WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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

Chapter 33

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Why Don't You Just Invest in Me?

"Customer. This item is no longer for sale."

The shopkeeper's words left me thoroughly stunned.

It had come back after being sold three times already, and now he wasn't selling it at all?

Only once it was too late did I realize how big a mistake I'd been making.

'Ah... I let it show how badly I wanted this thing.'

In Gaon Mega City, show that you're desperate for something and this is exactly how it ends. For a moment I'd forgotten that.

Having something that good right in front of me must have blinded me for a second.

"Huh? Wasn't that for sale just a minute ago?"

Rita asked, her eyes wide.

"It was for sale."

The man straightened the cloth he'd folded.

"But as of just now, it isn't."

"......"

Mouth shut, I sank into thought.

That was practically a signal sent straight at me.

It was normally a thing for sale, but because of what had just happened, it no longer was.

In other words, I'd lost the initiative completely.

'He got me.'

With no other option, I shook my head and sighed.

"What would it take for you to sell it?"

At that, the man grinned.

'Hm?'

Something had felt off when the shopkeeper's expression changed so sharply just now...

"What do you take this item to be, Customer?"

The question came flying before I could puzzle out what felt wrong.

'...How should I answer this?'

Honestly, if he asked what I thought of this thing, the true answer that would come out of my mouth was this.

ZINO-03. A growth-type boss entity from Fupunkalypse. The core of a bigshot-class android that once ruled an entire district.

But all that would get me was a look that said, what on earth are you talking about?

And there was no point either in standing in front of someone who'd just refused to sell and running down the item.

So how should I handle this...

First things first, I had to win back the initiative I'd lost.

I opened my mouth.

"A perfectly sound android core. No, an exceptionally good one."

"Hmm... What makes you think so? This thing came back three times because of bugs, you know."

"Because it wasn't what those three owners wanted."

I touched the android core lightly and went on.

"Let me put it as an example. All three customers who bought it wanted a hammer for driving nails. But this isn't a hammer."

"Then what is it?"

"A person."

With that, I let out a small laugh.

"Even if it started out as a hammer, once it develops a self, shouldn't it be recognized as a being with one?"

At that, the man's shoulders began to shake, and soon laughter burst out of him.

"Wahahahaha!"

In an instant the air inside the ordinary-looking shop turned heavy.

Wherever the good-natured merchant I'd been looking at a moment ago had gone, the whole feel of the man changed completely.

Rita instinctively stepped in front of me and reached a hand to the throat. But the man, his gaze utterly changed now, just smiled and kept his eyes on me.

Bzzt...

Only then did I notice the hologram laid over the man's face.

He must have been wearing a prosthetic to hide it.

"Excellent."

When the laughter died down, the man spoke.

"You're the first to work out that an android can have a self, and from nothing but what I told you."

The merchant who'd been fawning over me with "Customer, Customer" a moment ago was gone. The owner who looked at me now had a completely different manner.

Before I knew it, the hologram effect covering his face had vanished entirely, and his bare face showed.

The merchant who'd been bowing and scraping with "Customer, Customer" had disappeared without a trace.

Where the hologram had peeled away stood a middle-aged man.

Eyes sharp and glinting like a snake's. And scales growing thick from his neck all the way up to his cheeks.

A mutant... in other words, a mutated human.

The man smirked at me.

Then I felt the shoulders of Rita, who stood blocking me, flinch.

"Patron Rayden..."

Ah.

Only then did I grasp the situation.

Patron Rayden, the head of this market, the one Rita had told me about on the way here.

'...A bigshot like this, minding a tiny shop like this?'

Rayden shifted the gaze he'd had on me over to Rita.

"It's been a while, little one."

"It's been a while, Patron Rayden."

"No, that's not right. You're past the age where I should call you little one. I should call you young lady now. You've grown a lot in the meantime."

"......"

Rita couldn't answer.

"How's that Gordon doing?"

"...Fine. Same as ever."

Rita answered carefully.

"Of course he is. That stubborn Gordon, change? Not a chance."

Having exchanged those light pleasantries, Rayden slowly turned his head back toward me. His snake eyes glinted.

"So. Who are you?"

I took out a business card for our garage, pressed thin from sheet metal, and handed it to Rayden.

When our garage's number had come through last time, I'd made a few from scrap plates.

"I run Titan Garage in District 4. The name's Dex."

"Titan... Garage?"

Rayden's hand stopped dead as he took the card. A gleam of interest crept into his snake eyes.

He started turning the metal card over and over, looking fascinated.

"Oho. You made this yourself? This alone tells me you've got decent skill. I can see your ability is quite out of the ordinary. No wonder that picky old Gordon would trust you with what comes after him."

"You flatter me. But the name Titan Garage is just a coincidence. I'm not taking over from Old Man Gordon or anything."

"What? Even though you carry the Titan Garage name?"

The Patron Rayden raised his head at my words and looked at me.

"Sharing a name doesn't mean the person inside is the same, does it? Truth is, I haven't learned a thing from Old Man Gordon. I'm just using the building and paying for it fair and square."

Rayden clapped, delighted by my words.

"Hahaha! You pay rent fair and square, so you're not Gordon's successor, it's a shop that's yours alone? Right. Not a wrong word in it. What a brazen one. I like you."

Rayden stopped clapping and picked up the core from the shelf.

"All right. I'll sell it."

Yes. It worked.

I cheered inwardly as I spoke.

"How much would it be?"

"Five million."

"...Sorry?"

For a moment I doubted my ears.

All the money I could scrape together, my entire net worth, came to about 1.2 million credits. And a good chunk of that was already earmarked for the payment owed to Old Man Gordon and for Rita's salary.

Truth be told, if I emptied everything out here, I'd come up short on what I owed Old Man Gordon, and that would be game over.

"You've proven it yourself, haven't you? What this item is worth, and how badly you want it. It's the core of an android with a self. Five million is cheap."

I let out a long sigh and shook my head.

"I don't have it."

"Hm?"

"I don't have it, that kind of money. Like I told you earlier, I'm a small operator who pays rent on the building."

"Hmm... True enough. A self-employed man without even his own building wouldn't be holding that kind of cash."

Rayden fixed me with that characteristic snake stare.

"Then... well, you can't buy it."

Rayden set the core back on the shelf.

"So. What kind of item do you want? Nothing on this one's level, but there are plenty of android cores worth using. What do you need it for?"

I didn't answer.

Honestly, backing off here was the right call.

What I'd come out for today was a mana furnace and a heart core drive. The mana furnace was already in hand, and with the Patron offering to pick out a heart core drive himself, there couldn't be a better deal.

He'd even match the price, so taking something suitable and going home would make today a success.

That was the sensible judgment.

'...But I don't think I'll ever find another one like that...'

Nova Mechanics was gone.

The people who built that technology, and the company that could build it again, were nowhere left in this world.

A thing like that wasn't something I could knock together on my own.

I looked at the core on the shelf once, then at Rayden.

Damn it. I really shouldn't keep doing this.

Old Man Gordon, who'd lent me the building. Valeria, the Godmother of the back alleys.

The owner of a tiny garage with one sign hung in a corner of District 4, and already I was tangled up with a string of people who were spoken of like legends in Ground Zero.

And now I was going to pile the Patron of Socket 11 on top of that?

Even in the game, that would've been insane. Really, for a game character aiming to live a hundred years, long and thin, it came close to something I should never do.

But there was no helping it. Leaving with an item like this sitting right in front of me was more than an engineer's blood could allow.

So what should I do?

No helping it. Climb up on the backs of the bigshots, look at a higher peak, play the so-called apex game.

This wasn't a world inside a game, after all. It was real.

"Patron. Why don't you just invest in me?"

Rayden's eyes narrowed.

"What? Invest? Me, in you?"

I pointed at Rayden's front pocket, where the card I'd handed him a moment ago was tucked.

"You said it yourself just now, didn't you? That I looked skilled. So why don't you invest in me?"

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