A Silver Arm
The front of Kang Sihyeon's apartment building was bustling with police cars and security company vehicles.
I worried for a moment that the security guards who had chased my clone might recognize me, but they were far more interested in Kang Sihyeon's freshly ransacked home than in me.
They looked anxious, clearly terrified of being reprimanded for the security breach.
When I raised my finger wearing the gold ring, I felt a faint, tugging pull.
I found the silver ring in a dark, secluded alleyway a short distance from the apartment.
It's a bit of a hassle to retrieve them after every use.
"You just need to get used to the idea of treating them as disposable in an emergency," I replied. "If using them as a decoy saves your life, that's a massive win."
What was that thing you grabbed at the very end?
At CC's question, I pulled out the item I had pocketed and showed it to her.
It was a small, thin, square metal plate, its underside densely packed with tiny golden needles.
The item's name floated before my eyes.
Huh?
A young girl with short blonde hair materialized beside me.
Startled, CC had projected her virtual avatar to take the quantum processor from my hand.
She turned the quantum processor over and over, examining it from every angle, before speaking in disbelief.
"It really is a quantum processor. And if it's AC-P, then she's my sister..."
The processor looked identical to the one I had first pulled from the safe containing CC.
That was why I had recognized it instantly and snatched it up, wondering what it was doing there.
CC spoke.
"But it's empty. AC-P... CP isn't inside this processor."
"Then where is she?"
"Who knows... Maybe we can find out if we investigate. Since it's just an empty shell, Player Kang Sihyeon probably kept it as a mere souvenir. We might have to ask him about it later."
I had stumbled upon an unexpected item in the most unexpected of places.
Just then, my phone buzzed.
It was a message from Guild Leader Yoo Hyeyeon.
The moment I stepped into the guild office, Yoo Hyeyeon rushed over and threw her arms around me.
She was surprisingly strong. I felt like my ribs were about to crack.
After a tight embrace, she let me go, sank to her knees, and pressed my hand against her forehead.
"Thank you. Thank you so much for saving Yeolchan again."
Standing back up, she gestured for me to take a seat on the sofa.
"But tell me, how on earth did you defeat Kang Sihyeon?"
She, too, was dying to know how I had bested him.
Perhaps sensing my reluctance from my awkward expression, she laughed sheepishly.
"Kang Sihyeon was practically invincible. Countless S-rank players challenged him, but barely any of them could even graze him. Though, for the record, I actually did manage to graze him once," she added proudly.
"Actually, now that I think about it, boasting about a graze in front of the man who actually beat him is a bit silly... Anyway, this is an absolute sensation. The number one S-rank player losing to a player using a D-class Goblin avatar... Juhyuk, have you checked the Intra-Maetan boards yet? It's absolute chaos. You're a celebrity now."
"Is that so?"
Aren't you happy?
Honestly, the attention was a burden.
The more eyes were on me, the harder it would be to utilize CC on the Internet without drawing suspicion.
"Well, that's fine. We can talk about how you won later when the other guild members are here. Everyone is dying to hear it. But that's not the main reason I called you here today."
Yoo Hyeyeon offered a gentle smile.
"I heard your house was destroyed?"
Suddenly, a torrent of tears burst from my eyes.
Ah, why am I... when did I become this weak?
Yoo Hyeyeon pulled out a tissue and handed it to me.
"Maetan's housing policy is notoriously vicious. They provide housing for free, but if the property is damaged, they make their profit by charging astronomical repair fees. It's practically designed to turn a person into a lifelong debt slave... I'm afraid it's almost impossible to escape. From what Yeolchan told me, your place was completely pulverized."
"It was."
"So, I figured you would need hard cash... I've prepared a total of forty million won. Ten million as a reward for locating the Multi-legged Tank's Event Zone, and thirty million as a token of my gratitude for saving Yeolchan. All in physical cash."
"What?!"
To my ears, those words sounded like the gospel itself.
Ever since my house was destroyed, my Maetan Points balance limit had been frozen at a maximum of 500,000 points.
No matter how much was deposited into my account, Maetan would automatically siphon off everything above that 500,000-point threshold.
They were already seizing my funds before the repair estimate had even been finalized. Vicious, greedy bastards.
Yoo Hyeyeon continued.
"Your Maetan Points are basically useless right now, aren't they? I've seen plenty of people ruined in the exact same way."
She tapped out a message to someone on her phone.
"Once you log out of Intra-Maetan later, head over to the soup restaurant where you met Yeolchan. One of our guild members will be waiting for you there. He knows what you look like, so you don't have to worry about missing each other."
I bowed my head repeatedly in gratitude.
I was saved.
I could actually afford to eat now.
With forty million, I wouldn't have to worry about putting food on the table.
"To be honest, discovering the Multi-legged Tank's Event Zone is an achievement that deserves far more, but because it ultimately led to F's raid on Maetan, the payout was docked a bit."
Yoo Hyeyeon spoke with a tinge of regret.
"If the demonstration to defeat the Multi-legged Tank had succeeded without a hitch that day, the payout would have been four or five times higher. Even now, they originally wanted to pay you in physical items, but I pulled some strings to have it converted to points..."
Maetan had officially banned access to the Multi-legged Tank's Event Zone.
They deemed the risk far too high. Even a coordinated raid by S-rank players had failed to contain it, resulting in catastrophic damage to Maetan instead.
The office door swung open, and a red goblin and a tiger beastman stepped inside.
"Hyeong-nim!"
"Have you been well?"
Kang Yeolchan scooped me up in a bear hug.
Like mother, like son. They really love their hugs.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, shall we hear the tale? How our little Goblin took down the number one player...!"
Yoo Hyeyeon leaned in, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.
After logging out of Intra-Maetan and returning to reality, I headed straight for the soup restaurant.
Since F's raid, the atmosphere in Maetan had shifted.
No matter how harsh life had been before, the market had always retained a certain bustling energy. Now, a heavy, somber gloom hung over every alleyway.
Of course it is. More than a hundred and fifty people died that day... I bet almost everyone walking past has a friend or relative who didn't make it.
The Recycling Factory had taken the worst of it.
Once again, the culprit was the sheer number of people poisoned by toxic chemicals.
Kang Yeolchan had also been poisoned, but he had been successfully treated thanks to the medicine recipe I had obtained from the tracksuit-wearing knife-wielder in Intra-Asan.
But the Recycling Factory was a place where people who couldn't even afford such medicine worked.
The death toll from F's attack was still climbing, day by day.
"Player Yoon Juhyuk?"
A young man stepped into my path.
He wore a sharp suit that looked entirely out of place in the gritty market, and carried a bright, charming smile.
However, his cheerful demeanor was somewhat undercut by the black eyepatch covering his right eye.
He bowed politely to me.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Guild Leader Yoo Hyeyeon sent me. I'm Han Deungki, a real estate broker."
A real estate broker?
"If you've finished your meal, shall we head out?"
I fell into step beside him.
"In Maetan, once you are assigned corporate housing, you cannot move unless you receive a promotion or get married. Did you know that?"
"I didn't."
"That's why people like you, whose homes are damaged or undergoing repairs, end up with nowhere to go. Most resort to staying at inns, but they aren't exactly cheap."
Staying at an inn cost 50,000 Maetan Points a day. On weekends, that price skyrocketed to 100,000.
"I run a business that leases properties to people in your situation. I source vacant units from people who have moved in with their partners, or those who received corporate housing but chose to remain with their parents, and sublet them to those in need."
My gaze drifted to the back of his neck.
There was no neck-hub. Instead, a jagged, roughly stitched scar ran across the skin.
It was the unmistakable mark of extraction.
"You noticed?"
Han Deungki scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I used to be a Player too. A B-rank with Sprout."
He guided me toward his office.
It was located in a dilapidated building near the Woncheonricheon stream, which cut through the center of Maetan.
"Guild Leader Yoo Hyeyeon personally asked me to find a place for you, Player Yoon Juhyuk."
Guild Leadeeeeer...!
Tears welled up in my eyes once more.
I had been through so much lately that my tear ducts seemed to have developed a hair-trigger.
I pinched the bridge of my nose to stave off the burning sensation and swallowed my tears.
"First, take this."
Han Deungki handed me a small paper shopping bag.
It was heavy with stacks of physical cash.
"Forty million won. It's more compact than you'd think, right? The Guild Leader covered the transaction fee herself."
Sniff... sob...!
I had finally found the person worthy of my absolute, undying loyalty.
Not only did she arrange physical cash for me, but she even paid the broker's fee out of her own pocket...!
She was on a completely different level from those Maetan corporate parasites who only knew how to bleed people dry.
As of today, I was done being Maetan's dog.
I would be Sprout's dog—no, the Guild Leader's loyal hound.
"Do you have a specific location in mind? I've scouted about five places, ranging from the corporate sector to the civilian districts."
"The absolute cheapest option. As long as there's room to lie down, I don't care."
I answered instantly, without a moment's hesitation.
Taken aback by my sheer intensity, Han Deungki flinched slightly.
"If you choose the corporate sector, you'll be close to the Guild Leader's residence. The security is top-notch, and the corporate cafeterias are much better than the food options in the civilian districts. Or how about a bachelor's dormitory? It's close to the civilian area, and it has an independent security system, so it's quite safe."
"Security is meaningless to me. No one in this city has the balls to rob my place. And those bachelor dorm security systems are a joke; I've bypassed them several times, so I know exactly how flimsy they are. While the corporate cafeterias sound appealing, they're a useless perk for someone like me who has to live entirely on cash from now on. To spend physical cash, I need to be close to the civilian districts on the west side of Maetan."
Listening to my rapid-fire list of requirements, Han Deungki nodded with a slightly dazed expression.
"...If those are your preferences, I understand."
"Phew..."
I collapsed onto the bed of my new home.
The room was significantly smaller than my previous one. Lying on the bed, I could practically touch the front door if I stretched out my arm.
Water rushed endlessly through the exposed pipes running across the ceiling, and the built-in wardrobe was warped so badly its door wouldn't shut. But these were trivial flaws. The fact that the walls were slightly skewed at a parallelogram angle was a bit distracting, but it was fine. In my current situation, a bed and a toilet were more than enough.
Best of all, it was right next to the market's food alley. Now, even if I stepped out of the house with dangerously low blood sugar, I could reach a restaurant before collapsing.
You actually like this place? I think it's awful. The window is tiny, so barely any sunlight gets in...
"That just means it has good security," I muttered. "Besides, you don't even have sensory organs, so why are you complaining?"
A home only needed to be a place to rest one's head.
Before coming to Maetan, I had spent almost my entire life wandering from one battlefield to another.
Under the banner of an independent unit, our Shoeshine Unit never had a permanent base.
We were dragged from one operation to the next, constantly bunking in empty barracks or living out of tents.
Because of that, my belongings were always kept to a bare minimum.
To me, the concept of a 'home' was nothing more than a faint memory of playing house with my squadmates during urban warfare.
"I need to work hard on the Internet and make some money. Maybe I should keep asking for my rewards in cash. They say repairing a house usually costs over a billion won. How is anyone supposed to pay that back...?"
I was just about to plug the cable into my neck-hub to connect to the Internet when—
BOOM!
CRASH!
RUUUUUMBLE...!
A series of explosions detonated in rapid succession, sending a violent tremor through the building.
"...What the hell?"
I stepped out of my door, scanning for the source of the blast.
I didn't have to look far. Thick plumes of black smoke were billowing out of the window of the unit right next to mine.
I banged on the door and shouted.
"Hey! Have some basic decency when you're living in public housing!"
From inside, the sound of coughing was followed by approaching footsteps.
"Ugh, I'm so sorry. I had no idea it would explode..."
Out stepped a young woman with dyed blonde hair, dark roots starting to show.
Her sharp eyes peered through a pair of broken glasses held together with tape, and her face was smeared with black soot.
None of that was particularly unusual, but it was her left arm that caught my eye.
A silver prosthetic arm, identical to mine.
She, too, stared at my left arm and spoke.
"Military?"