The girl instinctively lowered her posture.
‘……What is it?’
She felt a vibration coming from somewhere.
It wasn’t just her imagination.
Every so often, thud thud, the insides of the sewage vibrated violently.
Humidity caused droplets hanging from the ceiling to fall like rain, and dust trickled down from the cracks in the old walls.
Slowly getting to her feet, the girl looked towards the direction the sounds were coming from, the place she had come from.
The vibrations and sounds were getting closer by the minute.
‘Is it the sound of something exploding?’
There was no time to think too deeply.
The girl hid her body between the thick pipes lined against one wall.
She covered her mouth with her hand, stifling her breathing.
“…Ah…!”
Amidst the boom of explosions, voices of people could be heard.
‘…Who the hell is making such a racket here?’
There’s a limit to how reckless one can be.
Whoever it was, they must be incredibly foolish, the girl thought to herself.
And when she realized that that ‘fool’ was actually looking for ‘her,’ she had already slipped out from behind the pipes.
“Gyeomjok─, ah, here you are.”
“……….”
That foolish person was someone the girl knew.
“Gyeomjok, what city are you talking about? It’s dangerous here, let’s hurry back.”
“Does someone who knows that shout like that?”
It was beyond frustrating; it was absurd.
Maybe if it was just some random guy, she could let it slide.
But since it was someone who knew about the danger, she felt an overwhelming urge to smack him once.
“……Hah.”
The girl let out a heavy sigh.
‘Seriously, you’re not a fool, are you?’
No, maybe he really is a fool?
As if he could read her thoughts, the boy who had burst in with loud footsteps looked at her and grinned brightly.
“Let’s go home.”
It was natural for the girl to ignore him.
26. That kind of thing happened too (5)
I’m glad I found him sooner than I thought.
I secretly sighed.
I had no idea when Gyeomjok had left, disappearing after just leaving a piece of paper behind.
While I was talking to Four Eyes, Gyeomjok could have already ventured deep into the city.
That’s why he was making so much noise.
Finding Gyeomjok as soon as possible was crucial.
We were already far from the village.
Sure, this area was safer than others, but that was only relative.
Danger was still present.
I spoke to Gyeomjok again.
“Don’t ignore me, let’s go back.”
Since I had come all this way to fetch him myself, the only answer could logically be ‘YES.’
But.
His nickname was ‘Gyeomjok.’
“I’m not going.”
“?”
Gyeomjok…
What the hell does that even mean?
I followed behind Gyeomjok, who started walking away, continuing my desperate persuasion.
“Hey, Gyeomjok, just stop for a moment.”
“No, and you should go back.”
“Then let’s at least walk a little slower.”
“I don’t like that either.”
Ugh.
Why is he walking so fast when his legs are shorter than mine?
Gyeomjok sped up even more in the opposite direction of my suggestion to walk slowly.
Chasing after his pace was exhausting for someone whose stamina attribute was garbage.
…Oh Eun-young.
Please give me physical strength.
If this goes on, I might lose him again.
I calmly took a deep breath and counted primes to calm myself down and then sprinted after Gyeomjok.
If I couldn’t stop his actions right now, I decided to find out the cause first.
“Why do you want to go to the city?”
“…Just.”
Gyeomjok.
‘Just’ isn’t a reason.
“…It’s not like you have to go right now.”
“Right, but still.”
Well, at least he gave me some kind of response.
I thought positively.
As long as those answers weren’t irrelevant, I would have thought, ‘Our Gyeomjok has really grown up.’
…….
At this rate, we might actually reach the city.
Even if we somehow arrived safely, it wouldn’t be completely free of problems.
Kids who grow up and live in a landfill don’t usually have any ‘identity’ to speak of.
The moment we enter the city, my class would automatically change from ‘Wizard’ to ‘Illegal Resident.’ The difficulty of living would escalate.
Of course, once we got to the city, there’s also the option of going back to the landfill, but there’s no guarantee the return trip would be as safe as the journey there.
I wasn’t even sure if the direction we were heading was really towards the city, so I found it hard to understand what kind of confidence Gyeomjok had to strut around like that.
…He must know, right?
With that thought in mind, I asked Gyeomjok.
“Is this really the way to the city?”
“……”
For the first time, Gyeomjok ignored my question, which he had been answering until now.
It was almost like he answered without words.
A certain sign of ignorance.
Wouldn’t it be more likely that I could just make a scene by grabbing Gyeomjok’s ankle and not let him go?
Just as I was starting to think that.
“Are you saying we should go back─, huh?”
I stopped mid-sentence and looked ahead.
Gyeomjok, who had been walking forward, suddenly came to a halt.
Could it be that my persuasion worked?
But to my disappointment, that wasn’t it.
A shadow of a person appeared ahead of us, blocking the way of the sewer we were heading.
It was a vagabond draped in a blanket.
The mechanical eyes, revealed over cracked synthetic skin, glowed red and turned towards us.
He was the man who had sold me the electronic devices for three days’ worth of food back when.
“Hey, kiddos, where are you going?”
“……….”
Um.
Is this bad?
The distance to the village was far away.
This area, where Gyeomjok and I were, was not the right place to encounter a vagabond.
“Haha, don’t be so wary.”
It felt like I’d seen both ‘Our dog doesn’t bite’ and ‘Beware of attack dogs’ signs at once.
As the man took a step closer to us, we instinctively backed away, distancing ourselves from him.
It seemed I needed to show off my magic─.
That’s when Gyeomjok picked me up and began to run in the opposite direction.
“Uh?”
Even before I entered the game, I had never been princess-carried.
My first-ever princess carry left me bewildered.
The little guy was surprisingly strong for someone shorter than me.
“Is it a princess carry because the princess is running?”
“…Shut up, just stay quiet.”
Gyeomjok responded to my dazed thoughts.
At the very least, I should have been the one carrying him.
But then again, that would be impossible with my strength.
It seemed even Gyeomjok found it hard to run all the way to the village.
He turned down a narrow fork in the sewer path.
The complicated web of pipes stretched across the ceiling and floor.
As Gyeomjok put me down, he exhaled heavily.
This place looked like the corner of the sewage.
Without any lights, shadows lay low in the dark. I could hear bugs buzzing in my ears.
I turned to the still panting Gyeomjok and asked.
“…Are you okay?”
“……Yeah.”
Being saved by a girl who’s (probably) younger than me felt different.
We had hidden for so long that if our voices leaked, we could quickly be detected by the vagabond again.
I whispered as softly as I could.
“…So, we’re going back to the village, right?”
“……I’ll think about it.”
Seems like it takes this much for you to actually think.
…….
Suddenly reminded of something, I said to Gyeomjok.
“By the way.”
“…Shut up, we might get caught.”
That aside.
“Usually, mechanical eyes can detect biological signals too─.”
“Hello?”
Suddenly, a voice came from behind us, making us lurch forward in surprise.
What? There’s only the wall.
As if reading my thoughts.
With a loud crash, the wall shattered.
– Kuaaang!!
Unlike the dimness of this place, light shone brightly from the other side of the broken wall.
A bright beam filtered through the hole into our space.
Beyond it stood the owner of the voice.
It was the vagabond we had seen earlier.
I finally understood what he was hiding with the blanket on one arm.
What, a cyberpunk vagabond is strolling around with a filing bunker instead of an arm?
“Anyway, you can’t run away to the village anymore. Let’s not wear ourselves out and come this way, okay?”
A long, weirdly extended smirk settled on the man’s mouth.
He enlarged the hole with his intact hand.
He crawled through the hole and appeared on our side.
Big chunks of stone fell onto the water puddle on the ground.
“Hey, kid. You can still run away.”
Then he turned to me and said.
Given how he said that.
It seemed the vagabond’s target was Gyeomjok.
“How many credits can I get? Haha! Guess this opportunity comes to me too.”
The man’s eyes glistened with mania as they focused on Gyeomjok.
Thinking he had nowhere to run now, he began to slowly close in on us.
Gyeomjok said to me.
“…You should run first.”
“What did you say?”
“I’ll deal with that guy and get out of here.”
What do you mean by that, Gyeomjok?
No matter how strong Gyeomjok was, exceeding an adult’s strength, the chances of defeating a man armed with cyberware were almost zero.
Reading the expression on my face that said ‘Don’t spout nonsense,’ Gyeomjok spoke again.
“…Then should we fight together? If I create an opening, you should run for it.”
I shook my head.
Seeing her like that seemed rather amusing.
The man burst into a loud laugh.
“Khaha! What a heartwarming sight! Yes, they called you a weakling, right? A man should have some stubbornness! But it means nothing now, what’s that?”
A ball of light formed at the tip of my index finger, flying slowly towards the man.
Seemingly not feeling any threat, the man stared blankly at the ball of light flying toward him.
“Oh, is it that?”
Though Gyeomjok looked at me as though I was a crazy person due to my change in tone, I ignored it with effort.
The man waved his hands at the ball of light that had reached right in front of him.
“I can’t even touch it; what is it?”
I answered his curiosity.
“Magic.”
“……What is magic?”
The man seemed at a loss for words at my answer.
He looked puzzled, but there was no more time for me to explain.
I released my control over the mana I had gathered.
The bright light illuminating the surroundings contracted.
As the man took a step back in anxiety, I grabbed Gyeomjok and dove in the opposite direction.
“Hey, hey! What are you touching?!”
“Duck down, you idiot!”
The more I used mana, the clearer my ability became.
The speed at which I gathered mana increased, and I learned the trick to disperse it.
I gathered more mana than ever from the magic I had used up to this point.
– BOOOOM!!!
It was a good thing I had covered my ears.
The light that burst forth dominated the entire sewer.
As a result, Gyeomjok and I were thrown in the opposite direction.
I didn’t need to see what happened to the man.
*
Was it because she felt a change in mood?
Gyeomjok started to follow behind me.
“…I’m sorry.”
Gyeomjok apologized, but since she needed to take proper responsibility for her actions, I let her words go in one ear and out the other.
“…But it’s dangerous, so there’s no way I can go with you.”
I stayed silent, continuing to move forward.
Before long, we arrived at the village.
I followed the path of Sewage Village.
“Answer me, will you… I said I’m sorry.”
“Enough, just follow me.”
I took Gyeomjok to the house of the technician known as ‘Fixer.’
“Hmm? What are kids doing here?”
A messy woman with glasses made of eight lenses looked down at me like a spider.
I spoke to her, the Fixer.
“Can you give me and him a proper identity? And a credit chip to use in the city.”
The color of the Fixer’s glasses changed.
“That’s a bit pricey, though. Even though you’re village kids, you can’t come empty-handed.”
“I’ll pay with this.”
I handed the Fixer all the credits I had gathered so far.
“Hey! You’ve been saving up for a long time for this, haven’t you?”
I was saving up for this purpose anyway.
I turned to Gyeomjok and said.
“What would I say to the kid who’s recklessly trying to head to the city? This will solve the identity problem, so let’s go to the city when we’re a bit older.”
“……But still.”
“Shut up and stop talking nonsense.”
I originally planned to save up a little more to create an even higher-grade identity, but if I didn’t act now, Gyeomjok might get herself into another accident.
“Oho.”
The Fixer said as she checked the amount of credits.
“What name do you want? Oh, just so you know, the name is like a nickname used in the city.”
“I’ll go with Lee Siwoon; Lee is the family name, and Siwoon is the name.”
“Seems like you know what a name is?”
Why wouldn’t I?
Having told my real name, I looked at the Fixer.
Of course, if I knew I was going to have a Chinese-style name change here, I would have paid more attention to how I conveyed it, but at this point, I had no idea that would happen.
“Um, Gyeomjok, what about you?”
“……I….”
Gyeomjok seemed to have a name in mind too, as her lips slowly began to open.
“I originally wanted to go without a surname, just Catherine. But could you make it with the same surname as me, the weakling, Siwoon…?”
“Confirmed, just sit there and wait.”
Why does she want to have the same surname as me?
Feels like a sibling vibe.
But Catherine, huh?
That’s the default name assigned to the female protagonist in the game, isn’t it─.
*
“At any rate, we set our names to use in the city and spent a few more years there before finally heading into the city,”
I finished my brief explanation.
I was showing Eve the photo in the frame that Catherine had brought along, adding to my story.
“This is a photo we took back at the Fixer’s place. Doesn’t it look so fresh?”
After a moment of silence as Catherine reminisced, Eve said.
“…What happened to that entity, ‘Teddy’?”
“I wouldn’t know; I heard rumors that they were dragged away by a drone afterwards.”
“……Then may I ask why you called it a ‘spoiler’ earlier?”
“Because it’s more fun that way.”
“…….”
Eve looked at Catherine with emotions in her gaze. She seemed angry.
Creating feelings in artificial intelligence, huh?
Gyeomjok really is something else.
I shook my head and thought.
It was just another peaceful day.
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