"Don't tell me you're the type who only gets excited if the other person actually fights back?"
Obana looked suspiciously at Putato, who was checking his communicator sitting right at her desk. Even though she had already mentally prepared herself, she awkwardly cleared her throat and added, "I mean... I can cooperate if I have to. After all, I'm heavily invested in this project of ours."
It was the first time Putato had ever seen Obana look genuinely self-conscious, which instantly made him suspect she was developing Stockholm syndrome. "Whatever, I gotta go. Make sure you keep an eye on the factory operations."
"Wait! I wanna ask: hiring local neighborhood kids is one thing, but why the hell are you recruiting those homeless rats? You gotta feed those scumbags for three days straight before they even have enough energy to lift a finger to work! Total waste of money!"
"Just felt like it."
Putato suddenly thought of Suie. The rats and the veteran grunts of the Smoke War couldn't even afford a square meal, yet they were both cast aside and overlooked by society. At the very least, The City treated everyone equally in that regard. "I've got money to burn, that's why!"
Obana's face twisted into an even deeper look of disgust as she crossed her arms and let out a cold huff. "Hypocrite. I bet you're just doing it to run some scam charity grant operation to milk money out of some rich idiots in the Nests."
"Were you ever scammed by one?"
"How could a genius like me get scammed? When I was a kid, my mom sold her life working for some big-shot, and when she died on the battlefield, they didn't even bother picking up her corpse."
"What about your dad? Did he kick the bucket too?"
That question immediately earned Putato a ferocious death glare from Obana.
"I'm an orphan, okay?! She was my adoptive mother! Just because some slick bastard flashes a warm, caring smile, they manage to cultivate a whole squad of loyal, brainwashed tools. I'm never going to slave away blindly for anyone like that again!"
Putato finally raised his head, giving her a serious look. Staring right back at a suddenly riled-up Obana, he spoke without an ounce of hesitation: "I'm different. Because I mean what I say."
"Every single one of you bastards puts on that exact same face before your true colors show. Actually, I still have the maintenance station data access and administrative user permissions for the Utopian Literary Club in my pocket right now. The Chief gave them to me herself, along with the coordinates for an abandoned, off-the-grid manufacturing supply chain line out in the Outskirts."
Obana suddenly brightened up, her eyes gleaming as she explained: "Whether it's for recruiting labor or expanding our business reach, that place has massive value. We can use it the second we get our hands on it. But first, you gotta sign this. We'll head down to the Öufi Association for notarization tomorrow morning."
A marriage registration form was promptly slammed onto the desk. With a weird expression, Putato flipped through it and realized that the vast majority of the clauses were actually prenuptial asset-division agreements.
"You just casually carry this kind of thing around with you?"
"I've thoroughly researched the legal codes of different Wings of the World, you know! I found out there aren't any major loopholes when it comes to this clause: can't have you moving corporate assets around behind my back. What if you get too big and successful down the line and just kick me to the curb?"
Putato still couldn't quite wrap his head around it. "Did you seriously pull this same stunt back at Green Journey too?"
"Of course not!"
Obana's face flushed red with indignation. "It's just that I'm completely broke right now, so I had to resort to desperate measures!"
"Couldn't you just use a standard corporate contract? We've got the Association to notarize those, you know."
"No way! You're way too violent. I'm terrified you'd just beat up whichever Fixer came to enforce it!"
After hesitating for a moment, Putato figured that if he wanted to become the Pinnacle of The City, he needed a solid foundational base. And despite her flaws, Obana was genuinely competent when she wasn't being a total corporate parasite.
Once he muttered a sigh and stamped his fingerprint onto the signature line, Obana instantly snatched the form back like it was a sacred treasure. Right at that moment, Putato's communicator buzzed with a message from Xiao.
[Xiao: I've already coordinated with Salvador. All the paperwork is finalized.]
[Congratulations on your appointment to the Liu Association]
[Acquired Talent: Hidden Dragon's Gear]
[Description: The gear of a dormant dragon, conceal your sharp edge and bide your time in defense.]
[Effect 1: Whenever you take damage, a portion of it is negated and absorbed as thermal heat, which slowly dissipates over time.]
[Effect 2: You can directly convert your life force into thermal heat.]
[Effect 3: You can actively expend thermal heat to accelerate your own perception and reaction time.]
The second Putato checked the description, he realized he had just become even more of an unkillable tank. Not only did it feature high-tier percentage damage reduction, but when he read the third effect, his jaw dropped: this talent actually let him accelerate time relative to himself! With that kind of speed, who the hell in this city was going to survive getting hit by his Crusher?
Aside from the fact that you had to actually get hit to stack up that thermal heat, it was practically flawless!
"Obana, come here and punch me a few times, quick."
Putato got a bit hyped. If he ran into that ghost-like Judge Ganan again, taking her down would be a walk in the park.
BAM, BAM.
Obana didn't hold back at all, hammering her fists straight into Putato's chest. But before she could land more than a few blows, Putato placed his massive hand right on top of her head and shoved her flat onto the sofa, towering over her with a smug height advantage that made Obana grind her teeth in fury. "You asshole, Putato!"
"Go get some sleep early. But before that, do me a favor and look up nearby amusement parks."
Putato could feel a slight warmth spreading across his chest. Under the acceleration effect, it felt as though the flow of the world's time had slowed down to a crawl.
...
Orphanage.
Katae excitedly leaped into Putato's arms, clinging tightly to him as he looked down at a flyer for a "Cherry Blossom Amusement Park." Her pink bunk bed was already piled high with all sorts of stuffed dolls.
Putato didn't mind the Urban Girl dolls, but seeing his own face plastered everywhere triggered a mild form of PTSD, half-expecting some creepy doll to suddenly leap out and trap him in a mirror dimension for an entire day of fighting.
[Xiao: Originally, I was planning to push your Grade 2 Fixer promotion through at the same time, but the Hana Association's office hours are already over for the day. I'll drop by their branch tomorrow morning.]
Taking advantage of the fact that she hadn't gone to sleep yet, Putato quickly sent a text explaining the details of K Corporation's confidential weekend commission.
[Xiao: Understood. You're authorized to delay your reporting schedule, just don't drag it out past a month. Also, a word of advice: don't trust Wings of the World too blindly. They only care about hitting their operational performance quotas; the methods and means used to get there are completely irrelevant to them.]
TAP, TAP, TAP.
A knock at the door made Putato look up in confusion. With Katae still clinging piggyback-style to his back like a koala, he carefully opened the door, only to be greeted by Olivia hugging a fluffy pillow.
"Putato-ka?! What are you doing back here? I wanna sleep in your room too, please!"
With another kid now hanging off his frame, Putato shut the door, crawled back into bed, and let out a long sigh. He was so exhausted he couldn't even process whatever rambling Olivia was muttering into the blankets. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, one last crucial thought hit him.
Wait a second!
Putato fired off a dozen spam messages straight to Roland.
[Putato: Your intel on this job was totally flawed! How the hell was that Judge named Ganan able to teleport around the battlefield? If I wasn't built different, I would've been skewered by her rapier!]
[Putato: Don't you dare leave me on read! If you don't ghost me, fine, but if you do, I'm getting your face printed on the next batch of Urban Girl dolls! Either refund my cash or send compensation stock!]
Ah, much better.
The cozy warmth surrounding him chased away any other lingering thoughts. Closing his eyes, Putato fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, a sleeping experience that easily rivaled the night he spent getting hugged to sleep by Yixin.
In the middle of the night, when his communicator buzzed, a quick-handed Olivia promptly reached out, silenced the screen, and went back to gazing lovingly at Putato's sleeping face.
...
The next morning.
The second Putato cracked his eyes open, he found two bodies tangled up and sprawled all over him. Luckily, his physical stats had long since surpassed standard human limits, otherwise, he would've suffocated from the sheer weight.
"Still sleeping? Get up, today we're going to the amusement park!"
Hearing that, a pretending-to-sleep Olivia instantly bounced up with excitement, startling Katae, who had been drooling on Putato's chest, into rubbing his sleepy eyes.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
"Anyone home? Didn't you say we were going out to play?"
"Big Boss, maybe we should just call Putato-senpai? He might've already left without us."
"No shit! I called him ages ago. Who knows what shady crap that guy's up to behind closed doors again."
Half-asleep, Putato flipped open his communicator, only to be startled by a wall of missed calls. Not just Roland, Mo and Yixin had tried calling him too.
What is going on?!
"Oh, look who's finally awake. We just heard you were actually taking a scheduled day off to go play outside, so we wanted to tag along. Who knew you'd sleep like a rock and ignore every single call?"
The moment Mo caught sight of the two kids next to Putato, her bionic eye locked onto an innocent, wide-eyed Olivia, causing the little girl to reflexively shrink back behind Putato's leg.
After a quick wash-up, Putato didn't waste any time. He wrangled the crew and headed straight out, leaving everything else to be dealt with later.
...
Cherry Blossom Amusement Park.
"How are you guys even eating anything?"
Putato watched as the metal torso of Mo, featuring a hovering, detached oval-shaped holographic face, happily munched away on a chocolate ice cream cone he'd bought her. Her upper half was still rocking that cyberpunk wind-shield visor display, which flickered into a happy ᗜ 𖥦 ᗜ expression.
"We ran into a loaded client last time. Because our delivery was so fast, they actually tipped us a nice little bonus." Mo cast a sideways glance at Putato, her facial display instantly shifting to ($_$). "See? I told you my foresight is unmatched. Running with you really rakes in the cash, huh?"
The other two Prosthetic crew members enthusiastically nodded in agreement as they stuffed their faces. "It's been forever since we tasted anything. Plus, actually chewing and swallowing real food feels amazing."
Passing by an open-air novelty hat souvenir shop, Olivia excitedly pointed at a giant, three-to-five-meter-tall novelty cap and cheered, "Putato-ka! That looks so fun, let me help you put it on!"
Katae, meanwhile, stuck like glue to Putato's side the entire time. Whether they were riding the carousel or the Ferris wheel, she just quietly clutched the hem of Putato's jacket with a faint smile on his face.
Taking advantage of a moment while everyone was crowded around an artisanal potato-carving exhibit, Putato finally sent a reply back to Yixin, and got an instantaneous ping right back.
[Yixin: Mama, sleep well. Oh, and by the way, a few of the Chefs have expressed a rather intense interest in Mama. They're super curious about "The City flavor." Since they're still being heavily watched by the Hana Association, they had to commission an outside Office to handle the reconnaissance, and the list of investigators includes that lone-wolf Fixer, Dong-hwan.]
Are they talking about the Urban Girl?
Putato never expected he'd actually have a day where he felt thankful toward the Hana Association. Even though the various Associations all had vastly different styles and workflows, they were genuinely out here maintaining The City's unique sense of order.
"Putato-ka, let's go watch a movie!"
Having finished her grilled potato, Olivia held a piping-hot, expertly carved potato bust high above her head. The face carved into it looked at least 80% like Putato himself.
Swiping his Sakura Card to pay, Putato herded the noisy, rowdy group of people toward the theater seats, finally taking a moment to reply to Roland's messages.
[Roland: Come on, don't be like that. We're all just ordinary, working-class stiffs trying to make a living, cut me some slack! Nobody's perfect, right? Nothing in The City is ever 100% foolproof. Let me dig into the details and look into it a bit more.]
Opening up the attached dossier file, Ganan's intelligence profile was shockingly sparse.
She didn't originate from inside the Nests or the Backstreets; she hailed from the perilous depths of the Outskirts, a desolate frontier crawling with all sorts of bizarre monsters, yet heavily favored by various secretive research laboratories precisely because information leaks could be contained and buried out there.
She first surfaced in Backstreet 23, intermittently wiping out multiple Syndicates under the alias "Shirahoshi." Recently, she had been recommended by Gandao to join Void Fist, adopting the name Ganan.
[Roland: Looks like she's one of those escaped lab experiments from the Outskirts. You can't expect me to be a walking encyclopedia on every little thing happening out in the boonies, man! Chances are, this chick's just one of those successful test subjects who managed to break out. People who never had a normal human upbringing can go either way: if you're lucky, they're somewhat reasonable to talk to; if you're not, they're complete psychopaths.]
[Putato: What, speaking from personal experience?]
[Roland: Of course! I might be retired, but my professional skills haven't rusted away yet. If you ever run into a weirdo you can't handle, just hit me up, I offer hourly consulting rates. Man, you're so lucky to have a well-connected, knowledgeable friend like me.]
As the movie credits rolled, the midday water-screen light show was just kicking off. Sitting with his back against the poolside wall, Putato found it rare and refreshing to see so many people gathered together not for hacking each other to pieces, nor did he mind Olivia casually climbing all over his back.
Good thing Putato's new communicator was completely waterproof.
[Shamisen: Boss, both the nearby Sakura Alliance and the central commercial district want to partner up with us. Also, the processing plant just picked up a ton of trailing rats snooping around.]
Just as Putato was about to reply, he received a phone call from Obana.
"Boss, I gotta say, the Corporation is expanding a bit too fast. I'm guessing you already got Shamisen's report, but that's just the tip of the iceberg."
"You talking about the partnership proposals?"
"Nah, I'm talking about Backstreets business rivalry. On paper, they look like they want to collaborate, but behind the scenes, they're probably already colluding with local Syndicates on how to carve us up. Just earlier today, I had to chase off three separate Syndicates and five joint-petition notices. Knowing your genius intellect, I'm sure you realize they aren't coming over here to hand out free money."
Hearing that, Putato immediately caught her drift.
"You want to deal with them? Also, I picked up some intel suggesting that we might get some high-ranking Fixers dropping by soon to investigate the Urban Girl's real identity."
"Of course I trust you can handle it, but Syndicates are like weeds: you can never truly wipe them all out. Plus, their tiny, pathetic brains completely lack the self-awareness to back down. As for high-ranking Fixers, they tend to care a lot about their professional reputation. Even if they run into a tough wall, they won't just give up; they'll look for alternative breakthroughs."
"Sounds like you've got a plan?"
"Naturally. Dealing with Syndicates was literally the first lesson I ever learned. We can actually make them sweat and work for us instead. As for the high-ranking Fixers tracking us down by scent, there are plenty of subtle ways to handle them, like teaming up with them and leaking a few bits of casually disguised, genuine intel. Besides, whatever info they're looking for, we can literally manufacture fake data to feed them. It's basically just playing riddles."
Putato's evaluation of Obana's corporate competence bumped up a few notches. Watching the swirling cherry blossom petals projected onto the water screen, he pressed further: "Can you handle everything on your end?"
"If this were still K Corporation, I'd say yes without a second thought. But down here in the Backstreets, I can only do my absolute best. The really thorny, unmanageable bastards are gonna have to be escalated straight up to you."
"Leave it to you, then. In fact, I'll have Shamisen cast my Fixer persona, Vanda, as the official promotional brand ambassador for the Urban Girl. I feel like that'll be super effective."
"Without a doubt."
The massive water screen gradually dissipated, and the gathered crowd happily began to disperse.
"Aw, and here I thought we were gonna spend the whole day hanging out?"
Mo curiously spun the oversized prize wheel at a booth stall, surprisingly landing on the grand-prize slot for an Urban Girl doll.
"We can always come back another time. The kid's looking a bit wiped out, so let's call it a day for now."
Lifting a dozing Olivia into his arms, Putato felt a twinge of curiosity. Even though she possessed a regenerative constitution, she easily fatigued and burned out. Maybe he should find some time to go check in with Kokochi.
Katae gently hoisted Olivia into the back of the car, then blinked in confusion as she looked at Putato, who stayed planted on the pavement. "Hey, where are you off to now?"
"Going to pick up a friend. She doesn't really know anyone else who can help her out around here, and she's helped me out in the past. Can't just pretend I didn't see her message."
"Tch. Look at Mr. Popular over here having so many friends. Then again, you're a corporate boss now anyway. Why are you even still taking on Fixer contracts? Just looking to torture yourself running around all day?"
"Since when has anyone ever complained about making too much money?"
Mo instantly put on a deadpan, speechless expression (-_-). "Is your soul literally made of cash? How are you even greedier than me? Whatever, see ya next time, then."
Watching the taxi pull away and disappear down the street, Putato suddenly noticed a red-haired young man carrying a toolbox suspiciously creeping toward a parked motorcycle. Before he could take a closer look, a familiar hand tapped him firmly on the right shoulder.
"I'm here. What are you staring at?"
Elena tilted her head curiously, watching the red-haired kid swiftly pick the bike lock, leap onto the motorcycle, and speed off into the distance. Turning back to Putato with a raised eyebrow, she asked with genuine amusement, "By the way, you actually serious about taking me to some boring theme park place? This is way too tame, you know."