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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Ting, click.
An old Zippo lighter opened and closed without a flame.
The sound made by the cold metal echoed quietly on the large executive desk.
‘How long have I been using this….’
The woman, the Chairman of Monolith, Taylor Blackstone, repeatedly opened and closed the Zippo lighter with low, sunken eyes.
Ting.
Opening it mechanically.
Click.
And closing it again, just as mechanically.
“Um…, Chairman.”
“What is it?”
From one side of the office, which was darker than usual because the lights were off, the Chief Secretary, Justin Borg, managed to offer his difficult but necessary advice.
“…It is now time for you to attend to your duties.”
“……”
The Chairman lightly ignored his words and looked away from Justin Borg.
She once again looked down at the Zippo lighter held in her hand.
An immense amount of electronic documents had already piled up on the office desk.
Seeing that sight, Justin Borg once again felt the world go dark before his eyes.
She was a chairman famous for handling her work more diligently than other corporate chairmen.
How did it come to this….
Justin Borg forced himself to swallow a groan.
A few strands of white hair poked out from Justin Borg’s neatly slicked-back black hair.
The color of his hair, finding its original age due to stress, was a painful sight for Justin Borg.
“Any contact?”
“……Not yet.”
Contact from ‘who.’
He knew without having to ask.
Dr. Terra had reported sending a message, and he himself had even taken time he didn’t have to send a message.
That man, that punk, that bastard. The Mage had not responded at all.
He hadn’t even thought of visiting.
Muttering a vulgar F-word under his breath, Justin Borg slightly raised his gaze to look at the Chairman.
Ting, click.
At the words that there was no contact, the Chairman resumed opening and closing the Zippo lighter.
A silent pressure was felt.
“……”
It had been a long time since the Chairman, famous for being a heavy smoker, had not smoked a cigarette for this long.
It had already been three days.
To be precise, it was from the day Dr. Terra had reported sending a message to that man.
It would be fine to smoke if she just switched to a different body.
For some reason he didn’t know, the Chairman had been consistently maintaining a female body for the past three days.
A long silence ensued again.
Only the sound of the Zippo lighter was heard continuously.
In the end.
Justin Borg had no choice but to say the words he didn’t want to, but had to, in order to restore the Chairman’s motivation.
“I will go and see him myself.”
“Hmm, you, Chief Secretary?”
“Yes.”
“…Then I’ll leave it to you.”
…….
What in the world is he doing?
He was also curious as to why he wasn’t answering his calls.
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Ding-dong.
“Looks like someone’s here.”
At the familiar sound of my home’s intercom bell, I lifted my head.
Ugh, my neck hurts.
Perhaps because I had been staring at the monitor for so long, my forward head posture felt like it had gotten even worse.
Wondering if there was anyone who could get the door for me, I looked around.
“…I will cast heal.”
Eve, who was focused on the raid just like me, was calmly enjoying the game.
[BunnyPrincess(Archer) : I’ll time my DPS ]
And I couldn’t ask Julia, who wasn’t even in the same room.
She wasn’t in the same room in the first place, so she couldn’t respond to the intercom.
“Why are the controls like this?”
“Wow, there’s no information even when I search the net. This is a real trash game.”
Catherine and Andrea seemed to be just now enjoying the game, sitting in front of a computer they had newly bought from an antique shop.
It can’t be helped.
I’ll have to go myself.
Of course, I was also in the middle of a raid with Eve and Julia.
So, to observe basic etiquette, I typed a simple message.
[RealMageHere(Warrior): Hey, someone’s at the door, I’ll be right back ]
[ P2034871140(Warrior): ? ]
[SleepComesForTheGrap(Rogue): ??? Are you crazy? We’re in the middle of a raid, where’s our main tank? I can let it slide that you took the raid item and ran, but this crosses the line ]
[ ‘SleepComesForTheGrap(Rogue)’ has died. ]
As my tanking disappeared, someone’s life also disappeared into the sky.
But it couldn’t be helped.
What could I do when someone showed up in real life?
I roughly tidied my messy hair and opened the front door from which the bell had rung.
Hmm.
The Chief Secretary of Monolith, Justin Borg, was standing in front.
What is this person doing here—.
“Ah.”
A buried memory came back to life.
Justin Borg, with a tired tone, asked me a question instead of a greeting.
“…Why did you have your message notifications turned off?”
Well, you see.
There were too many spam messages, so I turned it off for a bit.
“……”
But since I couldn’t answer like that, I naturally maintained my silence.
Looking at me, Justin Borg continued to speak with an even paler complexion.
I didn’t know about anything else but he looked incredibly tired.
“…Let’s go.”
“……Yes.”
This must be what a pig being led to the slaughterhouse feels like.
I briefly explained the situation to the golden children in the room, then followed Justin Borg.
Hmm. For some reason, I feel a familiar sense of déjà vu.
It’s a similar feeling to when Smith came to pick me up (kidnap me) to No Answer a while ago.
Seeing the luxurious sedans surrounding the vehicle as if escorting it, that sense of déjà vu became even stronger.
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The time it took to arrive at the headquarters of Black Monolith, the Monolith Tower, was not very long.
In fact, it was in a location that took less than 30 minutes to walk to, so it was only natural, if you thought about it.
“For someone who knows that, I wonder why you didn’t come….”
“……”
Because I forgot for a moment.
Without answering his words, I tried to recall the memories of the past three days.
Hunting, raiding, questing, and hunting again.
……Hmm.
It was truly a fruitful three days.
“Good day, Chief Secretary. The person accompanying you is—.”
“We’re in a hurry, so let’s skip the minor procedures.”
“…Pardon? But there are regulations—.”
“The Chairman’s orders.”
“……! Please enter!”
After going through a few more of those processes, and snapping out of my daze.
Before I knew it, I had arrived at the 153rd floor, the Chairman’s office.
“…Then please have a comfortable talk.”
Justin Borg, who had guided me beyond the elevator doors, left a brief greeting and disappeared.
Click.
In the large space where nothing was visible except for the executive desk in the center, a cold metallic sound was heard.
Amidst the vast panorama of Neon City, the gaze of the woman with purplish hair intertwined with magenta, the Chairman, moved toward me.
Her complexion brightened slightly as she greeted me. At the same time, the dark office brightened.
“You’re here?”
“…Yes, Chairman. It’s been a while.”
It didn’t seem like it had been that long but I left a greeting as a formality.
“Sit there first.”
The Chairman pressed a button on the executive desk.
From the other side of the desk, a luxurious guest chair rose up from the floor.
This is amazing every time I see it.
Because I had a chronic illness where my heart would pound when I stood in front of the number one ranked megacorp chairman. I sat down in the chair with a slightly nervous heart.
“…I had some circumstances, so I couldn’t contact you recently, but I hope everything is well? Haha….”
“I’m always the same. In fact, when you’re the chairman of a megacorp, there isn’t that much to do.”
The Chairman, with a small smile on her lips, waved her hand nonchalantly.
To be honest, I didn’t believe it.
Because when you talk about the big corporations of cyberpunk, the megacorps, most of them had power strong enough to reach state authority.
Usually, it was right for them to be busy. And even more so for the number one ranked megacorp.
But if I were to say that here, the corporate security team hiding somewhere might appear and turn me into a ma/g/e.
To change the mood, I first asked the Chairman a light question.
“Unlike last time, you’re a woman today.”
“I was born a woman, so this is actually what I’m used to.”
…….
Is that so?
I didn’t know. I remember her being a macho man last time.
“Oh, right.”
Leaving me in my confusion, this time the Chairman changed the subject and asked a question.
“Did you solve all the things you asked me about last time? That virtual terrorist or whatever, was he really the vice chairman of Ko-ozaka?”
“Ah.”
I hadn’t told the Chairman either.
“Yes, well. It’s all been taken care of for now.”
“How?”
I briefly explained the process.
I inevitably had to talk about the existence of the super-AI, Eve, but it couldn’t be helped if I were to explain the broadcast station hacking incident.
Besides, I had already told everyone around me about it.
And I didn’t know about other megacorps, but I had a certain thought that it would be okay with the Chairman of Monolith, to whom I was indebted.
After my short explanation ended, the Chairman drank the already cold tea.
“A super-AI, and the terrorist you were after turned out to be that old geezer from Ko-ozaka.”
She hummed, making a sound through her nose.
“Come to think of it, I didn’t even offer you a cup of tea. My, I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s fine—.”
Next to the chair I was sitting on, a cup of tea with steam billowing out rose up from the floor.
I wet my parched throat with the warm tea.
“Then the one who ended my call during the broadcast and hacked the broadcast station building must have been that artificial intelligence.”
“…Yes.”
There was no need to lie about this part either.
I answered, nodding my head.
“Then what happened with the bigamy story? Was that real, or was it a lie?”
“Ah, that.”
As a matter of fact, recently, I’ve been worrying a lot about that.
Catherine, whom I had known for a long time, was one thing but Andrea, who came over every day as if she were going to move in, was also a headache.
It was even more so because, at some point, another new double bed had been attached to the side of the double bed that Eve had bought.
If this continued, a future where the four of us slept side by side would be born.
I was able to endure it because I had barely slept for three days, If not for that, it was a difficult situation where something else might have already happened.
Really, don’t those guys have any worries?
No matter what, I was a man.
“…Is that so?”
With those words, the Chairman put down the Zippo lighter she was holding.
A smile was still on her lips but to me, who had become very quick-witted recently, it looked like there was some dissatisfaction in it.
Before long, the Chairman said to me,
“Then will you marry me?”
“Pardon?”
I almost spat out the tea I was sipping.
What.
“Hoho, I’m just kidding. Just kidding.”
“Hahaha…, right?”
The problem was that for a moment, it didn’t sound like a joke.
“…Now, would she be here if I said this?”
“Pardon?”
The Chairman pressed another button on the executive desk.
Between me and the Chairman, a blank hologram screen appeared in the air.
“If you’re there, come out, let me see your face.”
“…Chairman, what is that?”
Are there ninjas hiding here, I was about to answer, when.
From the blank hologram screen, a familiar figure appeared.
[…You knew?]
“It happened during the broadcast, so why wouldn’t it happen here.”
It was ‘Eve.’
…….
So this is what it feels like to be cyber-stalked.
I thought to myself.
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