Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A Very Stable Starting Point (2)
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My mind was spinning wildly.
It felt just like downing three bottles of whiskey on an empty stomach,
then going skydiving while drunk and having the line snap clean off.
In other words, it was as if someone was shaking my semicircular canals mercilessly.
In that hazy consciousness,
Noisy voices echoed around, but they went in one ear and out the other.
I couldn't help it. My head was too foggy.
How much time had passed like that?
Just as I was thinking this must be how a sick bear felt during hibernation,
I snapped awake from the excruciating pain that felt like my guts were shriveling up after a day of high fever, body aches, and severe motion sickness.
'...This hurts like hell.'
My back was soaked with sweat.
But there was a bigger problem than that.
"Eup."
Suddenly, nausea surged up.
I had no strength left in my body, not even enough to move a finger,
but with the sole determination not to puke on the bed while half-asleep, I struggled to sit up.
"Urk...!"
This was almost a reflexive action.
I had to protect the bed and my clothes!
How much hassle would it be to wash the mattress!
It was a truly, truly, truly urgent situation,
so I barely managed to grab the trash can next to the mattress.
After heaving up once.
"......Urp."
I rubbed my sore stomach and pushed the sloshing trash can aside.
Whew, now I could breathe.
The muscle aches seemed to be easing a bit too.
I blankly looked around.
"......"
Where the hell was this?
'...A room I've never seen before in my life.'
It hadn't been touched by human hands in quite a while; in the corner of the mattress I was lying on, a fat spider was living as my roommate.
I averted my gaze from the spider.
At least there was electricity.
If the half-broken light fixture wasn't flickering, it would have looked just like an abandoned ruin.
'For now, let's set aside figuring out where this is.'
Checking my intact limbs and left field of vision,
I realized I'd woken up from a brutally vivid nightmare.
'What a disgustingly realistic dream.'
I hadn't noticed in the dream, but now awake, there was still a strange foreign sensation lingering in my limbs.
I thought all the tendons had been severed.
Like pork hooked on a meat hook.
'...But were my arms always this thick?'
The muscles were pretty solid. Whoa, check out those tendons.
Had I gone sleepwalking to the gym while unconscious?
The moment I tried to investigate the changes in my body,
the closed door burst open.
"Oh, looks like you're finally waking up."
I blinked dumbly up at the woman who entered the room.
It wasn't that her form-fitting bike suit made me shy like a pubescent boy.
It was because the room started filling with cigarette smoke that carried the exact same scent I'd smelled in the dream.
I instinctively frowned and pointed at the cigarette in her mouth.
"That cigarette..."
"Just endure the harshness."
The woman's firm voice stirred my inner contrarian,
but I slowly nodded at what came next.
"It's not some ordinary corporate product. I blended herbs myself to make this special blend."
Siiiiip, whoosh.
Thick smoke like storm clouds filled the room lightly before dissipating.
"It helps with lung issues. If you're jealous, become a patient yourself."
Well, if it's a health remedy, no helping it.
Anyway.
The woman sauntered over leisurely and stopped in front of me.
Jet-black bike suit and thick boots.
Her faded red hair glimmered faintly under the light.
She leaned her upper body slightly toward me,
and held up her index finger straight.
"One month."
"...?"
I tilted my head at the sudden time unit.
Soon, I let out a hollow laugh at her following words.
"That's how long you've been out since that day. Exactly 718 hours."
A strange glint passed through her eyes.
As if machinery had been implanted along her irises.
One month...
I rubbed my sore stomach.
'No wonder it felt empty.'
Of course, it was a foolish sentiment since none of this felt real.
"It also means I used up all my rare vacation time nursing you. And now there's less than a few hours left."
"...Th-thank you?"
"At least your basics are intact."
Though I had no clue what the hell was going on right now.
'...Let's sort this out step by step for now.'
I definitely remembered installing the game.
Then light exploded.
Dark clouds, a junkyard full of waste, two men looking down at me, a blade stained with blood.
"Hm."
It was utterly ridiculous, but
I threw the question at the woman standing confidently before me.
"...By any chance, what's the name of this area? Or the city, maybe."
Whether I'd gone mad and been admitted to a psych ward, or been kidnapped by a psycho.
The proper answer from her should have been 'Earth, Korea, Seoul.'
But her response was different from what I expected.
The woman shrugged lightly.
"You really don't know? Well, it was weird that you had no cybernetic implants at all. ...Must've run away from somewhere."
Her narrow, elongated eyes fixed on me.
"This city's called Risk City. If you're asking about location, Area 49. Simply put, the bottom of the bottom."
Risk City.
That was definitely the name of the game I'd installed—and the city in the game.
Which meant,
'That wasn't a dream after all?'
I pinched my forearm hard without thinking.
The sharp sting I felt.
Not a single scar in sight.
If all those wounds had really healed in just a month, cyberpunk science here was world-class.
(For comparison, there's the bizarre world of Germany.)
Watching my reaction, the woman tilted her head.
"Some kind of purist, huh?"
As if the embers weren't hot, she clenched her fist around the nearly burned-out cigarette (let's believe her and call it a herb bundle).
She glanced at the trash can in the room, checked its contents, and grimaced.
"......"
No, I couldn't puke on the mattress!
In the end, she pulled a portable ashtray from her pocket and tapped the ash into it.
"If I'd used cybernetic implants to fix your body, you'd probably be tossing and turning ten times worse from nerve pain."
"You mean..."
As I examined my surprisingly intact body with curious eyes,
"Don't ask how I treated you. As long as it doesn't get found out, you won't get hauled off."
"...And if it does?"
She breezily ignored my awkward question and just said her piece.
"You're not some religious zealot with beliefs anyway, so don't sweat the small stuff."
"...Probably not."
"Why's that a question?"
There was that saying about body hair being like one's parents, but whatever.
I didn't know either.
Realizing my words were a joke, she straightened her leaned-over torso.
"Good thing I didn't save some worthless bum."
Then she tossed a business-card-sized card onto my thigh.
"Here, take it."
I checked the card she'd handed me.
[Abel Anderson / RCMMA00041]
The card looked like some kind of ID.
"It'd cost 30,000 dollars to get one made outside, so don't lose it."
"Wait, the name's different..."
Hearing my mutter, she naturally curled up the corner of her mouth.
"Who’s gonna prove who you are when you don’t even have an ID or chip? Carry it if you don’t wanna get nabbed as an illegal immigrant."
From now on, your name is Chunsik...
I interpreted her words that way.
'An ID, huh...'
I couldn't hold back a sarcastic tone as I read the personal info on the card.
"Nothing matches."
Height, age, origin—all wrong.
The crowning touch was the blurry photo of a face.
Aside from being the same East Asian, it was a completely different person.
"As long as it roughly matches, it's fine. What matters is having an ID."
"...No, forget the rest—how'd you handle the height? It says 190cm here."
For reference, I'm about 176cm, a bit above Korea's male average.
Even guys round up, but 15cm is crossing the line.
At my question, the woman took a step back.
"Stand up once."
After lying down a month, would my body even have strength?
But contrary to my worries, I rose lightly from the mattress.
But.
'...Why does my eye level feel higher?'
I hadn't noticed sitting, but standing, the world looked taller.
To the point where I could see the crown of the standing woman's head.
Her red hair was dyed—black roots were growing in.
"I'm about 170cm, so... hm. That difference should make you roughly 190cm."
"...Does this make sense?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
What kind of treatment was this? I'd shot up in height during that month.
Not that it was good—just absurd.
The woman looked me over, top to bottom, and voiced mild dissatisfaction.
"But can you open your eyes a bit nicer?"
"......"
"Looking closely at your eye shape, it feels way off from the ID photo. Tsk. Well, can't do much about that."
A crack formed in my glass heart.
I'd grown up hearing I had sharp eyes since childhood.
About Pokémon trainer level—eye contact alone starts fights.
Well, ancient history now.
After growing up, I heard "thug" more often anyway.
"Speaking of, you must be starving after just waking up. Wait here a sec."
The woman left me and slowly walked toward the open door.
"...Hold on."
"What."
I stopped the walking woman.
I had a question.
"Why are you being so nice to me? What's in it for you..."
Treated my wounds, got me a fake ID, now feeding me too?
This was honorary mom level. Mammamia.
At my question, she scratched her chin,
then smirked like when we first met.
"No need to suspect. I saved you because I had business with you anyway. Timing was perfectly suspicious."
Perfect timing?
As she answered, she added,
"And my name's Christine, not 'you'."
"Ah, then..."
"Just call me Boss."
"...??"
I only figured out why she wanted to be called 'Boss' after a bit.
And why Christine needed me.
"From now on, you're the manager of this grocery store."
"Pardon?"