“Rollo, your profile in the ECPD database has been tampered with!” Claire’s voice rang out through the video call.
“What do you mean, my profile has been tampered with?”
“Here, take a look. Your information on it is just placeholders. They don’t even try to hide that fact.”
My profile has been tampered with?
Immediately, the thought of that powerful man who had once saved me out in the wasteland came into my mind. Judging by what he had said, he must’ve been surveilling me. It wouldn’t be surprising for someone like that to have tampered with my information, but that left me wondering about the motive.
He was protecting me for some reason, but I struggled to find how that could benefit him. That was why I had tried to keep him out of my mind, as there wasn’t much I could do about it. As long as they weren’t hostile, I could ignore them for now. However, if it was possible, I’d like to learn more about them so I could prepare for the scenario of when their stance on me takes a turn for the worse.
It wasn’t definite that my mysterious savior was behind the tampering, though. Police records weren’t secure and any F-Class corporation or above could have accessed them.
There was a possibility it could be an unknown corporation or even one of my allies. For all I know, it could be Joey, but regardless, I couldn’t narrow down their objective.
“Rollo, do you hear me? Your profile has been tampered with! Do you have any idea who could have done it and why?”
Claire’s voice brought me back from my mulling, allowing me to refocus on what was important.
“Forget about that for now. We’ll look into it later. Did you complete the tasks I asked you to do?”
“...Fine, I’ll have Lucy look into it. And yeah, we completed your stupid tasks. Your target is boarding a plane to Lion City soon.”
“Good. Then I’m going to go talk to the QG. The more time we have left, the better.”
No one knew how negotiations would go, even with the help of another local QG. It was important to have some time to prepare responses to unforeseen circumstances.
“Yeah, you’re welcome.”
“Thanks, Claire. Catch you later.”
With that, I quickly hung up so I could make another call.
“Zenith, we completed your job.”
“...Where is the man?”
“Sending you a file now.”
I forwarded the file I received earlier that had the photos and videos of the man we had captured for Zenith. It was also our proof that we were definitively bringing him over.
“Very well. I will begin negotiations. You should drop by my place, it is the same as last time. By the time you get here, there should be news.”
With some traffic, it took me over half an hour to arrive at the bar where Zenith operated out of. I entered his private room and met eyes with the man with the stature of a gorilla.
“You have news, you said?”
“Yes. As I said, it won’t be a problem for me to be successful in the negotiations, as long as I am willing to spend my social capital.”
“So they’ll stop hunting Flo and Eli now?”
“No, not immediately. I have studied the terms with Pater and have agreed to wait out the remaining five-day term before declining to renew it. They will still put up a show that they’re still continuing with the hunt, but the threat level is low.”
That meant there’d be a few days Flo and Eli would still be targeted when they left the inner city. It should be fine if we bring them somewhere with high security. Maybe a high-class hotel or something…
----------------------------------------
“Cheers! Erza and Eli’s survival!” Flo declared as she raised her pint in the air.
Several days had passed since we had successfully gotten someone to negotiate with the QG that was targeting Eli and Erza, and they would officially stop the hunt today, as indicated in their contract.
I heard their employer tried to convince the QG to continue their hunt, but they skillfully used the excuse that they were busy with another big job.
I was glad things ended without bloodshed and we could peacefully drink together without having lost anyone.
“So anyway, now that it’s over, can you tell us what you saw, Eli?” Flo asked as she slapped the back of the person she was interrogating.
“Ouch! I don’t really know. They were just picking out some cybernetics at the clinic.”
“You almost got yourself and Erza killed cuz you saw them shopping for chrome? What has the world come to?”
“Well, it’s not like the other party had any intention of listening to me. It’s their job to dispose of any potential witnesses, so I kind of get it…But it sure turns me off from taking any gigs against other people. I’d much rather stick to the dungeons or wasteland mutants.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The drinking and teasing intensified as the night went by.
With the matter resolved, it was time for me to turn back to my own matters regarding the potential product defect of our products. With my next flight booked for tomorrow night, I slept in the next day before heading out to the wasteland to grind some experience points before my flight.
It was a good way to kill time and an opportunity I didn’t want to miss, as the wasteland was the best place for me to gain experience points in a relatively safe fashion.
We had to rent a local vehicle, but we could still make use of our Argus to detect the nests of mutants. It was no surprise that the first one we found was underneath a ruin in the underground tunnels.
“Rollo, look at those prints…We’ve got some crawlers with a lot of feet.”
“Scans show there’s quite a few of them,” I stated as I readied my SMG with the smart ammunition.
I just hope they give a good amount of experience. I’d rather not hunt mutants that are only one point per kill.
We moved into the underground tunnels that were once an underground subway. We didn’t even make it to the subway platforms themselves before we picked up the sound of something scuttling toward us.
It wasn’t long before we turned to the corner to find the source of the noise. Dozens and dozens of giant centipedes crawled toward us.
“You might want to rely on a gun for this one, Thorne. Make sure we have a clear path of retreat for when they get too close.”
As I pulled the trigger, I caught sight of Thorne nodding beside me as he stowed his wrist blade and took hold of his rifle from his sling.
+5 EXP
+5 EXP
+5 EXP
+5 EXP
Our first few shots eliminated the mutant centipedes with no problem, but the sound of our attacks made the mutants scramble in different directions. Some climbed up on the walls, but they continued creeping in our direction.
I got into the zone and settled into a routine of shooting and reloading. What I didn’t expect was when I was loading a new mag, one of the mutants had approached quite close by clinging to the ceiling.
The giant centipede wasted no time and opened its mouth. A green blob was launched toward us, instantly startling me.
“Poison!”
I dove out of the way and instantly scanned my surroundings as I had let up my shooting. I found that spot where I had been sizzling, as the projectile was likely acid instead of the poison, which I had thought.
Just as I got back on my feet, something pushed me back to the ground again. I looked up to find Thorne skewering one of the centipedes with his wrist blade, but the acid was sizzling on the blade as well. He would need a replacement after this for sure.
I jumped to my feet once more and began laying down fire as we regained our foothold.
Having learned that these monsters had mutated and gained a ranged attack, I took on a more cautious approach as we continued our hunt deeper into the subway. Before long, the world fell silent once more and no more critters crawled toward us by the time we made it to the subway tracks.
“Keep watch real quick, Thorne. I’m going to scan the area for any stragglers.”
Seeing him nod in response, I quickly commanded my Argus to perform several scans. Several lifeforms were detected that instantly drew my attention. I glanced over the information and found there were numerous mutants around us, but the ones closest to us weren’t the mutants.
“Thorne, we’ve got human company!” I quickly linked the results to him and activated our data sharing.
This allowed us to both use our active camouflage and keep track of each other, but we had to be fairly close to each other or else the wasteland’s natural jamming effect would make us lose connection.
We both didn’t hesitate to go into stealth as soon as our connection was made and crept toward the humans we detected. They were in a room where the label had faded with time, but I believed should be a staff room considering there weren’t many other possibilities on the subway platform.
With the closed door in our way, we pulled one of the oldest tricks we still employed and knocked on the door as we prepared to charge in when there was a gap.
We watched for several tens of seconds and found the door hadn’t budged. In fact, our scans showed the people inside hadn’t moved at all since we knocked.
I quickly released my Nyes to take a peek at what was on the other side of the door. I watched as they strolled through the empty room all the way to the back where a drape blocked the view of where the people I had detected were.
When the Nyes attempted to cross the drape, I abruptly lost connection with them.
“...Want to break it down?” I whispered.
“Sure. Allow me,” Thorne replied with a slight tinge of excitement in his voice.
From his figure, I could see him readying his damaged wrist blade, and imitating a stance of some sort. While the form looked right, I doubt it helped him in any significant way in combat.
He moved toward the door and thrust his blade into the gap next to the doorknob to cut the latch. When he was done, used his other hand and pushed the door open in one swift motion.
We walked in with our active camouflage engaged, keeping a close watch on the latest updates from the Argus as we approached the unknown party.
They still hadn’t moved after our violent entrance, so we slowed down to watch for traps.
We had enough experience with harvester dens to know how to deal with the average tripwires and other makeshift traps. They may be simple, but they were cheap and durable, which made them a common sight.
I considered deploying them for ourselves, as they couldn’t be disabled by simply jamming signals or using EMPs. They could catch our corporate enemies off guard if they were only expecting the sophisticated traps most corpos used.
As we slowly made our way into the room, we found no signs of danger, which only made us more on guard.
The people here didn’t respond to their door being broken down nor set up any traps by the front. While they did have something in the back to jam my Nyes, it was still careless of them to allow strangers to get so close to them. It meant they either wanted us to come further in or they simply didn’t care if someone intruded on them.
We cleared everything but the area behind the drape in the back, so I prepared a stun grenade.
Thorne got into position in front of me and moved a part of the drape out of the way. With lightning speed, I chucked the grenade through the gap.
As soon as it went off, we rushed in and prepared to restrain any opposition, but what we found were several people already lying on the ground. They weren’t writhing in pain from our stun grenade or anything, but simply remained listless as they lay there.
They weren’t completely harmless, though. They were equipped in a fashion common to mercenaries, with military-grade firearms and plate carriers.
I didn’t hesitate and began restraining them as I sent a message to Thorne to do the same. During the process, they barely resisted and I could tell that they were very weak. Still, for safety reasons, I continued putting the restraining devices on them as we didn’t know if they would suddenly lash out.
What in the world happened to have left them in this condition?