Chapter 273
“You are truly thunder-Naked! You terrible Machine Veteran, what kind of resentful attitude drives you to run wild so indiscriminately?”
It sounded close, as if recited from right behind him, but when he swung his massive body with the momentum to explode everything in his grasp, only the sound of cutting through empty air could be heard.
Even that sound was brutal, like an artillery shell exploding with its wind pressure, but in the closing moments, it was a miss.
Having struck nothing, Rodrick Smith let out an atmosphere-shaking roar as if enraged.
[You Rat! In the time I haven’t seen you, only your skill at running away like a cockroach has grown!]
Even with Rodrick Smith’s Chrome Nervous System, which was practically plastered with high-output cyberware, it seemed impossible to catch a High-ranking Ninja who was determined to hide his presence.
“Blaming others for your insufficient karate will change nothing, Smith-san.”
The voice that suddenly popped out was from the front, but the stabbing glass blade was from behind.
Rodrick Smith covered and protected the nape of his neck - the only fleshy part he had left - with lightning-like reflexes and fired off Micro Missiles, but the ninja had already seeped back into the scenery.
The Chrome Monster shouted.
[How long do you think you can run? The moment you’re caught, I’ll crush you alive like a bug! It will be just like the other ninjas I snatched up myself!]
“Try it if you can.”
Thwack, he delivered a blade strike to those booming steel vocal cords, then disappeared again, leaving only a blurry afterimage. Trying to snatch the trace that had turned to smoke, Rodrick Smith was Stabbed in the Back of the knee this time.
As expected of a Full-body Prosthetic Owner, there was no visible damage, but he seemed thoroughly provoked.
[You old geezer, you’re being a nuisance! Why am I running wild? You ninjas are all bugs. And does someone like me need a reason to catch and kill a bug? Die, you bug!]
A malicious red light was vivid on the exoskeleton frame of the Chrome Monster as he shouted.
With a whirring sound, an exposed cylinder-shaped structure rotated at incredible speed, exerting an invisible pressure that extended beyond a large ring.
Vwoooom - .
The surrounding objects floated up. Glass shards, broken tables, the wreckage of Dolls, Eres Shore’s drones that had been flying around cloaked in invisibility…
Everything was drawn into the Chrome Monster’s grasp, pulled by an artificially generated attractive force. It was so powerful that even a person would be swept up whole and left floating. Grabbing onto the wall to somehow escape was useless.
It was a force Field weapon that had truly reached the territory of Over-Technology, something that couldn’t be explained simply by words like high-output or high-dimensional!
The Chrome Monster, generating a formidable wavelength, flashed his narrowed artificial eye as if concentrating.
[Found you.]
At the same time, the attractive force reversed into a repulsive force.
Everything that had been pulled in was slammed away, shooting out in all directions like bullets. The High-ranking Ninja, who had been secretly measuring the pressure while stuck flat against the ceiling in a peculiarly distorted patch of empty air, was no exception.
BOOOM-!
The Chrome Monster launched himself at a terrifying speed.
Just as he had said, his intention was to crush the High-ranking Ninja, who was pinned and unable to move, into a bloody pulp!
No matter how much of a communist High-ranking Ninja he was, there seemed to be no way to survive this time.
With that much mass and speed, and overflowing momentum, it would be instant death upon impact.
The secret Over-Technology weapon that the Chrome Monster used at the perfect moment decided the victor.
‘It’s settled. Then…!’
What would be the next target of the Monster who killed the ninja? It was a question with an obvious answer, one that didn’t require much thought.
I wasn’t the only one who had that thought.
Team Leader Hank shouted urgently.
“Now!”
Everyone had the same idea.
As if they were already prepared without needing to be told, they sprang up from where they had been knocked down by the immense pressure and collapsed, and dashed forward.
The goal was the enormous sinkhole the Chrome Monster had punched into the floor! We would drop straight down and put as much distance between us as possible for now!
CRASHHHH―――!
Simultaneous with our fall, the deafening roar of the Chrome Monster completely shattering the ceiling echoed out. As I turned my head to look up, a blurry figure briefly flickered among the crumbling debris.
Did I see a hallucination for a moment? Did the High-ranking Ninja succeed in escaping from that desperate crisis? Or was it nothing more than a broken corpse fluttering powerlessly?
Whichever it was, there was no time to ponder. The urgent matter right now was us!
[You bugs―!]
Along with a short, violent roar, a brilliance flashed from far away. Vwooom-!
The light and heat approached faster than the speed of free fall. The Ray of Destruction swept past. Because everyone was falling spread out, no one was unlucky enough to take a direct hit.
However, the problem was the aftermath.
Massive fragments of the collapsed mirror floor were falling from above our heads. The moment we were crushed under them, our lives would close right then and there.
We had to get away! But how?
Prezen Meredith, proving he was the new Family Head of Meredith, was even accompanied by flying dolls.
Dolls that had risen from somewhere using propulsion devices caught him and moved him to the safe lower floor corridor.
Eres Shore also grabbed onto her flying drones and somehow succeeded in landing.
Young Lady Alexandra, with her innate Noble’s modified Body, lightly leaped over the fragments and succeeded cleanly and safely in a Breakfall Technique.
The problem was Team Leader Hank and I.
First of all, Team Leader Hank was missing a foot, having had it cut off.
With his mobility nearly halved, there was no way it would be easy to move and dodge the falling debris.
If anyone was going to die unluckily here, it would be Team Leader Hank. At least, that’s what I thought at the time.
But Team Leader Hank pulled it off.
Psssssh-
The lower Body Prosthetic of his remaining foot sprayed fuel in midair, floating in a state of zero gravity for a moment, before he kicked off a falling fragment and grabbed the end of the corridor on the opposite side with both arms.
Like a true Veteran of Many Battles, he pulled his body up and hoisted himself over using only his physical strength, even without one foot.
Now, I was the only one left.
And a fact I only just realized: I was the one in a much more grave crisis than Team Leader Hank!
My original plan was to grab the end of the corridor on the opposite side and climb up while falling.
The problem was the sharp mirror fragments pouring down as if to smash into the crown of my head. I was already worried about whether my poor body would follow my thoughts, but the environment was terrible.
Swoooosh!
I definitely learned in science class that weight and falling speed were unrelated, but when I look at it now, it had to be a pure lie.
The massive fragments, which would tear my body to shreds the moment they grazed me, were getting closer at an increasingly faster speed.
Even if I caught my landing point properly and fell well, if by some chance I slipped even slightly, and thus touched the falling debris, I would be departing this world that very instant.
That would be the worst situation, where I couldn’t even utilize my last resort, the microchip, due to the load on my brain!
“Fuuuuuuuck!”
Even the sound I tried to spit out of my mouth was chewed up between my chattering teeth and tongue, as the Floor approached at a terrifying speed.
I’m not the protagonist in an action movie. Does this even make sense!
Grab-!
It made sense! Faced with an extremely difficult situation and a crisis of life, my unresponsive body seemed to awaken from an overdose of adrenaline.
Even while falling, practically flying across this long distance, I succeeded in grabbing the opposite corridor with my arms and hands.
I survived! Just as I was cheering in joy and trying to pull my body completely up, a fragment passed by a microscopic margin behind me.
Fortunately, it didn’t touch me.
The problem was that it smashed into the side wall as it passed instead. At that impact, the floor shook, and the arm I was barely holding on with slid down.
This… I didn’t expect this!
Sliiiip - clench!
At the last moment, I put strength into my fingertips and hung onto the edge, somehow holding on with my grip strength, but I could feel myself slipping as sweat gradually built up.
My body was growing exhausted. At this rate, falling was a certainty!
My strength faded, and my fingers slipped off. As I surrendered my body, seemingly sucked into the cruel flow of gravity, a million thoughts crossed my mind in an instant.
No way? I’ve overcome so many crises, but here?
While doing escort work for an immature Noble Young Lady, and getting swept up in someone else’s fight at that, I’m going to the next world by falling to my death?
Is this how everything ends?
I’m going to die?
Fear, shock, resignation. Someone snatched my sweat-drenched hand as I fell powerlessly. With a heave, they pulled me up onto the corridor.
The strength was so great that I popped up lightly, like a radish pulled from a field, and stepped onto the solid floor once again.
Having achieved a narrow escape from death, I lay flat, gasping for breath, and barely managed to offer Words of Gratitude.
“Thank you… Young Lady.”
The one who saved me was none other than Young Lady Alexandra. Seeing me in a crisis, she had run over and caught me as I fell, just in time.
I had suffered quite a lot trying to protect this tomboy all day, but I was reaping the benefits like this.
“I lived thanks to you. If it weren’t for you, Young Lady, I really would have died.”
“Since we’ve saved each other’s lives once, let’s call it even. By the way, why are your hands sweating so much? They’re completely damp.”
Alexandra Schneider spoke heartily, not even minding her dirtied dress.
I was momentarily speechless, wiped the profuse sweat from my hands onto my clothes, and threw a joke with a grin.
“What do you mean, once each? Haven’t I saved you once before that? To pay it all back, you still have one more time left.”