episode_0120

Spenda, lying prone on the ground with all his limbs crushed, looked bewildered as he watched the white giant, who was drooling like a zombie and once again emitting a menacing aura. If it had simply pierced Logan and him from behind, the job would have been over.

He shrugged his shoulders, covered in blood, as Spenda looked at him with eyes full of such emotions.

“You thought you could work me to death, not pay me properly, and then bolt for the afterlife? I’d never let that happen.”

“…”

“You need to join the company and work yourself to death. Understand? I’ll show you the terror of a black company.”

Six Wildhunt members were already dead. If the battle continued like this, more would die. And if Spenda, their most skilled vanguard, were to die, the effort to recruit Wildhunt would be meaningless. It would be right to provide some service, even if it’s a bit troublesome.

I showed my face to the media helicopters, which were buzzing loudly while hovering, and blew a kiss. For an audience that came all this way for an exclusive, isn’t this much fan service acceptable?

‘Well… I’m just doing what I’m told.’

While observing the ongoing conflict and treating the injuries I sustained from a brief skirmish on the building’s rooftop earlier, Luna contacted me.

“Make it so the media can’t ignore your presence. Get as much exposure as possible and emphasize your deep involvement in this situation.”

“Won’t that make things troublesome?”

“That’s precisely the goal. What’s the problem when we have someone else to handle the troublesome parts for us anyway?”

“Ah, okay! It’s embarrassing to be on stage, but I guess it can’t be helped! I’ll get some service when I get back, right?”

“Service? Don’t get your hopes up…”

Seeing Luna’s face flushed red, perhaps from embarrassment, I happily drained my drink and gestured towards the giant, who was panting like an enraged bull.

* * *

Thud! The white giant leaped with surprising speed for its size and slammed its massive fist onto the road.

Click- With the activation of Cerberus, Dojun entered an accelerated world of perception, his heartbeat soaring wildly with triple movement assistance from the start.

Feeling a sudden wave of nausea, he nimbly dodged the giant’s downward slam with light footwork. The remaining impact shattered the already broken road, causing an explosion of rising earth. As the “solid rain” of falling debris showered down, he tilted his head to evade a swinging hand and drew his dagger.

A dagger whose sharpness was extremely enhanced by an ultra-vibrating blade.

Avoiding stabs as much as possible, he delivered three quick slashes towards the incoming fist. Three streams of blood welled up on the skin that had effortlessly deflected high-speed bullets.

However, the superficial cuts instantly stopped bleeding, and the giant twisted its upper body, planted a hand on the ground, and unleashed a spinning kick with its lower body.

“You use martial arts too!”

He lightly vaulted over the white giant’s Capoeira kick by grabbing its ankle, tumbling to avoid it. However, part of the rotational force transmitted from grabbing the ankle caused his posture to slightly destabilize in mid-air, creating an opening. He crossed his arms to guard against the giant’s sweeping uppercut from below, but—

Crraaash! His body flew, tearing straight through several buildings.

Even with accelerated thinking, he could barely keep up with the temporal flow, leaving him no time to catch his breath; he had to prepare for the next attack immediately.

Screech! The white giant plunged its fist into the building’s outer wall and tore something out. It was a bundle of rebar. It then twisted it with immense grip strength, forming it into a spear-like shape with a sharpened tip, and thrust it forward.

A lance charge propelled with tremendous leg power. Easily 300 kg. Including the rebar lance, it was a mass bomb weighing up to half a ton, relentlessly pursuing him.

“Whoosh…!!”

A bullfight for his life. Taking on the role of the matador, I ran directly towards the rapidly charging giant, beginning an acceleration that far surpassed Cerberus’s limited acceleration speed.

It was ridiculous that a device not designed with user safety in mind, and thus not intended for such usage, had a limit, but it was a self-destruct option sometimes found in cyberware.

An additional 20% acceleration. While 20% might not sound like much, a 20% increase in speed in such a hyper-accelerated state consumes several times the energy.

Feeling his brain turn to mush, he moved his body powered by the alcohol.

The sharp tip of the rebar was right before his eyes. As he tilted his head to brush past it, the rusted, twisted rebar column tore flesh from his cheek. He then grabbed the shaft of the rebar spear, leaped, and delivered a flying kick to the giant’s face.

Crack! The giant’s head snapped back with immense recoil. The impact generated by their combined speeds left his leg tingling as if it were broken, and it was enough to make the seemingly unharmed giant’s nose bleed and stumble as if suffering a concussion.

Without missing the opportunity, he delivered a series of dagger slashes that swept past the giant’s wrist, forearm, elbow pit, shoulder, and neck. The blade precisely severed tendons, causing the giant to lose strength in its arm and thump the rebar spear to the ground.

Thump! With a loud thud, the spear landed, and he was about to continue his offense—

Grab. A hand seized his neck, just as he was about to continue. As the grip began to tighten, as if intending to break his neck, he frantically thrust his dagger into the giant’s finger joints. The first joint, the second joint, the third joint. The dagger, having instantly shredded three fingers, broke with a whirring sound, as if its motor had been strained, and he was able to safely escape the giant’s grasp.

“Gasp…!!”

Gush! Blood poured from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Speedware to keep up with the velocity, physicalware to pierce that durability, and berserkware to prevent becoming mortally wounded and combat-incapable from a mere graze. Even with his body surpassing most bioware users due to real-time nanomachine augmentation, he still had to overtax his nervous, muscular, and circulatory systems simultaneously via Cerberus just to be an even match.

He definitely felt like he understood what it meant when combatants occasionally hit a wall and said, “We’re just different breeds.”

“Ah… just a moment, break…”

Whoosh! A torn-off guardrail became a multi-meter long blade, swinging horizontally. Wildhunt members, security personnel, and other test subjects, distracted by their own fighting, were sliced in half and sent flying. The guardrail, bent by the resistance, then struck the unfortunate individuals next to them, sweeping across the battlefield.

“Whoa!”

He quickly threw himself to the ground, cold sweat beading on his forehead as the guardrail whizzed past his nose. He watched the guardrail, completely destroyed and sent flying by a single swing. The aftermath was enough to instantly transform the battlefield, where dozens of people were entangled in a fight to the death, into a scene of wounded individuals lying writhing on the ground.

“This crazy bastard..! Even if she says no service when I get back, I’ll have to force it out of her!”

Incoming fists, kicks, debris from collapsed buildings, rebar. He parried, dodged, and counter-stabbed the giant’s onslaught, as it used everything it could grab as a weapon, continuing the exchange. He was exchanging blows dozens of times per second, and maintaining Cerberus’s overclocking made his entire body scream in protest. Even Martina, who was sharing the burden, began issuing frequent warnings, indicating she was also overtaxed.

‘More than anything, my offense is lacking.’

If he had a Smash Grenade, which he returned at Hijikata’s request, claiming it was the former director’s relic, he might have been able to find an opening for a decisive blow. With personal armaments like his shotgun, he couldn’t even deliver a fatal blow, let alone proper stopping power. While a shotgun would easily blow off a normal opponent’s head, it was virtually useless against a monstrous, genetically modified abomination infused with the totality of xenotech capabilities.

At least physical strikes, utilizing his enhanced abilities, had some effect, but even that his endurance couldn’t sustain.

Jolt! After parrying and dodging dozens more attacks, his limits were reached, accompanied by a headache that felt like his brain was tearing apart.

“Hngh…!”

Tap-tap. He lightly tapped his chest twice, activating active camouflage, which rendered him immune to visible light searches. In other words, he became invisible. The giant, startled by his sudden disappearance, began slamming its fists where he had been. Only after escaping the giant’s range did he feel the warm trickle of blood from his nose and deactivate Cerberus.

“Ugh… I really almost died!”

He thought he had become one of Eclipse Point’s notable monsters, but that thing was on a different level. Even with the terrified security personnel showering it with high-velocity bullets and Wildhunt members smashing hammers into its head whenever an opening appeared! The only one who could face that thing alone… ‘Would probably be that doddering old man.’

In any case, what he needed was firepower. As he watched the enraged giant indiscriminately destroy its surroundings, tearing apart test subjects and security personnel, he was recovering his stamina when a transport drone flying with helicopters in the sky caught his eye.

* * *

The overwhelming battle was being broadcast live to Eclipse Point, and indeed, to the entire world. Faced with the unbelievable sight of people being sliced apart and buildings collapsing in the blink of an eye, people, instead of expressing fear, erupted into fervent cheers.

It was, after all, happening too far away to reach. The audience, filling themselves with dopamine as if watching a combat sport, were seized with madness, their explosive chat volume enough to paralyze the mega-corp media channel.

The monster, which gave rise to various conspiracy theories, and the performance created by its massive body. Feeling the raw power capable of crushing humans like insects in an instant, even from beyond the screen, they felt a sense of exhilaration as mega-corp employees were torn apart.

And this was the objective of the media companies that had deployed their filming helicopters. To show a circus to those exhausted by the mega-corps’ excessive regulations, crushing tax assessments, and overwhelming workloads. To use it as an outlet to release their dissatisfaction. Several food-service mega-corps quickly partnered up, exposing channel subscribers to advertisements for their partnered food-service mega-corps’ rapid meal kits and delivery service discounts, proving highly effective in quelling discontent with 22nd-century ‘bread and circuses.’ However, the person tasked with enduring the monster’s rampage was pushed too far.

Ayakashi Jun. The direct descendant that Neo Japan’s zaibatsu, Ayakashi Corporation, had kept hidden until now. One of the world’s leading nobles, who had been active as an unnamed employee and mercenary, and had now become the CEO of PMC R&B Risk Control, an Ayakashi subsidiary. Contrary to his distinctly Asian delicate appearance, he was holding his own against the white giant that had instantly massacred corporate soldiers.

His unconventional entrance, blowing high-proof alcohol directly from the bottle and sending the monster flying. His skill in inflicting severe injuries on the monster’s two arms with speed invisible to cameras, likely using speedware. And his toughness, continuing the battle even after taking a hit from an unexpected ambush.

Since he had only been introduced on corporate channels, most people didn’t know his identity, but that was only a matter of time. Those who knew his identity began listing his personal details in the chat, and the fact that mega-corps’ ‘noble blood’ was providing something to watch and enjoy gave people a strange catharsis and pleasure.

People even began shouting his name and cheering repeatedly. It meant his popularity was growing. In a direction not particularly favorable to the mega-corps.

Regardless, Dojun decided to bring things to a close in the hellish scene unfolding before him.

In his hand was a massive spear, like something from a warship. He loaded special ammunition into the break-action lance, which folded in the middle, and with an upward thrust, clacked the chamber shut.

“You really won’t listen?”

“You want me to say it twice? Fuck off.”

The blue-haired woman, rescued by Pasio, asked again upon seeing him with the artillery spear, but received only fierce curses in return.

“What’s the point of dying together in the first place? Even if the era of well-being is over, I have no intention of helping you commit suicide, which isn’t even a ‘good death’.”

“…Then what should I do?”

“Just whisper a farewell into my ear.”

Matador de Toros. He, who had brought the spear to subdue the enraged bull, aimed its hollow tip at the rampaging giant’s back. He pushed off the ground, aiming for the giant’s back, which was lashing out its frustration by smashing the wildly charging and annoying Wildhunt drones with its fists.

Boom! With a massive explosion, the powerful kick, which left yet another scar on the already heavily damaged road, shot forward rapidly and slammed precisely into the giant’s back.

Crunch. Eight curved horn-like ornaments, meant to grip flesh, dug into the giant’s skin, and its inverted eyes briefly glanced backward.

“It’s from them.”

“…Spenda.”

A colossal roar that shook the streets. With that, the situation concluded.