Chapter 75
As the cloud of dirt that had towered higher than the buildings began to settle little by little, Brad, a member of Beltech International Solutions’ security team, had no choice but to acknowledge their mistake.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down inside the visor of the protective gear he wore like a mask.
‘We got completely played.’
He never would have guessed the man was a magic-user….
This was a terribly bad situation.
There were not as few Pureists in Risk City as one might think.
Human values varied enormously, as shown by the CEO of a megacorp bearing an apple-shaped logo, who died after putting his faith in alternative medicine.
And this was Risk City, to boot.
If Brad, a megacorp security officer, had to suspect and remain wary of every Pureist he met as a possible magic-user, he would have gone insane long ago.
Therefore.
The moment the fact that the body of a filthy vagrant (who looked as though he hadn’t done laundry in a week) contained no implants was shared on the security team’s internal channel.
It was inevitable that their alertness dropped several notches.
Of course, Abel Anderson had volunteered that he had beaten Marcus Vogel bare-handed.
- Ah, I see. Looks like an incredibly skilled magic-user happened to be passing through Area 49, which is already full of homeless people.
Compared with thinking that way as a matter of common sense.
- This crazy homeless bastard must have taken some weird drug…….
─was the more natural conclusion.
Even Abel Anderson himself did not yet know this, but his physical abilities and proficiency with his magic circuit continued to grow sharply with each passing day.
He was already strong enough to beat even a level-five superhuman, generally considered one of the strong ones, or a rabid beastman belonging to a yakuza organization, with his bare hands.
The only person here who could justifiably blame them for their mistake.
Was Claire, the leader of Delta Team under the Strategic Response Division, who had been caught in this absurd situation.
“These fucking, useless idiots….”
Her femoral artery had clearly been torn, yet the blood pouring out was staunched almost immediately.
Something resembling urethane foam had begun to creep up between the red muscles.
Abel Anderson, who had taken complete control of the scene, let out a small whistle at the strange sight.
“You know who the biggest idiot here is.”
“……You.”
It wasn’t an answer.
Feeling the distinct weight of metal at the back of her head, Claire gritted her teeth without turning around.
“You think you’re going to get away with this?! How dare you do this to Beltech─.”
Click. Tick, tick, tick.
The chill of that sound left her speechless.
The pistol slide pulled back.
Abel Anderson tilted his head, looking bewildered, and then.
He spoke in a carefree tone light enough to earn a standing ovation even from a famous villain with a white-painted face.
“Ah…. I haven’t loaded it yet.”
Click.
He deftly inserted a magazine and aimed the muzzle at Claire’s head again.
His movement was so natural that no one even thought to stop him.
“Shh.”
Claire’s complexion, frozen like a broken machine, went beyond pale and turned deathly blue.
To make matters worse, her entire body was damp, as though she had just climbed out of water.
‘Phew…. I almost forgot to load it.’
In truth, it was merely a little act Abel Anderson had put on after belatedly realizing that he hadn’t loaded the pistol.
Those who didn’t know the truth genuinely felt as though they were dealing with a madman.
In fact, the moment he attempted to load the gun, the security officers could have tried to rescue their team leader or shoot Abel Anderson.
But no one could move rashly, because.
When megacorp security officers suspected ‘implant hacking,’ they immediately activated the antivirus installed in their cyberbrain sockets, carrying out treatment and inspection at the same time.
This time as well, they ran the inspection as soon as they confirmed that the assault rifles they had been aiming had jerked upward on their own, and it took about a second to realize there was nothing wrong with their bodies.
But.
To move recklessly against a superhuman who had crossed a distance of more than ten meters in a single burst during that brief interval was effectively the same as giving up the hostage’s life.
Even if the pistol’s magazine was empty, the fact that their team leader was in danger remained unchanged.
‘And that speed.’
It wouldn’t have been strange if the neck of the colleague he had seized had snapped cleanly.
But the other vagrant was unharmed.
Which meant he had protected his colleague with magic the moment he moved forward.
‘…Which means.’
Brad shook his head back and forth.
Why on earth would someone from a Pureist group─, a member of a family who lived like nobles inside the city, be in such a filthy street?
But he still couldn’t completely erase the tangled emotions churning inside him.
Perhaps that was why.
Brad failed to realize that the person holding Delta Team leader Claire from behind was also extremely flustered.
‘Hmm.’
…What do I actually do now?
A single bead of sweat, no different from anyone else’s, trickled down the temple of Abel Anderson, who was grinning cheerfully like a madman.
* * *
In most strategy games, there is usually a clear target whose capture ends the game immediately.
In janggi, it is the general, in chess, the king, and in go, the opponent sitting across from you…….
Anyway.
Even if you don’t capture a knight, cannon, rook, or bishop.
It means you can end the game immediately by delivering a checkmate.
In that sense, what I had done was no different from grabbing a piece tightly and smashing it into my opponent’s head.
Since holding something increases your punching power.
As a result….
I had managed to win the game safely.
But now it was time to think about what came afterward.
“Ah, excuse me, but could you lower your guns? I’m fine with the 20mm ones, but the 5.56mm and 7.62mm are a little scary.”
It was a light joke inspired by the mascot of our grocery store.
Yet the air around us grew about three degrees colder.
Even so, perhaps because they were megacorp employees, they showed no intention of yielding to the threats of a terrorist holding a hostage.
I had no choice but to extend the pistol’s muzzle a few centimeters farther forward.
They immediately reacted like the man in a barrel who pops up when a toy knife is stuck into it.
“P-please lower your guns, quick!!”
Oof, my ears.
“A little quieter.”
“…I said lower them!”
Right.
If we all observed basic manners like this, how much nicer would life be?
When their team leader shouted that, the security officers reluctantly lowered their guns to the ground.
Their bodies were weapons in themselves anyway, so this was merely a matter of observing formalities.
But I still didn’t relax my guard.
“The person on that rooftop too, please.”
“…!!”
The crazy bitch flinched at my words.
That must have been her trump card.
If she was so blatantly aiming at me, it was a little difficult to pretend I hadn’t noticed….
While the megacorp security officers here descended to the ground without using rappelling lines, the van-shaped aircraft had landed on the rooftop of a nearby building.
There must have been personnel left up there.
The immediate crisis had disappeared, but the situation was still a stalemate nonetheless.
It would be a problem even if I eliminated every megacorp security officer here.
But I couldn’t simply let them go, either.
‘…This crazy bitch’s grudge?’
I was already getting goosebumps.
If I’d known this would happen, I should have worn a mask like last time.
But as always, regret was never anything but late.
For now, I had no choice but to focus on the present.
“You there…. The person holding a human head? Sorry, but could you come over this way?”
“……”
Maybe because we had all been chatting peacefully with cheerful laughter until the crazy bitch appeared and issued her orders.
The security officer didn’t refuse my request.
Or perhaps it was because the megacorp team leader sitting in front of me was staring at him with bloodshot eyes.
“Yes, slowly. Like a flight attendant serving drinks and caviar to a first-class passenger─.”
“No. We can’t do that.”
Just then, someone’s voice continued from within the dark alley.
A neat suit and hair slicked back.
He was the first customer who had come to our grocery store.
“That’s our job.”
“…Alpha Team Leader!”
Someone shouted brightly.
The man called the leader of Alpha Team appeared, munching on the snacks he had bought at the grocery store.
‘Oh no….’
I had no choice but to click my tongue briefly.
I had sensed it at the grocery store too, but he gave off a stronger impression of being ‘a corporate man’ than anyone else present.
Just as I had when I first met Marcus Vogel.
The other security officers looked bewildered as they watched him appear alone.
“W-what about the Alpha Team personnel….”
“I sent them all home.”
“…Excuse me?”
He casually shrugged.
“You never know when the work will end, do you? Normally, only the team leader needs to work overtime. But….”
After tossing the crunchy potato chips into his mouth, he casually wiped his greasy fingers on his suit trousers.
“I didn’t expect to see the owner here.”
“…The owner?”
“Ah, if you go that way, you’ll find a grocery store. It’s better than you’d expect, too. You should visit sometime.”
At his comment, a security officer muttered in a tone of utter disbelief.
“…You really work at a grocery store?”
“Yes, and he certainly has a strong work ethic.”
His gaze turned back to me.
“Anyway, I can’t give you the head. It’s company business.”
Then his gaze reached Vogel’s head, moved to the crazy bitch sitting in front of me, and.
Finally, it stopped on the pistol in my hand.
A peculiar glint passed through his eyes.
“By the way, how did you manage to capture her?”
“Well….”
Before the security officer could answer.
“…Paul Lucas!! Stop doing weird shit and hurry up and rescue me already!”
“No, I need to hear what happened too.”
He casually ignored the crazy bitch.
Unlike the other team leader, who had seemed unpleasant from the moment I saw his face, he looked likable every time I saw him.
Maybe it was because he was always wearing a smiling expression.
“Hmm, a magic-user, and…. You didn’t have your magic circuit implanted illegally, either. And when you arrived, Marcus Vogel had already been captured….”
Clap.
The short sound of clapping drew everyone’s attention.
“Well, good. Very good.”
Then he spread both palms wide to either side.
What?
Seeing him, the crazy bitch shouted at the top of her voice.
“P-Paul Lucas!!”
“It can’t be helped. People like us have no choice but to consider the corporation’s mission our highest priority. And you were the one who carried that principle out better than anyone.”
Unlike the security officers, he was someone who could ignore her from an equal footing.
A kidnapping couldn’t proceed properly once the hostage’s value fell.
“If things go wrong, mark it as KIA.”
Ratatatatatat!!
Flames spurted from his open palms.
His RPM appeared to be far higher than that of a typical machine gun.
I could see countless small-caliber bullets flying toward me in graceful ‘curves.’
Smart bullets identical to─, or better than, the ones I had used at the Hakugakumi Club.
I grabbed the crazy bitch by the nape and threw myself sideways.
“Eek!!”
“Ugh.”
Stop screaming already.
But none of the bullets even grazed the crazy bitch or the aircraft directly behind me.
They curved around and came back to intercept me.
“Tsk….”
Is there a limit to how much I can dodge?
Then I had no choice but to block them.
At that moment, what flashed through my mind was the sight of Bansho Takemaru batting away the bullets fired by the grocery store turret with his bare hands.
A blue-green curtain rose above my palm.
“Oh….”
The low exclamation of the team leader called Paul Lucas followed.
I caught some of them.
Ting, ting!!
And deflected others.
Ting-ting-ting-ting!! Crash!
I blocked countless bullets.
With even greater concentration than when a hornet had gotten into the army barracks and I had faced it with nothing but an old broom and dustpan.
Ting-ting!!
Fortunately, the bullets I deflected didn’t fly back at me.
Their momentum must have had some limit.
“…Urk!!”
“?”
At the sudden scream, I lowered my head.
And heard Paul Lucas’s flustered voice.
“Ah.”
There was a coin-sized hole punched through the crazy bitch’s chest.
She collapsed without even managing to leave a last word.
Apparently, one of the bullets I had deflected had flown there with spectacularly bad luck.
Paul Lucas had said it didn’t matter if the crazy bitch died, but even he seemed fairly flustered by the situation, and his gaze shifted toward me─.
““……””
The security officer awkwardly lowered his head.
Beneath it, the cylinder containing Marcus Vogel’s head had been smashed to pieces.
Like the crazy bitch, Marcus Vogel had a hole through his forehead.
For the record, that wasn’t where I had aimed.
When I looked at Paul Lucas with an awkward expression.
He scratched his head with stiff, mechanical movements.
“K, KIA.”
…Is he really insane?
* * *
The team leader from Beltech wanted to hide his mistake.
The grocery store owner (who wasn’t actually the owner, but a part-timer) wanted to escape the megacorp’s pursuit.
The moment their goals aligned.
Paul Lucas had arrived above the city in the aircraft Delta Team had come in.
However, there weren’t enough seats, so he had to sit alone in the limousine-style aircraft Claire, Delta Team’s leader, had bought with her own money.
[…Wouldn’t it have been better to just take care of him there?]
“Who? Ah, the grocery store owner?”
[Yes.]
In Claire’s case, she wasn’t particularly popular, after all.
The members of Delta Team, remembering the monster they had encountered in Area 49, spoke up.
[According to the city database, his record is clean, but that very fact is even more suspicious.]
“Tsk, how stupid. If you already know he’s obviously suspicious, why can’t you figure this out?”
The team leader clapped his hands softly.
Clap.
He was the only person aboard the limousine-shaped aircraft, but it seemed to be a habitual gesture.
“Now, listen. A Pureist, with a magic circuit trained through the orthodox method rather than illegally implanted. What does that make you think of?”
[…A family, of course.]
“Exactly. Those lanky people who act as though they’re some kind of new humanity. I remember seeing people from families a few times, and every last one of them was incredibly confident.”
Paul Lucas also recalled the pistol held by that ‘grocery store owner.’
The latest smart bullets developed by Beltech.
Naturally, it wasn’t something that should be found lying around on a street like that.
And the contents of the truck as publicly reported were ‘the megacorp’s latest equipment.’
Very few people knew the real reason Beltech’s chairman was looking for the truck.
[No way.]
“Right. He showed it on purpose. I hear he even took his time loading it in the middle of everything, too? In other words, he was telling us this: ‘I’m involved in this matter, so don’t worry about it.’”
[Then the reason you left instead of simply finishing things there was so you could bring more personnel….]
Ordinarily, that would have been the case.
If Paul Lucas hadn’t had another identity.
“Well, that was part of the reason. And a few years ago, where was it again? Right. I remember hearing a rumor that the Crossfell family had a second son, a wastrel who cut off contact with the family and ran away….”
[…Ah!]
It was only a guess.
But Paul Lucas’s explanation was remarkably kind.
Almost enough to make one think something was odd.
[I-I see. Understood….]
Though the rest of the sentence was cut off midway, Paul Lucas could tell what the other person had hesitated to say.
“Even so, did you really have to kill Claire there…. Your team leader?”
[……. ]
“I did.”
With a low murmur, he pressed the trigger firmly.
Soon after.
KABOOM─!!!
Through the window, he could see the aircraft carrying the members of Delta Team crash.
Paul Lucas ended the security team channel.
“That makes my job easier.”
He had erased most of the information, too.
Now, he was the only one who knew the truth.
Inside the aircraft, which had grown quiet again.
‘The most important objective is to prevent Beltech from finding out where the goods went.’
It would have been even better if he could have secured the goods or identified what they were.
But for now, he was satisfied with this much.
Paul Lucas, a spy secretly dispatched by one of Beltech’s rival corporations, gave a quiet snicker.
“Chaos, explosion, laughter. And the closing line. Bang! Thank you all for your hard work. This has been Ryan Alliance Company. ……Ta-da.”
There was something uncanny about it, as though he were truly putting on a play.
·
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“…Anyway, it looks like things worked out?”
Contrary to what Abel Anderson had said.
That was something no one knew yet.