Chapter 164
I entered Anguis Regina’s ho, which occupied an entire floor as a private residence. With as many as eight rooms, just looking around seed like it would take quite so ti.
‘She must be living quite a luxurious life.’
The living room was so spacious that even parking two or three cars inside would still leave room to spare. Display cases were filled with products related to Jafa, the master sergeant’s company.
‘No signs of forced entry or a struggle.’
I walked along the display cases that lined the walls. Digital fras played advertisents and videos featuring Anguis Regina, showcasing her image. Her character rchandise ranged from pillows and clothes to personal devices and more.
‘Not the tidiest person, and she doesn’t hire a cleaning service either.’
It ant she wasn’t the type to be overly neat. The fact that she didn’t use a cleaning service suggested she valued her privacy.
A person’s living space could tell you a lot about their personality.
I checked the kitchen. Piles of franchise food packaging from Jafa’s company were stacked in a corner. When I opened the fridge, it was filled with instant als and drinks, all from Jafa’s brand.
“Is she just that loyal to the company, or does she simply not care...?”
There were no signs of ho cooking. The cookware was spotless, without a single scratch.
The wardrobe was packed with clothes so flashy they made my eyes hurt. To , many of them barely looked like clothes at all—just strange scraps of fabric. The sheer number of shoes easily exceeded hundreds of pairs. Every ti I moved, my feet bumped into scattered clothes, making it uncomfortable to walk.
I checked every other room as well. Her bedroom... had quite a few details I’d rather not describe. She was a grown woman, after all, and adults had their own hobbies. Toys included.
As I was looking around the bedroom, I stopped in my tracks.
‘Sothing left a mark here.’
I looked at the wall. A small section had been dented, no larger than a fingernail. The exposed inner wall showed no signs of oxidation.
Swish.
I crouched down and examined the floor. My fingertips brushed against tiny fragnts from the damaged wall.
Judging by the oxidation of the exposed area and the condition of the debris, the damage had occurred recently. I continued my search.
‘Broken plastic.’
I found a piece of plastic on the floor. It was pink.
Bzzz.
I quickly pulled up images and footage onto my retinal display. They showed Anguis Regina’s recent activities.
‘A broken device... one that belongs to Anguis Regina.’
She had been using a pink personal device.
‘So she threw it at the wall.’
I stepped back, calculating Anguis Regina’s height.
Swish!
I mimicked the motion of throwing a personal device. The angle matched almost perfectly.
‘The reason for throwing a personal device in the bedroom is obvious.’
She must have lost her temper during a call.
‘A lover? Or family?’
I couldn’t find any personal details on Anguis Regina. There was no information in the network, nor were there any traces in the house that suggested family relationships.
Step, step.
I traced Anguis Regina’s movents.
‘She threw the device at the wall... then picked it up again.’
Her actions beca clear in my mind. The ssy floor, littered with clothes and random items, actually made it easier to figure out her movents.
‘She went to the dressing room and put on her outdoor clothes.’
There were no signs of her leaving through the mansion’s main entrance.
This was the 19th floor. There was no underground passage. The only exit was the window.
I inspected the window fras one by one and found one where the dust had been wiped away. It was large enough for a person to jump through. The trail of erased dust showed Anguis Regina’s handprints along the fra.
‘She didn’t use an air vehicle. If she had, there would be records and witness accounts.’
I opened the window and looked down. The back of the mansion led to a garden, with trees and soil visible below.
‘Did she jump?’
According to Jafa, Anguis Regina had not undergone any chanical or biological enhancents. Since she was an idol under their company, this information would be reliable.
‘Even if she had an enhanced body, a fall from the 19th floor is risky. If I made a mistake, I’d die too.’
I recalled Jafa’s words.
‘Jafa said this would be an easy job for .’
And it wasn’t particularly difficult. I had been here for less than an hour, and I already had a rough idea of what happened.
‘If I sent people out, I could track her down quickly.’
‘But there’s a reason they can’t do that.’
‘They want this handled quietly.’
‘Because she’s an idol and privacy is crucial?’
More questions surfaced. I looked down from the window and took a deep breath.
Swish.
I jumped out of the window.
Screeeech!
My high-performance prosthetic arm scraped against the wall, reducing my speed just enough. I watched as the ground approached. At about the 5th floor, I kicked off the wall and spun once.
Thud!
I landed lightly, bending my knees to absorb the impact.
‘If she jumped, she’d have landed sowhere around here.’
I scanned the landing area. There was a deep imprint—a footprint. Judging by the size, the person had a fairly large build.
‘Soone caught Anguis Regina as she fell.’
If I had access to Anguis Regina’s call records, this would be an easy job. I asked Jafa, but he said it was impossible. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to give them to —her personal device used a one-ti communication network, aning all data was erased.
‘They’re ridiculously thorough about protecting her privacy.’
Jafa was ticulous, which explained his success as a businessman. It was also a common trait among the Tajirun.
‘Soone caught Anguis Regina from a 19th-floor fall. That person must have undergone so form of body enhancent.’
‘And Anguis Regina trusted them enough to entrust her body to them.’
‘Judging by the footprints, they have a large build. If they aren’t human, it’s hard to gauge their size, but if they are, they’d be about the size of Gabriel.’
A person of that size would stand out no matter what.
... I thought of Akbaran. In a place like that, I would have already found my target by now. Surveillance caras, drones, and patrol androids were everywhere in Akbaran, almost littering the streets.
But Border City was a complete ss. Everything—administration, systems, communication—was fragnted. There was no unified system. Just like the old hunters, I had to rely on uncertain clues and intuition to track my target.
‘I can see why Kinuan chooses to stay here. For an Akies Victima user, this city is a feast.’
I left the mansion’s garden. A road lay behind it, with parked vehicles lining the sidewalk.
Crash! Bang! Wrrrr!
I smashed open the doors of the parked cars, pulling out their internal computers one by one. People turned to look at , drawn by the commotion. So of them, likely the vehicle owners, pointed at and shouted. One reached for their waist, likely going for a gun.
“Relax, everyone. Use this to get yourselves a brand-new car. These are Jafa Corporation’s guaranteed credit chips. Be reasonable with the amount you write down.”
I tossed them the blank credit chips Jafa had given . While both the Empire and Bellato used the term "credit," their monetary systems were entirely different.
The car owners inserted the chips into their devices, their eyes widening in shock. Their faces said it all—this was a jackpot for them.
Beep, beep.
Jafa’s na flashed in the corner of my retinal display, and my personal device vibrated. He was urgently trying to contact . He must have noticed the sudden drain on his funds.
Ignoring his call, I continued collecting the vehicle computers.
- Luka! Why are the credit chips I gave you...?
Jafa forcibly opened my device’s communication channel. I raised my collar and spoke into the attached mic.
“It’s for investigation expenses.”
- What kind of investigation needs this much?! Hoyoooh!
“Hang up. I’m busy.”
Gripping multiple computers with cables dangling from them, I walked away, step by step.
* * *
The equipnt Jafa had given was all top-tier. Even my personal device was high-performance, capable of projecting up to ten holograms simultaneously.
I extracted parking footage from the vehicle computers and projected it as a hologram. Since so of the cars had been parked there for days, I found footage capturing both the "large-built man" and a woman who appeared to be Anguis Regina.
Zooming in, I got a clear look at the man.
His chest, shoulders, and even his scalp were covered in traditional Irezumi tattoos, with small implant chips glinting in the eyes and horns of the designs. His arms and legs weren’t prosthetic, but he had reinforced his strength with a basic exoskeletal attachnt.
I contacted Jafa.
- You didn’t have to wreck the cars! You could’ve just bought the mory chips! Hoyot, hoyot! My hard-earned money, my money!
Jafa complained as expected.
“I hate tedious and annoying tasks. Paying a little extra to get it done faster is worth it.”
- That’s not an amount you can dismiss as ‘a little extra’!
“Deduct it from my salary.”
- You don’t even have a salary!
“Don’t be so stingy, rich guy.”
- I invest wisely, but that doesn’t an I approve of wasteful spending!
“Anyway, I just sent you a video. Take a look. Do you recognize him?”
Since Anguis Regina was a celebrity, her range of movent and social circle were likely limited. There was a good chance Jafa would know the person.
- You already found sothing? I expected this job to be easy for you, but to think you’d do it in less than a day... I really do have an eye for talent.
“If you had put your people on this from the start, you would’ve found him even faster.”
Jafa fell silent, presumably reviewing the footage. Then, after a mont, he spoke.
- He’s Anguis’s forr manager. Or maybe her ex-ex-manager? No, wait, her ex-ex-ex-manager? Hoyot.
“How often does she change managers?”
- About once per quarter. I’ll send you his personal details and address now.
###
With the information in hand, things moved quickly.
Bang!
I kicked down the locked door. Inside, thick, pungent vapor filled the air. On a filthy couch, a man was inhaling drugs through a vaporizer.
“Jafa Corporation sent . I’m looking for Anguis, Dostava.”
I called out the na of Anguis’s forr manager.
Dostava looked at with glazed, unfocused eyes, then sluggishly tried to equip his exoskeleton. The drugs had dulled his reflexes, making his movents slow.
“Who... are you...? This is... illegal... trespassing...”
He unsteadily leaned against the exoskeleton mounted on the wall. The chanical fra, which had been spread out, began folding to fit his joints.
Crunch!
I casually walked forward and grabbed the cylinders of the exoskeleton, snapping them one by one. The fra, which had just started to activate, ca to a halt.
“Get out here, you bastard.”
I yanked Dostava’s arm. The flesh of his forearm bruised and caved in under my grip.
“Guh... Kugh! Y-you...!”
“I know you’re high, but get your head straight. If you start mumbling or talking nonsense, I’ll break a limb each ti.”
“Ghhk... Kugh.”
He didn’t seem to understand .
I lifted my foot and pressed down on his hand.
Crack!
The sound of his hand bones not just breaking but shattering filled the room.
“GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH—!!!”
“Want to break the other one too?”
“I’m awake! I’m awake, I swear! Hngh... hic...!”
Finally, Dostava’s tongue started working properly.
“Where’s Anguis Regina?”
“I-I don’t know! She left yesterday!”
I glanced toward his bedroom. The scent of perfu and costics, the sa ones I had slled in Anguis Regina’s elevator, was drifting from inside.
“You her boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend? That woman doesn’t have boyfriends. She probably slept with all her managers.”
I grabbed Dostava and threw him onto the couch. He trembled violently, staring at .
Dostava wasn’t particularly cowardly. If anything, he had just enough animal instinct to pick up on the scent of a killer radiating from . He could tell I had no hesitation when it ca to murder and violence.
“Do you know where she went?”
“She... she said she was going to et another manager.”
“Did anything seem off about her?”
“Now that you ntion it, she asked if I’d consider marrying her. She’s always saying weird shit, so I thought she was joking...”
That was enough.
“Sorry for the sudden visit. Use this for your dical bills and repairs. It’s a Jafa Corporation-backed credit chip. Take a generous sum for emotional damages too.”
Dostava, despite his pain, suddenly lit up. He had worked as Anguis Regina’s manager—he knew exactly how rich Jafa Corporation was.
I stepped outside. The dimly lit hallway of a cheap apartnt complex stretched ahead. The walls were peeling, with mold creeping through the cracks in the paint.
Beep.
Jafa was calling again.
- Why the hell is money disappearing again...?!
“Send the personal details of all of Anguis Regina’s past managers. If you have a problem with it, send your own people to find her instead. You know better than anyone that handling things quietly costs more money.”
- ...Fine.
Huh. Honestly, I shouldn’t say this, but... this is kind of fun.
I guess this is why the rich love throwing money around.
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