Chapter 66
The human brain strongly secretes this ‘hormone’ under enormous stress.
Adrenaline.
The reason frail humans in ancient times could fight to the death against threatening beasts like mammoths, tigers, and even Tyrannosauruses was all thanks to adrenaline.
(Jurassic Park proves this fact.)
But the effects of adrenaline were only temporary, after all.
As time passed, it could instead trigger a sharp rebound.
Just like me right now.
“…Just how far back do we have to go?”
“To move while avoiding the city’s surveillance cameras, it cannot be helped. …Still, if it is truly too difficult, I shall try to find another way.”
“……No.”
At the cat’s answer, I waved my hand.
We were currently leaping between rooftops to avoid people’s eyes.
Even with a thick mask, a muffler, and black stealthwear.
I had been wondering how someone dressed in a way that could not help attracting attention could move around quietly, and the reason lay in his unusual route, which avoided all the normal paths.
“So are we there yet?”
“…We’ll arrive at the organization’s hideout soon, so endure a little longer.”
Call it a grocery store, not a hideout….
My body felt quite heavy, but despite my complaints, I had no trouble crossing the rooftops after the cat.
The cloth I had hastily wrapped around myself to stop the bleeding was still steadily turning red.
‘They say people die after losing roughly 30% or more of their blood.’
Objectively speaking, the amount of blood I had lost had long since exceeded 30%.
Yet my condition was fairly fine.
Fine enough to arrive safely at the grocery store, in the end.
“Fuck.”
“…What is it?”
At my quiet curse, the cat hurriedly turned around to look at me.
“Don’t tell me your injuries have worsened─.”
“When am I supposed to clean that up again, and when am I supposed to repair it….”
I looked up at the ‘half-destroyed grocery store building’ and let out a deep sigh.
The enormous claw marks were particularly impressive.
The cat’s voice that followed sounded somewhat dumbfounded.
“…It seems you have lost too much blood and your consciousness has become quite hazy. We should hurry inside.”
No, he was just treating me like a patient.
Anyway.
‘A true victory with nothing but wounds….’
My body aside,
the grocery store building too.
Of course, I had paid him back in kind to that extent.
‘Call the boss…. No.’
Since this was the second time the place had been half-destroyed, I felt a little guilty about contacting the boss again.
Even the famous Nobita had never summoned Doraemon twice in a row for the same thing.
I figured it would be better to repair it with the support funds left over after giving some to Michael.
“Phew.”
Another sigh escaped me, as it had several times already.
Perhaps because I had suffered a fair amount of mental shock.
I felt as though the joints throughout my body were trembling.
“C-Chief!!”
Whether I had actually been staggering or not, the cat supported me with a startled look.
“…What’s with ‘chief,’ though?”
That shocking title jolted me fully awake.
“Come to think of it, Chief… no, Hotdog Man has a completely unmodified body, so there should not have been any way to block pain separately…. I was too shortsighted. I should have taken a faster route, even if it meant overexerting myself….”
“…Blocking pain isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
I recalled the black tiger who had kept moving without even realizing that his own nuts had fallen off.
At my answer, the cat looked down at me with a slightly puzzled expression.
I’m serious.
“Anyway, stop saying weird things and let’s go inside. The others must be waiting.”
I moved my feet the rest of the way toward the grocery store’s newly opened front entrance.
“I’m back.”
Normally, the ringing of the bell would have announced my arrival.
But now, I had no idea where it was rolling around.
Still, it seemed the others had at least roughly cleared away the shards of glass and chunks of concrete.
The inside of the grocery store was considerably cleaner than when I had left─.
[…Dyu!]
A familiar turret appeared above the ceiling.
Since the entire building had not been destroyed, most of the turrets located inside the inner walls seemed to be unharmed.
“Good to see you, Nova.”
I took off the mask I was wearing and waved at the turret.
At that moment.
The turret’s movement came to an unnatural stop.
Soon afterward, several hurried footsteps rang out from the direction of the warehouse.
“H-Hotdog Man!”
“You’re badly hurt…?!”
“…That’s right.”
Michael, Rivera, and Nova rushed out.
I turned around to look at them.
“Nothing happened while I was gone, right?”
““……!!””
The eyes of all three widened.
Even Michael and Nova, who rarely showed much expression, seemed flustered.
“W-what’s all that blood on your body…!”
“I-I’ll get the bandages first!!”
“Traumatic subcutaneous hematomas confirmed throughout. The user’s bodily damage is extremely severe. Lacerations, ruptures, contusions, severance injuries, and so on….”
At Nova’s long voice, which sounded like a report, everyone’s eyes turned toward her.
“…The condition of the right forearm and upper arm is particularly poor. Extensive damage to major blood vessels has also been detected. Several liters of blood loss have already been deemed fatal. Since transfusion is impossible at this grocery store, it would be advisable to transfer him to a civilian hospital immediately.”
Once Nova finished speaking.
Everyone began looking at me again.
“No, I don’t think it’s that bad. I’m also doing pretty fine considering how I look.”
I lightly waved my hand to indicate refusal, and at that exact moment, the cloth wrapped around it came loose, revealing fingers with a considerable amount of flesh missing.
“Ah.”
It was not a very good time for that to happen.
The three of them opened their mouths noisily again.
“…For now, I’ll bring over a homeless person who can provide medical assistance.”
“Bandages, bandages, bandages… Ah, antiseptic and painkillers. And, and….”
“You cannot call that fine.”
Ugh, what a mess.
It was like a marketplace in here.
“I’m telling you, I’m really fine. At most, I feel a little dizzy.”
But no one paid any attention to what I said.
While I was floundering, the cat approached from behind me and calmly added,
“Your injuries really are extremely serious right now.”
“It’s not like I’m getting hurt for the first or second time….”
Hmm, is it really that bad?
How bad could it be?
“Then I’ll go take a look in the mirror.”
“T-treatment first!”
“Now, now.”
Rivera’s eyes were brimming with tears, but in the end, I could not suppress my curiosity and headed toward the washbasin.
And.
“……”
I understood why the others had been making such a fuss.
Um….
To put it simply,
I was a zombie with extremely severe injuries.
It was astonishing that my entrails had not begun spilling out yet,
and beyond the grain of my red muscles, white nerves and yellow fat were sometimes visible as well.
My head felt a little dizzy.
“Wow.”
I do not particularly like gore movies.
The smell of blood, which I had inwardly considered nothing special, surged into my nostrils.
‘…I really fought that fiercely.’
No wonder my body had somehow felt damp every time I barely avoided that bastard’s claws.
My reflection in the mirror began to wobble and ripple more and more.
I calmly took a deep breath and muttered a joke.
“…What good are [Iron Man] and [Steel Skin]?”
I had spent precious points on traits with names that obviously sounded like they would make my body tougher.
I felt like I had been scammed.
Or had Bansho Takemaru really been that strong?
The guy who had been weaker than the megacorp’s truck driver who tried to secretly smuggle out some goods?
Then again, Black Kellogg really was not an opponent to underestimate.
My Peanut Spinner had not even worked on him….
…….
I looked at myself in the mirror and
slowly closed my eyes.
My head felt even dizzier than before.
‘…Is this really me?’
My build, name, and origin were all different.
The manager of a grocery store.
The boss of a gang of homeless people.
And the appearance of an ordinary man in his twenties preparing for a normal job had vanished without a trace.
Only my face was the same─.
As if I had just awakened from a nightmare, my entire body was damp—not with blood, but with sweat.
‘Stay calm, get a grip….’
I did not bother smashing the innocent mirror.
I quietly focused on what I could see.
In the darkened field of vision behind my closed eyes, red roots spread in every direction.
First was the 【Telekinetic】 trait I had chosen.
Then 【Steel Skin】, 【Iron Man】, and 【Kill 'Em All】….
Finally, 【Magic Circuit】.
For reference, [Iron Man] and [Magic Circuit] were even gaining proficiency little by little in real time.
It seemed to be because of my injuries.
As for telekinesis, it was difficult to say that it had helped much in this battle, but perhaps because I had plucked a powerful enemy’s nuts,
the proficiency that had been stuck at 24% had somehow risen all the way to 27%.
‘Does the required proficiency experience increase around the 25% mark?’
No, that was not what mattered right now.
I used one of my two remaining points to select a new trait.
I planned to save the other one, just in case.
【Iron Will】
A moment later.
My anxiety gradually began to subside.
Like the high tide receding and the low tide ebbing away.
Even my heart, which had been pounding madly, gradually slowed.
“Phew….”
When I lightly exhaled,
my mind became clear again.
“Done.”
Although my personality had become somewhat more anxious and hot-tempered,
I was still me, one way or another.
Spouting silly jokes,
living day by day,
an ordinary small-time citizen and grocery store part-timer.
When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw three people looking at me with anxious eyes—no, four, including the cat.
I opened my mouth in a matter-of-fact tone.
“At this point, I guess I don’t need to prepare a separate Halloween costume. Right?”
“……Huh?”
I mean, right?
I shrugged as though it were a joke.
* * *
Several days later.
As I repeated the routine of eating hot dogs whenever I opened my eyes and sleeping whenever I closed them,
before I knew it, my body had recovered completely.
That’s right.
Those terrible injuries had healed in a mere ‘few days.’
“You’ve already recovered completely…. It’s astounding. The extent of your injuries was different from last time, after all.”
“That’s the power of hot dogs.”
At my words, Michael scratched his head.
“I’m not joking—some homeless people are seriously suggesting that we worship the hot dogs Hotdog Man eats as the Eucharist.”
“…That’s a little much.”
It was not as though they were bread and wine.
Since we had eliminated the cult, I felt like especially loyal homeless people had started showing up every now and then.
It was burdensome, so I wished they would stop.
While chatting with Michael about trivial matters of everyday life as usual,
Brrr─.
I began to feel a vibration from the terminal.
The terminal screen I pulled from my pocket displayed the name ‘Luciana.’
“…Gasp.”
“What’s wrong?”
“A suspiciously wealthy sponsor is contacting me out of nowhere….”
“Who is that……, ah.”
I swallowed hard.
It was not as though I had nothing in mind that she could want.
The downfall of Hakuga-gumi.
It had been one of the organizations dividing District 49 into three territories, after all.
‘…But the fact that I’m the culprit shouldn’t be known yet, right?’
I had moved around while avoiding the surveillance cameras.
I had also worn a separate mask.
I had even burned all the camera data from inside the club.
For now, stay calm….
I cleared my throat and answered the phone.
“Yep, I’m here.”
[It’s you, right?]
·
·
·
A voice filled with certainty.
I could not bring myself to answer the frightening mafia boss with something like ‘Me?’ or ‘What do you mean?’ in that ridiculous public-service-worker manner.
“……Ah, I suppose so.”
[Could I see you for a moment?]
From her perspective, it was probably a very casual invitation, but just then, an elegant limousine came to a stop in front of the grocery store, so from my perspective, the invitation did not sound like merely an invitation.
But who am I?
‘A true man of this age who can confidently say ‘NO’ when the situation calls for it─.’
Thunk….
“I’ll escort you safely.”
“……Yep.”
So I quietly shut my mouth and got into the car.