Ch.1010. Punk City and the Human Boy

The plasma cutter extending from the gorilla’s back slashed downward.

Woong.

With a trembling sound in the air, a red line left an afterimage in the void.

Immediately after, the being that was once a police officer split into two.

The gorilla didn’t even bother to look at the police officer it had bisected.

It simply deflected bullets and magic with its bare body while deftly wielding three pairs of arms sprouting from its back along with its thick main arms,

One-sidedly slaughtering the police officers who had surrounded it.

Its right eye, like an insect’s compound eye, took in the entire battlefield, while its brain’s CPU analyzed every situation.

Analysis completed in 0.1 seconds, the three pairs of arms moved autonomously, executing efficient slaughter.

The police officers who had come to save civilians were dying helplessly.

It wasn’t that the police were incompetent.

They had received their own enhancements and each had their specialties.

There were mages, swordsmen, and skilled snipers.

With this many personnel, they could have wiped out an entire gang branch.

But they were no match for that gorilla.

What the gorilla was using was military-grade.

Things you couldn’t even glimpse in the civilian market,

And not just one, but enough to cover its entire body.

At this point, they should have called in the military and armored vehicles instead of the police.

“When will the special forces arrive?”

“Ten minutes, sir!”

“Those bastards! They have aerial vehicles, so why are they later than us?!”

“They say the airspace is congested because of the Christmas season, sir!”

“Thanks for telling me, you little shit!”

Once again, the role of low-ranking police officers was to be meat shields, buying time until the special forces arrived.

This was always the fate of police officers with mediocre talents, money, and connections.

However, their existence wasn’t meaningless.

Thanks to the police holding back the gorilla, civilians were able to escape the scene.

After confirming that no civilians remained at the scene, the police changed their strategy.

From encirclement and elimination to stalling for time.

Instead of aggressive return fire, they switched to defensive suppressive fire from safe cover.

The changed strategy was effective.

Just by switching to defensive tactics, significantly fewer people were dying.

Seeing this, the rookie officer felt hope.

‘We can survive!’

As a result, he had a thought he shouldn’t have had.

He should never have thought that.

But it was too late for regrets.

A rocket flew in and blew away the rookie along with his cover.

Some police officers bit their lower lips hard.

But there was no time to mourn for the dead rookie.

In response to the police’s change in strategy, the gorilla began a barrage of rockets.

Kwang! Bang!

“Lini-haaaa! Lini!!! I’ll kill you! Pigs!!!”

Somehow, the police had become the mortal enemies who had killed the gorilla’s daughter.

The sniper who had been effective until now got caught in the rocket barrage.

Building facades collapsed, windows shattered.

The place had transformed into a battlefield.

In that hellscape, the rocket launcher was now aimed at where the inspector was taking cover.

‘Damn it! I should have stayed home listening to my wife nagging!’

No matter how he looked around, there was no other cover nearby to escape to.

The inspector, sensing his fate, squeezed his eyes shut.

That’s when it happened.

Whirrrr!

The sound of something flying through the air and

Pshhhk!

The sound of a rocket being fired.

And then

Kwabang!

The sound of the gorilla being blown up by its own rocket came from beyond the cover.

Thick dust settled where the gorilla had been, making it difficult to assess the situation, but it was clear that the gorilla had been brought to its knees for the first time.

While the inspector was still trying to comprehend the sudden change in situation, a boy approached him.

Though covered in dust and with clothes torn to rags, his appearance hadn’t lost its luster even in this situation.

Moreover, he had a trustworthy appearance.

While the inspector was admiring the boy’s appearance, the boy asked him:

“Do you happen to have a sword?”

***

Turning back time.

Right after the gorilla began its full-scale rocket barrage.

The walls of several buildings collapsed.

Among them was the wall of the attic room where Amon and Sonia were.

The wall that had been protecting them crumbled, and the battlefield where the gorilla was fighting came into full view.

The gorilla’s compound eye turned toward the inside of the collapsed wall.

Inside, only clothes hanging on racks were visible.

The gorilla lost interest in the attic and returned to its task.

“Phew.”

A sigh of relief came from among the piles of clothes where the gorilla had just looked away.

Amon’s group had hidden themselves in the piles of clothes.

Fortunately, the gorilla hadn’t paid attention to where they were.

Amon, confident that the gorilla hadn’t noticed them, decided they should remain hidden under the fabrics.

About 15 minutes had passed since the barrage began.

The time it usually takes for special forces to arrive is about 10 minutes.

Considering the Christmas traffic congestion, it would be around 20 minutes.

Amon thought they would be safe if they just hid here for about 5 more minutes.

Sonia nodded and tried to hide her body in the pile of fabrics.

The clothing store owner also tried to move toward the pile of clothes.

But before he could hide,

“Ugh!”

The old man cried out in pain.

Amon worriedly asked the old man:

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

The old man refused to answer, but while he could hide it with words, he couldn’t hide his limping leg.

Amon’s gaze went to the old man’s leg.

A pair of scissors was embedded in his thigh.

‘Damn… was it then?’

When the wall burst open, all kinds of debris, including a sewing basket, had rushed into the attic.

The debris was painful, but thanks to Amon and Sonia’s sturdy bodies, they could endure it.

But the old man wasn’t as sturdy as they were.

Whether to call this unfortunate or fortunate…

While Amon and Sonia had taken most of the debris, protecting the old man above the waist, the scissors had pierced the old man’s thigh.

Amon examined the old man’s complexion in the dim attic light.

He didn’t look good.

Even without specialized knowledge, Amon could tell that the scissors had pierced a major blood vessel.

There was no option to carry an old man in this condition and hide somewhere else.

In his hazy consciousness, the old man kept repeating in Korean, “Hurry and go…”

Hearing the old man’s words, Amon squeezed his eyes shut.

He was a stranger they had just met.

And in this world, things like compassion or justice aren’t even worth joking about.

In the first place, even if they got him to a hospital in time, who knows what his chances of survival would be,

And before that, whether the old man could afford the hospital bills.

So rationally thinking, it would be right to just leave him.

Amon furrowed his brow and began to pray.

“Lord. Look upon me.”

The prayer was short, and the decision was quick.

He entrusted the half-conscious old man to Sonia and told her what she needed to do.

“I’ll draw that gorilla’s attention. Meanwhile, you cross that path. See the bakery? There’s a back door there, and once you pass through it, you’ll see the hospital.”

“What are you saying? Draw its attention?”

“Sonia. Trust me.”

He couldn’t bring himself to talk about past lives or patterns.

Instead, all Amon could say was to trust him.

The honest boy’s eyes were reflected in the girl’s golden eyes.

Sonia looked at Amon’s face, then bit her lower lip and hoisted the old man onto her back.

She, like Amon, couldn’t just leave the old man.

She spoke to Amon as if complaining:

“I’ll be right back. Make sure you don’t get hurt until… then!”

Swallowing the death flag she almost raised, Sonia shouted.

Noticing Sonia’s consideration, Amon replied with a confident face:

“It’ll be over before then.”

Right after those words, Amon combined the tools available in that space.

What came to mind when he briefly saw the gorilla was a one-man army.

Not only did it have heavy weapons attached to its thick arms like the gorilla, but it also had weapons equipped on each of the three pairs of arms sprouting from its back.

In terms of firepower alone, it could take down two light armored vehicles.

But it wasn’t without weaknesses.

‘Its lower body is weak.’

Of course, its thighs looked sturdy from the outside.

In reality, they were solid enough to withstand bullets.

But what Amon pointed out wasn’t about durability, but balance.

‘To wield eight weapons with the upper body, it can’t equip additional weapons on the lower body. The lower body probably only functions to withstand recoil.’

And that level was probably precarious.

Just a slight trigger could make it fall to the ground.

That’s why Amon saw the gorilla’s weakness in its lower body.

Fortunately, the space he was in was a workspace, making it easy to find materials to exploit this weakness.

He calmly tied strings together and attached weights to the other ends.

Thus, a hunting sling was completed.

He waited until the gorilla was about to fire its weapon.

And when the gorilla approached, aiming its rocket launcher at a police officer.

‘Now!’

Amon threw the hunting sling.

The sling successfully wrapped around the gorilla’s legs, causing it to fall forward.

And though unintended, the rocket was fired, causing the gorilla to be caught in its own explosion.

Watching the explosion, Amon couldn’t hide his puzzlement.

‘Why would you remove the safety from a rocket?’

Usually, rockets have safety mechanisms to prevent the user from being caught in the explosion, but this small rocket seemed to lack such a feature.

A likely reason might be that they removed the safety mechanism and forcibly miniaturized it to accommodate the launcher and rockets on the back, but only the gorilla would know the truth.

Anyway, the unexpected self-explosion was a stroke of luck for Amon, so he decided not to dwell on it.

Amon approached the inspector, setting aside the concept of safety in a corner of his mind.

Facing the dazed inspector, Amon asked:

“Do you have a sword?”

Despite the sudden question, the inspector answered kindly, though confused.

He pointed to a corpse with only the lower half remaining, a bit away from the gorilla.

A Japanese sword in relatively good condition was at the corpse’s waist.

Amon looked at the sword and clicked his tongue.

“Tsk. That looks a bit unreliable.”

Despite his words, Amon prepared to sprint as if going to pick up the sword.

The inspector realized what the boy was about to do.

Normally, he should have stopped him, but in such extreme situations, people tend to believe in miracles.

Especially recalling that the gorilla had been brought to its knees for the first time, he couldn’t help but trust the boy.

So instead of stopping the boy, the inspector decided to do what he could.

“Take this before you go.”

He handed Amon a pistol with only one magazine.

Amon nodded in thanks and ran out from behind cover.

As he ran to pick up the Japanese sword, police officers who had already received radio communication from the inspector opened fire all at once, drawing the gorilla’s attention.

On his way, the boy reached the location of the Japanese sword.

Instead of gripping the sword properly, he held it in reverse grip and ran towards the gorilla.

‘I don’t think I can win.’

That thing is an army.

And Amon, in gaming terms, hadn’t even started the tutorial yet.

No matter how much veteran knowledge he had, Amon wasn’t crazy enough to be reckless based on that.

What he was aiming for wasn’t to neutralize the gorilla.

It was an emergency measure to maximize survival rate until the special forces returned.

Amon recalled the setting of a game from a neighboring town, not Punk City.

When facing bosses, if you concentrate attacks on specific parts, you can cut or destroy that part, which is called part destruction.

If you succeed in part destruction, the pattern becomes much easier.

While this feature wasn’t originally in Punk City, now that it had become reality, it was a strategy worth trying.

Amon rushed towards the gorilla.

The gorilla, caught in the explosion of its own rocket, was in bad shape.

Its right arm was severely burned, and the rocket launcher on its back was damaged.

Some sensors must have been damaged too, as its ability to fully grasp the battlefield was gone, and it was busy responding to police gunfire and trying to remove the hunting sling wrapped around its legs.

Thanks to this, the gorilla didn’t notice Amon’s presence until he reached its back.

Approaching from behind, Amon stabbed the Japanese sword, held in reverse grip, into the base of the auxiliary arms.

To drive the sword deeper, he pounded the handle with his fist, like hammering a nail.

Crack!

Something inside the three auxiliary arms on the right side broke.

By the time the gorilla noticed Amon’s presence and the remaining left arms targeted him, Amon had already dodged.

The gorilla’s right auxiliary arms creaked and eventually stopped working as if broken.

All of the gorilla’s ranged weapons were concentrated on the right side.

The auxiliary arms were broken, and the original arm holding the machine gun was severely damaged by burns.

With just this, the ranged pattern was almost neutralized.

The burned arm creaked as it turned the machine gun’s muzzle.

But before the muzzle could point at Amon, he had already taken cover.

The wound from rolling on the ground stung a bit, but it was bearable.

The gorilla changed its priority target to Amon.

It headed towards where Amon had taken cover.

But before it could reach Amon, the police finally achieved something.

Their bullets destroyed the gorilla’s right eye.

Without the targeting assistance system, the gorilla could no longer aim the machine gun as precisely as before.

The gorilla’s computation system became overloaded.

If it targeted Amon, the police were a threat.

If it targeted the police, Amon was a threat.

The computation system refused to calculate.

Instead, it chose to go berserk.

The enraged gorilla discarded the machine gun and began drumming.

Thump thump thump

“Uwaaaaah!”

Its magic tattoos began to glow.

In Amon’s terms, it was the signal for the start of phase 3.

Amon looked around the battlefield, sweating profusely.

‘Is there anything here that can withstand the gorilla’s phase 3…’

But there was nothing.

No matter what object he grabbed, Amon’s undeveloped physical abilities held him back.

In the end, his only options were to run and dodge.

Amon quickly made an estimate.

The weapons the gorilla had in phase 3 were its two thick arms and the three arms attached to its left side.

He roughly estimated the patterns those would create.

The question was whether he could dodge them all…

‘I think I can last for a minute…’

Beyond that, even he couldn’t guarantee.

The excited phase 3 gorilla and Amon’s eyes met.

Amon raised his tension and aimed the pistol he received from the inspector.

At the same time, he prepared to roll sideways in anticipation of the incoming rush pattern.

But Amon never had to face the gorilla’s phase 3.

Kwang!

A massive silhouette falling from the sky crushed the gorilla, shattering the road.

Simultaneously, an ear-deafening siren sound came from the air.

Amon looked up at the sky in surprise.

A flying vehicle with a large, familiar mark was positioned above the gorilla’s head.

Inside the flying vehicle, a sniper was leaning out slightly, aiming at the gorilla with a left arm modified into a sniper rifle.

Amon knew the logo on that vehicle all too well.

H.O.D.

Hyper Operation Department.

Horde.

They were the pinnacle of American police force.