Chapter 60
As I have already mentioned several times, the military turret Nova operates separately at the grocery store fires rounds of an overwhelming 20mm caliber.
People who do not know much about firearms might not understand why a size of only 2cm is considered so large.
It is the projectile’s “caliber” that is 20mm.
These terrifying bullets boast the potential to range from 20×30mm at the smallest to 20×139mm at the largest.
You can roughly think of them as being the size of an adult’s palm.
For reference, even 12.7mm rounds used in anti-materiel sniper rifles were not normally made to shoot people.
They could simply blow away a human limb.
Therefore.
Rat-a-tat─!!!
First of all, my ears hurt.
There is a reason the military issues earplugs during firearms training.
As if some temporary problem had developed in my cochlea, a sharp ringing filled my ears.
At the same time, the old asphalt exploded, and thick clouds of dirt rose like a smokescreen.
Rat-a-tat-tat!!
The shockwave was strong enough to make the air tremble.
What could have made Nova so furious?
‘Deu….’
It truly had the majesty of a god of machinery─Deus Ex Machina.
The firepower was excessive for protecting a grocery store, to be honest, but it made me feel all the safer.
‘…There won’t even be a body left.’
Thinking of Black Tiger, who had been licking his lips while looking at me, made my shoulders tremble on their own.
At that moment, I could not even bring myself to make the light joke that Leather Club was a few blocks down.
No, seriously.
The fact that a huge (insane) blond brute wanted to turn my exit into an entrance was absolutely terrifying.
Was he secreting so much male hormone that he saw 「everyone except himself as a woman」?
Anyway.
Whiiiiine….
The gunfire that had been hurting my ears stopped.
The rapidly rotating turret’s barrel slowly came to a halt, radiating intense heat.
“Whew, look at all that dust….”
I brushed away the dust flying toward me with my palm.
The streets of District 49, already bleak to begin with, now looked like ruins just after a war.
The Road Traffic Authority would be suffering again today.
If this had still been inside the grocery store, I would have shed tears without realizing it.
Fortunately, having read every possible outcome, I had brought the boss of Hakuga-gumi─Black Tiger, who by now would have been reduced to liquid, outside.
In the gentle breeze, the thick clouds of dirt gradually began to settle.
But Nova was still staring intently beyond the dust, while Rivera was holding a scrap of metal that I had no idea when she had drawn.
Hmm, so that was the extent of it.
“There’s no way he could come out of that unscathed…….”
Oops.
I reflexively covered my mouth.
A resurrection incantation in the same class as ‘Did I get him?’
The magical phrase that could resurrect someone who had held a funeral for three days right on the spot once again displayed its full power.
Right after that.
Whoom!
A huge chunk of concrete flew toward me through the dense cloud of dirt.
It was plainly larger than an adult human.
I reflexively twisted my body to evade the chunk of concrete.
And then.
“…Ah!”
I remembered what was behind me.
My precious groceries─.
Kwang!!
I did not even have time to use telekinesis.
No, even if I had been able to use it, I probably could not have stopped a chunk of concrete with that much kinetic energy in midair.
A new door had appeared in our grocery store.
A wide-open automatic door that could not even be locked.
My head was growing hotter and hotter.
Even these days, sweeping, mopping, and thoroughly cleaning the grocery store every morning was part of my routine.
The entrance had not been completely destroyed thanks to the thick glass walls, but the cracks spreading across the wall like a spiderweb were enough to raise my stress level.
I turned around again with stiff movements.
“An ambush timed half a beat late.”
His vertically slit pupils glared at me through the smoke.
“Not bad. This is how a fight should be.”
His voice was more relaxed than I expected.
The guy who strode through the dense smoke brushed the dust from his shoulders.
“…You’re fine.”
“Because I had already seen the turrets.”
Did seeing them really allow him to block them?
How on earth?
“What are you, some kind of monster….”
At my mutter, he furrowed his brow.
Apparently, the word ‘monster’ had offended him.
“…I heard you were a magic user. How about I see what you can do?”
He clenched his fist tightly.
And soon, a gigantic wall appeared in front of me.
‘……That startled me.’
Look at the size of that fist.
The pressure was so intense that, for a moment, I genuinely mistook it for a wall.
I lowered my stance and dodged the fist swinging toward me.
The powerful gust of air swept my hair backward,
and even though it did not actually touch me, the shockwave lightly tore the skin on my face.
‘Whew.’
If it had struck me head-on, the force would have been enough to separate my head from my body.
Still.
The megacorp employee I met at Black Square had been much faster.
Thump─.
Keeping the stance I had landed in, I seized his elbow and used the recoil to throw a left hook.
A liver blow.
Along with the solar plexus, it was one of the basic weak points of the human body─if struck properly, an ordinary person could not even breathe.
Soon, a numbing sensation like hitting a hard tire with a hammer traveled through my fist.
‘Even so, he’s more….’
As I kicked him and moved back, a huge fist slammed down exactly where I had been standing.
Koom!!
‘I can take him?’
Of course, this probably was not everything he had.
With pieces of asphalt leaping between us,
we exchanged glances.
“Your speed passes.”
“?”
A question mark appeared above my head at the sudden evaluation.
He casually scratched the side of his body where I had hit him.
“Your strength is not bad either. I heard you are a purist and a magic user, but you have this level of physical ability without using a mana circuit…. I see. Did you undergo genetic modification surgery?”
“What….”
“You do not have to hide it. It is common in this line of work.”
No, I meant that I had no idea what he was talking about.
When I did not answer, he clenched his fist once more.
“Still, it hurts my pride a little to keep refusing to use magic until the end.”
I opened my eyes wide.
A blue curtain-like barrier had formed around his fist.
That was….
“Let’s see whether you still refuse to use it after this.”
“This fucking mishmash of a world─.”
My words were cut off midway.
──!!
Then.
The entire world spun around and around.
Kwang!!!
Of all directions, it had to be this one again.
Without time to change direction in midair, my body flew through the grocery store’s glass and shattered it.
Earlier, it had only been enough to make a single hole, but now the entire glass wall on one side collapsed.
Even as my body scraped along the floor and slid away, I was busy checking the grocery store.
“…Ha.”
The completely destroyed interior was clearly visible, along with the chunk of concrete embedded in the counter.
I felt utterly devastated.
Not because my arm was broken, but because I was worried about when I would clean and repair this again.
When I slowly rose, shards of broken glass poured down with a rustle.
‘You really are beyond saving.’
I have no choice but to neuter you…….
I had walked outside the grocery store intending to use telekinesis, but.
“How dare you.”
“…….”
Nova and Rivera were faster, charging at Black Tiger in anger.
Nova, who supposedly had specifications similar to a walking weapon produced by feeding minerals and gas into it, was dominating the contest of strength against someone twice the size.
As the asphalt gradually collapsed, his body was pushed backward bit by bit.
“…I did not expect this.”
At that moment, he swiftly pulled his neck to the side.
A spray of blood burst out a beat late.
If he had not dodged, the wound would have been much longer than it was now.
Black Tiger stepped back, clutched the wound on his neck with one hand, and stared sharply at Rivera, who had approached without me noticing.
“…Interesting.”
I wanted to applaud at the sight, but.
As I said earlier, my arm was broken.
“You’re doing great, my kids!”
I merely cheered them on.
He noticed me emerging from the grocery store unscathed and looked surprised.
“Huh, did you jump backward at the last moment? Those reflexes are truly astonishing. I am curious what kind of procedure you underwent. …You are becoming more and more interesting.”
As if the beast’s fur were standing on end,
his snow-white hair and eyebrows stiffened into a bristling shape.
Like Super Sonic….
No, not something that cute.
It was the sensation of standing before an enraged predator.
“…Tch.”
“I will exclude him again.”
Rivera and Nova took their places beside me.
A brief silence passed.
He naturally lowered the hand that had been covering the wound on his neck.
“What the hell is that….”
The wound writhed and healed on its own.
I had considerable regenerative power myself, but that seemed to operate on a slightly different level.
While I was thrown off by the sight,
he roughly shook the blood from his palm and said,
“Would you perhaps consider leaving that woman’s side and joining me instead?”
He suddenly made an unexpected offer.
“All of a sudden?”
“I came here intending to make that offer from the beginning.”
Then why did that bastard start throwing punches….
No, come to think of it, we had been the ones to fire first.
Black Tiger pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the remaining blood.
“Bringing all my people here and starting an all-out war with the mafia would not be a bad choice either, but it is still a little too early for that.”
Come to think of it, there were only a few reasons for the boss of Hakuga-gumi to come all the way here in person.
…I had thought he was simply insane.
“I can accommodate all the conditions you want. What do you think?”
He was twice as insane as I had thought.
I answered by raising my middle finger without saying a word.
My broken arm throbbed, but listening to that bullshit was more than I could tolerate.
Conditions or whatever.
The very things he was doing made me sick.
“I would sooner bite off my own tongue.”
“You do not have to answer right away. My number is on the business card I gave you earlier.”
“Are you too much of a beast to understand human speech….”
At my provocation, his footsteps stopped.
“Haha….”
Once again, a blue curtain appeared over his fist, but this time it changed into something sharp like a beast’s claws.
When he swung his hand to the side, a long gash was carved into the grocery store building yet again.
“One should only provoke someone so much…….”
“You son of a─.”
“…??”
Please stop breaking things already!!
Black Tiger looked flustered for a moment at my profanity, then leaped several meters into the air and departed somewhere along the building’s wall.
Th-that bastard is running away!
Rivera and Nova asked worriedly beside me as I clutched the back of my neck from my rising blood pressure.
“…Is your arm all right?”
“User. The injury is serious.”
But my gaze was still following Black Tiger’s disappearing back.
“Forget my arm. I have to go beat that bastard who broke the grocery store to death─.”
““……””
The atmosphere grew slightly chilly.
“…No, I was just saying.”
I awkwardly tried to smooth things over.
* * *
As the leader of Hakuga-gumi─Black Tiger─moved freely across the rooftops, an optical HUD appeared in front of his face.
[It’s me, Boss.]
It was a subordinate who served as the organization’s strategist.
“Why did you call?”
[I was going to contact you because it seemed the mafia had figured out your location, but after checking the location data, it seems you are already on the move.]
“Yeah.”
That was why Black Tiger had awkwardly withdrawn.
[How was the person you went to see?]
“I like him quite a bit.”
He especially liked the fact that the man did not get intimidated.
At that moment.
The subordinate asked Black Tiger a question in an uneasy tone.
[…You did not have ‘a meal’ there, did you?]
His voice sounded worried about something.
Black Tiger calmly shook his head.
“No, nothing happened.”
[Phew, that’s a relief. Erasing the surveillance-camera data for that entire area is a lot of work too.]
“…For now.”
[Please try to restrain yourself.]
“I understand, so hang up. I am on my way back now.”
Without listening to the rest of the answer, Black Tiger ended the call and carefully rubbed the abdomen where Abel Anderson had punched him.
Not because it hurt.
…Grrr.
Because he was hungry.
Appetite and lust have certain similarities.
He barely managed to calm his body, which was trying to ‘swell’ with excitement.
‘Right. I have to hold back here.’
Here.
* * *
The grocery store had become a complete mess.
People who had rushed over from the vacant lot after hearing the commotion.
“…What is this, an attack?”
“There was definitely no unusual patrol report….”
“What on earth happened here…!”
“Hot Dog Man! Are you all right?!”
I waved my hand at the flustered people to tell them I was fine.
But I did not open my mouth.
Every time I looked at the state of the demolished grocery store, anger surged up from deep in my lower abdomen.
First, I calmed down the flustered people,
then gathered only the organization’s central members in the warehouse.
I dragged over the ‘weapons box’ I had secretly hidden in a corner.
·
·
·
[User registration complete. Beltech─. Bzzzt. Paid license renewal confirmed. Biometric lock disengaged. Ammunition management system online.]
I cannot let this go as it is.
Even if only for revenge against the grocery store….
“……”
“Can’t we just repair it?”