—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Amon basically preferred to overwhelm his enemies with his overwhelming specs.
Overwhelming power and firepower that did not allow for even a single possibility of failure.
That was the play style that Amon preferred.
Therefore, he always prepared escape routes in case his specs weren’t sufficient.
Conversely, if his specs were sufficient, Amon wouldn’t avoid a fight that came his way.
From the third-floor window of the building, Amon looked down at the gang members.
Humans often only looked around when they were being cautious, rarely thinking to look above or below.
The gang members chasing Amon were no different.
They were looking around without realizing that Amon was looking down on them from above.
Amon mentally mapped out their positions.
There were five of them.
One swordsman, two gunmen, one hacker, and one mage.
Looking down at them, Amon was reminded that reality was not a game.
Therefore, the people he was looking down at were not NPCs either.
That was why he didn’t expect them to react as stupidly as NPCs.
But even in their irregular movements, there were certain patterns.
Amon quietly waited for the right moment.
And as the gang members’ gazes were briefly turned forward, Amon dropped down behind the mage who was furthest back.
If killing had been allowed, he would have used his full weight to slit the mage’s throat, but since killing was prohibited, he instead kicked the mage in the back of the head while in mid-air.
With a thud, one of them passed out.
The other gang members immediately turned toward Amon at the sound, but Amon was already holding the unconscious mage.
“???”
While the gang members were confused, he threw the unconscious mage at the gunman.
Then he fired the gun he had borrowed from Cathy at the swordsman’s lower body.
Bang, bang, bang!
One of the three shots hit his knee.
While the swordsman was kneeling, Amon stabbed him in the chest without pulling the sword from its sheath.
Even though the sheath was on, a wrong thrust could still be fatal, but having a sword in a cyberpunk world implied a certain confidence in one’s durability.
As Amon expected, the swordsman rolled his eyes and collapsed unconscious.
With the swordsman neutralized, Amon quickly bent forward.
A bullet passed through the spot where his head had been.
Amon immediately turned around, opened fire with his gun, and then charged at the shooter with his sword held in reverse in his other hand.
When he had used up the entire magazine, he covered his face with his arm and continued running.
The bullets impacted his body, but did not pierce his clothes.
Enduring the stinging pain, he approached the shooter and stabbed the back of his foot with his blade.
“Aaaaah!!”
He knocked out the screaming gang member by striking his jaw with an elbow, then looked at the gang member whom he had thrown the mage at.
By the time he had managed to put his comrade down, Amon had already dealt with two of them.
And even before he could get his gun out again, the sword that Amon threw pierced his knee.
“Kuaaak!!”
The gang member collapsed.
Now, the only one left was the hacker.
Amon shrugged and looked at the hacker.
The hacker was diligently trying something on Amon, but it had no effect.
That was inevitable.
There were no mechanical devices on Amon’s body.
As if thinking that it wasn’t possible for a pure human body to do such things, the hacker kept trying to hack Amon.
But even as Amon came right in front of him, he was unable to achieve anything.
Amon put his hand on the bald hacker’s shoulder and said,
“Shall we have a chat?”
All the hacker could do was nod his head.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The conversation with the gang went well.
By using the fact that Amon could have killed the gang members but hadn’t, the misunderstanding was somehow resolved.
The hacker relayed the facts to his boss, and Amon relayed the facts to his boss, and they ended their roles by arranging a meeting.
“I’ll handle the details with their boss.”
The boss said from his creaking wheelchair.
The young man that Amon knew from 50 years ago had become a skilled businessman.
‘Who would have thought that that thug would turn out like this?’
The son who had given his father a headache by saying that he would live as a gang member instead of a mercenary had come to his senses after his father’s death and had taken over his father’s business.
Still, his connections from back then hadn’t disappeared, so he was able to resolve things with the gang this time as well.
Broken bones and pierced hands and feet were not a problem.
This was because it was Amon’s justified self-defense, and also, they were still alive so it was not a big deal.
After the incident was resolved, the boss showered Amon with praise.
“A true talent stands out from the beginning! It’s been 50 years since I’ve seen anyone with such a knack for this!”
If Amon had killed a gang member, things would have become complicated, but thanks to Amon’s excellent handling of the situation, they were able to avoid making things worse.
The boss already didn’t like those “youngsters,” so he liked Amon, who was the only one among them who acted with a good foundation.
Therefore, he prepared a few gifts for Amon as an opportunity to show his appreciation.
“What is this…?”
“These are requests. I handpicked them myself, so if you complete them, you’ll be Silver rank in no time.”
Amon gratefully accepted the boss’s favor.
Requests selected by the boss had a very deep meaning.
There were no ranks for requests in this world.
Then what were mercenary ranks?
The bronze, silver, gold, and platinum ranks on the mercenary ranks were simply credit ratings.
They only indicated how high a mercenary’s success rate was on requests, and didn’t directly relate to strength or skill.
When someone placed a request with the brokerage, a broker working at the brokerage would select a suitable mercenary and assign the request.
It was a structure that completely ignored the safety of the mercenary.
It was up to the broker to judge whether the mercenary could handle the request, and it was up to the mercenary to judge whether they would survive the request.
The rank had only the significance of a credit rating from a bank, and even a platinum rank mercenary could die if they did not know their own limits.
‘If you choose your broker well, your survival rate will increase exponentially.’
Mercenaries usually died because they were reckless, but it was often the case that the broker was malicious or a bastard.
They would often deliberately not give information that should have been given, and brokers would put mercenaries in danger to improve their own performance.
There were even scumbags who sent mercenaries into traps to sell them off.
Therefore, finding a safe and honest broker was a measure of a mercenary’s skill.
In such an industry, the boss’s offer was very gracious to Amon.
That the broker was “personally selecting” meant that it was a special management announcement that the broker would prioritize the mercenary’s convenience.
In addition, the boss’s credibility as a broker was solid.
Even in part 3, although he had troubled his father by admiring the gangs, his skills and loyalty were solid.
He would only assign requests to Amon that were relatively safe and within Amon’s capabilities.
Amon accepted the boss’s favor without hesitation.
“I will do my best to become your Ace Mercenary, sir.”
“Hah. You have big dreams. Do you know who my Ace Mercenary is, and you’re saying you’ll try to catch up to them?”
“Well, I’m confident I can catch up to anyone, as long as they’re not the Mercenary King.”
“Haha! This guy is a gem, the more I see of him.”
The boss laughed heartily and also gave Amon a reward.
It was the reward that the mercenary who had died in this incident should have received.
Amon received it and left the boss’s office.
As he came down from the upper floor to the lobby that doubled as a bar, Cathy, who was waiting for him, waved her hand happily from her corner seat.
Amon went to the seat and sat across from Cathy.
“How did it go?”
In response to her question, Amon answered with his usual smile.
“This incident was resolved well. I was told to stop doing errands and start doing requests.”
Upon hearing those words, Cathy applauded as if it were her own accomplishment.
Then, as if she had just realized something, she looked at Amon.
“Ah, right.”
“What is it?”
“Then, who’s going to teach me?”
“You can learn by doing errands, right?”
“By myself?”
“Errands are usually done alone?”
“After what happened today, you can say that!?”
Amon was about to object, but stopped himself after hearing her words.
Strictly speaking, today had been a special case.
Until now, Amon had never been in any danger.
On the other hand, since it was her first time doing an errand, her feelings were likely different.
Perhaps because of this, she seemed to be afraid of doing errands.
For her sake, Amon came up with a solution.
“Then come along on errands that are related to my requests.”
That should be safe enough.
Her face brightened upon hearing Amon’s suggestion.
“I can feel at ease if it’s you.”
“In return, treat me to a meal once a week.”
“Once a week is too long! Every two… No, that’s too often. I’ll buy you a meal every three days.”
“Thank you, Cathy.”
“Okay, then thank you, Amon.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Several months had passed since Amon began his full-fledged mercenary activities.
Thanks to a capable broker, Amon quickly reached Silver rank.
During that time, Amon’s equipment changed a bit.
Amon, who had previously not even glanced at guns, now carried a sawed-off shotgun on his waist as a secondary weapon.
That was because sometimes a gun was better than a sword.
The changes in his mercenary life didn’t end there.
“A~”
“Have you arrived, C~”
Cathy approached Amon, who was preparing for today’s mission.
While Amon wiped the grease from his hands with a napkin, she took out a map that she had prepared and explained the operation to Amon.
This was a turning point in Amon’s mercenary life.
Originally, he had planned to work solo, but somehow he had ended up taking Cathy in as a companion.
After talking to her often when she came to do errands while he was still bronze-rank, he had grown attached to her.
As a companion, Cathy was quite compatible with Amon.
After all, she had built her foundation using Amon’s tips, so it was impossible for them not to work well together.
The proof was the map placed on the table.
Amon always took caution against the risk of hacking, so he preferred to handle important missions in an analog fashion like this.
Having learned this by observing him, Cathy also always prepared her briefings analogically.
The two carefully reviewed the mission and immediately stood up from their seats.
While Amon checked the condition of his blade, Cathy checked the condition of her foldable spear and reattached it to her waist.
Then, the two hid at the entrance of the alleyway and waited for their moment.
Three, two, one.
And the moment Amon’s hand signal indicated zero, the two of them rushed into the alleyway at the same time.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
