Chapter 5
Chapter 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Jenny's Rescue
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jenny was a pretty competent BH editor.
Being a competent BH editor meant having a talent for maximizing visual appeal.
Trimming or editing out unnecessary emotions, and having the sense to emphasize or downplay specific sensations right where they belonged.
That was probably why she made a good chunk of money at first.
After producing a few BHs letting people experience the lives of the upper class, vain commoners opened their wallets on their own.
The numbers steadily piling up in her account were so satisfying. For the first couple of months, she even lived it up like the protagonist in one of her videos, picking whatever she wanted at hotels.
Of course, that fun didn't last long.
"...Extreme poverty simulation? Are you insane? Who's gonna watch that?"
"Who? The rich bastards. The ones with so much money they've got nothing left to buy but poverty itself, those pig fucks."
Those were the words of the PD she worked with, flashing his yellowed teeth.
The raw footage he brought was utterly horrific.
A beggar in filthy rags becomes someone's punching bag and gets brutally beaten. Afterward, the beggar wanders the streets with his tattered body, unable to fight the hunger any longer and digging into food waste. But just as he's wolfing it down, the shop owner suddenly yells, startling him into running—only to get hit by an unmanned truck and sent flying.
The video fades out on the crowd passing by the beggar sprawled on the ground, staining the pavement red, like he was just scrap.
Her head burned hot.
Who the hell had implanted that BH in the first place?
And the beggar was just a kid.
"Polish up the tactile and taste feedback. If it's too painful or gross, we'll have a riot on our hands. Hmm, gotta tweak the smell too. Eating that dogshit anyway. Oh! Don't forget to minimize the suicide impulses. And..."
She couldn't remember the rest of the PD's directions.
All that stuck was clutching the toilet and vomiting her guts out.
That day, Jenny quit.
She donated every credit she'd earned to poverty relief. It was much later that she saw on the news the charity was a scam.
With editing as her only skill, when she inevitably returned to BH work, Jenny stuck to public service pieces.
Safety guidelines for construction sites, public facility evacuation guides, that sort of thing.
The pay was peanuts, but her conscience was clear.
Then she got kidnapped.
By gang thugs trying to rope her into illegal BH ops.
The content was exactly as low as she'd expected.
Sexually assaulting drunk clients.
She'd thrown a fit, saying she'd die before making that.
First, they cut off her food. Second, her water.
That was a day ago.
Was this the pain that kid went through?
Experiencing this? Those psycho bastards.
Her mind was fading into haze like that.
Then came the banging on the door from outside and fierce shouts alternating.
What...?
The moment Jenny laboriously lifted her head.
Kwachik!
The steel door caved inward.
Right after, the doorknob rattled violently up and down, then stopped—as if realizing it was locked from inside.
A brief silence. Then kwang!
Beyond the door ripped clean off its hinges, someone shouldered their way in.
An unfamiliar face. A man gripping a gang member's bloodied head in one hand spoke, his back to the crimson lighting.
"Jenny?"
"...Huh?"
"Blonde hair, green eyes. Yeah, matches."
Jin said that and flicked his hand.
The gang member he flung slammed face-first into the wall, then slid down trailing blood.
"W-Who are you?"
"Here to rescue you."
Jin knelt to check on Jenny.
Sunken eyes. Pallid face.
Bound hand and foot behind her, collapsed in a pitiful heap.
"How did you... know I was here?"
"Your brother told me."
Jin slipped his index finger under the cable tie on her wrists as he spoke.
A yank with force, and pop!—the tie snapped.
"Ahh."
Jenny rubbed her freed wrists, sore from the pain, watching Jin do the same to her ankles.
"...You a Solo?"
"Probably?"
Pang! The second tie broke.
Incredible strength.
Jenny was shocked. So was Jin.
I've gotten stronger?
Just one more punch under his belt, and he felt twice as powerful as before.
No wonder it was his final skill.
"Can you walk?"
"Sorry... no strength."
Jenny tried to push up off the floor but flopped back down.
Anyone would after three days without food and a day without water.
Truth be told, her head was spinning so bad she could barely stay conscious. The blaring emergency alarm—real or hallucination?—rang relentlessly.
"Then just lie there a sec."
Jin shrugged off his jumper and balled it up.
He tucked it under her head, then stood on his knees and stepped away. Passing the threshold, his view widened to the ugly mugs of the battered thugs.
"This fucking..."
"What the hell's going on?"
A few confirmed their writhing buddies on the floor, muttering curses under their breath. Behind them came heavy thudding footsteps.
Then someone shoved through the thugs.
"Which bastard is it?!"
A gorilla-like brute with rage-twisted face, massive hydraulic cylinders mounted on both elbows—cyberarms bristling with menace.
"You fucking shit. You the one? The horny dog humping through my business?!"
Some way with words.
Jin smirked.
Not entirely wrong.
He wasn't sure about the horny dog part,
but he had trashed their turf, that was fact.
So why hide her so damn well?
Made it a pain to find.
"Looks like you were after our editor. Don't care who sent you—you're fucked. Know your place before stretching your legs, you tiny-dick punk."
The gorilla's bulging eyes scanned Jin up and down like a scanner.
Not figuratively—his orbital implants flashed red. Finally noticing something off, his brow furrowed.
"...No implants at all?"
Like he'd spotted someone living upside down.
At that level, he was a national treasure.
Of course, bodies that pristine weren't unheard of.
There were Purists, those archaic anti-implant zealots.
Heirs to the sword-and-magic old ways rejecting high-tech.
Or their followers.
But this guy who bare-handedly thrashed his men showed no trace of the Purists' signature blue aura, 'mana'.
The gorilla reached his own conclusion.
"No way... Superhuman?"
At the same time, Jin kicked off the floor.
Talks too damn much. Fight with your mouth?
Kung!
In a blink, Jin closed in, dipping his torso and swinging back a loaded fist in a wide arc.
An overhand right hook whipping up wind pressure.
The gorilla flinched and raised his left arm.
Then a sound unbelievable for meat on metal echoed underground.
Kwaang!
"...Crazy!"
The shock vibrating his entire arm dragged a curse from the gorilla.
But Jin's assault didn't stop—a left body shot hammered the gorilla's gaping gut next.
"Kuhk!"
He somehow stayed upright despite the air whooshing out, thanks solely to his reinforced skin.
Artificial dermis slotted to stop bullets.
Worth every credit.
Bought him time for a counter.
"You bastard!!"
The gorilla gnashed his teeth and swung both arms.
Or rather, fired them.
His cyberarms pistoned from the elbows, steel fists drumming Jin's upper body at 10 hits per second.
Dududududu!!
Jin backpedaled from the barrage that'd shatter thick concrete in seconds.
Felt like tanking shotput volleys point-blank.
His guard—arms tight in an 11—numbed instantly.
This is cheating!
Jin clenched his teeth.
Just blocking wouldn't cut it.
Tough or not, he'd end up minced garlic at this rate.
So Jin dropped into an extreme low stance.
To the encircling thugs, it looked like his legs gave out. Cheers erupted instantly.
"Boss! You got him!"
"Kill the fucker!"
But the gorilla couldn't join the cheers.
His foe vanished from in front.
Not sprawled flat—no, just gone.
No way...!
Next instant, the gorilla's ankle snapped with a crack.
"Aak!"
Not sturdy here, huh?
Jin twisted the ankle like wringing laundry with both hands, then swept a huge arc with his arms.
The gorilla's leg whipped around the arc, toppling him off-balance.
In the stumble, he reflexively palm-struck the floor—
Jin pounced without missing a beat.
Whoosh!
A full-power kick smashed the turning gorilla's face.
Head snapped back.
Crack. Something that shouldn't snapped.
His rigid torso timbered backward. No vital signs left—the cyberarms hissed deflate and went limp.
Steel Hands boss Kirk died like that.
Etched in Jin's mind as "gorilla guy."
"...Boss! You fucking shit!"
"F-For real? We're done?"
"No way. Impossible."
The thugs' eyes shook at their boss's sudden death. Jin dusted his hands and scanned around.
This situation. Any Korean guy who's played a Musou game knew the ritual.
Jin inhaled deep and bellowed.
"Enemy general defeated!"
The gray skyline of Metropolis had swallowed the sun in late evening.
A man stared anxiously out the darkening window.
His name was Jeki.
Huddled in the far corner of Rum Pump Pump's second floor right side, gnawing his thumb raw—then footsteps on the stairs hit his ear.
"...!"
He whipped around. A fat middle-aged guy.
Balancing a mountain of fries on a tray, he plopped into an empty seat. Jeki sighed and looked away.
Was it crazy?
Anxiety wouldn't leave his head.
Finding a real Solo in Downtown was tough.
They charged bodyguilt prices, and weren't the type you met just 'cause you wanted to.
By the time you haggled with brokers and scouted around, his sister would've been dead.
So he asked a nameless guy to save her.
Easy to tell he wasn't a Solo.
No Solo didn't know BH.
But it couldn't be helped.
He was that desperate—even a guy like that was better than nothing.
"Haa..."
A heavy sigh frosted the glass pale.
How much time passed?
His borrowed heart thrummed uneasy.
Footsteps on the stairs again behind him.
Expectations dashed before, but Jeki turned hopefully anyway.
And saw.
The fake Solo with someone limp over his shoulder.
The man he had no choice but to trust.
"There you are. Sorry, got a bit lost."
Jin shrugged spotting Jeki and walked over.
"Je-Jenny!"
Jeki bolted up, confirming his sister's face as Jin set her on the sofa.
He pried open her eyelids, held a finger to her nose, called her name—total panic mode.
"Ughhh."
Meanwhile, Jin groaned and sprawled on another sofa.
Not a spot that didn't hurt.
Cleaning up the stragglers had left him battered, stabbed, slashed everywhere.
Gonna die of pain.
Normally, "enemy general defeated" breaks morale, right?
Remembering the thugs charging like their eyes were aflame drew a sigh.
Well, he racked up skill points thanks to it.
No use now, but later maybe.
"D-Did you really rescue her?"
"What, hire someone else while I was gone?"
"N-No way."
"Then why ask the obvious? I'm half-dead already."
Jin glanced at unconscious Jenny as he spoke.
"Steel Hands had her locked up starving. Gave her a bit of water for now, but start with IV fluids or soup for food. Soup'd be good."
Then Jeki suddenly dropped to his knees, tears streaming like chick peas.
"Thank you. Really, thank you."
"Hey, hey. Cut it out."
Nothing more disorienting than a grown man crying in front of you.
Jin waved him off, but Jeki fumbled into his pocket mid-tears—clearly pulling fee.
Jin stopped him quick.
"Let's be discreet with this stuff. Yeah?"
"Ah. Sorry."
Jeki wiped his eyes, realizing his mistake.
Male hearts that soft...
Jin sighed, forgetting his own bawling last year hunting Mom.
Watching Jeki compose himself and sit, Jin suddenly narrowed his eyes at a weird skin tingle.
Pale sweat-slick face.
Erratic metallic breaths.
Trembling lips.
Mechanical heartbeat.
Smell of dying earth and wood.
His honed senses fed him the info through skin, not eyes. Jin spoke slowly.
"Where'd you get the money?"
"Huh?"
"Where'd the fee come from?"
"..."
Silent for a beat, Jeki licked dry lips.
"Sold organs."
"Heart, right?"
"H-How'd you...?"
"Not important. Why the heart?"
"...Highest demand."
Meaning he swapped a healthy heart for the cheapest-of-cheap implant.
Explained the off vibe from first sight.
"Ah, damn..."
Jin scratched his head hard.
"Just give me 100K credits."
"What?"
"100K. That's what I'd have taken anyway."
"That doesn't..."
Jeki blanked, then teared up. Jin cut in.
"Hear me out. The remaining 1.9 mil, pay back bit by bit. Every Wednesday 7 PM. Rum Pump Pump second floor, this spot. Menu's my call. Got it? I eat a lot."
"O-Okay."
"Hand it over. Waffle time."
Jin held out his palm.
He pocketed the cautious 100K Jeki offered, stood, and added.
"Take good care of your sister. And swap that heart for a decent model. This cheap crap won't last—even 5 days tops."
"...Thanks."
"Later."
Short farewell. As Jin strode off, Jeki called after.
"Really, thank you!"
Jin didn't reply. Just waved casually, back of hand visible, descending the stairs.
Downstairs, he bought two waffles and stepped into the thickening dark streets.
A typical Downtown day faded away.