Yes. I was a very suspicious-looking person.

A man standing in the middle of the scene where an extremely dangerous criminal has just been caught, wearing a big, black gas mask the size of a Darth Vader.

A sane policeman cannot help but suspect such a suspicious person. And unfortunately, the patrol officer in front of him was extremely sane.

… I thought I’d change the color to white. Then it would have looked a little less suspicious.

I curse the past me who ordered without thinking that the matte black color would be okay.

[ID will be checked. Please cooperate.]

Cooperation sounds more like a command than a request.

that would be natural Because there is no right to refuse. If I refuse, I’ll turn to blood like that monster.

gulp.

He swallows his saliva, looking at the blood and mechanical shavings adhering to the patrol uniform and the exoskeleton.

When he nodded, the lens part of the helmet was divided into several sheets, and light-emitting elements popped out and irradiated the laser.

[Just stand still.]

A prison made of light wraps around my body and reads information. All he could do was stay frozen in it.

He had been inspected several times, but this was the first time he went through such a thorough process. damn it

For me, I only trust the cyber watch on my wrist. It contains my fake data.

Please don’t go unnoticed… . I close my eyes with a feeling that I need to pray.

That was then.

[mask.]

“Yes?”

[Take off your mask. I have to check my face.]

“Ahh. yes.”

I think my head was stiff because I was so nervous. Yes, of course, I will check the bare face. I should have reacted quickly… .

He sighed and put his hand on the mask.

When you pinch the dented cheek part with your finger and press it firmly, the mask comes off with a click sound.

Since it is an expensive mask, putting on and taking it off was quite easy. Since it is fixed according to the shape of the face, there is no burden even if you wear it for a long time.

As I lowered the mask, the patrol officer nodded and asked without any reaction to my face.

[You are wearing a mask that looks quite expensive. Do you have any related diseases?]

A question that flies like a fluke. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at first glance, but… .

This was a trap. A trap question I’ve been asked countless times because of this striking mask.

Here, in order to escape the momentary situation, ‘Yes, I wear a mask because of respiratory disease.’ If you answer that, you’re in trouble.

Because it is a world where personal information does not exist, and now that patrol officer will be checking every detail of my personal details including medical data.

What if I answered that I have a respiratory disease because I entered the data as having no chronic disease?

Answers inconsistent with records.

Very suspicious, considered a current offender. f**ked.

If it turns out to be a lie, I will be taken away.

Therefore, here, it is better to pass it on with something similar to the one you did with the chicken crest earlier.

“no. It’s not really a disease. It’s just that I usually value health and safety, so I usually wear a mask when I go out. Because the air is so bad, it’s because of anxiety.”

[Hmm… Is that so.]

A thick security lens glides across my face at those words.

yes i am asian Even if you pretend, you will see it. The data will also say Asian.

As Shimizu said, ‘Asians are particularly sensitive to safety.’ I just hope that the prejudice of

please just skip it I’m not a criminal, I’m just an Asian who values safety and health.

and… .

[and… . You are pure Asian. It is a rare case in the lower floors.]

done. passed Turning the topic to Asian means that there is nothing more to say about the mask.

And it’s not just once or twice that I’ve talked about my race. I’d say it’s a fairly confident sport.

City polis guys all have the same repertoire anyway. I wonder if there must be a reason why the characteristics I have are so clear.

“Yes. I just moved from New Tokyo City. The reason I live downstairs is because of money. There were some personal circumstances.”

Shin Dong-kyung, Running Neo Tokyo.

It’s a high-tech city where people like me, who are pure Asians, who are apparently Asian and 100% Asian by ancestry, live.

How cutting edge it is, cities are flying in the sky or something. Dusk City here is also a high-tech city, but I heard that you can’t even give out business cards in front of Neo Tokyo.

In the minds of the people here, it seems to be a kind of paradise, an image of a utopia. I’ve never actually been there, so I don’t know.

What is certain is that the entire Dusk City is a place that harbors a huge fantasies about Asia, specifically East Asia.

This is a fact that can be seen only by looking at the East Town where I live.

The entire area is surrounded by shops with oriental Chinese signboards, Chinese tempura and Japanese noodle stalls dominate the street stalls, and black-and-white-skinned servants roam proudly in cheongsam and yukata.

It was also a feature of cyberpunk.

A future city that shocks you with the exotic and unfamiliar mysteries of the East. Isn’t it a soup rule that comes naturally when you say safeng?

It is because the genre itself was born reflecting the fears of the bubble economy in the 1980s that Japan might surpass the United States and dominate the world, but I don’t know about that.

What is certain is that in this world, Japan and China are very closed and powerful powers with enormous cultural power.

Because of this, Dusk City is also immersed in Orientalism, everyone wants to go to a heavenly wonderland or a closed Shanghai, and everyone wants to become an Asian.

In fact, it is said that the orientalization procedure is gaining extraordinary popularity. It’s a really crazy world.

After all, most pure Asians live affluent lives in their own countries and cities.

Because of this, the majority of Asians seen here in Dusk City are ‘fake Asians’ who have undergone surgery, are half-breathed, or are Southeast Asians who do not treat them as properly Asian… Yes.

It is said that there are few pure Asians who are as perfect as me, both visually and in terms of data.

Even if there is, rather than living on the lower floors like me, they are all rich people, so they mostly stay in the paradise on the highest floor.

There is a reason why the patrol officer mentioned that pure Asians are rare in the lower classes.

[Shin Dong-kyung… It’s called the city of the sky, isn’t it? It’s surprising that you moved from such a place.]

The envy of Neo Tokyo seemed to be the same even as a patrol officer, and his tone of voice became much softer than before.

As for the data, it was entered from Shintokyo, so there would have been no reason not to believe it otherwise.

[If you have any circumstances, please refrain from asking more about why you live on the lower floor—I understand. There is nothing wrong with it. The nanomachine reaction is normal, there is no criminal record, and the identity is certain… ah.]

The ranger’s mechanical lens, paused for a moment, pointed towards my wrist. The one with the watch device.

For a moment, I felt my heart sink. did you hear

A dummy chip that manipulates nanomachine reactions and a tiny transmitter that induces reading fake biometric data and IDs were all inside the cyberwatch. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

I remember what the president said when he gave me this watch as a gift.

‘Even if it looks outdated, the latest military dummy data technology is applied. So it’s that big.

Even if you don’t take it off and wear it well, you’ll be able to pass all kinds of prosecutors with ease. Unless you’re caught in the close inspection conducted by the police department, medical institutions, or military companies.

Ah, the story could be different if you met a special police officer with a hacker-eyed look… Well, you wouldn’t do that.’

And the policeman in front of me was a patrolman. A patrolman is a fearsome and dangerous class enough, but not as much as an executioner.

Executors intervene in major events such as corporations and gang wars, because their existence itself is like a living combat weapon, a monster.

I heard that even the gang and mafia bosses who run around the area are arguing in front of the executioner.

They’re the kind of distant world friends that I can’t and shouldn’t meet as an ordinary small citizen like me.

Therefore, it is normal that the watch’s fake technology worked for the patrol officer in front of him, not the executioner.

I should have… Why do you keep looking at my wrist?

Did I unconsciously give strength to one hand? What do you do when you notice something strange and ask you to take your watch off?

It was in the midst of a lot of tension.

[It’s an old-fashioned cyberware. It is an old model that is not easy to obtain.]

thank god. I haven’t told you to take it off yet. He opened his mouth with a sigh of relief.

“Yes. It was a gift from my deceased parents. I have a personal attachment to it, and even though it has been around for a long time, I still use it to this day. There are still no major functional problems.”

[ah… Is that so. It looks like you have taken good care of it.]

done. went through

Seeing that image of him turning his head in embarrassment, the patrol officer was completely deceived.

After all, talulla related to parents is always effective.

Is it because of the prejudice that Asians value filial piety?

Even if it is an old cyberwatch, if you indirectly appeal that it is a gift given to you by your parents before they died, so you can’t throw it away, unless you are really cold-blooded, everyone is ah… I see and pass

Like when we talked about masks earlier, stereotypes about Asians can be a very useful weapon if used well.

Especially in a city full of fantasies about the East. Sometimes I get annoyed by prejudice, though.

And that patrolman didn’t seem too cold-blooded.

Taking a step back and clearing the way for me to pass. The exoskeleton’s laser sensors have long since gone silent with the lights turned off.

The checkup was over. I am now free hurray.

I was so nervous during this short period of time that my spine was wet with cold sweat.

It was my first day at work, and I lost all my energy before going to work.

I wonder if he still thinks he’s terrified to see him stumbling around as he walks, the patrolman said with a smirk at the corner of his mouth exposed under the helmet.

[You said you just came to Dusk City. You’ve probably never seen a case of subduing criminals so violently. We may have been considered a little intimidating.]

I’m glad it’s a little bit I almost just got bored.

[But it is all to protect the daily life of citizens and the city. The gangsters keep popping out like rats and harassing people and committing terrorism unless they are uprooted. Fight to serve. It is the motto of DCPD.]

“Well, that’s right.”

[So don’t be too afraid. City Police always does its best for the safety of its citizens.]

Well. It wasn’t a very convincing story.

It’s because I answered well, what would have happened if I made a mistake in answering even the slightest bit?

What if he was taken away as it is, and at the end of the examination, it was revealed that he was an unidentified person and he was detained.

They are immediately sold into the hands of corrupt cops to lose their organs, become experimental subjects or slaves, or are labeled as criminals and thrown into a slum… .

Either way, it would be difficult to survive.

That was DCPD. Dusk City Police Department, an organization that fights people rather than defends them.

A private gang under the direct control of Megacorp that works for corporate stability rather than city safety. A bridle of legal violence that is several times more dangerous than illegal violence.

This novel was posted at readwn.com

Many citizens fear the city polis more than the gangs. And there was definitely a reason.

… However, he is not so ignorant as to speak out in front of a patrol officer.

After nodding his head a few times with a face that was greatly impressed by the patrol officer’s words, he heard the sound of the wind from somewhere.

Whoo

familiar noise. It’s a monorail.

A translucent giant train, floating several meters above the rail by superconducting magnetic repulsion, passed the station at high speed and gradually decelerated.

A kilometer-scale fuselage that covers the platforms of nearby buildings with just one stop, and the front is surrounded by an outer wall composed of a polymer carbon allotrope.

That was the city’s trademark, the City Train, running through Dusk.

Watching the train slowly slow down in line with the track line, the patrolman said.

[The train has arrived. I guess I’ve been holding on to it for too long. I’ll just send you this.]

“Ah yes. thank you then… .”

As I bowed my head awkwardly, the patrol officer saluted lightly and pointed my back towards the open monorail door.

[Then I hope you have a good time, Aaron Nakamura.]

“… … .”

Yeah, you read my ID, so of course you know my name.

With a sigh, he bowed once more to the patrol officer and entered the train.

Aaron Nakamura. Aaron Nakamura in American way.

It was my name in this world that I couldn’t get used to no matter how many times I heard it over and over.

… I have to undo one thing I said.

It’s a shame that it’s familiar like home, but it’s still unfamiliar. I don’t think I’m used to this city yet.

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