Supporting Characters in the Game are Obsessed

The world was spinning around.

The ground I was standing on felt the same.

Even though I was clearly on solid ground, the world swayed like I was on a boat.

Why did I drink so much?

I wondered the same thing.

I was lucky to have resisted the strong suggestion to just take a nap since I was clearly drunk.

Otherwise, I might still be drinking on the third floor.

If only I had installed an ethanol combustion cyberware in my stomach, maybe it would have changed things.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room in my fragile body for such an implant.

It was a day I felt jealous of the drunken sailors in Cyberpunk.

The current drunkenness felt overwhelmingly strong.

Leaving Natasha, who was lost in sleep behind me,

I stepped out of No Answer.

An orc without a mother, Smith, walked out after me from No Answer.

“You’ve had quite a bit, haven’t you? I’ll escort you home.”

“…I’m fine.”

Ugh.

I almost threw up after pretending to be fine.

Maybe Smith saw me and made another suggestion.

“You don’t have to refuse. If the boss finds out later, I’ll be in big trouble.”

“Ugh, …huff. I’m really fine. It’ll be quick to take a taxi home from here anyway.”

I waved my hand.

Maybe it was because of the alcohol, but I kept bursting into silly laughter.

“I’ll tell the boss… that Smith took good care of me.”

And then, a loud commotion erupted inside No Answer.

Shouting voices and the sound of something spilling and toppling were heard together.

“Uh, sounds like there’s a fight inside. Don’t worry about me; hurry and check it out!”

“…Um, thank you for your consideration, Shun. Please tell the boss.”

“Of course.”

After confirming my reply, Smith moved his massive body inside No Answer.

He kept looking back to see me off.

What’s so hard about just going home?

I had no idea why he was so determined to escort me.

“…Eve, can you flag down a taxi for me?”

[I confirm.]

“Huff.”

I took a deep breath.

The cold air coming through my mask felt sharp.

It was the Lower-Class Area, and since it was late at night, the taxi fare would probably be double.

But I was fine with that.

The credits rolling in from Eve’s streaming were pretty substantial. Thanks to that, my stress about money eased a lot.

Thank you, Eve!

Despite the location, the taxi arrived at my spot quickly.

I sat naturally in the back seat of the taxi.

I checked the taxi’s display screen.

The destination was correctly input as ‘North Houston.’

Hmm.

Getting in the taxi made my stomach churn even more.

But I definitely didn’t think I’d throw up.

Focusing my thoughts elsewhere, I turned my gaze out the window.

Neon signs, LEDs, and holographic billboards in the city whizzed by.

The city, sparkling with lights and letters, was brightly shining regardless of the late hour.

Should I try to sleep?

No way, what if I wake up and am robbed?

As I yawned widely and traveled for a while…

“……”

Suddenly, a wave of anxiety poked at me.

Something felt off about the vehicle in the adjacent lane.

An oddly shaped four-wheel drive MPV began to close in on my taxi.

By the time I recognized the MPV wasn’t respecting personal space,

its side door opened right after.

Someone with a masked face appeared.

They were carrying an anti-tank weapon over their shoulder.

“?!”

– Kwahh!!

—

Unwanted Obsession (3)

A ringing tone buzzed in my ears.

Lying on the ground, I stared at the dark sky.

Soon, a visual interface appeared in front of my eyes.

《An error has occurred. Call to civilian medical service ‘Heal and Run’ has been terminated.》

…What kind of error is this?

I paid a lot for my subscription; it’s useless if I can’t call it when I need it.

Maybe I should just cancel next season.

I turned off the screen irritably.

[I detected a small electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and it seems that’s why the call signal was blocked, I explain.]

“H.”

Hearing Eve’s response, I got up.

Good thing I cast a defense magic as soon as I saw the missile.

Otherwise, I would have been a goner.

I didn’t feel any immediate injuries.

The taxi I was in looked utterly wrecked. Flames and smoke rose from it.

I was ambushed on the overpass.

I assessed the situation around me.

Luckily or unluckily,

there seemed to be no cars around us.

The MPV that launched the missile came to a stop nearby.

Several people got out of the vehicle.

I recognized their outfits from a surveillance camera video Natasha showed me.

They were the goons of Smile John.

I rolled on the ground once.

Still feeling the effects of the alcohol, my head wasn’t working right.

But one thing was for sure: I was being attacked.

The goons of Smile John set down a hologram projector on the ground.

Soon, a hologram resembling a smiling emoticon revealed itself amid beams of light.

【Hello! This is Smile John!】

“…….”

【…….】

Did they want a response?

“Uh, hello.”

I replied formally for now.

It wasn’t because I got shot for talking informally earlier.

I had my reasons.

【You must be quite surprised by this sudden situation. I apologize! The taxi driver was just too enthusiastic, and we had no choice!】

I had no idea what kind of nonsense this was.

I arrived in a driverless taxi, after all.

There was no reason to listen to this nonsense, but I had to stall a bit.

I asked Smile John, “So what’s the business? Why exactly are you targeting me?”

【Haha!】

Smile John laughed with an annoying chuckle.

It sounded like a broken TV.

【Oh dear, right into the main topic without any light ice-breaking, aren’t we hasty! Most people living in Neon City are like that, but how about we take it a bit slower?】

The nonsense continued.

I seriously just wanted to punch him once.

I lowered my voice so that no one could hear.

“…Eve, can you track where his main body is?”

[I’m already tracking it, but… it appears to be located at least 500㎢ away, I calculate.]

“…H.”

He’s far away.

That meant tracking Smile John’s main body from here was practically impossible.

But suddenly, Smile John asked me,

【Oh, by any chance, did you just ask Eve about my location? Or perhaps hacking? I detected a hacking signal from you. Tsk.】

What? How?

I tried to keep a straight face.

It wasn’t that my hacking was detected.

I was puzzled about how the opponent knew about Eve’s identity.

【Right, how could I know about ‘Eve’? You look curious. Well, how could that be?】

A round hologram spun around.

The smiling mouth grew wider.

【Actually, it was a secret, but I created Eve!】

“…What?”

【In fact, I watched the whole scene when Shun gave a name to the AI. Haha!】

Who the hell is this guy?

I had no idea who he could be.

Since Eve wasn’t an AI that appeared in the game, I had no way of guessing his identity.

He couldn’t be a remnant of the enemy that appeared in the main story since I’d already uprooted their roots with Catherine a long time ago.

So, there had to be someone I overlooked or a leftover enemy.

No one came to mind.

【I didn’t want to poke my nose into this, but I just got curious!】

Smile John kept speaking.

【When I first made it, it must have been an ordinary AI. But after you took it, it’s operating almost like a super AI now! Isn’t that wonderful and curious? Haha!】

Smile John stopped spinning.

The emoticon’s black eyes turned toward me.

【But why do you hate going out so much? Because of you, there’s hardly any data collected, data.】

Is that truth or a lie?

[……I cannot confirm with the contents of the database. All portions related to the creator of this AI have been deleted, I deny.]

Eve said that too.

My head spun from the unexpected situation.

I felt the alcohol starting to rise again.

【So, as the almost only super AI, I thought it would be time to take it back! That’s why I came here in person!】

“Coming in person, my foot.”

Hiding behind a hologram.

Seeing that smiling emoticon face made me angrier.

I thought about punching him to relieve my stress, but sadly, we didn’t have the technology to hit holograms even in Cyberpunk.

【What will you do? If you kindly return Eve, we’ll leave without causing any trouble!】

‘Smile John.’

I still had no clue who he really was.

I didn’t know his gender or name.

But what mattered right now wasn’t that.

What was important was that through this conversation, I’d successfully gathered enough ‘mana’.

Whether it was because of the alcohol or the fact someone wanted to take Eve away,

I was also just incredibly angry for the first time in a while.

“Let’s just say one thing.”

【You’re speaking informally…】

“Shut up.”

The whole world turned white after that.

A brief silence.

A massive lightning bolt fell from the sky.

━━━━.

The thunder that erupted struck the overpass directly.

Streetlights shattered and the lights around the city disappeared in an instant.

The entire vicinity was engulfed in darkness in no time.

I created a wind to blow away the smoke.

In front of me, the road was devastated.

The MPV, the goons of Smile John, and even Smile John himself had vanished without a trace.

Whether they fell below the road or were blown to pieces was none of my concern.

It felt like I had used way too much.

“Ah, that felt refreshing after a long time.”

My stress had dissipated.

I felt a bit sober now.

“Eve.”

[I respond.]

“Were you secretly wanting to go back?”

[I absolutely deny.]

“Right?”

There’s no way I’d let her go. She’s mine.

“……”

So, what should I do now?

First, I should call Smith and ask him to clean up this mess a bit.

And it’s better to flee before the NCPD shows up.

If I accidentally got sued for damages from the destroyed road, it’d mess up my happy-happy (subjective) Neon City life.

Eve would probably take care of erasing my face from surveillance cameras or black boxes just like always.

And while I did manage to roughly resolve the situation,

I didn’t think this would be the end of my troubles with Smile John.

That was obvious.

Eve had tracked down and said his main body is somewhere far away.

I’m sure he’d come back again later.

…

But that’s a problem for later.

I figured things would work out somehow.

For now, I was tired and just wanted to go home and sleep.

“Hah.”

I let out a deep sigh.

[…Did I cause any trouble…]

“How long do you think I’ll walk home, huh? What was that?”

[……. ]

Eve fell silent.

Right now, the problem was how to get down from the overpass.

—

*

The next day.

Once the alcohol wore off, I thought about it.

Maybe I had been a little excessive.

《This is NCB24 News. Last night, a strong lightning strike occurred in the Business Zone. There are reports of a hole in the city shield. The City Security Department announced that the city’s defense functions are operating normally, which has raised many concerns about the safety of the city. Questions arose about how such an occurrence could be physically possible, while experts say…》

“……”

That was the news.

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