Chapter 38
I can somewhat understand the feelings of the infamous Man Hunter,
the Man Hunter Alexgey.
He must have found it absurd and offensive when a scrawny, weak-looking waiter like me yelled at him, threatening to cut off his hand if he touched me again.
After all, he was the Man Hunter.
, a Ronin who held the undeniable position of a predator in the law of the jungle that was Dusk City's Underworld.
He must have been dumbfounded that an Ordinary Person—someone he considered prey, a mere hunting target—dared to speak so carelessly in front of someone who had lived by tearing through the flesh and blood of countless others.
He probably wanted to teach me a lesson and see me panic.
And right then, seeing me struggling, unable to even lift the engine saw properly and dragging it along, he simply couldn't hold back.
He might have wondered if I had Something to Rely On when I talked so big, but seeing me now, he clearly saw that wasn't the case.
His hands must have been itching when he saw a Pushover who had spoken so arrogantly and was now whining and wiggling his ass as he struggled.
And so, Alexgey Alexgeyevich Gergeyev couldn't resist his dark desires.
Driven solely by the thought of satisfying his sadism, of humiliating and toying with an arrogant waiter, he stood up and reached out his hand, completely ignoring my warning.
But understanding his feelings and actually putting up with them are two completely different matters.
If there was one fact he overlooked, it was that I had somewhat expected this to happen.
And that I wasn't just some helpless prey.
In his eyes, I might have just looked like I was panting and showing my back because I was out of strength, but I was listening to everything with a lowered stance.
The sound of the Man Hunter naturally rising from his chair, using the noise caused by the Ronin inside the bar as cover, was heard.
The sound of his Gang, fellow Slavic Ronin belonging to the Bratva Gang, giggling beside him as if they knew exactly what was about to happen, was heard.
The sound of light footsteps was gradually approaching. The vibrations caused by his studded artificial leather shoes were drawing nearer.
A part of my coldly cooled mind stung. My senses rose as sharp as a razor blade, taking in the surrounding information.
The distance between the Man Hunter and me, his approaching Stance, the faint wavelength of visible light emitted by the Luminescent Nail Polish Element on his reaching fingertips were all perceptible.
The speed of his approach slammed into my brain as an abstract Territory of experience.
I knew what I had to do and what I could do.
The chip in my head began to blink. My Expanded Senses signaled the gradually approaching moment.
…Now.
Click.
As if it were answering a call, the switch turned on.
Whooosh—
The Man Hunter's Strong Grip sliced through the air, ringing out loudly.
Where that trajectory was heading, and how much time it would take to reach its destination, were drawn clearly in my mind.
And as long as I could see it, neither blocking nor dodging was difficult.
If he had fully utilized the speed of that highly advanced Modified Body to swing at me, I might not have been able to react.
But the Man Hunter underestimated me too much, and so he controlled his strength as he moved his palm.
He must have thought it would be better to move at a moderately slow speed to humiliate me and satisfy his own desires.
And that became his fatal mistake.
…Gotcha.
Along with that distinct sensation of my brain melting, the hand that was about to smack my ass stopped.
Pulled by an unexplained attraction, the strong grip aiming for its prey sliced through the empty air and brushed past my pants.
The next moment, holding onto the stumbling Hunter's arm, I placed my foot on top of his lowered palm.
The carbon-rubber sole of my shoe pressed down on that pale skin with as much of my body weight as possible.
The face of the infamous Man Hunter contorted as he collapsed, and I could see a bizarre shriek gradually leaking from his twisted mouth.
The surprise, bewilderment, and dark red hostility and murderous intent were contained in those eyes looking up at me.
At the same time, the pressure of the force trying to pull his hand out from under my foot was thrilling.
Far from reflecting on his actions, he was fully prepared to kill me the moment he regained the freedom of his hand.
When I saw that, my mind was firmly made up. I had been thinking of ending it here if he backed off appropriately, but when I looked at his reaction, there was no need for that.
I was just grateful that he eliminated even the slightest bit of hesitation.
I turned my gaze downward.
The bulging Artificial Muscles of the Man Hunter's shoulder, chest, upper arm, and forearm—whose entire body was practically coated in machinery—clumped together, exerting tremendous force to escape with his trapped hand.
In my current state, I was also forgetting my body's fatigue and exerting the maximum Physical Strength I could muster… but my fundamental physical specs were still far too lacking.
I wouldn't be able to hold out like this.
If left alone, he would somehow shake off my foot, even if it meant smashing the Floor Tile entirely.
I instinctively knew what I had to do to stop him.
As I focused my nerves on a single point, I saw a circuit where countless electrical signals were stretching out.
The crystallization of the Artificial Muscle Fiber Bundles densely connected inside the arm of the homosexual Ronin with a sexual perversion occurred.
The flow of Physical Strength, highly excited and contracted following the signals sent by the motor neurons in his brain, was present.
Amidst the sensation of my head burning up in real-time, I applied force and severed that connection, like pulling a plug from a power outlet.
I don't know how it was possible.
I just had an intuition that I could do it, and simply executed it.
Snap—.
The brilliantly glowing electrical nerve signals all died out into blackness at once.
The forearm that had been bulging and exerting monstrous strength went limp, entering a state where it could offer no resistance whatsoever.
He was in a temporary vegetative state where he couldn't even twitch a single finger. A portion of the nerves transmitting the brain's commands to one arm had been blocked.
It wouldn't last long—a few seconds at most. But that was enough.
Click.
The switch turned off again.
It was because I had consumed all my time and overused my ability.
Because of the absurd stunt I pulled, not only did my head hurt, but my entire body throbbed and ached.
It felt like my mushy brain would turn into liquid and pour out of my nose at any moment.
But it wasn't over yet.
Even if the Expanded Senses that made time seem to slow down had disappeared, the distinct awakening effect and increased Physical Strength remained.
And still, in my hands, I held the Super-Vibrating Jet Engine Cutting Tool taken from Ronin's chainsaw.
Ah, a chainsaw. An excellent means of dialogue. This would be more than enough to exact the price for daring to target my ass.
The Safety Mechanism had already been released.
Holding it with both hands, I was even in a stance raised perfectly for a slash.
Even seeing me holding this saw, the Man Hunter Alexgey must have thought it posed no threat to him.
Since I was struggling just to carry it properly, my swing would be even more pathetic.
He probably assumed that even if I resisted with the saw, he could absolutely dodge it with his reflexes.
But what a shame. Right now, your hand is pinned under my foot, hanging limp in betrayal of its Master's will.
No matter how much you struggle, you'll never be able to dodge in this state.
"I told you."
Vrrrrrrrr.
As I pressed the button, the engine rattled and activated. The vibration was enough to make my entire body shake.
The sharp saw blade, capable of slicing through even a polymeric carbon allotrope, moved at an invisible speed and tore through the air.
"If you try to touch me again, I'll cut it off."
I was merely carrying out exactly what I had warned about.
I don't lie.
And I don't hold back a third time.
Without hesitation, I slammed the super-vibrating engine saw straight down.
Until that moment, the infamous Man Hunter was struggling desperately to pull out the arm that couldn't receive his brain's commands.
"You fuck—"
He resisted after belatedly seeing me raise the saw.
But in front of a jet engine cutter that pulverized flesh, bone, and steel, he couldn't put up much of a fight bare-handed, especially in an awkward stance, trapped and unable to use one arm.
Faced with the fear for his life that he must have experienced many times while operating as a Ronin, he twisted his body to minimize the damage from the saw as much as possible.
Dodging his head, pulling his chest back.
He was trying to somehow avoid a fatal wound that could kill him instantly.
The way he finished his Judgment in that brief moment and thrashed his body like a live fish was indeed a top-tier survival instinct befitting a renowned Mercenary, but... unfortunately, he was wrong.
My target had been only one thing from the very beginning.
Vzzzzzzzt—
The saw blade, which shot down as if to cleave the Man Hunter Alexgey's face, dropped with a subtle trajectory, tearing off the sunglasses on his face as it brushed past.
And right there, a person's wrist was pinned to the floor, trampled and fixed in a state perfectly primed to be cut.
What would happen next was obvious.
"Guaaaaaaagh!"
He screamed, and I cut off the Man Hunter's Hand.
CRUNCH—VREEEEEEE—
The moment the Super-Vibrating Saw Blade touched the surface, the skin tore open at once, revealing the Metal Prosthetic Body inside.
It wasn't a real hand made of flesh and blood, but a mechanical prosthetic arm, just like Tony's.
It was something I had expected from the moment I stepped on it. It was so hard I couldn't believe it was a human hand.
That was also why I brought the saw down immediately without much hesitation. If I had had to cut through the flesh and bone of a Real Person, I would have been a bit reluctant.
Vrrrrrrrr—
The expensive Military-Grade Prosthetic Arm made of ultra-high-density metal was slowly cut, grinding away all sorts of components inside.
These included the alloy protective surface, internal electrodes and control devices, artificial muscles and sensors, signal amplifiers, and the Wrist-Mounted Small Projectile Propulsion Device….
All of it was torn away, turning into a single cross-section. Sparks flew, smoke rose, and electric currents crackled.
The saw blade, moving from top to bottom, finally finished its job and reached the floor tile, making a loud noise.
Only when I pressed the button again did it become quiet.
It was over.
"……."
The inside of the bar had suddenly become silent. Everyone had stopped talking, their gazes directed this way.
Was this déjà vu?
Thinking that I had been experiencing a lot of similar situations lately, I looked down.
There was the trace of a wrist forcibly torn from its forearm.
A smooth cut surface, one of the Man Hunter's severed mechanical hands, lay beneath my foot. The surroundings were filled with antifreeze that had spilled out like blood.
And even the sight of the sacrificial lamb foaming at the mouth and writhing in pain.
In the middle of that gruesome scene, I stood tall, gripping the massive engine saw as if I were shouting, 'I'm the culprit.'
Feeling somewhat awkward, I tapped the severed prosthetic arm and the Metal Projectile Cyberware that had popped out, crushed, from beneath the cut surface—a built-in weapon that was probably used to aim with the wrist and fire to quietly carry out an assassination of enemies—and spoke.
It was waving its pointed tip from side to side.
"I told you. No Weapon Carry-in is allowed. As per the regulations, I'll be holding onto this. Understood, Customer?"
Naturally, the Man Hunter Alexgey couldn't answer,
and perhaps it wasn't a very funny joke, because the rest of the Ronin in the bar didn't laugh either.
Only the prosthetic arm held in my hand twitched in its severed state.