“Boss….”
“……”
Squeeze.
The moment Emma held my hand, all the momentum I had just moments ago came to a halt like a broken doll.
Emma looked up at me with pleading eyes, as if begging me not to go.
‘Ah.’
The guilt I’d been carrying towards Emma for the past month had paralyzed me, making it impossible to resist her words.
But….
[Logout unavailable]
[Amount remaining until logout: $968,231 / $1,000,000]
…I’m really close now.
If I add the bounty from the outlaws I handed over to the Sacramento Security Force earlier, my total will definitely exceed $970,000.
Which means….
If I just complete this $40,000 job for Lloyd, I can finally go home.
The ultimate quest.
17… no, 18 years.
It took me 18 damn years in this cursed Wild West game to finally unlock the final quest to go home.
18 years. Damn 18 years.
Even the protagonist in that dumpling-eating prison movie was locked up for 15 years, but me? 18 years.
Am I in a position to be picky right now?
No.
Thud.
There was no need to hesitate.
After making up my mind, I coldly pulled my hand away from Emma’s.
“Emma, it’s not like I’m doing anything illegal.”
“……Boss.”
Demolishing an entire village that was living just fine, all in the name of redevelopment.
In modern times, it’d be illegal, but in this uncivilized Wild West era, it’s not.
And driving the Indians to the reservation?
In the Wild West, Indians are practically treated like wild animals.
If they act threatening first, I can shoot them dead without any consequences.
‘This is our land…! Our tribe has lived here for thousands of years before you came…!’
…Back when I was in San Francisco, I’d actually done a few jobs clearing out Indians.
The higher-ups paid well for driving out those aggressive wild animals.
“If we lay down the railroad there, as Mr. Lloyd said, life will be easier for the people in the West, and America will prosper.”
Honestly, I couldn’t care less about the convenience of Westerners or America’s progress.
This was just a shallow excuse to convince Emma, who was looking at me with trembling eyes.
And….
“…You’re lying.”
“…….”
“You don’t care about any of that, Boss.”
Emma knew me too well.
When I stayed silent, Emma sighed softly and, glancing at Lloyd, asked me,
“…Boss. The Boss I know wouldn’t have taken a job like this normally.”
“…….”
This definitely went a little against my principle of only going after outlaws and leaving civilians alone.
…Maybe, as Emma said, I wouldn’t have taken this job under normal circumstances.
“What will you do with $30,000? What’s so desperate about $30,000 that you’re willing to do this?”
“If I get $30,000….”
I’ll log out of this game world and return to my original world.
…I couldn’t exactly say that to Emma, an NPC.
But maybe this is the perfect timing.
A final chance to settle things with Emma.
“…If I get $30,000, I’ll leave.”
“…You don’t need $30,000 to leave, do you? If you don’t like Sacramento, you could go to another city….”
“No, I’ll leave alone to a place you can’t follow.”
“…!”
Even after hearing this, Emma didn’t seem too shocked.
I’d mentioned to her before that I’d eventually save up enough money and leave for a faraway place.
“I’ll follow you, Boss.”
Emma said she’d follow me, not even knowing where this “faraway place” was.
I deliberately spoke coldly to her, still unaware of the reality.
“No, Emma. You can’t come with me.”
“…….”
“So… thank you for everything, and once this is over, it’s goodbye. I’m sorry for dragging you along, and after this, you can go to another city or return to Justice Town, whatever you want.”
“…Boss.”
“And I’ll handle this job alone. So while I’m gone, wait for me here at the inn. If you’re bored, go sightseeing or something.”
With that, I finished my announcement to Emma and turned to Lloyd.
“Mr. Lloyd. Can I start the job now? Where do I need to go?”
“…Hoho, you’re quite eager. My secretary outside will guide you to the village that needs to be cleared.”
“Alright, I’ll get going then.”
Driving out the townspeople and the Indians.
It’s definitely not easy.
And it’s not something that can be done quickly.
‘One month. I’ll finish this job in one month no matter what.’
I vowed to complete the job within a month and return home as I left the inn room.
But just as I was about to leave, a strange feeling made me look back….
“…….”
Emma was looking at me with an indescribable expression.
That expression somehow weighed heavily on my steps, but….
Grit.
I forced myself to ignore it and walked out.
“…Huh? Oh, you’re starting the job today…?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Uh… the other gunslingers have already left for the village…. If you hurry, you might catch up. Let’s head down quickly.”
At the mention of starting the job today, Lloyd’s secretary hurriedly guided me.
He and I rushed downstairs, mounted our horses, and galloped through the streets of Sacramento.
“Your name is Noah, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Of course, you’re not the only gunslinger hired by our company.”
Obviously.
Clearing out an entire village isn’t something even I could do alone.
Lloyd must’ve already hired plenty of other gunslingers.
“How many other gunslingers are there?”
“Seven, including you.”
“…That’s fewer than I expected.”
But the number was much smaller than I thought.
Only seven people to drive out an entire village?
And we’d have to fight the Indians too. Seven is way too few.
And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought so, as the secretary also wore a worried expression.
“…It’s hard to hire gunslingers these days because of San Francisco. And we can’t just hire outlaws either.”
San Francisco… must be because of the South Brotherhood.
The South Brotherhood has been pushing for California’s independence, provoking the federal government.
Once again…
The gunslingers, who probably smelled the atmosphere of a civil war brewing, must have all switched sides.
So, even in a situation where the company’s fate was at stake, Lloyd probably couldn’t recruit many gunslingers.
“Anyway, those South Brotherhood bastards have never helped me.”
Or have they?
Was it thanks to them that I got a job worth 40,000 dollars?
Anyway, seven people were too few.
Perhaps sensing my worry, the secretary reassured me.
“Although the numbers are small, I’ve gathered quite skilled individuals, so don’t worry too much.”
“Ah… yeah, whatever.”
“Actually, the gunslingers were supposed to leave for the demolition village at noon today. They should be passing the outskirts of the city by now. If you hurry, you can catch up… Oh, there they are.”
Then the secretary pointed to a group of men.
I grabbed No Name’s reins tightly and quickly rode towards them.
The secretary, struggling to keep up, shouted at the group.
“Mr. Borg-! Stop for a moment! Mr. Borg!!!”
“…Huh? What?”
At the secretary’s desperate cry, the men stopped in their tracks.
“There’s another gunslinger here who will be joining you!”
“A rookie? Why did they pick such a scrawny guy?”
Despite their indifferent expressions, they greeted me upon hearing that a new gunslinger had arrived.
“Well, whatever. Since we’ll be working together, we should at least say hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Borg, the leader.”
“I’m Noah.”
This was the first time I met the NPC comrades who would join me in this final quest.
Except for me, the other six gunslingers all looked older than me.
“Hey, how old are you? Have you ever shot a gun before?”
“Hey, youngest. Let’s carry this together. This is all going on your horse.”
So they called me the youngest and treated me like an underling…
“Yes, give me all the luggage.”
I acted as the youngest, obediently doing as they wished.
Once this job is over, everything will be over.
What couldn’t I do?
Playing the youngest was nothing to me.
But maybe they thought I was easy to push around because I played along.
Thwack!
“Hey, youngest!”
“…Yes, Mr. Borg.”
“Mr. Borg? Call me leader, you bastard.”
“Yes, leader.”
Borg, who wanted to be called leader, slapped my head and asked with a somewhat cocky attitude.
“Have you done this kind of work before?”
“What kind of work?”
“Clearing out villages, you bastard.”
If I had to say, I’ve cleaned out Indians, but I’ve never done the goon work of evicting villagers.
“No, it’s my first time.”
“Sigh… why did they pick someone like this?”
Borg laughed at me, saying it was my first time, and spoke with a proud voice.
“Unlike you, who knows nothing, I’m a veteran at this. Just follow me. The money we get is different too, right? After this job, I’m promised a whopping 2,000 dollars.”
“…The pay is quite different.”
“Of course. You and I live in different worlds. Ah… should I show you this or not?”
Borg, who had come right next to me, looked around and then rolled up his sleeve.
And there…
“Hey, this is a secret, just for you.”
“…This is.”
A tattoo of the letter ‘K’ was there.
…But for some reason, the tattoo looked a bit sloppy.
“Even if you’re a rookie, if you’re in the West, you must know what this tattoo means, right?”
“Could it be TK…?”
“Hey, you bastard, shut up! Do you want to get shot?”
Borg covered my mouth with his dirty hand and whispered in my ear as if it were a secret.
“I… was actually a guy who had a lot of trust from the boss in our organization.”
“…Really?”
“Really? You’re using informal speech, you bastard! Anyway… I’m here now because of some circumstances, but… once this job is over, I’ll go back to the organization.”
“……”
“You don’t know how much influence I have in the organization, do you? If you impress me, I might even get you into the organization after this job.”
“…That sounds like a great opportunity.”
“So listen to me. Hehe.”
I don’t remember every face of the TKK members, but I swear this bastard in front of me wasn’t one of them.
The tattoo was wrong from the start.
Borg must have done the tattoo himself because the ‘K’ was crooked and sloppy.
But Borg, thinking I was fooled, poured out stories of his bravery back in San Francisco, spitting as he talked.
‘If a bastard like this is calling himself the leader…’
I can guess the skills of the other gunslingers.
Forget about finding skilled gunslingsers.
It seems the NPC comrades I got for this final quest are pretty much trash.
I sighed and asked Borg, who was still talking non-stop.
“So, I shot dozens of South Brotherhood members with a gun…”
“Leader. How long until we reach the village?”
“Huh? Oh. That demolition village is closer than you think. It’s about a 5-hour ride from Sacramento, so we should be arriving soon.”
A 5-hour ride wasn’t that far.
Since we’ve been riding for about 4 hours, we should be seeing it soon.
“Really close. What’s the name of the village?”
“It’s a bit unusual. It’s called ‘Peace Town’…”
Peace Town.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the unexpected name.
Peace Town… a village that couldn’t live up to its name as much as Justice Town.
“Listen to me. I shot dozens of South Brotherhood members, and then the South Brotherhood leader appeared…”
“Uh, is that the village?”
Then something started to appear on the horizon.
I pointed at it and asked, and Borg nodded.
“Yeah, that’s Peace Town. We should start talking about the job now.”
Peace Town.
The village where my fate of returning home is at stake.
There, seven goons, including me, arrived to destroy their peace.
