Chapter 15

Thud, thud, thud.

The station attendant in plastic goggles tapped the keypad. After a moment, his squinty eyes flicked back and forth between Kim’s face and the terminal.

“Lee Hyun Kim, 4th class citizen. Better in person than in pictures.”

“I looked like shit back then.”

“Then… but the issue date is today?”

“I just arrived in Kilikia today.”

“Oh, well. Why don’t you go sightseeing then?”

The station attendant gives you a puzzled look, as if he’s witnessed some unknown creature. He pushes up the nose bridge of his goggles and opens his mouth again.

“There’s tons of nightlife in Kilikia. You’ll have a blast. Usually natives who only live in one area talk about how there’s nothing in their neighborhood, but these people are different.”

He looked up at the ceiling, which was blocked.

“Men and women of all colors, all kinds of drinks and food. There’s something new every day. Just when you think you’re getting bored, something new comes along. The league has a bunch of rookies every year, so even if you try to get sick of it, you can’t get sick of it.”

“You don’t look like you’re enjoying your job as a station attendant.”

“You see, I don’t like the underground. If I had a bigger wallet, I wouldn’t have come down here.”

“Me neither.”

Kim’s answer stunned the station attendant for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.

“Haha. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone come underground on day one, even if it’s just to pay the bills. You’d think you’d want to be a League player instead of a bounty hunter.”

“Is this some kind of interrogation?”

“Oh, I’m sorry if that was rude.”

He ruffles his bushy hair and says, “I’m not going to do that.

“I’ve gotten a bit… weird around here. Bounty hunters are especially so, because they’re already late and don’t want to talk to the guys with the screws loose, so they’ll talk to a rookie like you.”

The chatty station attendant chatted and fiddled with the terminal. Despite their bad attitudes, they seemed to be used to the job.

Kim decided to respond in kind. He’d be in and out of MetroCity for a while. There was no harm in speaking up.

“I don’t like to do high-profile things like competitions, and I don’t want to play for hire.”

“Aha, Hagi, they say popular players don’t have a personal life. I’d be annoyed if I went to a club and there was a scandal.”

Beep, beep, beep.

I heard a beep. The station attendant held out a terminal and pen for him to sign. Kim skimmed it and quickly signed it.

I didn’t even have to check carefully. Any personal injury that occurs during the course of my work is at my own risk. The authorities are not obligated to ensure your safety…….

It was obvious.

“I’m registered. I have some data to transmit… do you have a device?”

“None.”

It’s similar to a smartphone in Kilikia. It works with the bracelet-type ID you get when you enter the country, and it also makes calls.

Of course, it had to be there.

“I like to stock up as soon as I can. Is there anything you’d like to do?”

“I hope I don’t have to wait too long.”

“Well, let’s see… Oh, there it is. It’s a convoy of freight cars leaving in two hours. It’s a bit dull, but it’s a good first job, isn’t it?”

A bounty hunter’s job isn’t just about catching outlaws. In fact, there’s a lot more to it.

In fact, it’s better to work for a company than to hunt outlaws.

It’s also safe. You never know where or how many Outlaws might be lurking underground.

Unaffiliated freelancers are usually hired by station staff, just like now. Others are scouted by security companies or PMCs.

It’s not something to worry about right now. Kim is just a newcomer to Kilikia.

“I’ll take that.”

For now, performance comes first.

* * *

Ding, ding, ding.

A railcar carrying crates rolled down the tracks.

The tunnel was long, long, long. The farther you went, the harder it was to see into the distance. The further away from the center, the less light there was.

Most of Kilikia’s subway stations are used solely for the transportation of goods. The only one that has developed into something as colorful as a downtown area is MetroCity.

A dark, dreary space compared to the ground. This is the Bounty Hunter’s workplace.

“I think this is more comfortable for me.

A city where countless people walked beneath the neon lights. There were some familiar emperors, but they were few and far between.

Walking down the street, I couldn’t help but feel foreign. I felt like I was being swept away by the air currents of a faraway country.

‘This must be some kind of mass-phobia. I can see why Asterike was freaking out earlier.

The damp air of the basement was preferable to the stench of perfume. The silence was comforting to Kim.

But it seems some people had other ideas.

“Damn, what’s wrong with this old car, it’s shaking like crazy, and it’s not going fast enough.”

The cargo hold of a small to medium-sized railcar. The man sitting in front of the wooden crate grumbled.

There were three bounty hunters in the luggage compartment, including Kim.

“You guys don’t mind?”

“Ride quality aside, I wish they’d do something about this nail gun or something, because I’ve barely fired it, and it’s not pretty.”

A young white man clicked his tongue as he idly flipped the nail gun in his hand back and forth. It had been issued to him by his ‘captain’ when he was assigned to convoy duty.

As a middle manager, the person in charge of the bounty hunters is called a captain.

Often, the company sending the work sends their own people or negotiates with the freelancer in advance.

The captain here seemed to be in no mood to be roused. After he’d finished his briefing, he stood by the cockpit chewing gum.

The bounty hunters began to chatter.

“I thought this nail gun was an industry standard piece of equipment, but now you want to charge me 150,000 credits because I accidentally broke one of these.”

“Wow, $150,000. That must have blown through your paycheck.”

“So I called it a day. I can’t tell you which company, but you’ve got to be a little bit of an asshole. If it’s a big ticket item that’s going to cost $150,000 to fix, you just give it to them, don’t you think?”

“That was a lot of talking, again. I also got the feeling that he was intentionally neglecting the Outlaws. What do you think?”

Suddenly, Kim’s gaze fell on Yi Hyun Kim.

“Come to think of it, I don’t recognize you.”

“Sure. Are you new?”

Kim sighed inwardly. She didn’t want to interrupt, so she stayed quiet.

“Yeah, well. That’s right.”

“Oh no. What’s he doing down here?”

“It’s the money, I suppose. We’re all the same. What’s your name, new guy? You’ve never seen the Outlaws before, is this your first job?”

The barrage of questions came from a single mouth. It was an unusually loud one.

The man didn’t even wait for an answer.

“I don’t have a lot of experience either, but I’m a senior, so I’ll give you some advice: Outlaws, if you run into one, just shoot them. Don’t think they’re just like you. Don’t.”

“Right. They’re criminal assholes to begin with.”

“There are assholes out there who think they’re so smart, like, “It’s a necessary evil”? The Outlaws are the reason we make a living. It’s all bullshit. Guardsmen don’t thank criminals.”

Kim nodded wordlessly.

It sounded right. But I also knew that the world doesn’t work on right and wrong.

Outlaw, Bounty Hunter.

Security company, MetroCity.

For better or worse, it was a thriving business in Kilikia.

Ding, ding, ding!

The railcar continued to jolt.

The conversation never stopped. When Kim didn’t respond, they stopped talking to each other.

“Every little thing is like this.

There were no giant air currents. It was a simple job, just moving a few crates. I don’t even enter the danger zone.

There are even rookies with no track record. You can hardly call them veterans.

“It’s nice when nothing happens.

If you stay on the freight car for a while, you’ll get paid. The promised pay was 200,000. The other two were happy with that.

That’s how much I usually get. No matter how ugly your nail gun is, it’s more than capable of taking out a speeder or two.

Again, it’s a matter of comfort.

Assuming nothing happens.

Bounty hunters are paid for their work, which includes a risk allowance. It’s no different for a job that involves nothing more than transporting a few crates.

“……That’s pretty far.”

Kim was the first to point it out. He visualized a map of the Kilikia Underground in his head. If it was a destination, he was briefed before departure.

The location was close on the map, but the car was still an hour away.

“What?”

“It’s not supposed to be this far.”

“I said something.”

The young man looked around and snorted.

“You must be nervous because it’s your first time. Everyone is, because the car is slow and rattling, and it feels like an hour or two has passed.”

“Let’s see… it’s been about an hour, we’re getting late. Just this tunnel and we’ll be there.”

“This damn basement is so far out of MetroCity that I can’t tell where one is from the other. I’m going to have to ask the captain.”

Just as the young man was about to get up from his seat.

InsertGig!

An intense friction sound erupted.

Sparks flew over the rails. The railcar shook as it braked sharply, knocking the young man on his ass.

“Ugh! What, what!”

“No, what if it stops suddenly!”

Two of the bounty hunters cursed as they struggled to their feet.

Kim, on the other hand, responded to the impact by staying as low as possible. Her finger was on the trigger of her nail gun, ready to fire at any moment.

His strained hearing picked up a distant, piercing sound. The lights in the tunnel shattered, one by one.

My vision quickly narrowed.

The only remaining light source is the headlights of the railcar. And the few lights in the immediate vicinity.

One by one, human shadows emerged from the darkness.

Dressed in drab gray cloth. They walked out from behind the pillars that lined both sides of the tracks.

“Oh, Outlaw?”

“You bastards, where did you get this…!”

Within seconds, the color drained from their faces, and they shook their heads frantically. Both hands clutched at the nail gun they’d been grumbling about.

He was preoccupied with the thugs. Kim, meanwhile, was watching the front of the vehicle with more than an outlaw.

Percussion.

My headlights went out out of nowhere. The light you relied on the most was gone.

The door to the cockpit opened and the captain strode out.

The captain raised his nail gun. To the bounty hunters in the cargo hold, not the Outlaws who surrounded the vehicle.

“On your knees. Put down your weapons…….”

The order was unfinished. Before the captain could take aim at the bounty hunters, someone was quick to aim for his head.

“Hmm. I thought there was nothing but shit.”

Kim didn’t react to the captain’s words. She held her nail gun, aware of her surroundings.

Using the handrail of the vehicle, he positioned himself so that he was as blind to the Outlaw as possible.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

The captain paused, leisurely.

“There are seven more, not counting me. On your side, you’ve got two packs that can only complain. Do you think you can lay a hand on me and still get yourself out of here?”

Instead of being intimidated, he does the same to Kim, pointing his nail gun at her. Kim doesn’t stop him, but lets him continue.

That was the answer.

“You mean you’ll let me live if I don’t touch you?”

“I’m not really interested in you guys.”

Kim thought long and hard. The conclusion came quickly, and he put down the nail gun.

“Well thought out, smart.”

Naturally, the captain realized that Kim didn’t have a chance, so he gave him the tail.

I wasn’t wrong.

If you shoot the captain, you’re on your own from then on. Using a skill does not reverse the disadvantage.

The Outlaws’ skills are unknown. Their weapons are unknown. The claim of seven men could have been a bluff.

The odds of survival are very low. But there were other reasons, too.

“I just… saw that for sure.

Beneath the captain’s sleeve, exposed at the wrist, was a tattoo. A rare white tattoo.

For Kim, it was a familiar shape.

“Is this related to that story?

You’ve found yourself in the center of a new, unrecognized tidal wave.

I thought I heard the faint sound of cogs grinding in the back of my head.