Black Badger

I realized we had arrived at the entrance to the Harlem District all at once.

It was because Walker stood there, exuding an enormous presence. He wore a black suit.

His all-monochrome appearance really seemed like something I shouldn't get too close to.

People scurried away from him.

"Senior."

I bowed my head in greeting next to Shu, who waved her hand.

"Long time no see."

"Let's go."

Walker didn't bother with any small talk.

We entered a shadowy alley without a word.

I could tell that we had entered a different zone. The smell in the air differed right from the start. A subtle fishy odor mixed with the stench of drugs, rusted iron, and unpleasant garbage.

Several people sat slumped against the walls, their eyes glazed over from the drugs.

We passed them indifferently and navigated the narrow alleys.

I obediently followed behind Shu and Walker. It grew darker, and the drug smell intensified. Signs began to light up with eye-straining glows. The flashing lights from the signs revealed the filthy floor. Laundry hung haphazardly on iron railings, trash rolled along the ground, and empty syringes littered the way.

As we pushed past all that, a glowing shop appeared at the end of the dark, narrow alley.

I stared blankly at the neon sign that shone in blue and pink.

[Game Over: Restart?]

What a unique name.

Walker was the first to approach the first-floor shop and open the door.

"It's gotten cramped."

Walker's gangster-like demeanor clashed completely with the flashy game center.

In any case, he bent down and stepped inside. Shu followed right behind him, her face slightly flushed with excitement as she hurried in.

I completely understood her feelings. Just the sight of the game center made my heart race suddenly.

I wanted to grab that series and buy a ton of other games too.

I stepped happily into the shop.

The space unfolded before me, so crammed with all sorts of games that it felt suffocating. A counter sat in the middle. The owner, dressed in a tank top, sat behind the transparent glass counter.

A skull tattoo was elaborately inked on his left forearm.

The owner freaked out at the sight of Walker.

"Why'd you come back here?"

We all froze at the owner's words.

Walker, who had been staring down at the owner, was the one who responded.

"Who are you to ask?"

"What does it matter to you? I'm just a local around here."

"What does it matter to you why I came back?"

The owner's mouth clamped shut tight, his jet-black bob cut framing his face.

But the fear in his eyes didn't fade. Walker must have been pretty infamous in this neighborhood. He was a former famous fixer from the back alleys, after all.

In the narrow shop, the regular beeping sound effects from the games echoed steadily.

Shu ignored their exchange completely and approached the owner.

"Do you have the From Alphabet Series?"

The owner's head turned, his arms still wrapped around himself as he eyed Walker warily.

He narrowed his eyes at Shu.

"What series?"

"Games titled From followed by a single alphabet letter. We came here because we heard you had them."

"Oh, that."

The owner picked up the cigarette pack sitting on the counter.

"It sold a few months ago."

"Huh?"

I blurted out loudly without thinking.

The owner didn't even flinch as he lit his cigarette. His indifferent gaze rolled toward me.

"Sold."

"To whom?"

"What does it matter to you...."

Crash!

The tremendous noise came with the glass counter shattering into pieces.

I gaped at Walker, who had smashed the counter.

He loomed over the owner intimidatingly. No doubt he'd done it to threaten him.

Was it okay to do this to a civilian?

"B-B-Black Badger...."

"You're a resident, right?"

The owner stammered, hugging his body tighter, but Walker didn't so much as blink.

The massive man hunched over.

The owner recoiled, pulling his upper body back as far as he could in panic. Anyone looking would see it as a thug intimidating a shop owner on his own turf.

Should I stop this?

As I wrestled with intense inner conflict, Walker whispered in a low voice.

"You've got street smarts, which is why you can run a clean game shop like this and get by."

"What did I even do...."

"Simple."

He pulled a thick wad of bills from his inner pocket, held it out to the owner, and grinned darkly.

"This is for the repairs."

The shop owner's eyes went wide.

Walker set the wad down in front of the gaping man and patted his shoulder.

"You've got smarts, right?"

The sold game was the title From A.

It had sold at the end of August. More precisely, August 30th at 8 p.m.

We clustered around the CCTV footage that the now-cheerful owner showed us, having pocketed far more than enough for repairs. The From Alphabet games had fewer than thirty copies released per series on the market, and this series drew fans for its solid storylines.

There were five in the series total: A, E, I, R, K.

A and E had the scarcest stock, with maybe ten surviving copies each—true rarities. The owner here had slapped an outrageous premium on From A. It was so steep that even hardcore enthusiasts would tsk, curse, and walk away.

Thanks to that, it had lingered unsold in the shop for a while.

But two months ago, it had been bought by the mysterious figure caught on CCTV.

The buyer wore a hood pulled low, a mask, and crouched like a cat. They didn't speak. Instead, they typed on their phone and showed the screen to the owner to communicate.

Suspicious.

"Probably a woman? The hair was long."

"Build looks more like a guy's...."

"Gender doesn't matter."

Walker sliced through the owner's and Shu's mutterings decisively.

He narrowed his eyes at the screen, then straightened up from his hunch.

"Can't tell from this. Just commit the features to memory. If we run into them, we can spot and eliminate the possibility right away."

"Ah, thank you."

I hadn't expected him to care about the game.

I figured we'd just watch the purchase details and move on to the main topic.

We hadn't even properly explained why we came to the game shop. Shu said she'd never mentioned the From Alphabet games to Walker. He had no idea why they were special.

So why had he helped track it down by smashing the counter and paying out of pocket?

In any case, as I bowed and expressed my gratitude, Walker rolled his eyes to glance down at me.

I met his gaze and added an explanation.

"I didn't expect you to go to such lengths for something unimportant."

"It is important."

Walker countered in a low voice.

The gleam in his deep-set eye sockets burned sharp.

"For you."

"Ah, yes. Well, I like games and want to collect this series.... But why did you call me in, Senior?"

Seeing him help like this, I couldn't hold back the question. Shu, who had been watching the CCTV, turned her head to look our way too.

A few steps away, the shop owner hummed a tune while sweeping up the glass shards.

Walker held a brief silence, then spoke.

"The Old Spider knows you."

The shop owner dropped his broom and dustpan.

But Shu and I couldn't make sense of Walker's words.

"Spider?"

"Weird nickname."

"That information broker?"

The hoarse voice providing the explanation came from the shop owner instead.

Still frozen in the shocked pose of having dropped the broom and dustpan, he widened his eyes.

"That legendary information broker is still alive?"

"The Old Spider is an information broker?"

Shu asked in the casual tone one might use to inquire about the company's lunch menu that day.

"Why would a famous back-alley information broker know my junior?"

Exactly.

I felt touched that Shu had called me "my junior," even as doubts flooded in and I blinked. From the shop owner's reaction, it seemed like a well-known figure.

No one came to mind. Maybe because it was a nickname, not a real name.

Walker watched my expression closely.

"Is the Old Spider looking for me?"

I asked, meeting the inscrutable gaze of the former fixer.

"I have no clue who that could be...."

"You'll know when you meet them."

A strange metallic rasp mixed into the senior's low voice.

"For now, since we can't track down the game, today we'll go see the Old Spider...."

Thud.

A bizarre sound rang out.

Everyone in the shop turned their heads toward the bulletproof glass window that lit up the eerie, filthy alleyway.

Blood and bits of flesh were splattered across the glass.

Eyeballs and organs too.

"What the...."

I stammered, staring at the body that looked like it had been blown apart by a grenade.

"What is this.... What.... There wasn't even any special noise...."

"Creature?"

Shu shot up from her chair.

But Walker and the shop owner showed no surprise.

They didn't even move. They just calmly gazed at the window. Surprisingly, the owner's eyes on the body plastered to the glass were utterly bored.

The shop owner spat curses at the sight of the single eyeball, shredded skin, blood, and chunk of organ stuck to the window.

"Half-assed bastards."

"Illegal Augmentees."

Walker gave a rough explanation.

"Sometimes the body can't handle the augmented body and bursts like a balloon."

Ah.

So this was what Ro meant by illegal surgery on the first day.

I stared dazedly at the window as remnants trickled down.

The corpse was gruesome. Stepping out the shop door would hit me with a stinging protein stench.

Even then, the fishy aroma of death seeped in.

With side effects this severe, why did people still go for illegal procedures? I couldn't help furrowing my brow at the sight of the body. It was clear neither the ones performing nor receiving the illegal augmentations were thinking straight.

Later, I would ask Yoon or Ami about this.

And about the back-alley information broker too....

The thought had barely crossed my mind when heavy footsteps shook the shop.

Thud thud thud thud thud thud!

A crowd of people surged through the dark alley.

The frantic pounding of footsteps battered my ears. I watched in terror as the panicked group crossed the alley beyond the game shop, scattering in all directions.

They were all dressed in the same clothes.

Pale-faced, they fled from something.

What the hell was this?

Their expressions and outfits didn't look like some Halloween event.

And why were the footsteps so damn heavy?

Before the terrified crowd vanished from view, Walker moved first.

His motion was sleek, like a black panther.

"Illegal Augmentees."

The senior flung open the shop door and headed into the alley.

Shu dashed after him toward the door.

"Catch them all. Before they use civilians as bait to kill."

Walker vanished from sight right in front of me.

His final words, laced with that metallic rasp, echoed in my ears. Leaving my questions behind, I bolted out of the game shop.