Chapter 65 : Honor and Pride (3)

It was a rare moment for our young lady’s “awakening scene”!

I guess it’s because she’s not the main character.

It seems she suddenly received an absurd buff and couldn’t defeat an opponent much stronger than herself.

Still, it was pretty cool… I never expected such an interruption at this timing.

The first long-range weapon created by humans.

Its power was such that, no matter how much I tried to snatch them, arrows raining down at hundreds per second were constantly falling underground.

“Everyone! Take cover inside buildings where you can hide!”

“Don’t hide behind the armored vehicles! They’ll be pierced right through!”

“And while running, please provide as much suppressing fire as possible towards the archery monster! Do your best to distract it!”

The endless downpour of arrows, like a torrential rain.

I managed to snatch over 90% of them while in mid-air, and the remaining 10% seemed to be cut down somehow by Lady Hoshino.

Meanwhile, soldiers still on the ground who hadn’t yet made it inside the buildings.

To protect them from the risk of being pierced by arrows, I conducted suppressive fire towards the archery monster, which was jumping around on a distant rooftop.

But shooting from below.

It seemed difficult, especially against a target that frequently changed its sniping position.

Bang bang bang bang bang.

“Damn, it doesn’t look like I’m hitting anything…”

“Still, shoot as much as you can!”

“It’s impossible! The enemy looks like a tiny dot, and if we aim our guns outside the building, we risk being pierced by arrows!”

The average effective range of a soldier’s rifle is around 1 kilometer.

However, that’s only applicable when you’ve secured a favorable position.

Moreover, the opponent is a first-class monster, so even if we hit it, it’s uncertain whether it would have any effect.

The first-class monster of violence I met 10 years ago, for example, was simply destroying a district while withstanding bullets meant for monsters.

“Well… wouldn’t the hero who chased after the monster handle it?”

“…No. Zero is just a hero at my level. She’ll probably only manage to track it.”

Currently, the homunculus girl is desperately chasing after the archery monster, which is jumping around, her forehead dripping with sweat, unlike the calm-looking archer.

“Heh… Heh!”

“Hahaha. Are you giving up on chasing me? Well, do as you wish. I have no intention of killing you since you’re Hoshino’s friend, and Hoshino is my target.”

“Ugh…!”

I overheard their conversation for a moment with my enhanced hearing.

Then, once again, the bow monster seemed to be preparing to rain down arrows on us.

Still, thanks to me and the young lady, perhaps.

The armored vehicle we arrived in had already been riddled with holes, but the soldiers seemed to have safely evacuated most of them into the building without a single casualty.

“Princess Hoshino, about the one who has been catching arrows shot by the archer monster above us…”

“That guy? The legendary horned-mask monster who has been recorded as ‘unsubjugable’ for the past 10 years!”

“Eh? Oh, right… I suppose so?”

At that moment, the soldiers hiding in the same building as Hoshino began to talk about my “fame.”

“You’re amazing! Until we arrived, you were facing off against a first-class monster and that vicious creature who devours all, regardless of kind!”

“Well, I didn’t really do anything…”

“Isn’t that the guy who turned city A, the hero’s holy land, into a mess 10 years ago? Honestly, I nearly peed myself when I saw him!”

“If we had faced those two monsters at the same time, our entire squad would’ve been wiped out for sure…”

“You expertly manipulated those two to fight each other, aiming for the ‘divide and conquer’ strategy! Excellent!”

“No… It wasn’t like that…”

It seemed there was quite a bit of misunderstanding.

Actually, from the look on Hoshino’s face, I could see a mix of unease and guilt.

But so what?

To summarize, the young lady was being praised by the people around her.

As her only playmate, I couldn’t be happier.

And it seemed the situation was nearing its end.

“Grkrrr…”

“Huh? The horned-mask monster has stopped moving!”

“Is it because the enemy stopped shooting arrows?”

“Well… It was targeting the archery monster, but in fact, it was us that the archery monster had been aiming at.”

All the soldiers had safely evacuated into the building.

Thanks to that, it seemed the archery monster had stopped its attacks, and now it was time for me to go back.

After briefly waving to the young lady, I planned to return through the tunnel I came from.

But then…

Tudududududu.

“Huh?”

“What’s this…”

“Helicopter sounds?”

“?! But I didn’t hear anything about additional support?”

It was then.

Was there additional reinforcements arriving because of more monsters appearing in the district?

Currently, a combat helicopter appeared, flying low between the high-rise buildings, directly facing the archery monster.

“Fire!”

“Fire!”

The small and weak monsters, like humans, were mostly rated below grade 3 in terms of danger.

It seemed the information hadn’t been properly relayed.

“Huh?”

With a confused expression, the helicopter suddenly did something it shouldn’t have done, targeting the archery monster on the building’s outer wall.

Tudududududududu.

“…! No! You can’t stop it with a machine gun!”

From five helicopters, machine guns fired in unison.

The bullets instantly began to devastate the exterior walls of the building where the bow was located.

With a tremendous gunshot echoing, the glass wall where the bow stood and its surroundings were all crumbling into pieces.

Except for one.

Everyone except for the one person who had to be taken down.

“Secure communications! Cease fire immediately! And retreat! That thing may look small, but it’s classified as a Level 1 threat!”

Static noise… crackle…

“Quickly, try telling them to retreat!”

“Damn it, I can’t! For some reason, communications aren’t working!”

“…Uh, the monster with the bow is drawing her bowstring again.”

“What?!”

The bow-wielding monster, smiling leisurely in the midst of the anti-monster bullets, not even dodging.

From the combat helicopter, missiles followed the bullets, launching in succession toward her.

Boom!

The impact was powerful enough to make a 20-story building tilt.

Now, only thick black smoke swirled around the glass exterior where she had stood.

However, when the smoke cleared due to the wind, revealing the unscathed bow-wielding figure, a sharp intake of breath was heard from inside the helicopter.

“…No effect at all?”

“That’s strange. The headquarters said this level of firepower should be more than enough to eliminate her.”

“W-what the hell is going on?”

Regardless of their confusion—

Thud!

The bow-wielding monster fired an arrow, aiming precisely at the helicopter’s propeller.

At that moment, the aircraft lost its ability to fly, and desperate screams filled the interior as its crew realized their fate.

“Well, don’t worry too much. I’ll make sure my arrows pierce you before you hit the ground.”

She could have easily shot through the heads of the unseen crew inside from the beginning.

And yet, she first made the helicopter fall and waited to finish them off in the process.

Perhaps because of me—the one protecting these humans.

‘Is she planning to escape while I’m busy saving all five helicopters?’

No… if that were her only reason, she would have turned her back the moment they started falling.

Yet, even now, she was still pulling back her bowstring as the helicopters crashed.

The reason was simple.

“This is the price for interfering with my work, traitor.”

“Grrr…!”

She’s using this as both an excuse to escape and a way to mess with me.

If I jump into the air to catch her arrows, the helicopters will crash and explode.

If I grab the falling helicopters, she’ll take that opportunity to snipe the people inside.

No matter what, it’s a no-win situation.

Even now, as I hesitate, the helicopters continue to plummet toward the ground.

“Kya-ha-ha-ha! No matter what you do, you won’t be able to save them…?! “

Bang!

Is it because I’ve become a monster?

My thoughts feel sluggish.

And the primal instincts of a beast whisper to me—

They’re going to die anyway, so just give up and rip that archer apart.

Yeah, whether I intercept the arrows or lift the helicopters, those people are as good as dead.

Driven by instinct, I was about to lunge toward the archer, ignoring the hostages.

Then—

“Kh… Aaaagh?!”

Anti-monster bullets… actually hurt a Level 1 threat?

The bow-wielding monster suddenly stopped drawing her bowstring, clutching her face in agony.

Taking that opportunity, I shouldered all five helicopters and safely landed on the ground.

Immediately—

“Who… who the hell did that?!”

The archer removed her hands from her face, her eyes bloodshot with fury.

She turned toward the building where Hoshino was hiding and yelled.

“You mean to tell me… a mere bullet actually hurt me? From that distance?”

…Exactly.

That had to be at least a full kilometer away.

How could someone precisely snipe only her eyes from that range?

And not just once, but twice?

‘Yoon Ha-eun… There’s no way she’s here, is there?’

All of her equipment came from monster weapons—far beyond human technology.

If she had been the one to snipe, the archer’s head wouldn’t have just suffered bloodshot eyes—it would have exploded.

No, if anything, her entire head would’ve been obliterated.

That means this was done with a normal sniper rifle.

“Wait, you…! You were at the site of that wolf monster incident…!”

“Salute. It’s an honor that you remember me, Princess Hoshino.”

“Rookie! You little punk! Good job!”

Rookie.

Right… back in that tutorial stage in City G, Hoshino had been particularly interested in a certain female soldier.

Kaiju Frontline was originally a mobile harem game with a male protagonist.

At the time, I had dismissed her as just a background character we met by chance.

But now, seeing her sniper skills—taking down a Level 1 monster like a protagonist—

My assumptions were starting to crumble.

Just maybe—

A very small maybe—

If I had transmigrated into this world and twisted the original story…

Then what if the original protagonist was a girl all along?