IBACT Chapter 11

Guilty (11)

“Damn……”

While the customer was looking out the window, the cafe owner was also looking outside with worried eyes. Though who they were looking at was a bit different.

“Damn. Of all times……”

At least until now, these people hadn’t come in while he had customers.

His uneasy intuition wasn’t wrong. The gang members didn’t go somewhere else but strode right into his cafe.

“Still have the heart to do business?”

Although they were openly carrying guns, no one in this district stopped them.

If someone reported them, the police would show up, but they wouldn’t protect the store forever.

“Why are you here again? If you’re not here for coffee, get out.”

The manager, who briefly considered taking out the gun hidden below, stood before them empty-handed after some deliberation.

“We told you. You seem to be making good money. Pay the protection fee, huh? This area’s already been claimed by our gang.”

Whether they liked it or not, people living in this city’s slums had to be strong. Had to become strong.

Either by wearing better guns and armor than others, or increasing their endurance through bio-implants.

The easiest method was forming a gang.

While properly implanted humans could treat lead bullets like BB pellets, such people wouldn’t appear for petty crimes like this in the first place.

A gun is a weapon that favors the one who shoots first.

Even an adult male who has spent years building muscle and strength through grueling training will die if shot first by a twelve-year-old juvenile offender emptying a magazine.

Of course, physical strength isn’t meaningless in combat. It helps you withstand a few stray bullets and dramatically reduces the time needed for movement, aiming, and recoil control.

Still, guns were weapons that favored offense over defense.

In these slums, the best way to secure protection against guns was to increase numbers.

Expensive bulletproof equipment and armor were hard to obtain and difficult to wear all the time.

But if you keep a few “like-minded friends” around, even if one person dies, others can shoot back.

It wasn’t just about hurting others but was essential for survival.

“I told you, no.”

“Fuck, you think this gun’s a joke? Want to see someone die in your shop?”

“For someone who was just pumping gas at a station until recently, now pretending to be a gangster…”

“You bastard… so you’re saying we’re a joke? Think you won’t die when shot by fake gangsters?”

There were people with normal jobs here too. Nurses, bar and restaurant owners, day laborers, and convenience store part-timers.

But the armed thugs didn’t show respect to such people.

If you walk the night streets unarmed, two thugs on motorcycles will suddenly approach, point guns at your head, and demand all the money in your wallet.

So people in this city who had even a little means would arm themselves first. Because that gave their lives and property even a tiny bit of ‘security’.

But arming yourself costs money. Even the cheap guns the thugs who entered the cafe were carrying would have been expensive for their meager salaries.

When the manager heard that a nearby gas station had closed recently, he felt sorry for them.

That was before he heard that the young men who worked there had gathered a gang and formed a group of thugs.

“If I give money to you, the real gangs will try to kill me.”

Who you paid protection money to was quite important to gangs. It was also a matter of pride.

Except for the unavoidable taxes they had to pay to Stella City, gangs considered it betrayal if stores in their territory paid money to other gangs.

The logic was that they were funding other gangs’ war chests and disrespecting their territory.

“If you were such a model citizen to begin with, shouldn’t you not be giving money to any gangs?”

The thug’s words weren’t entirely wrong. The reason stores in such districts wanted gang help instead of police was because gangs were faster than police.

In an all-out war, there was no reason for gangs to beat the police.

Of course, things might be different if fighting all gangs rather than just one, but that was generally true.

But police are slow. They don’t patrol well and don’t respond to the flood of reports.

In the end, to escape the immediate pain from gangs harassing them, they had to bow their heads to gangs.

“Fuck, you make plenty of money. Is giving up a few bucks that bad?”

“I told you, it’s not about whether to give money or not!”

“Not my business. If you don’t want to hand over money, there are other ways.”

The thugs started harassing the customers.

“No, you can’t do that!”

“Then hand over the money if you’re upset.”

“The gangs will really kill me!”

“We can kill you too.”

Their target became the strange customer who looked wealthy.

He wasn’t wearing a nice suit like someone from a corporation, but his behavior and face showed confidence. Even in this situation.

“Hey, you? You look like you have money. Since this bastard owner doesn’t want to pay up, how about you pay instead?”

He was casually looking out the window. He seemed to be watching women passing by.

“Ah, move aside. Don’t talk to me and go away.”

“You fucking bastard, are you ignoring me?”

The thug pointed his revolver at him.

“C-crazy! What are you doing!”

“This bastard……”

That customer didn’t seem interested in assessing the situation; he just kept staring outside.

Being ignored was too great an insult for people here.

“You, take out all the money in your wallet. Don’t know which insurance company you’re connected to, but taking your head and running is no big deal, you know?”

“This could be dangerous……”

“Because of your shitty behavior, I think I can take that level of risk?”

The woman next to him was frowning in anger, but she didn’t seem tense either.

Rather, she was glaring at them as if she wanted to kill them, as if she could kill them at any moment.

Like a fierce dog about to pounce.

“Let’s not cause trouble unnecessarily. It’s bothersome for everyone, right?”

“You fucking bastard… Just die!”

Fire spewed from the gun in the thug’s hand.

***

They were characters from an animation based on a game.

People who, putting their unfortunate past behind them, endlessly run toward a lofty goal, only to die in the end. That kind of people.

My feelings were complicated.

Fortunately, she was still walking down the street normally. There was still plenty of time left, so that made sense.

It’s definitely her. Exactly as I remember her.

I haven’t fallen into ‘a world where game companies and place names appear by coincidence.’

If Doris exists, others exist too. The companions and villains from the original game exist, and the events that happened there exist.

I could get my bearings. The protagonist will appear someday. To protect what I have, I must not neglect preparation.

The disappointing thing was that even at this moment, a criminal with a gun was harassing me.

I was being quite careful. If our eyes met from staring too much, I couldn’t guarantee what kind of relationship we’d have to form later.

A client-employer relationship would be most ideal. I could be appropriately involved with her and use that overwhelming force.

I absolutely refuse to make a first impression as a stalker or some street idler.

In the worst case, she might be wary of me. Not at the level of ulterior motives, but if she gets the feeling that ‘Hansan is watching her in through Han Sanwoo directly,’ that would be the worst.

The only fortunate thing might be that my gaze isn’t visible because I’m wearing sunglasses.

‘Hm?’

For a moment, I felt something was off.

She was running toward me. Doris was running toward me with an urgent expression.

Was I caught? No, even so, would she run like this just because I looked at her a bit?

No. Maybe I thought wrong. I represent the Hansan forces in this city, and her hostility toward Hansan was not small.

But this is strange. If she wanted to kill me, she could just shoot from that distance.

‘Wait…….’

The sense of incongruity wasn’t because she was running toward me.

The world had stopped.

Not a metaphorical statement like ‘the world seemed to stop when she ran toward me’, but the world had really stopped.

I tried to turn my head, but my body turned too slowly. As if I was stopped too.

‘……What is this?’

Even my mouth moved too slowly, so I had to give up even muttering to myself. Even moving my mouth to pronounce ‘what’ was slow.

In that stopped time, she was running toward me.

‘Why?’

Though my body wouldn’t move, my eyeballs kept turning. After checking all objects in my view, I finally realized that the thug’s finger was pulling the trigger.

She wasn’t running to kill me. On the contrary, she was running to protect me.

It was excessive kindness. I thought Doris and I would fight to kill each other when we met, but I never thought she would protect me instead.

But in the end, I couldn’t understand why time had stopped. There’s no way the world really stopped; there must be some reason that—.

‘Ah.’

It’s the opposite. The world hasn’t stopped; she and I have become too fast.

I know why she’s fast. It’s a body acceleration device. An implant too powerful to be rolling around in these slums, one that turns humans into monsters.

But it puts just as much strain. Moving at several times the speed that human muscles and mind can handle, there’s no way the body could endure.

Even though I hadn’t installed mechanical implants, I was prepared for situations like this.

Probably in response to traces of the acceleration device she activated, the acceleration device attached to my body automatically activated. Only for consciousness and senses, to prevent side effects.

Han Sanwoo’s knowledge told me that certain actions were needed to accelerate my body together. Like turning on a kind of switch, which…

There was no time to continue that thought. She immediately broke through the transparent glass window, roughly embraced me, and rolled across the cafe floor.

A bitter laugh escaped. I thought embraces with women would be softer and sweeter, but her arms were full of glass shards.

“Are you alright?”

The gunshot was louder, longer, and more undulating than a single shot.

I thought it would be dangerous if they caused trouble, but that wasn’t it. My secretary instantly fired five shots, blowing the thugs’ heads off.

“……What a shame.”

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. After all, from a certain perspective, they were victims too.

But it was also impossible to mourn their deaths. People might resist and not listen sometimes while living, but to suddenly start shooting like this.

“I’m sorry! Are you alright?”

“What are you sorry for? I’m the one who told you to stay still……”

While trying to calm my secretary, I heard a slapping sound hitting my back.

“Who are you to be so nonchalant in this situation!”

It was Doris.