Chapter 7: Crime City (2)

Bang–!

A gunshot exploded right in front of me, and I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut.

“…?”

But no matter how long I waited, neither the pain I had braced for nor any life-flashing montage arrived.

Only the acrid scent of gunpowder lingered at the tip of my nose.

Cautiously reopening my eyes, I saw the vague outline of someone’s back.

“…!”

Their hand—his or hers, I couldn’t tell—was gripping the rifle, forcing it skyward.

A moment later, a spent cartridge clinked, bounced twice across the ground, and rolled away.

“Who the hell are you?!”

The soldier, caught off guard in the middle of executing his task, sounded completely flustered.

Grunting, he tried to wrench the rifle free from the grip—but it didn’t budge an inch.

In the brief standoff that followed, the unidentified figure glanced back toward me.

A cap pulled low.

A mask covering the face.

But between them, a pair of unmistakably golden eyes locked with mine.

There was something oddly familiar about them.

A déjà vu sensation. I struggled to recall—

“Huup!”

Suddenly, the soldier let go of the rifle without hesitation.

He drew a combat knife from his waist and lunged for her back.

I opened my mouth to warn her.

“Wa—Watch ou—”

But before I could finish, her fist had already slammed into his face.

Thwack! A direct hit.

I heard something crunch.

The soldier’s body flew several meters, like he’d been hit by a truck.

He crashed into a wall across the street, collapsing it in a cascade of rubble.

“……”

What monstrous strength.

Her silhouette looked like that of a normal woman.

How could a body that slight produce such force?

She had just punched a grown man across the street and casually flicked the dust off her wrist.

I was stunned.

But admiration didn’t last long.

The commotion drew others’ attention.

“We’re under attack!”

Nearby soldiers, now alert, raised their guns toward us.

But she was faster.

She had already driven her fist into the next soldier’s stomach.

Thump—!

“Ugh!”

A clean body blow.

She plucked the rifle from his limp hands with ease.

Then, smoothly reversing her grip, she shouldered the weapon and fired immediately.

Bang—!

Three shots.

Yet they sounded like a single thunderclap.

“Gghk!”

And not a bullet missed.

Each one drilled straight through the soldiers’ brows, in a single breath.

Bang, bang, bang-bang, bang!

Fast. Precise. Devastating gunplay.

The soldiers stood no chance.

Even peeking out for a moment was enough to get their foreheads pierced.

“Guh…!”

I watched the entire scene in a daze.

It was too fast for my eyes to follow—but one thing was clear.

She’s a pro.

This wasn’t just strength or high-output implants.

Every move was crisp, calculated.

Her reaction time and combat sense were extraordinary.

Even a layman could tell she was operating on a different level from anyone else on this battlefield.

The enemy realized it too.

A few more tried to return fire but were instantly taken down.

The rest abandoned even the attempt, hiding behind cover.

Only frantic shouts echoed from beyond.

“Damn it… what the hell is that monster?!”

“Call for backup, now!!”

A brief lull followed.

In the silence after the gunfire ceased, she retrieved a fresh magazine from one of the bodies nearby.

Thunk— A heavy footstep—far too heavy to belong to a human—rumbled through the air.

“She’s here! Kill that b*tch now!!”

A new enemy stepped onto the field.

A giant, easily over 3 meters tall.

Bang—! The moment they locked eyes, she fired.

The bullet struck its forehead squarely—yet bounced off with a metallic clang.

Beneath the torn skin gleamed a chrome-plated armor plate.

I reflexively held my breath.

‘That’s… that’s a Juggernaut!’

A heavily-augmented human.

Every inch of their body beneath the skin replaced with bulletproof armor and cybernetics.

A completely different class from the foot soldiers—this was a full-blown monster.

‘Why is something like that here?! They don’t belong in slums like these…!’

But before I could even shout a warning, the thing was already charging at her.

“UOOOOHHHH!!!”

Bang– bang! She fired again, but it was useless.

Juggernauts were practically impervious to physical damage.

Their subdermal plating could shrug off even military-grade weaponry.

The only viable tactic was to stall and attempt a remote software hack.

But this one wasn’t giving her the chance.

It closed in fast and threw a punch.

“Hff–!”

KWAANG!!!

The impact shattered the asphalt like a cookie.

She narrowly dodged, swung her rifle like a bat, and smashed it against the Juggernaut’s head—but it was the rifle that shattered instead.

Crunch! The buttstock snapped in two.

And in that instant, she was grabbed.

The giant’s hand clamped around her neck like a steel trap.

“Hhhh…!”

This was bad. Juggernauts didn’t just boast defense.

To move that heavy armored body, they had to output enough strength to rival truck engines.

And now, it was crushing her with that monstrous force.

I was convinced she was going to die—until the Juggernaut’s face split open in a clean, vertical line.

Splat—!

Blades extended from her arms like guillotines, slicing the armor clean through.

The body, now headless, staggered, then collapsed with a heavy thud.

I was speechless.

Juggernauts didn’t have a weak spot in the head. And yet she’d cleaved it clean.

Her matte black blades didn’t even carry a drop of blood.

There was only one weapon I knew with that hue and edge.

‘Is that… a nano blade?’

A top-tier melee implant alloy.

Worth eighty times its weight in gold.

Rare enough that even rumors of it on the black market were scarce.

Only the elite had access to it.

Top-tier mercs or agents who handled the most dangerous jobs.

I found myself brushing goosebumps off my arms.

“……”

While I was tangled in thought, the battlefield had gone still.

With the Juggernaut down, the last remaining soldiers had given up.

Their weapons clattered to the ground, one by one.

She retracted her blades and surveyed the area.

Then she picked up a stray handgun from the floor.

“W-Wait. I surrender.”

A soldier raised his hands and declared surrender—but she didn’t answer.

She simply pulled the trigger.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

With those shots, the last stragglers fell.

Only corpses remained.

Gang members. PMC troopers. Not one left alive.

Even in the slums, this level of devastation by one person would be hard to believe.

It was awe-inspiring.

And then—she turned to me.

“……”

Step, step.

Covered in blood, she slowly approached.

My shoulders involuntarily shrank back.

When she was just within arm’s reach, she stopped.

I reflexively closed my eyes.

“I’ve been looking for you.”

But the voice held no hostility.

Only then did I dare look up.

Beneath the mask and cap, I saw those golden eyes again.

‘I’ve definitely seen them before.’

I racked my memory.

It didn’t take long. I hadn’t met many people since arriving in this city.

And those eyes—how could I forget their glow?

‘The girl from yesterday… in the junkyard—’

But before I could confirm it aloud, she spoke again.

“I’m glad you’re safe. Benefactor.”

“Ah…”

So I was right.

She was the one collapsed in the alley yesterday.

Relief washed over me, and I slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Are you alright?”

She asked, and I forced out a hoarse reply.

“Yes… thanks to you…”

I still couldn’t process what had just happened.

To be pushed to death’s door by chance… only for a small act of kindness to save me in turn.

Life was beyond understanding sometimes.

“Haah…”

I let out a deep breath as my body finally relaxed.

And then I heard a buzzing sound, like a hornet.

Bzzzz—

Bang! She shot something down before I even saw what it was.

“It’s a scavenger drone. Looks like it caught the scent of the commotion.”

Corpse scavengers of the lower city.

They descended on scenes of chaos to strip implants, even from the still-living.

Weak on paper—but exhausting to deal with.

It was best to avoid them entirely.

“Let’s move before things get louder.”

I nodded. I wanted nothing more than to leave this place.

I tried to stand when she gestured—

“Ah…!”

My legs gave out.

Too tense for too long—my lower body wouldn’t obey me.

Just trembled helplessly.

And then, I felt her hands on my thigh and shoulder.

“Excuse me.”

“Huh? Wha—?!”

Suddenly, I was lifted.

I blinked—she was carrying me.

In the classic princess carry position, no less.

“…..!”

The realization hit me and my face flushed crimson.

I wasn’t some little kid—I was a grown-ass man getting carried like this by a stranger.

I had never felt more humiliated.

“U-um…”

“Are you in pain anywhere?”

I was about to protest—but stopped.

I remembered how the world saw me now.

The unfamiliar girl’s face I saw in the mirror every morning.

If that frail-looking girl was being carried, it wouldn’t seem odd.

But still…

No matter how much my body had changed, I was still, at heart, an adult man.

Which made me painfully aware of certain… points of contact.

Ugh…

Her skin was unexpectedly soft and warm.

I couldn’t believe that deadly strength hid beneath it.

I forced myself to look away, suppressing the heat rising to my cheeks.

“……”

I felt guilty. Like I was doing something wrong.

But there was no way to explain everything now. And frankly, I was too scared of the fallout.

So, surrounded by corpses left in her wake, I kept my mouth shut and let myself be carried through.