Chapter 62
The loud electronic music reverberated so loudly that it hurt my ears.
Under dazzling lights of every vivid color, people with all kinds of distinctive appearances swayed this way and that, each intoxicated by euphoria.
“Wow.”
An exclamation that slipped out unconsciously.
Maybe it was because I had lived a life that had little to do with clubs, past or present, but the sight of waves made of flesh and metal chaotically mixing together was quite shocking.
Putting aside the fact that this was a mishmash punk world, it felt like an entirely new experience.
Most of the patrons inside the club seemed to be tourists enjoying themselves with their own bodyguards in tow.
Judging by the violent sight of people injecting unidentified purple drugs into the insides of their elbows in real time or spraying rainbow-colored smoke in every direction,
they looked exactly like the kind of people who would come all the way down to District 49 to go clubbing.
Some were even tangled together in nothing but bare skin…….
‘Fuck.’
The hardcore adult show unfolding onstage seemed to have no distinction between genders.
No wonder it was a Hakuga-gumi club.
I almost instinctively drew my pistol in response to the completely unexpected mental attack.
After taking a calm, deep breath, I pushed through the crowd and moved to find an ‘appropriate spot.’
“This place is amazing, eeeek!”
“There’s a private room farther inside….”
““Cheers!!””
It wasn’t as difficult as expected to distinguish the gang members among the patrons.
Apparently, discipline was being enforced fairly strictly; it was easy enough to pick out the people standing several steps away from the stage, striking poses.
Moreover, like the club guard at the entrance, Takayama-whatever, some had glittering carp tattoos or irezumi across their backs, faces, and forearms, so there was little chance of mistaking them even by accident.
Still.
‘I’ll check later, though.’
They sometimes frowned at me because of my clothes, which were little more than rags, but apparently they couldn’t cause a major disturbance inside.
Thanks to that, I was able to move easily to my intended destination without any trouble.
When I went up to the second floor of the split-level structure, the entire club came into view at a glance.
‘For now….’
I sat down at a suitable bar table in the corner.
A male bartender with a bizarre hairstyle reminiscent of a red rooster’s comb addressed me in a sly tone.
“Wow, look at your clothes. The guard at the entrance really let you in somehow. At this point, I’d believe you if you said you snuck in while the guard was taking a nap. Or has a new frontier opened in vintage fashion without me knowing?”
“If you look at it objectively, it’s the former.”
“Well, I don’t care as long as it boosts my sales. If you don’t even have a wallet in your pocket, though, I’ll have to call the guard. Haha!”
A golden prosthetic hand skillfully shook a cocktail shaker.
“So what can I get you?”
“Coke.”
“Jack? Bourbon? Marine? Jim Beam?”
“Just Coke. Lime flavor.”
“……”
Apparently, he had noticed I wasn’t cosplaying as a beggar but was an actual beggar.
The bartender wore his service spirit proudly, but he didn’t kick me out or anything.
After mixing a generous amount of synthetic lime flavoring into a cheap cola brand, the bartender handed me the glass without complaint.
“The District 49 Special is served.”
“…This thing has a name too?”
“No, I just came up with it looking at you.”
He was a fairly entertaining fellow.
To the point that it would be a little disappointing if he belonged to Hakuga-gumi.
I took a sip of the ‘District 49 Special’ and turned around to look down at the club interior, where the lights were flashing brightly.
The people busy dancing paid no attention to the second-floor bar table.
As I drew the pistol from my tactical belt and aimed it at the stage, a disconcerted voice followed from behind me.
“…Party props are getting pretty realistic these days. That looks like a real gun, not a toy. Well, they must have searched your belongings thoroughly at the entrance, so it can’t be a real gun, right?”
“……”
“Th-that’s not it, right?”
Like Padmé’s expression when she was talking to Anakin Skywalker about the system.
The bartender’s face became extremely anxious.
Even so.
A translucent kill list continued to be compiled over the pistol’s holographic display.
[Kenji Slate. Hakuga-gumi gang member. Confirmed 12 wanted offenses, including premeditated crimes, corporate property damage, and murder. LOCK-ON.]
[Ren Halloway. Unemployed. Confirmed 4 wanted offenses, including theft, robbery, and illegal drug purchases.]
[Jiro Delgado. Hakuga-gumi gang member. Confirmed 22 wanted offenses, including assault, tax delinquency, and electronic commerce violations. LOCK-ON.]
[Araki del Mendes. Steel Guardian mercenary. Confirmed 2 wanted offenses, including assault.]
·
·
·
As I had set it, red targets appeared over the faces of the Hakuga-gumi members.
Finally, I scanned the bartender’s face.
“Eek…!”
The bartender backed away, extremely tense.
That was how threatening the pistol developed by the megacorp was.
[Vance Kim. Unemployed. Confirmed 9 wanted offenses, including tax delinquency.]
Apparently, he wasn’t affiliated with Hakuga-gumi.
But.
“Korean?”
“I-I only changed my name….”
“Lee.”
Talk about confusing.
When my voice rose slightly, the bartender quickly hunched his shoulders.
“Never mind. Get out of here before things get any noisier. And start paying your taxes properly. What’s with nine cases of tax delinquency?”
“…No, I would’ve paid them if I had money. But how did you know that……. Are you a cop?”
“What cop?”
As if there were such a thing in District 49.
I set the half-full glass of Coke down on the table,
and aimed the muzzle straight into the air.
“I warned you.”
[…Internal suppressor offline.]
So the other patrons could escape.
I would start with a bang.
[Smart Bullet System Online.]
Soon after.
I pulled the trigger, announcing the opening act of the fight.
Bang─!!
The fired bullet drew a white line as it changed direction by itself in midair.
“…Ugh!!”
In the brief instant separating life and death,
the Hakuga-gumi member who had been standing alone with his arms crossed beside a first-floor pillar collapsed with a death rattle.
The gunshot pierced the loud electronic music, providing more than enough warning to the people who had lost their minds.
It wasn’t just one bullet, either.
─Bang! Bang! Bang!
I fired into the air without aiming at any targets.
Before even a few seconds had passed, an inexplicable sense of satisfaction was conveyed to my consciousness,
and by the time I had emptied one magazine, that bright voice rang out once again.
【The player’s level has increased!】
But it wasn’t over yet.
I removed the empty magazine and took a new one from my tactical belt before reloading the pistol.
Without even needing to pull back the slide that had locked rearward, I simply pulled the trigger again.
【More than ten enemies dealt with in a short period!】
【‘Massacre’ achievement unlocked!】
【You have gained a new trait point!】
【The player’s humanity has somewhat─.】
“You’re noisy.”
I covered one ear while continuing to fire with my remaining hand.
Because I knew all too well that the means must not swallow the end.
Experience points or whatever.
So that I wouldn’t kill people with the sensation of playing a game,
I didn’t take my eyes off the scene before me.
Indeed, the pistol developed by the megacorp boasted performance so terrifying that a chill ran down my spine even as I fired it.
I even found myself wondering how I would respond if I ever had to face this kind of weapon later.
‘…So this is what they meant by calling it a megacorp.’
Overwhelming firepower.
In fact, considering that a megacorp employee had felt stronger than the yakuza boss who divided District 49 into three territories, it wasn’t all that strange.
When I set the pistol, radiating heat, down on the table, the electronic music that had shaken the club had already stopped.
The people who had been dancing onstage had fled outside long ago, and only intermittent groans of pain continued to echo here and there.
The atmosphere of the club had changed 180 degrees.
I wasn’t as troubled as I expected.
‘Could this be another side effect of the treatment?’
An unknown aspect.
When I quietly stood up, the fake Korean bartender behind the bar backed away and broke several liquor bottles.
Meanwhile, his pants were wet…….
There was no need to be that scared.
“The bill?”
“N-no charge!”
Perhaps I looked like a crazy psychopathic murderer, because the bartender struggled to answer in a trembling voice.
I calmly scratched my head.
“Sorry for costing you your job. But it’s not over yet, so like I said earlier, get out of here quickly.”
“Yessir!!”
Meanwhile.
I spotted several Hakuga-gumi members staggering up the stairs.
“T-there he is!”
“You fucking worthless piece of shit!!”
All of them had the centers of their foreheads caved in.
The chrome-enhanced skin seemed to have served as bulletproof protection.
Apparently, one shot still wasn’t enough, as befitted a Japanese-affiliated organization.
As an enraged member charged at me,
I calmly closed my eyes in the slowly flowing world of consciousness.
Next.
Red roots rapidly spread outward around me.
I had gained no fewer than five new trait points.
That meant my level had already risen by five—or no, by four in this short span, since one of them was an extra point awarded for achieving an accomplishment.
I was interested in the [Psyker] branch of traits I had chosen at the very beginning,
but since I didn’t want the city government’s special forces chasing me, my gaze naturally turned to the fist-shaped [Body] and blue heart-shaped [Magic User].
[Steel Skin], [Iron Man], [Kill ’Em All]…….
I didn’t have time to enjoy shopping at my leisure,
so I quickly made the decision I had already settled on,
and when I opened my eyes again,
I felt an unidentified, mysterious energy surging through my entire body along the blood vessels running throughout it.
…I finally got it.
[Magic Circuit].
My trait proficiency was still low, so I couldn’t release it externally like Black Tiger, but my basic physical output had easily increased several times over.
“Die──e───.”
In a world that seemed to move in slow motion,
I lightly kicked off the ground.
Kwang!!!
* * *
The innermost part of Club 「Moebius」.
Inside a private luxury room designed with even more thorough soundproofing than the other rooms.
There, Bansho Takemaru, the head of Hakuga-gumi, commonly known as Black Tiger, sensed something ominous.
Just then, a call came in from a subordinate through his optical HUD.
“What is it?”
[T-there’s a major problem!! I contacted you as soon as I heard the news, but at the location where you are right now……. ]
“I know.”
[…Yes?]
Without even hearing the full story, he immediately rose to his feet.
If something had happened inside the club, there was no need to hear any further explanation.
Black Tiger intended to resolve the disturbance himself and slowly opened the door to the private room.
And.
He witnessed one of Hakuga-gumi’s ‘subordinate members’ fly through the air and slam into one of the walls.
“……”
It was a comical scene that seemed fit for a cartoon movie watched by children, but in reality, it was horrifying.
‘What the hell is this….’
His confusion lasted only a moment.
A long shadow appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Found you.”
And a voice that sounded ominous, to say the least.
For reference.
This happened less than a few hours after Black Tiger had visited the grocery store….