“It’s alright.”
Toppers, having shed his gas-proof suit, blinked at Soo’s languid voice and peculiar manner of speaking.
There was no question mark trailing her words.
She wasn’t asking if he was alright.
“…Excuse me?”
“It’s alright. I saved you. You’re safe now.”
Toppers, whose eyes had been rolling around in confusion, ultimately bent at the waist in a deep bow.
“Thank you…!”
Toppers was thirty-eight years old.
As for Soo’s age? She looked at least twenty years younger than Toppers, no matter how generous one was.
Yet, Toppers spoke to her with deference, careful not to meet her gaze.
Witnessing with his own eyes the horrific spectacle of a girl young enough to be his daughter brutally obliterating fifteen Hounds, his gaze instinctively dropped.
Hadn’t she endured the thick, poisonous gas bare-bodied?
Moreover, her small, slender hand had crushed a Hound’s head when she grasped it, and a strike to its snout had left its muzzle caved in.
A single swing of her fist had shattered a body, and when ‘something’—seemingly concealed beneath her worn cloak—was brandished, a body was ripped in half.
Most terrifying and gruesome of all was the sight of her affectionately calling out ‘Chun-shik’ while mercilessly tearing things apart.
And then, as they were exiting the research facility.
Toppers could barely walk, and Luchi had collapsed, making it impossible for them to exit through the entrance—so what did she do?
The girl ripped the door.
Quite literally, she grabbed the door with both hands and tore it.
To treat such a monster carelessly?
Even the butchers of Zyrex Tech, notorious for their madness, would surely be deferential to this girl.
And furthermore…
Toppers suddenly realized how the research facility’s door had come to be open.
This girl had done it.
Whether she had entered from outside or emerged from within, it was clear that this girl had opened that door.
‘No, she couldn’t have come from inside.’
Even with the best lungs and filters, one couldn’t possibly live breathing that poisonous gas.
The toxic gas swirling within would destroy not only human bodies but also implants.
“A Scavenger?”
Toppers, who had been trying to discern the girl’s identity, immediately nodded his head.
“Yes! I am Toppers of the Toppers Family!”
“The leader?”
“That’s right!”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Soo.”
Toppers, moving his barely functional legs, immediately dropped to his knees and offered a respectful greeting.
“Soo Noona (TL Note: A Korean term used by a male to address an older female)! Greetings!”
“…Noona?”
“Yes! Ah, of course, I don’t mean to imply you’re old. It’s just… uhahaha! You are far stronger than I, so I simply addressed you as such!”
For some reason, Soo’s face became sullen.
“Hyungnim (TL Note: A Korean term used by a male to address an older male).”
“Ah, ahaha… You don’t need to call me Hyungnim—”
“Call me Hyungnim, not Noona.”
Until recently, Soo had lived as a man.
A proud son of the Republic of Korea, who had completed his military service!
But suddenly, “Noona”?
That was certainly enough reason to be offended…
‘Noonas look weak.’
…but it wasn’t.
Simply because ‘Noona’ sounded weak, Soo insisted on being called Hyungnim.
Moreover, since all Scavengers, regardless of gender, called each other Hyungnim, there was also a desire to fit into their culture.
“Th-then… Yes. I will serve you as Great Hyungnim (TL Note: An honorific meaning ‘big brother’ or ‘senior,’ used to show utmost respect to an older male figure)!”
“Good.”
Soo nodded in satisfaction, then meticulously brushed the dust from Toppers’ clothes.
She then helped Toppers to his feet, flashing a gentle smile.
“I saved you. Didn’t I?”
“That’s right!”
“And I saved that bald friend of yours too.”
“Luchi owes his life to Hyungnim many times over! Indeed! Absolutely!”
Even Luchi, currently unconscious, was as good as owing his life to Soo.
Luchi, who had fainted upon seeing Soo single-handedly take down Hounds, had almost been bitten to death several times, but Soo had rescued him each time.
Not only that, but she had also brought him all the way outside.
Dragging Luchi’s body, which must have weighed over 200kg with all his implants…
“Hmm?”
Toppers’ gaze snapped back to the present as he saw Soo extend a hand towards him.
“Life’s price.”
“…Huh?”
“I can’t exchange credit chips. Give me gold.”
“B-but…”
“You don’t want to?”
Soo’s tilt of her head sent a shiver down Toppers’ spine.
Hadn’t she tilted her head just like that when the Hounds charged her, only to immediately smash them to pieces?
“Not only the price of your saving us, but we’ll also handle the transportation of the Hounds ourselves!”
“Transportation?”
This time, her head tilted in the opposite direction.
“Why transport them?”
This time, it was Toppers’ head that tilted.
However, it wasn’t cute like Soo’s. Coming from a grown man, it was simply grotesque.
“The Hounds… aren’t you going to sell them?”
“Sell them? Those? Can you sell them?”
“…Of course? You can absolutely sell them.”
“Wow.”
This was something she hadn’t known, as it had never appeared in the game.
To think there were things even a veteran with 6,298 hours of playtime didn’t know.
Soo felt a strange pang of wounded pride, yet at the same time, her heart pounded with excitement.
It was different from the game.
Though undeniably the world of the game, now that it had become reality, things had changed.
And in the future, countless more things would surely differ from the game.
Soo’s eyes sparkled as she began to walk.
“I’ll handle the transportation, so you sell them for me.”
“B-but… do you trust us? We’re… Scavengers, you know?”
“Yeah.”
Without an ID chip, trading goods was difficult, so if he handled it for her, she could understand if he skimmed a little off the top.
With that thought, Soo re-entered the abandoned research facility, leaving Toppers alone, who felt a surge of emotion he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
To receive such trust, something he’d only known as a mercenary, even as a Scavenger.
‘Just 20%… no, just 7.5% is all I’ll skim.’
Of course, this was separate from the matter of making a living.
****
“You’ve worked hard! I’ll bring you something to drink, so please rest for a moment!”
“Okay.”
On the way in, she had hoped to see other Scavengers, but unfortunately, everyone was out working, leaving only Toppers and Luchi.
Even Luchi had fainted again after seeing Soo dragging fifteen Hounds, so in reality, it was just Toppers.
Soo clicked her tongue in disappointment as she settled onto a worn-out sofa.
The way it comfortably cushioned her rear suggested it was a surprisingly good quality item for a Scavenger’s abode.
It was even large enough that her tail didn’t bother her even when tucked to the side.
“How many people are in the Toppers Family in total?”
Toppers, who had his back turned while preparing coffee, answered with a hint of pride.
“Including Luchi and myself, there are ten of us in total.”
“That’s not many?”
“Yes. Rather than needlessly increasing our numbers, we prefer to gather elites… haha.”
“Is that why your hideout is so clean?”
Typically, Scavenger hideouts were bound to be filthy.
They collected and sold all sorts of junk, and sometimes even engaged in human trafficking, so such places were inevitably squalid.
Yet, the Toppers Family’s hideout was remarkably clean.
While certainly dirtier than the interiors of Eden, it could be considered exceptionally tidy for the Wasteland.
“Ah… while it’s true that the small number of members contributes to its cleanliness, even though I may look like this, I haven’t been in the Wasteland for very long. At most, a year… Yes. And… contrary to appearances, I’m also selective about the jobs I take.”
‘Even though I may look like this,’ what did he mean by that?
Soo stared intently at the back of Toppers’ head, then soon realized what he meant.
From his appearance alone, he looked like he had thirty years of experience as a Scavenger.
But Soo knew he had been a mercenary. The Mantis Arm blades lying discarded on the floor were proof of that.
High-priced implants that Scavengers could only dream of.
In particular, the red blades Toppers used were among the more expensive variants of Mantis Arms.
This implied he had made a name for himself in the mercenary world to some extent, yet now he was a Scavenger.
Soo’s eyes curved into a beautiful crescent shape.
“Did you want to become a legend of Eden?”
Just then, Toppers, who had turned around holding the finished coffee and a bottle of water, met her gaze.
Immediately, his eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Uh…”
Because her vertically slit pupils seemed to freeze his tongue.
While her eye-smile was breathtakingly beautiful.
Because the question that accompanied that eye-smile instilled fear.
Because the tail tapping against the sofa was so shocking.
“…Th-that.”
‘What kind of implant were those eyes, anyway?’
‘Could a person really be that beautiful?’
‘How did she know he used to be a mercenary?’
‘And what was that tail? Was it even an implant?’
A myriad of questions flooded Toppers’ mind, but he couldn’t conjure any answers.
These were not questions for which answers could possibly be conceived.
“I’ve shown you a secret, so Toppers, you answer. Which corporation was involved?”
Soo asked, twisting open the bottle cap.
‘What was that? Was she implying she’d twist his head off like the bottle cap if he didn’t answer?’
Toppers awkwardly sat opposite Soo, scanning his surroundings.
He surveyed the room, even though he knew it was a private chamber with no one else present.
It was a habit shared by all who were, or had been, hunted by corporations, for the eyes and ears of corporations could be anywhere.
“Haaah…”
Toppers shivered as if the mere thought of that time sent chills down his spine.
“It was a simple Wasteland reconnaissance request. An assignment from the wealthy to find lost items. So I proceeded with an easy mind. But that day, perhaps I was just unlucky, I got entangled with Li Qian…”
“Oh.”
Soo’s eyes sparkled.
This was a story that hadn’t existed in the game. No matter how many side quests she completed, Toppers’ story was nowhere to be found.
This made Soo’s heart pound.
Wasn’t this an opportunity to discover what was happening in the world untouched by the protagonist’s hand?
And not just any story, but that of a mercenary who, like the game’s protagonist, had aspired to become a legend, only to fall from grace! A tale perfectly suited to the cyberpunk genre!
“A simple request, really? It doesn’t sound like it.”
If it was enough to get entangled with a corporation, it couldn’t have been a simple request. It must have been a dangerous, high-paying assignment, one that also guaranteed fame.
Typically, such tasks involved heading into a war-torn region to assassinate a specific agent, or infiltrating a heavily guarded location to extract information or items.
Otherwise, he might have diverted an item or information that should have gone to the client to another party. That, too, guaranteed high rewards and fame.
One might ask how betraying a connector could still guarantee fame, but it was possible because even within the mercenary world, factions were divided.
Earning the enmity of one faction naturally garnered the attention of those hostile to them.
While the opposing faction might attempt to assassinate that mercenary, it was a common occurrence during assignments and not a major concern.
So, what exactly had Toppers done to become entangled with a corporation?
The sparkle in her ash-grey eyes intensified.
However, facing her, Toppers’ mouth went completely dry.
Knowing what Soo was capable of, Toppers felt her eyes resembled those of a predator.
Furthermore, her casual questions were excessively sharp.
He hadn’t uttered a single piece of inferable information, yet Soo was questioning him as if she already knew everything.
The thought that she might be from a corporation crossed his mind, but he firmly dismissed it.
It couldn’t be. If she were an assassin from Li Qian, Toppers would already be dead.
One might assume she was asking to extract information, but Li Qian could read all of a person’s memories simply by having their brain.
So, she wasn’t a Li Qian assassin. Yet, that didn’t mean he could feel at ease.
‘Just when I thought my luck was turning…’
Only after gulping down a large amount of water, already lukewarm from the Wasteland’s heat, did Toppers finally speak.
“The content of the request was… to investigate an ancient ruin that suddenly appeared across the Wasteland about a year ago… something like that.”
“…Ancient ruin?”
“Yes. From what I heard while fleeing, mana? Magic…? Haha… such absurd things…?”
Toppers, cutting himself off mid-sentence, looked at Soo, who had suddenly shot up from her seat, with a puzzled expression.
This was because her eyes, which had been half-closed until now, had widened as if they would tear.
“…Um, Noona, no, Hyungnim? Is something wrong?”
“What did you just say?”
“The traces of mana, or magic—such absurd things—from an ancient ruin…”
“That’s mine…?”
‘A corporation was enjoying the mod I installed?’
“Th-thieves!”
