110. message
After the Great War, overall technology and culture declined, but two things developed by leaps and bounds. One was implant technology, the other was construction technology.
“Because it is directly related to survival.”
As limbs are paralyzed and organs are rotting, they rely on implants, and as mechanical bodies develop, construction and civil engineering have developed. In the past, even the task of bringing in heavy equipment was solved with three workers using construction bodies. And one of the three junk town scavengers used a construction implant body. They were the protagonists who built a big city in the wasteland, so there was no doubt about their talent.
“Above all, it is cheap. What remains is manpower.”
“So you have this problem.”
Construction on Junk Hill 18-8 Avenue has begun. Through a contractor introduced by Jake, the broker, the design was drawn up and the construction was entrusted, but since it was a junk town construction, I had to supervise it. I was afraid of what I would do to the building that was just being built.
“We are not like that. You can’t do that to someone introduced by Jake and the twins.”
The construction manager shook his hand and said. Although he was a tough worker, he gave the impression that he was far from violence. He didn’t even look brave enough to play tricks on a building with fixers, brokers, and gangsters. Still, in case I didn’t know, I looked around the site.
It is only now under ground construction, but the approximate site has been taken. There will be a gate on the south side going up the hill and an outdoor terrace on the north side overlooking the White Town. I proposed a green garden and a tank-shaped fountain out of personal greed, but I quickly gave up after hearing the maintenance cost of ornamental plants and clean water. It will be just a place to see the skyscrapers of White Town and the molehills of Junk Town. The main users were junk town residents and wasteland customers, so it was practical rather than fancy.
The first floor will be operated as a bar and casino, and the second and third floors will be used as guest rooms. The basic material is reinforced concrete that can withstand the rampage of cyborgs, but the exterior finish was decided to be synthetic wood. Even if the cost went up a little, I couldn’t give up this much.
“Because it is on the ground.”
“Why is that?”
“If it’s on the ground, we should use trees.”
Max, who was born and raised on the ground, couldn’t understand it, but he passed on because he thought the feeling of a 19th century pioneering village would not be bad.
“So how much is the total?”
“Money matters are not to be discussed lightly.”
“Just tell me a little bit.”
There’s no reason it should be, but if you have to be clear, 120,000 credits were spent on the foundation work alone. The cost of the interior, electricity, water supply, and household items were separate, so the account was bottomless poison.
Leonard looked around three times around the hotel grounds, where he had lost all his possessions, and returned to Blue Bee with a stinging glare asking him to go.
“You are envious, right?”
“what?”
“Mr. Leonard.”
I felt like a successful entrepreneur when I looked around the workplace while driving a high-end car with a high-end body in high-end clothes. No, looking at it objectively, it was a success. Starting from the bottom of a back alley, he became the president of a hotel in 7 years. Based on junk town, it was about 0.01% in the top.
“You will think differently if you know how many times you have passed death.”
“That is also an ability.”
“There is a saying called three lucky charms.”
“Again, here we go again.”
Leonard rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a lollipop. Even after earning hundreds of thousands of credits, candy made with cheap sweeteners remained the same. It seemed to mean that I should continue to act as a solver.
“Still, the end is in sight.”
“At least it’s called a new beginning.”
Leonard took the candy and climbed into the driver’s seat. Either way, there was still work to be done.
@
A pillar with the name ‘Leonard Walker’ is being erected in Junk Hill, but Leonard’s routine has not changed much.
I woke up in the morning, ate my meal with an energy bar, passed the time with Sigma and jokes, and secretly ‘leaved work’ and went to the gambling house, but ‘returned home’ early due to Max’s nagging.
“Are you lucky? Mr. Leonard is out of luck that way? I could have already built a hotel with just the credit I threw on the slot machine.”
Since the amount of money lost so far is in the unit of 10,000, it was not very wrong. Still, he had a mouth and had something to say.
“I’m not drinking or smoking, I’m not doing drugs, should I be punished for my one and only hobby?”
“What if that hobby is gambling? yes! Sure!”
Even if he insisted that he was different from addicts who would throw away house documents, land documents, and formula milk for his wife and children, there was nothing to say when he said that original gambling addicts insisted that way. After arguing, I came up to the 9th floor, and a customer came to see me.
Leonard glanced at his brainchip watch. It is an industry that has no concept of business hours, but it was not a polite visiting time in terms of normal social manners.
“Les, Leonard Walker?”
Although the names ‘Sir’ and ‘Mr’ were omitted, the guest was right, seeing as they knew Leonard’s name.
“If it’s a request, a middleman… Where have we seen it before?”
Among the scavengers, he was a Jintung scavenger, so he didn’t seem like someone who would look for a fixer, but he was strangely familiar. Max, a human who does not need the process to scan his face and turn it into data, shouted first.
“Mr. Fool!”
“Mmm, idiot?”
“Oops! mistake! You’re the one who showed me around King’s house, right?”
Leonard also confirmed his memory only then. He was the scavenger of the 25th-9th street garbage mountain.
“It’s been a while. How are you? What brought you here?”
Is there anything else to see in the fixer’s office besides the quests to solve? But Leonard Walker wasn’t a fixer you could hire for a few energy bars. I didn’t ask with that intention, but I understood that intention and shook my hands.
“Key, the King sent it! Please listen to what I said last time!”
“King Schultz?”
When I asked how to contact him with a body without a single electronic component, he contacted me using a person like an old man. I received help and promised something, so I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know that it was annoying.
When Leonard and Max put on a look of realization, the idiot scavenger hesitated.
“Hey, can I go inside now? It’s a bit inconvenient here…”
A new job came in. I don’t think I’ll be credited, but I couldn’t refuse.
@
Administratively, even the same junk town had distinct districts and roles.
For example, District 30, where Orange Prison is located, is the worst residential district of the worst, Districts 21 and 22, which are located in downtown, boast land prices comparable to those of White Town, and Districts 17 and 18, called Junk Hill, have a very small population. It was a moon village.
And Eleventh Street, Leonard’s home and office, was a sophisticated ladies’ quarter by junk town standards.
“I think the scavenger here is different from the beginning.”
“okay? I’m not sure?”
“why? You have all your limbs.”
“Ah… that’s where it’s different.”
The idiot scavenger was both excited and terrified when he came up from the 25th Street dump, the bottom of Junk Town. It wasn’t some kind of entitlement. There are resident birds in every neighborhood, but the scavenger, like its name, is close to a beast, so it was especially severe. If you were unlucky, you could be beaten and disappear without even knowing mice or birds. Still, there is no public authority to investigate.
“If you mention Leonard’s name, you will be less harmed.”
“It’s less. It’s not that I don’t.”
“Wow, you’re smarter than you look?”
It’s not really a compliment, but I was proud, so I put up a short nose. Leonard stopped making noise when appropriate.
“So what’s King’s message?”
“Me, a message?”
“…you mean what did you order?”
“ah! what you did What you did…”
The idiot fumbled with his memory. It was a real memory, not a memory chip.
“Sah, find someone. Jamie Bolt. 47 years old. female. A researcher at Airholes.”
King’s first message in terms of personality was, ‘Have you been okay? It should have started with ‘I apologize for being rude with the sudden contact’, but it was reduced to 20 bytes due to the messenger’s insufficient data capacity.
“Wasn’t the last time you asked me to take you somewhere?”
“You must have changed your mind.”
Or you want to check if the person you are meeting is still alive. I was curious that the scavenger king, who was stuck in the sewers of Junk Town, was the one who hired a fixer to find.
“Airholes is a company that makes drones.”
“To be precise, it is a place where artificial intelligence robots are made. We make all kinds of robots that can be made, such as unmanned vehicles, polygonal tanks, and androids.”
The base city is A-020 City, but it wouldn’t be a request to go there and find it. King never left A-044 City, so they probably met in this city.
“Knowing your name, age, and affiliation should be enough clues to start with.”
“Airholes’ office is at 3-3 Street in White Town.”
Sigma gathered the information and sent it. I didn’t care about uncredited requests or employees who didn’t receive credit in the first place.
“Are you going out of business? hacking? attack? kidnap? torture? After all, hacking is neat, right?”
Leonard looked at Max like a criminal.
“If anyone hears it, they’ll think it’s a gangster office. Let us act like civilized people.”
I didn’t point out that it was a fixer’s office that even gangsters avoid as dirty.
Since the standard for a civilized person in the 21st century was citizenship, Leonard was definitely a civilized person. And citizens could enjoy various benefits of public institutions as much as they paid taxes.
“Yes. match Jamie Bolt. Just check it out.”
Leonard called City Hall’s cleaning department and Air Hall’s headquarters to get the target’s personal information. Of course, the personal number and address are not disclosed, but it is easy to find out the history of working in the company. That alone greatly reduced the range.
“He is a real person.”
“You must have asked me to find it because it actually exists.”
“Sometimes people create imaginary characters as a side effect of delirium or e-drugs. I don’t think King will do that, but I’ll definitely point it out.”
I also found out that he transferred to A-044 City 12 years ago and resigned in September of last year.
My career has been pretty good. A native of Lenox City like Leonard, he graduated from college at the age of 16 and received a degree in robotics at the age of 19. At the age of 20, he moved to the ground with his disabled parents, and in the same year joined Airholes and helped develop ‘artificial intelligence exploration robots that operate in polluted environments’.
“I became a senior researcher at the age of 32 and moved to A-044 City as the head of R&D at the age of 35.”
“Wow… is this the life of a real entrepreneur?”
Leonard neatly organized the document and sent it to the Max terminal.
“But I don’t know what’s going on with the King.”
This was the only thing that could be investigated from the corner of the room. King asked for whereabouts, but decided to meet in person in the name of friendship and curiosity.
“Can you find it that easily?”
“If I can’t find it with this much information, I’ll have to close the office.”
Max showed something like respect for the first time in a long time. It was just a pity for the idiot scavenger who couldn’t catch the timing to go home.