episode_0052

Was it that time, perceptually, had slowed to about 10%?

I ran through that slowed time, throwing a punch at the masked figure who, though slow, was still following me and thrusting a knife.

*Crunch-*

At that moment, my entire body seemed to convulse, then explosively compress as if it would shatter, each movement imbued with muscle-rupturing power.

A look of bewilderment could be felt even through the mask.

But before I could fully perceive it, I was flung out of the slowed-time world, simultaneously crushing the masked figure’s chest. His body slammed into the floor, bounced off, and flew in a zigzag pattern, ricocheting between the floor and ceiling.

*Throb, throb.*

‘The burden is heavier than I thought…’

*Thwack!*

My body was reasonably enhanced, and I thought I could endure it since the nanowear would continuously attempt healing as long as I consumed calories, but this felt like my life was being chipped away in chunks.

I could understand why Kathleen, the creator, had warned me, saying it wasn’t designed for human use.

But I could handle it.

‘Wade, Patton. Thank you.’

If you hadn’t fought hard and bought me time, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.

“Since things have come to this, I’ll have no choice but to kill and strip you. What a shame.”

“At least *pretend* to be sorry when you say something like that.”

“1st Platoon annihilated. 2nd Platoon, provide support.”

As if on cue, thirteen more personnel jumped from an aerial vehicle, responding to his mumbling radio call.

***

Kathleen Rossmore, former chief researcher of Extreme Military, was surprised by the results her research creation displayed, and once again surprised by the man who declared he would be the test subject himself.

Through the interaction of Potentialwear, which pushed the body to its physical limits, and Speedwear, which was influenced by basic physicality, the performance was boosted from 83% to a maximum of 153% compared to existing operating systems, including military-grade ones, but that was only in theory.

With the advent of 5th generation operating systems, humans were practically unable to extract 100% of the system’s performance due to their physical limitations, so Cerberus was already practically over-specced.

Even if used, it would only have been slightly better performing than current military implants.

However, this man, who was merely a friendly mercenary, seemed to be extracting the full theoretical specifications of Cerberus, something a human shouldn’t be able to do properly.

‘How is that possible?’

The members of Fifty-Star rappelling down.

She knew well that each of them was as skilled as a corporate soldier, but he activated Speedwear as if they were nothing.

A Fifty-Star member, attempting to counter with military implants, was hit by a wildly thrown punch, propelled by a speed that surpassed the speed of sound. For approximately 1-2 seconds, he couldn’t even perceive it, and the point of impact simply burst.

-“My, my arm!!! Aaaargh!!!”

-“Goddammit! Shoot! Just keep shooting until your magazines are empty!”

-“Guh…”

It was practically a massacre, not a battle.

He continued his march, not stopping even as his subordinates screamed, covering the eyes of Aaron and the child named Martina he had brought with him.

‘Excessive use due to extreme recoil will not only cause physical damage but also break you mentally. Are you really okay?’

Kathleen Rossmore warned him once more as she watched him lying on the surgical table.

Honestly, she wished such a promising young man would just run away and save his life.

She might be a little unhappy going forward, but if he took care of Aaron, it wouldn’t matter.

Lying on the surgical table, he turned his head and, though seemingly struggling a bit, he curled his lips into a smile.

‘My friend told me his dream was to end the Eclipse, didn’t he?’

‘That’s…’

Words often spoken by those who brought great ripples to the world, unhappy with the reality of having to submit to colossal entities.

Society called them terrorists of the century, political prisoners, traitors, and other names, while mercenaries called them ‘legends’.

‘So I thought about it, and my dream is to fulfill the dreams of guys like that. Because in this damn city, even dreaming is hard.’

‘Just for a dream, to make such an irreversible choice…’

‘Heh. The guy outside, just swinging a knife, told me that for a mercenary, a dream is the madness that keeps them going. So, I guess I’ll just go a little crazy.’

‘…’

Kathleen Rossmore realized he had no intention of backing down.

Although he was quoting various people he knew, the fact that he wanted to help her led Kathleen Rossmore to activate the surgical machine.

*Rumble, rumble.* The gigantic device, starting with a mechanical rumble, skillfully removed his spine.

‘Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!’

The device mechanically created space to install Cerberus, disregarding his screams.

In this space where flesh was torn open, bones exposed, and fresh blood splattered, Kathleen Rossmore prayed that he would endure.

His speed, as he walked through a hail of bullets, now boasted nearly three times the speed of a Fifty-Star member skillfully utilizing military cyberware, proving he was fully utilizing the theoretical performance.

He crushed people with bare fists, disregarding bullets and blades tearing through his body, displaying superhuman combat.

Kathleen Rossmore, thinking it impossible, was horrified as he actually performed and proved it. Yet, seeing him physically and mentally dying, she clenched her fists.

His movements became increasingly precise, like a machine.

The number of attacks he blocked and people he killed with a single acceleration increased.

This meant he was adapting to the three types of Limit Over provided by Cerberus, but his human aspect, suffering in pain and appearing to struggle, was slowly disappearing.

“…Aaron. Run away first.”

“Huh, Mom?”

He would eventually lose his humanity and display chrome psycho symptoms.

Because Cerberus was ‘designed’ that way.

Kathleen Rossmore decided to witness the end of those risking their lives to save her.

A streak of blood trickled from Martina’s nose.

***

Movements that appeared sluggish despite accelerating with a vision splitting into dozens of fragments.

Is this how insects like dragonflies see the world with their compound eyes?

My stomach churned, and my brain felt like it was burning, yet there was a strange sensation of being able to perceive all surrounding conditions: airflow, muscle movements, the trajectories of tiny fragments.

It was an ugly sight, spewing blood profusely from my nose and mouth, but I could tell I was getting used to this monstrous thing.

‘Danger. Danger. Danger. This AI recommends Joabodong cease combat immediately and retreat.’

‘I’m sorry. I can’t stop.’

Martina screamed in my head, raising a fuss for me to stop this madness immediately, but I activated Cerberus once more.

Then, with a stinging sensation in my nerves, the trajectories of the bullets fired by the rifle-wielding figure directly in front of me, though fast, slowed down enough to not be unavoidable. I moved forward with steps close to a stagger, then scraped my hand across his neck, tearing it off and separating his head.

Three figures rushed at me, who had so effortlessly taken a life.

As I unleashed punches haphazardly, the figures, unable to react, had their impact points grotesquely twisted, and were sent flying by the force.

Though my punches were unfocused and didn’t even land on precise impact points, they alone were enough to shatter and pulverize entire bodies.

After killing those who rushed me, a figure found an opening and brought down a heavy hammer. Cerberus’s second head stimulated my muscular system.

*Crack.* With the pain of my entire body’s muscles tearing and scattering, I felt them instantly rearrange as if solidifying into dozens of layers of netting, and I caught the descending hammerhead with my palm.

A heavy weight was felt in my arm, and as I tightened my grip, the hammerhead groaned under my crushing strength.

As I extended my pulled-back arm and threw a punch, the entire arm felt like it was disassembling in pain, and the head of the figure who swung the hammer flew into the air, separated from his body.

*Thunk! Rip, rip!* The cool sensation of a blade then plunged into my waist and back.

Cerberus’s third head injected narcotic painkillers and a special solution into my body, reducing the pain and initiating life support.

As I swung my arm, feeling the air resistance, the figure quickly tilted his head back, dodging.

Feeling the knife exit my body, I immediately rushed forward and slaughtered the remaining ones.

The omnipotent feeling derived from the overwhelming power of the super-high-performance chrome rendered tasteless the sensation of flesh, muscle, and bone rupturing and life extinguishing through my fists.

Before I knew it, the act of trampling and killing these vermin had become enjoyable, and I found myself involuntarily curling my lips into a wide smile.

[Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Dissociative Ecstasy Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, and premonitory signs of 17 other mental disorders have been detected.]

Martina whispered to me.

Perhaps it wasn’t Martina, but Ayakashi assisting Joabodong, who was warning me.

[To mitigate social psychiatric disorders related to cyberware, excessive pain, and mental burden due to medication, some computations are being transferred to this AI’s organic terminal.]

*Thwack!*

“Ugh..! Guh-guh!”

My consciousness was flung from that ecstatic, floating world back to reality, like a tennis ball struck by a racket.

I was breathing frantically, my entire body’s muscles felt crushed, and the stab wounds hurt terribly.

Before I knew it, one of the Fifty-Star members was dangling from my hand, his neck snapped, dead.

“Here…”

I turned my head to see Martina streaming tears of blood, even with her eyes covered by Kathleen.

She was probably alleviating my burden.

‘Thank you..!’

Even though I had only used this mad hellhound a few times, my sanity nearly flew off to a distant place in an instant.

If it weren’t for her, I would have fallen into chrome psychosis.

I thanked Martina in my mind and then looked at the last remaining figure.

The figure, holding a knife dripping blood onto the floor, shouted in a voice trembling as if with excitement.

“You’ve become a monster. Were you ‘special’ like me too!”

“‘Special,’ you say? You’re just a bottom-feeder who makes a living by shooting people, just like me.”

There’s no time to save Wade and Patton, who collapsed after risking their lives to buy time.

Shouldn’t I help them achieve their dreams too? The dream of dying spectacularly, and the dream of raising a younger sibling to be a megacorp executive.

The cold, hellish hound that replaced my spine, as if afflicted with rabies, gave me a perception of time so stretched that one second felt like tens of seconds.

That figure also entered this world with me, but he was no longer my opponent.

A speed difference of nearly double wasn’t something easily overcome, so my hand instantly batted away the knife sharply thrusting towards a vital spot, and then I grabbed his mask.

Deprived of his weapon, he pounded me with monstrous strength emanating from his cyberware, but the powerful analgesic effect forced me to keep moving.

An incredibly dangerous, intense pain surged from my waist, up through my shoulders, elbows, and into my hands, as my muscles unraveled and rewove themselves. *Crunch.* His mask was crushed by my grip.

Inside the shattered mask was the face of a woman with bright red hair, consumed by madness and reveling in ecstasy, being crushed in my grip.

“Hmph. Heh heh… A monster. It would’ve been better if we had fought with more proper bodies.”

“Quiet.”

*Squelch.* As I tightened my grip, the figure’s skull creaked under the force, pressured by the recoil-induced muscle rupture from the Potentialwear.

“Scarlet D. Phoenix… that’s my name. Don’t forget it, and let’s fight again…”

*Bang!* Unable to withstand the immense crushing strength that could even pulverize metal cyberware, her head finally burst apart.

“She acts like she has nine lives…”

Shaking off the sticky blood, brain matter, and brain fragments clinging to my hand, I gasped for breath, staring at the ceiling.

I realized once again that this damned cyberware was absolutely not made for humans to use.

Damn it, it’ll take months to cultivate a new spine.

My vision flickered, repeatedly blacking out as if it would cut off at any moment.

After several blackouts, I saw Kathleen standing silently right in front of me.

Although there was little emotional fluctuation visible on her face, her gaze, somehow filled with concern, was fixed on me, so I decided to bluff.

“Well… it wasn’t much, once I used it.”

“You truly worked hard.”

I buried my face in something soft and fell into a long sleep.