Happy Birthday

You were not a child who could be fooled so easily. You had never believed that your parents had embezzled disaster relief funds, nor were you willing to believe the so-called suicide out of guilt.

After you told the caravan leader that you intended to go to the Oasis District, he remembered the bond you had shared over the past five years. He arranged fake identification for you at Scrap Mountain and smuggled you into Punklorde's Oasis District. Having done that much, he had already done all he could. From then on, you could only rely on yourselves.

On your first visit to this neon metropolis, its prosperity left you stunned. The city's liveliness and the deathly silence of the Great Wilderness were like two separate worlds. But after spending some time getting to know it, you realized it was all merely surface-level.

In the Oasis District, neon lights flashed throughout the city. The rich indulged themselves in skyscrapers, drinking to excess and enjoying the conveniences brought by technology. Yet in the dark corners, gangs, thugs, and robbers lurked everywhere. The poor seemed to have placed all their emotional needs in virtual games that provided emotional comfort. And the developers behind those video games were the "Company" that issued Aetherium Chips. Of course, that "Company" could also be considered Punklorde's government.

You carried Brownie on your back as you walked through the city's crowded streets. Once you personally entered its dark corners, you completely abandoned your last shred of fantasy about this place.

You only had 3,000 Credits on you, yet in Punklorde, even a bottle of water cost 200 Credits in a store. But playing a street arcade machine only cost 50 Credits. The warped prices placed immense pressure on your survival. Back when you were with the caravan, you could at least barely keep yourselves fed and warm, and even the cramped space inside the carriage could offer you a trace of comfort.

But now, as an illegal resident, your movements were restricted. You had to avoid being caught by the inspectors who managed the city at all times. Because of your age and identity, you could not find work at all and could only survive on the relief meals handed out by the church every day.

As for a place to sleep, when you were lucky, you could grab a pew at the church. You and Brownie would squeeze together on it. She was afraid of the cold and liked stuffing her little white feet into your clothes. When you were unlucky, if the church was closed to the public or the pews were already packed with homeless people, you would hide in the deep alleys of the slums.

Fortunately, those days did not last long. After wandering for some time, you met a kind woman who owned a fast-food restaurant. She did not mind that you were illegal residents. She hired you as employees and let you live in the arcade that had been converted from the basement.

Since you had neither legal identification numbers nor legal names, the owner named you after two characters from a game she had once loved.

Silver Wolf and White Fox.

At eleven, you gradually adapted to life at the fast-food restaurant. Since Silver Wolf was still young, she handled simple tasks such as serving drinks and water to customers. Meanwhile, under the owner's guidance, you learned to make fried fast food in the kitchen. Your hands were nimble, and after roughly half a month, you had already adapted to the job.

Although Silver Wolf was not good at interacting with strangers and was awkward when speaking with customers, she had none of the enthusiasm expected from a waitress. Yet ever since this girl with a silver single-turbine ponytail became a server, the restaurant had gained far more customers.

Those customers still looked exhausted as they walked down the street, like office workers who had just gotten off work, their bodies drained dry by their jobs. But the moment they entered the fast-food restaurant and saw the little girl with the adorable single-turbine ponytail, fatherly smiles immediately spread across their faces.

The owner, meanwhile, looked at those men with utter disdain. She even put up signs at the entrance: "This is a fast-food restaurant for eating, not for you to come admire little girls." "Lolicons, get the hell out."

Of course, because you were still too young, the owner only had you work four hours a day. During the remaining time, Silver Wolf and you would operate the joysticks in the basement and pass the time on those old game machines. Sometimes, when there were too many customers and no spare machines available, Silver Wolf would lie over your shoulder and read Aetherium Chip programming tutorials with you.

At night, after the customers had left, you would play games with Silver Wolf. In gaming, you were the type with exceptional talent but little interest. Silver Wolf, on the other hand, was the type who was bad at games but loved playing them anyway. After losing too many times, she would let out a "Waaah," her eyes filling with tears as she became a little crybaby who cried and threw a tantrum.

At twelve, you had already become highly proficient at working in the fast-food restaurant's kitchen. Over that year, you also used every possible channel to gather information about the embezzlement case involving the executive officer of Great Wilderness District 86 seven years earlier. Unfortunately, nearly all information had been sealed away. You only found a report about the case at an old bookstall.

That year, Silver Wolf happened to turn seven, reaching Punklorde's legal elementary school age. Over the past two years, the fast-food restaurant owner had already secured identification documents for both you and Silver Wolf. Now, she asked whether you wanted to enroll in school. You declined her kindness, because you had come here to investigate what had happened back then and naturally had no interest in studying. Silver Wolf did not want to go when she saw that you were not going either, but you did not agree. You hoped she could live the normal life someone should have in Punklorde.

As the eldest brother, you were like a father. Silver Wolf had always been especially dependent on you and listened to everything you said, so she ultimately agreed to enroll.

At thirteen, school life was monotonous and dull. Waiting for class to end during lessons, waiting for school to end while at school—this was the norm of their lives, and Silver Wolf was no exception. Every day, she looked forward to coming home after school and dragging you off to play games. You wanted her to share some interesting things from school, but every time, she only answered, "It's boring," before urging you to hurry up and play games with her. Yet despite being so lax about her studies, she never missed out on a scholarship each year.

She liked games such as "Bourne," "War Wheel 32," "Geometry Wars," "Odysseus," and "Interstellar Cheetah," but unfortunately, the high-score records for all those games were filled with the astronomical numbers you had left behind.

At fourteen, when you heard that a boy at school had confessed to Silver Wolf, you sprayed out a mouthful of tea. A confession? At nine years old? Those two concepts left you unable to react for quite a while. Fortunately, Silver Wolf told you she had ignored the boy. Still, just to be safe, you seriously explained puppy love to her and reminded her that she had better not date before turning eighteen. Even if she found someone she liked, she should at least bring him to you so her big brother could vet him first.

At fifteen, after five years of investigation, you had learned about the case from back then through various channels. You could already roughly determine that the case was connected to a certain official in the Oasis District government's Inspectorate. But every lead in the case pointed to an organization at Scrap Mountain called the Slag Gang.

You felt it was time to leave this place—to leave the Oasis District. But you made another decision as well: you would leave Silver Wolf behind and go to Scrap Mountain alone.

After all, she had already begun living a normal life. Leaving her with the fast-food restaurant owner would put your mind completely at ease. There was no need for her to keep following you...

So, on the night before her tenth birthday, you prepared her birthday gift in advance—the Aetherium Chip she had dreamed about for so long. You also left a birthday message for her tenth birthday on the table. Together with the nine you had written before and the eight for the future, eighteen cards in total were stacked there. Originally, you had planned to give them to her on her eighteenth birthday, but after thinking it over, you decided to give them to her now. After all, you did not know whether you would have another chance in the future.

You had actually already spoken to the owner about this, but you had not told Silver Wolf.

Before leaving, you folded the school uniform she would wear tomorrow and placed it beside her pillow. Otherwise, she would not be able to find it when she went to school tomorrow. You charged all the game machines that had been played until their batteries died, so she would not cry and throw a tantrum when she got home from school. You warmed the milk and breakfast and placed them in the insulated box, leaving a note telling her not to keep forgetting to eat breakfast. Finally, you gently closed the door and said:

"Good night. And happy birthday."

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