8 No money, no honey

Thinking back about those times when she always bugged him to be her friend and him refusing. Well she eventually succeeded in befriending him. Since he is her first "true" friend, she dragged him to every place she wanted to go.

That time, Ichirou started to change. His colourless life, began to glow. It was thanks to her that he also got to enjoy what it meant to be with a friend who understands you, who cares for you, who never show a fake appearance be.

Remembering all the fun times, the boring times, the time where he actually got lucky and blessed by fate that he accidentally kissed her on a fall and also, the time when she saved him by a second. "Maybe, I should have noticed the car before her and should've pushed her aside, if I had done that at that time .... maybe...." Ichirou said under his breath.

Yuu began to feel that this guy would straight up go do something very stupid. "Ichirou-kun, I know that you blame yourself because of what happened but remember this, she saved you and don't you dare do something stupid with that life she saved or I'll personally carve your heart out" Yuu grabbed his shoulders and said in a cold tone.

Seeing the seriousness in his eyes, Ichirou knew that he cared for him because he is the very first true friend Yui made. But he did not expect this much. "I'm... Sorry, I don't know, I don't want to know! But I..... I.... I can't stop blaming myself for what happened! When I was all alone, she lit up my world and now? She's hospitalized because of saving me! How can I forgive myself? How can I..... forget what happened? she gave me my life and now, it belongs only to her! I'm sorry brother Yuu, but I won't let you have my heart nor my life! Because only Yui has the right to take them!" now Ichirou said with seriousness, in both his eyes and words.

Yuu smiled and let go of him, "If you really feel that way then it's fine, so don't go doing crazy stuff alright?" he said. "Well then, mom and dad will be coming later tonight so you can go home if you want" Yuu said while changing the water in the flower vase.

Ichirou smiled as he said, "Don't worry about that brother Yuu, I already told my little sister that I won't be coming home tonight and I will be staying at friend's and my parents are busy anyway, only mom would be coming home today so I guess it's fine" his hand was still holding Yui's hand as he spoke.

"Well...as long as they are fine with it and don't you dare do anything weird to my little sister or you know what would happen, right?" Yuu said while emitting a dark aura around him. "Come on, do you really think I would do something like that?" Ichirou asked him with an innocent face.

"Exactly" Yuu didn't even think for a second and replied. "No trust!" Ichirou received a huge hit.

"Hahaha don't worry, I'm more confident in leaving my sister with you than with someone else, so look after her because I gotta go now, got some work to do" Yuu said as he walked to the door. Ichirou waved his hand at him and turned his attention to Yui. Yuu stood by the door for a moment and left with a smile on his face.

*ring* *ring* *ring* *ring*

Ichirou took out his phone to see who's calling him. [Unknown number]. Ichirou frowned. Who would call him other than the ones he knows? Moreover, how the heck did they get his number?

'Is it Hikari with a new number? Nah she won't change her number and mom and dad are the same, maybe it's Akari or Koujo? Who cares? Let's see who it is', Ichirou thought as he attended the call.

"Yo! Long time no talk my friend! How you doin? This is Viper! Your best fri-" Ichirou hung up the call before the guy could finish. *ring* *ring* *ring* *ring*. His phone started ringing again. He hung up without even attending the phone.

The phone kept on ringing and he could not take it anymore so he turned off his phone. *ring* *ring* *ring* *ring*. This time, the phone inside the room rang. 'This guy is persistent! Just fuck off!' Ichirou cursed inside his mind.

He picked up the phone and "yo-". And he hung up again. 'Let's see what else you can throw at me' Ichirou said in his mind. *knock* *knock*. 'Wait! Don't tell me?' Ichirou suddenly thought. He hurried to the door and opened it.

A 6ft tall man with his face half covered and a cap on his head stood before him. His eyes showed annoyance in it. He took out a phone and gave it to Ichirou and walked away. *ring* *ring* *ring* *ring*. The phone rang. Ichirou let out a sigh and attended the call. "Yo! Hahaha! Did you see that? No matter what you do, I can still get my hands on you so better watch what you do and don't piss me off, cool?" Viper said in the phone.

"Get straight to what you want, don't waste my time" Ichirou said in a cold tone. "Hehehe~ now now, aren't we old pals? Let's catch up first" Viper said. "I'm not doing buddy play with a two faced snake bastard like you, get straight to the matter or I'm hanging this up and I'll throw it out the window" Ichirou's tone was annoyed as always.

Viper sighed, "Come on, that was the only time I made a mistake! Money blinded my eyes! How could I refuse an offer like that? Moreover, I'm out clean slate! Do you think someone like me would refuse such a think? Well think again" he said. "I don't give a fuck, just get right down to it or I'm hanging up" Ichirou replied.

"Fine fine! Don't be like Russian winter! Too cold!" Viper said. "Russian winter is much better compared to you, now are we talking for real or not?" Ichirou can't take this guy's babbling anymore. Anymore of his shit spouting and he would really lose his mind.

"Turn on your phone, I'm sending you something and I'm sure you will pick up interest in it the moment you look at it" Viper said. Ichirou had no other choice but to listen to this bastard. He turned on his phone. The moment it turned on he received a mail. Ichirou opened it and found a file attached to it. He opened it and his whole screen went black. Ichirou waited for a moment and then, the screen lit up.

Letters and numbers were pouring down inside the screen like a green colored rain. Ichirou raised his left eye brow, 'Matrix? Why would I have interest in looking at it? Is he playing with me?' he thought. "Care to explain why am I staring at my phone with Matrix running in it? You did not send me any sort of virus did you?" Ichirou said but this time, his tone was like that of a normal talk.

"Hehehe~ I expected more you know? Did you lose your touch?" Viper smirked on the other side of the phone. "Be fast" Ichirou didn't say anything more.

"Alright alright! This is something the CIA picked up while tailing a group of terrorists, they don't know what it is so they let their hackers and geeks take care of figuring out what it is but unfortunately, those guys aren't "skilled" enough to decode it, heck those guys couldn't even tell this is a file encrypted in Matrix form! Bunch of noobs! They can't be compared to us, the Gods!" Viper boasted. After hearing his bullshit, Ichirou started thinking for a bit.

"Well then the great "almighty God", why did you call me when you can figure this out yourself?" Ichirou asked. "Well.... That's.....I couldn't find anything useful out of it" Viper admitted his defeat. "You can't decrypt it? Did you come from the wrong hole or something? This is a simple Matrix encryption and you can't figure this out? I wonder how you became a hacker" Ichirou used the chance to throw salt in his wound.

"Shut the fuck up! I came from the right hole! And this shit is simple as you say and I fucking know it!" Viper exploded. "Then why disturb me?" Ichirou asked.

"It's because I can't ask anyone in the community" Viper said in a sad tone. "You deserve it, you rat us out so we put you on the blacklist, it's only fair" Ichirou said with no care. Viper didn't answer him. Truth was that Viper never really wanted to rat them out but, the world runs on money and money is everything. When offered to that much money plus a clean wipeout of his crimes, he couldn't just turn down the offer. He has a family to feed. A sick mom and an innocent sister to take care of. There was no other option for him that time.

"What is the problem?" Ichirou finally asked. "We managed to decrypt it but the problem is the number it gave us, it can't be related to anything like bank accounts, serial numbers, locker number or coordinates or anything! This is just a bunch of random numbers to make us look like idiots" Viper answered.

"Well there are cases like this but answer my questions before I start thinking whether I should help you or tell you to fuck off" Ichirou said. "Well, anything for you" Viper said.

"First, how the heck did you find me?" Ichirou asked in a cold tone. Viper could feel the chill even with the phone. "Well, I tried to contact and track professionals for the past month due to the lack of professionals here and all I got was, threatening, cursing, server crashing and warning, no help at all! But I did find a piece of info on Eclipse Online which got me interested so I did a bit of research on it and guess what? It turned out to be you! I never though you were a kid with big shot background in a game you know? It was a shock for me" Viper explained.

"Ok, I should have been more cautious but leave it, second, are you with the government now?" Ichirou asked. "Yep, I work with them on the sidelines and the pay is really good!" Viper answered excitedly.

"Third, why did you think I would help you after what you done?" Ichirou's cold tone returned. "Well honestly, I didn't think you would help but if you are willing to help, I'll get you a hefty amount as payment! How about it? Everything in US dollars!" Viper spoke like a salesman trying to get a customer.

Ichirou started thinking about it, 'Pretty nice deal huh? I could make some money and I won't have any problems with this bastard anymore'. "Fine I'll help you, but only under two condition" Ichirou laid down the bait. "Done! Anything you say! I'll do my best to fulfill it if you are to help me with this!" and Viper took it without a second thought.

Ichirou's faced showed a rare grin as he said, "300,000 US dollars! I want 300,000 US dollars to be deposited in a bank account I give you and this will be the last time I'll be helping you or your government so never bother me again, is that a deal?". Viper only after hearing him realized that he had been a stupid. Never bothering him aside, how could he get 300,000? Viper was in a dilemma because of this. "Give me...some time" Viper said as he hung up.

Ichirou smiled, 'Now let's see what he will do' he thought. Viper immediately made a call to his superiors immediately after hanging up.

Hearing Ichirou's demands, his superiors were in rage that they will devour Ichirou if he were to get in their hands."How are we supposed to give this unknown guy that much money and moreover, he won't be helping us after this! This is clearly a robbery!" a middle aged guy in room full of officials said.

"I agree, this is not like the contract we have with this "Viper" fella, this is a one time use and throw contract" another guy said. "What if we use force?" a glasses guy said.

"And ruin our image before the world? These guys are hackers! We don't know what kind of tricks they have up their sleeves" another guy said. "Then what should we do?" the glasses guy asked impatiently.

"Let's accept to the deal, we need to find out what this file means at all cost! The faster the better! Tell Viper to accept the deal" the head chief said. The others had no say in it. They were completely shunned.

Viper Ichirou immediately after receiving the approval. "It's a go! You will have your demands met and now you gotta find out what it means" Viper said. "Hold your horses, money first, job second" Ichirou answered him. "Come on! At least start decrypting it! They need time to get it ready!" Viper said.

Ichirou didn't answer him and just typed something. He tapped send and said, "I just sent you the account number, put the money in it and don't try to track it, it's a backup account with no way to trace me". "Ok fine, I'll tell them! Can you get it done already? Pretty please?" Viper pleaded him.

"I don't do freebies, get the money and get your honey" Ichirou said. "Fine, fuck you!" Viper said and cut off. Ichirou smiled to himself and said as he look at the Matrix in his phone, "Well then, what do you have for me in the store?".