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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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The trash, reaching up to my ankles, was a nuisance. It felt like wading through a sea of garbage.
“Hey, where are you going?! Where?!”
I shouted, but the blonde girl walked on silently, ignoring my question.
Ugh, what a rude kid.
I grumbled to myself.
Of course, I was also in a child’s body now, so her reaction was understandable.
I briefly reminisced. It had been over an hour since I started following this girl, who had snarled, “What are you looking at? Wanna die?”
The trash underfoot hindered my progress, and my shortened legs made me incredibly slow.
Whenever I fell behind, the girl would stop and look back. It seemed like she wanted me to follow her.
But I wished she would at least tell me where we were going.
I took a deep breath, preparing to shout.
“Where are we—.”
The girl suddenly appeared beside me, clamping her small hand over my mouth.
“Shhh, idiot. Be quiet.”
The force of her approach sent us both tumbling into a pile of trash. The stench and the food waste clinging to my hair made me dizzy, but the next sound I heard made me hold my breath.
Whirr. Propeller blades spun. A large drone, its spotlight casting a red glow, scanned the trash heaps.
A huge rat scurried out from the garbage.
I almost screamed, not because the rat was over 60cm long or because it swiped at the drone with razor-sharp claws, but because of what happened next.
[Organic matter detected.]
A harpoon shot out from the drone, impaling the giant rat. Red blood dripped. The drone carried its prize away.
The blonde girl carefully removed her hand from my mouth.
“If you don’t want to die, stay alert. There’s no one here to protect you.”
She pushed herself up.
“This is where all the trash from Neon City ends up. No one cares.”
Beyond her pointed finger, I saw an imposing concrete wall.
The girl resumed her brisk pace.
…Neon City. A name from that cyberpunk game.
I kept my mouth shut but continued to follow her.
…But hadn’t her action just protected me?
I decided to let that minor inconsistency slide.
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It felt like I’d had a long, strange dream.
“Hey, hey. Wake up.”
[Shiun, regain consciousness.]
Familiar voices reached me. Catherine’s, and then Eve’s. It was unusual for Eve to address me so formally.
I opened my eyes and nearly jumped out of my skin.
A bizarre holographic mask hovered before me. What the…?
I pressed a button on the mask, and the hologram vanished, revealing Catherine’s face.
…That startled me. I sat up, clutching my throbbing head.
The floor I’d been standing on was now the ceiling.
…….
Scattered debris littered the scene. It was a complete mess. Bodies lay twisted at unnatural angles, bleeding.
Thankfully, I’d cast a protective spell on myself, Catherine, and the Vice President before the airship crashed. I hadn’t had much time, so the spell hadn’t fully absorbed the impact.
Catherine asked, her voice laced with concern, “Are you hurt?”
“No, you?”
“Me neither.”
Apart from some dust, I seemed unharmed.
Having confirmed Catherine’s safety, it was time to check on Ko-zaka William. Professionally, I should have checked on him first, but my concern for Catherine had overridden protocol.
I walked over to where the Vice President had been.
Through the translucent barrier of the protective spell, I saw Ko-zaka William sprawled limply like a discarded doll.
…He looked nothing like the Vice President of Ko-zaka Corporation.
I examined him. His limbs were intact, no bleeding.
[He’s only unconscious. Vital signs are normal.]
Eve confirmed my assessment.
Indeed, there were no broken bones. His breathing was steady. He just seemed to have fainted.
I deemed him to be in stable condition.
A Korean proverb came to mind:
“Even if you take the wrong path, as long as you reach Seoul, it’s fine.”
It meant that the process didn’t matter as long as the goal was achieved.
Despite the hiccups along the way, this was a successful kidnapping as long as we could get Ko-zaka William out of here discreetly.
I reached for the Vice President, but Catherine was faster, scooping him up effortlessly.
“Let’s go. If we stay any longer, Ko-zaka or someone else will catch our scent.”
“Right.”
I nodded. We made our way out of the wreckage.
I scanned the surroundings, but we seemed to be the only survivors. I offered a silent prayer for the deceased and continued walking.
A foul odor grew stronger with each step.
Emerging from the airship, I was greeted by the sight of the landfill—a view I hadn’t seen up close in years.
…I wondered how I’d ever lived here.
Back then, I hadn’t noticed, but now, after so long, the stench was overwhelming.
We distanced ourselves from the burning wreckage. Judging by the flames and smoke, it could explode at any moment. We also needed to get out of range of the airship’s jamming signal.
As we moved further away, Natasha’s frantic voice crackled through the comms.
《—okay? Are you okay?!》
I pressed the transmit button.
“Yes, we’re fine.”
《…Phew, I thought something went wrong when the airship suddenly crashed.》
…Something did go wrong. But as long as the outcome was favorable, everything was fine, right?
“We have secured the target. Our current location is…”
I looked around. Catherine added, using her own comms, “We’re near Sector E. Reaching the safehouse in Sector B will be difficult.”
I’d anticipated this when the airship crashed. The original plan involved landing, not crashing.
《Is there anywhere to hide nearby? Even if Tech Master and Red Horn leave now, it’ll take some time. Ko-zaka corporate drones are airborne, so other support is difficult.》
I paused to think. Catherine seemed to be doing the same.
Sector E… That meant our location was…
Hmm.
There was one suitable place.
“Yes, there is. The location has changed, but we’ll proceed with the plan.”
The plan itself was simple: ascertain whether Ko-zaka William was Smile John in a secure location.
I signed off and surveyed our surroundings.
It had been a long time, but this place had been my home for a significant period.
My sense of direction slowly returned.
The Landfill.
Even this mountain of garbage had its own order, invisible to the untrained eye.
Faint lines on the ground between the heaps. The distance from the outer wall. Sector designations.
Observing these patterns made pinpointing our location easy.
“Sigh.”
I let out a soft sigh.
[Why are you sighing?]
Eve responded to my quiet utterance.
“I never thought I’d have to crawl back here.”
[…?]
Eve wouldn’t understand. I’d met her after leaving the landfill, and its details weren’t widely known.
A wave of nostalgia, tinged with unease, washed over me.
Catherine, perhaps feeling the same way, didn’t look particularly happy.
Or maybe her expression was due to the stench.
Just as Catherine and I had lived here, a surprising number of people called the landfill home.
While corporate kill-drones patrolled the surface, and the shifting mountains of trash, moved by heavy machinery, posed a constant threat of death, and scavengers added another layer of danger, it was still a place where people lived. Different from the slums beneath the city.
Catherine, carrying Ko-zaka William over one shoulder, swept aside some trash with her foot.
Beneath the debris, a manhole cover, its seams sealed by time and grime, appeared.
…Starting from this location, we’d have to navigate the sewers to reach the residential area.
The people here lived underground, in a small, hidden community.
They were known by the derogatory term, “Moles.”
“Wow, wow! Look who it is! It seems like only yesterday you little ones were running around here. What brings you back? I heard an airship crashed up there… surely it wasn’t you guys—wait a minute, who’s that on your shoulder? Expensive clothes.”
“Ko-zaka’s Vice President.”
“Hahaha!!! Good one!”
It wasn’t a joke.
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