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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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The lower level, the Citizen Zone, held the same scenery as always.
The light from the holograms, subtly leaking from the mid and upper levels, illuminated the spaces between the old buildings in place of the sun, and the faces of the people walking around were all lifeless and hazy.
Of course, there would be some differences among the lower-level areas. But these elements were all common features.
“It’s been a really long time since I’ve been around here.”
I recalled the lower-level areas I had visited a lot recently.
Like East Beverly, where No Answer was.
Or Little Shinjuku, where the Banta Market was.
Or places like Cloud Park.
But because I had consciously avoided this area until now, a wave of nostalgia and bitterness washed over me.
It’s true. It seems right that people live on memories.
It was the same when I met the Chairman at the Monolith Tower earlier.
Seeing the scenery of this place after a long time, the memories I had buried in my heart came to mind one by one.
[When did you visit this place, I ask.]
“I wonder if it’s been a few years already.”
At Eve’s question, I counted on my fingers.
It was natural that Eve, who had joined me relatively recently, wouldn’t know.
First, I pointed to the neon signs decorating the walls of the buildings and explained.
“Here, if you install hologram billboards, the scavengers tear them down right away. That’s why most of the billboards are in that neon sign format. In reality, they’re probably LED or LCD panels more often than not, but for convenience, they just call them neon signs.”
The types of advertisements were often very different from the ones I had seen in the mid-level.
As their sales points were different, they advertised cheaper cyberware or food products.
Next, I pointed to one side of an alley.
“I lived in a small room in that alley for quite a long time. They said it was a prime location near the station, so the rent was terrible. There were a lot of vagrants who tried to pick the lock and break in, but after Catherine went out a few times and took care of them, they disappeared quickly.”
For the record, even back then, we had never used the same room.
The expensive rent was one thing.
But it was also because the Confucian scholar-official and the Confucian dragon inside me had shouted.
…….
But how had things ended up like this now.
Where did the saying that men and women should not sit together after the age of seven go….
I lamented my situation for a moment.
Then this time, I pointed to a restaurant visible on the street.
“Wow, that restaurant is still there. I was in their debt a lot there too.”
It was a Michelin 0-star restaurant that was famous for its stimulating taste at a cheap price.
So that place didn’t disappear with the times either.
Though I never want to eat there again.
I didn’t know if it was synthetic meat or cultured meat.
The owner-lady, who never explained what kind of animal’s meat it was, still remained in my memory.
As I walked while reminiscing about the past.
Before I knew it, I had arrived at my destination, the ‘Fusion-Japanese Restaurant.’
The wooden picture stickers on the entrance and walls were worn and peeling.
A few more parts had fallen off than I remembered, revealing the gray flesh of the concrete, but it didn’t look much different from when I had seen it in the past.
[Is this the place run by the human ‘Maya’ and her biological father?]
“That’s right.”
After a long time.
It was also the reason I had come back to this place.
The noise from inside was minimal.
Since it was still too early for a meal, the inside of the restaurant looked quiet.
I watched the restaurant, the Fusion-Japanese Restaurant, from a certain distance.
What felt like about five minutes passed.
Eve, who couldn’t stand the wait, asked me in a puzzled tone.
[…Are you not going in?]
“Hmm.”
I had been taking deep breaths since a while ago.
And I had tried the Lamaze breathing method, ‘hee-hee-hoo.’
I had even stretched to relieve the tension.
But preparing myself mentally was not as easy as I thought.
“Should I just go back?”
[?]
Isn’t it enough that I came all this way and saw that it’s operating just fine?
[Don’t say such strange things and just go in quick—.]
It was while Eve, who could not empathize with ‘I’, was talking to me.
A few vagrants who had been loitering in the alley swaggered toward me.
“Nice outfit you got there, are you a tourist?”
He naturally put an arm around my shoulder.
“You look like you have a lot, so let’s share a little with the needy people here.”
Ke ke ke, they giggled amongst themselves.
What was so funny?
“Looks warm, that coat is mine.”
“First time in the lower level? You’ll get used to it.”
They were the communists (vagrants) of cyberpunk.
This place really never changes, no matter how much time passes.
To think they’re openly robbing people on the street even with a monorail station right nearby.
In the midst of that, a good idea flashed through my head.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and take off what you’re wear—.”
“Let me borrow your clothes for a second.”
“……?”
At the sudden gust of wind from my mana, the vagrants flew several meters up into the air.
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I had no intention of wearing blood-stained clothes, so I helped them with their landing.
But perhaps because I had stopped them a few dozen centimeters before they reached the ground, after that process, not a single vagrant was in their right mind.
I took the coat and hat from the man whose build was most similar to mine and simply put them on.
The piercing stench and the unpleasant feeling of second-hand goods enveloped my entire body, but in life, there were things you had to sacrifice for the greater good.
At least, perhaps because I had been in the sewers recently, it wasn’t unbearable.
Since it would be pitiful to leave just one of them stripped, I used the wind to roughly strip off the clothes of the other vagrants as if they were in a washing machine.
Finally, I tossed the naked men, who were a sight to make one frown, into a corner of the alley.
Since they were people who realized communism in cyberpunk, they wouldn’t be able to complain about my actions.
Let everyone be empty-handed….
After sending all the unnecessary clothes flying somewhere, I calmly checked my attire.
I projected my image onto a hologram screen.
With this level of disguise, it seemed no one would be able to recognize me.
Since I even looted like in a game, it would have been great if an inventory existed too.
Unfortunately, since a subspace was close to impossible even in the cyberpunk world, I neatly folded the coat I was originally wearing and hid it in the alley.
“They won’t recognize me with this, right?”
Finally, I also got Eve’s confirmation.
[…Is this something that requires going to this extent, I shake my head and ask.]
It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but I took it to mean that I couldn’t be recognized.
Alright, let’s go.
I opened the door of the Japanese restaurant with the swaggering movements of any other vagrant.
The complete opposite of the cold air of the lower level.
A warm heat flowed out from inside the restaurant.
At the same time, I heard a familiar voice.
“…Welco──, me.”
She, Maya, greeted me at the entrance.
The fact that her words were unnaturally cut off in the middle bothered me a little, but I didn’t show it much.
“……”
If I opened my mouth, she might hear my voice and find out my identity, so I kept my head down and remained silent.
I could use the modulation function of my mask.
But to be honest, that would look more suspicious.
Maya stared at me blankly.
…Am I caught?
Whether my worry was unfounded, Maya bowed her head slightly and guided me to the counter.
“…Meals are this way.”
Good, it seems I wasn’t caught.
I followed Maya and sat at the counter seat.
To be honest, I preferred a corner seat, but in this situation where I couldn’t open my mouth, it was even more difficult to refuse her suggestion.
“The owner will take your order.”
Maya, who had brought out a teacup, disappeared somewhere with a business smile.
Only then was I able to let out a big breath.
“Whew.”
Having gained some composure, I looked around with a sense of nostalgia.
Although it was a fusion-Japanese restaurant that mainly sold Western food.
Since it had the name ‘Japanese Restaurant’ on its sign, the interior of the restaurant had a similar atmosphere to any other ordinary Japanese restaurant.
The inside also didn’t seem to have changed much from the past. Every single decoration placed there stimulated my nostalgia.
Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same as before.
There were surveillance cameras in every corner.
“……”
Maya’s father’s face came to mind.
I felt that it was the result of becoming more concerned with security after his daughter was kidnapped.
…Right.
I didn’t come here to eat something.
I came to check if the two of them were doing well.
“…Hmm.”
Just then, the owner walked out from behind the counter. He was holding an electronic menu in his hand.
A few more wrinkles had been added to his face, but thankfully, he still looked hale and hearty, just as when I had seen him before.
The owner handed me the electronic menu without a single question.
I bowed my head to hide my face a little more with my hat. I just held out my hand and took the electronic menu he offered.
Since drawing attention would greatly increase the risk of being found out, I quickly flipped through the pages of the menu and pointed to the recommended item.
“……”
“……Hmm.”
Do silences communicate with each other?
I didn’t know, but the owner, who let out a short hum at my silence, prepared the food from inside.
He’s still as taciturn as ever.
Using the translation module through my neural computer chip.
He was a rare human being in cyberpunk, where many types of foreign languages could be translated.
“Oh, is that really Maya?”
A loud voice echoed through the restaurant.
Just by hearing the voice, I could feel the thick scent of alcohol.
A customer who had been raising his glass since early in the day opened his mouth roughly.
“Haha! And here I thought the owner had brought in some maiden from somewhere!”
As if he didn’t even have the ethanol-burning implant, which was a basic preparation for a drinker, the man’s face was red, signifying that he was completely drunk.
He spoke in a loud voice to his drinking buddies around him who were asking about her identity.
“Huh? Who’s Maya? Didn’t I tell you before? The owner’s daughter who went missing a long time ago.”
“…Excuse me, you’re too drunk. Other customers are feeling uncomfortable, so please be a little quieter.”
Hearing Maya’s response, I was certain that she had overcome her chrome psycho symptoms.
Wow, she just let that slide so smoothly. I thought she would have hit him with the tray she was holding.
In fact, even before Maya was kidnapped, she would have responded to that level of nuisance with violence.
Even with Maya’s gentle restraint, the man continued his loud and boisterous behavior as if it were nothing.
“Still, how lucky is it that she came back in one piece! No, actually, didn’t she get a corporate implant surgery and come back after working as a mercenary somewhere? She was kidnapped by scavengers, it doesn’t make sense for her to come back unharmed, does it—.”
Ugh, I can’t listen to this.
My ears having been defiled, I secretly gathered mana and fired it at the man.
The mana that left my hand, and exerted physical force, struck the back of the man’s head.
Wham!
“Ah.”
The man spun around with the food on the table.
I had gathered too much mana.
Thanks to that, a commotion broke out.
“What, what was that!! He just collapsed on his own!”
“Call an ambu-, ambulance service!!”
“No, what nonsense is this man talking about? Don’t you know how many credits it costs to call an ambulance service from here?”
The people who had been drinking with him discussed their opinions as if in a meeting.
“Snap out of it!”
“It’s no use, he must be completely plastered.”
“I knew this would happen after all that crap he was pulling.”
In the end, their opinions converged into one.
“He’ll wake up soon if we just let him sleep it off outside.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like he broke anything.”
With familiar movements, they lifted the collapsed man and threw him out of the restaurant.
The cyberpunk world, where there is no blood or tears….
If you let your guard down, you’ll be abandoned even by your drinking buddies.
You shouldn’t throw trash on the street.
I thought briefly as I watched the scene.
“……Thank you.”
“Pardon?”
At the completely unexpected thanks from the owner.
I couldn’t maintain my silent concept and answered.
I turned my head to look at the owner, but he was quietly focusing on his cooking as if it were a lie that he had opened his mouth.
……Did I hear wrong?
If not, then surely.
“…Dad! I was pretending not to know too, what am I supposed to do if you say it.”
“……Hmm.”
At Maya’s nagging, the owner let out a short groan.
And I.
…….
Since I was caught anyway, I took off the hat I was wearing.
My head had been itchy since a while ago anyway.
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