Chapter 28: Beware the mob

He’d spent the remainder of the night lying in bed with the inventory open, going over all the items he’d gotten after subduing matchsticks.

Replacement engines, exhaust pipes, suspension parts, lights, wheels and tires for motorcycles and even a few car models, handlebars, two sets of shielding barriers, and a gun. A rusty, loaded gun. He wasn’t sure why she would carry something like that around given her ‘unique’ skills, but that wasn’t really that important.

In a broader sense, all of those things could be extremely useful in case of an emergency, were he to combine them with his crafting ability.

During that time, he’d also taken some time to eye out some of the achievements and stat improvements he’d earned over those two races, but those didn’t tell him as much, comparatively. For all he cared, he was getting stronger. A level 7 like him still had a long way to go, of course, but for a start he didn’t consider it all that bad.

He’d occasionally drift in and out of sleep as the hours passed by, but it never lasted more than a few minutes before he was staring at the floating menu again, almost instantly wide awake.

Just a few minutes past dawn, a deafening whistle had started to sound through the whole room, startling Suzuka out of bed and signaling the end of the room’s rented time, giving them ten minutes to exit before booting them out, which was signaled on a large timer above the bed.

“Alright. Let’s get going. The car should be almost ready.” he commanded, heading for the door.

“Y-Yeah… W-Wait for me… master…?” she mumbled, clumsily following after him.

Clearly, she was still half asleep, given she could barely even open her eyes as she moved, but that would pass soon enough.

He’d already decided on his plans for his elongated stay in that world, but if he wanted to properly act on them, then they had no time to lose.

He moved quickly past the main hall and back onto the streets, followed closely by Suzuka’s trudge all the while, who was still stretching out and rubbing her eyes as she walked. Seemed at least she had been able to get decent sleep. That made him a bit jealous.

“Why are we in such a hurry, all of a sudden?” she inquired, seeming somewhat wary of his demeanor.

“We need that car ready so we can leave this town right away. We’re going on a tour.”

“A… tour?”

“A world tour. I want to see everything the Cyberway has to offer before I can settle on any specific job.”

“A… what!?” that single declaration from him had been enough to fully snap her awake, running up to his side so she could keep up with his stride. “You want to cross the entire Cyberway just like that…? But…”

“These vehicles we have don’t need any sort of fuel to work, do they? They’re as fake as our bodies in this place. They don’t need any sort of repairs or actual maintenance done to them unless they are directly damaged during use, do they? If we can manage to take the right paths and visit all the right places without running into any more ghost towns or anything of that sort, I’m sure we can manage. Wouldn’t you say so?”

The prospect seemed to daze her for a moment, as her eyes nervously darted around without her being able to reply anything. By the time she’d been able to gather proper words, they’d taken the first corner away from the inn.

“I… I mean, it’s possible, but… b-b-b-but it’s way out of the box, master! This world wasn’t made for people to just run around and explore without properly settling somewhere. That’s just not the kind of people that live in the Cyberway! Plus, the ruling class across the four regions… They have eyes everywhere, and they may easily take offense at anything you do, if they consider you a stranger.”

“So what? I’ve had to deal with Nohara and you already. What’s a few more nameless failures in my way? We’re all cannon fodder in this world, anyway. The reason why we’re here at all, to begin with, was that we did not take enough risks when we were alive. We all decided to settle for less and not fight for what we wanted, if it meant preserving the peace. Even the ones who did fight were probably afraid of doing it in an unconventional way, lest it offended someone. I’m not playing that game again when I’m dead to begin with.”

However, Suzuka objected all the same. She seemed to feel very strongly about this topic, which was strange to him, considering how passive she’d been towards him ever since the servant pact, save for the inn incident.

“Trust me, Haru– m-master, you do not want them to think of you as a threat. Terrible things will happen to you if you do! Very terrible things. The best thing to do here is to lay low and try not to call up anyone’s attention.”

Even then, she’d given in to him eventually. He could tell she wasn’t going to do so this time, though. Somehow, he could. She knew something about these so-called rulers of the land that he didn’t.

“Suzuka. Are you really that afraid of these ‘ruling class’ people?”

“Well… I mean… Yes…? I have to be. Everyone is.”

“Who are they, anyway? What makes them so dangerous that exploring around their territory sounds so bad to you?”

“They’re dangerous, alright? Not like Nohara, or even me. They’re on a whole other level. They’re not simply cruel, sadistic or greedy, like most politicians back in our old world. They are demented, completely out of their minds, and if they even so much as set an eye on you, you will –”

Suddenly, she went quiet, turning away from him and staring absent-mindedly at the street surrounding them.

“What’s wrong, now?” he asked.

But he soon noticed the exact same thing she had.

The town was completely empty, despite the sun having already been up for a few hours. The previous day, it had been bustling with people, to such an absurd degree, in fact, that all their weird outfits combined had made Haruto think he might be on another planet entirely.

“Hey, Suzuka…? Is this normal? I thought old people usually got up early…”

“Most of them normally do, yeah…”

And yet, not a single soul in sight. It was way too quiet.

Or at least, so he had thought, before he heard a loud set of footsteps right around the corner, which he could guess were likely some of the townspeople who might’ve only now decided to leave their houses.

“Oh, nevermind. Here come some people.”

He started moving towards the edge of the street, intending to reach out to the incoming residents and figure out why the streets had become deserted all of a sudden.

Before he could turn around the sharp-looking villa that cut off his sight from one straight path to another, the girl had grabbed a tight hold of his wrist, pulling him forcefully back without even a struggle.

“Hey, what the –!?”

“Shut up, master! Come with me.” she whispered, gesturing for him to keep his voice down as well.

Struggle as he might, he couldn’t get rid of her grip.

He noticed now that she was much stronger than she looked. Could it be an increase in level would bolster one’s as well?

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“What the hell is going on, matchsticks!?”

“Master, just do what I tell you, please!”

In any case, she’d effectively moved him right back towards her, and had then quickly dragged him to the nearest alley, only two other buildings behind the villa, where she ordered him to duck down behind a pair of tall old barrels and immediately followed suit next to him, without even a care for what punishment he might put her through if he’d been in a bad enough mood. That alone told him things were starting to heat up, whatever might be the cause.

“Suzuka?”

“I could recognize the sound of those footsteps anywhere. They’re his thugs, alright…”

“Thugs? Whose thugs? Who’s him?”

Instead of giving him a proper answer, though, she simply put a hand over his mouth, much to his chagrin, then going completely quiet as well.

For a moment, the alley had fallen completely silent.

Then, the approaching footsteps of that same group of people in the distance had slowly started to reach the two of them again, followed closely by some laughs and idle chatter, none of which he could understand a single word of. It sounded like some sort of foreign language.

The two of them watched intently as each of the loud individuals slowly came into view, just barely visible from their hiding spot behind those barrels, provided they peeked properly over them, which also came with its risks.

They all looked fairly similar: middle-aged men, bald or with their hair gelled up in some weird way, sunglasses covering their faces and black suits and ties. For of them in total.

A few of them clearly carried a gun with them, and no doubt the others had at least one or more weapons hidden in their inventories as well.

Before long, they had vanished from sight once again.

Haruto took that as his cue to speak again.

“Were those friends of yours, too?” he whispered.

“No. They aren’t friends to anyone at all…”

“Who are they? What the heck were they even saying?”

“They’re the eastern regional lord’s hitmen. They almost always speak in closed Italian so people can’t hear what they’re saying…”

“Closed Italian? Like, they’re some kind of mafia, or something?” he joked with a snort.

“Yes.” she nodded. “The eastern end of the Cyberway is currently being held under the control of a large alliance of dead Italian mobs. On command of the current regional lord, of course.”

“................. You’re kidding, right?” he mumbled, completely stunned.

“No. They really do control this whole region. It’s not very tight control, but it still gets in the way of a lot of people’s affairs, especially people with riskier jobs. Mercenaries, for one.”

“... I can’t believe this… This… This can’t be real…”

“It is. Believe me.” she sighed.

It didn’t seem like she believed herself much either, though.

“Well… Okay… What’s this ‘closed Italian’ supposed to be, anyway? Is there ‘open Italian’, too? Is that some new jargon for weird spaghetti dishes?”

She raised him an eyebrow, as if the answer should be obvious.

“Ever since you’ve arrived here, didn’t you ever think it was a bit weird that every single person you’ve met so far spoke Japanese to you?”

“... Fair point. So, then…?”

“All this time, you’ve been speaking openly in Japanese, without any guard to filter your words through the Cyberway’s system. So, whenever you speak, someone who can only understand English will be hearing you speak in English, even if you don’t know how to speak it yourself. A Chinese person with only knowledge of their mother language will hear you in Chinese, too. Loose souls just work like that in this place.”

“Oh. How riveting…”

“If you’re conscious enough of your own language barrier that you feel a need to distinguish yourself from others, or you simply want to conceal your own words to people who don’t speak the same language as you, you can enclose your speech, and they will only be able to hear your original language without any sort of translation on their end. That’s what those guys always do wherever they go.”

“Okay, fine. But what do they want, anyway? Why are they here? Are they really that dangerous that people would be too afraid to even leave their homes?”

“The mobs got something with them that can put us out of our misery with just the pull of a trigger, so you can bet they’re wise to be afraid.”

“You mean, they can just… kill us? I mean, again?”

“Yeah. It’s called the ‘liquid spear’. And they always carry at least one per group.”

He noticed she was starting to sweat profusely, the rate of her unease increasing with each explanation he demanded of her. Once again, he was certain she knew something he didn’t.

“Why are they here?” he went straight to the point. “If the Cyberway is as large as you say, there must certainly be some big, way better known cities around compared to this tiny town, and a bunch of different capitals where these ‘regional lords’ like to hole up and hang out, right? Why would they go to all the trouble of coming out here to the middle of the boondocks?”

She shook her head, as her body seemed to quiver in place.

“I’m sorry, master…” she said, laughing nervously. “If I had to guess, they’re probably after me.”

“... Come again…?”

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