Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It was around 3pm the next day.

Chick. Chizizik.

Leila’s comm picked up a signal. It was a routine contact from a noncombatant waiting in a nearby area.

From then on, it was all about the work. My slow steps picked up speed. After walking for a while, I spotted the car that picked me up.

“Thank you, everyone.”

Non-combatants had a face. No, I know, it sounds obvious. For Kim, it was a new experience.

“In the game, most of the extras’ faces were in shadow, and the voice actors were reversed.

My mind was still reeling from all the details. To think, it had been less than five days since I’d fallen into the Polaris.

The obvious conversation went back and forth.

A professor who lost his memory. And the unidentified Kim. I introduced myself as a bum, and Pablo and Leila laughed.

They were fast guys.

Ding.

Military vehicles crisscrossed the roads of Tulavia. My first ride in the Polaris world was the worst.

The seats are hard, the road is bumpy. The car rattled like a mountain road in the countryside, but the interior was spacious.

I was looking out the window.

“What are you going to do from here?”

“I heard about that a few days ago.”

“It’s different now than it was then.”

Ghost gave a bitter laugh.

“I won’t push you further. If you’re connected to Kushan, you already know what the lab is like.”

“To some extent.”

“If you want to come with us, I’d welcome you. I’ll have to talk to Kushan first, and HR will have a lot to go over, but once you’re part of the family, it’s a small matter.”

“When you put it like that, it makes me not want to go.”

“Haha, haven’t you already made up your mind?”

It is.

Kushan isn’t as blunt as Leila and Ghost. He’s more likely to give you information, and he’ll be relentless in checking out your sources.

Even if you succeed in fooling around, the fact remains that you lose your freedom. There’s not enough return to justify the gamble.

It’s better to leave it at that.

“Next time I see you, I’ll at least pretend to know you.”

“……Yes. Maybe we’ll run into each other someday.”

“If they’re at each other’s throats.”

What’s with all the candles?

I thought he was kind of likeable earlier, but Pablo is Pablo. I worked so hard to keep him alive, and what a mess.

“By the way, they’re all as bad as Leila.

If it were up to her, she would have taken him by force and confronted Kushan. Even if he had been spared, it was a matter of grace.

But they didn’t seem to have any intention of doing so. It was more of a player force. That made it easy for me to adapt.

“I’ll have to watch my mouth in the future.

Kim turned her attention back to the car window. The scenery outside was changing.

‘Finally out of the woods.

The city’s landscape is far from intact, with half-demolished buildings still visible and trash strewn about.

But it was not uninhabitable. I started to see passersby on the side of the road.

Soon, a tilted sign appeared.

[Wollantz].

A medium-sized city in Cadillac. Most of its inhabitants are immigrants or poor. More than half of Tulavia’s inhabitants have also moved to Ulanz.

This is the setting.

“It’s not completely safe here.

Kim’s eyes narrowed. From now on, monsters will be monsters, but they’ll have to get along with people.

Not all of them are as good as Leila and her friends. Those who don’t care about others as much as they care about their own lives. Those who turn their backs on the poor…….

“Maybe this is the real adjustment period.

You have to take initiative, act on your own terms, away from the characters you’ve come to trust unconditionally. Responsibility is also yours.

‘Of course he is. He’s not a snorer.’

This was new to me.

Shortly after entering Ulanz, the car stopped at Kim’s request. As we were saying goodbye, I remembered a problem I had forgotten about.

“Oh, right. You guys are going straight to the lab?”

“I will, because I need to take a look at the Professor and Mr. Ghost’s wounds as well.”

Mmmmm. That sounds right. Kim ruffled his hair in satisfaction and continued.

“Well, that means I’m going to have some stuff that’s useless right now.”

“What?”

“You get in this car and go back to your people, and that’s it, you don’t care if you’re naked, you’ve got food and water, that’s all you need, right?”

“Yeah… right?”

“Actually, I came from very far away, and the journey to Tulavia was, uh, not a pleasant one. It left me penniless.”

Leila still didn’t understand. Ghost, on the other hand, sighed, and Pablo gave her a ‘what a bunch of assholes’ look.

It was none of my business.

Pay with your life.

“If I were to starve to death, wouldn’t it make your bed toss and turn? And.”

Kim pointed to Leila’s wrist. There was a bracelet of unknown material.

A so-called limiter. Something that keeps spells in check. It’s also the main source of funding for the Celbrox Labs.

“Isn’t there one left?”

It’s okay not to use it, because he’s got it under control, but there’s a place for it.

* * *

I found a place to stay, checked in, and washed myself in the freezing cold water. I threw on a dirty tee and pants I’d bought ahead of time.

I even threw on a khaki jacket and felt like I was in a movie costume. I guess I’ll get used to it after a few days.

Next came meals.

The menu consisted of hard rye bread and an unidentifiable mushroom soup. The quality was nostalgic for the cafeteria, but not uneatable.

“You’ve gotten squeamish.”

Maybe it was because they were paid for with other people’s money. Leila’s group paid for their lives by robbing their wallets.

“310,000 credits will get us by for a while.

Credits.

It is a currency issued by the Shiran Empire, located in the north-central part of the planet Polaris. It is widely accepted in all countries.

“It’s a gamified goods integration.

What if different countries use different currencies? The categorization of game money becomes very complicated.

But we can’t go back to a gold or silver standard either. It’s just a convenient setup.

Incidentally, I just had a meal for 1500 credits. It was actually a conscientious price. Considering the game blows millions on gear enhancements.

“Maybe the cost of living is low.

This is probably a good thing.

Now that you’ve taken care of the ceremonial stakes, it’s time to get moving again. You should already have a general idea of where you want to go.

“To interfere in future episodes… first identify yourself and your affiliation.

If you’re not going to join a faction, you have to make your own, which means you have to make money, and the problem is that it’s a ghetto.

Although there is no way to earn…….

‘It’s pocket change at best. It’s not a great place to live in the first place. It’s not accessible to the rest of the country.

The only advantage is that you can move around freely, even as an immigrant. Despite the disadvantages, Kim chose to stay in Ulantz.

For one reason only.

“It probably coincided with the tutorial.”

Naturally, Kim didn’t know every neighborhood on Polaris in detail. But how could he remember such a place?

It’s obvious. Because it was featured in a story.

“Yeah, that’s what the background looked like.

Polaris’ story is categorized into three parts.

Main and Event. Finally, side stories assigned to playable characters with 4 stars or higher.

And Ulanz is the centerpiece of the side story of six-star agent Asterique. It’s about her visit to Ulanz, where she used to live.

That past is now.

“Can I see …… in the flesh?

Ast, or “Ast” as players call him. A particularly popular character among the many agents.

There are even polarizing Astans who plaster “I love Ast” on every post in the community.

She was also one of Kim’s favorite girls.

* * *

“Aha, you’re looking for people.”

The room smells of cigarette smoke. Mice and cockroaches scurry across the planks. The man snorted and laughed when Kim made an astringent face.

“Well, you must come from a good place, don’t mind the dirt. It may seem unhygienic to you, but it’s my friends’ place. They’re a good bunch.”

“You’re good, where are you going?”

“They come out like ghosts when they see something to eat, and it’s pretty weird to watch. They’re looking for a way to live.”

“That’s great.”

Kim replied soullessly. There was no time to get emotional over a rat. He’s just thinking about his job.

“You’re not funny.”

Pooh-pooh.

The man blew out a puff of cigarette smoke. He looked up and down at Kim, who sat across from him, and said, “I’ll take it.

“How far did you go in your research? Oh, ha ha. I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“Thirty thousand down, seventy thousand in compensation.”

“…… what an asshole.”

Informationally, Rothko props his legs up on a wooden table. With one hand, he flips open a battered Zippo lighter, and with the other, he scratches his earlobe.

“You know how easy it is to find people in this pair? The ones you know are gone or out of town in a matter of days, and the ones you don’t know are coming in just as fast as they went out.”

“50,000 down. 100,000 retainer.”

“And the one who comes in, he thinks he still lives in the city, and then one day he’s gone, just like you, who’s stretching out in front of me now.”

“10 to 15.”

“50 upfront, 50 remuneration, or get lost.”

Puff. Click your tongue and light a cigarette.

“It’s not even the bottom of the market, he’s bargaining for something, and I’m letting it go because I don’t like violence, but if it was any other guy, I’d pull out a gun.”

“…….”

“What are you doing that won’t turn off?”

“Haha, that’s a good fucking scratch.”

“What?”

Roscoe raised one eye. His hands dropped to his waist, his rugged, knife-scarred face becoming more menacing.

“What’s wrong with you, you little shit-”

Wudangtang!

The table toppled over, and Roscoe’s chair toppled over as well. He reached for the revolver at his belt.

Kukuk.

A cold metal touch on his forehead. The muzzle of a gun he didn’t know where or when he’d taken it from pressed deeply into Roscoe’s gums.

“Hey, don’t I have a gun?”

“Hey, what the hell are you doing! I’m warning you, get out of my way. If you touch me, I will……!”

“If you touch me. Does your ancestor show up and blow my brains out?”

“Joe, ancestor? What bullshit….”

“No, then how can you be so confident, like you’re getting revenge or something?”

“Now you’re making sense. If you shoot me… you’ll have a blowhole in your head in two days. Don’t you believe me, there’s a madman with no backbone acting as an informant?”

“That’s true.”

It was a calm voice, and Roscoe breathed a sigh of relief, assuming it would back down.

Next moment.

Bam!

There was an eardrum-splitting gunshot. Roscoe glanced to the side with shaky eyes.

The bullet pierced the floor. Smoke billowed from the muzzle.

“Uh, uh, huh, did you even listen to me!”

“I hear you. That means you’re fine for now. But what about you? Two days? Haha. Do you think you can survive two days after being shot in the head?”

You crazy bastard!

Even with my deaf ears, I could pick up the nuances. He looked like a child, but he was the devil.

Roscoe squeezed his eyes shut tight. His tinnitus is starting to subside, he said softly, his lips trembling.

“…What do you want?”

“All of a sudden, they’re done bargaining. Do you see this as the bottom of the market now?”

“Ah, ah, I remember, it was a person. Tell me who I need to find.”

“Well. I doubt you’ll come to the right place if I tell you. I think I’d rather bring some of my other friends, for example.”

Kim rattled off names in her head. Minor characters from Asterike’s side story. They were small, but she remembered them.

“Murat, Danchik, Iosif…….”

With each name, Rothko’s face turned an earthy color. They were all people he was paying tribute to.

“Uh, how do you……!”

“Do you use it if an informant asks?”

“Okay, I swear I’ll never do anything stupid, but please, please, please put the gun away.”

Almost there.

Kim kept his guard up and stepped back, trying to look as nonchalant as possible so that his nervousness wouldn’t show in his expression.

“I’ve done all these things in my life.

I drew on my experience of being threatened by Pavel. Being on the other side of the gun wasn’t as simple.

I’m confident I’ll do better next time.

“Whew, whew!”

Roscoe remained on the floor, breathing heavily.

Kim didn’t miss Roscoe’s every move. He could have turned around and shot him.

“Let’s talk about the request.”

He said calmly. While checking the feel of the 2-star special weapon [Ivory] in his hand.

The gun was good.