The Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization

“Ack! It’s nothing! If you’re not buying, then I’ll be going!”

The woman, realizing her slip of the tongue, got scared and ran away in a hurry.

But I can’t just let her go, having heard the offensive word “seduction” and since the dryad’s branch is genuine.

I silently chased after the woman. While chasing, I checked my combat power,

『Combat Power: 25』

She had quite high combat power for an ordinary woman. Her running speed was also fast.

Is she perhaps an athlete? Even if there are many skilled people in this world, it doesn’t mean there are no athletes. My learning kickboxing is proof of that.

There’s a rule that gangsters who can use martial arts or superpowers can’t participate in sports competitions. Therefore, sports competitions were held by non-powered people, and there’s definitely entertainment in watching that.

If you compare the ratio of powered to non-powered people in this world, non-powered people are overwhelmingly more numerous.

Of course, there are gangsters behind those sports competitions, with suspicions of match-fixing and such, but that’s not my concern right now.

Although that woman is fast, it’s natural that I, with a combat power of 420, am faster. The distance gradually closed, and at some point, I was running alongside her.

“Hey, can you explain what nonsense you were talking about seduction?”

“Eek! How can a person be this fast?!”

“You’re pretty fast yourself, aren’t you? I’m just faster.”

The woman, probably thinking she couldn’t shake me off no matter how hard she ran, looked around and spoke in a small voice only I could hear.

“I-I’ll tell you the truth, so please follow me naturally.”

“How can I trust you?”

“If you don’t want to believe me, then don’t.”

“You know that if I wanted to, I could knock you down and take the branch right now, right?”

“I know that well.”

Hmm, what should I do?

If I just followed her and Carpe Diem was waiting, all pointing scope lasers at me, there’d be no way to win.

For now, since I don’t see a Carpe Diem badge on the woman’s chest, maybe that won’t happen. Those Carpe Diem bastards always wear badges on their chests to show they’re Carpe Diem.

Excluding Carpe Diem, it’s unlikely that Murim Alliance or Esper Hunter would do something like this, so it might be okay. If some weird bastard shows up, I’ll just beat them up.

“I’ll trust you just this once.”

I followed the woman into another secluded alley. The woman leaned against the wall, breathing heavily as if she had run quite hard.

I stood in front of her and waited silently. It would be confusing to ask while she’s having trouble breathing.

“Ha… Someone like you might really be able to beat a man with a gun.”

“Does that mean it didn’t matter whether I could beat the man with the gun or not?”

It’s clearly a nuance of trying to use me for something, so there’s no need to be polite anymore. Gaining the upper hand is always important.

“Yes…”

The woman frowned painfully and lowered her head. Why are you making that kind of expression when you’re the one who tried to use me? What a strange woman.

“You might not believe me, but what I did wasn’t something I wanted to do.”

“You didn’t want to do it?”

“No.”

The woman looked somewhat wronged. Then maybe I’ll listen to her story.

“Then why did you do it?”

“To survive.”

The woman continued speaking while looking at her legs.

“My name is Reni. Reni Sist.”

“Racist? Why is your name like that?”

“No, Reni Sist. I’m not a racist.”

“Okay, Ms. Racist. Please continue speaking while thinking of me as a monkey.”

“Sigh… Anyway, I was a promising runner 10 years ago. You can still find my name if you search the internet.”

Ah, no wonder she was good at running, she was a track athlete. Wondering if it was true, I searched and actual results came up. The face matches too.

“At least it’s true that you were a track athlete, Ms. Racist.”

“You search for Reni Sist but keep calling me Racist, you’re really not funny.”

“What do you want me to do? I call people what I want to call them. Please continue speaking while thinking of me as a darkie.”

“I’m not even white in the first place, why do you keep saying weird things like monkey or darkie?”

That’s true. Reni Sist is Asian too. But why does an Asian have a name like Racist? That’s not my fault, is it?

“Just continue with your story. It doesn’t seem like you have any right to tell me what to do.”

“……”

Finding it difficult to refute, Racist nodded.

“At that time, my event was the 1,500m run. Back then, I was the record holder, so everyone expected me to win. But Carpe Diem’s hand reached out to me.”

Carpe Diem, you again? At this point, it’s surprising that Carpe Diem isn’t getting lynched by mobs.

I guess it can’t be helped since Carpe Diem is responsible for all the technology in Human City.

“At the Human City Track and Field Championships, where athletes from all four cardinal districts gather in the center, Carpe Diem proposed that I come in second place.”

“Match-fixing, right?”

“That’s right. Some organization in Carpe Diem was making quite a lot of profit from sports match-fixing, so naturally, their claws reached out to me too.”

“So what did you do?”

“What could I do? I run because I love running, and running is the only way to prove my life’s worth. Do you think someone like me would do match-fixing? I refused no matter how much money they offered.”

Looking at news articles on my phone, that’s right. Reni Sist won the gold medal in the 1,500m run at the Human City Central Track and Field Championships held 10 years ago.

“Then Carpe Diem threatened me to retire. They said they’d kill me if I didn’t retire.”

“Well, no matter how reckless Carpe Diem is, they wouldn’t just kill you outright. You were a celebrity after all.”

There are cases of idols suddenly disappearing to change bodies, but this is different. If a gold medalist disappears or dies, suspicions of match-fixing would inevitably arise.

The connection is quite obvious.

“But they were really going to kill me if I didn’t retire. It was their last method to end things peacefully. I had no choice but to retire, and I started to struggle financially.”

“Why? Didn’t you earn some money from winning the gold medal?”

“Where do you think gives money to gold medalists?”

“No way.”

Of course, the government gives money to gold medalists. Sports is a culture that’s perfect for exploiting people by making them stupid, so it’s natural for the government to give money to medalists who shine in such sports.

In fact, it was the gangsters who made such policies.

“As the saying goes, ‘assumptions kill’, Carpe Diem pressured the government not to give me money. I had only run all my life, and that became my grave.”

How much sin have these Carpe Diem bastards accumulated? It seems like more than the amount of soup rice Eris has eaten so far.

“Eventually, unable to bear the financial struggle, I borrowed money. I tried various efforts to repay it, but it was useless. In the end, I was caught by a loan shark and almost suffered a terrible fate.”

The fate of those who borrow money but can’t repay might differ depending on the loan shark’s tendencies, but in the end, it’s either being sold off or dying.

Yu Jin-ri almost went through that too.

“But looking at you now, it doesn’t seem like you suffered a terrible fate?”

“That’s right. The loan shark said there was something I could do because I was Reni Sist.”

“Something you could do because you were Reni Sist?”

“Yes, I was once famous as a beautiful young female athlete. And then I had a retirement full of questions… Don’t you think something better than just selling me to a brothel might come to mind?”

“Ah, they wanted to use you as a honeytrap.”

Indeed, internet news articles have titles like ‘Beautiful young athlete Reni retires after this competition… Why?’

Even now, she doesn’t look aged at all compared to the 10 years that have passed. Of course, she looks older compared to Yu Jin-ri.

“That’s right. First of all, many rich perverts try to get dryad branches. You can feel the ultimate pleasure with it.”

“No wonder the bastard selling the genuine article seemed like a pervert.”

“But after saying they’ll sell, they move around here and there, irritating the buyer. They make you wonder why they keep changing locations, building up complaints.”

“So when you go there with complaints, the seductive Reni Sist is holding the dryad branch alluringly, and the reason for changing locations was being chased by a man with a gun, pretending to be pitiful?”

“That’s right. Then, while telling a prepared story, we gain more sympathy. It’s content that stimulates men’s protective instincts on a whole different level from the story I told you.”

I see, not a bad build-up.

When a perverted man is enchanted by the dryad’s branch, if he’s asked for help by an unfortunate beautiful young athlete, he might feel like he’s become the protagonist.

Forgetting how scary a weapon like a gun is.

“The problem is, in this case, unlike typical honeytraps, we can’t just make them hand over money.”

“…Then?”

“A man with a gun actually starts chasing me, and the man and I run away. As this happens, the suspension bridge effect occurs where love blossoms in a fearful situation, and the man and I end up in a physical relationship.”

“What?”

“But the loan shark is filming that scene, and when the relationship ends, they burst in, put a gun to my head, and say this.”

─Give us the money. And leave. Never come looking for this woman again. If you don’t, this woman will die, and the video of you having a relationship with her will be spread on the internet.

“Then the man who has come to truly love me will give up the money for my sake and leave. He won’t be able to tell anyone about it either.”

“No matter how perverted men are, to play with people’s hearts like this…”

“I-I don’t want to do this either!”

“I know.”

“What?”

“I said I know. You’re a victim too, aren’t you?”

Reni Sist plays with men’s hearts. But in the process of playing with them, she has to use her own body too. For it to be more effective, there needs to be an additional condition of video distribution along with the threat of killing if they don’t leave.

Or maybe that loan shark bastard is really doing something with the videos. Either way, Reni Sist is a victim who has to engage in unwanted relationships and play with men’s hearts.

“And the reason you told me this story is because you thought I wasn’t an ordinary person, right?”

“Y-yes… You’re someone who knows two things when told one.”

“I’d be an idiot not to understand this much. And choosing me was somewhat wise.”

I hear footsteps.

They’re definitely not friendly footsteps. Not passing-by footsteps either.

That means the man with the gun, the loan shark, is coming.

I put my hand in my inner pocket, take out the sashimi knife, and unwrap the bandage wrapped around the blade to avoid tearing my clothes, while saying,

“I’ll kill the loan shark and make it so you can run again. And I’ll confiscate the dryad’s branch because it seems like a dangerously risky item.”

To prevent them from thinking I’ll throw it, I lowered my posture like mohanya and raised my guard with the hand holding the sashimi knife.

And finally, a man appeared at the entrance of the alley.

“I was going to set you free after succeeding just this once… What a shame, Reni.”