I don't particularly like hunting down small small fry. The only reason why is because the pay grade is lazy, and oftentimes, the teeny tiny fry is just some burglar who pissed off a rich bastard, and in turn, there's a 3,000 Credit reward. That's probably enough to get me some TV food from the convenient store that'll last me a good day or two if I ration my food out well enough.
I'm hiding on a roof casually while eyeing my target for a small fry bounty that's worth roughly 40,000 Credits. Now, I know I said earlier I don't like hunting down small fry. The pay is trash, yes, but this one? This little guy's worth 40,000 Credits. Small fry, sure, but not so small that I'd pass it up, enough for a decent steak, give or take. There are "big fish", and yeah, obviously worth much more. I've caught about a good handful in the past month or so, they usually take much more, so I'm on my feet a lot. Good for staying in shape, terrible if you like having a moment to breathe. This one? Somewhere in between, maybe even less. Either way, 40,000 Credits is 40,000 Credits. Work's been slow, and the bills aren't going to pay themselves.
Aos', this guy is running around like a chicken on a stick… or a drunk one on a stick, I don't fucking know.
That analogy made no sense, but just run with it. My point is that this guy is supposed to be worth 10 times the average tiny fry, and he's acting like he has no idea where he's going. So much for the, "dead or alive" added comment on the bounty post…I almost feel bad for the guy. Poor dude's all jittery, darting between alleyways like a rat trapped in a maze. Baggy clothes, wild eyes. He's probably hopped up on something. Makes him unpredictable, but hey, unpredictability keeps things a bit more entertaining and fun for everyone.
All jokes aside, I kept an eye on him as he crept through the alleyways, seemingly attempting to hide something. He's probably taken something somewhat important… but even if he did take something important, I'm not too sure if it's worth the big 40k.
Oh whatever.. I'm being paid to catch him, not question why he looks so suspicious.
He eventually ran into a corner, glancing around with an expression that screamed, "If I'm caught I'm dead". He pulled out the object he was hiding and it seemed to look like some…. Chip of sorts…? Raising a curious brow, I tapped on my watch on my wrist, a faint beep emitting from it before tapping my earpiece.
"What is that…?"
There was a quiet static silence for around two seconds before Sora's voice came in.
"Seems to be some type of data chip… I don't know what's in it exactly since I haven't touched it yet but… whatever it is, it's apparently worth a lot."
A soft hum of acknowledgment left my lips as I pondered on what my next course of action would be. I mean, there's about three options that can happen from here. One, I confront him head on and chase him. Two, I knock him out, or three, I kill him. This job seems awfully easy if I can just knock him out or kill him.
After sitting there, perched atop a building for several more seconds I just settled on knocking him out. I made sure to quietly trail him for a little longer, though, right as I got within 10 feet of him, he somehow managed to hear me and immediately whipped around with a frightened yelp. I blinked a bit, slightly taken aback on how he managed to catch my footsteps, but I wasn't really offended by it, just surprised.
"D—Don't come any closer!" He threatened, shoving the Data chip in his pocket and offering his fists to fight me. How cliche. I can't help but chuckle.
"Right, and what'll you do about it?" I inquired with a mocking hum, watching him stiffen before charging recklessly at me, which caused me to cringe and dodge off to the side with a tilt of my head. I just kicked his shins so he'd fall to the ground. He landed with a rather loud thud, a quiet sigh was heard from me as I squatted down to the ground beside him, watching him grumble and struggle. I scanned his person for a moment before noticing something odd about his neck, which made me narrow my eye a little. I reached out to grab his neck to inspect further, but was promptly cut off with a very welcoming punch in the face. Usually punches don't hurt me as much, but for some reason, this one was visibly able to move me.
I didn't move for a while before my gaze flickered over to the man who was squirming back away from me.
What is this guy actually on…?
I quickly recovered from the unexpected strength of this guy and just ended up bashing him in the face with my fist, which was surprisingly enough to knock him out….
Well that was weird—…
I'm still curious as to what was on his neck, and after grabbing his shirt and tugging him towards me, I was quick to realize what they were, White Veins…
"Titanium White"
I whipped my head around to the side and was met with Sora's familiar holographic feel and huffed softly from my nose.
"Why are you out," I uttered, It wasn't a question. A soft chuckle was heard from the digital man as he shrugged.
"You didn't turn your device off."
Oh—….
I didn't say anything to incriminate myself more, so I just glanced back down at the guy, fishing around in his pockets for the Data chip. I was curious to see if he had anything else on him, and lo and behold, a vial with a familiar white liquid substance.
"So he is a Junkie… man, who really uses this stuff? It's cheap and all, but at what cost?" I muttered more to myself than Sora, whereas he just shrugged again at my hypothetical question.
"Humans are strange, they do things they know will harm them, all for the thrill of it,"
I just hummed softly in acknowledgment of his words while grabbing a cigarette from my pocket to light up. Placing it between my lips, I just plopped the vial of T. White beside the unconscious man and left the scene.
"Can you see what's in here?" I questioned while puffing out bits of smoke from my lips, gesturing the Data Chip towards Sora's hovering form. He just nodded and touched the Data chip. I shoved it in my pocket soon after and waited for him to scan what he just downloaded to his database, which the process itself is rather quick.
"Oh shit."
I raised a brow.
"Spit it out,"
"It's a whole entire list of High-Interest Bounty Hunters"
Now that caught my attention.
"Is Rune on there," I asked rather quickly. He didn't respond for a moment before just shaking his head.
"Ugh.. there's just too many of them. I can't scan through them all right now… besides, he's got far too many Aliases, so it'll take me some time to do some trial and error." He uttered out while rubbing his head.
I sighed faintly in irritation. Not at him, but at this whole situation…. I don't know who this Data chip actually belongs to, but whoever it does… I may need to have a little chat with them…
"Fine…take your time, I need to go meet with Sam anyways." I grumbled out before clicking on my watch again, sending Sora away once more as I made plans to leap elsewhere…
~~~~~~
The nice thing about having a Sponsor in this business, is that it comes with a certain level of anonymity, more than an average Bounty Hunter would have. You might think it's easy to just get some guy or gal to sponsor you and your endeavors, but from what I've heard around the System, it's more or less impossible. Yet somehow, I got lucky enough to run into a certain blondie one day. Considering how I usually get the losing hand in life, nabbing a Sponsor this time around is quite a useful tool to me. It's kinda like finding a shiny coin in a pile of dirt. It doesn't erase all the shit I've gone through, but it's a useful tool. I'm not dumb enough to think Sam's doing this out of the goodness of his heart, no, of course not. Nothing's ever free in this world, and he's no exception. There's no such thing as a 'favor' or 'gift' in this world. After all, that's just a fancy way of saying, "I'll give you this for free, and in return you give me something back,". Oftentimes, the price isn't worth the reward. But for now, I'm willing to play along. His resources, his intel, his discounts on the things I need to survive—they're a little too valuable to pass up. Besides, he owes me.
I navigated my way through the bustling spaceship, at this point it was muscle memory as I wandered my way to his office at the top floor. I've been to many many hovering spaceships in my little career, but never have I ever been to one this big. This guy wasn't joking when he said he's wealthy, wealthy…. Despite coming here more than one time over some years, it still baffles me whenever I materialize here.
After showing my ID pass about a grand total of seven times I finally made it to his damn office space. Before I could even knock on the door, it was already slightly ajar. I narrowed my eye in slight suspicion, but thought nothing of it quickly afterwards and just walked in without much of a word whatsoever.
"Pspsps, guess who's here," I declared lackadaisically. His eyes were quick to meet mine, his expression morphing from a faintly pensive one to a laid-back smile.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite sponsee!"
"More like your only sponsee," I threw right back without any hesitation whatsoever, walking up to his desk while fishing in my pocket for the Data chip I swiped from the junkie earlier. Though, before I handed it to him, I held onto it a bit tighter.
"I want names,"
A knowing sigh was heard from him before he yanked a bit tighter on the chip, which I finally let him have.
"Hao Zhang."
I furrowed my brows at the name.
"From the Fú Yùn region?" I questioned, the place itself isn't too difficult to get to, but where Hao Zhang resides in, is bit.. far into the Galanos System… a bit pricey to get there, considering all the paperwork and all… wait….
I glanced down at my ID card and kinda showed it to him while I spoke.
"Can I get in with this?"
He stared at me like I just said something a little dumb, before simply chuckling at me with an amused look on his face.
"Dear, when I said your Identification clearance can get you practically anywhere, I meant it. It'd be strange if you could only travel to the edges of this System."
My expression brightened a little with a knowing expression before glancing down at the card, flipping to the back of it with his signature on it.
"That signature can get you anywhere, so long as the renewal date is still valid," He reminded, to which I scoffed at his words.
"Right, right, I remember that part…" I mumbled begrudgingly, to which he just shrugged playfully with a teasing tone in his voice.
"Just making sure~" He cooed in a sing-song manner which earned another grumble from me. I remained silent for a while, glancing back up at him before shoving my ID card into my front pocket.
"…Say, do you know what's in that Data Chip?" I questioned, testing to see if he knew anything. He and I held eye contact for what felt like hours before he turned away to look out his window.
"With the fact that look on your face, and your question earlier, I feel like you already know."
"…"
I kept my mouth shut for a hot minute, my eyes slowly darting on the floor before taking several steps towards him as he stood by the large window, peering out towards the familiar sight of space, as well as other flying crafts orbiting his ship.
"…why do you think Zhang would have something like that..?" I asked a bit calmer, to which he just shook his head.
"Truthfully, I have no idea.. but if I had to guess, knowing the guy he is, he's got his reasons."
I can feel his peering gaze on me, but I didn't turn to look at him and kept my own staring outside the window. There was a lingering silence for a minute or two, until I eventually gestured my hand towards him, an audible sigh was heard from him before he gently took hold of my wrist and tapped a card against my watch. A quiet beep echoed through the room, a small holographic screen showing, 'Transaction success!' Popped up for about a second before fading away.
"You should… take a break some time, Izana, join me for dinner?" He questioned up in a much lighter tone of voice, the usual teasing in his tone lessening a bit, but still lingering a little. I shook my head lightly, still keeping my gaze away from his, and out elsewhere.
"I'm fine, I have things to do," I replied with the same, blunt manner, but it wasn't as harsh as I'd like it to be at this moment. He always says stuff like that. "Come eat with me", "Let me treat you", "Here, I think this'll look good on you", silly shit like that… I can't stand his stupid smile… if he wants something from me, he should just say it as it is already, and stop beating around the damn bushes.
After all, there's no such thing as a free gift in this damn forsaken universe…