Chapter 3: Miss Lucifer (Patreon)

In New Eridu, there weren't many legal ways to make quick money.

And even if there were, they weren't the kind of thing someone with Musachi's current connections could get access to.

Of course, if Musachi were willing to expose his identity, countless people would line up to shower him with money just to curry favor.

But that would be putting the cart before the horse — the entire reason he was short on cash was that he was hiding his identity in the first place.

So there weren't many paths left open to him.

Only one option satisfied that condition without hurting anyone else.

"I'm here, right outside Tin Master Special. If you see a woman with green hair, that's me!"

A message from his contact popped up on his phone.

Musachi blinked in surprise — he hadn't expected his contact to be a woman.

And judging by her tone, she probably wasn't very old, either.

"I'm almost there too. Look for a guy over six feet tall — that's me."

Musachi typed back the casual reply, then tucked his phone into his pocket.

Tin Master Special wasn't far from his shop. In a game, the two storefronts might've been visible the second you stepped outside, but this was reality — the shops on Sixth Street were bigger than any game map would suggest.

Before long, Musachi spotted a green-haired figure standing outside the coffee shop.

She wore a dark blue knit cap pulled low over her face, hiding most of it, but even from the lower half alone, it was obvious she was beautiful.

Up top, she wore a loose orange-yellow knit sweater with a few letters printed across the chest, clearly meant to downplay her figure — but even just sitting there, Musachi could tell she had a great one.

Below, she wore a light gray long skirt.

On her feet were a pair of canvas shoes, with pure white cotton socks wrapped around her ankles, and above them, a stretch of slender, pale calf peeked into view.

Sizing her up as he went, Musachi walked over and stopped beside her.

"Miss Venus?"

he asked, arching an eyebrow, his voice low with a note of uncertainty.

At that, Venus lifted her head and glanced around nervously. Only after confirming no one was paying attention did she turn to look at Musachi.

"You're Taixu?"

She studied him, a smile of pleasant surprise spreading across her gentle face — though privately she was grumbling to herself: another one calling himself Taixu? There were way too many people on the Inter-Knot using that name.

"I really didn't expect my partner to turn out to be such a handsome young man. Hehe."

Having slept for ten years, Musachi's appearance hadn't changed at all — he still looked like a young man of twenty.

Actually, at this point he wasn't even sure whether "lifespan" still applied to him at all...

"And I didn't expect my contact to be such a pretty older sister. Guess I got lucky."

"Such a smooth talker. All right, all right, enough with the pleasantries — let's talk business. Let me ask you again: you're sure your skills are up to this? You're a rookie, but you took on a high-difficulty commission for Delin Hollow. That's a massive Hollow. Sure, its Ether activity has dropped recently for some unknown reason, but it's still a dangerous place!"

Venus's face was serious, weighed down with a sense of responsibility.

Normally, contacts on the Inter-Knot didn't bother saying this much. When it came down to it, they were just middlemen sitting on resources, and everything revolved around money. But Venus was a kind person — if some rookie recklessly took a commission without understanding how dangerous a Hollow really was and died because of it, her conscience wouldn't let her rest easy.

"Don't worry. I'm quite familiar with Delin Hollow."

Musachi nodded with confidence.

After all, he'd spent ten years asleep inside it, and he had a body full of formidable power behind him — worst case, he'd just quit being a Proxy and cosplay as an Agent instead.

His bookstore had no shortage of books from the era of the Fall of the Old City, and some of them had come straight out of Delin Hollow.

"Well, confidence is a good thing, so I won't say any more — no point being annoying. This time, your job is to escort an Agent through Delin Hollow. I've already arranged the Agent for you — a real heavy hitter, and with a great reputation too. If their usual Proxy partner hadn't run into some trouble recently, a rookie like you wouldn't have had a shot at working with them. Here's their contact info."

Venus said this with a hint of pride in her eyes.

Introducing a reliable Agent to a rookie Proxy was the kind of thing that earned a contact real credit.

Venus had a pretty good impression of Musachi — otherwise she wouldn't have handed him this job in the first place.

Sure, he was a rookie Proxy, but he was polite and had a good sense of humor. Even their brief exchange online had won him a fair amount of goodwill from her.

That was exactly why she'd assigned this commission to Musachi when better options were available.

Of course, there was another reason too: Musachi had mentioned during their chat that he was strapped for cash, and since the pay on this job wasn't bad at all, Venus had wanted to give him a leg up.

"Well, thank you very much then, Miss Venus."

Musachi couldn't hold back a grateful smile.

He genuinely liked this contact of his, even meeting her in person for the first time.

After all, when he'd mentioned in their earlier chat that he urgently needed money, she'd asked him, with real concern, not to throw himself into danger just for the sake of cash — Hollows were dangerous places!

"No need to thank me. I've got a feeling you're going to turn into a really impressive Proxy. If you end up a legendary one, I'll get to bask in the glow too — who knows, maybe I'll be the one relying on you someday. All right, all right, go contact the Agent now, or they'll start getting impatient waiting."

With that, Venus stood up, waved at Musachi, and walked off with her coffee in hand.

"Oh, right — the coffee's already paid for. Don't forget to grab your cup. Consider it my treat~"

She winked, tugged her cap brim down, and melted into the crowd, vanishing from sight in no time.

Looking at the contact number in his hand, Musachi called it right away.

The call connected quickly, and a woman's voice answered.

After arranging to meet at the Sixth Street subway entrance, Musachi headed over without delay.

"Boss Nicole, do we really need to use a rookie Proxy for this...? Isn't that a bit too risky?"

At the subway entrance, Billy eyed Nicole hesitantly.

Sure, Phaethon, their usual partner, was unavailable — but as veteran Agents, it wasn't as though they had no other Proxy connections.

"What do you know? We've got to keep expanding our network too. Sure, the other Proxies are reliable, but they're expensive..."

"The second half is the real point."

Anby added quietly from the side.

"Ugh, don't sweat the details! Cunning Hares has been running a little tight on funds lately, so naturally we cut costs where we can. Besides, Delin Hollow's Ether activity has been dropping recently — even a rookie Proxy should be fine!"

Nicole shot Anby an exasperated glare, then turned back to explain to Billy.

"Got it, no worries! Even if something goes wrong, I'll protect Boss Nicole!"

Billy declared, fired up.

"Zip your jinxing mouth!"

Nicole slugged Anby hard — and ended up shaking out her own hand from the impact.

That tin can of a body.

It really hurt!