INTERLUDE: "MIDNIGHT RECHARGE"
Location: Lawson, Shinjuku Golden Gai, District 7
There is a supreme comfort in the sterile glow of Lawson - the 24/7 sanctuary of both salary workers and AIGENTS alike.
Holographic food displays flicker between ready-to-eat dishes while ancient refrigeration units hum in perfect harmony with newer quantum coolers.
303 slurps down a Tallow Ramen and a Pocari Feels.
The clerk, a fried-looking youth with chroma eye implants, doesn't even glance up from his holo-manga as 303 pays and grabs a YAKUZAI-infused syno-energy drink for the road. These places are neutral ground - even Extractos respect the unwritten code of the convenience store sanctuaries.
Besides, who'd expect to find stolen tech in a place that still sells physical Cup Noodles?
303 gets a call. It’s his dispatch, KQ-707. “Sources tell me you have the artifact. I’m dropping you a pin. Get to it at once, but be careful! There is an Extracto APB out on you, so you’ll have to take the back channels.”
303 opens his VPN umbrella and heads to the location.