IBACT Chapter 17

Devaluation (5)

“How about this price?”

I waved a few cash chips in front of his eyes.

“This is…….”

A choice that wouldn’t have been possible as a player, a violent and efficient choice that’s only possible because this is reality.

It was money.

“This should be enough to live back at home again, right? How about it?”

“Damn, at this point, for me to…….”

He’s someone who had given up on life. Not yesterday or years ago, but just seconds ago.

Just because money suddenly appeared, he wouldn’t easily change his attitude.

“I’ve kept you here too long. Let’s go get something to eat.”

I grabbed his arm and roughly pulled him up.

“Damn it, don’t pull! I’ll go on my own, I’ll go on my own….”

He too must be contemplating.

He had just emptied his mind and focused on his final goal.

But the human body is honest.

Hunger can be forgotten temporarily but never completely erased.

Humans are originally small and weak. Even those with iron-like willpower cannot exercise that willpower without physical strength.

“In this state, what restaurant would let us in…….”

“Hmm, is that so? Then let’s talk while eating this at least.”

I pulled out two chocolate bars from my pocket.

“……What, you had this prepared from the start?”

“I bought three, but I couldn’t eat mine and spat it out.”

Despite his words, he carefully took the chocolate bars I was holding with trembling hands.

“Damn, I can accept the synthetic flavoring that only gives off a chocolate scent, but isn’t it crossing the line when half the content is sawdust?”

“That’s how this neighborhood is.”

“I don’t even have a stomach implant. Even if I eat a truckload of sawdust, it won’t fill me up.”

He silently put the chocolate bar in his mouth and slowly swallowed it.

I thought he would eat hastily, but surprisingly, his movements were slow.

Perhaps the food felt sacred since he hadn’t eaten in a long time. Or maybe he didn’t even have the strength left to roughly bite into the chocolate bar.

Whatever the reason, he swallowed both chocolate bars without stopping, albeit slowly.

“How is it? Feeling a bit stronger?”

“Damn it… I do.”

To some extent, it seemed he had regained his will to live. If I could buy this with chocolate bars and a small amount of money, it could be considered a fairly satisfactory deal.

“There’s no end if you keep counting every bastard. Go home, get some sleep, wash up, and eat something.”

He was contemplating.

It’s a life of settling. Whether collapsed on the street or collapsed in his apartment, his life wouldn’t change.

But the mere possibility of continuing that worthless life is hope. Faced with an easy choice, he probably wouldn’t want to make a difficult and harsh one.

“Rest up and take care of yourself. I have some influence in this street, you know? I’ll find you a decent job, so keep that in mind.”

“……Bullshit. I’ve never heard of a sneaky kid like you.”

“Well, that’s what I’ll become in a few days.”

He shook his head in disbelief but soon straightened his posture as if accepting my words.

After all, the unbelievable things that happened to him today weren’t just one or two.

“Why are you doing all this for me?”

“I bought a badass soldier at a bargain price. Isn’t this an economical deal?”

“That’s bull…….”

While he took this as a joke, from my perspective of knowing the future, it wasn’t exactly a joke.

In this world, human strength wasn’t determined simply by physical power.

The most important thing, as it was in the previous world, was mental strength.

A mind that could carry out its mission in any situation was the most valid value in this chaotic world.

Next would be ordinary combat experience. Hitting targets with guns and cutting off opponents’ limbs with swords.

And after that came implant tolerance.

There were numerous hypotheses. Some said it could be overcome with mental strength, and there were research results suggesting that factors like loyalty, happy home environment, and reasons to fight had complex influences.

But the most important thing was just talent. Even if someone was born into a good family and grew up without hardship, loyal to the corporation. Without talent, they would go crazy or die the moment they put on combat implants.

The ironic point was that there wasn’t a proper way to measure this talent.

There were cases where nothing happened for a month, and then implant side effects suddenly burst out, and cases where people could perform daily life and training without problems after wearing combat implants but developed issues the moment they entered actual combat.

The pain of implant side effects was quite varied to be simply considered a psychological problem.

Not just going crazy, but hands moving on their own, suddenly losing all strength and freezing up during combat, or dying from shock due to pain multiplied hundreds of times.

It was somewhat solvable with good implants made by corporations after safety verification, but still, no human had overcome the unknown space called talent.

However, the method of measuring this was primitive and barbaric.

It involved wearing basic implants and observing the progress, monitoring health conditions, and carefully increasing implants.

Naturally, those who failed either died or lived with permanent disabilities. There were not a few people who became addicted to the implanted state and lived as invalids for life.

“Badass soldier… I’m a soldier missing one leg, far from badass.”

“Well, that’ll work out somehow as you live on.”

Strength and personal physical training are of course important matters. Unless you’re an incredibly wealthy person, you couldn’t replace all parts of your body with implants, and ultimately, without exercise and effort, gaps would inevitably form.

But basically, these were elements that could be changed. Whether legs, arms, height, or lungs. If you spent enough money, you could install implants that fit that body.

Thinking about that, my words calling him a ‘badass soldier’ weren’t wrong.

Whether from the game’s description, the memo obtainable after defeating him, or his attitude, he didn’t fight in front of the protagonist while ‘losing his mind and going crazy from excessive modifications.’

He just harbored enormous grudges against everyone.

Against Hansan, against the gang that kidnapped him, against the society that left him to fall like this, and against the people beside him.

It wasn’t that someone nearby got hit when he closed his eyes and swung his hands, but that he massacred with the genuine determination to kill them all.

Not a few people in White Mountain Street died by his hands.

Even the player-controlled protagonist would have had to die several times if they hadn’t met him with sufficient equipment and decent control.

But these are all things that haven’t happened. Things that won’t happen. At least not in my world.

“I’ll make good use of the pistol.”

“……Why did you buy that so expensively?”

“It’s not easy to get Hansan items with disabled bio-recognition inside the city. As you know, they’re really strict with censorship.”

“If used well, couldn’t it be used to mess with people by pretending to be Hansan?”

When Hansan items are found at crime scenes, people will basically suspect Hansan.

“That’s interesting.”

Even without that, as Hansan’s CEO, I could use the fact that I could obtain these unauthorized Hansan items without Hansan’s permission.

“Get some rest. See you next time.”

“And fuck, quit the drugs! I’m a really successful person. There’s no place for a junkie in any job I can get you!”

“I know… I know. I took them because I was hungry. Because I was hungry.”

It was quite bitter that drugs were cheaper than food.

If they were proper drugs, even considering this was a slum, they shouldn’t be cheaper than proper food.

Drugs that might kill people right after taking them, things that couldn’t possibly be sold for money. They must have obtained things that were being disposed of at prices cheaper than water.

“Right. I’m going.”

This time was a success.

Even when the protagonist later enters White Mountain Street, unnecessary grudges against Hansan will be gone. At least regarding this man.

Well, if I went around dealing with everyone who held grudges against Hansan in this city like this, even if I went around Stella City until the end of my life, the accumulating grudges would be greater than the ones resolved.

Still, I gained a usable talent. Though I might have had to use somewhat ruthless methods if things had gone wrong, fortunately, he followed my intentions faithfully.

“……Will this really be alright?”

The waiting secretary stood behind me naturally.

“Look into that Homer guy and let me know.”

I knew he had his circumstances, but that information was only what could be obtained in the game, what had flowed from his mouth.

From Hansan’s perspective, different content might be visible.

“If you want to help Hansan’s disabled veterans, it would be better to just give orders to the relevant department.”

“I know that too.”

I thought I helped him, but perhaps this too is just hypocrisy.

It’s obvious that creating a stable system is better than saving individuals.

He couldn’t be the only one who ruined his life because of Hansan.

If I were to pour money into each such person, even for someone like me, it would exceed the limit of ‘money that can be used personally.’

“It was unavoidable.”

“I guess so. I know that too.”

This is Hansan after the war. Even for a major corporation, there was no small amount of debt to repay.

Since they hadn’t achieved an overwhelming victory in the war, even Hansan had to struggle for a while.

But under the pretext of efficiency, they weren’t even spending money they should have spent.

Goodwill is like insurance.

Corporations were running like crazy runaway trains. They were gaining their own profits while trampling on cheap humans under the pretext of efficiency.

Yet, no corporation had properly paid the price for it. Well-established corporations were steadily suppressing the riots and resistance of humans who couldn’t stand it anymore.

But that’s not an efficient method. At least, that’s how it will be after taking one hit from the protagonist.

“……Let’s go.”

There was no time to hesitate. This game’s quests were unnecessarily vast, and I had much more to do than help one old disabled veteran.

“It’s about time for Doris to contact us.”

I didn’t have expectations. Until the end of the game, no one had uncovered the cause of this incident, and that didn’t change even for the protagonist.

It was quite a serious incident, but in absolute terms, it wasn’t that huge of an incident within Stella City.

It’s a neighborhood where dozens or hundreds of casualties occur when gangs properly clash. The residents of Stella City wouldn’t be shaken by the fact that deaths occurred due to mechanical errors in industrial accidents.

They might make noise for a while, but ultimately nothing will change.

Corporations will only make lip service like ‘we will strengthen safety rules,’ but they won’t reduce the amount of work they have to complete.

Still, if I poke around the corporations, I might find some decent information.

I picked up the loudly ringing phone after returning home. A familiar voice rang in my ear.

“Hello? Is this the right contact for Hansan?”