WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 45
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You're Staging a Protest at Me, Aren't You?
Out past the gate of Baek So-ha's hideout, the same beat-up car we'd arrived in was waiting at the mouth of the alley.
As on the way here, the driver's seat was empty.
The problem was the prosthetic legs Baek So-ha had given us.
"...Boss, should I carry them?"
"What's someone with a cracked arm going to carry? Trust me. I'm a man, you know."
I said it with great bravado and strained with everything I had to lift them, but...
"Nnnnngh!"
"Kyahahahaha! Boss, your face is so funny!"
All it got me was Rita laughing at me.
True to a top-grade combat prosthetic, the weight was top-grade too.
"It's not that, big bro. You're just weak."
...Or so Zino says.
"Boss, you really don't have any strength at all, huh."
"Ahem... As long as I'm good at my real job, isn't that enough?"
"Of course. When it comes to repair skills, you're the best, Boss. Um, since my hands are like this, could you press two buttons on my neck for me?"
"Huh? Buttons? Two, in the front?"
"Yep, yep. Two in the front."
Carefully, I pressed the two buttons.
Click. Click. A blue spark snapped off with every press.
"Luckily it's metal, so I think I can do it like this."
Rita stretched out a hand, and the prosthetics, wrapped in electric energy, floated up into the air. One after another they slid neatly into the car's trunk.
"...You turned out to be a much more impressive person than I thought, Rita. I'll have to raise your pay."
"Ahahaha. Thanks for recognizing it."
The moment the car pulled away, Rita started nodding off. Her body had been pushed up to tier 4 and she'd just used her ability again on top of that, so of course she had no strength left to hold out.
Rattle.
The car jolted, and Rita's head dropped onto my shoulder.
"Big bro. Your heartbeat sped up."
"...Be quiet. You'll wake Rita."
"Zino wants to lean on you too."
"You're already stuck to my chest."
"Still."
"Fine, fine. Our Zino can lean too."
"Eeheehee. Zino's leaning."
Humoring Zino's cuteness, I pulled Valeria's terminal out from inside my coat.
[ Engineer Commission ]
[ Client : Undisclosed ]
[ Type : On-site ]
[ Details : Combat Prosthetic Maintenance and Deactivation ]
[ Risk Level : Very High (Possible Combat) ]
[ Condition : Asian Engineers Only ]
[ Pay : 4,000,000 credits ]
[ Brokerage Fee : 50% ]
[ Upper-tier client. Their prosthetic got half-destroyed in a fight, they say. It needs repairs, and you'll probably get tangled up in something dangerous. I won't force you. Still, there's plenty to gain if you pull it off. - V ]
[ Status : Commission Complete ]
Commission complete.
...I'd made it back alive.
I reread the one line the Godmother had tacked on at the very bottom of the commission.
There's plenty to gain if you pull it off.
She was right. Tucked inside my coat was a white card engraved with a mountain peak. The mark of Baekdu's benefactor. With that alone, I'd gotten my hands on something truly enormous.
Until yesterday, I'd been the owner of a nameless garage in a corner of District 4. From today, I was an engineer on par with a Baekdu benefactor.
My price had changed.
But the contract with the Godmother had been made on the basis of the old me.
'You're still an engineer who hasn't made a name for yourself.'
Fifty percent fee. Back then, that had been fair. I'd accepted it without a word of complaint.
But would that still hold now?
"Big bro. Your heart's beating weird. Does something hurt?"
Zino spoke up carefully, as if reading my mind.
At the sound of that voice, my overheated head cooled all at once.
The more I thought about it, the greedier I got, but I had to stay calm.
Whatever else she was, Valeria was one of Ground Zero's strong. If I rushed in wrong, trying to redraw the board, losing my head would be the likely result.
I had to approach this more carefully.
Because we hadn't spun around like mad this time the way the earlier ride had, or swapped out the car's body, we reached the garage faster than I'd expected.
[ Titan Garage ]
Ahh. Who'd have thought that worn-out sign would be such a welcome sight.
Rita floated the prosthetic legs out of the trunk and into the garage again. All I did was open the door.
Trying to keep a man's dignity intact in this body was something I'd decided to give up on completely, as of today.
"Rita. Would you try sitting on the sofa for a bit?"
After laying Rita down on the sofa beside the workbench, I dragged over the whole first-aid kit from the corner of the garage.
It had been among the things Serena left behind for us to use, and it held a lot more decent medicine than I'd expected.
Then I went through it carefully, pulling out one medicine after another.
Bone-bonding injections, regeneration patches, anti-inflammatory spray. Even the ones I'd stockpiled to sell high someday, every last one.
"B-Boss. You're going to use all that? That stuff's expensive, you know."
"I said 'promise,' didn't I?"
Rita closed her mouth.
I gave the cracked forearm an injection, stuck on the patches, and sprayed over her ribs. The swollen arm slowly started to settle.
When I pressed on the last patch, Rita, half sunk into the sofa, looked up at me. Sleep clung to her eyes.
No wonder. After going through so much, and now with a pile of medicine working to heal her body, she couldn't help but be drowsy.
"...Boss, do you know you're acting strange today?"
"How so?"
"You're being too kind."
...Kind?
I looked down at the empty syringe in my hand.
Truth was, I'd been calculating how much each one of these cost.
"Isn't this about what anyone would do for an injured person?"
"No."
Rita laughed softly.
"They don't. At least around me, they didn't."
Her voice was trying to brush it off as a joke. Just like earlier, when she'd covered her eyes and told me not to look.
"Old Man Gordon is a good person, but... he's not a kind one. Ahaha."
Someone used to pretending she wasn't ashamed. She was probably used to pretending she wasn't hurt, too.
I shut the lid of the first-aid kit as I spoke.
"Then start getting used to it from now on."
"...Huh?"
"Kindness is part of the employee benefits at our garage."
Rita stared up at me blankly, then buried half her face in the sofa.
"...Then I'm gonna work here for a long, long time."
With those words, Rita fell asleep.
I fetched the blanket I'd left draped over the workbench and covered her with it.
Right then.
A message floated up in front of my eyes.
[ Commission Settlement Complete ]
[ Commission Pay : 4,000,000 credits ]
[ Brokerage Fee (50%) : -2,000,000 credits ]
[ Deposit : 2,000,000 credits ]
...Two million.
I counted the number twice. Six zeros, no mistake.
Two million was a third of what I owed Rayden. The corners of my mouth lifted on their own.
"Big bro. Your heart's beating really loud. Even more than when Rita leaned on you."
At that, I glanced back over my shoulder.
Thankfully, Rita was still fast asleep.
"Shh. A secret like how somebody else's heart is beating, even if you know it, you shouldn't just blurt it out like that."
"Oh. Is that how it works?"
"Of course! Say I found out a secret Zino was desperate to hide, and then told Rita about it. How would Zino feel?"
At that, the playful Whirr... Whirr... of the camera cut off dead.
And it stayed quiet for a long while.
"...I'm sorry, big bro. I was doing something really bad, wasn't I."
The voice sounded far more crushed than I'd expected.
I had no idea what this was about, but I got the feeling it was better not to ask anything right now. For the moment, I'd pass it off as nothing.
"Yeah. You just don't do it from now on. It's okay. Remember what I told you before? When Zino makes a mistake because Zino didn't know, that's okay. You can be forgiven. Now you know, so you just don't do it again."
"...Yeah! Right. Didn't know. Zino! Won't do it anymore."
Only then did Zino's voice return to normal.
And only then did the line right above the deposit amount catch my eye.
The corners of my mouth stopped midway up.
I'd be lying if I said it didn't sting. It was half of what Rita and I had earned while feeling our lives threatened.
But this was the price of this commission. By the contract a nameless greenhorn had signed, the Godmother had taken her share fair and square. I had no intention of arguing that.
The problem was the next commission.
Fifty percent skimmed off every job from here on out?
...That would be a bit of a problem.
And before she left, Baek So-ha had said one more thing.
'I have left word, so something good will come to you.'
Damn it. What had she said? When I heard that, I should have asked what it meant. I'd been in no state to say anything, though.
If I just knew that, I could settle everything perfectly according to plan... Not knowing it was the biggest problem.
I fumbled around inside my coat. A smooth card caught on my fingertips.
A white card engraved with a mountain peak. The mark of Baekdu's benefactor.
However strong Valeria was in this district, she couldn't wipe out an engineer Baekdu called a benefactor overnight. Even less so one that Baekdu's young lady had left word for on her way out.
At least for today, even Valeria couldn't touch me carelessly.
And besides, I was in the position of owing the Patron a debt. If the Godmother killed someone in my position over objecting to contract terms, the Patron wouldn't sit quietly either.
Well... if it really looked like I was in danger, going in as Old Man Gordon's apprentice was an option too. It would throw my plan off a bit, but staying alive mattered more.
Anyway, when pulling off something like this, you can't always go in at perfect condition. A little risk had to be accepted.
I opened the terminal's message window.
[Godmother, thank you for everything until now. It seems you no longer need to give work to our Titan Garage.]
[ Send? ]
[ Yes ]
Ding.
The moment it went through, I set the terminal down and leaned back against the chair.
One.
Two.
Three.
Bzzt.
[ Call Request : V ]
...Figures.
I had no idea what Baek So-ha had said, but it must have been something pretty important.
I deliberately waited a good while longer before pressing the call button.
"Yes, Godmother. I've picked up."
"Hey. What's that message supposed to mean?"
From her voice, she didn't seem to be in a very good mood.
"Hmm... I may have put it too indirectly so you wouldn't be offended, Godmother, and you didn't catch it. I'm saying I don't want to take any more commissions through you from now on."
"Ha. Which bastard is it? Who's offering you work? Which broker? Are they better than me?"
Only after hearing Valeria say that did I understand why my ex-girlfriend had been so fed up when she left me.
Hearing it in person, this is really fucking pathetic. I must have been fucking pathetic when I sent her off.
"It's nothing like that. I just got back from finishing a job, didn't I? How could I have found a new broker already?"
...But wait.
A beat too late, a chill ran down my spine.
Which broker. Who said they'd give me work.
What Valeria was curious about wasn't my feelings. It was closer to an interrogation, with betrayal in mind. She was asking whether I'd betrayed her.
"Ha. You think you can find work in this place without me?"
"Yes. If I ask the customers I've had so far to spread the word, and hand out some business cards here and there, I'd at least be able to scrape by, wouldn't I?"
After hearing that much, I heard Valeria let out a long sigh over the phone.
"You. You're staging a protest at me right now, aren't you?"
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