Ch.69013 Work Record – To the Sky (6)

I could hear at least the sound of my feet touching the ground, but that monstrosity made no sound at all when it stepped on the floor. The only sound I could hear was the creaking of the bunker door.

I couldn’t look back. But if I didn’t turn around, I’d never know what was happening. For the first time, I felt what it was like to face an enemy with this terrifyingly high-performance enhanced body.

“The engine is running. I’ll start moving. Run forward.”

At this moment, I feel incredibly fortunate to be connected to Chance. Have I moved out of the sniper’s position? The fact that the bunker entrance mechanism was blown off meant I was out of the sniper’s range.

They had locked it to make sure the job was done. If so, there should be no danger. I take a big step forward, fighting the sensation that my feet might slip on the asphalt. I ran as if the ground would cave in beneath me.

Though it was eerily silent, I could hear the roar of the monstrosity as it squeezed through the narrow gap. The bizarre, inhuman vibration of its vocal cords was panting.

It made a sound that made me not want to believe it was once human. I glanced back briefly. The silent monstrosity was regenerating its crumpled body after squeezing through an entrance barely wide enough for one person.

Bones that had been bent were forcibly reattaching, twisting the shape of its arms. Blood flowed back into crushed, necrotic muscles, bringing them back to life, and muscle fibers twisted and stuck together haphazardly, growing even larger. How could it possibly have such regenerative power?

Those eyeballs of the monstrosity could see me too. Darkness wasn’t a problem for either of us. I jumped on Tina’s bike that had emerged from the bushes and revved the motor to its maximum.

I had to race to the city center. Then this would become Belwether’s problem. They would either send a Strike Division to deal with this monstrosity in my place, or they would have to bear the inefficient loss of employee-citizens.

One thing I know for certain is that Belwether would not tolerate the latter. I check the rearview mirror. The monstrosity’s body, which had been groaning in the pain of regeneration… rippled.

No, not rippling. It had suddenly raised both arms and slammed them into the ground, throwing its body forward. It moved at a speed that was difficult to follow even with my enhanced vision if I didn’t concentrate.

I turn the handlebar sharply to avoid it. Maintaining my balance precariously, I speed past the monstrosity as it rolls on the ground, still not accustomed to its regenerated body.

I can react. I can see and avoid it. I won’t have my chest pierced in the blink of an eye. Extreme fear shook my mind, but the feeling that I could face this terrifying entity also rose within me.

I just need to faithfully complete the mission assigned to me. Just faithfully perform the duties assigned to me. My job was liquidation. It doesn’t matter if I don’t kill it myself. It just needs to die. I speed up.

“Mr. Enzo Casetti has initiated an emergency delivery. I’ve arranged to track the bike’s location for pickup. There isn’t enough time to set a specific pickup location.”

“Well done, Chance! But, well done is well done… I’m already starting to miss your six-legged self.”

“Affirmative. With that drone, we could have attempted a frontal assault, and there would have been an encouraging increase in Agent Arthur Murphy’s survival rate. However…”

Is Chance worried about me? I couldn’t tell. But I chose to believe so. I took a deep breath, but my breathing was trembling. I check the rearview mirror again.

The monstrosity was chasing after me, stepping on the ground with its two hands, two feet, and the remnants of appendages that had grown haphazardly, failing to become proper hands and feet. It was clearly targeting me. Why? I couldn’t tell.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I have to accept that I’ve already handed that body over to Belwether. Longing can be used efficiently, but delusion is inefficient in any case.”

The desire for efficiency is all I have to lean on. I steeled my mind, made up my mind again, erased my anxiety, and everything was leaning on the words that Belwether had raised me with. I didn’t care what I leaned on as long as I had something.

By now, the Lone Star Rangers must have reported, and Belwether must have started taking measures. I could already see it. The CCTVs along the road to the city center were starting to flicker.

They were all tracking my bike. The billboards lowered their brilliant advertisements for Farmers Corp’s wasteland reconstruction project and Pacific Ocean purification project, displaying only the red text “CENSORED.”

The monstrosity was picking up speed. Originally, it was far enough away to be barely visible in the reflection of the rearview mirror, but as its twisted bones and muscles aligned, it got faster. There’s not much time.

The monstrosity had been following my bike, which had been running at maximum speed for nearly fifteen minutes, controlling its writhing, twisting body. It was a persistence and blindness unlike any beast.

Fortunately, the city lights were quite close now. The monstrosity, covered with countless eyes and vestigial eye organs, seemed to be in pain as it covered its face with one of its appendages.

Are its sensory organs too sensitive? That must be it. Belwether’s emergency broadcast began to sound through my earpiece.

“Hello, all hardworking and efficient employee-citizens of Los Angeles. An experimental subject has escaped from Belwether’s outer research facility, and as of this moment, the city center will enter lockdown.”

Yeah, it seems that way even without seeing it. All along the path I’ve been racing, display screens have been going down, and the CCTVs that had been briefly tracking me were now shutting off completely. This was Belwether’s shame.

Is it rude to my former company to say this is too big a shame to speak of so gently? No. I never worked for Belwether. They made me like this. I grit my teeth.

I race between buildings where bulletproof panels have already risen over the windows. Even the unmanned laundromat I visited with Eve already had its bulletproof panels down. Buildings without bulletproof panels were at least drawing their curtains.

“Our Belwether security team will do its best to handle this situation from this point forward. After this broadcast, unauthorized recording or filming within the city center is strictly prohibited. Please understand that if you violate this advisory, the Legal Assassination Team may send you a notice or an agent.”

That’s practically an outright threat. I bit my lip briefly before speaking to Chance. The prohibition on all recording meant turning off even my artificial eyes. Chance would be no exception.

“Chance! Disconnect from the front camera and my phone camera. We don’t want to give them any excuse to come after us!”

“Affirmative. Connection terminated. Take a deep breath, Agent Arthur Murphy.”

That’s what I heard on the day I died. Chance stopped the voice output, sensing the tension in my hands gripping the bike’s handlebars. No AI was better than Chance at detecting my abnormal signs.

Where should I go? I need to get to a tall building. Somewhere I could try to neutralize it, or if all else fails, grab it and throw it off… The Farmers Corp headquarters was the tallest building in this area.

I was already close to the Farmers Corp headquarters. Once you reach the city center, the 117-story Farmers Corp building is immediately visible. Would there still be employees there? Probably.

“Agent Arthur Murphy, your delivery has arrived. Since filming is prohibited, the delivery company appears to have turned off their drone cameras during transport. The reported position is 270 meters ahead, 20 meters above ground.”

I barely had time to look ahead. It was already challenging enough just to make it to the Farmers Corp building, but I had to look up. A transport drone was flashing a red light.

Hanging beneath the drone was a weapon box containing a grenade pouch and the grenade launcher I had kept under my bed, along with broken glass fragments. I hope I’ll be able to curse about the cost of fixing the window.

“Confirmed! Tell them to drop it!”

Chance now had to calculate using only my current position and speed. Chance approved the drop, and the weapon box connected to the grenade pouch began to fall. I had to catch it.

But I wasn’t the only one who reacted to it. The monstrosity, responding to the dropped items, leaped up without warning. It lunged at the drone, not even knowing what it was, trying to bring down the flying object.

The drop path wavered, and the box began to tumble on the ground. Picking it up would be impossible. The entrance to the Farmers Corp headquarters was visible ahead. It was blocked by bulletproof panels, but Farmers Corp’s panels weren’t very sturdy.

“Gruhaaaa, aaaagh!”

The monstrosity that had rolled on the ground was getting up. If I didn’t slow down, we would collide in seconds. Would I be able to explain to Tina how I wrecked her bike the very day I got it?

Pick up the weapon. Then enter the Farmers Corp headquarters. Go up the elevator shaft for the sake of other employee-citizens who might still be in the building. If I can just hold out until the Strike Division arrives…

No, they won’t come. Fifteen minutes have already passed. If they had intended to send the Strike Division, they should have been here by now. It only takes three minutes for the Strike Division to be deployed in the city center.

It seems Walter thinks this is a perfect opportunity to kill me. But I can’t die according to that bastard’s plan again. I kept the bike’s speed steady, made it charge toward the monstrosity, then jumped off.

I rolled on the ground with the momentum, but I was fine. Of course, the monstrosity that caught the riderless bike with two hands and two additional appendages that had grown from them was also mostly unharmed.

“Krr, haaa, kkeuk, heu, guhaaak!”

I duck low to avoid the bike flying toward me with that horrific cry. As I raise my body and blink, in that split second, I feel the smell of human flesh approaching right in front of my face.

I see an overlay of the moment when the monstrosity’s hardened fingertip would pierce my chest. Not this time. I raised both hands and grabbed in front of my chest. I felt the excessively hardened, callus-like front paws.

It tried to hunt me the same way again. But this time, I too was wearing an enhanced body like it. Though I was pushed back by the weight difference, I wasn’t pierced.

“In today’s world, twice is enough to become cliché, don’t you think?”

My voice trembled. Fear and relief were mixing wildly. But my body seemed to move on its own. I pulled out a flash grenade from beside the slightly torn bulletproof vest at the monstrosity’s feet.

I could see the monstrosity’s other front paw swinging widely. Though it was certainly fast due to its overwhelming strength advantage, the movement was so large and hindered by so many appendages that I could see it.

I slowly pull my head back. Feeling the blow that seemed like it would tear my head off from the nape of my neck brush past my face, I feel extreme disgust at the human scent emanating from that strike.

I pull the pin connecting the two flash grenades that Tina had prepared. Last time, they were useless. It was because I wasn’t high-performance enough. Not this time.

A second protective membrane for anti-flash defense comes down inside my eyelids. Some of the eyes in the monstrosity’s eyeballs also had membranes come down, but they covered less than 20% of the total. Haphazardly created organs aren’t perfect.

I stretched out the bundle of two flash grenades toward the monstrosity. And for the first time since changing into this enhanced body, I felt something that could be called intense pain in my palm. My palm felt burning hot, and it probably was.

Though my eyes were covered by membranes and my hearing was reduced, I couldn’t hear the sound of the flash grenades exploding. I saw the flash in my vision, but only a ringing sound echoed in my ears from the overwhelming noise.

I could endure it. I could endure the burning sensation from the magnesium mass exploding in my palm, and the pain from my exposed muscle in my palm.

But the monstrosity couldn’t. With the flash grenades exploding among its eyes, it brought its two hands back to its head, covering its face and screaming. It was a human voice.

Though it resonated strangely through the chunks of muscle and fat stuck all over its body, it was clearly a human scream. I couldn’t reduce the disgust and horror, but I could move.

I reach for the fallen weapon box, avoiding the monstrosity that was feeling around with its sharp front paws. I brought the grenade launcher box connected to the grenades to my chest.

“Chance, unlock the grenade launcher. Since this is a non-standard situation, turn the ethics module as much as possible…”

My hearing wasn’t damaged. As I half-destroyed the box’s connection to open it, Chance’s voice rang through the remaining ringing sound. Chance is an AI that knows flexibility.

“There is a direct threat to the user’s life. Skipping ethics module evaluation. Lock has been released. Firing preparation is already complete. Fire.”

It was too large to be called a rifle. To handle the recoil of this twelve-kilogram metal mass with rifling carved out for a grenade launcher, I gripped it with all my strength and squeezed the trigger.

It didn’t even feel like pulling. Just a small click, like operating a well-fitted mechanical device. A single grenade began to fly toward the monstrosity with heavy muzzle flash, rotating along the rifling.

If I hadn’t been talking to Chance, something like this would have been lodged in my head. The grenade that left the muzzle along the rifling flies toward the monstrosity, burning its propellant. It lodges in the gap between the monstrosity’s excessive flesh and muscle.

The grenade, embedded with a perfectly round mark as if pressed with a cookie cutter, exploded with a thunderous sound. Even Belwether’s grenade launchers don’t have this much power. It was enough to instinctively cover my face with my arm.

The monstrosity’s shoulder blade burst out completely, revealing haphazardly formed bones. It looked like three arm bones had grown simultaneously and become entangled. The monstrosity made a human voice again.

“Geu, kkeuhaak! Geuheuk, haa, aak!”

The monstrosity, grabbing that shoulder blade with its other hand, began to do something impossible. Flesh was immediately filling in over the wound surface. It’s as if it’s forcibly trying to create a new arm.

The fallen arm twitches on the ground, writhing as if asking the body nearby to pick it up. It was a nauseating sight. But something was changing.

The monstrosity didn’t pick up that arm. Instead, it raised a heavy hind leg with an extra foot-like vestigial organ protruding from it and crushed its own severed arm.

That wasn’t the end. It began to scratch the wound with its claws. It seemed to be trying to… slow down the regeneration somehow. It was as if it had become a different creature from just moments ago.

But that doesn’t mean I should stop moving. As I load another round, the monstrosity looks around and lets out what might be a human voice or the howl of a creature born of bioengineering.

“Eus, eusseuk, yeosseuk, eusseot…. Aeo, gameo… seu, kkeureuheuk. I! Ireu, aak! Eukkeuhaaa, heu, geuhaaak!”

Could it be… calling itself Six?