Chapter 45 – Landfill (1)

Chapter 45 – Landfill (1)

[Translator – Late Dreamer]

[Proofreader – Seeker]

Chapter 45 – Landfill (1)

The trash rising up to my ankles was daunting. It felt like walking through a sea made of garbage.

“Hey, where are you going?!”

I shouted vigorously.

But the blonde girl continued walking silently ahead, not responding to my questions.

Geez, the kid had no manners.

I grumbled to myself.

Of course, considering my current state, it was a natural reaction.

I briefly reminisced.

It had been maybe over an hour since I started following the blonde girl who had told me, “What are you looking at? Wanna die?” as she stared at me.

The trash underfoot was hindering my walk.

Maybe because I had become smaller due to the hardships, or perhaps it was the reason why my walking speed had slowed down tremendously.

And when I was falling behind...

The girl who had stopped walking turned around to look at me.

Seeing that gesture, it seemed appropriate for me to follow her.

But before that, it would be nice if she could tell me where we were going.

I opened my mouth again.

I exerted strength to voice out.

“Where on earth—.”

Suddenly, the approaching girl covered my mouth with her small palm.

“Shh, idiot. Be quiet.”

With the same momentum, both of us were buried in the pile of garbage.

Despite the dizzying smell and the food flowing through my hair, I tried to stay focused.

But then, because of the sound I heard next...

I silenced my breathing.

A whirring noise filled the air as the propellers spun.

A giant drone emitted red lights here and there, seeming to check the piles of trash.

And then, from within the trash heap...

A large rat popped out.

I was almost startled enough to scream.

It wasn’t because the rat boasted a size of over 60cm.

Nor was it trying to scratch the drone with its razor-sharp claws.

[Organic material detected.]

The dart fired from the drone pierced the giant rat directly.

Blood dripped down.

Eventually, the drone hoisted the giant rat and flew off somewhere.

The blonde girl cautiously removed her hand that had covered my mouth.

And she said.

“If you don’t want to die, get yourself together. There’s not a single person here to protect you.”

I got up from my prone position.

“Here is where all the trash from Neon City gathers. No one cares.”

Beyond the finger, the girl pointed at.

A grand concrete wall appeared.

And the girl started walking again with small steps.

...Neon City.

The name comes from a cyberpunk game.

I clenched my mouth shut.

But still, I didn’t stop following the girl.

...However.

Wasn’t that last action just now what saved me?

I decided to let such a trivial matter slide without picking a fight.

It felt like dreaming an old dream.

“Hey, wake up.”

[‘Siwoon’, come to your senses.]

[Translator – Late Dreamer]

[Proofreader – Seeker]

Familiar voices echoed.

Considering the flames and smoke rising, it was a situation where we didn’t know when it might explode.

And also to get away from the interference of radio waves inside the airship.

As we moved away from the airship, Natasha’s urgent voice came through the radio.

《Hey! Are you okay?》

I pressed the button on the radio to respond.

“Yes, we’re fine.”

《Phew, I thought something went wrong again because the airship suddenly crashed.》

...Well, something did go wrong.

But as long as the outcome is good, it’s all fine, I thought.

“We’ve secured the target recruit. Our current location is...”

I looked around.

Catherine supplemented my words through her radio.

“I think we’re near Zone E right now. So it might be difficult to move to the designated safe house in Zone B.”

This was somewhat expected when the airship crashed.

Originally, the plan wasn’t a crash but a landing.

《Then, are there any places nearby to hide? Even if the Tech Master and Red Hound start now, it will take quite some time. Also, it’s difficult to get any other support because Kojaka’s corporate drones are up.》

I pondered for a moment, organizing my thoughts. Catherine seemed to be doing the same.

Zone E... So, the location is...

Hmm.

There was one suitable place.

I spoke into the radio again.

“Yes, there is. The plan will proceed as originally intended, just with a change in location.”

Although it’s called a plan, there wasn’t much to it.

In the end, all we needed to do was find out if William Kojaka was smiling at John or not from a safe location.

I briefly bid farewell and ended the radio transmission.

I glanced around lightly.

It was a place I hadn’t visited in a long time.

But still, as a place where I had spent a considerable amount of time...

Little by little, my eyes began to adjust.

– The landfill site.

Even in a place piled up with garbage like a mountain, there was a certain irregular order.

The faintly drawn lines on the floor between the garbage, the distance from the outer wall, and the names of the current zones.

If you carefully observed such rules one by one...

It was easy to figure out our current location.

“Phew.”

I let out a small sigh.

[Why are you sighing, I wonder.]

Eve responds to my soft voice.

“Because we’re going to have to crawl back in here again.”

[...?]

Saying this wouldn’t make sense to Eve. We met after coming out of the trash dump, and there wasn’t much information known about it.

A melancholic yet uncomfortable feeling.

Catherine seemed to share a similar feeling with me. Her expression wasn’t exactly bright.

Ah, but maybe it’s because of the stench of garbage.

Anyway, just like Catherine and I lived here, surprisingly, there were quite a few people living in the trash dump.

While it wasn’t safe with corporate killing drones roaming above ground and the risk of being swept away by garbage with heavy equipment, not to mention the scavengers digging through the trash, it was still a place where people lived. It felt somewhat different from the underground layers of a slum city.

With William Kojaka on her shoulder, Catherine swept away the garbage with one foot.

Inside the cleared garbage, a manhole cover appeared, hidden by years and food, so tightly sealed that no gaps were visible.

...If we depart from this location, we’ll have to pass through the sewers to reach a residential area, perhaps.

People here lived underground.

And it was a community of sorts.

In the outside world, they were sometimes referred to by the derogatory term “moles.”

* * *

“Hey, hey! How long has it been! Geez, those tiny ones have already grown up and left, it feels like just yesterday. What’s going on here again? By the way, there’s news that a spaceship crashed above, Did you guys have anything to do wi—, but who’s the gentleman on your shoulder? He looks quite expensive.”

“He’s Vice Chairman of Kojaka.”

“Hahaha! You’re joking!”

It’s not a joke.

[Translator – Late Dreamer]

[Proofreader – Seeker]