People in Cyber, using skin to create legends

Alice saw that she couldn't ask any more questions, so she could only follow.

That’s right, what Alice is investigating now is the drug manufacturing site related to Hero Fantasy that Qianxiang had apparently given up investigating.

Qianxiang and Alice had risked their lives to sneak into the drug factory of the Barr Brotherhood in order to obtain first-hand information, but that information had been deleted at the request of Molly and Cowboy.

Although Qianxiang has tried her best to restore it, it was deleted so completely at the beginning that it is unlikely to be restored.

So in order to obtain new information, Chikako and Alice ventured to other places to search for everything related to the electronic poison Hero Fantasy.

The person in front of them, who claimed to be an outer member of the resistance army, was the relevant person who could provide the two with intelligence.

It’s just… just like the boy from the resistance army didn’t think Alice was an underground reporter, Alice also thought the boy didn’t look like a member of the resistance army.

But no matter what, both parties got what they wanted, and the doubts in their hearts were only raised verbally, and nothing else was said.

District 18 is a famous entertainment district in the city of chaos. Different from other mixed areas, District 18 focuses on eating, drinking and having fun.

But a place with many entertainment venues does not necessarily mean it is safe. Contrary to the fact, District 18 is one of the most chaotic places among the lower-ranked areas.

And most of the forces here are teenagers, whether they are in school or not, including hot girls and gangsters, which are the characteristics of District 18.

That's why Alice saw those hot girls with very Japanese style on the bus. They are rarely seen in other areas, but are quite common in District 18.

And now, Alice followed the boy walking in the underground streets of District 18.

And keep going deeper.

But... before Alice could follow the boy to where they were supposed to go, a person stood in front of Alice and stopped her.

That's Alice's father, the cowboy, who shouldn't be here.

Looking at the cowboy who suddenly appeared in front of her, Alice stopped and looked at him with a frown.

Seeing Alice stop and look at the strange uncle in front of him, the boy couldn't help but ask in confusion:

"Why? Do you know him? Who is he?"

Alice said coldly: "My dad."

"Huh? Why is your dad here?"

"How should I know! Okay, just stand aside and I'll take care of this matter."

Alice said unhappily.

How did she know that her father would be here? At this point she was actually very panicked, but with outsiders present, Alice couldn't show any fear, so she could only look at the cowboy with a cold face.

"Alice, come back with me."

The cowboy who blocked Alice's path said this as soon as he saw her.

Alice pursed her lips, looked at her father coldly and asked:

"How will you be here?"

"Someone told me you were here, so I came. Now follow me back."

The cowboy's voice was calm, completely different from his usual cynical appearance. In front of his daughter, he showed a rare sense of dignity as a father.

But Alice didn't want to go back with the cowboy. She refused firmly:

"I don't! You have no right to restrict my actions!"

"You are not qualified to talk to me about rights now, Alice. I will only give you one chance. Now, come back with me and don't force me to use force."

"..."

Alice fell silent.

The young man who was listening to the conversation between the two was silent for a moment and then asked: "...You want to go back with your father now?"

The boy just wanted to ask Alice's opinion, but the next moment he heard Alice say:

"get ready……"

"Prepare...what?"

"Ready... to run!!"

As Alice spoke, she took out a ball-like object from her arms and threw it at the cowboy.

Then Alice turned around and ran without looking back, as fast as a rabbit.

The ball thrown by Alice suddenly exploded in mid-air, and the white mist instantly filled the entire underground passage, blocking the cowboy's sight and figure.

The boy reacted quickly. When Alice threw the ball, he was already running away frantically behind Alice.

If the cowboys had been able to do what they did before, their approach would have certainly succeeded. At least the cowboys would definitely not have been able to quickly pass through the foggy area and find the two people.

but now……

Cowboy temporarily joined Molly's security team. He is backed by Linghua Group and has undergone three prosthetic modifications.

The standard for the tertiary prosthetic modification is the spine.

In other words, the cowboy is equipped with a prosthesis that accelerates himself.

So there was no suspense at all. In just a few seconds, the cowboy's figure quickly passed through the smoke, and his modified metal right hand ruthlessly grabbed the scruff of the neck of the fleeing Alice.

"Want to run?"

"!?"

Alice was stunned when she was caught.

She never expected that Cowboy was so fast now. Her impression of her father was still stuck in the past, and she had no idea when her father became so powerful.

The cowboy grabbed Alice and ignored the escaping boy. He looked at Alice with dissatisfaction, anger, and a bit of guilt, and walked out holding Alice by the back of the collar.

"Let me go! Asshole! Let me go!!!"

Alice was still struggling and screaming, but the cowboy ignored her and took her to the street and to the hovercraft waiting outside.

The reason they were able to reach District 18 so quickly, in addition to someone's "enthusiastic report", was also because Cowboy could now control the hovercraft in the team.

Traveling through the sky is much faster than taking the subway or train.

Chapter 174 Common Things

Alice's road to death was forced to end before it even began.

Alice was thrown onto the hovercraft and was somewhat dissatisfied, with a face full of anger and grievance, but the cowboy ignored her and sat opposite her, contacting someone:

"Thanks. I owe you a favor this time."

"Can such a small thing be considered a favor?"

"It's a small matter for you, but not for me. Anyway...thank you."

"Okay, you've said thank you so many times. Instead of saying thank you, why don't you tell me about your family situation. I'm a little curious now."

“…Okay, I’ll tell you later.”

The cowboy said, hanging up the call with someone and looking at his daughter.

Alice, who had calmed down at this moment, understood something after hearing the cowboy's one-sided words, and said angrily:

"The person you're talking to now told you my location, right? Who is that person? I'm not done with him!"

"Not finished?"

The cowboy suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice: "You should thank them! Otherwise, you would have become a test subject in the drug factory now!"

"I wouldn't! I'm just investigating! What's so dangerous about investigating?!"

"Investigate? Investigate your ass! You're only sixteen years old, what can you investigate? Do you think you're that great? You can't even outrun me, do you think you can outrun those company dogs?"

"That's better than doing nothing!!"

Alice's voice was sharp, and her words were even sharper. Her eyes were filled with disappointment in her father, and her eyes were red and tears were flashing in them.

The sharp voice drowned out the words the cowboy was about to say. He could no longer utter the following words of rebuke. He lowered his head dejectedly with his mouth open and said:

"You don't understand. You don't understand anything."

"You're always like this, always saying I don't understand, but I'm already sixteen! I'm still in school and I know more than you!"

"That's just..."

That's just your wishful thinking as a child. The adult world is much more complicated than you think.

The cowboy wanted to say this, but in the end he just sighed and waved his hand:

"...Forget it, let's... go back and talk about it."

"Let me go! I promised Chika-senpai that I would investigate, and I haven't completed my mission yet!"

"..."

“Let me down!!!”

Alice shouted in the car, but the cowboy just didn't answer and let the hovercraft return from District 18 to District 22, back to the sky above the apartment building where they now lived.

Alice is still just a child after all, and she hasn't undergone much prosthetic modification. As for the fighting plug-in that Alice thinks can protect herself, it doesn't give her the slightest ability to resist.

The cowboy used only one hand to lift her off the car, threw her into the room and said:

"From today on, you are under house arrest. You are not allowed to go anywhere else except to and from school."

"You...you are violating my personal freedom! I want to protest!! You can't do this!! Asshole dad!! Come back here!! Hey--!!"

Alice was screaming in the room, but the cowboy ignored her, locked the door and left the room.

When he could no longer hear Alice's voice, he slowly sat down against the wall and let out a long breath.

After sitting like this for an unknown amount of time, a girl wearing thick plain glasses and with a short ponytail sat down next to the cowboy.

She handed the cowboy a bottle of drink and asked:

"nailed it?"

"…Done, thanks…"

"Okay, this is your sixth time thanking me. Alice and I are friends, and so are you. There's no need to thank each other so much between friends. Just tell me what's going on. I always feel like there's something weird going on between you two."

The girl opened a bottle of coffee and drank it down in gulps.

The cowboy looked at the girl who was hiding her identity, and shook his head at first, as if he didn't want to say anything. Finally, he sighed and said:

"…It's nothing, just common things in the City of Chaos."

"uh-huh?"

The girl said nothing and motioned for the cowboy to continue.

The cowboy looked at the room where Alice was locked up and explained to the girl:

"You know, I raised Alice by myself, but do you know where her mother went?"

"I don't know. I've never seen her. I don't think I've seen any photos of her in your house. Did something happen to her?"

"Yes, something happened. It happened a long time ago... Well, I think you should have guessed it. It was because of poison."

"Electronic poison?"

"Yes, electronic poison, but not heroic fantasy, or rather... not the heroic fantasy of today."

The cowboy sighed.

Actually, the matter is not complicated. As the cowboy said, it is a very common thing in the City of Chaos.

In this chaotic city, it happens almost every day that someone in the family takes drugs or gambles, leading to the family being broken up and killed.

Without mentioning the distant past, let’s take the girl whom the girl recently wanted to win over and who could serve as her substitute. Her family was ruined because of gambling.

Because of gambling, the girl was "sold" to an entertainment company to pay back the money. Also because of gambling, the girl was forced to sell her body and go to higher-level areas to make money.

If the girl had not been lucky or unlucky enough to join the rebels, the girl would probably not have seen the girl now.

The epitome of a girl is the norm in a city of chaos.

The past of cowboys is also the norm in the city of chaos.

"The predecessor of Hero Fantasy should be an electronic drug called 'Happy World', which is similar to Hero Fantasy, but not as powerful and not as addictive..."