NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 5 - Linker
Chapter 5 – Linker
“Ugh.”
The phone on the table started ringing.
Without taking his hands off the keyboard and mouse, he rolled his eyes to check the screen—an incoming call from “Lunatic.”
With a quick swipe on the touchpad to the right, he tapped the speaker button.
“Yeah, what?”
“Hyung, what are you doing?”
“Gaming.”
“Project Neo?”
“Nah, LoL.”
“Oh, come on. You know it’s illegal for anyone over 30 to play lane phase, right? Just play something on Steam. Preferably Neo.”
“Doesn’t suit me. Hold on… Did I just die?”
A moment of distraction during the call, and the enemy Darius split his head open with an axe.
Damn, wasted my Flash and still died.
Top’s doomed.
Absolutely doomed.
“What do you mean it doesn’t suit you? Too complicated? Too hard?”
His younger co-worker asked, as if he couldn’t understand.
With the screen now drenched in grayscale, he took the opportunity to vent his frustration.
“Listen. First off, the ‘Vagabond’ class is absolute trash. ‘A stray dog of the streets’? ‘A lonely fighter’? What a joke. They should rewrite the description—’Victim of random beatdowns, pickpocketing, scam jobs, and unprovoked violence.’
I haven’t tried any of the other life paths, so I can’t compare exactly, but this?
This ain’t it.
Hey, have you ever fought a deathmatch over a spot next to a burning oil drum in the middle of winter?
Ever pinched your nose shut while digging through food scraps in an alley that reeks of sewage?
Ever worn the same underwear for two months straight?
No?
Well, shit.
And the guns—don’t even get me started.
No matter how many times I get shot, I never get used to it.
I flinch now just seeing someone reach into their pocket.
No wonder American cops are so jumpy.
You end up like this eventually.
Speaking of guns… you have no idea what it’s like to kill someone, do you?
Neither did I.
But what choice did I have?
Some lunatic tried to stab me over the few coins in my pocket.
Slashed my back, my side, my chest—blood pouring everywhere, my head spinning… I was about to die.
Next thing I knew, I was on top of him.
I was terrified he’d move, that he’d stab me again.
So I kept hitting him.
Just kept going until… he stopped breathing.
I couldn’t sleep for a week.
His crushed face haunted my dreams every night.
But you know what?
Over time, you get used to this shit.
These days, killing someone is no big deal.
No nightmares, just sound sleep.
I swore I’d never let myself get used to it, that I shouldn’t—but here I am.
Still hurts like hell to get shot, though.
So?
Sounds messed up, right?
Yeah, I think so too.
Even if, by some miracle, I woke up back in Korea… I don’t think I could ever return to my old life.
Maybe that’s why, sometimes, I feel like I can’t breathe.
Maybe it’s panic or something.
I don’t know, man.
Lately, I keep thinking… maybe I should just say I’m one year old if someone asks my age.
You know, like those YouTubers—creating an alt persona.
That’s it.
I’ll just say I made a ‘character.’ A ‘vagabond barely scraping by in this shitty world’ type of thing.
What do you think?
At least pretending like that… might help me feel a little…
Shit, talking about it actually sobered me up.
Hey, this is a dream, right?”
The next moment, a voice with a hint of laughter came through the phone.
“Of course, hyung. This is obviously a dream. But you should wake up now… looks like someone just broke in.”
Jin opened his eyes.
Before his vision could fully adjust to the darkness, he heard a faint rustling.
Moving his eyes without turning his head, he saw figures lurking in the shadows.
Jin saw them.
They saw Jin.
An unnatural silence.
Then, a sudden shout.
“We’ve been spotted!”
“Shoot!”
At that exact moment, Jin rolled off the bed.
Fwhip!
Fwhip!
Fwhip!
The spot he had just occupied was shredded, feathers bursting into the air.
Suppressors?
His arm burned—one must have grazed him.
Pressing his back against the overturned bed for cover, Jin reached out blindly and grabbed a chair leg.
With a rough estimate of their position, he hurled it with all his strength.
Whoosh!
The chair sliced through the air at a terrifying speed before shattering against something.
“Jack!”
“Fuck!”
Seeing their comrade collapse with half his face missing, the other two men recoiled, immediately pointing their guns toward the direction the chair had come from.
But just as they squeezed the triggers—
A wall appeared in front of them.
A wall in the shape of an overturned bed.
“Ugh!”
The two men tumbled backward, colliding into each other.
Before they could recover, Jin rushed in and swung his leg in a brutal arc.
Boom!
The man on the side took a direct hit to the ribs and was sent flying, crashing into the wall.
Blood spurted from his mouth, and he collapsed into the pool of his own vomit.
The second intruder—handled.
Now fully awake, Jin planted his right foot and spun—
As if he had known all along, his hand shot out, grabbing the throat of the last man sneaking up behind him.
And then he slammed him against the wall.
Zap! Zap! Zap!
The muzzle, having lost its target, spewed bullets aimlessly.
One of them burrowed into Jin’s thigh—a piece of bad news for both Jin and the man.
Jin was in pain, and the man had lost his chance to die easily.
And so, in the late night—
With the shattering sound of a window breaking, the blood-soaked man was sent flying.
Though he fell from the fifth floor, the cause of death was not the fall.
***
“Ah, shit.”
Jin scowled.
He stood in the middle of a room turned upside down.
“…Who the hell are these bastards?”
Jin didn’t know, but the intruders of the night had a name.
Scavengers.
They roamed deserted motels, picking locks, looting, and robbing.And when necessary, they killed without hesitation.
It took Jin two years to run into them for the first time.
Perhaps the old saying was true—there was no end to learning.
“Hmph. No wonder I had a bad feeling.”
Muttering to himself, Jin clenched his right arm.
He tried to squeeze the muscle to push the bullet out, but it was wishful thinking.
Only fresh blood gushed forth, while the bullet remained embedded deep inside.
At this point, he had no choice but to wait for the newly forming flesh to push it out on its own.
Maybe about two hours?
Could be faster now that he had unlocked the Transcendent Perk.
Gauging his own recovery rate, Jin approached the two corpses sprawled on the floor.
A rightful plundering ensued.
It wasn’t as rewarding as he had hoped.
Turns out, the one he had thrown out the window had been managing the money.
Unaware of this, Jin gritted his teeth, thinking he had almost been mugged by a bunch of beggars.
“This damn place is always full of surprises. Always so thrilling.”
Even for Jin, who had grown desensitized to blood and corpses, he had no desire to linger here.
The bed was ruined, the window shattered—everything was a mess.
So, after rinsing his face in the sink, Jin was about to leave the room when—
A translucent window suddenly blocked his view.
━━━━━━━━━━━━「???」NEO ?? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ?? ????━━━━━━━━━━━━
Things had been quiet lately, but now this bullshit again.Jin waved his hand through the air in frustration.
“Piss off.”
Useless thing, always telling him what to do.
Annoyed from the early morning nonsense, Jin shoved his hands deep into his pockets and walked off.
A sudden ambush and a shitty quest window.
***
Though last night had been a mess, Jin was overall quite satisfied with the past few days.
It was that kind of feeling—where you’re excited for no reason, just from staying still.
At first, he thought it was because his pockets were full.
After all, 100,000 credits was the largest amount of money he had ever held at once since drifting into this world.
Thanks to that, he had been eating three meals a day, booking lodgings without a second thought, and even replacing his worn-out underwear and socks.
But, upon reflection, that alone didn’t fully explain why he was feeling so damn good.
Then what was it?
What was this strange thrill tickling at his chest?
After pondering for a while, Jin finally reached a conclusion.
Ah.
This time, I earned my money properly.
It was like a weight lifting off his mind.
Looking back, Jin’s usual means of making money had been simple.
Find an empty alley.
A thug, punk, or third-rate gangster picks a fight.
Beat the crap out of them.
Ransack their pockets.
The so-called baiting strategy.
Not exactly a great way to earn a living.
And really, what kind of satisfaction was there in digging through the pockets and underwear of scumbags?
As long as they didn’t stink, that was already a blessing.
But after surviving like that for so long—
Taking on his first real job,
Receiving payment for completing it,
Hearing a simple “thank you.”
It made Jin’s heart race.
Maybe, just maybe—
He could live like a human being after all.
A faint hope.
And so, Jin stopped chewing his hot dog and opened his mouth.
“Hey, mister. I have a question.”
The middle-aged man with weary eyes, who was grilling sausages, looked at him suspiciously.
“What is it? No refunds. You’ve already eaten half of it.”
“Hey, do I look like a beggar to you? It’s not about that.”
“Yeah? Then buy another one.”
What the hell?
But Jin decided to go along with it.
He was feeling a bit hungry anyway.
“So, what do you want to know?”
The food stall owner handed him a new hot dog as he asked, and Jin took a big bite before answering.
“Do you know what it takes to become a Solo?”
“…What?”
“You don’t know?”
The vendor furrowed his brows.
“Why Solo? Got some romanticized idea about being a mercenary?”
“No. So, do you know or not?”
“How would I know? If I knew, would I be here grilling hot dogs?”
“Fair enough…”
Jin figured as much and was about to take another bite when the vendor added something.
“But I do know this—you have to catch a Linker’s eye.”
“A Linker?”
“What, you don’t know what a Linker is? What, did you crawl out of a hole on the moon? Tch. And you expect to survive in this business? You won’t last long.”
As the vendor shook his head in disbelief, Jin, still chewing on his hot dog, glared at him.
“Listen to this guy. Acting like he’s not just messing with me. Can’t you just explain things properly? This is how you are, huh? I even ordered that extra hot dog. And information—yeah, that’s right! Information isn’t free but I paid for it!”
Cough!
You trying to ruin my business?!
Dodging the flying bits of food, the vendor waved his hands in surrender.
“Alright, alright! I’ll tell you!”
“Tsk. Should’ve done that from the start.”
Jin gestured impatiently for him to talk.
“A Linker is a Linker. What more do you need me to explain—hey, hey, why are you clenching your fist? I didn’t say I wouldn’t explain! They’re brokers, middlemen. They connect clients with Solos. Got it now?”
Ah, so they were literally Linkers.
Jin nodded.
And then a thought crossed his mind.
“But why do I have to get some broker’s attention?”
“…What?”
“I’m the one putting my life on the line. Who are they to pick and choose who they hire? No, wait. The real issue is that they haven’t recruited me yet. If they’ve got such poor judgment, how can anyone expect to work with them? Don’t you think so? Anyway, this hot dog is good. Give me another. No, two. Extra sauce.”
“……”
The vendor subtly sized Jin up.
At first, he thought Jin looked decent enough, but now that he looked again, there was a faint madness gleaming in those ashen eyes.
Yeah, this guy definitely belonged in Downtown.
Judging by his utterly wrecked sense of common sense, he’d probably fried part of his BCI chip while messing around on the Blacknet.
So, the vendor decided to placate him.
“You don’t have to wait for a Linker to come to you. You can go find one yourself. Here, your hot dogs.”
Jin took the two hot dogs the vendor handed him.
Go find one himself, huh?
He wasn’t too thrilled about the idea, but what choice did he have?
Sitting around in an alley, waiting for trouble to find him, was getting old.
Maybe it was time to actually do something.
Try living like a person, even if just a little.
Maybe then, he could get out of Downtown someday.
They said that inside Area 30, at least, there was some semblance of law and order.
At the very least, people didn’t get shot in their sleep there. Yeah.
That had to be true.
It had to be.
Muttering to himself, Jin shoved the last hot dog—bought with his last bit of money—into his mouth.
Then, still chewing, he turned to the vendor, his words garbled.
“If you know any Linkers, just name one. I’m heading there right now.”