episode_0336

A rhythm so familiar, echoing from Surcliff’s narrow alleys.

Her slender fingers brushed the ceiling of the old room. Pale sunlight struggled to pierce through the densely packed old buildings. A faint streak of light that barely seeped in illuminated the intricate wires and flickering displays adorning the cramped apartment.

Tania, tossing and turning in her narrow bed, rubbed her eyes and listened to the familiar sounds from outside the window.

Indistinct conversations, distant mechanical hums, and the pitiful wail of a stray dog. Then, once again, gunshots. Bang, bang.

“Tania, are you up already?”

Her parents were already awake. Her mother was boiling tea on an old gas stove, and her father was looking at an old tablet.

“Are you leaving already?”

Tania nodded, quickly putting a piece of toast and an egg into her mouth. “Yes, Mom. I have plenty of time before school. I want to organize the inventory before the store opens.”

Her father looked up from his tablet, his face full of concern. “Be careful when you go out, Tania. You need to be especially careful today. There are rumors that the gangs are fighting again. A gang member who came to collect told me so. The atmosphere isn’t good these days, so take care of yourself.”

“Yes, Grandma Olivera next door said the same thing. There’s a rumor that Cazador got upset dealing with outsiders.” Worry was etched deeply on her mother’s face. Tania thought to herself. ‘I’ve heard endless talk about Cazador.’

Tania lightly dismissed her parents’ worries. “It’ll be fine. We’ve never missed a protection payment before, have we? There won’t be anything for the gangs to hold against us.”

Her mother still looked worried but reluctantly nodded. “Just… always be careful.”

Tania stepped out into the dim pre-dawn mist. Surcliff’s chaotic, narrow streets were a maze of neon-lit shadows and crumbling concrete. Sleazy flyers lay scattered helplessly on the ground in the faint morning light, amidst shoddy billboards.

Tania cautiously walked the narrow alley toward the store. Gang members lurked around every corner, their weapons glinting menacingly. Tania shivered as an awakened gang member ostentatiously flared their magic. Everyone was on high alert, eyes scanning their surroundings, their hands reaching for their weapons at the slightest sound.

Tania approached the store with her head bowed, fumbling for the old key. The moment she inserted the key into the door, a thunderous sound ripped through the air.

Once again, gunshots rang out. A much more intense sound than the usual light pops she was accustomed to.

The girl hesitated. Fear, yet at the same time, a stubborn belief that this too would pass, bloomed in a corner of her heart. It was just a regular gang dispute, as always. ‘It’ll be fine.’

The gangs didn’t attack people who kept to themselves. It had always been that way. Tania opened the door, and a familiar scent comforted her. After finishing a few tasks before her parents arrived, her gaze turned to the shelf where her most treasured possession rested.

A piggy bank, a pink ceramic pig with a slot for coins on its head. It looked like a worn antique. She carefully shook it, smiling at the sound of coins inside.

Bits and pieces she’d saved, if she was a little more frugal and saved a bit more, she could buy her dad a present. His birthday was coming soon. No, what if she saved even more? Then…

Tania became lost in thought. A scene of her family living somewhere quieter and more peaceful, far from Surcliff.

The increasingly closer gunshots pulled her back to reality. The heavy roar of engines and an unidentified tearing noise. Tania poked her head out the window and was startled. Flashes of light burst everywhere, and the air vibrated with unleashed magic.

Armored vehicles sped down the main road. Flashes ripped through the dark alleys, and glowing bullets cut through the shadows.

“Get inside!” A gang member shouted, waving his arm at the dazed onlookers. “Now!”

A sense of unease swept over her. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to just go home?’ She prepared to leave amidst the chaos.

The world exploded.

A small explosion erupted, and Tania was instantly thrown across the room like a ragdoll. In strangely slowed time, she watched her parents’ store being torn apart. ‘No! Our store!’

The air was torn by gunfire and the humming of energy weapons. Tania stumbled to her feet amidst the debris.

I have to go, what do I do? Mom and Dad’s store is ruined. Right, I can clean it up. Let’s go home. First, I’ll wash up, and then- -Splat!

Her thoughts ended there. The girl’s body snapped backward. A red mist, sprayed from the back of her head, hesitated before succumbing to gravity. The small body of the elementary school girl collapsed to the floor like a puppet with cut strings, swaying for a moment like a broken doll before becoming still.

Stray bullets swept through the store again. The piggy bank on the shelf wobbled and then fell to the floor. Shattering into pieces scattered across the floor, coins poured out like metallic tears.

When the gunfire briefly subsided, a naval special forces member who saw the body muttered indifferently as he passed by. “Collateral damage occurred-” “Omit unnecessary reports.” At headquarters’ cold rebuke, the Naval-Air Force Special Forces moved toward the center of Surcliff. The gunshots continued relentlessly toward the city center.

What the commotion left behind were the remnants of a destroyed future, mixed with shattered hopes. The gaze of the broken piggy bank met the empty eyes of its owner. Her vacant eyes turned hazy, as if gazing at dreams that were fading away. The merciless march continued.

**

All around was a battlefield. We Violets had to clear our minds. The scale of the battle had suddenly expanded so much that it was bewildering.

“What’s going on?” “I don’t know!”

The answer came from one of the senators behind them. “They’re terrorists! They’re the ones. They’ve come after us!”

“Who are ‘they’?” When I asked, the senator, who had been looking out the window for a moment, muttered with a mix of anger and tension. “Yes, suddenly a plane crashed, and they captured us. If your mercenary friend passing by hadn’t saved us, we would have been in big trouble.”

Mercenary? I glanced at Kalia, and sensing my gaze, she shrugged immediately. It seemed she had roughly glossed over her identity. Kalia subtly pulled up a black mask, which I hadn’t noticed her wearing, to the bridge of her nose, and added a few words. “They were trying to give us some strange injection. So I couldn’t just leave them.”

I see. I still don’t know why these politicians are in this alternate space. But somehow, he looks familiar. I don’t know about the other senators, but that particular senator looks like someone I’ve seen a lot.

“It’s him! The Duel Maniac!” “60 consecutive wins in the Council!”

Ah, so it was him. His name was Remar, I think. Then the senators around him must be of a similar sort. It’s not very important right now, though. The priority is how to deal with these gentlemen.

“Should we just leave them? Getting Enrica out is the priority!” “No, couldn’t we get a reward?”

Just as we were deliberating, one of the senators spoke up. He was an elderly man. “Mercenaries? Fixers? Whatever you are, I have a request.”

“A request?”

“Move us from this spot to a safe place immediately. We’ll pay you a substantial reward.”

Oh, that’s good for us. I should ask for an advance payment first. I immediately pulled out my phone, opened an anonymous account number, and presented it to the senators. “Alright, gentlemen. You said you’re senators, right? As you can see, this is a war zone. I’ll take the request, so you gentlemen follow me and my friend closely. It’d be even better if you showed a small token of good faith right now. Understand?”

Senator Remar faced us with a rigid posture. “We are senators! Do you think we would possibly renege on payment?”

“Yep! How can we trust you? You might not even be senators.”

“You brat…” The senator, who had shown discomfort, backed off after a moment. He must have known there was no time to argue here. The Violet squad, scattered in various rooms, quickly exited.

In fact, there was no way to get the money right away. “Communication with the outside is cut off. No wireless network!”

Inside this large multi-family dwelling where we were, no phone or internet signal could be picked up. This feeling was familiar. The same situation as when exploring dungeons. All sorts of communication, including radio waves, were cut off. I thought we had come out into reality, but it seemed we had entered a dungeon resembling Kowloon Walled City again.

There was a bigger problem. The avatar creation speed had slowed down. “Nymosis Protocol is deployed throughout this entire area! The magic disruption inhibition is still active! It seems to be deployed outside too… why?” “What? What’s its range? 7200, stay still. I’ll just tear your memories open and release them.” “Uh, here… Yelp!”

Unlike an Apostle, 7200 was a fellow human, so sharing memories was easy. She stimulated the memory cluster, which was slowly dissolving and being absorbed into the network like sugar in water, and unraveled it. The next moment, a voice of alarm echoed through the network.

“Ugh! Why didn’t you tell me this! We’re trapped?” “Yeah! Probably the blocking barrier is-”

Before their surprise could fully subside, the first squad, leading the way down the stairs, encountered a flashing light. “They’re here! Code Black! Confirmed!”

“When did *they* get in touch again!” The next moment, an explosion occurred from the side. Shabby, unidentified figures holding swords tightly charged forward.

“There they are! The senators! Catch them!” Armed enemy forces began rushing in from all directions of the building.

“Aaaah! Protect us!” “Hey! Stay still, stay-” “Chairman-nim! Please calm down first. We’re still alright!” “Insane! We’re all going to die! We’re going to die!”

The senators screamed as if terrified. Except for the one Duel Maniac senator with a sword, everyone else seemed ready to bolt in panic. It looked like they would be uncontrollable. I grabbed a hammer in a hurry.

“Wait, mercenary. What are you doing? You’re-” “Sleep tight!” I tapped the senators’ heads with the hammer. The old men instantly fell into deep sleep like babies. I instructed the other Violets to roughly carry them and hide them in a safe place.

“What are you doing! How dare you, sacred council members…” “Mister, I don’t know about sacred, but just follow them for now. Okay?”

The furious Remar glared at us. He seemed to accept reality, grinding his teeth, then followed the Violets carrying the senators.

Enrica asked, looking worried. “Is it okay to do that? They’re politicians, after all…” “I don’t pay taxes!” They weren’t my politicians, so it didn’t matter. I hadn’t voted, so they were just foreign politicians. The important thing was to smash all the visible enemies for now. The avatar creation speed had become extremely slow. The main force outside Surcliff was diligently rushing here, but it would take time.

“Isn’t this the first time we’ve fought against enemies with numerical superiority?” “That’s true.”

A storm of metal swept through the building at once. We quickly ducked down. Screams echoed inside the building. Were they from the residents? I quickly gave orders to the V-animals.

“Crows, fly! Attempt aerial reconnaissance! Monkeys, assist me and Kalia! All mice… move to avoid getting hurt! Got it?” Cocoa’s bag opened. Mice crawled out. Immediately after, the two crows perched on our shoulders shot off in a direction clear of enemies.

I moved the animals to quickly gather information. The crows flew out the window. What appeared in Almond’s vision was a bipedal combat vehicle with a brutish appearance. “It’s an airborne combat walker!”

Human-shaped bipedal combat vehicles fired machine guns into the housing complex. Robots, also called mechs. As if that wasn’t enough, on one side, Stragonix units charged forward, providing cover for Blockade Enforcement agents. The prominent Lumenexa logo was clearly visible.

“Are you going to be okay?” Kalia asked, reloading her bullets amidst the tension.

Am I going to be okay? It’s the first time in my life. We have to fight against enemies with numerical superiority over us. The avatar creation speed has slowed down to almost nothing. Dealing with that protocol or whatever it is, that’s the priority.

“I’ll be fine!”

So I had absolutely no confidence. No confidence in losing, that is.

“First, let’s get out of here!”

Set objective, focus, and what remained was activation. “Tactical Immersion, activated!” 7200 units of computational power poured into the squad’s minds like a downpour.