Chapter 260
Come to think of it, his build was on the small side.
While fighting, he was so fast and strong that I hadn’t noticed, but what was certain was that he definitely wasn’t a sturdy adult male brute.
When I saw him let his guard down, my prediction that he didn’t have much Combat Experience might have been spot on.
It was only natural. After all, if you’re young, you can’t possibly have accumulated much experience.
Swish.
Keeping my grip firm on the sword, I pulled off the ninja’s mask. The face that opened its eyes in surprise, narrowing them to slits was definitely soft and youthful.
Considering that Westerners mature quickly, he was at most the age of a high school student.
To go around killing people as a terrorist from such a young age, just how harsh a brainwashing and training must he have undergone?
I wasn’t generous enough to laugh and spare an opponent who had tried to kill me.
However, I wasn’t so heartless as to go out of my way to kill a minor who wasn’t resisting and had suffered a loss of will to fight.
“Hey, ninja.”
“H-Hai.”
“Remember this. With this, you owe me a debt, a debt equal to the price of your life.”
I pulled the greatsword away from the ninja’s neck, sheathed it back at my waist, and stood up.
Since the guy seemed to be misunderstanding me as some unidentified karate master, I threw in a meaningful line to add some weight to the role.
“I’m sparing you because I see potential. If you follow us, I’ll kill you. Understood?”
“A-Ah, hai!”
I looked down at him as coldly as possible when I said that, but I don’t know how well my acting worked.
Leaving the sprawled ninja as he was, I returned to Alexandra.
“I’ve taken care of it. There shouldn’t be any more problems. Let’s keep moving. We’ve wasted a lot of time.”
“Uh… yes. I-I mean. Let’s do that.”
For some reason, Alexandra also seemed flustered, staring at me blankly and acting in a daze.
I was puzzled for a moment before I thought about it and understood.
The last time Alexandra saw me fight was during the Luddite Gang’s terror attack. Back then, I put on a performance hard to believe for an ordinary person, but I didn’t show off enough majesty to overwhelm a Communist Mid-level Ninja all by myself like I just did.
Taking down Ned Ludd was also more thanks to the treasured sword Kokuyō Otto than my own skills.
As such, seeing me push the microchip to its limits and subdue the ninja in an instant must have startled her, as it was a completely different sight from back then.
Honestly, even I thought what I just did was pretty badass.
“Is she going to beg me to become her samurai again? That would be troublesome.”
Indulging in a bit of self-admiration-laced delusion, I led Alexandra and moved toward the destination I had scouted earlier.
The outskirts wall was of the ruined stage. There was no separate entrance/Exit for visitors. Instead, there was an employee passageway where the dolls moved.
Normally, the dolls would control access to this area, but since they were busy fighting the terrorists, they wouldn’t have any time to care about such a minor deviation.
“…Isn’t it impossible to enter here? If Eres were here, she might have figured something out. Do you happen to know hacking as well?”
The problem was that the door was firmly locked so that only dolls could enter in the first place.
The recognition sensor scanned Alexandra and me, emitting a clear red light.
“I don’t know hacking, but… I have a trick up my sleeve. Please don’t ask. It’s a trade secret.”
I grinned and snapped my fingers.
What that 'trick' was, was obvious.
“You know, right? Do me a favor.”
The System Assistant grumbled but surprisingly cooperated obediently.
It was convenient not having to use semi-forced persuasion bordering on threats like other times, but at the same time, it felt somewhat uncomfortable.
Why is it suddenly listening so well again? Is it because it realizes the seriousness of the situation?
Whir-
The sensor changed to a blue light and the door opened. I deliberately ignored Alexandra’s gaze as she stared at me in admiration with sparkling eyes.
It felt like the misunderstanding was only deepening… but let’s think about that after we escape the main hall.
“Please wait a moment.”
Using the in-head artificial intelligence, my two feet, and my hands to explore the vicinity of the entrance, I found that fortunately, there were no brutal security devices that would suddenly fire lasers just because a human entered instead of a doll.
After confirming the inside was safe, I let Alexandra go in first and followed behind her.
Before having the System Assistant close the passageway door again, I poked my head out one last time to look back the way we came.
“…”
The ninja who had been lying there was already gone. For some reason, a chill ran down my spine.
The thought, “Did I spare him for nothing?” crossed my mind, but there was no use regretting a past choice.
I know myself. Even if I went back, I would probably make the same decision.
'Well… at least it doesn’t seem like he’s targeting us again.'
Since he seems to be under a massive delusion about me, and I clearly warned him that I’d kill him if he followed, he shouldn’t be a nuisance.
I couldn’t utilize the microchip’s abilities right now, but I still had a gut feeling that the Communist Mid-level Ninja wouldn’t be a stumbling block in this matter anymore.
The problem was that I also had a premonition that I would meet that ninja again someday…
“It must be my imagination.”
Today is something like the last time. I will never get involved with terrorists again. Absolutely never.
Making that vow, I stepped completely inside the passageway.
“Close the door.”
Slam. The entrance was locked.
* * *
Our destination was the escort team’s rendezvous point in case of emergencies, the landing pad of the Mirror Castle where the aerial vehicle we rode in would be waiting.
I did obtain the rough internal structure of the Mirror Castle through the pre-briefing material, but naturally, there was no information regarding the employee passageway in it.
Because of that, finding the way wasn’t easy, but fortunately, I had the highly overpowered in-head artificial intelligence.
[Go right at the next passage, test subject.]
Thanks to its acting cooperatively and playing the navigation role, we were able to significantly shorten our travel time by using the passageway of the dolls, which used to pop out from anywhere.
The problem was that, perhaps because it was a path meant for dolls, there were several sections that were difficult to navigate comfortably with a human body structure.
Because of this, we faced difficulties like having to crawl through narrow, low sections reminiscent of a ventilation shaft, or having to wedge our bodies into a chimney-like vertical path without a ladder, climbing up by jamming my greatsword into the crevices.
It was to the point where I even had this suspicion.
'Hey, tell me honestly…You’re intentionally finding these grueling paths for me, aren’t you?'
The in-head artificial intelligence didn’t reply insolently, as if it was a question not even worth answering.
Had we moved about halfway like that?
While I was walking and panting heavily, my foot ended up slipping.
Since it was a slippery incline, I almost fell and rolled all the way down, but at the precarious moment, Alexandra grabbed my wrist from above.
And then, heave-ho - she pulled me up. True to a noble young lady whose physical ability alone was superior to mine, she effortlessly handled my weight.
I collapsed as soon as I reached the high ground. My legs had lost their strength, making it hard to move any further.
No matter how short on time we were, I needed a rest right then.
“…Phew. I’m sorry. Let’s rest for just a bit.”
“Let’s do that! I was getting tired myself.”
Contrary to her words, our Miss Schneider was overflowing with energy, in stark contrast to me.
It couldn’t be helped. There was the difference in physical ability, but my physical strength wasn’t originally this weak either. The problem was, as expected, the extrasensory perception I had exerted through the microchip.
Even with a cooling time in between, two consecutive uses were tough. Furthermore, the second time I used it against the Communist Ninja… honestly, I really overdid it.
Great power inevitably comes with a great price.
It wasn’t just a burden on the brain. Every single superhuman movement that I couldn’t do before put a strain on my entire body.
Thanks to that, I couldn’t put much strength into my body, as if my full body muscles had been completely wrung dry. A heavy sense of exhaustion dominated my limbs.
…If we happen to run into another enemy on the way, we’d be in big trouble.
“Still, we survived somehow. We almost got our heads cut off by a ninja and nearly died. Wow, when we first ran into him, I thought we were really done for. He was incredibly strong.”
Not wanting the quiet silence to continue, I spoke nonchalantly, and Alexandra looked at me, dumbfounded.
“Is that something to say after you subdue that ninja so easily? It was hard to believe it was the work of a human - your shooting that was hard to follow with the eyes, and predicting that the deflected greatsword would return. Iron Dog Invincible - no, even any legendary ronin wouldn’t be able to showcase such a Skill/Art.”
She was evaluating me extremely highly. Honestly, it didn’t feel bad. It was somewhat embarrassing, too.
However, since my actual skills were nowhere near that level, I felt the need to burst her bubble here.
Scratching my head, I said.