I Became a Cyberpunk Tycoon

Refining (9)

"You're out of your mind. Did you think you could get away with this in Stella City?"

Worlds apart. The man who bowed his head dejectedly felt that he and the suited man standing before him lived in different worlds, different realities.

They lived in the same city and received the same police services, but despite that, they couldn't help but experience things differently.

"I don't know how much you were trying to scam from a kid, but I'm going to make sure you never set foot in this city again..."

If elaborate dresses and formal attire indicated one's status in medieval times, in Stella City, a well-tailored suit served the same purpose.

It wasn't a cheap suit from some discount store. The man exuded a noble dignity that suggested he had never done manual labor in his life.

That suited man had probably never strayed from the path laid out before him.

"What do you do for a living? It's obvious. You're in a gang, right? You should be thinking about setting an example for your son instead of raising him to be a scammer—"

"I work in production at White Mountain Street..."

"So you do work in a gang hideout."

Faced with the suited man's definitive statement, the middle-aged man in shabby clothes couldn't bring himself to speak.

"Did you think you wouldn't get caught? Are you looking down on me? I work for Hansan, you know? I promise you, I'll connect with our legal team and nearly kill you with the law..."

"P-please, if you forgive me just this once, I'll make sure this never happens again."

It was humiliating. But the middle-aged man had no choice.

His son had scammed the daughter of a Hansan employee. They were now at the police station, and there was no way to escape.

If he couldn't somehow pay a settlement and resolve this issue, his son would be marked with a red line.

Stella City had many ex-convicts, but that didn't mean the city was friendly to them.

His son wouldn't be able to get a proper job or live a stable life.

His son already hung out with unsavory friends. If he got a criminal record on top of that, his future would truly darken.

"Of course this should never happen again. But why does my forgiveness have to be part of it? Hmm?"

The middle-aged man's head was already spinning just thinking about the settlement money, but the suited man before him didn't even seem to be considering a settlement.

"One hundred dollars, I'll return everything. So please..."

"No, if you've done something wrong and you're caught, you have to pay the price. An apology isn't enough to end this!"

It was unfair. He knew this wasn't a situation where he should feel this way, but the middle-aged man felt a strange sense of injustice.

When he himself had been scammed, he hadn't even thought to contact the police. He knew they wouldn't listen.

He had citizenship and worked at a legitimate job. But even when he was attacked and bleeding from his leg, the police hadn't come.

He had to apply first aid himself and then walk to the hospital on his own two feet. An ambulance was too expensive for him to call.

He could understand it then. Stella City's police were too busy to get involved in such trivial matters.

But he couldn't help but sigh when he saw those same police officers, who had been so cold to him and everyone on White Mountain Street, rushing with gritted teeth to deal with such a minor fraud case.

Feeling unjust, he turned around to see his son sitting with his legs crossed in a defiant posture.

"Trash criminals from the start... White Mountain Street, of course it figures."

The police officer who heard the suited man's words moved to calm him down.

"Sir, even so, insulting an entire district like that is a bit... well, it could be sensitive."

Since the crime had occurred on White Mountain Street, naturally the jurisdiction belonged to that area's police station. The officers here were also from that district.

"What? Sensitive? So what? Are you uncomfortable?"

But the suited man, furious to the point of rage, felt no need to care about them.

"It's not like I have some hatred for the district or anything. Those guys clearly harmed me and my daughter!"

No one could stop him. Everyone here feared Hansan.

"Scammers like them should never be allowed back into society. I'm not considering any settlement, so prepare to send your son to prison! And you, which company do you work for?"

As a manager, he couldn't directly interfere with other companies, but he could exert some pressure through his connections.

He could easily cut off a day laborer from White Mountain Street. The suited man called out confidently.

And that imposing, unrestrained attitude was shattered by a single sentence from a girl.

"Dad! Why are you being so embarrassing?"

"Ah... well."

She was a girl around middle school age. The Hansan manager might be a tyrant of White Mountain Street, but in front of his daughter, he was just a weak father.

"Enough. Let's go. We'll talk later."

"Um, Yuni? Today at the police station, there are some documents we need to fill out..."

"Forget it! It's not even a quarter of a quarter of my monthly allowance, and you're just getting angry!"

The manager seriously considered whether the allowance he was giving might be too much to develop proper financial sense.

"I'll handle the apology or compensation myself, so let's talk later!"

The common sense response that she was a minor and couldn't handle such matters on her own floated through the manager's mind.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the guts to say such things to his rebellious teenage daughter.

The manager took a deep breath, then got up and walked away dejectedly.

Why had he put his company work on hold to come here in the first place? He had never been angry before, yet he had awkwardly uttered words filled with rage and hatred.

It was all because of his daughter. He had been furious about the fact that his daughter had been victimized by a crime.

"I'll call you later, Ricky!"

"Ah, yes, I'll be waiting..."

But for some reason, his daughter was looking at the scammer with subtle eyes, having some kind of conversation with him.

Pushing the ominous imagination to the corner of his mind, the manager put his daughter in the back seat and drove through the night streets.

***

"Well... it's over now. Why did you do it, Rick?"

"Because I didn't have money."

"Then you should have talked to me. No matter how much you needed or how much you made... it couldn't have been more than the compensation we'll have to pay."

The judge sides with the wealthy. If this case goes to court, he will have no choice but to pay a huge fine.

"You're still young. If you start attending school regularly now and study a bit..."

"Why? So you can go around to every restaurant looking for me like that time?"

The middle-aged man let out a deep sigh.

"And stop being friendly with that strange criminal organization."

"Brown Hood? Forget it."

"What, did you cut ties with them?"

"No. There are no members to be friendly with. The upper management has all disappeared."

Environment shapes people. White Mountain Street wasn't a particularly proper street, and the people Rick met there weren't proper people either.

There were people staggering on the streets high on drugs, women selling their bodies cheaply, and pickpockets everywhere.

Friends, enemies, colleagues, and foes—they could only be gang members or prostitutes. The environment shaped the people.

"Please..."

"That's why I needed money. There are too many orphans left behind here."

"Raising kids in an organization like that, they can't turn out right. At best, they'll become prospective gang members or prostitutes."

"So they should all starve to death on the streets? What, if we leave them alone, would they become prospective lawyers or company employees? More like prospective corpses."

He wasn't a bad kid by nature. Even after hearing that his son had been detained on fraud charges, the middle-aged man tried to avoid reality with clichéd phrases like "My child couldn't have done such a thing."

"Still, making money through fraud eventually comes with consequences. If a person honestly—"

"Like you, Dad?"

The middle-aged man couldn't respond to Rick's words.

He might be able to set an example as a human being and as a father, but he was woefully inadequate to serve as an example of a "happy person."

"It's one hundred dollars. She said it's not even a quarter of a quarter of her monthly allowance."

"With that money, those starving kids... could delay starving to death for about a week."

The middle-aged man shook his head.

"Okay. I understand why you did it. But it failed. If you don't want to kill me too, find another way. Please go to school regularly..."

Rick couldn't raise his head either. If that upper-class kid hadn't shown mercy, his and his father's lives would have been shattered that day.

"She said to meet her separately later to apologize. If she says so... I have to do it."

"Good thinking. Don't get on her bad side. I'll prepare whatever settlement money is needed, so don't say things like going to prison."

"Do you have money to pay?"

"Don't worry. I'm still a company employee. If I push a bit, I could even get a loan—"

His phone rang. With trembling hands, the man opened the message sent to him.

He couldn't see the details. Just seeing the subject of the message was enough to make his vision go dark.

The company he worked for had sent him a cold termination notice.

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