The garbage piling up to my ankles is bothersome. It feels like I’m walking on a sea made of trash.
“Hey, where are you going?!”
I tried shouting, but the blonde girl just walked on silently.
She didn’t answer my question.
Ugh, this brat is so rude.
I grumbled to myself.
Of course, I was in a younger state right now.
So that kind of response was natural.
I briefly reminisced.
It had been over an hour since I started chasing after the blonde girl, who had looked at me and said, “What are you staring at, wanna die?”
The trash under my feet was hindering my walk.
Maybe because I’d gotten smaller due to being younger, my walking speed was ridiculously slow.
Just when I was falling behind, she turned around and looked at me.
Looking at her like that, it seems she wanted me to follow her.
But before that, I wish she’d just tell me where we were going.
I opened my mouth again.
I tried to yell, putting a lot of force into my belly.
“Where the heck—”
Suddenly, the girl approached and covered my mouth with her small palm.
“Shh, idiot. Be quiet.”
With that force, we both got buried under the trash heap.
The rancid smell and food spills on my head made me dizzy, but when I heard the next sound, I held my breath.
Whirrrrr, the propeller began to spin.
A huge drone illuminated the area with a red light. It looked like it was checking the trash heap.
Then a giant rat jumped out of the trash.
I almost screamed in surprise.
It wasn’t just because the mouse was over 60 cm long.
Or because it was trying to scratch the drone with its blade-like claws.
[Organic matter detected.]
A harpoon shot out from the drone and impaled the giant mouse.
Fresh blood dripped down.
Then the drone flew off with the giant rat hanging from it.
The blonde girl carefully removed her palm from my mouth.
“Wake up if you don’t want to die. There’s not a single person here who will protect you.”
I got back up from my crouched position.
“This is where all the trash from Neon City ends up. No one cares,” she pointed out beyond her finger.
A grand concrete wall was visible.
Then the girl started to take small steps again.
…Neon City.
The name from a cyberpunk game.
I sealed my lips tightly.
Yet I didn’t stop following the girl.
…But wait.
Wasn’t what she just did protecting me?
I decided to gloss over such trivial matters without any arguments.
—
I felt like I was dreaming an old dream.
“Hey, hey, wake up.”
[‘Siwoon’, come to your senses.]
Familiar voices echoed in my ears.
The voice in front was Catherine’s, and the latter was Eve’s.
It felt like it was the first time Eve called me by just my name, excluding the family name.
I opened my eyes.
And I nearly fell over in shock.
There was a peculiar hologram floating with a mask.
What the hell is this?
I pressed a button on the mask, and in an instant, the hologram disappeared. Behind it appeared Catherine’s face.
…What a surprise.
I held my dizzy head and got up.
The floor I was standing on a moment ago had turned into the ceiling.
…
And it was a given that scattered items decorated the area everywhere.
Just a mess.
There were plenty of people at awkward angles with blood leaking from them too.
When the airship crashed, it was fortunate that Catherine, the vice president, and I had cast protection magic.
Of course, we didn’t have enough time to use it properly.
So it seems we didn’t absorb all the shock.
Catherine, with a worried expression, asked me.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, what about you?”
“Me neither.”
Except for the dust stuck in various places, it didn’t seem like either of us had any injuries.
Catherine checked herself first.
Now it was my turn to check on the vice president, Kojaka William.
In terms of professionalism, I should’ve checked on the vice president first.
But you know, someone flexes their arms inward.
Catherine was the one I was more worried about.
I walked over to where the vice president was.
Beyond the translucent protective barrier.
There lay Kojaka William, sprawled out like a lifeless doll.
…At first glance, he didn’t look like the vice president of the Kojaka Corporation.
I checked Kojaka William’s condition here and there. His limbs seemed fine, and there was no bleeding.
[He only lost consciousness; his vital signs are normal, I explain.]
Eve supplemented my assessment.
Sure enough, there didn’t seem to be any broken bones.
His breathing was steady; he probably just fainted for a moment.
I concluded that there seemed to be no significant issues.
I thought briefly as I looked at him.
Hmm.
In Korea, there was a saying.
‘Even if you go sideways, as long as you reach Seoul.’
Meaning that no matter how the process goes, as long as you achieve the goal.
Although there were hiccups along the way.
If we can just secretly take Kojaka William away from here, then it would be a perfect kidnapping plan.
I tried to help Kojaka William up.
But Catherine was quicker to lift him effortlessly.
Catherine looked at me and said.
“Let’s get out of here. If we wait any longer, Kojaka’s guys or something with a scent will come after us.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
I nodded.
We moved outside the airship together.
As I walked and looked around, there was not a single living person inside the airship besides us.
I took a brief moment of silence and continued walking.
The farther I went, the more I sensed a smell coming from somewhere.
Once we exited the airship.
The scenery of the garbage landfill, which I hadn’t seen up close in years, revealed itself.
…How did I manage to live in a place like this before?
I hadn’t realized it when I lived here before.
I’ve been gone for a long time now.
And the stench, which I felt was intensifying, pierced my nostrils.
We distanced ourselves from the crashed airship.
Seeing the flames and smoke rising, it was as if it could explode at any moment.
We needed to think about escaping the influence of signal jamming from inside the airship too.
As we got farther away from the airship, Natasha’s urgent voice came through the radio.
《─Are you okay? Are you alright!?》
I pressed the button on the radio to respond.
“Yes, we’re fine.”
《…Phew, I thought something might’ve happened since the airship suddenly crashed.》
…Something did happen.
But I figured if the result was good, everything would be alright.
“We secured the target’s safety, and our current location is…”
I looked around.
Catherine added to my words through her radio.
“It seems like we’re near Zone E. So it might be tough to move to the safe house in Zone B we designated as a point.”
I had anticipated that when the airship crashed.
The original plan was to land safely, not crash.
《Then, is there somewhere to hide nearby? Even if the tech master and Red Horn set out right now, it would still take a while. Kojaka’s corporate drones are taking off, so other support will be tough.》
I took a moment to collect my thoughts.
Catherine was thinking things through, just like I was.
Zone E….
So the location…
Hmm.
There was a suitable place.
I spoke back into the radio.
“Yes, there is. The location has changed, but we’ll proceed with the plan as is.”
The so-called plan didn’t mean much.
In the end, I just had to find out whether Kojaka William is with Smile John at a safe location.
I said my short farewell and ended the radio call.
I lightly surveyed the surroundings.
It was a place I hadn’t visited in a long time.
Yet, it was a place where I had spent a significant amount of time, so my sense of direction started to awaken.
─The garbage landfill.
This place, where trash piled up like a mountain, also had some irregularity to it but actually possessed a set of rules.
Faint lines drawn on the ground between the trash.
The distance to the outer wall, the name of the current zone.
As I began to observe those rules one by one.
Finding out where we were became a piece of cake.
“Hah.”
I let out a small sigh.
[May I ask why you’re like this?]
Eve asked in response to my small voice.
“I never thought I’d crawl back here again.”
[……?]
Saying this wouldn’t get through to Eve.
I had only met Eve after leaving the garbage landfill, and not much information about it was known.
It felt nostalgic yet unsettling.
Catherine seemed to share a similar sentiment.
Her expression wasn’t bright.
Oh, the expression might also be due to the trash stench.
Anyway, just like Catherine and I had lived here.
The number of people living in the garbage landfill was surprisingly considerable.
Above ground, corporate killer drones roam.
And you could die immediately if swept away by the mountain of trash moved by heavy equipment.
Although I can’t say it’s not dangerous due to many scavengers rummaging through the trash.
Still, it was a place where people lived.
It felt a bit different from the underground levels of the slum city.
While Catherine used one shoulder to carry Kojaka William, she kicked away some trash with one foot.
Beneath the discarded trash, a ‘manhole cover’ appeared, hardened by food waste and time, with no visible gaps.
…If we start here.
Maybe after passing through the sewage, we’ll reach the living area.
The people here live underground.
In a small village scale.
They’re often derogatorily referred to as “mole rats.”
—
“Hey, hey! Long time no see! Wow, I just saw those little guys grow up and leave just yesterday. What brings you here? By the way, I heard an airship crashed above, you guys didn’t have anything to do with it, right— But who’s this gentleman you’re carrying? Looks like an expensive outfit.”
“He’s the vice president of Kojaka.”
“Haha!!! You’ve got to be kidding!”
This isn’t a joke!
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