episode_0129

Shudder-

A dark lens embedded in a palm reflected Jun and Yuki’s figures as if it were the cross-section of a split obsidian. Perhaps Jun wasn’t the only one who sensed its ominous nature, as Yuki and Jun simultaneously leaped left and right, escaping the lens’s field of vision.

Whoosh—!

There was no sound. No fierce shockwave or aftershock was felt. Only Jun’s sharply amplified five senses informed him that something had changed in the spot where he had just been standing.

“Good senses. You actually dodged it, didn’t you?”

“Starting this nonsense the moment we meet? Is that why you can’t find a man?”

“Why worry when you’re here?”

Ugh.

An adult as soft-hearted as Jun couldn’t help but retch at the sight of her face, so eager to kill. So please, don’t look at Jun with eyes that say, ‘Surely not again…?’

“Let’s have fun again this time. Just like last time!”

“I don’t like clingy people.”

Thud-thud-thump—!!

As Jun dodged the attack, a volley from the Fifty Star members rained down, aiming for his vital spots, but he wasn’t careless enough to be hit by direct gunfire. In his accelerating thoughts, he drew his knife, deflected the bullets, and charged towards her as she raised her arm once more—

Float-

His feet didn’t touch the ground. Scarlet grinned from ear to ear, watching Jun’s futile kicks.

“You misunderstood the conditions!”

“Were there even conditions to begin with?!”

It felt less like being lifted by some force and more like the axis supporting his body had simply vanished. It was as if he were floating in the middle of water.

‘Anti-gravity?’

Considering how easily she had killed the Black Market guard and was now suspending Jun like this, the cyberware arm’s ability was likely localized gravity control. Even in the technologically advanced 22nd century, Jun, not being an engineer, couldn’t tell if such a technology was truly possible, but from experience, there was no point in denying it.

‘Does it not require aiming for area designation? To adjust output, she’d have to point that palm.’

With accelerated thought, Jun quickly deduced the cyberware’s effect and narrowed his eyes. And he vaguely realized. *That’s the item the Wizard put out on the Black Market!* *That crazy bitch must have raided a Line 1 train car and finally stolen it!*

“Jun!”

“Don’t come!”

Jun shouted to stop Yuki as she rushed towards him, and immediately, his reflection appeared in the dark lens embedded in her palm pointed at him. It was too late to escape from here. All he could do was trust in the hardness of his body, crafted by nanoweare diligently working to burn energy and enhance his physical integrity even at this very moment.

Crossing his arms and curling his body to protect his vital spots as much as possible, his body plummeted to the floor with an immense force that crushed him.

Crash—!!

The station tiles shot up from the impact, and the concrete blocks cracked apart. His entire body’s blood pressure surged wildly, capillaries burst, and blood streamed from every orifice, accompanied by pain like he’d been beaten all over. The aftermath of the impact left his joints creaking and his muscles feeling as if they would shatter.

“Fuuu… ck..!”

But he endured.

“Oh. That was maximum output just now, but you look quite fine?”

“If that was your best, you’re dead now…”

His injured body, like a healing factor, mended wounds in real-time, restoring his creaking physique to its original state. Instead, it even underwent modifications aiming for a stronger, harder structure than before. Honestly, since he had already reached the limits of biological structure, it wasn’t a huge change, but it was certainly a more stable and resilient structure than before he was injured.

She looked amazed, seeing Jun’s body, which had been a mess, recover in an instant.

“Is that Berserk? No, Berserk can’t heal wounds. It doesn’t seem like a healing factor either… Is it an improved version of Cerberus? It’s a real shame I can’t have it.”

“You can’t even handle this, so how did you plan to tame that damned three-headed hound?”

“My… own way, I suppose.”

Indeed, she’s someone who can die and come back to life, so Jun figured she must have a way to avoid recoil or side effects.

“So that’s the equipment the Wizard is selling?”

As Jun pointed to the dark cyberware arm, Scarlet, like someone wanting to show off a new car, chuckled and examined the cyberware arm, turning it this way and that.

“Ah, this! I didn’t mean to show it off, but was it that obvious? Right. It’s one of the main pieces of equipment the Wizard used. I’ve used it a few times, and it’s so good it makes my desire for Cerberus disappear.”

Float-float-

Again, gravity vanished, and Jun’s body lifted.

‘Annoyingly troublesome.’

“It’s not perfect yet, but there’s also this way to use it?”

“What?”

Creak- Crash—!!

As she extended her hand, with an explosive sound, everyone’s heads in the station shot up, and sensing the ominous atmosphere from earlier, Jun immediately twisted his waist in mid-air, spun, and extended his dagger. What he saw was the acrylic display case of a vending machine covering his entire vision.

Crrrack! The dagger embedded in the vending machine tore through its body, and Jun quickly straightened himself, dispersing as much of the vending machine’s impact as possible.

Thud!

Jun rolled on the floor with the vending machine, escaping the anti-gravity zone, but with metal objects flying like electromagnetically accelerated bullets, he had no time to breathe, sprinting through the station to dodge them.

‘Martina!!! Stop that too!!!’

If he were to face it head-on, he could crush it, but that cyberware arm, which was one of the Wizard’s main pieces of equipment, was annoying. No, bothersome. No, more than that, it was too much to even approach, let alone respond to, by himself. All he could do was wait for Martina to deck the cyberware arm and neutralize it.

However, only Martina’s uncharacteristically flustered voice echoed in his head.

‘…Impossible. I cannot even confirm the security structure or the operating method of that cyberware. It does not match any corporate patent in the database…!’

“What the…!”

While Jun was alone, enduring all the playful attacks Scarlet D. Phoenix launched, the Black Market guards and Fifty Star resumed their engagement. Most of the injured mercenaries and gang members had fled, but those who remained either fiercely retaliated against the Fifty Star with drawn weapons or licked their tongues, looking to profit, turning it into a three-way battle. In the tense gunfight, the Fifty Star couldn’t move an inch from the tunnel entrance, and the Black Market guards were annihilated, with new reinforcements arriving. The mercenaries had even torn apart concrete barricades, looking for an opportunity in the chaotic scene.

Jun ran, dodging bolts, pipes, and rebar flying like bullets, hearing the noise of them embedding deep into the concrete floor right behind him.

“Yuki! Run!”

It was a difficult situation. He shouted to Yuki, who was protecting herself by deflecting and dodging bullets amidst the fierce gunfire.

“Do you think I’d let you run? Let’s play until you die!”

“You goddamn bitch!”

Jun’s legs floated up again. This time, unable to escape, he resisted by fiercely deflecting the flying metal fragments while suspended in the air, but some, which he couldn’t react to in time, embedded themselves in him.

Gasp…!

“…”

Foreign objects scraped against his bones, causing his expression to contort involuntarily, and pierced through him. He avoided vital spots, but that didn’t mean there was no pain. He gritted his teeth and endured.

He had experienced far greater pain than this, like holes being blown through his brain and nerves burning away.

“Haa..! Yuki, I’m fine, so run quickly!”

“What about Jun?”

“I said I’m fine!”

First, Jun needed to get Yuki out of this battlefield. Of course, seeing her effortlessly deflect large-caliber bullets without harm suggested she could protect herself, but he didn’t want to see her lying as if dead in a recovery pod again, just in case.

Yuki, still floating, gently smiled as she watched Jun, who was precariously deflecting metal and creating iron filings that clung to his body. Her beautiful smile was so worrying that it made him shout and ask what she was planning to do, and his premonition became reality.

“I’ll handle it.”

“!”

“It’s okay. Besides, I don’t like running away first when someone I like is in trouble~ Silly Jun.”

Jun bit his lip, watching Yuki’s back as she swayed her white tail and confidently walked towards the Fifty Star, who blocked the tunnel entrance like an iron wall.

“Be careful.”

“Heh heh~ I’ll show you something amazing.”

The fox’s red eyes curved alluringly.

* * *

Black Market employees lay scattered in a pathetic state on the tracks. Though they reportedly lacked high-level equipment, their faces, despite their protective gear, were contorted in pain and fear. Those proudly displaying the Fifty Star, who had caused this atrocity, continued the gunfight mechanically and silently, while their leader let out a bizarre laugh, seemingly enjoying the battlefield where bullets flew.

“Coming towards the station without even hiding? How fearless.”

“I decided I’d handle you guys~ And I don’t like seeing you mess with someone else’s man.”

The red-haired gang member raised an eyebrow at the audacious reply.

“Hmm… not enough. If you want to have fun with me, at least bring Hijikata. The only one here worth playing with is your master, so get lost, mutt.”

A humiliation tossed right before her face, as if it were a sliver of mercy. The white fox’s red eyes gleamed coldly as she continued to advance, click-clack, click-clack.

“Tsk. Annoying, deal with it yourselves.”

Scarlet D. Phoenix liked strong opponents. Engaging in life-and-death struggles, teetering on the brink, and getting soaked in the reward hormones circulating throughout her body was utterly ecstatic. In that sense, she could be considered lucky. Although she originally had another objective, as soon as she acquired the Wizard’s equipment, she also met the owner of Cerberus, who had not only foiled her previous snatch attempt but had also killed her once.

Even now, she was being toyed with by the anomalous nature of this equipment, which she found incredibly surprising, but she would soon adapt and begin her counterattack. The uninvited guest who had intruded during this preparatory phase was nothing more than an irritating fly to her. She seemed to be a mid-tier mercenary, but as one of Fifty Star’s main forces, she wouldn’t be satisfied unless her opponent’s skill rivaled the legends of the mercenary world… If she left it to her subordinates, they would handle it.

“Alright, my apologies for getting distracted. Let’s go up again…”

Bang—

Crack! A heavy impact slammed into her hamstring. Her vision swayed diagonally, and her center of gravity dropped.

“Hmm?”

What was happening? What had she been hit by? There was no significant damage. The member of the Great Fallen scowled and irritably turned around. There, one of her subordinates was aiming a gun at her.

“What, what is this?”

“Shut up. You’re tougher than you look. First, I’ll cut off your limbs and sell you to a company as stone.”

“…”

Insubordination? Scarlet immediately raised her gun to deal with the subordinate who had attempted fragging, but sensing something amiss, she increased the gravity output and shifted her gaze. Where had she gone? She clearly told them to deal with her…

Excluding the subordinate aiming a gun at her, the other five ignored the flying bullets and all aimed their guns upwards, at her. Up?

As she raised her head, a kick flying towards her face struck her jaw, and with a crack! sound, her jaw protector rattled, and her brain slightly shook. The concussion was quickly recovered by the vibration-absorbing protector, but she was immediately caught in a continuous grappling hold around her neck, flipping her vision 180 degrees vertically, and sending her head-first into the ground.

“Damn it…!”

There was no damage. No matter how high-performance her bioware, a few strikes not using weapons or firearms couldn’t penetrate its defenses. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she activated her speedware to simply dispose of her, but immediately, large-caliber bullets flew towards her vital spots. She used her accelerated time to dodge the bullets, sacrificing her chance to counterattack.

The white disruptor, slipping out of the leg-wrap like an eel, struck up the barrel of the gun aimed by a squad member, causing the body to shoot upwards. The fox, who had smoothly spun, then got behind the member and dug her claws into the chipset slot.

“What the…!”

Click-

With her claws, embedded about 3cm deep, damaging the slot, the squad member’s combat eye flickered for a very brief moment, as if it had stopped working and was rebooting. And Click-clack—

“!”

Another gun barrel was immediately pointed at Scarlet.

“You surprised me! Just die!”

“Stop it!”

Bang!

Two squad members began to distinguish neither ally nor enemy. No, three. No, four. No, five. No, six.

As if possessed, highly trained former soldiers became chaotic, attacking anyone nearby like a disorderly mob. Among them, Scarlet, positioned at the very front of the line, was exposed to the most attacks. Being at the forefront, she became the target of friendly fire, mistaken for an enemy in the confusion, and because she was the most threatening, she was inevitably exposed to the gunfire from the arriving Black Market guards and mercenaries. In less than 10 seconds, the disruptor had completely overturned the situation, and Scarlet felt her face flush with heat.

“A mere bug using petty tricks…!”

“And those petty tricks are about to kill you~”

The fox, hiding behind the squad members with malfunctioning sensory systems, calmly wagged her tail and scoffed, then raised her hand and wiggled it gently. Rose gold cyberware fingers, covered in realistic patterned artificial skin, softly wiggled. A cyberware specialized in causing chaos, capable of instantly implanting a perception-impairing virus into physically connected targets, turning one-on-many situations into a quagmire.

Scarlet had no choice but to admit it. She had been careless.

“I haven’t even used it properly yet, what a shame. I’ll be back to reclaim it soon.”

Phoenix, who had taken all the bullets pouring down in a final desperate struggle, cleared five of her subordinates and left the last one critically wounded, was just about to reach Yuki when she felt the presence of a 2kg iron tool flying at supersonic speed, rupturing the air behind her, and her head exploded, killing her.