ch101

If you knew the enemy was in a state of mental and physical weakness where they couldn’t even tell right from wrong, I should have gone in from the start. –

“Well… I don’t know about that.”

Based on the brief explanation Rosalyn gave me.

Zero, who was rushing to support Asif, who was suddenly left alone on the battlefield and struggling, muttered through remote communication, but I couldn’t fully agree with him.

Putting a kid who sings about annihilation every chance he gets into a real-life hostage situation… wouldn’t that make me seem too irresponsible?

Besides, I was positive because it seemed like my direct involvement had created a very positive sign in my relationship with Rosalyn.

“Anastasia. Here! Do you need any more data?”

“Uh… no, thank you enough…?”

Her face suddenly came close, so I pulled my neck back to maintain minimal personal space.

But still, the feeling of her red, silk-like hair brushing against my shoulder and the admiring gaze from her sparkling eyes disturbed my composure.

…I’m sure I said I didn’t know if she was a friend or foe, but I think I’m getting a little too much trust.

I carefully examined Zero’s view with one eye and the computer screen Rosalyn was displaying with the other.

The enemy’s deployment, approximate armaments, the location of the defense forces and estimated arrival time, which were obtained by eavesdropping on the crew’s calls, were organized in an easy-to-understand manner, like a presentation submitted to me.

Analyzing the war situation from various angles and clarifying the victory conditions to be protected is like a textbook for a competent operator, so I should be watching and learning, so please… stop looking at me with that expression asking for my impressions.

And I don’t understand other people’s work even if I look at it!

Remnants of the Taito gang and the one-armed man. Confirmed in front, should I join them immediately and engage in combat? –

“No! Just help Asif get out.”

I glanced at the remaining time and made a decision.

Even though it was my mistake, after allowing the guy hiding in the cabin to ambush me, the enthusiastic robot overturned almost every room and advanced, so the front of the train was already a safe zone.

In the end, the only remaining enemies are those guys that Asif has been blocking, so they can’t go anywhere….

“Should I just close all the corridor doors and lower the internal firewalls, sister? Anyway, the vanguard who was opening the way was taken care of by the leader earlier, so once they’re locked up, it’ll be hard to get out.”

“Can you… calm down a little?”

I rejected Rosalyn’s terrifying proposal to create a jar of solitude, as if there was still terrible resentment and anger left.

There’s no need to come up with such a grand plan. From the point where the robbery plan went so horribly wrong, the ending for those guys was already decided in two ways.

Either they’ll be caught by the border guards who will be arriving soon and go through a pleasant investigation-torture-, or….

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Going back in time, to before Rosalyn and Anastasia were tormented by the existence of the sex offender.

삐이이익—!

쿵….

“……!”

The man collapses in the hallway, the sound of air escaping from a balloon coming from his severed neck and mouth, unable to even utter the last scream of his journey.

Even if it was the last signal sent by a dead colleague, the noise of something colliding would not be enough to attract the attention of the robbers who were busy dealing with the guests who were risking their lives to resist.

Moreover, the culprit supported the body with his hands and slowly lowered it to the floor, and the train’s alarm, which ‘malfunctioned’ at the right time, overlapped, making it even more difficult.

And… that was exactly what Asif was aiming for.

“Go back the other way! Or you bastards can throw away your guns, come in, and take the stuff! Take your pick, you morons!”

“What the hell, you bitches?! There’s no exit on the opposite side, what the hell are you talking about…! You should have just stayed quiet and we would have ignored you!”

“…Tsk.”

Leader, wasn’t it usually just a matter of shooting from afar and it’s over? This seems like you’re pushing yourself too hard…? –

“It’s hard to use a rifle with one arm. Overusing the Implant might give me similar output, but the fundamental senses are different.”

Asif glanced at the two groups engaged in a tense standoff with a narrow passage between them.

Seeing the state of the Jackknife, which was covered in blood and fat, he quietly put down the tool that had done its job and rummaged through the fallen robber’s pockets to find a new knife that looked exactly the same.

It was a sneaky move like a petty thief, but whether it was during his mercenary days or after joining the underground organization. The habit of local procurement that he had developed while fighting at a disadvantage didn’t seem to go away easily.

Actually… this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t unluckily lost all his familiar axes.

으득!!

“Gek…?!”

Another one collapses like a doll with a broken string.

The moan that was about to escape was completely suppressed by the knife that was twisted into his cervical spine.

Carefully narrowing the distance from the back, so that the unusual noise wouldn’t attract the attention of the guys, he knew that he couldn’t keep having fun like this forever.

“…Even the dullest guys should start to notice soon. Is there a reinforced human that we should target first?”

There’s no way this old train has a thermal imaging camera or a holo scanner! If I had to say… if you don’t want to get crushed, you have to target that guy first. –

He could quickly figure out who ‘that guy’ was without Rosalyn, the operator, emphasizing it with the data she was sending.

Unlike people whose modifications are difficult to determine unless you check the implanted parts, a thug with a unique appearance was getting up.

“Grenades! Or any bombs, just take out anything you’ve got stashed away! We wasted so much time because of a stupid mistake, we could have just thrown one into the room and it would have been over….”

“We don’t need any of that anymore. Hey, Big Boy! If your arms are cold, stop moving! Just use the door you tore off as a shield and push your way in!!”

“…Hoo!”

With an unpleasant creaking sound.

It wasn’t intentional, but the muscle mass that was sitting in the corner, resting in the blind spot of the camera, began to move.

It wasn’t like his head or body were skinny.

Rather, compared to the shabby others, he was healthy to the point of being muscular. But the important thing is balance, and the huge arms that extended from his shoulders were messing everything up.

“…Ignorance is bliss.”

“Hoo… Hoo!”

Big Boy stiffly rotated his forearms and neck, which were flushed red as if they were about to explode because blood wasn’t circulating properly.

Asif, seeing that, wondered if he should praise him for readily thinking of applying the latest technology that he didn’t even understand, or make him regret interpreting it as he pleased and bringing it into practice.

There’s no way these guys could have officially received the Juggernaut procedure, so they probably just injected a drug they accidentally found into their arms… or killed the doctor during the procedure, one of the two.

Even if he was a grotesque monster of unknown origin and a man with a limited lifespan, he couldn’t wait for him to die of natural causes.

If passengers were dying because of something like that, there was no point in deliberately stepping in.

“I need some visual distraction in the front…!”

Wh, what?! With what here! –

“Anything!!”

Whether Rosalyn was screaming in her head that the most annoying answer in the world was anything, Asif, having identified his target, ran like the wind.

If he could, he would have liked to simply deal with it with the handgun he had brought, without checking the rear… but because he couldn’t gauge the bulletproof performance of that ambiguous modified human. He chose the option of definitely jumping in himself.

스릉….

He threw away the knife, which was of terrible quality. Instead, he pulled out a shamshir-like dagger from his bag, with a firm grip and a sharp blade.

A fatal blow to prevent resistance.

Considering the need to pull his body out afterward, it was a moment that required a really clean hit, but Asif wasn’t worried.

She would live up to his expectations, and he was confident that he wouldn’t disappoint himself.

Ah… really! I don’t know either! This is the best I can do, so don’t die in vain! –

Suddenly, a sandstorm swept into the train.

Asif, who had been warned in advance, closed his eyes, and the standing passengers who were not within the range of the impact were startled and stepped back from the door.

“Ack?! What the hell is this!”

“Break the cameras, break them! The corporate stooges are still trying to pull something!”

The dirt and desert heat that had crossed over the doors and windows that had been opened all at once met the relatively cool indoor air and swirled around.

The sand grains that bounced up indiscriminately on the air currents tormented the sensitive mucous membranes, causing confusion.

It wasn’t a lie that they were originally based in this area, so they quickly regained their composure and began to fasten the clothes they had loosened again….

“Uh.”

The eyes of the gang member, who was turning his head to put on his hood, and Asif, who had just leaped, met briefly.

If he was a soft person who would slow down his hand at the sound of a stupid groan, then maybe, but that wasn’t the case.

까드득!!

‘Oh no!’

“Grrrrk?!”

The feeling of his hand being torn apart came back, along with the sound of metal grinding as if he had been cutting stone with a knife.

Big Boy’s scream echoed, as if even his sense of pain had been erased, but his pot lid-like arm also came up to swat the fly that had stuck to him.

The huge body swayed violently from side to side.

It was unclear whether the embedded blade would dig in further because the bloodshot muscles were so tightly packed, but conversely, it didn’t come out either.

It was a miscalculation. His skin was harder than he had imagined, and the dagger he had swung with one arm was weaker than he had imagined.

At least he succeeded in driving the blade in as much as he had put his weight on it at first… but would a clever solution arise if he pulled it out again?

“^%&$!!”

Big Boy was raging in the center, and Asif was clinging to his shoulder dance.

They somehow retreated to the edge to avoid getting caught up, but the gangsters were watching each other, unable to pull the trigger because they were in each other’s line of fire.

…He laughed inwardly, thinking that he had created a pretty good weapon, even though it wasn’t intentional.

“Iyah!”

“Grrrrp?!”

When force was applied to the hilt – the knife handle – Big Boy’s body stood up as if he had been electrocuted by a high-voltage current.

His two legs, which had been repeatedly doing a running start on his back like a playground to avoid the approaching palm, wrapped around the guy’s neck and hung there, and he didn’t care that blood was streaming from the wound, and he grabbed the dagger handle to use it as a lever.

If Anastasia had seen this, she would have given him a standing ovation and asked.

Where the hell did you learn that wrestling technique?

“Ssibaal—!”

The scream was swallowed by the sound of crushing!!

Asif, who had twisted Big Boy’s head with the tips of his feet, swung his body with all his might.

Although he was missing one arm, the dagger gradually cut into Big Boy’s neck as the weight of an adult man was added to the centrifugal force. That’s why the dull but chilling cutting sound was vividly heard in his ears, and the guy wasn’t in his right mind.

Even if becoming a cripple who couldn’t speak properly after foolishly using drugs was unavoidable, who in the world would want to be slowly beheaded to death like this?

Thwack!!

A wildly swung fist turned another person into a bloody pulp and part of the train.

His arm, which had been heated up from opening the emergency exit and breaking through the security door without sufficient cooling, was now turning black.

Blood that couldn’t circulate, a body temperature that soared and wouldn’t drop.

The horror of all the cells necrotizing was nothing compared to the pain and sense of loss from the groove made by the dagger that had turned about halfway.

“Good… job!!”

It wasn’t like Asif was in perfect condition either.

He was experiencing a sense of motion sickness that would have made him throw up long ago even if he had ridden a raging bull head-on, only several times stronger because he was hanging upside down. On top of that, he had to control the frenzied Big Boy, sometimes as if it would dig in and settle things right away, and other times shifting the center of gravity to prevent it from crashing into the wall.

Of course… it was mild compared to the situation of the robbers, whose gang’s secret weapon had suddenly turned into a son of a bitch to be killed.

What could they do even if they felt wronged? This was why you had to choose your opponents carefully, and the price for being blinded by sweet rewards and recklessly jumping into the unknown.

Gnashing…!

His body, which had been dangling like a pendulum, soared up and settled near his shoulder again.

When he tilted his head back, Asif’s face was revealed, covered in sweat from the short but intense exercise, but even more so with a sense of accomplishment.

“Fare… well!!”

“Ggrrh!! Ggeuk… S… Stop…!!”

As if pulling out a sword stuck in a stone, his torn and peeled hands were pulled violently to finish the job.

Soon… a pathetic head flew through the air.