Chapter 2
Chapter 2
"Why, how are you alive?"
The old doctor muttered as if something that should have died had returned from the dead.
There was room for two interpretations.
Pure medical curiosity. That was the most plausible reason, but Emul narrowed his eyes.
In the off chance that this doctor had some sort of connection with the person who injected him with poison.
They wouldn't leave a survivor alone, if only to destroy the evidence.
It was an extremely slim possibility, but having just come back from the dead, his wariness was at its peak.
'I think it's a stretch, but there's no harm in being careful.'
Emul slowly put some distance between them while keeping his eyes on Marvin.
It would be better for his safety to move first if he sensed even the slightest hint of trouble.
"Heh heh. My apologies to the customer. The reaction of the cells in your body isn't looking too good."
When Emul remained silent, Marvin hurriedly continued.
"I-if we look only at the symptoms, it's similar to a terminal drug addict. I usually don't take those kinds of people as customers... but you seem like a different breed, so I apologize. I'm sorry."
Having said that, Marvin stood up and reached out his hand.
"Can you give me your arm? I need to draw blood to run a proper test."
He was wearing a good-natured smile, but Emul noticed the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
'He's afraid of me... I don't know why, but it's worth using to my advantage.'
Having made his judgment, Emul's gaze instantly turned cold.
From the eyes of a suspicious survivor to the face of a predator willing to cut a throat.
Playful, exaggerated actions wouldn't work on an experienced old man.
Clench.
He gripped a small object in his pocket and slowly pulled his hand out.
A trajectory as clean and lethal as one would see when drawing a weapon from inside a coat.
"H-huff!"
Did he instinctively feel a threat to his life?
Marvin, flustered, stepped back and fell on his butt.
As if an invisible blade were aimed at his throat, the aperture of his trembling artificial eye was locked onto Emul's fingertips as if it were about to touch them.
He felt a bit puzzled, but Emul decided to actively utilize the changed atmosphere.
Respect comes from fear.
He hadn't erased all his suspicions about Marvin, but the warning must have worked.
Emul gestured with his chin to the man who was still too terrified to get up.
"Blood test. Do it quickly."
*
A needle sprouted from Marvin's disassembled fingertip, aiming for his vein.
Emul instinctively frowned at the sight of the syringe.
"D-do you dislike needles?"
"...I don't like them."
"That goes without saying... Heh heh. No one likes them except for junkies."
Marvin, having finished drawing blood in the meantime, sprayed a cooling liquid from his finger.
Was he even spraying disinfectant alcohol? While Emul felt a small sense of admiration for the technology.
Marvin plugged his finger into a terminal he pulled from his coat.
Beep, beep, beep-.
The lines on the screen fluctuated unstably up and down. Marvin's face changed strangely as he focused on the graph.
Beeeeep——.
With a signal sound that seemed to announce the end, Marvin muttered.
"Ho. They put quite a bit of effort into this. They mixed a lot in."
When Emul stared at him, Marvin hurriedly began to explain.
"That is, it's not a single drug, but a mixture of at least three or four types. Given that the analysis didn't go through properly, it seems rare substances were also added."
Marvin's tone had switched to polite speech at some point, but Emul answered without paying it any mind.
"Wasn't it a neurotoxin?"
"It seems a neurotoxin was used as a base, and various drugs were layered on top of it... It seems it will take quite a while to analyze it properly."
Marvin looked back and forth between Emul and the terminal. A complex emotion mixed with fear and curiosity flashed by.
Soon, as if he had remembered something, he rummaged through a drawer and handed over a medicine bottle.
"It's a painkiller with a faint mixture of neutralizer."
"I haven't really been in pain."
"The balance is being maintained precariously, but the intermittent pain will be hard to endure."
Emul asked while taking the medicine bottle.
"Is detoxification difficult? If you know the types of drugs mixed in, it doesn't seem impossible."
He didn't know the composition or principles of the drugs, but the technology of this era was much more advanced than 21st-century Earth.
If it's an era where transitioning to mechanical bodies is routine, developing an antidote shouldn't be an impossible realm.
"It would be possible. The problem is the price, though..."
Marvin, who glanced at Emul, said.
"...That should be fine. Do you have any other questions?"
"Not right now."
Questions were overflowing, but these weren't problems that could be solved by asking others.
Having finished his business, Emul was about to get up when he suddenly thought of something and asked a question.
"How much?"
"Pardon?"
"The medical fee. And this medicine too."
"W-well, it's normally 800,000 chips, but I'll do it as a service."
Marvin was forcing a smile.
It's good to save money, but there's no need to go out of his way to create a debt.
"No. Let's settle the bill properly."
Emul, who placed exactly 800,000 chips on the desk, added just before leaving.
"Not as bad as I heard."
Emul, who left the clinic through the automatic door, bought some food from a nearby street vendor and walked.
There was some unknown meat sandwiched between hard bread. When he took a bite, a sweet and sour taste wrapped around his tongue.
Emul, who must have been starving, devoured it in the blink of an eye and checked the chips remaining in his possession.
"10,000 chips..."
An amount that could buy about ten of the food he just inhaled.
It was woefully insufficient to use for lodging, but that wasn't a problem for him.
Leaving the street vendor behind, he returned to the place where he had first faced the sky.
After walking for a while. An entrance that gave off a dull and foul odor welcomed him.
Emul entered the dark hole as if he were used to it.
Using the flowing sewage as a signpost, he turned a corner, and in the corner, a pile of worn-out boards and boxes lay like a bed.
Emul lay down on the pile of boxes just like that.
The reason he was able to easily escape the labyrinth-like sewer was simple.
Because this damp and humid underground was his only sanctuary.
Emul felt a strange sense of comfort and went to sleep.
*
Waking up early in the morning, Emul bought coffee from the street vendor he had visited yesterday and drank it.
It had a strangely stinging taste, but it must have contained caffeine because his mind became clear.
He lowered his gaze under his hood and secretly observed the passersby.
On a street where even schoolgirls in uniforms walked by nonchalantly, people carrying weapons were spotted here and there.
'What on earth is the law like in this world?'
He could just accept it since it's inside a game, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of alienation due to the overly realistic background.
He leaned against a wall, sat down roughly, and groped through his memories. The memories of Emul, not the gamer.
"As expected... it's strange."
The memories were blurry, as if they had noise in them. Even his human relationships and past were empty like a blank sheet of paper.
But the strange thing was, the memories related to money were intact. It seems the owner of the body was a terrible miser.
That's also thanks to him remembering the location of his emergency funds.
'I've used it all up, so I have to earn money. Even if just to buy the antidote.'
Fortunately, he had spent last night without incident, but he didn't know when the pain would come.
Living while enduring a precarious physical condition is a dangerous tightrope walk.
The problem is the price of the antidote.
In the worst case, it could be worth as much as a house, like a cure for a rare disease.
While thinking that, Emul naturally followed a passerby, then returned to his spot.
Ting-.
He flicked a metal chip with his thumb and caught it.
'There's a limit to pickpocketing.'
The expected return is significantly low compared to the risk involved.
He could become a criminal, and if the public security is bad, that's a problem in itself.
In places where the reach of the law doesn't touch, the one with power is the law.
"Power, huh."
Emul took a square stick out of his hoodie pocket.
It looked exactly like an e-cigarette, but when he pressed the round button on the side.
Click!
A hidden blade popped out in an instant.
A few startled passersby walked around him.
"Ahem."
Emul cleared his throat and put the folding knife back.
This kind of power is bound to collapse easily. Just as a human cannot easily face an army alone.
If only he had some unrealistic ability.
'Come to think of it... I don't feel anything.'
The character called 'Mimic' showcased various skills in the job introduction video.
However, Emul didn't particularly feel that his body was special.
Looking around, he whispered lowly.
"Status window."
Only the scenery of the murky Undeveloped Area was reflected in his eyes.
The moment Emul, who had pulled his hood down low, tried to move his feet.
Cold sweat poured down, and his vision blurred.
'The effect of the status window... no, this is...!'
Boom——!
A roar shook the earth.
He tried to reflexively crouch down, but he was already slammed into the ground.
Was the dull ringing that hit his ears created by himself?
He didn't have time to worry about his face being scraped against the hard asphalt.
"Ughhh...!"
Groaning in unbearable pain, he fumbled through his pocket with trembling hands.
Trembling fingertips. He opened the medicine bottle he grabbed and poured the spilling pills into his mouth indiscriminately.
Emul, who had fallen over, caught his breath for a while, then barely managed to sit leaning against the wall.
The people who had stopped to watch him only then started to go their own way.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Emul, who had greeted the threshold of the afterlife, felt a chill run down his spine, even if only a little.
He clearly witnessed one of the onlookers smacking their lips with a look of regret.
They must have been waiting for him to stop breathing so they could steal everything of value.
He didn't feel any bad feelings toward them. It was natural, considering what Emul did as soon as he woke up in the sewer.
But one thing became certain. Living in this world is never easy.
Emul lifted his pale fingers. His fingertips trembled as if the lingering scent of pain remained.
He forcibly pulled the muscles that wouldn't listen and clenched his fist tightly. A weapon so frail it couldn't properly hurt anyone.
'That was a naive thought.'
Violence is a type of power that can be replaced at any time.
But he felt painfully that he didn't even have that common substitute for himself right now.
'Even if it's a power that crumbles easily, I need it. Enough to take care of my own body.'
Staggering to his feet, he set out to find the only person he was acquainted with in this city.
Marvin couldn't meet the eyes of the person behind the hood.
As one of the body experts in the Undeveloped Area, he had established a certain status, but this customer was in a different league.
Just looking at the clothes he wore, it was obvious. A hoodie equipped with Optical Camouflage isn't something you can get just by having a lot of money.
Because of strict regulations, it's one of the rarest of rare items that is difficult to trade even in the black market.
Only those who enjoy the best life in either the light or the dark can possess it.
If he were to offend him, the whole building would be blown away.
"So. You're saying you don't know?"
"I'm afraid so. How could I, a mere body expert... such enhancement surgery doesn't even exist, and it's preposterous."
The customer's slender white fingers curled into a fist.
Rattle-.
The old desk groaned and shook. Marvin's shoulders trembled in sync.
How did he end up facing such a disaster two days in a row?
Just as Marvin, whose face had turned blue, was about to prostrate himself.
"Haa."
The customer let out a deep sigh, stood up from his seat, and headed toward the door.
Whirrr-.
The door opened automatically.
As soon as the customer disappeared outside the door, a new shadow crossed the threshold.
He stared at the door where the previous customer had disappeared for a moment, then turned his head and spoke.
"I have something I want to ask."
"You are, no. Are you the... from yesterday?"
The customer who nodded said.
"I'm looking for a strong person, do you know any?"