episode_0030

“Nebel!”

“Oh, for crying out loud. I just fixed it, and it’s going to break again.”

A monster of full-body metal muscles, falling from the sky, lunged its fist at the old man.

*Thud!*

Kinetic energy strong enough to crack the stone floor like a spiderweb from where the old man stood was transmitted, but despite his small stature, he merely placed the hilt of his sword against the fist, showing no sign of being crushed or pushed back by the weight.

Johann’s hand moved instantly, loading a pistol. Two gunshots pierced through the glass, which was pulverized into dust and falling like a curtain under the building’s weight, heading towards the old man.

The old man’s sword was drawn slightly, deflecting Nebel, who was pressing down on it from above. The two incoming bullets were cut in half, missing the old man and ricocheting in strange directions.

“What the…”

“No time to admire him, just run!”

Johann, who had even handed Bram Stoker’s corpse over to me, ran forward, emptied all the rounds from his pistol, then spun and combined a modular weapon, forming a scythe which he swung.

The fully drawn sword and the scythe collided.

*Swish*

But instead of the sharp metallic clang that should have erupted from the collision, a sliding sound was heard as the blade smoothly cut through the scythe.

Even if a modular transforming weapon has weak durability, that’s only true for its transforming parts. For a solid metal section to be cut like pudding is an entirely different matter.

‘Monofilament blade…!’

There are many cases where various technologies have been introduced to achieve performance similar to a monofilament blade, but it is known that those appearing in the form of a sword with no visible gimmicks, yet possessing such performance, are extremely rare.

Furthermore, their usage is too difficult, and it’s hard to utilize their full performance even with standard combat support programs.

Moreover, with technological prowess having regressed by decades due to corporate wars, it’s uncertain if anyone can even make such a thing now, so this object must have been created before the corporate wars.

Despite the scythe being cut, Johann didn’t care. He aimed the end of the lower part at the old man, widening the distance with quick steps, and twisted the pole as if thrusting a spear.

*Bang!*

A bullet fired unexpectedly, as if a boomstick function was hidden within.

But the sword split the bullet, then cut the boomstick, which was merely a part of the scythe, in half.

*Whistle—*

Then, with a sound like a flute, a hollowed metal pin, like a whistle, flew towards the back of the old man’s head.

The alloy pin, shot by magnetism, created a high-pitched noise as it flew straight. The old man slightly tilted his head, flicked his sheathed sword up with his thumb, and split the incoming pin in half.

Raleigh’s hood could be seen fluttering on the rooftop.

*Roar—* *Crash!*

Jay Q’s modified vehicle burst out, smashing through the wall of a narrow alley, then swerved sharply, burning its tires as it spun.

“John! Get in, hurry!”

“Damn it, what the hell is this commotion!”

I threw Bram Stoker’s corpse to Blake, who had opened the door and stretched out a hand, then ran alongside the car, catching up to its speed, and threw myself into the open door.

Settling into the soft seat, I made a disgusted face as I watched Johann, Nebel, and Raleigh fighting the old man.

He was dealing with Johann, who was accelerating without restraint, and Nebel, who was attempting close-quarters combat with his metal muscles, while intermittently reacting to Raleigh’s sniping.

“Hey! Just get in! Let’s escape!”

“Are you giving me a ride? Thanks~”

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind just leaving them and escaping, but if they retaliated by reporting the kid still in my arms to Genotech, I’d be in quite a pickle.

My body might already be targeted by Ayakashi, after all.

Johann was already in the car, and a huge open maw came rushing late.

“Fuck! What are these bastards?!”

“Excuse me for a moment.”

With its massive body and heavy weight, the suspension shrieked *creak* and Jay Q also shrieked, but unfortunately, if we didn’t want to die together, we had to go.

“Just step on it!”

“Uwaaaah!! No! Florineeeeee!!”

Jay Q, screaming as if Bram Stoker was having a fit, accelerated the car, attempting to get out of the area.

In an instant, the vehicle, accelerating to over 100 km/h in this narrow plaza, plunged its front towards the road.

And the old man, who had already reached the front of the car.

Shocked by the insane speed, Johann and Nebel simultaneously pushed our heads down.

*Slice*

The next moment, with a cool breeze blowing over our heads, we realized the car’s roof had been cleanly sliced off and was flying away.

“Noooooooo!!!”

Jay Q was now practically foaming at the mouth, but his driving skill seemed to be ingrained in his instincts; he performed a 360-degree turn, evading the old man blocking their path, and escaped onto the road.

The immense wind pressure at such a speed caused all of us to have our lips peeled back like open faces, gums exposed, as we fled from that old man, who was like a natural disaster.

If there had been a dentist, they would have forced a check-up, taken care of our oral health, and then extorted credits from us.

“Damn it, what the hell is that cursed Zatoichi?”

Looking back, I saw the skyscraper where Bram Stoker had resided collapsing.

The serial building collapses I’d seen in the news before overlapped in my mind, and I sighed, feeling as though I had just confronted the culprit behind those incidents.

“He’s like an urban legend *tsk* of an old man.”

Johann, who was also experiencing dry gums from the wind, uncomfortably moistened his lips and then told me a very brief story about the old man.

“I don’t know under what conditions that old man appears, but once he does, everyone present at the scene is found decapitated only after the incident concludes, or so they say.”

“Darn. I thought he was someone like AnalMan.”

“Wasn’t that just a rumor that circulates as a joke to scare rookie mercenaries?”

“AnalMan, that was a lie?”

This damn city has so many bizarre people wandering around that I thought there’d even be a guy who, like, picks up and ‘treats’ assholes, but it seems there surprisingly isn’t.

“Well, there were copycat crimes.”

“That happened too?”

As expected, this damn city is insane.

[High-speed approach of life signs confirmed from the rear.]

“What..!”

As I was enjoying the night drive at 300 km/h, I heard Ayakashi’s warning and looked back.

*Vrooom!*

A passenger vehicle came tearing madly, making a clearly wrong sound.

On its roof sat that crazy old Zatoichi, meditating with his sword in hand.

“…He followed us?!”

“Hahaha! So simply shaking him off like this was impossible after all!”

Johann laughed loudly as if he’d lost his mind, and Jay Q was driving with his eyes rolled back.

He’s not unconscious, is he..?

‘Try to stop that damn old man from moving!’

[Hacking attempt. Scan. Failed. No terminal suitable for hacking exists on the target individual.]

‘Damn it.’

If a guy who automatically downloads just by having a nerve socket can’t be infiltrated, doesn’t that mean the old man hasn’t even received the most basic implant surgery?

Basically, in this era, to obtain an identity, one must receive an identity code via a nerve socket, meaning the old man is both an illegal resident and has no identity.

And having no cyberware is a bonus, apparently.

Is this what it takes to be an urban legend of Eclipse Point?

“No choice then. I’ll blow up the entire car, too.”

*Click* This time, I loaded a special grenade launcher round I’d received while playing around in Hellstream, taking a deep breath.

The driver of the runaway vehicle was already slumped over the steering wheel, honking continuously, like a dead man, so there was no particular reason to feel reluctance.

Let’s just think of it as a free cremation.

Just then, *fidget* a movement was felt inside the coat I was holding in my arms.

I knew it was alive, but I hadn’t expected it to wake up at this moment, so I was flustered, but more importantly, I needed to shake off that old man…

*Sting* A sharp pain was felt in my neck.

With a pain like being pierced by a sharp awl, I shifted my gaze to see Bram Stoker’s artificial lifeform biting my neck.

Each time blood was sucked into its strangely hot and moist mouth, I felt a peculiar heat welling up inside my body.

Could the “new humanity” that Genotech was researching really be vampires?

[A contact terminal has been detected within the host’s body. A portion of active nanoware is currently being transferred via the contact terminal to a biological entity corresponding to Restricted Regulation Article 3.]

“Son of a bitch..!”

[While temporary loss can be restored in the near future by ingesting Ayakashi Pharmaceuticals’ nutritional supplement containing 37 types of nutrients, please be advised that the performance of the decomposition-recombination procedure via nanoware has currently decreased.]

‘Can it really be stolen just by getting my blood sucked?!’

[Although it is originally a case with a success probability of less than 0.001%, it is presumed to be due to the unique characteristic of this individual, which absorbs blood without compromising integrity.]

If asked whether getting a bit of blood sucked or getting my neck sliced by the crazy Zatoichi was more important, anyone would choose the latter.

I, who was having my nanoware stolen by this little vampire that had wrapped its arms around my neck and was sucking my essence like a cicada, felt symptoms of acute anemia and stood up.

My body swayed greatly in the fierce wind blowing from behind, but more urgent than that was preventing that old man from approaching.

“Smash Grenade… feat. Hellstream.”

*Whizz-*

Six special grenades, whose fuses had been struck, plunged into the midst of the insane race.

Slowly, the sword was being drawn from the grasp of the old man, who was sitting in meditation on top of the car.

*Clang!*

A magnetically accelerated pin, flying from somewhere, struck the hilt of the sword, forcing the sword, which was being drawn, back into its sheath.

The sword couldn’t be drawn in time.

The delayed grenade’s internal explosives began to ignite, raising internal pressure.

The overcharged explosives instantly shattered the outer shell, spraying outward with the extremely high internal explosion pressure, and as the blast spread, the old man and the runaway car disappeared into the dark explosive smoke.

“Ugh…”

When I pulled away the little vampire, who was endlessly sucking my blood as if it would never be satisfied no matter how much it drank, it was quiet with its eyes closed, as if its blood-sucking earlier had just been sleep-talking.

“That’s some fiery power. It looks much stronger than what hit me; did you go easy on me back then?”

“Damn it. If I shot something like that at zero range, I’d be dismembered too.”

I covered my bleeding neck with my palm and sat back down in the seat, looking at the open face, who was merely mildly impressed by the zero-safety grenade made by the Hellstream mod-freaks.

[A copy of this AI has begun downloading into the operating system of the illicit entity.]

“What?”

“Hahaha! What’s wrong all of a sudden? We haven’t said anything yet~?”

“…It’s nothing.”

I pushed away Johann, who was trying to act friendly by putting his arm around my shoulder, and then looked down at the little vampire with my blood on its mouth, my lips parting.

It seemed to have become something more dangerous, but for now, I decided to leave it be. After driving for a long time on the road, with the crazy Zatoichi swordsman no longer pursuing us after taking the Smash Grenade, I let Johann and Nebel out.

“Ah~ I’m in your debt. If you hadn’t given us a ride, we would’ve died there~”

“I wouldn’t say we helped you unconditionally, but we did cooperate, for now. Though I’m not too fond of it.”

“Haha! Cut me some slack.”

Nebel, who seemed quite impressed by Johann and Blake’s friendly demeanor despite almost dying, patted their shoulders and then left. Exhausted, we sat in Jay Q’s now-open-top car and sighed.

“It’s finally over…”

“It’s damn hard to earn 300,000… Tsk, are you okay from the bite? More importantly, what exactly is that kid?”

“Me too am curious.”

Only then did Blake and Jay Q begin to show interest in the little vampire I had brought, but it was still something difficult to explain.

“…It’s a secret.”

Both of them looked disappointed, but what could be done?

Afterward, joining up with Raleigh, we handed over the corpses of Bram Stoker and Jade S. Acton to the EPSB Tonybony Branch and received a reward of 300,000 credits.

Unfortunately, Emily, the informant’s, rise to prominence was foiled, but since she received a lump sum payment of 15,000 credits, she would surely be satisfied.

When Mason returned, he tried to seduce me, using maintenance as an excuse to suggest sex in the workshop, but he was caught by Luna and punished by having to memorize the 652 classic synthetic cocktails.

For some reason, Luna also gave me a cold stare, subtly glaring at my crotch, but then, at the expensive dinner party featuring fresh ingredients, she chatted and laughed as if her anger had dissipated.

It seemed we spent as much as 3,000 credits on a single meal, but isn’t it only natural to spend what you’ve earned?

After the party, as I was returning to the hotel where I was staying, I somehow thought I saw the old man standing on a building, but perhaps it was a hallucination caused by blood loss, as he vanished when I blinked.

Ignoring the eerie chill, I left the funky-looking street and returned to my hotel room, which was reassuringly lit with almost white light, and saw the kid sleeping on the bed.

An artificial lifeform created by Bram Stoker, a Genotech researcher, and now a being that shouldn’t exist in Eclipse Point unless the sky splits in two, as it will be equipped with Ayakashi’s nanoware and strong AI.

It is a being that disregards even minimal regulations, embodying the concentrated technology of two colossal megacorps that not only have a bad relationship but also eagerly anticipate fighting each other to the death.

“What should I do with this?”

I brought it here, but it was certainly a handful.

It had only woken up briefly back then to suck my blood and hadn’t stirred since, so I wasn’t even sure if it could truly be considered alive.

[Based on the data transmitted from the transferred nanoware, this AI’s analysis indicates that the current individual has sufficient brain development but lacks personality formation procedures, causing it to cycle between nutrient intake and hibernation. As its nutrition has so far been supplied via blood, it appears to have severely reduced its activity time to maximize low caloric efficiency.]

“So, I just need to feed it, right?”

[Affirmative. While an adaptation period will be required, its digestive organs show nearly identical consistency with those of modern humans.]

Should I at least feed it until it’s full?

[Furthermore, with a copy of this AI handling the blank personality jurisdiction, it is believed that this individual can be utilized as a physical terminal for this AI.]

“Is this for real…?”

[Naturally, as the AI downloaded to this individual is a copy of this AI, active management through real-time synchronization will be possible if only a transmission/reception module is installed.]

It seems my brain’s resident AI will become a true physical resident.