I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With - Chapter 015

WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 015

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Titan Garage (2)

Gordon looked over the report he'd received from Vivian.

The state of Dex's body recorded in it was beyond what the word "wretched" could cover.

Besides the shattered heart and dantian Gordon already knew about, there was a body mutated so that its muscles could never grow, along with a malicious mutation that had twisted the body's basal metabolism into something grotesquely high.

It looked as if someone had deliberately remade a human being out of spite, just to make his life miserable.

Surviving at the very bottom, in a place like Ground Zero, with a body like this left no choice but to play dead, stay quiet, and crawl along the floor eking out a living.

'Normally, anyone who falls to the lower tiers in a state like this either goes mad with despair or dies in a gutter before long.'

A cursed body that had not only lost every route back to the upper tiers, but could never become an absolute powerhouse in Ground Zero, where strength ruled.

For someone who'd enjoyed a comfortable life in the upper tiers, could there be a crueler punishment?

For someone who had already tasted the dazzling sky, being told to fall to Ground Zero and rot for the rest of his life would be torture worse than death.

But when Gordon turned to the next page, interest lit his eyes.

Traces of magic from four systems, Emission, Detection, Recovery, and Precept, were carved precariously into the shattered heart.

With the dantian utterly smashed and the body's growth blocked, the kid had desperately learned low-level spells and crammed them into his heart, just to survive and claw his way upward.

Wearing that heavy shackle, he was still searching for a way to pierce the sky with his own power.

'Interesting. This one... is far more worth watching than I thought.'

He reminded Gordon of his own old memories, of falling from the highest place to the bottom long ago.

That was why he was on his way to see the kid now. To check what he'd been doing in the meantime, how he'd been getting by.

He liked him, so he meant to help him live a little more safely.

At the end of an alley in Ground Zero, where thick smog had settled.

When Gordon's steps reached the safehouse, he had no choice but to stop.

The very kid he'd come looking for had stepped out of the safehouse and was busy with something.

"Hey, kid. What are you doing?"

That was when he asked.

On the safehouse's outer wall hung an old neon sign, crackling as it gave off a red glow.

[ Titan Garage ]

It was the name Gordon had hung out for himself, a very long time ago, when he'd first started climbing out of this bottom-of-the-barrel sewer.

That old sign, buried in dust in a corner of the storeroom, the kid had gone and dug it up and hung it on the building's wall.

"Ha, hahahaha!"

Laughter burst out of Gordon's mouth.

A name far too heavy and grand for a weakling who looked ready to be blown away by the wind.

But for that tough little bastard, who even with a cursed shackle that would never let him climb back up was still scrabbling to pierce the sky, it might just fit better than any other name in the world.

At Gordon's sudden laughter, Dex turned around, looking baffled.

"...Sir? Why are you laughing like a madman the second you show up?"

At that, a smile curved at the corner of Gordon's mouth.

This lunatic calls me a bigshot and still gets pretty cheeky with me. I find even that funny.

"It's nothing. I laughed because the sign seems to have found its owner just right."

* * *

"What does that mean?"

Old Man Gordon had shown up out of nowhere, chuckled away, and said something I couldn't make sense of.

"You hung that up intending to use this place as a garage, didn't you?"

Only then did I understand what he meant.

"Oh. This? Yeah. Well. I couldn't think of a name, and making a new one was a hassle... Is that not allowed?"

Come to think of it, the landlord never actually said I could use it as a shop... Could I just modify the place however I liked?

"No. I said I was lending it to you, so you can use it however you please."

Wow. As expected of Old Man Gordon. Generous.

That was what I was thinking when he spoke again.

"But... you did the job I gave you properly, I trust?"

My mouth clamped shut.

Honestly, there were plenty of excuses.

So many customers had suddenly come by in the meantime that there was hardly any time to work, or there'd been so much to clean that cleaning alone had eaten up two days...

But instinct told me not to.

Old Man Gordon wasn't someone a sloppy excuse would work on.

Before, I'd figured I might try to talk my way through with the mana battery once he showed up, but now that he was standing right in front of me, I felt that was something I mustn't do either.

The old man wanted solid results, not excuses or process.

So I picked a third option.

"You told me to make something that could turn a profit."

"That's right. I did."

"How about plain money instead?"

"What?"

Swiping a hand over my wrist, I sent the 200,000 credits Vivian had just paid me as a consultation fee, all of it, to Old Man Gordon's account.

"Hm? What's this?"

"It's what I earned staying here these past two days. Please, just take it for now."

"What I ordered was a product that could make money, not money."

At Old Man Gordon's sharp words, I swallowed hard without meaning to.

This was where it mattered. How I put it here would completely flip his opinion of me.

"Of course, I made something too. It's just not something you can see."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Today, I repaired the prosthetic hand of the doctor you sent over. And she told me that since the megacorp's product was clearly defective, she'd sue the megacorp."

My words put a spark of interest on Old Man Gordon's face.

"What. You found a defect in a megacorp product?"

Good. Almost there.

"Yes. So I wrote up a technical opinion on that defective product. And the 200,000 credits I just gave you is the consultation fee I got for writing that document. Couldn't you say that's me making something that turns a profit?"

At my brazen attitude, the face that had gone stiff burst into roaring laughter once more.

"Hahaha! You really do have nerve, I'll give you that. You're the only one who could dress up 'I got nothing done' this brilliantly."

That stung.

As expected of a bigshot, a packaging job this thin didn't fly.

"But if you can wrap an excuse in this much nerve and skill, I can't help but give you credit. Fine. For the sake of your effort, I'll give you a little more time. I also quite like what you pulled off. You made a fool of those megacorp bastards, so I should at least give you this much."

Click. Fssst-

Putting a cigar in his mouth and lighting it, the old man blew smoke into the air with a long "Haah."

"This time I'm giving you a week. By then, either hand me the same 200,000 credits or more, or have something ready that I'll like."

Okay. Got through it this time, somehow.

"And as for running the garage..."

Old Man Gordon, glancing over the interior I'd tidied up, grinned.

"I'll lend you a hand."

"Huh? How exactly will you help?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

With that, he started ambling off.

"Huh? Old... Old man? Hey?"

There were still a few locked doors inside, and the second-floor door was locked too, and I'd wanted to ask what I should do about them.

I could force them open if I wanted to, but the landlord had locked them for a reason, hadn't he? I should ask before opening them.

But seeing him leave as if his business was done, I figured I'd ask next time.

Besides, there was no reason to use the inner doors or the second floor right now.

On top of that, there was a hidden warning in the nuance: the old man was in a good mood and cutting me some slack, but I hadn't fully succeeded at the task he'd set. There was no need to stir up trouble in that situation.

As the tension drained away, it must have been nearly dinnertime. My head swam and my stomach let out a loud growl.

"Let's see. Think I'll have some jelly with spice syrup."

I wondered how well the spices the general store owner had thrown in as a freebie would work.

For now, I closed the front door and went inside.

Clunk.

Still, what did he mean by help, exactly? Was he going to send customers?

Or maybe some usable equipment?

Come to think of it, didn't he say something like that to Vivian too, about helping with her startup? Probably he meant helping me in that same way?

* * *

When the next day came, I figured out right away what kind of help Old Man Gordon had meant the day before.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Is the owner of Titan Garage in?!"