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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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I awoke from a deep sleep and opened my eyes. The clock displaying the ‘current time’ blinked in the corner of my visual interface.
I naturally sat up in bed. Usually, I would have stayed lying down, turning on NetSpace to kill time.
But considering what happened before I went to sleep, I couldn’t just lie there without thinking.
First, I checked my physical condition.
The fatigue that had weighed me down before going to bed was now completely gone.
…How many hours did I sleep?
I checked the time and couldn’t help but be surprised.
Only two hours had passed since I went to bed.
I continued my reasoning logically.
My trash-like physical constitution.
My extreme fatigue.
The mental exhaustion from Eve’s appearance.
And so on.
Considering all these possibilities, rather than waking up after only two hours of sleep, it was more plausible that I had fallen asleep for 14 hours straight without waking up once.
I really slept for a long time. Since I was up, I looked around.
My cramped room came into view.
But as if to confirm that the memory from before I went to sleep wasn’t a dream, luxurious furniture that didn’t belong in my room decorated the space.
A delicious smell wafted from somewhere, and the rhythmic thud of a chopping board could be heard.
I looked in the direction of the sound.
I saw the back of a woman in a maid outfit preparing food.
It was Eve.
Including both my past and present life, I had never been married, but I imagined this was what a newlywed home felt like.
Of course, that would require having the strange hobby of making your partner wear a maid outfit.
Eve turned around and placed the dish she was holding onto the dining table.
The table was already laden with all sorts of dishes.
As if possessed, I got out of bed, pulled out a chair at the table, and sat down.
“……Thanks for the food.”
“Acknowledged.”
I wanted to ask how she knew when I would wake up and had prepared so much food.
But considering her effort in preparing the meal, I thought it was more important to eat first and give my impressions.
I took a spoonful of the soup placed in front of me.
Oh. This taste.
It’s like a universe being born in my mouth!
It was incredibly delicious.
I could believe it was made by a professional chef with decades of experience.
…….
But why?
While it was indeed delicious, I felt like I had tasted this flavor somewhere before.
Eve was nodding repeatedly with an impassive face, watching me enjoy the food.
I cautiously asked Eve,
“…It’s delicious, but where did you get the recipes?”
“I hacked and referenced the recipes of the personal chef responsible for Monolith’s chairman’s meals.”
“Ah.”
I let out a short exclamation.
So that’s why.
It was a taste I had tried before.
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I checked the message notification.
It was a delivery notification saying a package had arrived at my door.
A package.
I hadn’t ordered anything.
My question was answered when Eve brought in a box from outside.
“This is the ‘legacy input/output device’ I ordered.”
It was the computer Eve had ordered for gaming.
“Since there were no stores specializing in selling them, I purchased it from an individual.”
“You mean you bought it used?”
“Affirmative.”
She used ‘Carrot Market.’
That explained the delayed delivery.
But for some reason, Eve’s reaction to the box was strange.
Her expressionless face hardened even further.
“…This is not the weight indicated in the product specifications. It’s lighter.”
She shook the box and checked the numbers and name on the shipping label several times.
“I currently speculate the contents are not a mechanical device. It appears to be about the size of a palm and does not seem to contain any special devices.”
Having said that, Eve started to unpack the box while holding it.
…….
After examining the contents of the box for a short while, Eve quietly put it down.
I leaned over to check inside the box.
There lay a solid ‘brick.’
“…….”
It seemed even a cyberpunk Super AI couldn’t escape being scammed in a used goods transaction.
Eve’s face slightly contorted.
“…Confirmed, this constitutes an act of fraud.”
A hint of anger seeped through her impassive expression.
I offered Eve words of comfort.
“Just consider yourself unlucky. As far as I know, those guys usually use aliases and dummy accounts, so it’s hard to catch them even if you report it─, ah.”
I stopped mid-sentence.
No, wait.
Come to think of it, Eve had easily uncovered the identity of ‘Underdog,’ who seemed like a professional information broker.
There was no way she would be fooled by a mere scammer.
Rather than Eve being unlucky, it was probably the person who scammed her who was unlucky.
Eve was muttering something to herself, so I moved closer to listen.
“Location and name confirmed, attempting to seize the bank account through hacking…, successful.”
Eve’s white eyes glowed with a mechanical light.
She seemed to be engrossed in remote hacking.
I spoke to Eve, who was turning the scammer into a pauper in real-time,
“Is there any other stock available?”
“…This was the only product being traded used in Neon City.”
Of course, there wouldn’t be anywhere selling it new.
Eve fidgeted unconsciously.
The gesture felt very human.
“…Sigh.”
She looked like a puppy drenched in the rain.
She seemed incredibly disappointed.
I asked her,
“…Then, shall we go there?”
“Where are you referring to?”
Eve looked at me with sparkling eyes.
As for where,
“Little Shinjuku.”
I was talking about the black market called ‘Vanta Market.’
Incidentally, it was also where I bought my computer.
As it was known as the area with the highest concentration of Japanese people in Neon City, the further in we walked, the more Japanese-style decorations and buildings caught my eye.
Black market.
Vanta Market.
Well, it was called a black market, but it wasn’t actually a dark and shady place like in the movies.
It was a place where local residents would casually drop by to buy groceries.
There were no special entry requirements, and access wasn’t strictly controlled.
You could even commonly see NCPD officers inside. Even they couldn’t resist shopping.
In short, it was just an ordinary place
that sold ‘various kinds’ of goods.
It just so happened that among those various kinds, some were illegal.
Was this the first time I’d been back since I went to the concert with Catherine?
It was the same as before, unchanged. There was the smell of unidentifiable food, and a faint whiff of gunpowder.
And the strongest smell among them was
“Why isn’t there any?!”
“There isn’t any, so there isn’t any!!”
the raw smell of human life.
As expected of a market in the lower levels, it was a place where all sorts of people gathered.
…But this voice. It sounded familiar.
I turned my head to confirm the source of the voice.
There was the man I called ‘Information Broker No. 7,’ Underdog, arguing loudly with a dwarf who seemed to be the shop owner.
What was his name again?
Dominic… something, I think.
Anyway, what was he causing a fuss about?
The shop owner’s voice grew louder.
“You idiot!! Do you think it’s that easy to get a product like ‘Lone Spider’?! Where did you lose the one you bought last time?!”
……Ah.
That thing.
I do have it.
Incidentally, it was what I used to eavesdrop on Catherine and Julia’s conversation.
Although I almost got caught by Catherine, it was definitely a high-performance drone.
I looked at Eve.
She was still stubbornly wearing her maid outfit. I wished she would change into something more ordinary.
“…Where did I put that Lone Spider?”
“It is at this location.”
“?”
Simultaneously with Eve’s reply, a photo was sent to my neural data chip.
The photo showed Eve and me, seemingly taken from a distance.
“Except for special cases like sewers, it is set to follow your route for human ‘Lee Shiun’ safety.”
Several more photos were sent.
Each taken from a different angle.
“…….”
Hmm.
But all the photos seemed to be focused on my masked face.
I dismissed it as my imagination.
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