Chapter 148
Seeing him flinch, I was sure of it. I didn’t know why he was hiding in the shadows so suspiciously… but he sure startled me.
I thought he had gotten off work, so why was he still here? Did he do it on purpose to scare me? What bad taste.
Feeling annoyed, I shouted bluntly.
“Come on, boss! Why would you snatch and drink that? It’s someone else’s drink.”
At my protest, the black figure seemed to fall silent for a moment before speaking with a fake cough.
[Ahem. It seems there is a misunderstanding. I do not know who your boss is, but I am not the person you know.]
“No, you’re already caught, so cut the crap. It’s not funny.”
[It is the truth.]
The black figure slammed the empty Margarita Glass down on the table as if angry. I was startled by the sheer Force of it.
Uh, now that I think about it, the voice was modulated just the same, but it sounded much thicker and lower than the Dragon President’s.
“…Are you really not the boss?”
Only after blurting it out did I realize how stupid of a question that was.
Come to think of it, if the person in front of me wasn’t the Dragon President, Natural Human Feeling dictated I should be getting ready to fight right now instead of blankly chatting.
Because it would mean an unidentified assailant had bypassed the entire Crime Prevention System and carried out an Infiltration of the bar without anyone knowing!
Furthermore, I was currently facing this Suspicious figure all Alone. This might be a massive danger on par with the cyborg Ninja incident from last time.
Though, strangely enough, I didn’t feel much of a Sense of Crisis for all that.
As I raised my Guard, the Intruder let out a sinister chuckle, huhuhu.
[Indeed. If you ask for my Identity, it is only Natural Human Feeling to Answer.]
That line sounded familiar. My sense of déjà vu only lasted a moment before the assailant stepped out of the shadows and revealed his Identity.
[After long deliberation, I have realized: To crush the vices of the city, one has no choice but to embrace an even greater darkness. Thus, the current me was born - Applaud, for you have the strongest, most sinister, greatest Dark Hero of Dusk before your very eyes!]
…What appeared was Powered Armor covered entirely in pitch-black Metal Scales, topped with a Dragon Head.
[My name is Black Flame Dragon! Villains, beware the dragon of the Dark Flame. Citizens, rest easy! The flames of this Hell will not harm the good.]
It was a Hastily Made-up name no matter how you looked at it.
Aha. So it’s Mr. Superhero Black Flame Dragon. I had never seen him before. Why did he come looking for me?
There was no way I would react like that. Unless I had been hit by a Hypnosis App, that would never happen.
“No, anyone can see you’re just Sasha Dragon.”
I thought he hadn’t been showing his face lately because he was holed up in the boss room, but was he preparing something like this?
Was he modifying his suit into a black dragon version or something?
[…Who is Sasha Dragon? My name is Dark Flame Dragon. Heh, I will allow you to simply call me Dark for short.]
No, I could totally feel him flinch when I called his real name, so what was the point of playing dumb…
I wondered if I should do some more Interrogation, but I gave up.
Anyone who had Ever exchanged even a few words with the Dragon President in this Recklessly stubborn state would know.
He wasn’t someone you could reason with. No matter what I said, I would only get the Answer that his Identity was Dark Flame Dragon anyway.
It was best to just let him enjoy himself in this state. There was no benefit in provoking him. I might just get swept up in it for nothing.
“Ah, yes. Mr. Dark Flame Dragon. Well, work hard on your Hero Activities. Have a safe trip back, then.”
You see, it’s time for me to close the shop and head home - I was just about to slip away subtly toward the Staff Lounge.
Swoosh.
The dark dragon blocked the door to the Rest Area in the Blink of an eye. I just blinked stupidly at the sight, as if he had used Teleportation.
This Ominous Premonition was growing stronger.
“Um, what is it? Mr. Black Flame Dragon?”
[Call me Dark.]
“Right. Sure. Mr. Dark. I need to go home. Could you please Step aside?”
[No.]
I expected as much, but damn it.
Somehow, I had a slight guess as to what his next line would be, too.
“Why not?”
[The reason is… you, because from now on, you must operate as my Sidekick. I will take no questions. That is all! Follow me, Assistant to the Dark Hero!]
Haa… fuck.
I had gotten swept up in something annoying.
* * *
Excuses didn’t work.
I don’t know how to fight. Aren’t you that infamous hand Butcher?
That hand Butcher stuff is all a lie. I really can’t fight. It doesn’t matter if you can’t fight. I will handle everything, so just Watch my exploits!
I just finished work and I’m tired and sleepy and want to go to bed->Who cares?
It was a Recklessly stubborn insistence that he didn’t care about my circumstances and was hiring me as his Assistant anyway, so I just had to follow him.
I didn’t know what kind of Trick he had pulled, but Sey, who would have helped me, didn’t return, no matter how much I held out.
If she had been here - she who easily swatted away whatever nonsense the Dragon President and Tony pulled - she could have easily saved me from this Black Flame Dragon… It was a Deplorable Situation.
I had no choice but to fall into the clutches of the darkened dragon.
“Haa… so what are we doing?”
[Isn’t it obvious! A Hero should naturally go around crushing villains.]
“Do you even know where the villains are?”
[I do not know that!]
What is with this confidence.
[However, if we wander around, something is bound to show up. Now, let’s go!]
I wondered if he was really just going to wander around Recklessly, but he actually did.
Without any cool Means of Transport fitting for a Superhero, he just ran around wildly looking for a Crime Scene.
He made a huge racket, scrambling up outdoor AC units, vaulting over walls, and kicking off alley walls as if doing Parkour.
Unlike the dark dragon, who showed absolutely no Sign of Exhaustion, I, a normal human, felt like I was going to die from being out of breath just trying to keep up.
If I hadn’t built up my Physical Strength at the gym, I would have dropped out and fallen behind ages ago.
…Wait, come to think of it, wouldn’t that actually be the smart thing to do?
Crash!
While running through the alley lost in thought, I bumped into something in the dark.
When I Came To my senses, some guy wearing a black cap was sprawled out in a similar posture to mine, groaning.
He screamed as he got up.
“Agh, fuuuck! Fuck! That hurts like a bitch. You bastard, who the Hell are you, not even looking where you’re going in a dark alley…”
I didn’t have the mental energy to retort that he was also running wildly without looking ahead. For a moment, our eyes met, and both of us fell silent.
For my part, I just felt a strange sense of familiarity.
That fashion of pulling a hat down low to hide his face, that slender build, that rough and fierce Demeanor - I felt like I’d seen him somewhere. Was he someone who had visited the bar?
While I tilted my head in confusion, the other guy seemed shocked the moment he saw my face and suddenly yelled.
“You!!!!!!”
Jeez, what a scare.
Who was he to start screaming the moment he saw me? Just by looking at him, it didn’t seem like he was doing this out of a fond connection. Did he have some bad memory of suffering damage because of me?
I frowned and thought about it, but nothing came to mind.
At best, it would be the Man Hunter. I remembered that guy clearly. He looked completely different. Or what, was he one of the Luddite gang?
When I couldn’t remember, the man seemed offended and Ground his teeth as he spoke.
“You bastards, do you have any idea how much I suffered because of you, and you completely forgot?”
“Uh… well, I get that you suffered. So who are you?”
No lie, I really didn’t know.
When I still had a clueless expression, the man seemed to get pissed off to the top of his head and suddenly pulled a gun from his coat.
“…!”
It might have been a mass-produced Plastic Vending Machine Gun commonly seen in the back alley, but a gun was a gun. Get hit wrong, and you die instantly.
As I stepped back in panic, the man smiled wickedly as if satisfied.
“Yeah. I learned a lesson thanks to you. That Super-Vibration Knife I spent a fortune on? Completely useless. A gun is the best. I’ll return exactly what you did to me back then.”
Super-Vibration Knife? Now that I heard that, I felt like something was coming to mind… I felt like I would figure it out if I just thought about it a little more, but unfortunately, the man didn’t give me enough time.
He pulled the trigger right away without holding back!
BANG―――――!
The gunshot echoed. My ears rang as if they were tearing. The Gunpowder Smell was acrid.
Ugh, I can never get used to this. This is why I hate guns.
I covered my face with both arms and squinted forward.
The man looked extremely pleased.
“I finally got my revenge, you motherfucker! Do you know how much I suffered just because I tried to access that fucking Memory Device once? You bastards, you definitely did it on purpose to screw me over. You deserve to die. If you had just obediently handed over the money back then, this wouldn’t have happened, tsk. retard.”
Hmm, should I point this out or not.
“I’m not dead yet.”
When I muttered that awkwardly, the man let out a shriek and pulled the trigger again.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Bullets were fired in succession. For a moment, the World seemed to move slowly. I could feel the bullets flying in at an angle.
[What will you do, Test Subject?]
The Artificial Intelligence asked.
What do you mean? What will I do?
I could just take the hit. That was why I just stood still for the first shot.
Didn’t I have a Full Suit Set applied with nanotechnology, which was no different from wearing a Steel Fortress itself?
As long as I didn’t get hit in the face, there was no threat to my life at all.
But getting hit still hurt.
This was a Cheap Gun so it was a bit less severe, but if all four shots had lodged into me, I would have gotten bruised.
And I didn’t want that.
“Should I Demonstrate Skill for the first time in a while?”
Just as the Assistant in my head said, I could use it as training for my control Ability too.
As I thought that, the switch naturally flipped on.
Click.
It wasn’t just seeing things in Slow Motion. In my momentarily amplified extrasensory vision, even the trajectories of the bullets were clear.
Dodging was impossible.
A human body couldn’t move faster than a bullet. If I wanted to dodge, I had to move before he shot.
In that case, the only option left was to block.
I extended my writhing senses. With the help of the System Assistant, I adjusted the trajectories of the bullets.
Along with a Headache, I could see the fired bullets shifting slightly to the side as they were adjusted.
This should be enough.
[This won’t even serve as a Warm-up.]
The arrogant remark from the Artificial Intelligence in my head was surprisingly true.
Click. As the switch turned off, the World began to move at its original, terrifying speed.
The bullets were fired, but they brushed past me like ghosts. I had just stood still, yet all four shots missed exquisitely.
One of them bounced off the wall and the floor, continuing to Ricochet this way and that until…
CRACK!
It lodged right into the pistol the man was Aiming. He was struck by the fragments of the shattered gun and fell backward.
“W-what is this…”
He had a bewildered expression, as if he had experienced something Incomprehensible.
It made sense. The power of the Microchip, properly under control through the System Assistant, was… honestly a cheat. In a situation like this, I was practically invincible.
Though that was only the case when facing ordinary enemies like him.
[Do you recognize my greatness, Test Subject?]
I ignored the voice of the Artificial Intelligence, which had grown triumphant in that short time, and opened my mouth.
“Ah, I remember now.”
Funnily enough, it was only after seeing him fall over so disgracefully from getting hit by a gun that the man’s Identity came to mind.