Ch.78014 Work Record – Unqualified Slaughter (5)

The explosions sounded in succession, but that was all. Most of them weren’t particularly loud except for one, as if they had detonated in mid-air rather than hitting anything solid.

Special Operations wouldn’t go down with just one surprise attack. Though I couldn’t use my calculation assist device anymore, my night vision was still functioning well. He seemed to have jumped directly from the terrace. A voice projected outward.

“I know who you are. Arthur, Arthur Murphy. Well, well. The greatest obstacle appears before me. Do you think you’re Belvedere’s hammer or something?”

I didn’t understand what he meant. My career wasn’t long enough to know all the company jargon and abbreviations. I emptied the revolver’s cylinder and reloaded it with a speed loader.

“What? Belvedere’s hammer…?”

He pretended to engage in conversation, then immediately raised his loaded revolver. Special Ops took cover right away, so I couldn’t get a shot off. We both chuckled, recognizing we’d tried the same trick of feigning dialogue.

“No, seriously this time. What the hell is Belvedere’s hammer?”

After speaking, I moved silently. As I turned the corner, I kept my distance since my position was vulnerable. For cover… I used a flowerbed along the street.

He was also looking for an opening. His reply came, but his voice still sounded from where he had first taken cover. There was no way he hadn’t moved at all.

“The chairman’s security team, kid. The elite of the Special Ops. And you think you can match them…”

Which direction? If he’s circling around the villa from the left to attack… No, too late. I looked up at the faint sound of air being cut. Above. Straight ahead. He was leaping toward me.

His jumping power was impressive, befitting a full-body cyborg. The impact would be just as formidable. Since I couldn’t take him down with one shot, I immediately rolled to the side.

I pulled the trigger repeatedly from a distance, aiming for his torso, but hit his forearm instead. He knew where I was aiming and took the hit in a part that could be disabled without much consequence.

A full-body cyborg isn’t necessarily tougher than an enhanced body. However, one crucial difference is that cyborgs don’t bleed. Being modular, losing a part or two wouldn’t incapacitate him.

With a booming explosion, the explosive round lodged in his forearm detonated, shredding his hand-shaped prosthetic. He simply detached the mangled limb, tossed it aside, and attached a new one that had been stored in his torso.

“Look at this bastard’s reaction speed… No, it’s his decision-making speed. Why are you here, kid?”

Only two rounds remained in the cylinder. Hand-to-hand combat would follow. There’d be no time to reload. Gunfire began to sound from beyond the ruins. The Enforcement Division must have engaged in combat by now.

I couldn’t run away. I had to fight and subdue him. If I fled, this Special Ops agent would escape my signal jamming range and go after the Enforcement Division, complicating everything.

“I’m here because this is where I should be. Isn’t it better than being among those Special Ops bastards who want to devour the city?”

“Is it right to side with a security team that got 160 people killed because they couldn’t even secure the premises properly?”

Through his helmet’s visor, I could see his hate-filled eyes. I aimed at those eyes and pulled the trigger. I fired just once, then immediately fired the second shot a bit lower.

As expected, he ducked his head the moment he saw the gun barrel rise, and the second shot grazed his head… or more precisely, his helmet. Rather than embedding and exploding properly, it hit the curved surface of the helmet, bounced off, and detonated.

From the smoke created by the weak explosion, he charged at me like a bullet, wearing a helmet with a shattered visor. Our physical capabilities were similar. His body wasn’t the only machine. My body was also a machine. The same kind of machine.

I suppressed the inevitable anxiety of striking that metal mass with my bare hands. Seeing him lower his stance as he put up his guard, I matched by lowering mine.

With my pivot foot back, I blocked his tackle. I twisted and threw him aside. He didn’t lose his balance. He moved not like a person using two legs and arms, but like a four-legged beast.

That beast-like movement rose back onto two feet. He drew a combat knife from his waist, slightly larger and sharper than standard issue. I drew my own knife in response, running current through it to make it vibrate.

“The Zain guys were nothing!”

With those words, he seemed to ripple lightly before springing from his position. I dodged his kick aimed at breaking my stance. Even the knife falling toward where I was dodging, I evaded with Type 4’s reaction speed.

“Half of them died stuttering, unable to even track Special Ops movements!”

As the blade came straight for my eyes, I deflected it with my forearm. I gripped my knife in reverse and stabbed downward toward his extended arm, aiming where he couldn’t block. It was a stupid choice.

His metal prosthetic hand struck my side. It was, painfully and terribly, the most painful punch I’d felt in a long time. I realized what equal strength truly meant. As my stabbing motion faltered momentarily, his hand approached.

This was my first time fighting an enhanced body of equal capability, but not his. That metal hand grabbed the nape of my neck. If I were human, it would have crushed me, but this body could somehow endure.

I felt his fingers digging distinctly into the skin of my neck. I transferred the vibrating knife to my other hand and grabbed the wrist that was choking me. As I began to apply counter-pressure, his prosthetic’s outer shell also started to crumple.

“After we identified the weapons specs, no more security team members died…”

I aimed my transferred knife at his hand that I was blocking with my forearm, but only managed to cut off his thumb. The vibrating blades collided, and neither could withstand the other’s resonant frequency as they shattered—a small consolation.

“But still!”

He began choking me with both hands, but fortunately, the one missing a thumb couldn’t apply much additional pressure. With both hands, I grabbed his and slowly pried them away.

I wasn’t oxygen-deprived yet. His grip was terrifyingly strong, but rather than suffocating me, slicing my neck would have been faster. The only result was an unpleasant cough from failed breathing.

“One hundred and sixty regular employees died. Do you know that? One hundred and sixty employee lives…”

Despite twisting his wrists, his hands maintained a proper angle on my neck. Surrendering to the adrenaline surging through me, I slowly bent my arms. There must be a limit to his range of motion.

There seemed to be no limit. Feeling a throbbing sensation near my lungs, I barely managed to twist and remove his wrists from my neck. His artificial eyes remained soaked with hatred and humanity.

“Those bastards’ complacency is what got them killed. The branch manager spouted nonsense about the defeat of humanity or whatever, but we don’t give a fuck about that.”

I blocked his incoming fist with my elbow. The sharpness of his fingertips left a deep cut in the protective gear where I blocked. It was my first time being pushed back in close combat. Fueled by rage, I shouted back.

“Then fuck! The Shepherd participating in this…”

I could feel adrenaline marinating my entire body like seasoned meat. The throbbing in my neck and the pain in my side faded. I charged at him, planting my feet firmly. I pushed his body with my full weight. I planted my feet again.

I followed his body as it began to fall backward. Once he started falling, he wouldn’t be able to use his strength properly. We all need to plant our feet to exert force. We always needed support.

I clasped both fists together and struck his suspended head heavily. His helmet completely shattered, and one of his artificial eyes began to spark.

“You should have stopped him! How can you work with that complacent bastard?!”

I raised my fist toward his face as he fell completely backward. As I brought it down, his head moved faster. My fist shattered the asphalt pavement, and his sharp fingertips pierced my chest.

Due to my position, it didn’t go deep, but if it had, I would have ended up like when I faced the Monstrosity. I grabbed that wrist and twisted it out. Just as I thought I could break it, the forearm and hand separated.

Freed, he turned his body and slashed the back of my neck with the blade-like fingertips of his left hand. The wound wasn’t deep. The membrane would soon rise. Instead of pulling back, I leaned forward to reduce the impact.

After tossing aside the detached forearm, I properly secured a mount position. We were both terribly emotional. The pain-immune cyborg burst into laughter.

“The Shepherd bastard is involved here? Don’t bullshit me… The branch manager’s promise included purging the security team.”

Who the hell’s side is the Shepherd on? From my perspective, he seemed to be on their side, but this Special Ops agent was saying he was on our side.

A double agent? If so, for whom? The Chairman was on my side, but I had never seen the Shepherd among those trailers. I hadn’t seen a single security team member.

Even the forces the Chairman had prepared were Market Keepers, not the security team. I cut off my racing thoughts and blurted out whatever came to mind. Winning came first.

“Then! Getting purged! Is that bastard’s fucking dream or…”

I raised my fist and brought it down on his head. To kill him, I’d need to completely shatter the cranial unit containing his brain. I didn’t know how sturdy this cyborg’s brain storage would be.

“Seems like it! If that bastard was on my side, he would have brought the assault team too! You fucking…”

He curled his body, though he had seemed to be merely covering his face. His spine’s range of motion was vastly different from a human’s. After completely pulling his body in, he kicked my abdomen with the sole of his foot. It hurt terribly.

It felt like my internal organs were being crushed, but I could endure it. Just as I was about to raise my fist to strike again, he kept his foot planted on my stomach. I could hear operational sounds from within his prosthetic leg.

I immediately removed my fist and moved my body to the side. I narrowly avoided the anchoring spikes that shot out from the sole of his foot like pile bunkers. The Special Ops agent staggered as he got to his feet.

“I was trying to use something I couldn’t use when you pushed me earlier, but you’re a sharp bastard…”

My body was filled with throbbing and stinging pain, and his head must have been filled with blaring warning sounds. We were mirror images again.

How do people in this city end up so similar to each other? He pulled out another new arm stored in his torso. The ejection port was damaged, so in the end, he had to physically pull it out himself.

How could my entire body be screaming in pain after just a few minutes of brawling? The fact that I could even fight like this was chilling—only because I had succeeded in my surprise attack, forcing him to jump down without his gun.

I closed the few meters of distance we had created. I saw him lightly jump up and attempt a spinning kick to use the anchoring spikes in his heel again.

I forcibly twisted my body’s axis mid-motion. Just as his body was capable of inhuman movements, so was mine. We were the same machine.

Withstanding the inertia with enhanced strength and flexibility, I let his leg extend into empty air, then grabbed his suspended body.

A full-body cyborg was heavier than a human. The formula for impact force had never changed. I firmly embraced his waist, flipped him backward, and drove the back of his neck into the ground. The asphalt cracked as a metallic impact sound rang out.

Once wasn’t enough. Fighting through my dizziness, I grabbed the chin of his head, which was now embedded in the ground. I lifted it. The brain storage unit was still mostly intact. His sensory organs probably were too.

But control below the neck seemed almost impossible. Only wired control was possible now, and the back of his neck responsible for that wired control had just been driven into the ground with the force of a Type 4 and the weight of two people.

I grabbed his upper and lower jaws, which were connected to the brain storage unit. Since the full-body cyborg had no fleshy parts, it didn’t look particularly cruel. With both hands gripping each jaw, I physically tore them apart.

Despite using all my strength, there was only a creaking sound, and his lower jaw still moved, trying to bite my fingers. It didn’t last long. The creaking became a squeaking, and the squeaking became the sound of separation.

I threw his lower jaw and remaining body to the side. With only his upper jaw and brain storage unit in hand, I walked toward the revolver I had thrown aside. Exhaling pain with my breath, I said:

“Really, if that bastard Shepherd’s complacency got all those regular employees killed…”

My body staggered, briefly interrupting my words. Fighting this Special Ops agent was much harder than fighting Adrian. With Adrian, there was no reason to fight, but with him, there was.

“Even if I have to give up all the compensation I get for this fucking job…”

I picked up the revolver and took a speed loader from the ammunition pouch at my waist. Most of the bullets had been damaged when I was hit in the side. It was a miracle they hadn’t exploded. I loaded one intact round.

“I’ll ask my sponsor for a purge as compensation… According to whatever fucking section and clause of the company regulations that I can’t even remember…”

I rotated the cylinder, aligning the explosive round with the firing chamber, and aimed at the brain storage unit. The microphone attached to his upper jaw emitted a crackling voice.

“I-if, if it’s n-not the s-security team?”

“Whoever it is, I’ll kill them. I’ll beat them to death with my bare hands. Got it?”

His artificial eyes had already shut down, leaving nothing to express emotion. The crackling voice continued briefly.

“I-if the m-measures are c-carried out e-efficiently. I w-would a-agree to S-Section 4, Clause 31. Your sponsor is…”

“The one who hasn’t been appointed. The one who takes orders from no one. The only one who isn’t monitored.”

“Huh…”

Shooting dead a Special Ops agent who had joined simply to purge the security team made my stomach churn. He was working for the company and its employees and shareholders, just as earnestly as the salute I had imitated.

But his method was wrong. So wrong that he had become someone who supported a coup. He had turned his blade toward the company, believing in a single promise that might not even be kept.

Did I have the right to kill him? Of course, no person has the right to kill another. I merely had a duty to stop the coup. That duty included killing those involved.

Even if I tried to say it was just business, death is personal to everyone. “It’s nothing personal” doesn’t apply when we were both overflowing with personal emotions.

What I had said to the Lone Star Rangers came back to me. With my battered body, I placed the gun barrel against his brain storage unit. I pulled the trigger. The recoil wasn’t felt due to my enhanced body’s strength.

The bullet penetrated the broken outer shell of his brain storage unit, and the explosive round cleanly blew away the gray matter inside. After tossing aside the brain storage unit, I turned off the jammer in my head and connected communications.

“Special Ops… taken care of. That bastard was tough as hell…”

“Are you in critical condition? The General Affairs Division hasn’t been dealt with yet. If you’re not critical…”

“Finish the job and come back. I won’t die if you leave me alone for a few minutes like a hamster…”

With adrenaline fading and my body filled with throbbing pain, I dragged myself onto the sidewalk and leaned against the villa’s entrance. I had proven my efficiency. One step closer to showing Walter up.