disappointment. The fantasy she had held about the moon seemed to shatter in that moment. This wasn’t why I had brought her here, but it couldn’t be helped. That’s just how reality is.
We spent the last night at the hotel and returned to Earth. Lucy, perhaps tired from the trip, did nothing all day and just lazed around at home. So I also just lazed around next to her, and it wasn’t until the next day that I started taking requests again.
Now, having worked hard for two years, my fee had gone up a bit, which meant fewer clients could afford me. So the number of requests decreased a bit, giving me more free time. But there was also a downside — the difficulty of the requests went up. I don’t know whether I should be happy about that or not.
Then, feeling bored, I made some pizza and went to the Afterlife to hang out, and the Maine team was there too, so we went to Rogue’s office with her, ate pizza, and chatted. As expected, the Maine team was also extremely surprised after eating the pizza.
"What is this pizza? It’s really delicious!"
"I know, right. It seems like the best food I’ve ever eaten."
Then Rogue laughed and spoke.
"I was surprised too. Because of this pizza, eating in the office is now exempt from the rules. I wish you’d bring it more often."
"The ingredients are expensive. We only eat it occasionally too."
Actually, the ingredients were free. Because I was making them by duplicating the ingredients from my inventory with [Material Copy]. But I thought that if I said this, they wouldn’t bother me about it. Lucy also knew my intention and just stayed quiet.
"Really? That’s a shame."
"But it seems the Maine team has a request, right? Seeing you at the Afterlife."
At my question, Maine answered.
"It’s not a big job — I think just Maine and Sasha would be enough. It’s just extracting some information."
This — I wondered if this wasn’t the request where Sasha dies. There was less than a year until the start of the original, so the timing was similar as well.
"Is it the Biotechnica job?"
"Yeah. But how did you know that?"
"I know. A new immunosuppressant came out from Biotechnica, so there are a lot of corporations targeting it."
With this, it became certain. So, to prevent Sasha from doing something reckless, I decided to tell her the information first.
"The Biotechnica corporation has a lot of shady things going on. Their ’Securicine’ painkiller — despite having side effects that damage the nervous system, they didn’t recall it and just covered it up. So there are many patients who died without knowing." freewёbnoνel.com
Then Sasha, surprised, asked me.
"Wh-what!!? What painkiller?"
"Securicine painkiller."
"Th-that can’t be. If you knew that, why did you stay quiet?? You should have reported it to the press or something..."
Sasha stood up, extremely excited. There was a reason she was acting like this.
Sasha’s mother was a former soldier, and the painkiller that her mother was taking while fighting her illness when Sasha was young was the Securicine painkiller made by Biotechnica. Sasha, who had always wondered about her mother’s death — her health deteriorating even though she clearly didn’t have a terminal illness — hearing the truth from me, it was natural for her to be excited.
"Calm down, Sasha."
When Sasha got excited, the Maine team calmed her down for the moment. When Sasha calmed down to some extent, I continued.
"Sasha, I don’t know why you’re so excited, but reporting it to the press is useless. They’re also in cahoots with the megacorps. There was a journalist who exposed a megacorp’s secret before — a few days later, he was found dead. The press didn’t even report it."
Rogue also sighed and added.
"Yeah, those bastards have always been like that. Hiding, manipulating... that’s their way."
"But..."
At those words, Sasha despaired, slumped to the floor, and cried. Maine, seeing that, patted Sasha’s shoulder to comfort her.
We finished eating and went outside to have a drink together. Sasha got so drunk she couldn’t function, so Dorio carried Sasha on her back and took her home. Maine, seeing that, scratched his head and was troubled.
"Haa... this is bad. With Sasha in that state, what are we supposed to do about the request..."
"Sorry. I didn’t mean to cause that."
"No. Hearing Sasha’s story, it seems her family was affected by that painkiller, and I don’t know how she might act if she finds out about that while digging through Biotechnica’s files during the request. Maybe it’s a good thing she found out now instead."
Maine’s worry was right. In the original as well, Sasha discovers documents about that painkiller in addition to the requested data on the immunosuppressant, and while trying to send them to the press, it takes time, and she ends up dying without escaping.
"It’s not really a replacement, but I’ll help you for half the request fee. Infiltration is my specialty."
"You’ll do that? That’s a relief. I was thinking about finding another netrunner. But, did you know netrunning as well?"
"No, I have a beautiful young lady who’s an expert in that field. You’ll help, right?"
When I winked at Lucy, Lucy sighed and spoke.
"Haa... fine, I’ll help."
We went to Biotechnica by car with Maine the next night. Maine jammed the signal to temporarily disable the security robots, I infiltrated and connected the network device, and Lucy immediately extracted the data. It didn’t take long.
"Your work is fast as always. If work was always this easy, I wouldn’t have any complaints."
"Well, it just means our teamwork is that good."
"I know, right."
"Ah, right, and here’s a gift. Give it to Sasha."
I took out a small bag and handed it to Maine.
"What’s this?"
"I didn’t just extract the data. I also secretly planted some high‑powered bombs as a gift, so Sasha can use them to blow off some steam."
Maine, hearing that, laughed heartily while driving.
"Puhahahahaha!!! That’s the best gift ever! Got it, I’ll make sure she gets it."
Several days passed like that, and around evening, I got a call from Maine.
– We’re going to set off fireworks, so you have to come watch!
It seemed Sasha was finally going to detonate the bombs I had planted.
"Great!"
I took Lucy and went to the place Maine had arranged. It was a hill with a good view of the Biotechnica building. These guys had even brought beer and sunbeds and were having a drinking party. Even Lucy, seeing that, was incredulous.
"Welcome! Sasha’s about to set it off, so let’s just have a beer and watch."
"Okay."
Lucy and I also sat on the sunbeds that were set up, drank beer, and chatted with them. Then Sasha came to me and thanked me.
"Thank you, Jin. This is going to be the best gift for me."
"Don’t mention it. I couldn’t take the request because of me, so I had to give you at least this."
Then Maine came to Sasha and spoke.
"The sun’s set now, so we should start the fireworks!"
"Got it!"
We all gathered together and counted down. This was a secluded spot, so it probably didn’t matter if we were loud.
"3!!!"
"2!!!"
"1!!!"
KABOOOOM—!!!!
When Sasha pressed the detonator, along with an earth‑shaking explosion sound, two entire floors of the Biotechnica building were engulfed in flames, spewing fire and debris out of the windows.
"Wow!!! Awesome?!"
"Whoa~ I’ve lived to see a megacorp building explode."
"Whoa~!! I want to capture a scene like this in a photo, but that’s not okay, right?"
"Of course not. If it gets leaked by mistake, you’d have to live as a fugitive for life, you know?"
"Let’s just be satisfied with everyone watching."
But then, suddenly, Sasha ran over to me, hugged me, and peppered my cheek with kisses.
"Jin!! Thank you~!!"
Then Lucy, with an angry face, grabbed Sasha’s face and tried to quickly pull her away from me. But Sasha put force into it and tried not to let go of me, struggling with Lucy.
"You stray cat!!! What do you think you’re doing with another woman’s man!!!"
The Maine team watched and laughed loudly.
Lucy finally managed to pull Sasha off, fumed, grabbed my hand, dragged me away, and pushed me into the car.
Then Maine’s voice came through the car window.
"Today was fun! Let’s work together again next time!"
But Lucy, still very angry, just rolled up the window and started the car immediately.
"Must be nice being popular, really!"
Lucy gripped the steering wheel tightly, drove with an angry face, and vented her frustration.
"What are you talking about? I only have you, Lucy. Sasha was just being grateful, that’s all."
"Haa! You sure have a way with words!! Do you think I didn’t see the corners of your mouth turn up when Sasha was hugging you?! You looked completely pleased with yourself?!"
"I’m telling you, it’s not like that."
I sweated trying to calm down a sulking Lucy the whole way home. Still, I had saved Sasha, so I felt good, like I had fastened the first button on the path to a happy ending.
