Ch.380[Episode 380] Supply Base C – Escape?

The final battle began with about 4 minutes remaining.

Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica raised their shields and advanced forward.

Their large rectangular shields, big enough to completely cover their fronts, were positioned with corners aligned and slightly tilted outward, effectively blocking incoming bullets.

Behind them, Remi and Dr. Phantom provided covering fire.

“Ready to fire!”

The shouts from Remi and Dr. Phantom were immediately drowned out by the tremendous noise of gunfire.

Demonstrating the impressive technological prowess of the Lumière Clan, heavy and fearsome machine guns blazed from behind Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica.

Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica would precisely separate left and right only when the machine guns fired, creating a path for bullets, then close ranks and continue advancing when reloading was necessary.

The advance of Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica could not be stopped.

Like an organically moving tank, the four of them were annihilating the terrorists with overwhelming force.

Of course, while unstoppable, they weren’t without obstacles.

Occasionally, hidden snipers would target Remi and Dr. Phantom, and suicide bombers would rush toward the four.

These attacks were simple but powerful, capable of incapacitating or worse those with fragile constitutions like Remi and Dr. Phantom.

However, snipers never managed to attack Remi and Dr. Phantom.

The suicide bombers never reached the four.

The snipers and bombers always collapsed before completing their missions, never to rise again.

On their backs, like business cards, was a single kunai embedded in each.

Unryu Hime moved swiftly between fences, across rooftops, and over container boxes.

Stepping on a rooftop and leaping into the sky, Unryu Hime surveyed the surroundings with sharp eyes.

With hands full of kunai, she spun her body in a complete circle and threw them.

The kunai, coated with light-absorbing paint, spread out in a fan shape against the backdrop of the full moon.

And those flying kunai unfailingly struck the terrorists.

Though Unryu Hime had sacrificed some attack power for movement speed and utility in her balance, the snipers and bombers had sacrificed health for attack power, making one or two kunai sufficient.

Because of this, nothing could hinder Sir Dominic’s party.

All that remained was to pass through the incapacitated terrorists and defuse the bomb.

…

“Damn it.”

Terrorist D cursed as he watched Sir Dominic’s party approaching with overwhelming teamwork.

“How are we supposed to stop that?”

Despite grumbling about this hopeless situation, Terrorist D didn’t forget to reload his gun.

The difficulty of the situation and giving up were separate issues.

“And the balance has gotten worse too.”

Terrorist D fiddled with his last remaining magazine.

Until just now, he had six magazines, but two were already spent on suppressive fire against Sir Dominic, and three were taken away by the system under the pretext of a balance patch.

To Terrorist D, Sir Dominic’s party was like a walking fortress.

How could a tiny person stand against such a massive fortress?

That’s how the terrorists viewed Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica.

“…I want to give up.”

Terrorist D looked at Terrorist T who was sighing beside him.

He had been sighing heavily while fidgeting with the daggers in both hands.

He had been holding a bazooka, one of the few means to stop Sir Dominic, but due to the balance patch, his attack option had disappeared.

“Then why not give up instead of just waiting for an opportunity?” Terrorist D joked to Terrorist T.

Terrorist D already knew what Terrorist T would say.

“How could I? This is an opportunity. So I should at least wait for it.”

Terrorist D and Terrorist T looked at each other with grins at those words.

The opportunity they spoke of had a double meaning.

One was the opportunity to stop Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica and gain fame.

They didn’t even think about killing them.

Even with FPS-style stats applied, Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica were invincible warriors.

This was evident from the current situation.

Terrorists were rushing like moths to a flame to subdue Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica, but not a single one had succeeded in hindering them.

Terrorists D and T wanted to earn the title of being the ones who succeeded in stopping them.

And another opportunity that came to them.

“We’re non-regular employees, you know.”

“That’s right. We’re terrorists who temporarily occupied this place on contract.”

“Maybe if we do well now, we could become regular employees?”

Ranged dealers who found it difficult to join parties because there were too many.

From their position, the emergence of FPS mode was a kind of opportunity.

They didn’t need to be protagonists.

Being extras or supporting characters was fine.

For ranged dealers, each of these jobs became their status, and their elevated status became value, and in Gacha Land, value was everything.

Just by making this temporary appearance, their status had greatly increased.

But they were a bit greedy.

The greed of possibly becoming regular employees.

Being a temporary worker was a very hard job.

When sudden events like today occurred, they had to rush out to earn money and endure all kinds of hardships while racing against time.

Of course, such days were extremely rare.

Usually, there was no work at all.

A job with no means to earn money or increase one’s value.

That’s what these temporary positions were.

But becoming a regular employee changed everything.

Regular employees earned money and value by working fixed hours.

In terms of time, money, and value, regular employment was several times better than temporary work.

There was also the issue of maps.

Temporary workers had to use maps as disposables.

A continuous cycle of installing objects according to the map and retrieving them when the job was done.

But if they became regular employees assigned to a map, they wouldn’t have to struggle at all except for map maintenance.

In every way, being a regular employee was better than being a temporary worker.

The terrorists were aiming for this regular employment.

Although it started as just a contract, given Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica’s recognition, today’s battle would surely be talked about for a long time, so perhaps the central system might use its authority to make them regular employees.

“I’m going first.”

Terrorist T, full of such hope, rushed toward Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic lightly jumped and struck down the falling Terrorist T with his shield.

Terrorist T flew back into the air, still carrying the impact of the shield.

Seven kunai pierced Terrorist T as he floated in the sky.

Then he was shredded by the flames spewed from the machine gun.

But Terrorist T was smiling.

He thought he had made quite a heroic end, enough to be noticed.

Terrorist D licked his lips as he watched Terrorist T fall in pieces.

“He went out so stylishly. If I’d known, I would have chosen daggers too…”

Instead of being shocked, saddened, or angered by Terrorist T’s death, Terrorist D envied him.

In Terrorist D’s mind, Terrorist T had died too stylishly.

“Well, I’ll just have to go out as stylishly.”

With that mutter, Terrorist D discarded his depleted last magazine and picked up a tactical axe.

Then he shouted with all his might and rushed toward Sir Dominica.

Terrorist D’s fate was not much different from Terrorist T’s.

Including the fact that he was smiling at the end.

…

“They were… quite persistent,” said Sir Dominic, shaking his head with a disgusted expression after subduing the last terrorist.

“Almost like fanatics…”

“Let’s start with defusing the bomb,” Sir Dominica interrupted Sir Dominic’s complaints.

The remaining time was 1 minute and 45 seconds.

It was ample time to defuse, but considering possible variables, one couldn’t be sure.

Sir Dominic turned to look at Remi and Dr. Phantom.

They silently nodded and approached the bomb to begin defusing.

[Bomb defusing initiated.]

[64.3%…]

[■■■■■■▣□□□]

[Bomb defusing canceled.]

“…?”

Dr. Remi tilted his head in confusion when the defusing was suddenly canceled.

He wondered if someone nearby had interfered, but there was only Dr. Phantom around him, no one else.

Remi, puzzled by this inexplicable phenomenon, tried to defuse the bomb again.

[Bomb defusing initiated.]

[Insufficient distance.]

[Insufficient distance.]

“…Huh?”

Remi realized that the bomb, which had been right in front of him until just now, was now out of reach. Remi looked at Dr. Phantom.

Dr. Phantom seemed to have just realized this too, as he was looking at Remi.

“The bomb…”

“It moved?”

That’s when it happened.

The bomb, which had been moving so subtly as to be almost unnoticeable, suddenly transformed into an android and began sprinting away at full speed.

“…It’s escaping?”

Sir Dominic stared at the suddenly fleeing bomb with a dumbfounded expression.

An expression that said he had no idea what was happening.