Jay didn’t expect that he would be chased down so soon, even more surprised by the fact that it was not Franky's gang. In the back of his mind, there is a possibility that this is a test from Zaud to see what he would do but he won’t take any chance from that. Jay is too paranoid when it comes to someone chasing him down.
Zember is far too chaotic and the chance of the threat being real is too high. As much as he likes to gamble, he wouldn’t take any chance like that. Jay descended the level down to the safest place he could think of, floor 1. There is barely a camera there and the environment is slightly toxic for a B-class personal.
Down here the only thing threatening is the F-class that lurk in the shadow but they’ll mostly be afraid of the uppers.
Jay arrives on the floor, the air is filled with rust and a humid smell. The corridor is barely maintained and you could see traces of trash everywhere. Jay planned to rent a room and camp down here until he could contact Zaud.
He wandered around a bit before finding a decrepit room that had a broken keypad on it, he was able to rent this room for 10 Gib a day, Cheaper than a meal he just had. He enters a room and discovers that down here, the window barely receives any light. The whole city above it covers the sky, and the complex structure barely leaves any light for people down here.
At least they don’t have wind blasting for 24 hours
The only thing here is a shabby metal bed with stiff wool and a bathroom. It’s not much different from Jay’s room when it comes to composition but couldn’t compare in quality.
Jay wants to take a nap but decides to stay awake and study more mech. He couldn’t have a good night's sleep when someone was out looking for him.
Knock Knock Knock
Someone knocks on Jay’s door. It’s only been an hour and Jay doubts that Franky's gang has a connection to track him down here. At most, they could ask around on the 22 floor. The only information they could get is him taking an elevator. They had a whole 22 floors to search before they could find him.
“Let me in!!”
A woman's voice shouted from the other side. Jay inches closer to the door as peeks through the door camera. All he could see a is a rather poor looking girl with blonde hair. Jay couldn’t discern much since this camera was so cheap.
“Let me in please!”
Knock Knock Knock
The Knock became more insistent, Jay could feel the desperation in her voice. He gulps his saliva down and makes a decision. Does he let her in or does he pass, it would cost him nothing to ignore her but it would cost him everything if this girl turned out to be in Franky’s gang.
Ultimately Jay opened the door.
One couldn’t fake a desperation, not in this quality. The girl quickly gets in and Jay locks the door behind her. She stumbles on the floor and yells out.
“Thank GOD! If you didn’t open the door I would have been toast”
“Who are you?” Jay asks not going anywhere near her
“Oh come on, don’t be like that” The girl comment “I won’t bite you”
“You didn’t answer my question”
“Wel… My name is… um… Yallas! Yes, my name is Yallas” The girl looks unsure of her name, making Jay more skeptical of her.
“Quite a weird name” Jay commented “What are you doing here”
“I… live here,” the Girl said with an ashamed voice “N..normally no one would rent a place like this so I crash here…”
“How!?” The door in front has an ID lock that is purchased from an online store. It will come into your smartwatch when you rent the room. It’s not a perfect system but it could secure the place you rent out.
“I…. It’s a trade secret!” The girl said with a puff chest, she looked proud of her achievement.
“OK….” Jay said “Now, get the hell out”
“What!? Are you going to leave a girl in need to fend for herself!?”
“First off, you didn’t even tell me your real name and second This is my room now,” Jay said pointing at the door, Jay would have let her stay if she was honest but half the truth isn’t good enough.
“You heartless bastard!” She looked quite angry “I was here first!”
“Yeah, but now it’s my room!” Jay retorts with a confident voice. He wouldn’t want to share a room with a free renter.
“No, it’s not!” Yellas quickly followed up “Why would you even need a room here anyway, don't you have a room in the uppers?”
“That doesn’t concern you, just get out of my room!”
“Oh, I know! You’re renting this place to prepare for your fall to F-class!”
“Don’t assume I’m as low as you, you dirty whore!!” Jay is pretty offended by those remarks. He received enough disrespect from the higher rank and he wasn’t about to be disrespected by the lower rank too.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“...”
That seems to shut her up…
“take that back”
“What? Are you really a dirty whore?”
“Take that BACK” The girl picked herself up and charged at him with anger. Jay dodges out of the way, the girl is weaker than the average person in C- rank so it’s easy to shove her around. She tried to hit him but he could easily block it.
This girl is crazy
Jay was about to fire another insult at her but he glimpsed a tear from her face. His insult turns into questions. She fell to the floor from exhaustion, her hands covering her eyes trying to hide her tears but anyone with a brain could tell that she was crying.
Now it is just sad
His anger has now dissipated somewhat, thinking about it this girl has likely lived a very harsh life down here. So this place is most likely her only safe place. It still didn’t change the fact that she attacked him but it does make her look quite sad.
Jay decides to leave her alone and find something better to do, the girl seems to not be in the right state of mind. Jay sat down and read about mech in the meantime. The weird arm sold 32 times in total, making Jay some in-game money. He could cash it out or purchase another mech part set.
He could get about 2000 Gibs if he cashed out now, which is quite good considering it’s his only mech design there. Jay sees why someone could make a living and even be a millionaire off this game. But He decided to hold off cashing out for now since he might create more designs in the future.
Maybe I could even get rich off it.
—-----
“Are you sure you sent me the right address?”
The guy looks down at his smartwatch. His trenchcoat hides a nasty stun gun to surprise and capture someone. He usually works for an underground gang and debt collector. He is infamous for his success rate.
“That’s on my master list,” Josh said over the smartwatch “Are you saying that my master was wrong?”
“.....”
He didn’t reply and check out the address again.
D-22-502
He trusts that his employer got the right address but this address is the same one he got about 4-5 days ago.
Is that place curse?
He didn’t believe it was the same target. Saw with his own eyes how his target heart was plucked out of his body. A human could survive many things but getting their heart stolen isn’t one of them. He didn’t like the look of it though if the employer didn’t pay him so much he wouldn’t do it.
Talking about Jay, He still thinks the guy made a poor decision, with how much money his parents left for him. He could easily turn it into something else. A pity the guy is now six feet under and his money has gone to other places.
He arrived on the 22nd floor and made his way to room 502. The place wasn’t the best in accommodation but it wasn’t the worse either. Soon he arrives at the 22nd floor.
Knock knock knock
He knocks 3 times to let someone know his presence.
“Is anyone in there?”
No one answered him. He waited for another minute and he couldn’t feel anything inside. His chrome part allows him to sense some vibration and inside the room is quite still. Either they are breathing very low or there’s no one inside. He surveyed the area to see if he was clear to break in.
A fake key appeared in his smartwatch and quickly tapped the door to let himself in. The footage of him entering the room could be easily fake or explained. He is a professional after all.
The room was rather clean, another evidence to confirm the change of owner. He looked through the place but other than the trash, not much had changed, they must have only cleaned the room waiting for their furniture to move in.
“He’s not here”
“Then find him! It’s your job, not mine.” Josh said with an annoying voice.
“I need more money.” He said, “If you want to find him fast I need to use a one-time use exploit to look through the camera and it would triple the cost.”
“You couldn’t find him?” Josh is a servant of Zaud but he’s not that wealthy “What a rat, I didn’t think he would be that paranoid over a death threat.”
“It would be better to not let the target know that someone is coming. I have no lead now. You didn’t even send me his picture.” He has had this kind of job before, to rid themself of any evidence the employer didn’t even send a picture of the target. It’s common to not involve themself and only leave soft evidence that could be scrubbed clean like text or recording. A picture has too many clues when you get investigated.
“You know I couldn’t do that”
“Then my job ends here”
“Wait…” Josh needs Jay to die but he doesn’t have enough money “The guy got a heart chrome, you could keep it.”
“What gen?”
“If I have to guess about gen 7 at least” Josh replied with a smile, he could tell that Ector was interested. “He must have blown all his savings on that to fall to C-rank”
“I need more than a guess” Ector squinted his eyes a heart chrome could easily cover the camera exploit.
“He definitely has a Gen 7 heart implant,” Josh said, he need to finish the job quickly. And Ector could feel the desperation.
“That’s not reassuring”
“Fine I’ll double the price and you could have 50% of the heart implant sale. How about that?”
“Deal” Extor couldn’t say no to that even if it was a shitty heart implant, he would still make more than enough. He taps on his smartwatch and ends his call with Josh. He then fishs out a cable and jacks it into his neck hole. He connects the other end to a nearby power source. The connection led to the camera and Ector went to work.
He scrimmed through many hours of footage in minutes and he found the guy they were looking for. Ector skin pales a bit, he rechecks the footage to confirm his finding.
It was Jay!
The guy that died in the Junkyard. How did he survive!? Space human have evolved to endure many things but having their heart plucked out is not one of them. Ector immediately calls Josh.
“You want me to hunt a Cyber ghost?”
“What are you talking about?” Josh sounds as confused as Ector.
“The guy you sent me after is already dead,” Ector said with a panic. A cyber ghost is a type of person that lives inside a virtual world. You wouldn’t want to mess with them unless you get a huge sum of money. Average Cyber Ghost is exceptionally good with tech.
“You’re saying that I have been talking to a ghost?” Josh said, “I have seen him in person. He’s alive and well, I and many people could confirm that.”
“Send that over or my job here is done.”
“Tch..” Josh reluctantly sends a picture of Jay over. There is not much of a choice when it comes to killing someone. Ector received it and confirmed its authenticity, he still didn’t feel good about his but the picture was enough.