Ch.3434. Cyberpunk and Mercenaries

Thud!

With a heavy sound, the giant beast collapsed.

Black, tar-like blood oozed from its rotting, crumbling hide.

The beast had three heads, but one was riddled with holes and reduced to tatters, while another was nothing more than charred bones, no longer functioning as a head.

And the last remaining head lost its function as its crown caved in.

The three-headed beast made of rotten flesh and bone disappeared into particles as soon as it fell.

“Must have been a magical creature.”

“Well, if it had been a chimera, this room would be vibrating with the stench of corpses.”

Speaking thus, the mage Paul and the tank Tori surveyed their party members.

The blue-haired Hale, responsible for firepower, had consumed most of his ammunition during the battle.

The yellow-haired one had also used up almost all of his shotgun and sniper rounds.

Fortunately, the boss fell just as they were running dangerously low on ammo.

“Damage report. One minor injury, no casualties.”

“I know without you telling me.”

The blue and yellow-haired members bickered as soon as the battle ended.

The couple smiled bitterly watching the two.

As Amon had promised, the party had taken down the mid-boss without major casualties.

And heaven wasn’t heartless either, as there was a reward for their hard work.

“Oh right, leader. I saw something drop earlier?”

The yellow-haired one pointed to where the boss had fallen.

A purple-tinged jewel was rolling around.

Paul nodded, and the yellow-haired one scurried over to grab the orb.

And as soon as he grabbed it, he shouted with certainty.

“Holy shiiiit!!! It’s an essence! Unique grade! Yes, this is it! Whoo!!”

The party members burst into laughter as the yellow-haired one excitedly wiggled his hips while holding the orb.

Still dancing, the yellow-haired one cupped his hands and presented the orb to Paul.

“The moment we’ve been waiting for~ Show!”

Drum roll, drum roll

With the yellow-haired one’s exaggerated reaction as background, Paul examined the essence’s contents.

Eventually, after confirming its effect, Paul’s expression brightened considerably.

“It’s something that will sell for a good price. It’s called <Sky Step>.”

Sky Step.

Another name for walking on air.

“Since it’s Unique grade, it can’t quite achieve flight, but it’ll sell for quite a bit.”

Paul nodded and put the essence into his spatial pocket.

The surprising thing was that no one in that space directed greedy eyes toward the essence.

It was only natural.

They had been working as a party for over 10 years.

If humans can develop camaraderie and call each other brothers just by fighting back-to-back on a battlefield, after 10 years together they were practically family.

To them, money was merely a tool to enrich their families’ lives, and could never completely replace each other’s existence.

“I’m feeling good! Let’s go out for a team dinner today!”

The mood-maker yellow-haired one cheered at Paul’s declaration.

Tori also walked happily with her arm around Paul’s shoulders, while the blue-haired one clapped modestly, contrary to his large build.

Afterward, the party looked around the boss room, confirmed there was nothing else, and prepared to leave.

“Let’s go!”

The excited yellow-haired one flung open the boss room door.

The heavy door opened and.

Click.

The mercenaries heard the familiar sound of a pin being pulled.

“!!!”

0.01 seconds after hearing the sound.

The yellow-haired one accelerated his neural system to maximum output.

Through the open door, he confirmed the source of the sound.

It was a claymore.

“Sh-i-t.”

In the slowed-down world, the yellow-haired one saw the claymore aimed at him.

Before the claymore exploded, he looked back.

Tori and blue-haired Hale were sturdy enough to be fine.

But Paul could die instantly if hit.

Time spent thinking: 0.09 seconds.

“Pa-u-l!”

Hearing his own voice slowed down in his ears, the yellow-haired one ran to the party leader.

And took him as far back as possible.

0.2 seconds elapsed

The claymore exploded.

Bang!

Countless bullets rained down on the party members.

Hale activated his shield, and Tori endured with her naturally hardened skin.

And Paul…

“Even!! Hey, wake up!! Even!”

Was unharmed.

In exchange, the yellow-haired one was convulsing, drooling and bleeding.

The yellow-haired one, who had taken the fragments and explosion on his back to protect Paul, suffered severe injuries that exposed his spine.

“Damn! It’s short-circuited!”

As a result of injuring his spine while his neural acceleration device was activated, the device in his spine had short-circuited.

The yellow-haired one’s nerves were burning from the ends.

“I’m sorry!”

Paul apologized to his comrade who was too far gone to hear, and cut the spinal nerves leading to the lower body.

Thanks to this, the burning nerves didn’t reach the brain.

After finishing emergency treatment, Paul raised his head to check on his comrades.

His lover Tori and the blue-haired one were in the midst of battle with the perpetrators of this ambush.

Rat-tat-tat!

The blue-haired one’s machine gun spewed fire.

But in less than a minute, the sound of him tapping an empty chamber was heard.

“I’m out of ammo!!”

Paul threw the yellow-haired one’s shotgun to the blue-haired one and began chanting a spell.

Meanwhile, Tori and the blue-haired one stood protectively in front of Paul.

Eventually, Paul shouted the activation word.

“Burst!!”

Kaboom!

A massive explosion, surpassing the claymores, occurred before his eyes.

The party maintained their vigilance, continuing to stare at the dust cloud filling the exit from inside the boss room.

Paul, who had caused this explosion, staggered.

“I’m out of mana..!”

That’s when it happened.

A spear flew through the dust cloud.

Before they could react, the spear pierced Paul’s stomach.

“Kuhak!”

“Honey!”

“Leader!!”

The remaining two turned their attention to Paul.

It was just a moment, but in battle, it was fatal.

Humans wielding swords and scythes emerged from the dust cloud.

With eyes integrated with night vision, they precisely severed both of the blue-haired one’s arms.

“Hale!”

Tori shouted and tried to activate the pile bunker mounted on her fist.

But before she could swing her fist, her entire body froze.

Soon, the systems in both her arms went down.

“Hacker…!”

The attackers with swords and scythes chained the incapacitated Tori and Hale.

Paul desperately called their names.

Even, Tori, Hale.

But despite his desperate cries, they were forced to kneel by the attackers.

“Kugh..”

Paul groaned, clutching the spear in his stomach.

His vision blurred.

In that blurry vision, he saw the figures of other attackers emerging from the dust cloud.

Eventually, one of the attackers approached Tori and Hale, whistling.

After examining the blue-haired one’s mechanical eyes and tapping Tori’s arms, he whistled.

“Oh. Looks like we caught a big one this time~? Good condition too.”

“Didn’t Atli say he wanted an eye upgrade?”

“Then let’s not sell this one and use it ourselves.”

The attackers appraising Paul’s party as if they were mere objects.

From that conversation alone, Paul could guess their identity.

‘Scavengers..!’

Traffickers who kidnap people and sell the organs or mechanical devices installed in their bodies.

Even by the standards of this wretched world, they were human scum who couldn’t be treated as people.

The Scavengers who were examining Tori and Hale turned their attention to Even.

“Eeh… this yellow head is completely messed up.”

“That’s why I said to control the power. Sigh. That neural acceleration device is expensive. What a waste.”

“Wouldn’t it be okay if we remove it now?”

“Well… shall we try?”

Hearing this, Paul jumped to his feet.

“Stop it, you bastards!”

But he collapsed again shortly after.

His anger whipped his body, but reality couldn’t be changed by will alone.

The large spear stuck in his stomach was the cruel reality itself.

The Scavengers didn’t even glance at the dying Paul and immediately began preparing for surgery on the yellow-haired Even.

Since it wasn’t a surgery to save him anyway, they didn’t worry about infection.

In the middle of the boss room where the undead boss had been, they took out their surgical tools.

Facing the situation where their comrade’s organs were about to be harvested right before their eyes, Paul’s party cursed them, screaming desperately.

“Even! Even!!”

“Stop it! You bastards!”

But they were powerless.

There was nothing they could do.

‘Damn it…damn it…!’

Paul gritted his teeth.

“Please…!”

With his vision gradually fading, he reflected on his life flashing before his eyes.

He had formed a party, been together for 10 years, and become lovers with Tori.

He might not have lived proudly, but he hadn’t lived a shameful life either.

So where exactly had things gone wrong?

He had always thought that as an explorer, he might die without a trace someday.

But wasn’t this too unfair?

Tears flowed from Paul’s eyes at the injustice.

In his fading consciousness, he recalled a recent memory.

– “Hehe. Still, if I ever need to find God in a dungeon, I’d only trust you.”

Was it because of this?

Paul unconsciously murmured.

“Lord… please.”

.

.

That’s when it happened.

Swoosh!!

Two daggers flew from the exit direction.

The daggers precisely pierced the heads of two Scavengers who were busy preparing for Even’s surgery.

They died without even knowing why.

They turned their gaze toward the direction the daggers had come from.

But there was no one at the exit.

“What…what’s going on?!”

The Scavengers muttered in confusion.

While their attention was directed toward the exit, a voice was heard from behind them.

“Your body is what you received from your mother-“

Slash. Thud.

The chilling sound of paper being cut was heard, followed belatedly by the sound of two bodies falling to the ground.

The Scavengers turned their gaze behind them.

There stood a young man wielding twin swords that emitted an ominous aura.

Young, and without any enhancement procedures.

They had seen him at the explorer’s guild.

The one they had laughed at as a greenhorn was now staring at them after creating four corpses.

The Scavengers, overwhelmed by his presence, only came to their senses after the silver line had taken two more lives.

“Kill that crazy bastard!”

“He’s not worth salvaging anyway, just kill him!”

The Scavengers grabbed their weapons and activated their implants as they rushed at Amon.

But Amon paid no heed and continued to recite Bible verses while swinging his swords.

“The Spirit of God dwells within you, do you not know that you are His temple? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price…!”

Amon swung his swords while reciting the Bible.

Hearing this, Paul’s consciousness was pulled back from the Jordan River to the present world.

“Amon…?”

Paul looked at Amon.

Amon continued to swing his swords.

His slaughter was very efficient.

Like a predetermined formula, like a person working.

He inflicted minimal damage on himself while certainly taking lives.

The cuts on Amon’s body increased.

But his momentum didn’t diminish at all.

Rather, his ominous aura became more refined, sending chills down one’s spine.

“Kaak- ptui!”

Amon spat out bloody phlegm as he cut down another Scavenger.

The Scavengers couldn’t understand.

How?

How could he fight on equal terms with them without having received any procedures?

No, beyond equal terms, how could he gain the upper hand?

When they approached with neural acceleration devices, Amon’s sword was already there, as if he knew in advance or as if he had induced their actions.

Even when they shot at him, all bullets either grazed him or bounced off unless they got close enough for his sword to reach.

If someone prepared magic, he would somehow sense it and throw a dagger.

The entire battlefield was in the palm of his hand.

‘At this rate, we’ll all die.’

Finally, the Scavenger leader decided.

He aimed a grenade launcher at Amon and the vanguards holding him.

After all, the loyalty between Scavengers was thinner than paper.

They stuck together only because it was beneficial, not because they considered each other comrades.

“Die, monster!!”

The leader pulled the trigger.

Boom!

Both Scavengers and Amon were equally caught in the explosion.

Not satisfied with one shot, the leader continued to pull the trigger.

Boom boom boom!

Only after firing about 8 grenades did he stop shooting.

No sound came from beyond the thick dust cloud.

“Phew… I survi-“

Before he could finish his words, a voice was heard again from within the dust cloud.

“- Not a blade of grass on this earth is yours, and those who buy and sell their brothers shall burn eternally in hellfire.”

Ching.

A figure carrying a cross appeared from the dust cloud.

‘No. He’s not carrying it…’

He was approaching while making a cross with his blood-soaked swords.

A disposable barrier rolled at his feet.

The Scavenger leader’s face turned pale.

Glaring at such a leader, Amon licked the blood flowing from the wound on his forehead and said.

“Amen.”