Cyberpunk: Nirvana of Shoko Toyokawa

What do people do when they have nothing to do?

Hai Ling turned on the projection screen that she had never used since moving in, and watched the latest news from Le City, but soon became bored and turned it off.

She began walking around her apartment, buying sushi and pepperoni pizza, listening to new songs by Afterglow and reviewing bassist Himari Nakahara's playing on her newly installed 1980s Bassist's Taste of the Future.

Most of the time, she couldn't help thinking about work.

What are Xiangzi and Miaomeng doing?

It should be reinforcing the Mewtwo master tape dug out from Watanabe's mind.

Fixing the plot, sharpening and reducing noise takes a lot of time. Hailing doesn't know much about the production of Mewtwo, but she has heard that processing the master tape is a very complicated and time-consuming task. The more information there is, the more so.

It seems that Watanabe's memory file, which is at least twelve years old, should not even have reached the stage of sharpening at the moment.

"(I wonder how long it will take Amoris to process?)"

Ms. Toyokawa said that she couldn't wait for a month to adapt to the new muscle groups.

It seems that the processing time should be much less than one month.

"(One week? Two weeks?)"

Hai Ling pondered over questions for which she had no answer.

Occasionally, she would ponder another question.

When will Shiina Riki come back?

This question is even more impossible to answer.

……

Clang.

After plucking the last syllable, Hai Ling took the bass off her body.

The boring time continued. She finally took out a small part of the 800,000 yuan and bought a bass.

Schecter C-5 plus, five-string bass.

…Honestly, playing bass is pretty fun.

Hai Ling thought.

Even if it has nothing to do with work, she might still choose to play the bass during her free time in the future.

Speaking of which, rest time...

Will there be a lot of downtime later?

Just as Hai Ling was thinking about these things, she came down from the windowsill of the apartment.

Click.

There was a slight noise from the lock of the door next door.

The sound of the door opening.

Lixi is back.

Hai Ling walked forward a few steps and opened her door.

It was Li Xi indeed.

At this moment, she was standing at the door of her house, wearing the beige uniform of the BCPD Hanasakigawa Preparatory Police Academy.

Hai Ling glanced at Li Xi.

Li Xi did not go into the house immediately. She held her cell phone in her hand, looking happy.

"It seems that the band's affairs have been resolved satisfactorily."

"Wow!"

Hai Ling spoke up, which scared Li Xi so much that she jumped up from the door and almost dropped her phone.

"Hai Ling!?"

Li Xi held the phone and turned his head.

"When did you come out?"

"You didn't even hear the door opening so close to you? As a trainee police officer, aren't you a little bit lacking in vigilance?"

"…Don't judge me in such a critical way, like a superintendent."

Li Xi finally calmed down. She frowned in dissatisfaction.

"How can a police officer stay alert at all times when off duty... I'm wearing bone conduction headphones."

She tapped her occipital bone and the light there flickered and went out.

“It’s closed now.”

Li Xi frowned and asked:

"what's up?"

"You haven't been back for a few days." Hai Ling said, "Did you break your leg during internship again?"

"…I only broke my leg once, okay? Don't keep bringing that up."

Li Xi stretched out his hand and brushed away Hai Ling's inquiring gaze.

"I was busy the past few days. Hanasakigawa had an internship assignment and was on duty at Michelle Land for a few days. After I came back, I had band activities and stayed in the rehearsal room."

"Band activities?"

"A live show with lights. She applied for a lot of shows at RiNG's performance hall."

Hai Ling was impressed by the name Deng. Li Xi often mentioned her, saying that she was very talented, a rare lyricist and singer in this era, "the lyrics she wrote were just talking about me", and that she was a little worrying and he would protect her... and so on.

On the day when Hai Ling went to help Li Xi's band, she also saw Deng himself.

Indeed, he looked a bit melancholy and shrinking.

...A person like this applied for a lot of live shows?

"..."

Hailing is a little hard to imagine.

However, Li Xi looked very happy. It didn't seem like the live show was a failure.

"congratulations."

Hai Ling said.

"If there is anything else, you can contact me at any time."

"It's going to be fine now." Lixi smiled rarely.

"Really? That's really cause for celebration."

Hai Ling said this in a half-joking tone. As expected, Li Xi's face immediately turned red.

But she didn't retort immediately. It seemed that she was in a really good mood.

“(Did you fail to be chosen as a ‘destination’…)”

On the contrary, Hai Ling was unable to express her feelings.

She actually likes bass quite a lot.

Perhaps for this reason, she felt a little more lost than she had imagined.

But Hailing has no interest in disturbing other people's joy.

She turned around and prepared to go back to the house.

at this time.

"Hai Ling."

Lixi called her.

"I ran into the men in black while interning outside of Michelle Park. It seemed like their stage recruitment was over," she said.

"That's it."

"...I wanted to comfort you for losing the election, but you didn't seem to care much about it."

Something was thrown over.

Hai Ling reached out to catch it.

Without even looking, she knew it was [Melting blancmange! Chocolate flavor!].

I opened my hands and saw that it was true.

"I might join another organization." Hai Ling unwrapped the straw and said, "So, forget about the men in black."

"Do you really want to join the organization?"

Lixi simply didn't go into the house. She leaned against the railing on the corridor and said:

"I never thought you were so keen on collective action before."

"The previous goal has been achieved." Hai Ling inserted the straw into the packaging box and said, "Next, I want strength."

"Power... Wow, this is the first time I hear someone say they 'want power'..."

"Isn't it good to want power? With power, maybe I can save you when you encounter a cyberpsychopath on a mission."

"Why is it based on the premise that I'm attacked by a cyberpsycho!? Curse me! Why isn't it you who's attacked and I save you?"

Hai Ling raised her eyebrows. She sipped her milk jelly and said nothing.

"Okay, so the super mercenary likes panda milk jelly so much, right..."

Li Xi seemed to have thrown a punch into the air. She angrily attacked a place that didn't hurt.

"Thanks to you for putting it on my windowsill every day." Hai Ling didn't care. "I drank too much during that period. Now I'm not used to not drinking."

"What happened when you first moved in? You were nowhere to be seen all day... So you really drank all that."

"if not?"

"I thought you were lost."

"I lost the things you gave me, but I can still talk to you calmly. My mental strength is really strong."

"Who knows what your mental state is like!" Li Xi choked, "I just want to figure out what's wrong with you. If I don't, I won't be able to sleep well next to you! I thought you would come out to get it eventually, but after a few weeks of sending it to me, I didn't catch you, and instead you suddenly started talking to me again! Now I don't know what's going on!"

"Hmm... There really are a lot of secrets in this world, right?"

"That's not something someone who has kept a secret should say! So, why did you suddenly recover at that time? Was it really because of the milk jelly you drank?"

"maybe?"

“…I’ll take that as the case.”

"This milk jelly is not bad."

"So you think so too? I have to agree with this."

"You'll like it because of the packaging."

"It tastes really good, doesn't it? You've fallen in love with it, too!"

"In love...? Maybe not to that extent? ...Well, maybe I did."

"It's still possible. Wouldn't it be better to admit it generously?"

"After all, a lot has happened during this period of time. Transference, compensation, reaction formation... I'm a little scared because of these reasons. Maybe I need to wait for a while and calm down before considering it."

"…Wow, it's just a piece of milk jelly. Why is there so much trouble? You're thinking too much!"

"Yeah, I think so too."

Hai Ling smiled. She said:

"That's too much trouble. It's just a blancmange."

Chapter 59: Insufficient Intellectual Personnel