Chapter 65: The Church
In the end, Sun Jack didn’t buy parts for AA—not because he doubted her technical skills, but because he couldn’t afford them. The laser generator alone would cost more than everything he owned, and even then, it wouldn’t cover half the price. Her ideas were ambitious, but making them a reality still required money.
All Sun Jack could do was let her keep designing and store her concepts in the system mory. Once he had enough money, he’d bring those ideas to life one by one. He understood that AA was genuinely trying to help, unlike King Kong, who would have found every way to overcharge him.
After returning ho, Sun Jack decided to distract himself from overthinking by training under an empty overpass. He practiced new attack techniques and reviewed recordings of past fights using Tapai’s playback feature, analyzing battles, assessing outcos, identifying causes, and summarizing patterns. He didn’t know why he felt compelled to do this—it just ca naturally.
For two days, Sun Jack poured all his energy into training and analysis, avoiding the ntal trap of questioning the authenticity of his mories. Problems should be solved when they arise—worrying endlessly wouldn’t help.
On the third morning, he was awakened by the doorbell.
“Tapai! Who is it?” Sun Jack called, turning over with a frown, his eyes still closed.
“A Japanese person.”
“What?” Confused, Sun Jack dragged himself to the door and opened it, only to find AA grinning and holding a jar of mushrooms.
“One day, soone’s going to beat you up for giving people random nicknas. Mark my words,” Sun Jack grumbled, glancing around to make sure no one had followed her before stepping aside to let her in.
“AA, if it’s nothing important, don’t keep coming over. Enjoy your rare free ti and relax at ho,” he said. Over the past few days, she had dropped by whenever she had a chance, staying until he was ready to sleep.
If he didn’t know about her eccentric kinks, he might’ve thought she had feelings for him—or maybe for Tapai.
AA’s face fell at his words. “Boss, you don’t like
coming here? I-I’ll try to co less often, then.”
“No, co over if you want. It’s nice to have so life in the place,” Sun Jack replied nonchalantly.
AA imdiately brightened up, placing the mushrooms by the floor-to-ceiling window, adding a touch of gray to the cold, sterile room. She enjoyed being here—not only did her new friend live here, but the place was dry and leak-free, far better than her own ho. If she weren’t afraid of intruding on the “two-person world” between her boss and Tapai, she’d have moved in already.
As Sun Jack was preparing breakfast with the last of his Ke-style dishes from the fridge, a ssage ca from Father: “Co find
on Idol Street.”
The ssage sent a jolt through him. He abandoned breakfast, grabbed his coat and raincoat, and called out, “Let’s go, AA, Tapai!”
By the ti Sun Jack arrived under the shadow of the giant Buddha statue with Tapai and AA, an hour had passed. Father’s church wasn’t hard to find—it was near King Kong’s morbid adult goods shop. However, the sight of the church emblem left Sun Jack deeply unsettled. A scythe, a hamr, and a cross—three symbols that had nothing in common—rged together seamlessly. It was absurd but sohow felt inevitable.
Considering how bodies, minds, and kinks had transford, it made sense that religion had also changed. But he hadn’t expected the change to be so bizarre.
“Jack, with the power of the Trinity backing him, Father should be pretty badass, right? How did he end up a rcenary? What a failure of a priest,” Tapai remarked, pointing at the emblem.
“In this place, nothing is surprising. Let’s go in,” Sun Jack replied, pushing open the door. The basent church was small, about the size of a classroom. Despite its modest size, it was spotless. Poor, ragged people filled the pews, singing hymns in unison. So of them, Sun Jack suspected, were holess.
“Jack, look—there are so many black folks here,” Tapai said, drawing hostile glares from the congregation.
The priest, playing an electric organ at the front, glanced at them and sent a ssage through the team channel: “With current technology, do you think changing skin color is hard?”
“In this society, there are no ‘black people’ anymore—just poor people.”
Sun Jack shot Tapai a warning look to stay quiet and pulled him to sit on a bench, waiting for Father to finish the service.
“Brothers and sisters, please turn to Chapter 4, Verse 16. This passage tells of the Lord in the synagogue of Nazareth, explaining what the Gospel is. The Gospel is liberation from the oppression of the Great Other—a promise for the oppressed poor and the disenfranchised to be freed from economic, social, and political inequality…”
Sun Jack didn’t know when the service ended—Father’s sermon had lulled him into a peaceful nap. When he woke up, the congregation had dispersed, leaving only the three of them.
“Where’s Father?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“He said to find him in the back after you woke up,” Tapai replied, propping up the drooling AA from his shoulder.
As they walked further in, Sun Jack heard a familiar voice from behind a small black curtain. “My Lord, I have sinned. I gave in to greed again today. I passed off MCM components as CSP ball grid arrays.”
“Hmm? Why does that voice sound familiar?” Sun Jack pulled the curtain aside, revealing King Kong in a priest’s robe, piously making the sign of the cross.
“The Lord has heard your confession. As long as you do not sin again, He will forgive your small transgressions,” ca Father’s voice from the other side of a latticed partition.
“What are you doing? Cosplaying?” Sun Jack asked, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Startled, King Kong quickly covered his face with his robe. “Jack, what are you doing here? Don’t interrupt my repentance! Only through confession can I atone and ascend to heaven after death.”
A minute later, Sun Jack stood outside, dazed and bewildered. “Tapai, I’ve been here for days, and I still can’t adapt to this world.”
“Who can?” Tapai shrugged.
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