Chapter 90
When Michael first came up with the heinous idea of making two different factions fight each other, I did wonder, ‘Is it really all right to drag other people into my personal circumstances?’
Because someone was bound to suffer serious financial or physical harm as a result.
But even afterward, when Michael returned with a former corporate mercenary named Mikhail Romanov—the Brown Bear—I didn’t say a word against it.
That was because, somewhere in my heart, at some point.
‘Maybe megacorps deserve to take a little punishment.’
Because such a wicked thought had taken root.
Of course, not everyone working for a megacorp was a bad person.
Paul Lucas, who came to our grocery store three times a day until we were sick of seeing him, was a regular customer who never once forgot to pay.
(If only he had forgotten to pay, I could at least have used that as an excuse to kick him out. What a shame.)
However.
Usually, like that crazy woman from the Delta Team I had seen last time….
Being out of one’s mind was the norm.
“You feel a little troubled about setting two megacorps against each other? Hahaha…. Hot Dog Man, your joking skills have improved considerably.”
“……”
I’m not joking.
Michael answered my question calmly.
“Those two are already waging corporate wars in various conflict zones, so you don’t need to worry about that. In fact, although unofficially, they’re conducting a corporate war against each other even at this very moment. So things like a terrorist attack on an arms factory or… blowing up a logistics center probably won’t bother them all that much.”
“Oh?”
Hearing Michael’s explanation seemed to ease my discomfort a little.
Though it might simply have been because I straightened up from my slouch.
But….
Looking at it now, this crazy world seemed to have changed me a little.
Even in the middle of a battlefield where bullets and missiles were raining down, I could think only of silly jokes.
Although my mask hid my expression, it wasn’t difficult to understand the meaning in Mikhail’s gaze as he looked down at me.
If I were to put that meaning into words, it would probably be….
- What should we do now?
I had never heard Mikhail’s manner of speaking, so I roughly converted it into polite speech.
I continued with my answer in an indifferent tone.
“We have nothing left to do. Go get some popcorn, Robin.”
“…?”
It felt as though I were sitting in a 4D movie theater.
When watching a movie at the theater, cola and popcorn weren’t optional; they were essential.
KABOOM─!!
The only difference was that bullets and missiles could actually fly toward the audience.
“Turn them into pincushions!!”
Even at a glance, the difference in firepower was overwhelmingly one-sided.
The Ryan Company security team members present had been dispatched lightly equipped after hearing that a gang member was inside the logistics center.
Their personnel, weapons, and preparations.
There was bound to be a clear difference in all of them.
Except for the few people taking cover behind pillars or walls, they were practically on the verge of death.
Just then, the bald man’s heavy machine gun swung in our direction.
─BRRRRRT!!
I quickly ducked beside another pillar as the gunfire shook the entire space.
But Mikhail, who had been right beside me, wasn’t agile enough to do the same.
“Damn it, bear─.”
I stared at him with a gasp.
Amid the acrid smell of gunpowder, Mikhail was looking back at me in perfect condition, as though nothing had happened.
“……”
“……”
It seemed he had merely covered his face roughly with both hands, but there wasn’t a trace of red blood anywhere on his body.
Apparently, because the mask was not very durable, he had shielded it out of concern that only the mask might break.
I scratched my head awkwardly.
I had gone to the trouble of worrying about a corporate mercenary for nothing.
“…Huh?”
There was no way a 2.3-meter-tall mass standing unharmed while everyone else was dying could fail to stand out.
This time, the enormous muzzle of the bipedal robot called the Cyclops turned toward Mikhail.
That’s a little….
‘I don’t think he can block that bare-handed.’
I picked up the assault rifle lying beside a fallen Ryan Company security team member and.
Fired straight at the terrifying robot.
It looked as though I wouldn’t be able to leave even a scratch, but my accuracy was considerably better than expected.
Even though I was firing full-auto with the recoil controlled using only one hand, the bullets I fired flew along trajectories far more precise than those calculated by everyone else’s mechanical eyes.
Ratatat─!
My dynamic vision, which had surpassed human limits, precisely aimed at the Cyclops’s red lens.
After I emptied an entire magazine into the red lens, thin white lines like a spiderweb spread across its surface.
Soon, the Cyclops’s body began tilting sideways.
I dragged a fallen person nearby back behind the pillar.
“Y-you….”
[Did you call for backup?]
“…Yeah, in about 180 seconds─, cough!!”
The time limit was pretty tight.
It was tight enough to make me mutter a short curse under my breath.
At this point, the time attack had been clearly set at a minimum of three minutes.
‘Mikhail….’
The sight of him trying to swat Beltech employees away with his bare hands in the distance was extremely impressive.
But perhaps because he kept protecting his low-durability mask with one hand, he didn’t seem able to easily catch people moving quickly at a distance.
‘And the other side probably called for backup, too.’
Hmm….
First, I quickly assessed the situation.
With only 180 seconds—now with barely 175 seconds left—it was practically impossible to knock everyone down and stroll out of there.
If so, there was only one answer.
‘A quick run.’
The purpose of moving the contents of the megacorp truck I had stolen into this logistics center had already been accomplished long ago.
There was no need to waste time here─.
As I began stealthily backing away, someone slipped out from beside a pillar.
The bald man from Beltech was staring straight at me.
Apparently, the sight of me disabling the bipedal robot with rifle fire had impressed him.
“Hmm, even among ordinary Grade 4 security team employees, there was quite an exceptional person….”
A strange halo of light flashed rapidly over his grim face and pupils.
Body scan.
At that moment, the magic circuits within my body flared up all at once, like forcing a sports car’s engine from zero to a hundred.
My body moved before my thoughts could catch up.
Thump─.
Along with the sound of my heartbeat, which seemed unusually loud.
Just like when I beat the gang boss Bogus in the past.
I calmly struck his chest, solar plexus, and abdomen in that order.
…Thud, thud, thud.
As time flowed slowly, the other man’s body rose about a handspan into the air.
Before he could be pushed backward, I took another step forward.
Meanwhile, the bald man desperately raised his arms as if trying to block my attack, but his dynamic vision couldn’t keep up with his body’s movements. He didn’t seem to have any talent for close combat.
I drove my fist into the opening between his thick forearms, and a crunching sensation came through like striking a cushion.
Then, as I finally thrust out a kick.
The bald man flew into the distance and slammed into the wall like something out of a cartoon.
─KABOOM!!!
Amid the chaos of gunfire erupting everywhere, a brief silence bloomed.
Whoa, that startled me.
I had unknowingly beaten him with all my strength.
‘But for someone at the level of a megacorp commander…. His bones seem a little weak.’
That question lingered only briefly.
I naturally looked around and shouted.
[Just hold out a little longer and backup will arrive! Everyone, respond as defensively as possible!!]
““……!!””
The people who had despaired in the face of imminent death heard my words and began fighting again.
No one had noticed that the seam along my back had torn from moving so hastily.
I had unintentionally raised one side’s morale, but that also meant my acting had been perfect.
‘Megacorp? Hmm, is this all there is?’
Maybe they were more manageable than I had expected….
Even I was beginning to fear my own growth a little.
Just as my confidence was about to swell─.
“…Huh?”
A sharp chill ran up my spine, and I immediately turned around.
…Click, creak-creak.
It didn’t seem to be aimed in my direction, but my reaction had been purely reflexive.
Then.
━━━━━!!!
A powerful gale swept through the logistics center, clearing away the thick smoke in an instant.
The speed was so overwhelming that even the sound came a beat late.
It was truly astonishingly fast.
CRACK!!!
A white line appeared in the air.
Unlike an ordinary trajectory, that line tore a huge hole through the solid center of the Cyclops.
I only realized that my body was being blown backward by the tremendous shockwave after the Cyclops’s red-hot body slowly toppled forward.
…THUD!!
* * *
A low voice flowed through the Ryan Eliens Company’s security channel.
[Confirmed complete neutralization of the target. As the situation appeared urgent, I am reporting that I carried out a preemptive strike.]
The Ryan Company security team members who had witnessed the scene from right in front of them secretly breathed sighs of relief.
They had heard rumors that, among the personnel hired directly by headquarters, there was a corporate mercenary who used an implant-based prosthetic body equipped with a Linear Launcher.
And there was no way he had come alone, so they were now in a position where they could finally feel a little relieved.
But.
That relief didn’t last long.
BOOM!!!
Several RS-027 Model Cyclops units appeared again from the sky.
[…Re-identifying the target. Additional forces are moving in, so I am notifying you to maintain a standoff at your current position.]
Someone’s mutter summed up the current situation.
“Th-this is really a full-scale war between megacorps….”
Now that they were merely ordinary security team employees, there wasn’t much they could do.
Just as some tactless bastard had said, they could only eat popcorn and watch.
And.
‘…By the way, where did those guys go?’
It was only dozens of seconds later that someone noticed the two unusually large men had disappeared.
* * *
“Wow, shit…. Next time, we really must never mess with a megacorp.”
“……”
“I almost didn’t even have enough bones left to collect.”
When I was sent flying far away by the sudden shockwave like a baseball thrown into the sky.
While everyone else was staring blankly at the Cyclops with a hole through it, only Mikhail noticed that I was floating in midair.
From there, I repeatedly pointed my finger in another direction, and fortunately, Mikhail safely received the signal that we should flee right away.
“Phew….”
I let out a deep sigh, filled with relief and the thought, ‘What kind of lunatic fires a railgun here when this isn’t even Academy City….’
Given the scale of the commotion, the trivial story about a gang member infiltrating the logistics center had long since been quietly buried.
Huge gunshots and explosions were still raging over there.
In a situation like this, there couldn’t have been many people willing to say, “Th-the gang member….”
Mikhail and I calmly changed our clothes again and walked outside, blending into the crowd of fleeing people.
“Still, it’s a relief that all our hard work paid off.”
Mikhail nodded at my words.
At this point, it really could be called a perfect bit of rabble-rousing─, no, an operation.
But what was this unpleasant feeling that seemed to say I had forgotten something?
“Ah.”
Vance Kim.
We spotted the pitiful young man in the distance, both eyes puffed up black and blue.
It was difficult to pretend not to notice that peculiar hairstyle sticking straight up like a red rooster’s comb.
Had someone hit him? Why were his eyes swollen such a vivid blue?
“……”
“Wait.”
Mikhail’s expression twisted like that of a savage beast when he saw Vance Kim, so I briefly restrained him.
The person who had reported that a gang member had infiltrated the logistics center was probably Vance Kim.
But….
“Never mind.”
I didn’t have any particular thoughts about it.
His truck had exploded along with ours, so he had probably lost his job as well.
I didn’t want to watch Mikhail break his back and leave him wheelchair-bound for life.
If anything, I’d help him rather than hurt him……
Hmm.
Just then, a very good idea came to me.
Looking at the pitiful back of Vance Kim’s head, I raised my voice.
“Hey, Vance Kim!!”
“……Gasp.”
He quietly turned to look this way, and his face began to stiffen as though he had met the Grim Reaper.
In contrast, a broad, cheerful smile was spread across my face.
“Over here.”
I slowly crooked a finger at him.
* * *
A little later.
Vance Kim arrived at some vacant lot.
It was a dreadful, miserable place where all kinds of filthy homeless people had gathered.
“Keke…. Look how scared he is! What a cute little guy. Should this big brother take care of him a little?”
“Look at him rolling his eyes around…. Kikikiki, it seems his mechanical eyes aren’t in very good shape. I guess I’ll have to call Walter later.”
“Expired… sandwich. Hehe.”
Right afterward.
Vance Kim fainted on the spot while still standing.