Ch.46Unknown Villain! (4)

#046

As it was his first time on an unpaved road, Dexter’s eyes caught sight of a dilapidated building as he looked around.

It appeared to have once been a small rest stop for tourists or hikers heading to Red Rock Canyon.

However, someone seemed to have cleaned it out, as it was completely empty except for dirt, sand, and small stones.

Outside, there were oil drums and half-collapsed walls, creating a desolate atmosphere.

‘Anyone would think this is a ruin from after a nuclear war.’

Still, for Dexter, it was more than enough space to move around freely.

Seeing that the building could provide sufficient cover, Dexter slowly reduced his speed and parked his car beside it.

The black van that had been following him also stopped on the opposite side of the road.

Dexter carefully looked toward the black van to see how many people were inside, but the dark tinting made it impossible to tell.

Dexter got out of the car with his hands in his pockets, ready to load his blaster at any moment.

‘If it’s already loaded, I’d look suspicious at first glance.’

A man wearing a silver metal gauntlet with a muzzle would certainly raise suspicion.

“What’s this all about?”

Dexter called out toward the van, trying to sound like an innocent civilian who had done nothing wrong.

-Clunk.

Soon, a stocky man about Dexter’s height stepped out from the driver’s seat.

‘He definitely looks dangerous.’

From his shaved head and Spanish tattoos on both arms to his sleeveless shirt and tattered jeans stained with what looked like dark red liquid.

He had the appearance of someone who didn’t work a normal job—at the very least, someone who held a position in a gang.

As soon as he got out of the car, the man stared at Dexter with an intimidating face and said:

“Are you Dexter Hughes?”

“That’s right.”

The moment Dexter confirmed, men dressed similarly to the driver poured out of the van.

Seven in total.

Dexter sighed deeply when he saw that the men, who were trying to hide their weapons by keeping their hands behind their backs, were holding sawed-off shotguns and pistols.

It had been a long time since he’d seen anyone carrying guns, except for those issued in prison.

Dexter was about to speak, moistening his dry lips:

“But what is this all ab—!”

-BANG!

At the sudden gunshot, the men, led by the one who had stepped out from the driver’s seat, pointed their guns at Dexter in confusion.

But they were startled by the completely unexpected situation unfolding before them.

“…What are you doing?”

Dexter was clutching his left shoulder, which was turning increasingly dark red.

Someone behind the driver had fired a pistol at Dexter.

He had been shot in the shoulder only because his quick reflexes allowed him to twist his body when he saw the gleaming gun barrel pointing at him.

Having narrowly avoided a bullet that would have hit him square in the chest, Dexter couldn’t hide his shock.

‘These fucking bastards.’

Couldn’t they have at least given him one chance?

“Martin, what the hell are you doing?”

“Hector! I told you! I’d shoot him as soon as I saw him!”

“This fucking idiot doesn’t even listen to the boss!”

“Whether he’s important or not, there’s no problem if we just shoot him!”

“You think I don’t want to shoot? The big boss told us to ask him questions first!”

The driver, Hector, seemed to be the leader, as the men around him formed a protective circle while pointing at Dexter.

It seemed they had been discussing how to kill Dexter since they were in the van.

Watching the men argue, Dexter already knew who was behind this without having to ask.

‘Is it that “big boss” Professor Chris mentioned as the project director?’

He tried to think more, but despite the nanobots reducing the pain, his left shoulder was throbbing too much for him to concentrate.

This was the first time he had been injured without being able to respond properly.

After the men finished their argument, Hector was the first to ask:

“How much do you know about Professor Chris’s work?”

“Is that all?”

Dexter asked back, but they showed no particular reaction.

The pain in his left shoulder was less intense than before, but it was still throbbing as Dexter clutched it and sighed deeply.

‘So it has to come to this.’

Fiddling with the knuckle-shaped unassembled blaster on his hand, Dexter said:

“If I tell you, will you let me live?”

As he spoke, Dexter slowly backed away, hiding his right hand behind his waist and loading the blood-stained bullet into his blaster.

“I wonder. Should we let you live?”

Hector showed a vile smile.

“Look at this big guy acting so weak, asking ‘Will you let me live?’ Hahaha!”

“I’ll let you live if you crawl on the ground and bark like a dog!”

“Hehehe, crazy bastard. As if he would actually do it.”

‘Talk all you want.’

No matter what Hector and his men said, Dexter was convincing himself that he would be the only one standing in this place when it was all over.

Thanks to his rapidly beating heart pumping blood throughout his body, Dexter felt goosebumps rising all over.

Dexter continued to back away, waiting for the blaster on his right hand to transform into a gauntlet.

“Get on your knees and crawl over here, hahaha! Or should I put another breathing hole in your leg?”

At that moment, a small metallic sound began to emanate from behind his back.

-Keeeng…

As the metallic sound indicating that loading was complete rang out, Dexter aimed his blaster at the head of an unnamed man next to Hector and said:

“Stop talking shit.”

-Pong!

Dexter’s greeting marked the beginning of his attack.

With the cute firing sound of the blaster, a black projectile embedded itself directly between the man’s eyes, and instantly his entire head began to be enveloped in a black aura.

At first, the man waved his hands trying to clear away the black energy that obscured his vision, but suddenly he felt his chest tightening.

Soon, despite breathing in and out, he felt like he wasn’t getting any air and began clutching at his throat.

“Kuhek, kuk.”

In Dexter’s right hand was not the brass-colored plasma blaster he had fired the previous evening, but a silver blaster.

While the brass-colored blaster was for lethal force, the silver one was a restraint blaster designed to subdue air-breathing organisms.

The restraint blaster’s ammunition was an oxygen absorbent that entered the airways of the target, attaching to the lungs and preventing breathing for a certain period of time.

However, since it remained attached to the lungs for only a short time and automatically decomposed after its effective duration, it caused unconsciousness without endangering life.

As attention shifted to the man suddenly clutching his throat, Dexter, still holding his left shoulder, began running toward the back of the building.

“What are you doing? He’s getting away! Shoot him now!”

“Fire!”

-Bang, ratatata!

“Ugh!”

Dexter nearly collapsed from the sudden intense pain in his side as he was running.

Barely managing to regain his balance, he slumped down near a collapsed wall at the back of the building.

“Catch that bastard right now!”

Dexter, pressed flat against the wall, knelt down halfway and gently touched his side.

“Shit…”

Along with a searing pain, blood was flowing from his left side.

Thanks to the nanobots working diligently in his body, he wouldn’t die from excessive bleeding.

But there was another problem.

Although it hadn’t gone through, the bullet was still lodged in his left side.

‘The real problem with getting shot is taking the bullet out.’

But he decided to worry about that later.

‘I need to survive first.’

-Ratatata, ratata!

-Thud, thud.

Pistol bullets and shotgun pellets were hitting the broken wall where Dexter was hiding, making dull sounds.

The wall was so old that it might collapse if it took any more hits.

‘I need to finish this quickly.’

The injuries to his side and shoulder made it difficult to move easily.

“Surround that bastard now! Martin, you take the left! Lucas, you take the right! Hugo, Leo, and I will charge from the front!”

Hearing Hector’s voice, Dexter took a deep breath and clenched and unclenched his right hand wearing the blaster.

‘I made a mistake.’

Though not afraid of death, he was anxious about the error he had committed.

It was his first combat experience in months, and he had responded too carelessly.

In the past, he would have shot the apparent leader immediately and skillfully gained the upper hand.

Clicking his tongue at his own mistake, Dexter carefully aimed his blaster when he heard footsteps from the right, holding his breath.

As the man’s shadow became faintly visible, indicating he was getting closer, Dexter counted down in his mind.

‘Three, two, one.’

-Pong!

As the man appeared right on “one,” the restraint projectile lodged directly in the vicinity of his nose, closer than expected.

Again, the black absorbent traveled through the man’s nostrils and began attaching to his lungs, causing him to tremble before collapsing.

The sound of the man falling with a thud made the surroundings even more chaotic.

He had only taken down two men so far.

Adrenaline spread throughout his body, allowing him to pick up every surrounding noise, and as his nerves became heightened, he began to sense the presence of the men around him.

Seven men total.

Two of them were now incapacitated.

Five remaining, led by the man called Hector.

Dexter’s long-dormant sixth sense tingled.

‘Left?’

Through the gaps in the broken wall, he saw another man.

The man was approaching with what’s known as a “gangster grip,” holding his pistol tilted sideways.

‘If I get hit by that gun, I’d hang myself out of shame.’

With that kind of grip, he obviously couldn’t hit Dexter even once.

Judging by their lack of basic combat knowledge, it seemed the so-called “big boss” didn’t know everything about him after all.

‘I shouldn’t talk, having been shot myself, but they should have at least brought special forces.’

The man who spotted Dexter, momentarily lost in thought, began shouting loudly while aiming his pistol:

“Found him! Shoot right he—”

-Pong!

Dexter’s restraint projectile went straight into the man’s wide-open mouth as he was shouting.

“Kuhek?!”

As the foreign object entered his throat, he began coughing to expel it, but his fingers tensed up, causing him to fire wildly without even aiming at Dexter.

Since it was an automatic pistol, bullets kept firing as he pulled the trigger, causing Dexter to leap inside the wall.

“Urgh!”

Though he tried to land carefully, the impact traveled through his body, making his side and shoulder throb.

When Dexter slightly raised his head, he saw the man rolling on the ground before collapsing.

Watching the man collapse in apparent agony from close range, Dexter frowned from his own pain.

‘Four left?’

He couldn’t fire the restraint blaster indiscriminately, and there was a delay between shots.

Moreover, the magazine currently loaded was all he had, so he needed to use it sparingly.

‘Shit, please let this be the end.’

“These idiots, three men down!”

“Hector, any backup?”

“Wait!”

Seeing them trying to call for more support, Dexter squeezed his eyes shut.

‘I’m really fucked now.’