episode_0077

After tightly tying up the Rose-headed man, the black-suited Violets went out into the hallway and formed a line.

As thugs rushed up the stairs, Number 1, who had temporarily taken command, issued an order.

“Report on everyone’s status!”

“Number 110 and the 9 others are currently waiting on the 4th floor of the transaction building. They are coming up.”

“Number 66 and the 2 others have secured 4 injured people on the 2nd floor. These people seem to be the intermediaries we were supposed to meet.”

“Number 91 and the 4 others, Number 12 and the 4 others, are waiting on the rooftop of the opposite building and in the alley. Firing preparations are complete!”

This was a form of self-affirmation. Since they were all equal, a commander was not necessary, but the act of giving orders helps them all review the situation.

“Do you see them clearly? About 5 people are coming up now!”

Number 66, who was observing their side from across the way, shared their sight with them in real-time.

The building they were in was a small officetel, with windows on the right side overlooking the outside, and doors leading to offices on the left.

Most of the thugs on the 3rd floor came out bewildered, as if they hadn’t yet grasped the situation, but a few quick-witted ones could be clearly seen running up the stairs through the window.

“No need for covering fire. We’ll take care of them ourselves and go down.”

The hallway was wide enough for two people to pass. The Violets, armed with round shields and one-handed swords, stood in two rows and headed for the stairs.

“Nechi Hyung-nim! Are you alright?”

The two fastest ones came into the hallway and flinched at the sight of their comrade’s headless corpse.

“Damn it, are you cops or what? F-f-fuck! Willie!”

As the guy suddenly pulled out a pistol, Number 110 instinctively swung their sword, infused with sword energy.

Slice!

Like cutting soft butter, the sword drew a diagonal line without obstruction. The thug’s head and left arm fell off at the shoulder.

“Uh..? Ugh? Mil… Mills..?”

The guy, after witnessing his comrade’s horrific state, was shocked and stammered. Number 75 struck the guy’s head vertically with a sword strike and kicked him loudly towards the staircase entrance.

Number 75’s face slightly hardened.

“Ah, sorry.”

They had miscalculated their power.

The thug’s body, struck by the sword energy, split vertically from the top of his head to his navel. The nearly bisected corpse fell towards the stairs, scattering blood.

The guys following behind screamed.

“Aaaaah! Aaaaaaaah!”

“F-fuck! It’s an Awakener! It’s an Awakener!”

As they entered the stairwell, the guys who grasped the situation pulled out guns from their pockets.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The panicked thugs sprayed bullets and retreated. The sound of rapid gunfire loudly echoed through the stairwell. The Violets at the front immediately swapped their round shields for riot shields and went down.

Clang! Clang!

Pistol bullets uselessly hammered against the riot shields, which were reinforced by flowing magic. As the Violets cautiously descended, the guys fiercely resisted and retreated into the 3rd floor hallway.

“Boss! Call the boss! They said he’s with a Fixer! Call him! Quick!”

“They’re coming! They’re coming!!”

Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!

The Violets descending the stairs faced the deafening gunfire and grumbled briefly.

“Ugh! They know it won’t work, but they’re still firing so wildly!”

Number 75, annoyed, pulled out a bullet embedded in their left arm.

The thugs, not content with pistols, pulled out submachine guns and sprayed bullets indiscriminately. Among them, a few stray bullets hit the Violets’ shoulders or legs.

Normally, these would have been serious injuries that would incapacitate them, but now it was different.

Currently, they had undergone grueling training from their instructors, and through multiple clone training, had become somewhat accustomed to physical enhancement. The Aether defense learned during this process blocked pistol bullets to some extent.

“As expected, more training is needed.”

As they entered the 3rd floor hallway entrance, an even denser hail of bullets flew at them than before. Seeing them firing pistols with both hands, it was like a Hong Kong action movie.

“Don’t be scared, you bastards! If you shoot a lot, even Awakeners die! Just hold out for a few minutes and the guys and the boss will come!”

When the guy who seemed to be the action leader fiercely encouraged them, the others, as if reinvigorated, calmly poured out bullets.

The Violets temporarily retreated to the side of the stairwell entrance.

“They know how to deal with Awakeners well. They’re not just idiots.”

An Awakener’s Aether defense is sturdy, but if they are subjected to such heavy fire in a confined indoor space, there is a risk of it being breached.

“Prepare to break through!”

“Number 91, everyone, are you watching? Blow that guy’s head off.”

“Confirmed.”

The 5 Violets waiting across the way aimed at the scene inside the 3rd-floor window. The bolts resting on the bowstrings glowed red, thoroughly infused with magic.

“You guys, whether you’re cops or other Fixers, I don’t know, but come in! Come in, you idiots…!”

A glowing bolt was embedded into the head of the thug who was bluffing. Simultaneously, bolts flew into the necks or vital points of the other four.

Pop!

“Aaaaaah!”

“Gaaah!”

“Burke? A-are you alright…?”

“Gaaah!”

The magic of the first bolt that hit exploded like fireworks, starting with blowing up one thug’s head, and the hallway turned into utter chaos.

Immediately after the volley of fire, the Violets, holding shields, charged into the hallway.

Thanks to the magic flowing through their legs, their bodies were light as feathers. Number 110, who ran forward, kicked the belly of the aspiring Hong Kong movie star who held twin pistols.

“Kaaargh!”

The man flew across the hallway.

The grim-faced man with a scar next to him aimed a submachine gun at Number 110’s head. It was too late. Number 75, who was following right beside, cut off the scarred man’s arm, gun and all. Before he could even scream, the sword flowed like water, piercing his heart and retreating.

Wrists flew off, necks rolled on the floor, and waists were bisected. Although they had done it, objectively speaking, this wasn’t a battle, but a massacre.

“Gaaah!”

The gang members who had lost their will started to flee.

“Run away! Aaaaah!”

“Mom! Mamaaa!”

Swords and hammers were embedded into the backs of the guys crying and screaming as they fled. They leisurely walked, chasing after them.

[Attacking the rear activated Sympathetic Trait: Severe Back Wound. Damage increases!]

A few frightened guys went into rooms and locked the doors. The thugs who were a step too late screamed and clung to the doors.

“Fuuuck! Open the door! You sons of bitches! Open it! Let me in!”

“Don’t abandon me! Save me, you idiots! Open it for me!”

“I’m sorry! You die instead! I’m sorry!”

The men desperately banging on the door felt their presence and turned their heads. Their eyes filled with despair.

“S-save me!”

They let out a short sigh and swung their swords without hesitation. They cleared the corpses and looked at the doors. After several demolition attempts using sword energy, the office doors were torn into pieces.

“Aaaaaah! Save me! I was wrong!”

The men hiding in the room looked back at them and desperately tried to get out through a window.

They went and swung their swords a few times, and everything went quiet.

“…Ugh!”

As they looked around, a man from the corner of the room suddenly rushed at them with a jungle knife.

The man’s movements, caught by their magic-enhanced sight, were slow like a jellyfish. Number 75 lightly grabbed the man’s wrist.

“Aaaaaah!”

When I gave a single squeeze with my hand, the man cried out in pain and dropped his knife. This was the difference between an Awakener and a non-Awakener.

“Should we kill this one too?”

“No, we need to leave a few people for interrogation! What if we kill everyone without leaving anyone?”

As Number 1 chastised them, they nodded, knocked the man unconscious, and restrained him.

They roughly gagged the guy with a cloth and dragged him back to the 4th-floor room where the Rose-headed man was.

The hallways on the 3rd and 4th floors were messy with blood and corpses. They didn’t know what excuse to give the landlord here.

“How are those people?”

“We administered recovery potions and gave them first aid on site. Their appearance was a mess. How much they must have been beaten…”

While the Violets cleaned up inside, other Violets had already taken the restrained people, who appeared to be the intermediaries, out of the building.

“Number 66, from that location, if you pass about 3 buildings to the left, there’s an unmanned hotel, right? Go there and wait for now. Oh, right, have you talked to those people?”

“Unmanned hotel? Got it. As for talking, I tried already, but they fainted before I could even get a few words out. It might not be urgent right now, but we should send them to a hospital.”

“Daphne could fix them, it’s a shame she’s not here.”

“Nonsense! If Daphne sees what a mess we are now, she might cry and throw a fit. We’ll get scolded!”

It wasn’t wrong. The scene itself was drenched in red, covering the ceiling, walls, and floor indiscriminately, and their own appearance, covered in it, was utterly filthy.

“How many guys in total?”

“Excluding the two on the 4th floor, let’s see. One, two, three…”

“About fifteen people.”

They searched the rooms where the guys had stayed and collected miscellaneous items like weapons and cell phones from the corpses.

An urgent call came in to Number 12, who was waiting in the alley.

“Everyone, attention! Some cars are coming towards the transaction building!”

“What’s the scale?”

“About 7 vehicles? There are 3 large vans alone. There must be dozens of people inside.”

“Emergency situation! About twenty people are coming from the opposite alley! They’re armed.”

Reports came in from all directions.

Looking out the window, the cars had already surrounded the building for a while. Armed people got out between the dazzling headlights and moved about.

Number 98, who was guarding the prisoners on the 4th floor, urgently woke up the Rose-headed man and the guy.

“Hey, people have gathered outside, did you guys call them?”

The man sneered.

“As expected, the boss has come! You guys are finished now!”

They struck the guy’s head again, knocking him unconscious. The situation was understood.

During the short time given, they quickly exchanged opinions. Number 1 was the first to speak.

“Let’s retreat. If we immediately reverse-generate here, we can leave without incident.”

Number 2 hesitated for a moment, then put forward a dissenting opinion.

“That might be true. But we killed these thugs and saved the intermediaries. Since we started this, it makes sense to see it through to the end.”

“But why? They’re strangers. We’re just clients. What does it matter what happens to them?”

“I don’t know! These thugs deserve to die! Didn’t these bastards look at us with sinister eyes and try to do bad things?”

“Since we’ve already done it, we shouldn’t leave any loose ends! Let’s see it through to the end.”

The Violets each passionately presented their opinions.

A ringtone sounded from one of the thugs’ cell phones they had picked up earlier. They picked up one of them and answered the call.

On the smartphone screen, the word was clearly displayed.

“Burke! There’s a lot of talk about cops and Fixers, what the hell is going on? Are the guys alright?”

As they listened quietly without answering, the person calling themselves ‘Boss’ on the other end seemed to sense something was wrong, fell silent, then spoke again.

“Who is this? From what I see outside the window, you seem to still be inside.”

“Do you know who’s here? The Aramis Crew bastards are all over the place. People from Tusk Detective Agency have come too! If you’re a Fixer, you’ll know who Tusk is, right?”

“I don’t know why you took the side of those intermediaries, but you dared to mess with our Calamity Gang? Don’t think you’ll get out of here easily. Not answering? You son of a b-…!”

They hung up the phone. Everyone’s opinion was soon set.

“As expected, it seems a bit too late to get out gracefully, doesn’t it?”

“Let’s finish it all and then go!”

Hard footsteps could be heard from the 1st floor stairs. The Violets checked their weapons and created additional clones.

The fight in the underworld, round 2 begins.