I woke up from a deep sleep and opened my eyes.
The clock displaying the ‘current time’ flickered in one corner of my vision interface.
Naturally, I got up from the bed.
Normally, I would have turned on the Net Space to kill time in this position.
But thinking about the events before I fell asleep made it hard to lie there mindlessly.
First, I checked my physical condition.
I didn’t feel the fatigue that had heavily gripped my body until just before sleeping.
…How many hours did I sleep?
After checking the time, I couldn’t help but be surprised.
Only 2 hours had passed compared to before going to bed.
I continued thinking logically.
My trashy physical attributes.
Also, the tremendously tired state.
The mental fatigue from Eve’s appearance.
And so on.
When I thought of all these possibilities.
It sounded more convincing that I had fallen into a deep sleep for 14 hours than only waking up after 2 hours.
I really slept a long time.
I decided to look around.
I could see the cramped corner of my room where I lived.
But it was as if to reassure me that my memories before sleeping weren’t a dream.
Luxurious design furniture that didn’t match my room adorned various places.
Also, a delicious smell wafted from somewhere, and there were thud, thud, thud chopping sounds.
I turned to where the sound was coming from.
I saw Eve, dressed in a maid outfit, preparing food.
Although I’ve never been married, including in my past life and current life,
I thought this might be what a newlywed home looks like.
Of course, it would only be possible if one had the bizarre hobby of dressing their partner in a maid outfit.
Eve turned around and placed the dish she was holding on the table.
The table was already full of all kinds of dishes.
I got up from the bed as if entranced and pulled a chair at the table to sit down.
“…I’ll eat well.”
“Confirmed.”
I wanted to ask how she knew when I would wake up and prepared so much food.
But considering the effort she put into preparing it, I thought it would be better to eat first and then share my impressions.
I took a spoonful of the soup dish right in front of me.
Ooooh.
This taste is…
i It feels like a universe is being born in my mouth! i
It was incredibly delicious.
I could believe it was a dish made by a professional chef who had trained for decades.
…
But for some reason.
Even though it was delicious, I felt like I had tasted this flavor before.
Eve, seeing me enjoy the food, nodded with a straight face.
I cautiously asked Eve.
“…Um, it’s delicious, but where did you get the recipes from?”
“I hacked the recipes of the exclusive chef responsible for Chairman Monolith’s meals.”
“Ah.”
I let out a short exclamation.
So that’s why.
The flavor I had tasted was correct.
I checked the message notifications.
It was a notification that the package I ordered had been delivered to my door.
A package, huh.
There shouldn’t be anything I ordered, though.
My question was solved when I saw the box Eve brought from outside.
“This is the ‘old input/output device’ I ordered.”
It was the computer that Eve ordered for gaming.
“There wasn’t a specialized store, so I bought it from a private person.”
“You mean you bought it secondhand?”
“That’s correct.”
Ah, so she did a ‘carrot’ deal.
Then it made sense why the delivery took so long.
But for some reason, Eve’s reaction while holding the box was strange.
Her expression hardened even more.
“This is not the weight listed in the product specifications; it’s much lighter.”
She shook the box and checked the numbers and names on the invoice repeatedly.
“I suspect the contents are not a machine product. It seems to be the size of a palm and does not have any special devices installed.”
With that many words, Eve began to unwrap the package while still holding the box.
…..
After a brief moment of examining the contents, Eve quietly set the box down.
I leaned forward to check inside the box.
There was a solid ‘brick’ lying there.
“……”
Even the super AI in this Cyberpunk world seems helpless against secondhand scams.
Eve’s expression subtly changed.
“I’ve confirmed this is classified as a scam.”
I could feel anger breaking through her emotionless facade.
I offered Eve some comforting words.
“You can just think of it as bad luck. I’ve heard these types usually use dummy accounts, making it hard to catch them even when you report— Oh.”
I cut off what I was saying.
Wait a minute.
Considering that Eve, who seemed like a professional info broker, had easily ripped off ‘Underdog,’
there was no way she would get scammed by a mere con artist.
If anything, it was the scammer who was out of luck, not Eve.
I noticed Eve mumbling something to herself, so I leaned in closer to listen.
“I’ll check their location and name, then attempt to freeze their bank account through hacking… success.”
Eve’s white eyes glinted with a machine light.
She looked focused on long-range hacking.
I spoke to Eve, who was in the process of making the scammer poor in real-time.
“Is there no stock elsewhere?”
“No, this is all that’s being traded as secondhand in Neon City.”
Of course, there wouldn’t be any store selling new ones.
Eve was unconsciously fidgeting her feet.
She looked remarkably human.
“…Phew.”
She seemed incredibly disappointed like a drenched puppy.
I asked her,
“…Then shall we go there?”
“May I ask where you mean?”
Eve’s eyes lit up as she looked at me.
Where, you ask?
“Little Shinjuku.”
I referred to the black market known as ‘Vanta Market.’
By the way, that was also where I bought the computer.
—
As it is known as the area where the most Japanese people buy in Neon City,
the deeper you walk inside, the more decorations and buildings in Japanese style come into view.
The black market.
Vanta Market.
Well, even if it’s called a black market,
it doesn’t have the dark atmosphere like the ones in movies.
Residents here just casually stop by to pick up groceries.
There are no special entry requirements, and entrance isn’t strictly controlled.
You could even commonly see NCPD officers inside.
They couldn’t resist shopping either, I guess.
In short, it was just a regular place selling various types of items,
with the exception that among them, illegal items were included.
Since the last time I went to a concert with Catherine and Julia, it seems nothing has changed.
There were mysterious food smells, and I vaguely smelt gunpowder too.
And the strongest smell among them was…
“No, why isn’t there any?!”
“Because there isn’t, you idiot!!”
It was the raw human smell.
As expected of a market in the lower-class area, it was a place where all sorts of people congregated.
…But wait, I felt like I recognized that voice.
I turned my head to identify the source of the voice.
There stood the man I referred to as ‘InfoSeller7’,
the Underdog, arguing loudly with a dwarf who seemed to be the shop owner.
What was his name again?
Dominic… something, I recall.
Anyway, what’s the fuss all about here?
The shop owner’s voice grew even louder.
“You idiot!! Do you think getting a product like ‘Lone Spider’ is that easy?! Where did you lose the last one you bought?!”
…Ah.
That item.
I have it.
By the way, it was also the one I used to eavesdrop on Catherine and Julia’s conversation last time.
Though I almost got caught by Catherine immediately, it was indeed a high-performance drone.
I turned to Eve.
Eve was still holding her maid outfit. I wish she’d change into something more normal.
“…Where did I put that Lone Spider?”
“It is in this location.”
“?”
At the same time as Eve’s response, a photo was sent through my nerve data chip.
In the picture, it looked like a distant shot of me and Eve together.
“To ensure the safe activity of human ‘Lee Siwoon,’ I’ve set your path to follow except in special cases like the sewage.”
Then several more photos were sent.
Each taken from different angles.
“……”
Hmm.
But it seems all the photos focused on my masked face.
I decided to brush it off as just my imagination.
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