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Ransel made no comment whatsoever about her own body condition.
All she had done was request the suppressant.
Yet the man checked her body and pulled out the word "C.A.A."
What exactly did that term mean?
She didn't need to guess. The man's actions right now were clearly linked to it.
A bead of cold sweat slid down the quack's nape as he crept forward, trying to reach the call button under the desk.
Ransel said nothing. She simply pressed the muzzle of her pistol into the quack's forehead.
She rose from the chair, grinding the barrel into his forehead like a stamp.
She hadn't been blind to the situation. She had known from the start.
Ransel was a legitimate resident of the underbelly.
Before she ever stepped foot here, she had witnessed every kind of crime District 54 had to offer.
Long-term smuggling, drug trafficking—places like this were crawling with them.
The quack, of course, was a full-blooded underbelly resident even before he picked up the ridiculous title of "doctor."
Blackmailing patients, killing them for money, it was just another Tuesday for him.
Since she already knew that, Ransel had figured the man was just a quack.
"So… how should I deal with you?"
She had expected something like this the moment she arrived in this world.
In a game world, you couldn't survive here without enemies.
She had already decided how she would treat any that appeared.
No loose ends. Better to kill them now than leave them to come back later.
"Th-this isn't—"
The quack tried to protest, lips moving.
Ransel's half-closed eyes widened slightly. Behind them, the hidden joy of a gamer flared to life.
"Tsk. Keep lying about it and you'll beg me to kill you, won't you?"
She had already decided to end it as fast as possible. Enemies might appear at any moment.
She fired bolts into the surveillance cameras, shattering them.
While the quack fumbled under the table, she shot his arm.
His arm jerked hard. Blood sprayed across Ransel's cheek.
The moment the gunshot rang out, the waiting guards outside yelled in shock.
"You bastards! I knew from the start this would happen!!"
"Quack! What the hell is going on?!"
Ransel already knew the exact positions of the three guards by the entrance, behind the counter, and in the room on the right.
She felt them approaching. In two seconds the door would open.
Still facing the door, she calculated everything in her head and fired her pistol backward without turning.
Three bullets of gunpowder exploded through the wall and vanished into the other room.
A sickening crash and a horrific scream echoed from beyond.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!"
"My leg—my leg!!!"
The instant she heard the scream, Ransel turned and shot the right-hand wall.
The gunshot and a short dying whimper overlapped almost at the same instant.
Something heavy fell. A phone-like object rolled across the marble floor.
A different voice seeped out from beyond the wall.
"What? What's happening?"
The moment the voice arrived, Ransel pulled up her mana and prepared a new spell.
The lifestyle magic she had stolen during a demonstration at the Elisteria Magic Tower.
The most suitable one for this exact situation—
⟨ Silence ⟩
A formless wave spread outward and instantly silenced every sound in the room.
At the same time she snapped the lazy man's leg in half with a casual flick of her wrist, then blasted holes through the screaming guards' heads one by one.
The earlier screams had turned into a suffocating silence, as if the truth had been murdered.
Ransel stepped out of the hospital room, kicked the body's arm aside, and picked up the phone lying beneath it.
She quietly withdrew her mana, caressed her neck, and modulated her voice.
One of the small tricks she had mastered while studying the new lifestyle magic.
She could now trap and reshape vibrations in the air to any form she wanted.
She still couldn't completely change her voice, but enough to hide her true identity for now.
"Other gang members attacked. But we can handle it on our own."
"Ah, you bastards. If you're gonna handle it, handle it fast. But your tone's changed, huh?"
"Is that so? I don't know."
"Anyway, finish it cleanly. If you find anything good, hand it over to us. Especially the Cognitive Assistance Accelerator."
"Yes."
Beep—beep—beep—
The silence returned the instant the call ended.
Ransel waited in silence, then turned back to the man who was still sobbing and choking.
Through the open doorway, what greeted her was the quack holding a shotgun.
Tears welled in his eyes as he glared at her with pure venom.
The moment she saw that expression, Ransel clicked her tongue.
"Die, you bastard!!!"
The mage's transcendent cognitive ability split time into micro-second units.
She didn't miss the short instant the man pulled the trigger.
In an instant she aimed and fired her pistol straight at the shotgun's muzzle.
Both guns roared at the same time, spraying gunpowder.
Countless pellets tore toward Ransel's body—
The bullet fired a fraction faster from Ransel's gun punched straight into the shotgun's barrel.
The man dropped the weapon and started trembling all over.
"K-Kyaaaaah…!!!"
"How stupid. A doctor, and you act this stupid?"
Ransel sneered, grabbed the quack's hair, and yanked his head upward so he stared at the ceiling.
She shoved the glowing-hot muzzle into his throat.
The heat scorched his insides.
Chiiiiiii—
"Kyuuuuhhh!!! Kyuuuhhh!!! Ugh! Uuuugh!!!"
"You're connected to a gang, aren't you? The guards you've got, the way you pulled that gun out just now… all of it ties to the gang's movements."
The moment she confirmed there was no cyberware on the quack's body, his eyes locked onto her neck.
That spot was where people got the Cognitive Assistance Accelerator installed—the famous C.A.A.
TYPE: Neural
INSTALL SITE: Spine
EFFECT: In one word, it was an auxiliary cognitive computing device. A tiny chip in the spine that boosted calculation speed, perception, and reaction time.
She had learned this by accident while searching for suppressant information.
In short, the quack had decided she was trying to install a military-grade C.A.A. and was buying suppressant because she couldn't handle it.
Pulling out a gun to threaten her was his plan to steal the C.A.A.
In the shadows of this society, raw power mattered more than anything.
Ransel, who understood that, had never bothered to study magic just to preserve her talent.
"You were trying to sell military hardware. You have no idea if I have any or not."
"Kyuuu… uaaaaah…!!!"
"You didn't even threaten me with a weapon, yet you pulled a gun? Look at this place. It's already half-abandoned by the city government. Did you think I wouldn't have seen long-term smuggling and drug trafficking when I first arrived?"
Even knowing that, the way these people acted was far more open than Ransel had expected.
Ransel stared coldly at the quack's trembling eyes and continued.
"The reason you want to sell the C.A.A… is probably the same reason big gangs buy huge amounts of suppressant."
Suppressants treat the mental illness caused by the gap between body and mind created by cyberware.
Buying huge quantities and needing them meant both gangs and scavengers were installing large amounts of cyberware, right?
Which raised a new question. In District 50, the routes for acquiring massive amounts of cyberware were extremely limited.
So how exactly were the gangs getting all this hardware?
The answer was simple.
The doctors were installing cyberware on gang members, supplying suppressants, and simultaneously—
"They were handling the supply of the cyberware itself. Used ones, at that. The ones who came here as patients, right?"
Both the quack's eyebrows and the corner of his mouth twisted into grotesque shapes.
He was laughing at her, mocking the stupid actions of the gang that had orchestrated this mess.
The quack violently shook his head.
The moment Ransel spoke, his face flushed bright red and a monstrous laugh that had nothing to do with genuine madness burst out.
She shoved the muzzle even deeper into his throat and stared straight into his eyes.
The situation had already been created. One man had just done something stupid on his own.
The war between giant gangs was interesting, but it wasn't her current priority.
Right now, the only thing she needed to focus on in this situation was the original purpose of her trip here.
The most effective way to secure a large quantity in the shortest time.
Ransel asked the man in front of her, their noses almost touching.
She shook the envelope full of suppressant right in front of his face.
"How much suppressant is left?"