Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 51: The Arena

It wasn’t just Sun Jack who hadn’t received his payment—no one else had either. Frustrated, he decided to create a new team channel and pulled everyone into it.

“King Kong, can you dig up any leads in cyberspace about where Song 6 might’ve disappeared to?”

After a brief pause, King Kong reconnected. “I found that his last livestream was at 11:23 PM last night. After that, there’s been no trace of him online.”

“I just tried tracing his IP,” King Kong continued. “The system shows it as unresponsive. If he isn’t dead, it means his signal has been cut off or blocked.”

Sun Jack glanced at his system UI—15 hours had passed since then. It wasn’t a lot of time, but it wasn’t insignificant either.

“Could he have left the Metropolis? I heard he’s not a local,” the Father chimed in.

“No way,” Four Ai cut in sharply. “Intercity ships only depart every three days. Unless he walked through the radiation zone on foot, he’s definitely still in the Metropolis.” She quickly uploaded the intercity train schedule to the team channel.

The group fell into silence. Song 6’s sudden disappearance, coupled with a complete lack of leads, made the situation difficult to unravel.

Finally, Sun Jack broke the silence. “When we were eating Ke-style cuisine last time, Song 6 seemed a bit anxious. Could his disappearance have something to do with that?”

“I’ve got the video from that dinner,” Tapai said, uploading the footage to the channel. Everyone slowed it down, carefully analyzing Song 6’s microexpressions frame by frame.

Just then, King Kong sent over some software. A window popped up on Sun Jack’s UI: “Microexpression Analysis Panel V2.3 Loaded. Initializing…”

As the progress bar filled from 1% to 100%, King Kong reported his findings.

“Analysis complete. Fear accounted for 37% of Song 6’s microexpressions, disgust 13%. During his last speech, his speaking rate increased by 0.7x, and his voice rose by 11 decibels.”

“Amitabha,” King Kong concluded, “it seems Song 6 owes money. And to someone serious.”

Sun Jack mulled this over—it made sense. If Song 6 believed money could solve any problem, the only thing that could make him anxious was a financial issue. And with his live-for-today attitude toward money, this was very plausible.

“Yeah, it must be a big deal. If it wasn’t, that guy would’ve just freeloaded and skipped repayment,” Tapai snarked.

“But we completed the job this time, didn’t we? Song 6 PUS should’ve had enough money to pay his debt. So why the sudden vanishing act?” Sun Jack wondered, his suspicion growing that Song 6 had pocketed their payment.

“Amitabha, if it’s really about unpaid loans, it should be easy enough to confirm. We can ask someone in the loan business to pull his records,” King Kong suggested. He then posted a payment link to the team channel. “Access fees are 0.25@ each. Split the cost.”

“D*** it.” The thought of spending more money on Song 6 made Sun Jack’s skin crawl. But if they couldn’t track him down, their 20@ payment would be lost for good. Begrudgingly, he paid, even covering Tapai’s share since the AI technically counted as part of the team.

9.465@.

Though it hurt to spend the money, the results were worth it. King Kong quickly returned with news.

“PUS borrowed money from the 18th Street gang. Their thugs grabbed him.”

A blurry surveillance video played, showing three individuals storming into Song 6’s apartment and forcibly dragging him out. The trio wore a mishmash of prosthetics, their designs chaotic and crude, but all had a large 18 emblazoned on their shoulder guards.

When the footage ended, King Kong’s virtual image turned to the team. “What now?”

“What else? We go get him,” Sun Jack declared, standing up. “His debt is his problem, but our payment is ours. We worked hard for it.”

No one objected. After all, they’d come together for precisely this reason.

“Where’s the 18th Street gang located?” Sun Jack asked.

“You don’t need to go far. I’m already on my way. Their territory is in the Queens District,” Four Ai replied. “Oh, and Father—bring me some grenades from King Kong’s shop. I used mine up last time.” Р₳NОβËṡ

Sun Jack immediately opened his system to buy insurance, ensuring some coverage for what lay ahead.

The group heading to the gang’s hideout included Sun Jack, Tapai, Four Ai, the Father, and AA—five in total.

Clutching her equipment, AA nervously greeted Four Ai in a small voice.

“Why’d you bring her along?” Four Ai asked.

“More people make a bigger statement, don’t they?” Sun Jack replied. If AA was serious about becoming a mercenary, she needed to get used to this kind of situation. And since they weren’t planning to storm the hideout guns blazing, the risk seemed manageable.

“Here,” Tapai said, shoving a kinetic rifle strapped to his back into AA’s arms. “Can you use it, kid?”

AA quickly shook her head and pulled a strange-looking pistol with an oversized drum magazine from her bag. Its crude construction and mismatched parts made it clear she’d cobbled it together herself.

“I’ve got this. I made it myself, and I know how to handle it.”

“Alright, let’s go meet the 18th Street gang,” Four Ai said as her six drones landed neatly on the roof of the vehicle.

On the drive over, Sun Jack used the system to research the gang. The 18th Street gang had formed six or seven years ago, originating from a coalition of thugs from 18 different streets. Their operations included loan sharking, drug dealing, brothels, and underground no-holds-barred fighting rings.

Looking out the window, Sun Jack realized their territory wasn’t far from his apartment. Through the glass, he could even make out the distant neon of their streets.

“That’s the first street,” Four Ai pointed out. “The lieutenant in charge of loans is in that arena ahead.”

Through the car window, Sun Jack saw an ostentatious holographic advertisement above the building. It showed a two-headed lion savagely ripping apart a naked woman. The gore was shockingly realistic, with detailed sprays of blood, exposed bones, and torn flesh.

Beneath the ad, the arena itself resembled a smaller version of a Roman colosseum, though still enormous in size. Its blood-red façade was imposing.

Four Ai glanced between Sun Jack and the Father. “Remember, we’re here to find someone. Avoid clashing with the gang if possible. If we fight, they’ll have the numbers, and we’ll be at a disadvantage.”

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