Convict Unit: Black Parade

A few days after the “Secret Service” mission.

Deck 10, the Rooftop. The Workshop.

“Ah, this one’s a bust, y’see.”

Grease Gal brought the analyzed Gate Core over to Jae-hee with a sympathetic expression.

“It’s a D-Rank Core. ‘Fraid it don’t have much value.”

“Damn, I figured…”

“On the bright side, you cut it so cleanly that the settlement value will go up a bit…”

At the mention of a clean cut, Jae-hee’s face lit up, and he pointed to himself. “Oh! That was me. I sliced it.”

“For real? I thought it was done by some swordsman who’s done nothin’ but swing a blade for decades. Wowee! You’ve got some serious talent, Mr. Boy.”

“Hehehe,” Jae-hee laughed like a goof.

It was just a bit of flattery, but he was pleased all the same.

“Anyway,” Grease Gal continued. “I could probably slot it into a piece of gear, but it wouldn’t have much of an effect.”

“What kind of effect?”

“You said this was a Mirror Slime Core, right? The effect would be just like the monster…”

“Which is?”

“It’d make the surface of your gear all shiny, so you could use it as a mirror in a pinch. Somethin’ like that.”

“Wow, what a piece of total junk.”

“Right?”

There was basically no point in socketing it in his gear. He’d have to give up on making anything with this Core fragment.

“As for the settlement value…it’s still a Core, so you’ll get about a hundred thousand for it.”

“A hundred thousand!”

Jae-hee gasped.

Ghost had said she didn’t want a cut, so if the four remaining survivors split it, that was twenty-five thousand each.

A whopping 250 days off his sentence!

That’s still something!

Jae-hee was grinning from ear to ear. For a secondary piece of loot, that was a pretty sweet bonus.

“Any other repairs you need for your gear?”

“Nope! Everything’s great. You’re a god of crafting, Miss Grease Gal.”

“Oh, stop. You can flatter me all you want, but I ain’t got any more freebies to give ya.”

Even so, Grease Gal was smiling just as brightly.

Jae-hee’s eyes swept over the equipment displayed inside the workshop. “Hmm, maybe I should buy one more piece…”

There was a certain satisfaction in filling up his empty gear slots one by one.

He was pondering which piece of equipment he should get next when Grease Gal spoke up cautiously.

“So far, you’ve gotten everything on the cheap, ’cause you either brought in the core components yourself or had a production voucher…”

She picked up an equipment catalog and fanned it open with a crisp thwump.

“Normally, this is about what gear costs.”

“Holy!”

The equipment in the catalog made hundreds of thousands of Credits seem like pocket change; high-end pieces with multiple functions were listed in the millions.

His face fell. “Why…why is it so expensive?” he asked in a timid whisper.

“Honestly, this is on the cheap side compared to the Gate Gear sold outside the prison. Of course, there’s the massive restriction that you can only use it on missions…”

“Ah,” Grease Gal exclaimed. “We do have a rental service, though.”

“Rental?”

“For mission use only. Remember when you went to Chuncheon? The metal gauntlets Punch Queen was using?”

“Oh! The gravity field gauntlets.”

“Yup. Those were rentals. Though she pretty much had ’em on permanent loan.”

Grease Gal opened the rental catalog.

“Since it’s a rental, it’s a lot cheaper than buying, but if it gets damaged, you gotta pay a certain amount to cover it…”

“Ugh, so strict.”

“Still, whenever a mission comes up, you can figure out what it entails, pop over here for a minute, and I can set you up with some useful gear.”

Jae-hee propped his chin on his hand and nodded thoughtfully. “So I’d be paying to temporarily boost my stats?”

“That’s the long and short of it. It’s a type of boost. Kinda like getting a real kick-in-the-pants stimulant shot from the Doctor over there.”

Grease Gal let out another “Ah” and jutted her chin toward the clinic. “You haven’t tried the stimulants yet, right?”

“No.”

“The effect is killer, but I’d stay away from ’em. You get a taste, and next thing you know, you’re getting a shot every time you go out on a mission…”

She shared a chilling story about inmates who ended up spending more on stimulants and rental gear than they earned on their missions.

I’m never touching that stuff. The thought sent a shiver down Jae-hee’s spine.

In any case, his current gear—the windbreaker, the sneakers, and his longsword and shortsword—seemed to be enough for now.

“Alright, I’ll deposit the Credits from the spoils to Boy, Status Window, the Doctor, and Rabid Dog. That’s the four of you.”

“Yup!”

“Okay, transfer’s complete. Thanks for your business, as always. Take care now!”

“No, thank you. I’ll be back.”

After leaving the workshop, Jae-hee stopped by the bank kiosk to confirm that the loot had been properly settled and check his total balance.

“Let’s see, the transaction history…”

The last time he was here, he’d paid for the crafting costs of his longsword, Mountain Lord, which had left him with a balance of 785,000.

After that, he’d spent 1,000 Credits on groceries for Razor… which Razor had paid back.

He’d been about to buy Ghost a 10,000-Credit meal… but she’d paid instead.

He’d received a bonus of 100,000 Credits for defeating the Phantom Tyrant.

The “Chuncheon’s Finest Chicken” mission had earned him another 500,000.

And this last “Secret Service” mission, being short and easy, had a reward of 100,000. Add the 25,000 from the spoils, and the grand total was…

[Current Balance: 1,510,000 P.€]

“Whoa!”

Jae-hee let out a cry of admiration, staring at a balance that had somehow surpassed one and a half million.

Is this what it feels like to earn a steady paycheck and watch your savings grow?

He felt a swell of pride and drummed his fingers against the balance screen.

If he kept saving diligently like this, he’d hit ten million eventually, and with just a little more after that, he could buy his freedom…!

Just then.

“Uggghhh…”

A pained groan echoed from the clinic next door.

“Huh?”

Jae-hee logged out of the kiosk and peeked inside the clinic. What was going on?

“Uggghhh…”

There, the Doctor was slumped over a table, letting out a wretched noise.

Jae-hee asked cautiously, “Miss Doctor? Are you… okay?”

The Doctor turned her head without lifting it from the table and grumbled in his direction. “So it’s you, Boy. Do I look okay to you?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m still wiped out from the last mission.”

“Huh? But that mission was pretty short and easy.”

“I don’t usually go on missions. Outside is exhausting.”

As one of the few medical personnel on the ship, her workload was already heavy. Going on a mission on top of that had left her with a bone-deep fatigue that just wouldn’t go away.

Jae-hee stroked his chin. “Hmm. I guess medical staff are a precious resource. We should save you for when we really need you.”

“If I’m so precious, they should treat me like it. Ugh…”

After exhaling another weary groan, the Doctor sluggishly pushed herself up from the desk.

“So, what are you here for? You hurt?”

“Nope.”

“Need a shot, then?”

“Nope.”

“Then why are you here? Scram.”

He’d only stopped by to check on her after hearing the groaning.

The Doctor was shooing him away with a wave of her hand when she suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!” and reversed the motion, beckoning him closer.

“Ah, right. Boy. Come here a sec.”

“What? You just told me to scram.”

“You can scram after seeing this.”

As Jae-hee trotted into the clinic, the Doctor pulled something out of a drawer.

“I heard you run out of gas after just a short sprint, so I mixed something up for you.”

It was an auto-injector, the kind typically used on the battlefield, filled with some kind of drug.

“This is a Refill Injector.”

“A Refill Injector?”

“You run out of stamina pretty fast when you go all out, right? And it takes a while to recharge.”

“Huh…! That’s right.”

The Doctor shook the auto-injector in her hand. “When that happens, you jab this into your thigh.”

“And then what?”

“Your stamina will be refilled. You’ll be able to use your ability again.”

“No way!” Jae-hee bounced on the balls of his feet in excitement. “That’s incredible! It’s insane! That’s the best thing ever!”

“Of course, there are side effects.”

“Ah.”

“You’ll be able to use your ability again, but you’ll be forcing a physically exhausted body to reboot, so it’s going to be pretty painful.”

The Doctor calmly explained the drawbacks. “And since you’ll be pushing your energy reserves to their absolute limit, the fatigue afterward will be much worse than usual.”

“Hmm… That’s a pretty big risk.”

“Still, it’s a lot cleaner than the stimulants the other guys use. This doesn’t rely on the drug’s potency; it just helps you draw out your body’s own energy.”

“…”

“The drug itself is less potent, which means you pay the price with your own body.”

Compared to the stimulants, it had fewer addictive properties or long-term aftereffects, but it was a shot with an honest price.

“This is just a prototype I whipped up as a test, so I won’t charge you for it. I’ll put it in the equipment locker under your name. Take it with you on missions and try it out if you’re in a real pinch.”

The Doctor made a soft, muffled sound from behind her mask.

It took Jae-hee a moment to realize it was a laugh.

“If you use it and make it back alive, let me know how it worked.”

“Uh…if I don’t make it back alive, I won’t be able to tell you, will I?”

“Hmm.” The Doctor thought for a moment, then jutted her chin at him. “From what I can see, you don’t seem like the type to die easily.”

“Oh, really? Is that a doctor’s intuition?”

“No. It’s a statistical deduction.”

Jae-hee tilted his head. A statistical deduction?

The Doctor pointed an index finger at him. “Usually, in this line of work, the crazy ones last the longest.”

“Huh? But… I’m not crazy.”

“You think I haven’t seen my share of psychos pretending to be sane? You, my friend, are a grade-A nutjob.”

Jae-hee wanted to argue, but the image of himself leading three rabid dogs into battle flashed through his mind, and the words caught in his throat.

“And if, by your own claim, you’re not quite crazy enough yet, you should hurry up and get there.”

Waving him away again, the Doctor offered one last piece of advice.

“That’s the secret to a long life in this business.”

***

Deck 9, the Shopping Arcade.

After coming down from Deck 10, Jae-hee made his way into the shopping arcade. He had business at the large supermarket located on the ninth deck.

An errand for Master!

To be precise…

A cigarette run!

Just yesterday, Ghost had asked him to pick up a carton of cigarettes for her the next time he was in the area, promising to pay him back when he delivered them.

Jae-hee entered the supermarket and trotted over to the checkout counter near the entrance.

Standing there was a massive black man, for some reason wearing elaborate makeup and humming a cheerful tune

Jae-hee found himself staring, bewildered, at the man’s oppressively shiny, lipstick-caked lips before he snapped out of it and walked over.

“Uh, hello… I’m here to buy some cigarettes.”

The man, who had been adjusting his eyelashes in a hand mirror, replied without looking up. “ID.”

“Huh?”

“Let me see your resident registration card.”

Slowly lowering the mirror, the man turned his gaze to Jae-hee and curled his lips into a smirk. His double chin folded, creating a formidable smile.

“Gotta verify you’re an adult, right? No ID, no smokes.”

“…”

A beat later, a strange sound escaped Jae-hee’s lips.

“Whaaaaaaaat?!”