CHAPTER THREE: The missing thing

  Staring into the mirror, she didn't know what she was staring at.

  She saw the ghost of her past in her artificial jaw, which extended to her forehead, and her blue hair.

  As she was haunted by her memories, the echo of a frightened child’s voice asked, “Neon… do you think we’re about to die?”

  A yelling voice cut her thoughts from the past to the present.

  “We’re in. E-Sec perimeter just breached,” the convoy’s driver of corpo agents barked over the comms.

  Minutes later, they were halted by a group of gangs who believed they had hit the jackpot upon blowing up the bridge, causing the vehicle to overturn off the highway overpass and land next to a factory with a scrap yard.

  Neon felt herself slip into death, into that black nothingness, until another voice echoing from her past told her once ago, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t feel fear.” She opened her eyes to one of the agents; his scream was deafening, the scrapper gang peeling off his cybernetic gear while he was still alive.

  The sound of sporadic gunshots. Neon turned to look at one who was shooting his pistol, trying to hit the scrappers, but he noticed his lower body was gone. He began screaming, “Give me my legs back, BASTARDS!” And with no concern or fear, they kept looking at him with their blue electric and faceless masks surrounding him and scraping, until he felt loose, and fired his last bullet at himself.

  While Neon was trying to connect to the emulator, one of the scrappers was coming toward her. She raised her pistol and aimed at him, trying to fire, but it seemed stuck and would not fire. He got closer and closer, passing her, as if he hadn’t seen her at all, heading for the injured driver behind her.

  The driver was stunned; his eyes looked toward Neon, calling and begging her, “Please help me, PLEASE!”

  The scrapper drove his drill-like hand into the driver's skull and told him, “Don’t be afraid.” Then he stopped drilling for a minute, looking to the sky, and continued, “Valkyrie will hear your calling soon in Valhalla.” And he tore the chip out of his skull

  They scrap everything, part by part, dead ones and live ones

  And Neon, she just stood in her place

  Until they just finished scrapping and go away

  A voice from beside Neon asked her.

  “Are you a ghost? They didn’t see you, and they passed by you like you did not exist, and they never passed anything alone. “

  She turned to the nearby pile of scrap. Inside the small metal trash can, she found that kid staring at her with wondering eyes.

  And she replies to him, “I’m not sure anymore. Facing the end many times makes you wonder if you already have an end. “

  And the kid says to her, “Like an op play, we do it there a lot. “

  He pointed to that scrap place that looks like a stage made by kids

  “You can play and choose whatever, just keep playing for the missing thing to win the secret script,” and he gave her something

  “Usually, a chip of someone or Dream Eye from some dead addict,” and she looked to that glowing chip in her hand. “

  And the kid looks to her, “You really earn it, for the ghost acting. “

  “You really do look like a kid know-it-all, “she says that to him, and then she asks him. “I'm looking for someone. I really could use your help, Kiddo. “

  He replied with a smile, "Here, everything has a price." She stared at him for a moment, her tone cold, “So, what's your price?”

  He responded with enthusiasm and joy, “I'm glad you asked.” Then he ran towards the stage and shouted, "Round of the Op Play! I'll try to get back the chip I gave you!" She looked at him desperately, “Can't I just give it back?”

  “NO,” he said angrily. “A real actor should always be excited about every role, even if they don't feel it. After a while, everyone starts liking the role they play, especially in Op Play.” And then he looked at her in a weird, smiling “So? What you chose to play. “

  Neun looked around, and she grabbed a carton sword

  His weird smile turned into a wide one. “YOU CHOSE POORLY.”

  “Haha. I'M THE GREAT DRAGON, “saying to her after he grabbed the carton head of some dragon and then continued, “the dragon always wins. “

  “Huh! WHAT? “She shouted, and then, after she realized the situation, “yeah, I’m the pride, the stupid, the blind hunter who thought he could defeat the great, the powerful, the undefeatable dragon, “and she acted to drop dead.

  The kid looks at her with his big dragon head for a minute, “That was really “then he takes it off and continues, “A really bad acting, so I won my chip back. “

  Then she stood up and said, “Now you can help me, right?”

  The kid didn't reply; he just kept staring at her, and then she repeated the question, “Right?”

  “Of course, why not?” Then she tapped the screen on her wrist. “How can I find out where a boy like the one in the picture is? Have you seen him? And if you haven't, where can I find someone who has the info? “

  The kid stared at the picture and replied,

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Here on the East Side, a boy in a suit, hmm, I've never seen anything like it. But in Haven Night, everyone knows everything.”

  And he adds, “lift or ride?”

  Neon asked, “What does that mean? “

  “Lift means we walk through, or we ride with Maya Merzy. “

  Neon asked, “Who is she?”

  “She’s like a mother,” he said. “To us, the ones living in the way.”

  Neon glanced at him. “So, she keeps you alive.”

  “Not really, she just taught us some tricks that give us a better chance, “he looks at her and continues.

  “Life is like a play,” she always said. Not every character is alive.” Then the kid pointed to the buildings, "Nonliving things have a better chance of living than living things here in the East."

  The kid tapped a metal sheet in the pile, then moved it a little. A hidden door behind it. “to be like a city that observes, when everyone runs over it, without being seen.”

  Locks clicked. Real locks. Not digital.

  "We live with them, but we are not of them. The scrappers."

  The door opened a little, and warm light spilled out.

  The kid turned to Neon and said, “This is one of her places.”

  stepped in, and the door closed behind them.

  And beneath the hanging lights, she leaned over the table with her arms, one human, the other a matte-green robotic that ran up into her ribs, and her cybernetic waist. Her thick hair pulled back tight, heavy with metal rings.

  Then she turned to the two of them and, pointing the gun, she said, “I know that corpos play without rules,”

  And then Neon pointed her gun at her, too.

  “..But I never imagined they'd take a kid for a hostage.”

  Neon said, “Yeah, this kid is a headache, but I never thought of hurting him, so calm down a little.”

  As Neon lowered her gun, Maya fired one, “Lowering your gun here means that you're dead.”

  The bullet passed and skinned Neon's face a little

  “Girl, a piece of advice, don't set any trust for anyone here,” Maya said in a cold tone, a little pit

  Then the kid cut in, saying, “She just wants a ride to Haven Night.” Then she asked, “For info or dancing?”

  As she removed the cover from her old vehicle, it looked like a 21st-century taxi. Then she takes a second look at Neon, “I guess it isn’t dancing you look for.”

  Then she asked while she opened the back door for her.

  “What info are you looking for? “

  Neon closed the back door and opened the front door beside her, then showed her the picture of the boy she was looking for.

  Maya then commented on the picture, “A boy in a suit, huh?” As she spoke, the kid interrupted from the window next to her, “That's what I told her. I saw a lot of things but never saw that.”

  Then he opened the other door for them to exit the vehicle.

  Neon told her, “About seeing things, even I've never seen a real manual car in my life.”

  Maya kept driving, one hand steady on the wheel,

  “My father worked on the same vehicle, which I believe he inherited from my grandfather,” then she added, "Since you're a new tourist, did I mention our sec is a tourist’s paradise?”

  Neon stared at her as she drove through, “Hmm, how is that?”

  Maya kept talking, “Well, where else can you find such a wealth of diverse and engaging entertainment options? witnessing a thrilling street fight, dodging the occasional stray bullet, or even experiencing the friendly confines of the city's most notorious underworld figures, this side of town has it all and more. STEP RIGHT UP, FOLKS, and immerse yourself in an experience unlike any other! that you don’t need to have any more.”

  Neon commented, “Gunfire isn't exclusive to the East; they're the background soundtrack to the entire D-city.”

  As she stared at the empty entrance to the highway

  “Numerous conflicts, one tone.”

  The road ahead pulled something loose in Neon :

  Seven weeks ago, the same night as the great match was starting.

  The automated vehicle entered a secure road bridge, its path lit by the bright, colorful advertisements that filled the streets, including a giant red scorpion hologram. Its reflection illuminated the road as the vehicle drove through.

  Inside the vehicle sat a boy, gazing at the advertisement through the window, wondering

  “Why do we always cross the same empty road?” he asked Neon

  And she was sitting next to him in a suit and modified jacket, she responded in a serious tone,“Your father pays a lot to the exclusive secure road companies.”

  As she stared at the red scorpion of the Redion company ads on the side of the road, she continued

  “Do you really believe that anyone can avoid the messy traffic in Mid City, filled with kinds of creatures? I assure you, you don't want to be mixed in with them.”

  Suddenly, the vehicle came to a pause as an automated voice,“Warning: There is an object obstructing the pathway.”

  Outside, a strange woman stood next to a motorcycle, dressed in black and wearing a helmet. She approached the vehicle, staring intently at the boy through the windshield.

  The woman, with a sudden movement, climbed onto the front of the vehicle. After removing her gloves, she pointed her fists at the glass, and her fingers transformed into the barrels of firearms.

  Without a moment's hesitation, she began firing.

  The sound of bullets striking the bulletproof glass and the relentless warning alarm of the automatic vehicle formed a terrifying symphony, combined with a shaky voice cutting through the air of the frightened boy. His words echoed urgently,“Neon, do you think we are about to die?”

  Before Neon could tell him that everything was going to be okay, a monstrous figure in modified gorilla gear brutally yanked open the door. His strength bordered on the beyond belief as he ripped off the door where the boy was sitting.

  A chilling whisper echoed in Neon’s mind,“Don’t be afraid. Don’t feel fear of death.”

  As she envisioned flames and red electricity ravaging her body, the one in the gorilla gear stared at her and pulled the trigger, delivering the bullet into her as he took the boy away…………….

  After Neon's thoughts returned to the present with Maya in the car. She stared at the old setup around them, then said to Maya.

  “I can see it. You really don’t like tech that much. That encryption piece in the back that blocks the New Web's, even the network emulator.”

  Maya didn’t look at her. “So, you notice it,” she said, then add “Then it’s not doing its job, I will upgrade it to an old one.”

  “Anyway,” Maya said, slowing down. “You’ve reached your destination, sweetie.”

  Neon looked out the window, then back at Maya, and transferred the credits to her.

  Maya added, “Be careful. Even in the beauty of a fantasy, things can turn… ugly.”

  Then Neon stepped out and headed toward that alley.

  Surrounded by red bougainvillea trees, she asked the limbless man that set beside. ““Where is Heaven Night? “

  He pointed and said, “Just around that corner.”

  As Neon continued walking, he called out to her,“WAIT… maybe you can help me too.”

  She stopped and looked at him, then she noticed a sign hanging beside him. It read:Donate so I can reclaim my cybernetic organs from Golden.

  Neon looked back at him and said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

  She transferred some credits to him.

  And she continued her way.