Geek Mob Mercenary Chapter 10

Ahead of scheduled release thanks to LowlandComet donation


Mob No.10: “Welcome… Oh, it’s you.”

The day after being deployed by the military.

Perhaps due to fatigue, I woke up again around noon.

So in order to carry out the holiday plans that got interrupted midway the other day, I properly cleaned and took out the trash before heading out.

By the way, the apartment building I live in has dustboxes by type in the basement that you can throw things away in anytime regardless of collection day.

Last time I had fast food for lunch, but this time I went to a set meal restaurant.

After finishing that meal, I decided to head to the black market shopping district that I was planning to go to during my previous time off.

It has a shady name but it’s a proper shopping district.

Supposedly because the shopping district chairman from 5 generations ago thought a normal name wouldn’t be interesting, no stores would open, and it wouldn’t attract customers, he made the district’s name and appearance match the black market atmosphere, and as a result it was received as an attraction, with over double the stores opening and customers coming.

Now the scale has gotten big, with stores crammed in selling not just food and clothing but also home appliances, junk parts, hobbies, used books, adult goods, weapons and ammo, medicine, hovercars, combat craft, spaceships, and military surplus.

A portion of passionate fans are probably what allowed it to grow this big.

Guys walking around in hoods, with swords on their backs, bandages, eye patches, etc.

I was headed to a certain store that had set up shop in a corner of that black market shopping district.

It was a store suiting the black market with ivy covering one whole wall.

The woody, earthy, grassy scent filled the interior, and the counter had bags of what looked like pills lined up.

Behind the counter was a woman who looked late 20s to early 30s, holding an unlit cigarette in her mouth while reading a newspaper.

She had yellowish skin, a blue right eye and green left eye, wore glasses, and had deep crimson hair tied around her neck that went down to her back.

When she noticed me, she turned this way with a lifeless expression, but

“Welcome… Oh, it’s you.”

Seeing who I was, she immediately returned her gaze to the newspaper.

“As bored looking as ever.”

“The old geezers don’t come for their meds until before noon.”

This is Gonzalez Pattson.

One of the few friends I got to know starting in 10th grade, and of course he’s male.

But why the person in front of me looks like an older sister is because in college he got in an accident, and as a life-saving measure had only his brain cyberized and put in a female android body since they didn’t have male android bodies at the time.

After that his original body completely healed with cloning regeneration therapy, but he’s still like this because he supposedly can’t afford the treatment cost and body swapping surgery fees.

By the way, despite the appearance matching the shopping district concept, this is a proper pharmacy, and he’s a certified pharmacist.

He handles prescriptions from nearby hospitals and walk-ins.

“So. What brings you today?”

“Just came to hear some [rumors]. And to restock on throat lozenges. 3 bags each of tortoise shell, peppermint, and cinnamon please. And 1 bag of cider too.”

“You still like the old-fashioned kind huh.”

Pattson lined up the requested lozenges from the counter into one bag.

READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM

When I received the items, I handed over cash that was clearly far more than just the cost of 10 bags of candy.

“So, about the [rumors]?”

This [rumor talk] is the main reason I come to this store.

While the black market shopping district is legitimate, the black market atmosphere makes it easy for really shady guys to blend in.

He properly runs a pharmacy while also working as an information broker on the side, but there are probably guys doing some really bad stuff too.

I definitely don’t want to get involved but…

Anyway it’s [rumor talk] for now.

“Let’s see… Have you heard about the [gate tolls]?”

“You mean the movement for lowering gate tolls in the Dalica stellar region?

It’s the demonstration happening in the Dalica region with lots of immigrant planets lately.

Gates utilize the spatial wormholes called [quantum singularities] existing in space to instantly move to vastly distant locations – they’re the important means of long distance travel supporting logistics, also called wormhole jumping.

In the past, before I was born, the tolls were outrageously expensive for anyone besides nobles.

But with the previous emperor saying [It’s obstructing economic growth!], they became available for anyone to use at fair prices.

However, when the empress changed this generation, people started claiming the tolls should be lower!

“Yeah that. Seems their demands are escalating more and more for some reason.”

“Wouldn’t that normally make the news?”

“Supposedly they made a demand for [Lowering the toll requires the empress to prostrate and apologize, broadcast live empire-wide].”

“What’s with that stupid demand.”

You can only call them an idiot.

It’s the words of nasty monster complainers.

“Rumor is some nobles who resent the current [Beautiful Empress] are pulling strings.”

“But wouldn’t something that extreme normally make the news?”

“They’re apparently not publicizing it to avoid sympathizers, and some enraged nobles are secretly gathering forces.”

“To not let it be known they’re gathering forces…”

The current 38th Empress Amelia Frandoll Ovales is said to be a wise ruler who works hard to eliminate differences between imperial territory and colonies.

She’s popular among the masses in both the Empire and colonies, and has immense popularity especially among some young nobles.

However, some old nobles apparently look down on the young woman, ignoring her commands, trying to make her their lover to seize power, or planning to replace her as emperor themselves.

Whispers say this demonstration is a plot by those types.

In other words, it’s sabotage by the anti-empress faction, and the pro-empress faction is covering it up to crush them.

Getting close would definitely drag me into trouble.

I’d better not get close.

“That’s about all the [rumor talk] I think you’d like.”

Saying that, Pattson removed his decorative glasses and started wiping the lenses.

Since he also wore glasses when he had his original body, he seems uneasy without them.

I could also get vision correction or cybernetic eyes if I wanted, but it’s a pain so I use glasses.

Nobles might cut in line even with an appointment.

“I see. Let me know if you get anything else in.”

“Yeah. I’ll contact you then.”

For some reason when my friend smiles like that, I feel it’s no different than when we were students, in complete contrast to his current appearance.

“Come to think of it, why not return to your original body? You’ve saved up money right?”

So I asked something that had been bugging me.

While he doesn’t make a killing like mercenary me all at once, working as a pharmacist plus information broker should earn a pretty good amount.

He’s even still paying the storage fees to keep his original body, so he should easily afford the treatment cost and body swapping surgery fees.

“It’s surprisingly easier to keep clean like this.”

“Well, you can sterilize your whole body but still…”

Androids and full prosthesis people can powerfully sterilize and disinfect their entire bodies.

Perhaps for that reason, most of the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, receptionists etc. at hospitals are androids and full prosthesis people.

That way there’s no chance of viral infection, and they don’t carry viruses out when they leave the hospital either.

And hiding behind the newspaper, Pattson spurted out something outrageous.

“So I bought a dedicated sterile cleaning capsule.”

I was at a loss for words for a moment.

“Huh? Weren’t even the smallest ones like 800 million credits or something? …And maintenance, cleaning fluid, etc. costs a fair bit too right?”

It would make sense for hospitals since they need it, but not something an individual pharmacy should buy.

“I need to get in before compounding medicine…”

“A bath is good enough! Of course it would lower costs!”

This guy has definitely taken a liking to his current body, and is clearly wasting money to create a reason that it has no cost to prolong things right?

Well I understand.

He was self-conscious about his appearance in school, so he must be happy about his current looks.

But then he should hurry up and change his name already.

It’s so hard to call someone with the looks of a beauty Gonzalez!



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