Diversion
"Ugh…"
Like a video that had stopped playing starting up again, the severed thread of consciousness reconnected inside a room where sunlight faintly filtered in.
The ceiling of this now-familiar strange room was white. The ceiling I remembered had changed many times, and this was the fourth.
The first was… like a semi-circular multi-person tent draped in thick, heavy canvas, with an incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling. And a folding field bed with a plastic frame and a sheet roughly thrown over it.
Even those would break under the weight of the mutants more often than not. Still, Central Park HQ was much better. After all, I had built that place myself.
…If I were to go back now, I wondered whether the things I used would still be in the Alpha-grade mutant quarters, or if they'd been burned to ash under the pretense of cremation.
— rustle.
It had been a far from smooth night, considering I'd ended the day with a refreshing workout.
And so last night had passed.
I pulled back the blanket and sat up, carefully withdrawing my tail from the hole it had been tucked into. I opened the window to let out the air that had accumulated overnight. Truth be told, it was hot outside too, so it was about the same.
My gaze naturally shifted.
"What a mess…"
The computer screen, which would need to stay on for the foreseeable future, was a complete mess.
Pop-ups I had intentionally left open to track the status of numerous ongoing sub-projects. Next to the slowly rising percentage bars were the remnants of yesterday's pop-up windows. Unfortunately, despite the grand appearance on the surface, things weren't really progressing all that well.
This too would be a problem that time would solve.
"Ugh, I'm hungry…"
I sighed and opened the refrigerator, which was stuffed with the fast food I'd brought back yesterday.
If I had to pick the best thing about becoming this body, it was that I could eat as much as I wanted without gaining weight. But the flip side was that my wallet took a beating. As I stared at them for a moment, a host of price information and yesterday's expenses floated up in front of my eyes in holographic form.
Looking at the total spending that easily hit several hundred thousand won, my head started pounding.
"My wallet's getting a hole punched in it…"
If only the payment certification were verified, I wouldn't have to worry about money-related issues. But for that, I'd have to wait a long time, or rent a server, or buy one.
And for that, I needed money, and to get that money… I needed the payment certification. This was the biggest problem I was facing right now. What a devastatingly broken Möbius strip this was.
Still, the good news was…
"…Ah, this is delicious."
The freshly heated, piping hot pizza was truly delicious.
That at least was a comfort.
The 37th US Marine Corps Commandant, Robert Neller, who had long since passed away in the world I'd left, once said that Korea was the perfect place for training, with its hot summers, cold winters, and steep terrain.
To put it bluntly, this was a way of saying that South Korea was the perfect shithole for making people crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.
And August in South Korea, right in the middle of summer. Under a blazing sun that roasted people's outsides with sunlight and steamed their insides with 100% humidity.
In this crazy weather where even dogs who couldn't stop walking around were feeling the outside temperature and throwing tantrums,
"Ugh, what great weather."
I was one of the very few people who didn't give it a second thought and went about my business.
The warmth combined with the high humidity didn't feel bad at all. Besides, the gear blocked most of the excessive UV rays.
If it were like before, I couldn't even stand being inside for a single second without the air conditioner on, let alone going out. But at least I wasn't like that anymore… though the flip side was that I'd become a glass body that couldn't survive winter without a heating function.
The terrible cold I'd experienced in Brooklyn before joining HQ, and during operations in the northeastern United States, was still a painful memory and my Achilles' heel.
Anyway, despite the weather, the heart of Seoul was still overflowing with people.
The sight of the city center, where it would be hard to argue against there being dozens of people per 100 square meters, felt paradoxical to me.
Why was I so unable to adapt to the fact that there were so many people in the city? Maybe it was because I'd spent a considerable amount of time living in the giant coffin called a city.
…Even though scanning and unmanned reconnaissance technology had been miniaturized and advanced to an extreme degree, urban warfare in major cities showed a loss rate that could only be described as grinding away operatives.
There were thousands of places to hide in a single building, and just as many places to stick a gun barrel out. That's why my eyes still never stopped scanning the surroundings.
"…This is a sickness too, a sickness."
…To be honest, I did feel a bit empty. Something between an occupational hazard and a sickness. The absence of the weight of a pistol on my thigh felt too unfamiliar.
Still, looking at this mental state, if I had actually brought one, there was a chance I'd have been caught for pulling it out accidentally… so it was probably better to be a little uneasy.
So, what am I doing right now?
"…"
I was just walking and thinking.
The computer at home was set to continue calculations until its components reached the end of their lifespan, and the TV seemed to have been taken away when my parents moved to a different place after I went missing. There was a sticky note with roughly that content stuck to the house.
Sadly, I tried to contact my parents on the first day I returned home, but couldn't reach them. I'd have to check where they were once the situation surrounding me improved a bit.
…I wondered if those blurry new forms that appeared in my dreams every night, telling me I could do it, would tell me.
That stupid thought passed through my mind.
Anyway, I continued my walk.
For about three minutes.
"───Customer number 118, your chocolate shake is ready!"
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
…It was really hot today. Even a boa constrictor couldn't help it if it was too hot.
I took the drink and sat down at a roughly empty window seat. Through the glass window, I could see crowds of people rushing somewhere despite the hot weather, never stopping.
As I enjoyed the taste and aroma of the sweet chocolate drink flowing down my throat, a message appeared in front of my eyes.
> -$4.55 expenditure confirmed
> Total: $165.55
The linked account was supposedly American, so the unit was dollars too…
Anyway, the American account I had barely managed to link to this world after waking up today, and the certain amount of money remaining in it, proved that it could be used without issue here. Thanks to that, I avoided having to burn through the roughly one million won that my old self had painstakingly saved up.
It was managed directly by the government rather than a commercial bank, so in a way, it was fortunate. If I were to break through the security system of a giant corporation like Chase Bank with Icarus… things could get chaotic here.
Still, a certain amount of salary received in exchange for dedicating myself to the reconstruction of a nation, and a nationwide, extra-legal hacking tool… no.
I had only just returned to this world. There were still too many things I had to recover.
Suddenly, I had a thought.
— tap.
"Oof, what's this… ah, I'm sorry!"
"Ah, I was blocking the way. Sorry."
In the middle of that, I turned around at the sudden sensation, and found myself in the moment when someone was at a loss because my tail was blocking the path.
I rarely went to such crowded places, so… no, that was an excuse. I quickly retracted my tail to clear the path. The tail moved slowly to open the way.
"I'm sorry. I was just spacing out for a moment."
"Ah, haha. No, it's fine. Um… it's really pretty. Your tail…"
"Thank you."
It had been a while since I'd been complimented like this. It was embarrassing to say, but the tail was a body part I had some pride in. It was much better than having eyes drawn to places like my chest.
In an instant, the gazes inside the shop converged on one point. As I moved my tail slightly, dozens of pairs of eyes moved in subtle ways, proving it.
…Suddenly, I remembered what happened in Phoenix. In terms of time, it wasn't that long ago. Back then, a rattlesnake had suddenly climbed up my body and demanded that I catch a scorpion.
It must have been a very difficult time, but why did I miss it so much?
Putting those thoughts aside, I returned the empty drink cup and stepped outside, where scorching air rushed at me. I had come out aimlessly and supplemented my body with sugar, and my head started spinning, but there was nowhere to use it. That was quite disappointing.
In a way, it was unavoidable. Going out for a walk also meant I didn't have much to do.
…Was it okay to just wander around like this? What exactly was I supposed to be doing in this world?
I had returned to the original world, but somehow… I felt like I was the only one out of place.
It was still hot outside, and people walking along the main road were trying to beat the heat in various ways.
I felt like I had just come out and wasted money. I hadn't expected any income in the first place, but I hadn't wanted to spend money either.
I was thinking about whether I should do some exercise to steady my mind, even though it was a bit early, when…
> Multiple personal weapons detected within 50m radius.
"…Weapons?"
The Icarus gear displayed something like a warning message.
I wondered what weapons there could be in the middle of Seoul out of nowhere, but my gaze naturally followed a single line displayed in the air, and—
"…"
Live-fire shooting range.
At those five demonic characters at the end of my line of sight, I hesitated, then moved my feet. It felt as though a terribly thick smell of blood and gunpowder was mixing into the air of Seoul, which should have only carried the scent of sunlight and the city.
And yet I was going there, knowing it.
Perhaps I was too broken to have come back here. Putting that thought behind me, I entered the building.