IBACT Chapter 9

Guilty (9)

“Do you like that woman?”

“No. That wasn’t my intention.”

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t pleased. Seeing her with my own eyes made me understand more clearly that this world was a game.

It was inaccurate to judge the age of Stella City residents by appearance, but she was genuinely young.

“Is this… the first time I have actually seen her?”

“You probably saw her face a few times at official city events. But this is the first time you’ve met her like this.”

She was able to rise to that position thanks to her somewhat insane behavior.

She never compromised with injustice (by Stella City standards), rushed headlong into dangerous situations (even considering it was Stella City), and proved herself to be a fair and capable officer.

It was a kind of madness. Like a person with two eyes being considered a hideous mutant in a village of one-eyed people.

In this city, people who spoke righteously died in an instant.

If you spoke righteously to a gang, you’d become a corpse that very day. Without any warning or reason.

Just walking down the street, someone might pull out a $50 gun from their pocket, shoot you in the head, and disappear.

Of course, this problem could be solved by living in the well-policed city center. At least in areas directly managed by corporations, large gangs couldn’t set foot.

So, many people boldly spoke righteously against gangs. If you were a corporate employee, it was natural to be able to say such things.

But some real “weirdos who couldn’t bear not speaking the truth” would sometimes speak righteously against the corporations too.

Corporations were relatively gentle, but fundamentally not different.

Thoroughly examining a person’s past activities and internet records to make them look foolish was a relatively mild response.

Sometimes they would manipulate information to label someone as mentally ill or a criminal and throw them in prison, and if that didn’t work, they might hire gangs or mercenaries to kill them.

Even scarier was simply being fired. The murderous cost of living in the city center didn’t allow people unaffiliated with corporations to stay there.

Many services were provided through corporate insurance programs.

Medical services that cost just a dozen dollars yesterday might become unavailable even at tens of times the price. The same applied to water, electricity, and communication fees.

And those who were driven out fell to the outskirts of the city, where the gangs lived.

Many ended up as corpses on the street without the corporations needing to do anything.

“It’s interesting, isn’t it? Someone like her.”

And Lisa was someone who had overcome all of that with her own abilities.

The gangs that had tried to kill her weren’t few. The corporations that had tried to bring her down weren’t few either.

But she endured it all. Even when facing the strongest criminals, she somehow managed to hit their weak spots and win and somehow withstood surprise attacks.

When corporations tried to find fault with her, she didn’t leave even a hair that could cause problems.

Of course, if they had tried to destroy her using more difficult and complex methods, they would have eventually succeeded. No matter how good she was, she couldn’t survive if corporations were determined to kill her without restraint.

But she strangely kept to certain lines. Enough to make profit-oriented corporations deeply consider whether killing her would be beneficial or harmful.

“She’s only alive because Hansan showed mercy. She was an incredibly lucky person.”

“Luck is also a skill.”

As time passed, the police chief changed countless times.

Without corporate backing, no one could build the connections and achievements needed to rise to such a position.

Those with corporate backing had their wrongdoings exposed by other corporations using “principled journalists.” Their average tenure didn’t even last a few months.

“It’s still her ability that got her up there.”

That’s when Lisa, who played the role of the corporations’ common enemy, appeared.

She wasn’t excessively involved with any corporation. Though she had mellowed somewhat since becoming police chief, they say she was like a mad dog when she was working in the field.

Lisa was a kind of neutral zone. She didn’t show loyalty to anyone, and when she had to bow to corporations, she didn’t favor one side.

She had enough achievements and fame without corporate help. The corporations, too, were wary of the fight for police control becoming so heated that the security in the slums completely collapsed.

Citizens were sick of news about greedy old police chiefs being dismissed for corruption, and the mayor gladly accepted that “offer he couldn’t refuse.”

Just as Stella City was made a neutral zone to erase the scars of corporate wars, she became police chief to prevent the corporations’ deadly battles for “police control.”

“As long as she holds that misguided belief, she’ll die someday. She’s a foolish person who doesn’t feel it only because the fire hasn’t caught her body yet.”

“…I suppose so.”

The secretary was right.

By the time the game ends, Lisa would be dead.

In endings where the protagonist cooperates with corporations, she dies at the protagonist’s hands while risking her life to investigate the protagonist’s tyranny.

In endings where the protagonist fights corporations, she dies rushing out to protect corporate property after receiving a police dispatch.

People who don’t bend eventually die. Though she had become somewhat flexible as police chief, more elasticity was needed to survive in this city.

“So, I need to keep her from dying.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you see her expression? When we gave her a little treat, she wagged her tail like a dog.”

The secretary’s expression in the rearview mirror didn’t look too pleased.

“The young master is right.”

If you know what someone wants, you can use them.

Fair investigations and protecting citizens. It might infringe on Hansan’s interests, but that wasn’t my concern.

Hansan making a few more bucks in Stella City is a trivial matter to me.

If I can create a reason for the protagonist, who will eventually appear, not to kill me, I can accept some damage.

If I can preserve my direct business while Hansan shrinks, my influence among Stella City’s Hansan enterprises increases. This wasn’t a loss either.

Besides, while money is absolute, influence is relative. If she harasses other corporations more than the damage we take, it couldn’t be considered a loss.

“Touching her body didn’t have any special meaning either. I just… needed to keep some distance.”

“So that’s why.”

“I didn’t expect it to be this easy. I thought she would at least be suspicious or more cautious. Just with one word saying she could investigate our territory… it’s ridiculous.”

For that, she and I need to be, at least outwardly, adversaries.

A scenario needs to be created where a thug like me, carried away by my mood, arbitrarily ordered an investigation, and she, who extremely hates me, found Hansan’s corruption in the process.

If I then show myself struggling, other corporations will try to protect Lisa.

From Hansan Group’s perspective, the easiest thing to do to overcome a weakness would be to harm or bring down Lisa.

“There’s a possibility, but it’s clearly a dangerous plan. Eventually, she’ll break her stubbornness too.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Ordinary people like us cannot understand the thoughts of a madwoman.

The actions of a true madwoman who doesn’t fear even the loss of her own life for values that can’t be seen.

***

“You crazy bitch, drive properly! You don’t even have a license! What if we get caught?”

“This is how we escape!”

Luna and Ravina were anxious in the car driven by Doris.

“Please, don’t do unnecessarily dangerous things. Do you really want to die?”

“Alright, alright.”

At Luna’s words, Doris reduced her speed. Even that reduced speed was still dangerously close to Stella City’s speed limit.

They quickly entered the broker’s residence and walked toward their destination, ignoring the decadent atmosphere around them.

“We could have done this over the phone; why did they ask us to come here……”

“Be on guard. There must be a reason.”

The three women entered a decent building that stood incongruously in this violent city.

The building was like a gentleman in a suit examining documents with a composed posture in the middle of an orgy.

Entering the broker’s place, Doris looked around, searching for the person who had called her.

“I’m here, Fumiko.”

“Always noisy. Come inside the room.”

The white-haired old woman, confirming that all three women had entered, casually locked the door.

“I’m suddenly feeling uneasy. You’re not trying to sell us out, are you?”

“How can you have so little faith? A broker lives by trust. Rather than losing my trust to catch a petty criminal like you, I’d leave Stella City with the money I’ve saved.”

“Petty criminal? Aren’t I a big shot?”

“In this field, sure. But after all, aren’t you just a mercenary who finds people killed by gangs and cleans up afterward?”

“I told you I don’t take corporate jobs.”

The broker, Fumiko, pressed a button on a small mechanical device.

[Searching for eavesdropping and video recording devices.]

Light emanated and carefully scanned everything in the room.

[This area is safe. Protected eavesdropping and video recording devices above a certain level, or extremely primitive recording devices, cannot be detected.]

“What are we doing that requires all this?”

Doris frowned. If the conversation was this important, it was natural that it couldn’t be done over the phone or text, where records would remain.

“Even a petty mercenary like you should try to become a big shot. It’s a corporate request.”

“Grandma. Didn’t you hear what I just said? I don’t take corporate requests. The aftermath is too messy.”

Poor people used mercenaries because they lacked the ability to handle certain situations themselves.

Whether they couldn’t find a way to rescue kidnapped colleagues or had no means to avenge family or colleagues killed by criminals.

But corporations were different. The money they paid wasn’t small, but in return, the jobs they gave were filthy and evil.

To begin with, they were capable. If it was something that could be done openly, it would make sense for them to use the police they could control like limbs, or use the force teams within the corporation.

The reason they used mercenaries was simply to avoid responsibility. It meant it was a crime that even the laws and rules the corporations manipulated at will wouldn’t permit.

“I think it’s not the kind of request you’re thinking of, so I’m giving it to you.”

“…Who is it?”

“Hansan.”

“Hansan? Those scumbags? No, Fumiko? If you really come at me like this, I don’t think I can do business with you anymore.”

Doris wasn’t the only one who was angry. Luna didn’t say anything, but her eyes showed intense aversion.

Ravina had relatively less hostility toward corporations, but even she didn’t view them favorably.

“I told you it’s not that kind of job.”

“Then, what is it?”

“An investigation request. An investigation into the recent industrial accident case.”

It wasn’t illegal. It wasn’t a murky job mixed with violence, crime, murder, and theft.

It was a request beyond Doris’s expectations.