24. potato
The request money was deposited from the 9-9th Avenue facility manager.
He was neither brave enough nor ignorant enough to skip the credits of the solver who lives only today. It was a request through an intermediary anyway, so there was no harm to the solver if he skipped it, but it felt good to be recognized for the value of his labor.
“Look at this. Is it useful to have?”
Leonard bought a box of flash grenades, incendiary grenades, and even fragmentation grenades, which were not available before, as soon as the front seat in his account changed. Yelling at Sigma was a bonus.
“Mr. Leonard, do you know the term plus minus zero?”
“Isn’t it zero? Do you have some left?”
Sigma expressed ‘a little bit is a problem’ in the way of a rip-off wife, but the effect was weak because he was not human. The emotional spectrum of second-generation Android wasn’t that wide.
I also bought a new army knife and kukri, and I also got a chest rig tailored to Max’s body type. With this mutant hunt, the novice gunslinger realized he needed an ammunition unit.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t the head of the daycare center? Didn’t you say you’d kick them out soon?”
Sigma teased pointedly. Leonard cleared his throat and excused himself.
“You said that if you do one person’s job, you will be sent out. Until then, teach me well.”
“What is the standard for one person’s share?”
Leonard crossed his arms and looked at the porridge piled on the table.
“First, you have to get yourself something to eat.”
In that sense, I have already become one. Max came back at the perfect timing.
“Mister Leonard! Sigma! look at this! I brought something valuable!”
I put something in an envelope made of waste paper. I even skipped greetings because of excitement. Leonard and Sigma looked at the contents of the paper bag and spoke in turn.
“potato? sweet potato? Is it Yacon?”
“As a result of morphological analysis, there is a 69.92% probability that it is a potato.”
“Why are the numbers so vague? Could it be that it is a contaminated potato?”
“What are tainted potatoes?”
The last question was the naive Max. Leonard said after sealing the potato guess.
“Potatoes grown in polluted areas cannot be eaten by humans.”
“Maxes without implants are particularly dangerous.”
It is common sense in the 21st century, but farming cannot be done anywhere. It had to be built with seeds and purified agricultural water preserved in the dome after decontamination. For that reason, natural foods were expensive luxuries sold by the gram.
“Did Mr. Juggeotuck give you this?”
“This guy is really…”
Leonard clenched his fists and pretended to run away. The reason it ended with pretending was because the chin came after Max. The weighty implant waved with a light-hearted grin.
“Hey, hyung, did you receive the present well?”
Leonard was pushed out of his size, gave up the grab and punched him in the chest.
“Where do I get my spare time!”
“interim? What is it? Are you eating?”
“You can’t even eat!”
It was exactly what was left over from eating, but it was similar in that it was garbage. The chin scratched the chin and pointed at the potato bag.
“Are you very upset about that? Even if you look at it like that, it’s a potato purified with a new technology from Azdek Company.”
Familiar but unfamiliar nouns came out.
“Azdec company? Aren’t they ruined a long time ago?”
“Damned, what are you ruined? Well, not like the old days.”
Azdek Company. It is almost the only place as a food engineering company, but it was rarely mentioned in pirate broadcasts because it did not have a big vision because of the ground. Even the Liberation Front terrorists, who regard corporations on the ground as living demons, did not bother targeting them, so their meager presence was well known.
Leonard snapped his finger for Sigma to see! Bounced. The base model is outdated, but the best hackers have been hard at work upgrading it, so the performance is comparable to the latest Android. Potato guesswork was scanned for contamination.
“What Mr. Jugeoktuck said is right. It is an edible food with less than 4% contamination.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
He shrugged his shoulders as if he was embarrassed. Even Max clicked his tongue as if to show it. However, Leonard’s doubts did not go away.
“Did you get that because you have some connection to the company?”
“Oh, did I not tell you? My brother is doing business related work…”
“Are you a business man?”
When Leonard asked sarcastically, ‘Is this the White Town development?’
“Not me, but my brother. I’m not a business man, but I’m doing business related work.”
“That word is that word.”
Corporate employees are not only white, so poor entrepreneurs were also able to do it. The chin scratched his chin again.
“I helped Qing with his work the other day, and I want to share good things with my neighbors.”
Leonard took a step back with a suspicious expression. Stealing a company’s new product is like launching a coup d’état and declaring independence, but it’s highly likely that they were acquiescing for the purpose of promoting the dying Azdec accident, so I wasn’t worried. Jaws Jaws lowered his voice and whispered.
“This is a secret that is not a secret, but sooner or later those potatoes will be brought in bulk to Junk Town. Rumors spread even among the back alley scavengers.”
“It’s strange that rumors don’t spread if you bring it as a gift.”
“Because it’s not something that I can think of so easily. Potatoes that can be eaten without worrying about radiation exposure? very good! It’s a revolution! You can’t compare it to an energy bar, right? But will those guys who stick around with electronic drug chips 24 hours a day pay for potatoes?”
It won’t be a concern for the company’s sales. Leonard laughed incredulously.
“Are you afraid a scavenger might rob a company’s assets?”
“Is that the Azdek sign?”
“…There is a possibility.”
Compared to companies such as Big Ground, Schneider, and Rykov, which produce various tactical weapons, Azdek’s employees were not even the level of suburban sheriffs.
“It doesn’t matter that I’m from across the river, but I think the fixer man will have something to do, won’t he?”
The back of the chin was wider than the wasteland. But this time it helped.
@
Sigma has boiled some potatoes. Leonard checked everything from the Geiger counter to the pollution kit just in case, but no danger was found. There was nothing wrong with it, except for the fact that it was ugly, befitting a species native to the wasteland.
“If this is real, great. Will the food situation of the New Human Federation change?”
“no. Depends on cost. If it is not 22% cheaper than the currently produced ‘Dome’ crops, it has no product value and cannot survive.”
“Well, it looks a bit like that, doesn’t it? I also have a big dislike for the wasteland.”
The entrepreneur who breathes high air in White Town uses only the finest food ingredients grown in the finest facilities, and the drug-stricken scavenger in Junk Town insists on the cheapest energy bar, so even potatoes and sweet potatoes are not competitive enough to survive.
“What’s so complicated? If it’s delicious, don’t you buy it and eat it?”
Max slashed at the boiled potatoes. Knowing is a disease and not knowing is a medicine, and it seemed that there was no objection to the deformed color and shape.
“It’s a little dry, but delicious. It tastes a bit sweet too. Are these potatoes?”
Leonard and Sigma looked at the brave assistant and talked again.
“No matter how much the company produces, it’s enough to be greedy for a scavenger who can sell it at a ‘reasonable price’. Even if I sold one egg for 1 credit, a basket would be 30 credits and a truck would be 30,000 credits.”
“The ‘rattle’ Cooper will be contacted for a corporate request.”
“No, it’s a scavenger hunt, so Jake will contact you.”
It is unknown which broker Azdek has been working with, but Leonard will definitely be contacted. It was rare to find a trustworthy solver who would entrust tens of thousands of credits of corporate assets.
Growing boy Max ate 5 potatoes when the phone rang. Leonard’s intuition beat Sigma’s odds. It was Jake, the ‘broker’.
-It’s a new job. 3,000 credits. Is it possible?
Leonard replied with a triumphant smile.
“Yes, of course.”
@
Leonard’s predictions were two right and one wrong.
It was true that it was Azdek’s cargo escort and that the cargo was purified potatoes. However, the hired fixer and the fixer broker were not one. Entrepreneurs had no junk town-style business morality.
“Leonard Walker? Are you in charge of this too?”
Azdek Inc. also put in a request to Joel Cooper, the ‘rattle’. Even if it rots, it seems that the company has paid a lot of commission fees. The legendary solver ‘Noah Lucas’ has appeared. Leonard muttered reflexively.
“Damn it…”
“yes? What the fuck are you saying when you see your sister? Aren’t you being too polite?”
“It’s not my sister, it’s my grandmother. How are you?”
Noah Lucas. A-044 He was a senior solver who had been active since the beginning of the city’s construction. In other words, she was a veteran who had survived for over 20 years, and a grandmother who was close to 60 years old. Don’t be fooled by the sleek implant face.
“I’m good at working alone, but it’s relieved when Leonard helps me.”
“What about Ryan Bourne? Didn’t the porridge go well with you?”
“He is busy these days. It was like beating a wild kid with the Big Grounds guys.”
Unlike Leonard, he specialized in contract killings, so that suited him. Noah Lucas looked at Leonard’s assistant as he rolled up his baggy dress.
“Speaking of the kid, who is the kid next to you? Is this your new son?”
“Did these people make it without my knowledge? Why are they all sons?”
He even asked if he was a new son. It seems that he knew him as a married man in the first place.
“Mae, this is Max Walker. I work as Mr. Leonard’s assistant.”
Max blushed and replied. The child had a taste for danger. Noah looked at the Walker brothers in turn and giggled.
“Walker? Are you a walker? It can’t be. Is Bald Jake playing around again? hahahaha! Still, it looks like they’re on good terms with the picky Leonard. I am Noah Lucas. It’s a fixer.”
Leonard kicked the wriggling assistant and gave him advice.
“Don’t be fooled. He is at least eighty years old.”
“Not eighty years old. Not yet.”
It seems to be true that he is older than he looks. It was a triumph of the latest implant technology.
While the two solvers were building a friendship that was not friendship, a client with no morals arrived. It was an Azdek company employee who looked exactly like the target of this request. So, he was a businessman who did not feel like a businessman.