Odd jobs were, naturally, nothing special. Moving paperwork around, going out to exchange names again and again, and the occasional coffee run. I didn't think it was especially unfair. After all, this was work I'd been given in place of clerical duties.
"It's about lunchtime. How does the Serious Crimes Division usually eat?"
"The teams that are out on patrol usually eat before their shift starts, then go out on patrol. Otherwise, they use the cafeteria."
"I see. But does the Serious Crimes Division patrol too?"
"More or less. We patrol the areas with more disputes, especially the places where the Infected live."
"The Infected..."
For a moment, I remembered the children I'd met in the back alleys. They, too, should have had the right to walk the bright streets and laugh, just like the children across the lanes visible from that window. But the black stone growing from their bodies had stolen their world and made them outsiders, rejected until the moment they died.
"...That's bitter. Really."
"That's just how the world turns."
So that's how the world turns, huh.
"Terra really is fucked."
"That's a little early to be coming out of a child's mouth."
Young or not, it's a fact that it's fucked.
"Tsk. Then should I go to the cafeteria too?"
"I heard Wei Yenwu gave you a card earlier. Since it's your first day, go eat outside."
"Really? Then I'll be back after I go."
"Ah, wait, wait. Take this."
The team leader handed me a small radio.
"We have to be the first to arrive at any scene of violence. Even if you eat outside, come running the moment you hear a call."
"Making a living is rough... right?"
"Haa... a kid who looks like he could be my son is talking like some world-weary old man."
"Let's call it young man. You've got 'old man' covered on your end."
I was a young man before I died too, you know? And I've been here for eight years now... so that makes me an old man, doesn't it?
'No, wait. These days even people in their thirties aren't old men... right...'
"Why are you suddenly getting gloomy by yourself? You got mood swings or something?"
"No, it's the psychological damage of aging."
"...? What a strange one."
"A strange person doesn't need more than one strange person. Strange."
"Puh-choo...! Kkh! I think I've caught a nasty cold. My ears and nose keep itching."
"Could it be a pollen allergy?"
"I don't have anything like that... how strange."
Stepping back outside, the streets of Lungmen stretched wide before me. I had to find a restaurant that suited my taste here.
"Ah... I'm... hungry..."
Calm down. I'm a bird of prey now. With this open field of vision, I'll seize the target I want.
Food with mala in it? No. Too stimulating. It'll interfere with the afternoon.
Oh, an Eastern specialty restaurant? No, there's Jay, so there's no reason to go out of my way.
"Where should I go? Where... oh, what's that?!"
A very, very familiar fast-food shop—strictly speaking, not the same as the franchise I remembered from Earth, but extremely similar—caught my eye at once.
"The dragon head shall scatter burgers!"
Well, the card was already mine.
"One large burger set, please."
Burger, huh. Sounds delicious. Come to think of it, wasn't this the first one I'd had since coming to Terra?
"Then, let me say grace—"
"Emergency! All units, listen up! Armed bank robbers are fleeing along Lungmen B-7 Highway! All units, move to rendezvous immediately!"
Huh? Now? My hamburger? I haven't even taken a single bite. You're seriously telling me to go right now?
"Shit. This is Baekhyun. I have a question."
"What is it? Answer quickly."
"I'm eating near the scene, so if you give the order, I'll run straight there."
"Run straight to the scene... Fine. Confirmed. Do not kill them. They're currently driving from B-7 toward the highway. Can you manage it?"
"Absolutely, sir."
You bastards had better only get beaten until the moment before you die.
"Hey, floor it! Rob the bank! Rob the bank! Rob the bank!"
A black truck tore down the road, ignoring every signal. Since Lungmen was the center of the economy, crimes involving the theft of Lungmen currency and escape into the Nomadic City's underground—where no one who entered could ever find their way back out—had been rising sharply of late.
"Hey, the cops aren't on us, right?"
"Don't worry. Nobody can stop us now!"
Since this hit-and-run had been the most perfect job in their entire criminal careers, they probably thought the traces wouldn't be followed until after they'd finished their escape and were already smoking drugs in some comfortable underground hideout.
"Hey. Didn't someone just run between those buildings?"
"What? Don't say stupid shit. Quit smoking so much, damn it..."
"Was that so? Well, I guess nobody could move between buildings like that."
Lungmen's buildings were mostly high-rises, and unless you could handle Arts, you couldn't run freely across that distance.
"So what are we spending this money on first? I'm buying a mountain of beer right now and drinking until morning. I'll even call up a decent-looking woman."
"Drugs. We need to buy drugs right now."
"Take out the repair costs first, you idiots."
"Who cares?"
A modest, heartwarming conversation exchanged among criminals. My heart is warming up so much. The wind carried your conversation to my ears...
"You interrupted my lunch for that kind of bullshit?!"
That was more than enough to piss me off.
With a boom, I landed on top of the truck and drove my sword straight down, detonating the blade technique. Through the gaping hole, a sly-looking Zarak and a pale, bruised man who looked drugged out of his mind stared up at me.
"What are you staring at? Pull over."
"W-What the hell are you?!"
"Are your eyes just for decoration? Can't you see the badge? I'm a cop, you criminal bastards. Charges are theft, traffic violations, and the offense of ruining my lunch."
"You're insane! Hey, knock him off!"
"Don't act so high and mighty, cop!"
Then where else would a cop act high and mighty? A cop has to be able to stand tall in front of criminals.
Advance, Slay the Bandits Form
As I dropped through the hole, I swept my sword in a full circle and cut them down. I'd controlled the force, so even if they were slashed, they wouldn't die.
"Hey, pull over. Or I'll kill you."
"W-What are you?!"
The truck had apparently been heavily modified, so the blade didn't sink in as deeply as I'd hoped, but it was still enough to tear open the driver's seat.
"Pull the vehicle over to the side so you don't endanger the other cars."
"Y-You little shit!!"
Ah... why can't everyone understand me the first time? If you were born before me and you're older, then aren't you all teachers? What kind of teacher can't understand a student's words?
"Hey, does this look like a joke? Killing one of you is nothing to me. Would you understand me better if I let my blade graze your body like those two behind you? Hm?"
"O-Okay, so just put that damn sword away!"
"Good. Now we're finally speaking the same language. Oh? You've got tattoos on your arm too. Let's see... one, two, three, four, five, six... what, are you in sixth grade?"
"What the hell kind of bullshit is that?"
"If you don't get it, forget it. Now get down."
Three men were sitting with their hands up on the roadside. In front of them stood a boy who looked no older than his early teens, holding a sword and looking down at them.
"We received a report that they stopped around here. Everyone, bring handcuffs and tasers, and stay close behind."
Under the team leader's cool, concise orders, four members of the Serious Crimes Division and two ordinary Guard Bureau personnel got out of the truck and advanced, prepared for any possible clash.
'Even if he was nearby, catching up to the truck would be... honestly impossible. So did they self-destruct during the chase, or get into an accident?'
There was no way a truck that had been fleeing so smoothly would suddenly pull over obediently on the shoulder. We had to consider the possibility that something happened and they fled, that they turned on each other, or, in the worst case, that they hijacked a civilian vehicle and escaped.
"All right, roll left, roll right, left, right, left, right, left, right. Hm? Your movements are slowing down. Hey, don't want to do it? Did I force you?"
"...No!"
"Look at how slowly you're answering. Left, right, left, right. Now stand up."
"W-Why are you doing this to us! Just arrest us!"
"Because you bastards ruined my lunch. Hand over the hamburger, you bastard!"
"I-I'll give it to you!"
"I don't need it, bastard!"
"...Uh... Team Leader? Are we really seeing this correctly right now?"
"Hah... what a load of crap."
A fleeing truck wouldn't have politely obeyed traffic laws while escaping, and yet he'd caught up to a truck running at full throttle with nothing but his bare body and subdued them?
'And those wounds... they're clean.'
The sword wound across his chest was so shallow that, if blood hadn't seeped out, you might not even have known he'd been cut. The lumps on his head... were probably from being beaten hard by someone.
"Haa... hey, go stand in the back and accept the handcuffs quietly. If you try anything stupid, I'll roll you some more."
"P-Please arrest me first!"
"No! I-I'm the bad guy!"
"I'm the lowest of the low, the most rotten bastard in the world! If you don't arrest me, I'll lose my qualification to be a Guard Bureau officer!"
"...Haaah... Team Leader? Come here for a second."
"Y-Yes, sir..."
For a moment, the team leader himself, without realizing it, blurted out a deferential tone after getting spooked by a junior thirty years younger than him. But no one at the scene could laugh at him, or even ignore him. The expression on the boy who had called him over was far too ferocious.
"Didn't we have a dinner bet, too?"
"We d...id. Right."
"I'm in a pretty bad mood because those bastards ruined my lunch today, and if they ruin dinner too, I think I'll be really, really pissed."
"Dinner... I'll buy it! Right."
"Ahahaha, right? I wasn't trying to show off or anything. I just wondered if you remembered. Come on, let's go in. There'll be more work piling up. We should hurry."
"Right... everyone, withdraw..."
Yes! I'd secured a free dinner.