Chapter 287
The transparent Cutting Wire stretched long and wrapped around the Chrome Monster’s thick neck. Sparks flew, and from the underground, a
Beep, beep―
warning sound rang out.
If one believed the Chrome Monster could be dealt with with just this, it was a miscalculation. Even the usually effective Monowire only managed to temporarily restrain Rodrick Smith’s movements.
But that much was enough.
Whoosh.
The vicious steel grip that had surged forward as if to grab and crush my face hesitated, as if blocked by an invisible wall.
It truly was a hair’s breadth. Had it been even a little later, the cyberarm of the Chrome Monster, enraged by my mockery, would have grabbed me and crushed me into a handful of bloody pulp.
In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me. It was a speed difficult to react to when letting down my guard, even with the microchip turned on.
Fortunately, Kali Haywood stepped in right on time, just as planned.
Appearing when all attention was focused on me, she placed a noose around the monster’s neck and limited his range of action.
So that he could act as viciously as he wanted within the designated territory, but would have to endure severe bleeding to escape outside of it.
Rodrick Smith ultimately ended up losing me because of that.
He must have thought it wasn’t worth the cost to rush in to catch a single nuisance while putting his own life and safety on the line.
Perhaps this might become a critical error committed by the monster.
He probably didn’t think so at all right now, but a little later, he might come to think, “I should have killed him back then at all costs, even if it meant my neck getting half cut off.”
No, I planned to personally make him think exactly that.
Screeeeeech―!
His arm, transformed like that of a super-sized excavator, vibrated at high speed and drew a rotating saw blade.
Kali Haywood used the wire wrapped around the Chrome Monster’s neck as a rein, jumping here and there, practically flying as she narrowly dodged those trajectories of death.
I had already finished the initial tanking.
Hadn’t I induced him to completely consume all the guided missile projectiles, which were like rat poison to types who specialized in fast speeds like Ms. Kali?
Considering the mountain of cyberware plastered all over the Chrome Monster’s body and the numerous patterns utilizing them, one might think it was merely removing a single technique, but that one technique was the most lethal.
Having blocked an important technique and even preemptively secured an advantageous position, an expert of Kali Haywood’s caliber could hold out to some extent in close-quarters combat even against that Chrome Monster Rodrick Smith.
[Zodiaaaac! I left you alone thinking you’d be useful, but a petty thief dares to interfere with me?]
Clank-
Light sparked near his shoulder exoskeleton. I shouted reflexively.
“Machine gun!”
At the same time I slid behind a pillar and hid my body, bullets poured down.
The Gatling Autocannon mounted on Rodrick Smith’s top brass prosthetic body spewed blinding fire, devastating the surroundings without leaving a moment to breathe.
Goosebumps rose as I watched the walls get riddled into honeycombs and then pulverized into dust every time the muzzle passed by.
Even with a Nanosuit, if I took a direct hit from that, I might not be able to withstand the impact and my body could be shattered completely.
I peeked my head out to grasp the situation. How was Ms. Kali doing?
Repeatedly loosening and tightening the wire, she adjusted her distance from the Chrome Monster, swinging like a pendulum to cross either as far outside the autocannon’s range as possible, or too close inside for it to aim.
Of course, no matter how swift she was, Kali Haywood was human, and that side was a torrential downpour of supersonic bullets. Being human, she was bound to get exhausted, and mistakes were bound to happen.
This was reality, not a bullet hell game with multiple lives.
That was why I was here.
The switch was flipped up, but its output was lowered to the minimum. It was a measure to utilize the microchip for as long as possible.
I initially couldn’t even tell when it would turn on or off; I had now grown accustomed enough to be capable of controlling output freely like this.
If I stayed constantly immersed in the territory of extrasensory perception, the effects would be certain, but the sustainability would drop.
I had already consumed a lot of resources dodging the guided missile projectiles. If I made any more unnecessary waste, I would end up fizzling out before the truly important moment arrived.
I had to utilize it well in the right place at the right time, only when necessary.
If I thought before moving, it would be too late. Judgment on when the moment of crisis requiring my ability would arrive was purely in the territory of intuition.
For instance, right now.
In a flash, my thoughts accelerated. In a lazy, smooth world where even the gunshots burst out, broken down into syllables, I observed the Chrome Monster’s movements frame by frame.
The movement of the muzzle, the subtle shifting of the facial lens and sensors right before bombardment are unique to a 'Named'…
I hadn’t played the original work in minute detail, but the Chrome Monster was a truly memorable boss, so I still vaguely remembered a few of his important patterns.
“Left, right, right!”
Ms. Kali reacted swiftly to the words I spat out like rapid fire.
Placing complete trust in the sudden instruction, she hit the brakes on her sprinting body and abruptly veered to the left.
Bullets carrying thousands of joules of kinetic energy brushed past at ultra-high speed. The red-hot muzzle chased after her body slightly belatedly, which moved to the right again, leaving an afterimage.
Taking advantage of the gap where it hesitated, expecting her to change direction again, she slid straight into its blind spot!
Executive. So he realized his attack pattern was being read and started firing the machine gun indiscriminately, but from the moment that happened, we had already won.
Kali Haywood pulled the wire to disrupt his aiming, at every dangerous moment hiding behind obstacles, and dodged every single shot without fail like an acrobat.
“You’re wrong. Right now, I’m not Zodiac, I’m Kali Haywood. Not a Petty Thief, but an escort!”
[Is that so? Then die as Kali Haywood!]
Rodrick Smith roared, seemingly thoroughly provoked by her masterful dodging.
With a thud! he detached and threw away the gun barrel from his shoulder, its tip practically melting from having fired so much. The heavy machine gun, weighing tens of kilograms, completely tore up the floor like a falling meteorite.
Vrooom- The rear structure of the exoskeleton frame transformed, revealing a cylindrical-shape cylinder engine protruding like a shell. Just seeing that noticeably large movement, I immediately realized.
“It’s a gravity field!”
The structure between the rings rotated centrifugally, generating a magnetic field. The flow of air surged from bottom to top, and bodies began to float.
Shattered liquor bottles, spilled alcohol and bar fragments, the top plate of the Robot Bartender that had been shredded to rags by the machine gun…
Ruuuuuumble―.
A mighty attractive force emanated from the Chrome Monster Rodrick Smith, pulling in all things as if he were a star.
It was the over-technology cyberware that had brought even that communist high-ranking ninja to his knees. No matter how capable the phantom thief Kali Haywood was, it was impossible for her to withstand it on her own.
Screeeeeech―
The floor tile that Ms. Kali was barely holding onto began to crack and split. Getting gradually sucked into the force field feet first, she screamed at me.
“Hey! Hurry up and do something!”
Was I Doraemon or something? Did she leave the solution to me?
Unfortunately, even I had no way to deal with this.
Because I reacted and prepared earlier than Ms. Kali, I was somehow holding on by hiding my body behind a pillar, but it didn’t seem like this would last long either.
I wanted to save it a little longer, but… this couldn’t be helped.
Fundamentally, Kali Haywood didn’t have the weight class to go one-on-one with the Chrome Monster Rodrick Smith and tank him.
Unable to withstand the swirling attractive force, Ms. Kali’s body stretched out like a rubber human.
She flailed her feet to avoid the monster’s saw blade, which reached out as if to grind her up and turn her into an Ever Sausage. If we delayed any further here, something bad was going to happen.
I couldn’t just let that happen.
There was only one way to solve the problem.
I shouted.
“Now!”
Craaaack!
The ceiling shattered and poured down. Sharp crystal fragments were drawn by the attractive force and rained down on the Chrome Monster.
However, that was a secondary issue. The important thing was the large figure amidst the scene of collapse, the culprit who brought down the ceiling.
Boooooooom
―
!
The Iron Fist, plummeting like a ray of light, struck Rodrick Smith’s chrome head dead on.
It was a powerful blow delivered with weight, mobilizing both natural and artificial gravity!
With a deafening roar, his head twisted 360 degrees, and his massive torso staggered and fell to its knees.
I had been half in doubt when he said he was confident he wouldn’t be caught by the monster’s radar, but as expected, an A-rank ronin was on a different level.
If the weight class didn’t match, all we had to do was bring an opponent whose weight class did.
It was the one and only powerhouse who could somewhat play the role of a tank against that Chrome Monster Rodrick Smith, Iron Dog Invincible Maximus.
'Good. It’s going according to plan!'
Perhaps it was excessive optimism. I thought the Chrome Monster Rodrick Smith would have taken quite a bit of damage.
And rightfully so, he had taken an unexpected blow defenselessly and had his neck completely snapped!
It was just that I couldn’t let my guard down until the very end because of who the opponent was; if the enemy had been anyone other than the Chrome Monster, it would have been turned into a bloody pulp and met its death from that single steel fist strike that felt like a Piledriver.
However, Iron Dog Invincible Maximus didn’t stop in the slightest and continued his attacks in succession.
He swung his steel prosthetic arm toward the side of the Chrome Monster’s gleaming head.
Here, the one with the deepest ill-fated relationship with the Chrome Monster was he, Iron Dog Invincible.
He knew very well that the opponent wouldn’t fall from just this much. If he went down that easily, he wouldn’t even be called a monster.
Whirrrr-
The head, which had been crooked as if its neck bones were broken, rotated bizarrely and dodged the exploding Iron Fist as if letting it slide past.