Something I Could Just Do (1)
Something I Could Just Do (1)
I was staring at the glowing monitor.
A quiet sense of satisfaction welled up from some corner of my heart—something I couldn't quite put into words.
The old CRT monitor, with its prominent moiré pattern, helped me forget that secret longing, that nostalgia for my hometown.
Inside the screen, which rippled with a grid pattern like a mosquito net, an 8-bit programmed "plumber" character jumped with a peculiar sound effect.
— Ddiyong, ddiyong.
Shitty graphics made of dots.
Noisy sounds with low audio quality.
The best possible efficiency.
For me.
If I had to sum up this game in a single word.
"The best."
It was the greatest.
So Super Ma○io existed even in cyberpunk...
I felt a surge of emotion rising from deep within my heart.
I started the platformer-style game.
It was the retro game console I'd bought at the antique shop in Vanta Market, Little Shinjuku, where I went with Eve last time.
And this wasn't the only one.
There were still plenty of game cartridges left.
I could physically feel my SAN points—my mental strength stat—recovering after they'd plummeted from all those years living in the cyberpunk world.
Catherine pointed at the moving mushroom on the screen—a Goomba, the enemy—and spoke.
"If you eat that, do you get bigger too?"
"Nope~."
I shook my head firmly.
Not all mushrooms are the same.
Andrea looked over the retro game console with its cables connected and asked.
"Wow, what year is this arcade machine from? Where the hell did you even find one this old, for real?"
"The antique shop I mentioned last time."
I answered her question while pressing the A button, the jump key.
For reference, being an old classic game,
the only controls were the directional pad, A button, and B button.
The A button was jump, and the B button was run.
Finally, Eve sat down next to me and spoke.
"I will connect 2P."
"?"
At those words, I unconsciously turned my head to look at Eve.
A moment later.
With the exact same design as my red character,
a green character, differing only in color, appeared inside the old CRT monitor.
Eve, Eve...
How did you know there was a 2P mode?
As expected, there was nothing a super AI didn't know.
The monotonous BGM played on.
Beautiful women, who didn't suit this kind of classic game at all, focused intently on the screen.
"......"
Hmm.
It was a scene that left me speechless.
Aside from minor issues like my privacy, it was also a deeply peaceful scene.
They weren't the kind of people who had nothing to do.
I really couldn't understand why they were here, watching me sit around playing and enjoying a retro game.
I struggled to ignore the gazes I felt on my back as I controlled the plumber character.
— Ddu-ddu dduru, ddu-ddu dduruddu~.
"Wow, he's sparkling."
Andrea admired my red character as it ate a star.
Andrea, especially, was a famous singer, so she must have had plenty of scheduled appointments.
But she showed no sign of heading back to her own place on the same floor.
At this rate, she's going to sleep over here.
I thought, half-joking, half-serious.
.......
She wasn't really going to sleep at my place, was she?
Anyway.
That was that, and this was this.
For now, I decided to just enjoy the nostalgia for my hometown.
My plumber character went underground, and the game progressed to the next stage.
And then, at that moment.
A message popped up on my vision interface—a concentration of cyberpunk technology that didn't match the retro game console I was playing at all.
It was a message from the Boss of No Answer.
Sender: 'Natalya Petrova'
— No problems, I hope?
— I heard about it from our colleagues.
— I never imagined the identity of Smile Zone would be the Chairman of Koozaka.
— I've prepared the next operation related to it.
— Reply when you see this message.
I couldn't stop the words from slipping out.
"Ah."
Come to think of it.
I'd completely forgotten to tell Natasha that everything was over.
21. Something I Could Just Do (1)
Of course, from my perspective, it wasn't as if I had absolutely no excuse.
Eve had appeared.
I'd gone on a broadcast station.
I'd even gone shopping.
I had been so incredibly busy.
Still, who could have known things would wrap up so anticlimactically?
Actually, it was the same when Koozaka William called me to Pit Mac Land right after that.
I just went there excitedly because he said he was giving me a new outfit—I never anticipated I'd meet Smile Zone there and everything would come to an end.
Besides, thinking about it, Natasha wasn't the only one I hadn't explained things to.
I hadn't explained myself to Drex or Julia either, and they both knew about my relationship with Smile Zone.
"......"
I briefly debated whether to just gloss over it without explaining.
But in the end, it was something everyone would notice sooner or later anyway.
Before I forgot again,
I sent the same message to Drex, Julia, and Natasha—who had made me realize I'd overlooked this point.
That I'd received an apology from Smile Zone—meaning Chairman Koozaka—for everything and decided to wrap things up.
That I'd received a suitable—substantial—amount of credits as compensation.
That I was grateful for their help.
That was roughly the content.
The first reply came from Drex.
Sender: 'Kind Cyberware Specialty Store, 24-Hour Consultation'
— ?
.......
Let's move on.
The second was Julia.
Sender: 'White Rabbit'
— That's a relief to hear...
— However...
— I heard construction noises last time...
— And from what I could hear, there seemed to be multiple voices coming from your house...
— Would it be alright if I visited you sometime too?
...Hmm.
Hearing a wanted criminal registered in the NCPD database talk like that felt a bit chilling.
It gave me goosebumps in a different way than Drex's reply did.
Without answering Julia's question, I left a reply along the lines of "Thanks for worrying about me" and moved past her message.
It'll work out somehow later.
The very last reply to arrive was, contrary to my expectations, from Natasha—the one who had messaged me first.
Sender: 'Natalya Petrova'
—
There was no content at all.
And after a few seconds, a new message arrived.
— I'm sending Smith now.
— Let's talk at No Answer.
Even for someone like me who hated leaving the house, I couldn't send a refusal message saying I wouldn't go.
And so.
That's how it happened.
"—That's how it ended up."
I finished explaining to Natasha.
A brief silence followed.
My throat had gone parched as I continued the explanation. I lifted the cocktail I hadn't taken a single sip of yet and wet my dry throat.
Since I'd re-explained everything starting from when we kidnapped the vice chairman, the explanation took longer than I expected.
The taste of the cocktail, which had gone bland as the ice melted almost completely, reached the tip of my tongue.
I felt the faint scent of alcohol as I set the glass down.
"......"
Natasha's fingers, adorned with glasses, tapped lightly on the high-grade ceramic table.
Unlike the cheongsam she'd worn last time,
today she was dressed in a neat suit.
Out of personal curiosity, I wondered why she was wearing glasses, but I wasn't tactless enough to ask that in this atmosphere.
Natasha's gaze slowly moved.
I'd told her she could come alone, but her gaze fixed on Catherine and Andrea, who had insisted on following me, and finally on Eve.
Drex had told me.
That he wouldn't explain about Eve, the super AI, to Natasha himself—so I should explain it properly myself later.
The relationship between Natasha and us wasn't short or shallow.
And as such,
I had just given her the best explanation I could.
"...Eve, you said?"
"Correct."
Natasha's blue eyes and Eve's white eyes met, as if in opposition.
No Answer's Boss—Natasha's eyes were known among us for their sharpness, but at this moment, Eve's expressionless eyes didn't seem to be outmatched by Natasha's either.
I opened my mouth to shift the mood.
"...Especially without Eve, I would probably still be fighting Smile Zone without receiving an apology."
Since she seemed to be suspicious of Eve, I continued with my defense of her.
A moment later.
Natasha stopped the fingers tapping the table and turned the gaze she had been directing at Eve toward me.
"...Well, if it's your choice, it must be right."
"Excuse me?"
It was such a sudden, out-of-the-blue statement that I tilted my head to the side.
What did I ever do to deserve words like that?
But it seemed I was the only one who found it strange. Catherine and Andrea behind me also nodded at Natasha's words.
Everyone was agreeing with that statement.
What was with this atmosphere?
"No, I mean, I could be wrong too..."
"You're not." "You're not."
"......"
They denied it with a tone full of absolute certainty.
Why did they trust me like this?
Probably, in Natasha's case, it was because the success rate of the missions I had taken on so far was 100%.
It was incredibly burdensome for me.
I just followed the content of the sub-quests I'd seen in the game.
I just knew the hidden secrets.
I just remembered the flow of events.
And.
As my thoughts reached that point.
I felt a chilling cold.
My whole body grew heavy.
"......Ah."
Facts I wanted to forget resurfaced.
A guy like me was just ordinary.
Was it right for me to receive their trust solely because I'd played a game?
Being with Catherine was largely for that reason too. I'd noticed she was the main character of the game and forcibly tried to stay with her.
So I could at least get the crumbs that fell from the table.
Employing Drex, who had been confined. Comforting Andrea, who was depressed after being kicked out of the pub, telling her she could absolutely become a singer.
It was all because I knew the future. In the process itself, I actually did nothing.
Because even if I hadn't done anything, it was a fate that would have happened originally anyway.
I didn't know what my expression looked like right now.
I was ashamed to receive their trust.
I felt self-deprecation.
I felt foul emotions and nausea rising up from my stomach.
Ah, this isn't good.
Even knowing it myself, I couldn't stop blaming myself.
The cold emotion felt like a chill.
I carefully grabbed the coat I was wearing and wrapped it tightly up to the bottom of my face.
And no wonder.
Because this wasn't my place to be.
That fact.
Was just cold.
* * *
"What a load of fucking bullshit."
Drex said.