Chapter 283
I run. The heavy breathing, the tense and pulling calves, the piercing pain in my side… I forgot it all.
My lethargic, drooping, and powerless limbs are stiff and alert. Is it truly the effect of the drug, or am I just feeling that way? An explosive vitality wraps around my entire body.
The protoplasmic partition wall closes with a bang-. A wall even shot up by a hair’s breadth right behind my back, as if trying to block my path.
But I didn’t care.
Somehow, I felt an inexplicable certainty. A certainty that I would never be caught.
My running footsteps are refreshing. My head is clear and my body is light. The more I run, the more speed I gain.
With a sensation as if I were riding a Hoverboard, it is hard to even perceive the surrounding environment passing by at high speed.
There were a few times when Luddite Gang members popped out of the underground and tried to pounce on me, but without me even needing to respond, they struck empty air, slipped, and fell just from me continuing to run.
There was also an idiot who thrust his body in from the side for a sudden ambush, only to trip over his own feet and smash into the protoplasmic wall.
Unfortunately, seeing him trapped face-first, his face and hair burning and melting away as he let out a silent scream, I shook my head from side to side.
Those slowpokes wouldn’t be able to catch me even if they died and woke up again. The walls of the labyrinth were the same.
Bang, bang, bang-! The open walls close one after another, but every time, I lightly slip my body through the gap right before they shut and pass through.
The closing speed gradually gets faster, but my running speed also gets faster to match it, pulling ahead.
Far from being threatening, it almost feels like adding an interesting spice to a dry sprint.
Shooting forward like the wind, the target was already visible in my approaching field of vision.
I was faster than I thought. A vague sense of regret flashes by briefly at the thought that I could have run even faster than this.
Outside the labyrinth, a long and spacious corridor.
Invincible Iron Dog Maximus blocked Kali Haywood as she was about to enter the glass triangular entrance at the end.
“Being such a nuisance!”
Kali Haywood pulled out a transparent Cutting Wire and threw it at Invincible Iron Dog. But there was no way he would fall for it easily.
As if he had expected it, Maximus smoothly pulled the wire that was lightly caught and wrapped around his steel arm.
Against that unrivaled physical strength, Kali Haywood was reeled in at a tremendous speed, drawing closer.
She should know that fighting Iron Dog Invincible Maximus at ultra-close range is practically a suicidal act in itself, but a black light flashed in an instant, as if intended.
The next moment, Kali Haywood twisted her body as if doing a somersault, narrowly slipping out of Iron Dog Invincible’s grasp right before the collision.
Maximus’s right arm twisted its trajectory mid-way and shot out, but it only grazed the empty air.
It was because Kali Haywood had exquisitely targeted his weakness of having only one arm, the empty blind spot on his left.
No matter how great of an A-rank ronin he was, it hadn’t been long since he lost one arm.
And missing an arm is a significant weakness in combat. It is even more so if one is not used to fighting one-armed.
True to an insidious phantom thief, Kali Haywood had thrown a winning move at a crucial moment, digging into the opponent’s fatal weakness all too well!
“Bye-bye.”
At the same time as she winked her bright yellow lens eyes, BOOOOM-! An explosion occurred.
The small bombs she had attached detonated in a brushing instant, sending Iron Dog Invincible flying far away along with black acting.
phantom thief Kali Haywood tried to walk past while leisurely savoring her victory, but she couldn’t do so.
Her opponent wasn’t just Iron Dog Invincible.
There was someone she had forgotten about. He ran as if folding time, arriving right in front of her nose during that short exchange.
That person is me.
[Combat Mode activation. Kinetic Drive activate.]
By the time she noticed, it was already too late.
Speed is weight. I flew in like a flashing light and threw all my acceleration into a single point.
SMASH―――――!
With the sound of an artillery shell exploding, my fist, shot like a missile, directly hits Kali Haywood’s face!
It hurts. I punched a Raver, a metal lifeform, with my bare hands, so it would be strange if it didn’t hurt. It felt like my fist was going to shatter.
However, the exhilaration was greater than the pain.
Watching Kali’s face distort and crush in slow motion, and her body flying away from a fist packed with my full body weight like a kite with a broken string, it truly felt like my insides were being cleared out.
Jo Aaron, punching his Senior (Mentor)'s face on his first day of work!
I achieved another milestone after a long time.
Crash-shatter!
Ms. Kali and I tangled together, lightly smashing through the reinforced glass door and tumbling noisily inside.
As if we had fallen while cycling at top speed, our bodies spun over and over on the Floor/Ground at such a tremendous speed that made me wonder, “Is this okay?”, until we reached the point of feeling a burning smell and heat, finally coming to a stop after slamming into the wall with a thud! and leaving a mark. The leather case I had been holding in my hand flew up and went over to the other side, sprawling haphazardly.
It was a massive collision that even made my consciousness fade for a moment. Even now, with my physical ability amplified beyond comparison thanks to the drug, my whole body ached.
I pushed through the collapsed furniture, barely stood up, and looked around.
This massive space seemed to be some kind of luxury lounge.
I don’t know if Kali and I knocked them down while rolling, or if it was the aftermath of the terror attack, but hologram-adorned tables, liquor bottles, hookah pipes, and electronic game devices were scattered around everywhere, broken and ruined.
Sparkling violet and warm-colored lights poured down from a disco-style mirrorball, and in the center, an ownerless stage and poles remained lonely, as if they had originally prepared some eye candy.
In front of the large bar and broken display cabinet on the other side, a robot bartender with its head pulled off for some unknown reason sizzled and muttered through a broken mic.
“What-”
Bzzzt
do you desire? From martinis to neutron stars, all kinds of cocktails―
Screeeech
you can―
taaaaaste
…”
As I steadied my shaking vision, I saw Kali Haywood getting up not far away.
As expected of a “Walking Weapon”, her recovery from the impact was fast. She definitely took a direct hit, yet wasn’t she getting up at about the same time as me?
However, perhaps ravers also suffer concussions like humans, as she didn’t look completely fine. She staggered, grabbed a table, and glared this way.
“…Your punch is, very, heavy. You got me good.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t have deceived me.”
I hadn’t doubted for a second that you were a good Senior (Mentor).
I grabbed the pistol from my waist and aimed it. Ms. Kali likewise pulled out her vicious tech pistol with the same speed.
Like a scene from a Western movie, we stood in the center of the lounge and faced off just like that.
The performance of the gun is clearly superior on her side. Mine is nothing more than a standard issue, so it can’t be helped.
However, Ms. Kali’s aim seemed to be shaking more than mine.
Following the fight with Iron Dog Invincible, down to the blow she took from me. She was pretending to be fine on the outside, but it seemed she had taken quite a bit of a strike.
Thanks to the drug, I clearly had the upper hand in physical condition.
Sweat gathered in the hand holding the gun. I diligently calculated the advantages and disadvantages in my head, but until the end, I had no certainty about the outcome.
If I didn’t want to give phantom thief Kali Haywood time to pull any tricks, did I have to pull the trigger right now?
If I did that and it truly became a situation where one of us, me or Kali, had to die… was it something I just had to endure, since things had come to this?
She carefully opened her mouth. The wicked appearance she had shown in the labyrinth as a phantom thief was completely erased without a trace.
“If I said I had no intention of hurting you, the young lady, or the team leader… would you believe me?”
“If you were in my position, would you be able to believe it?”
Ms. Kali smiled bitterly.
“It might be hard to believe, but it’s the truth. Catching you when you were falling is one thing, but if I had intended to do that in the first place, I would have harmed you in the corridor before the landing pad, and resorted to kidnapping the young lady. I could have done that at any time. Who do you think saved you when you were on the verge of being killed by the chrome monster back then?”
“…”
I still remember the presence of death I felt at that time. The massive quantity of projectiles that the chrome monster Rodrick Smith had fired at me.
Those things, which originally should have exploded upon touching my body and turned me into ashes, underwent Activation Rich Person early, and although I was swept away by the Shockwave and lost consciousness, I ultimately survived.
And the person I encountered as soon as I opened my eyes was Kali Haywood. That tearfully welcoming memory…
At that time, she had nonchalantly said, “I wouldn’t know. It hasn’t been long since I got here.', but had Ms. Kali really used some kind of means to save me back then?
I can’t know. However, there is one thing that is certain. I cannot trust a traitor.
Even if she really did save me, she probably just used the collapsed Chairman as an excuse to separate from everyone and steal the command authority of the prototype artificial intelligence all by herself, and only then felt a slight bit of guilt or remorse, merely showing a little bit of mercy to me who was in a crisis while she was gone.
I shouldn’t consider the whim of a phantom thief as sincerity.
“That’s none of my business. Where is Prezen Meredith, and where is the young lady?”
If she didn’t answer immediately, I really intended to shoot. As if she had read my mind, Kali Haywood unexpectedly answered right away.
“The innermost part of Mirror Castle, Meredith’s secret vault… the most secret and safest place in this castle, where the core technique of the prototype is hidden.”