I realized at once that we had arrived at the entrance to the harem district.

Walker was standing there radiating an enormous presence. He was wearing a black suit.

That monotone look really was... I should not get close.

People skirted around him like he was a hazard.

“Sunbae-nim.”

I bowed my head and greeted beside Shu, who was waving a hand.

“Long time no see.”

“Let’s go.”

Walker did not bother with words.

We moved without speaking into a shabby alley.

I could feel we had entered a different zone. Even the smells were different. A faint urine stench and the smell of drugs. The scent of rusted metal and foul garbage.

Along the walls several people with glazed eyes sat doing drugs.

We walked past them without looking, winding through the narrow alley.

I trailed obediently behind Shu and Walker. It grew darker and the smell of drugs grew stronger. Neon signs began to flicker painfully in the eyes. The flashing signlight revealed the filthy pavement. Laundry carelessly draped over iron railings, trash rolling on the ground, and used syringes.

After passing those things, at the end of the dark, narrow alley a shop glowed.

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

[Game Over : restart?]

What a distinctive name.

Walker was the first to reach the shop on the first floor and push the door open.

“This place is cramped.”

A man with Walker’s gangsterish mien and a gaudily lit game shop were visually at odds.

Anyway, he bent at the waist and went in. Shu followed right behind ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) him, her face a little flushed as she hurried in.

I could fully understand her feelings. My heart started racing as I stood before the game shop too.

I should buy the usual series and a whole armful of other games.

Happily I stepped inside.

Rows upon rows of games pressed in on me like they would crush you. There was a counter in the center. Behind the transparent glass counter sat the owner, wearing nothing but a sleeveless top.

A skull tattoo was elaborately inked on his left forearm.

The tattooed owner recoiled when he saw Walker.

“Why have you returned here?” the owner asked, and we all paused.

Walker, who had been staring down at the owner, answered.

“Who are you?”

“What business is it of yours? I’m just a resident around here.”

“What business is it of yours to know why I came back?”

The owner, with jet-black cropped hair, clamped his mouth shut.

Still, the terror visible in his eyes did not vanish. Apparently Walker enjoyed a certain notoriety in this neighborhood. I had heard he was once a famous problem-solver in the back alleys.

The narrow shop regularly echoed with the bleeps and boops of game sound effects.

Shu ignored the exchange and approached the owner.

“Do you have the From alphabet series?” she asked.

The owner, who had been clutching himself and eyeing Walker warily, turned his head.

“What series?”

“The title that starts with From and has a single alphabet letter afterward. I heard you had it, so I came.”

“Oh, that one.”

The owner picked up a pack of cigarettes from the counter.

“It was sold a few months ago.”

“Excuse me?”

I asked aloud before I realized I had.

The owner did not look surprised and put a cigarette between his lips. His eyes slid toward me without interest.

“It was sold.”

“To whom?”

“That’s for you lot to worry about...”

Clang!

With a tremendous noise the glass counter shattered.

I gaped as I watched Walker smash the counter.

He loomed over the owner with intimidation. He had clearly smashed the counter to threaten him.

Could he really do that to a civilian? 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

“Ba, ba, Badger....”

“You said you were a resident.”

The owner grabbed himself and stammered, but Walker did not bat an eye.

The enormous man stooped his huge frame.

The owner shrank his upper body back as far as he could with a terrified look. Anyone could see it was a gangster bullying a shopkeeper in his turf.

Should someone stop him?

I was wracked by inner conflict when Walker spoke in a low whisper.

“People with discernment would open a decent game shop and live here.”

“What did I do...?”

“Simple.”

Walker pulled a wad of cash from his inner pocket and slid it toward the owner with a grim smile.

“This is for repairs.”

The owner’s eyes widened.

Walker placed the cash on the counter in front of the man who was still mouthing protests, then gave his shoulder a light tap.

“You’re not without sense, right?”

The sold item was the game title ‘From A.’

It had been sold at the end of August. More precisely, on August 30 at 8:00 PM.

We huddled together, watching the CCTV footage the owner, now in better spirits thanks to the money well beyond repair costs, showed us. The From alphabet games had fewer than thirty copies per series in circulation, and this series was popular among enthusiasts because the storyline was solid.

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

The scarcest were A and E; surviving quantities barely numbered ten — rare pieces. The owner had slapped an exorbitant premium on ‘FROM A.’ Even seasoned collectors would curse and leave shaking their heads at the price.

So it had stayed unsold in the shop for a long time.

But the CCTV two months ago showed it was sold to a mysterious figure.

The buyer wore a hood and mask, curled into a cat-like crouch. They did not speak. They typed on a phone and showed the owner the text to communicate.

Suspicious.

“She was probably a woman? Her hair was long,” someone muttered.

“Judging by the build, it looked like a man...”

“Sex doesn’t matter.”

Walker cut off the owner and Shu’s murmurs in one stroke.

He narrowed his eyes and, after watching the footage, straightened the bent of his waist.

“You can’t tell from this.” He added, “Just memorize the features. If we cross paths, we can pick them out right away.”

“Ah, thanks.”

I had thought they wouldn’t care about the game.

I expected they’d peek at games and then move on to the main purpose.

They had not explained properly why they came to the shop. Shu said she had never mentioned the From alphabet game to Walker. Walker had no idea why the game was special.

So why had he smashed the counter and even paid out of his own pocket to help find it?

In any case, I bowed and thanked him. Walker rolled his eyes and looked me up and down.

“You’re the kind who thinks this isn’t important?”

“I’m a games fan and I want to collect the series... But why did you call me here, sunbae-nim?”

I could no longer hold back the question at the sight of his helpfulness. Shu, who had been watching the CCTV, turned her head toward us.

A few paces away the owner hummed a tune as he swept up glass shards.

Walker kept a short silence, then said, “The old spider knows you.”

The owner dropped his broom and dustpan.

But Shu and I did not understand Walker’s words.

“The old spider?”

“What an odd nickname.”

The owner, who was frozen with his broom and dustpan dropped, explained in a hoarse voice.

“Is the legendary info broker still alive?”

“The old spider is an info broker?”

Shu asked as if asking today’s company lunch menu.

“Why would a famous back-alley info broker know my junior?” the owner asked.

Indeed.

I was moved Shu called me “my junior,” but blinking with mounting suspicion, I scanned my mind. No one came to mind. Perhaps because it was a nickname, not a real name.

Walker watched my expression closely.

“Does the old spider want to see me?”

I met the inscrutable gaze of the former problem-solver and asked.

“I have no idea who that is...”

“You’ll know when you see them.”

There was a strange metallic edge in the senior’s low voice.

“We can’t find the game right now, so today we’ll find the old spider...”

Thunk.

A strange sound rang out.

Everyone in the shop turned their heads. The armored glass window facing the bleak, filthy alley was visible.

Blood and gore smeared the glass.

Eyes and organs too.

“What the—”

I stammered as I stared at the body shattered as if struck by a grenade.

“There wasn’t any special sound either...”

“Creature?”

Shu sprang up from her chair.

But Walker and the owner were not surprised.

They made no move. They merely looked at the glass calmly. Astonishingly, the owner’s eyes were indifferent as he stared at the gore stuck to the window.

He spat and cursed at the window, where an eyeball, torn skin, blood, and bits of organs clung.

“Half-baked ones,” he muttered.

“They’re unofficial enhanced-body owners,” Walker explained gruffly.

“Sometimes enhanced bodies can’t take it and the body bursts like a balloon.”

Ah.

So the illegal surgery Ro had mentioned on the first day was this.

I gazed blankly at the dripping remnants on the glass.

The corpse was gruesome. If you stepped out the shop door, the protein stench would hit your nose.

Even now a rank deathly smell seeped in.

With side effects this severe, why would anyone undergo illegal procedures? I furrowed my brow, unable to bear the sight. Those who perform and those who receive illegal surgery clearly do not think normally.

I should ask Yun or Ami about this later.

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

Just as the thought passed, heavy footsteps shook the shop.

Dadadadadadada!

A crowd ran across the dark alley.

Urgent footfalls struck my ears. I watched terrified people scatter in all directions through the alley beyond the game shop.

They wore identical clothes.

Their faces drained of color as they fled something.

What on earth was this?

From their expressions and outfits it did not look like a Halloween stunt.

And why were their footsteps so heavy?

Before the panic-stricken crowd vanished from view, Walker moved first.

Like a black leopard he moved with agility.

“They’re owners of illegal enhanced bodies,” he said.

He shoved the shop door open and went into the alley.

Shu dashed after him.

“Round them all up. Before they run over civilians.”

Walker disappeared from sight, and hearing his last words tinged with metal, I left my questions behind and dashed out of the game shop.