Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle—
Pressing down on the accelerator, Enoch felt the considerable thickness of his coat and smiled with satisfaction. His mind was at ease, knowing he had packed every essential item.
Soo’s expression, however, was quite different from Enoch’s.
The process had taken an inordinate amount of time, and an astonishing quantity of items had been crammed inside. It was almost grotesque how much had been stuffed into a single coat.
While Enoch had treated the task as if it were a sacred ritual, to Soo, it simply reeked of desperation.
Mercenaries in this world typically traveled light.
The tools necessary for their contracts were already integrated into their body implants.
Though they still had to carry a main weapon or two, in the cyberpunk era, even those became part of their fashion statement.
This held true not just for renowned mercenaries, but for ordinary ones as well.
Two pistols, three throwing knives, a flashlight, and a small bomb.
Five painkillers, ten stimulants, three anesthetic injections.
Five calorie bars and an emergency recovery nano-ampoule.
It was safe to say that very few mercenaries would meticulously pack a cheap bulletproof vest, an unreliable rifle, a gas mask, and a holster on top of all that.
Those who called themselves mercenaries lived and died by their style, often prioritizing outfitting themselves with good gear over securing housing or food.
The truly empty-headed even took out high-interest loans for such things, so no further explanation was needed.
Enoch, however, was different.
He lived without taking out even the slightest loan, relying solely on minimal equipment and his own skills.
“A mercenary confident in their skills doesn’t need to rely on equipment.”
“So Enoch lost because he’s more of a pushover than Karchas.”
“…Yet, even dazzling skill tends to fade before overwhelming equipment.”
Still, looking at it charitably, one could say he possessed strong self-reliance.
That was only true when considering his resourcefulness in daily life.
His home… frankly, it was beyond the pale.
Could it even be called a home to begin with?
A tent, yellowed with age.
Water dripped steadily from the perforated ceiling, and Enoch had even placed a bucket beneath it, seemingly intending to collect it for drinking water.
“A home really should come before a car.”
Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle—Soo’s murmurings cut through the pathetic engine noise.
“It was dreadful.”
Enoch’s eyebrow twitched, but he remained silent.
He was alive thanks to Soo, and a great opportunity had presented itself, hadn’t it?
Such a degree of grumbling could be dismissed as mere playful banter.
“Not even flies would gather in a house like that.”
Playful banter, he should… have been able to dismiss it as.
“For a Horde owner to live in such a place. It’s a loss of face.”
Grrrk—Enoch, who had shifted gears at a red light, felt the corner of his mouth tremble.
‘Why is she giving me hell for something she arbitrarily bestowed upon me?’
Of course, he was grateful for the title and for being saved.
However, that didn’t obligate Enoch to keep his mouth shut.
“…Didn’t you just arbitrarily give me the title of Horde? Why are you… no, and anyway, it’s my home, so why are you even commenting on it…?”
“I can’t sleep at Enoch’s house.”
“What kind of insane talk is that―”
“Once we get paid for this job, we need to find an office first.”
Of course, Soo was under no obligation to reply either.
Nor did she have any intention of doing so.
“An office where you can shower in the bathroom. Want to live with me? You’ll get sick living in a place like that.”
“No.”
The light changed.
Enoch, unable to release the pent-up frustration within him, roughly shifted gears.
As if that weren’t enough, he pressed the accelerator with a surge of indignation.
The speed was agonizingly slow, and the rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle—the pathetic engine noise did nothing to alleviate his fury.
He could only hope it wouldn’t build up further…
****
The mission Soo had chosen would pit them against Lu Qian.
Its primary objective was to hack into their information network, overlay it with dummy data, and then hand that over to Zairex’s side, thereby shifting the blame for the recent Chrome Psycho incident onto Lu Qian.
That was the main content of the current request.
Hacking the information network of a megacorp like Lu Qian might seem incredibly difficult, but the challenge lay in infiltration, not the hacking itself.
All they had to do was locate the server computer in Lu Qian’s research lab and plug in the hacking shard Irina had provided.
Of course, there was a possibility that Irina had given them a faulty shard, intending to sell them out.
Wasn’t it highly suspicious that Irina, who wasn’t even a particularly famous connector, possessed a shard capable of hacking a megacorp’s network?
Nevertheless, there was nothing to be done.
Suspicious things had to be left as suspicious.
If one were to doubt every single detail, they might as well quit being a mercenary in Eden.
Naturally, this didn’t mean trusting a connector’s words blindly.
One also had to know when to turn their back.
Connectors and mercenaries often employed a Tit-for-Tat strategy.
If the other party cooperated, they cooperated.
If the other party betrayed, they betrayed.
And if the other party then sought to cooperate again, they, too, would cooperate with them—by using such a simple yet amusing strategy, connectors and mercenaries could maintain their symbiosis.
Thus, if Irina was now approaching them with a cooperative stance, it was only right for Enoch and Soo to cooperate as well.
What if Irina betrayed them?
They could think about that when the time came.
At least they wouldn’t die during the mission.
“Southpeak Sector 2 Branch. This must be it.”
“Oh…”
Stopping in front of Lu Qian’s research lab, Soo’s eyes sparkling as she surveyed her surroundings.
“It’s really big in person.”
Adorned in gold and red, it looked less like a research facility and more like an upscale Chinese restaurant.
Moreover, it was so incredibly tall that one had to crane their neck for a long time just to see the top of the building.
And that wasn’t all.
Large screens adorned the building’s facade, simultaneously serving as advertisements for Lu Qian Pharmaceuticals.
It was a skyscraper, the kind commonly associated with cyberpunk aesthetics.
Even Lu Qian’s lowest-tier research lab was as opulent as such a towering structure.
And in front of such a research lab.
Six burly guards, easily over two meters tall, stood vigilant at the lab’s main entrance.
Judging by the grey, oriental-style dragon embroidery on their left chests, they were the lowest-ranking members of Lu Qian’s security team.
Still, they couldn’t be entirely disregarded.
For the weight of those two characters, ‘Lu Qian,’ was heavier than anything else in Eden.
“Hmm…”
While Soo admired the building, Enoch assessed the combat prowess of the six guards.
“They’re strong.”
That terse, unadorned statement was the extent of his analysis.
Naturally, he didn’t know how or why they were strong, or what implants they had in their bodies.
Enoch possessed neither nano-hacking tools nor a basic scanning implant.
When assessing an opponent, simply observing them was all he could do.
The same held true for Soo.
Their impressions, however, differed.
“When are we going in?”
“The sun’s starting to set, so a few hours from now should be fine… Have you already found an infiltration route?”
“Yep.”
Enoch’s eyes wavered.
‘Did she find an infiltration route while pretending to admire the building? Was that innocent face all an act? Is this also magic?’
Though a torrent of questions assailed his mind, Enoch forced a composed expression and nodded.
“…It seems there was a back entrance after all.”
“A back entrance?”
Soo tilted her head, her face radiating innocence.
It was an adorably charming sight, enough to make one gasp, yet anyone who knew Soo even a little would never perceive it that way.
“No, wait.”
The myriad questions that had churned in Enoch’s mind vanished instantly, replaced by an unspeakable sense of unease.
“You, surely not.”
“Even if we go through the main entrance, we can still infiltrate.”
“…I’ve lived my entire life without ever realizing that ‘main entrance’ and ‘infiltration’ could exist in the same sentence.”
“As long as you don’t get caught, it’s infiltration.”
Enoch’s eyes quietly shifted.
He glanced at Lu Qian’s guards and the dozens of cameras before his gaze returned to Soo.
“Absolutely not.”
“Without even trying?”
“Do you have to eat shit to know it’s shit?”
“I don’t eat shit. Does Enoch eat shit?”
“What kind of, ha. What I mean is―”
“There’s also a way for Enoch to go in while I distract them.”
“How could that possibly…”
Enoch trailed off, his hand instinctively reaching for his spine.
Soo, declaring it the correct answer, gave him a thumbs-up.
“With Horde, you can evade the guards’ eyes.”
Neural acceleration implant.
As Enoch had experienced firsthand, it accelerated not only perception but also physical capabilities.
Therefore, if he utilized Horde to its limits, not only would the guards’ eyes fail to track him, but even the densely installed cameras wouldn’t capture Enoch.
There was also a way to circumvent the internal detection sensors.
By subduing a researcher and taking their employee ID before being recognized by the sensors, they could easily deceive the system.
“Huh…”
Enoch found himself unable to refute Soo’s explanation.
It wasn’t entirely impossible.
In fact, he was certain it was a strategy with a higher chance of success than Soo’s idea of ‘infiltration’.
“Can you do it?”
“It’s not a matter of whether I can or cannot.”
As Soo offered her fist, Enoch, about to bump it with his own, looked at her with skeptical eyes.
“How do you plan to draw their attention? You’ll need to do it precisely when the lab door opens.”
“This face is cute and pretty, isn’t it?”
It was true that she was cute and pretty.
No, perhaps even more so… it was closer to a feeling of beauty.
But Enoch was reluctant to admit that fact easily.
He just… felt that way.
Still, he felt a measure of relief.
Drawing attention with her extraordinary looks would be far safer than that cursed ‘infiltration’ plan.
“Right, a somewhat normal method―”
“I’ll open the door from a distance.”
Open the door from a distance.
No further explanation was needed.
With that single, brief statement, Enoch realized what Soo intended to do.
“What the hell, you… Didn’t you just say you were cute and pretty? So why are you spouting such crazy talk about breaking down the door from a distance…?”
“Because I’m cute and pretty, I need to hide my appearance. And I’m not breaking it; I’m opening it.”
‘Of course.’
This madwoman had never intended to do it secretly from the start.
“Once I open the door, you just go straight in.”
“…No. I’m begging you, please don’t do that.”
Soo, who had somehow produced a small stone and balanced it on her fingertip, smiled brightly.
“This research lab will be fine. Just trust me.”
“Ha, haha…”
‘Should I shoot her now? Would lead even affect this lunatic in the first place? How can I stop her? Should I block her with my body? But if she really shoots, it’ll be a dog’s death. Should I just lie down and cry? Is there truly no way to stop this madwoman?’
A torrent of thoughts and regrets flooded Enoch’s mind.
Yet, even as they did, he attached a silencer to his Moonlight and prepared to activate Horde.
Even if she was a madwoman who constantly engaged in insane antics, she was, after all, his comrade.
He had decided to be her comrade.
So, for now, he had to trust her… and somehow adapt.
“I’ll open it on three.”
Adapting was one thing…
Enoch didn’t take Soo’s words at face value.
Soo was the kind of madwoman who, after saying she’d open it on three, might immediately shout ‘three’ and smash the door to pieces.
He kept his guard up, nerves taut.
He cast aside all extraneous thoughts.
The moment the door shattered, he would think only of running forward.
Just as Enoch’s body leaned forward to its limit.
“Oh my?”
Someone leaped from the building’s rooftop, landing lightly between Soo and Enoch.
They resembled a slender cat.
But they were utterly unlike a cat.
The two prominent mounds, clearly attesting to the existence of gravity, were far too formidable to belong to a cat.
“Soo!”
“Woob.”
Golden hair cascaded.
The scent of warm sunlight enveloped Soo.
Gentle jade-colored eyes… were not visible.
“What are you doing in a place like this!”
Soo, feeling the soft expanse of the chest that engulfed her face, lifted her head.
Only then could she meet those uniquely gentle, jade-colored eyes.
Soo smiled comfortably.
“Angela, hello.”
