ch56

Creak… creak….

As ordered, the HA floor, now completely devoid of personnel, echoed with a nerve-wracking noise.

The soles of combat boots scraped against the floor, inching the wearer forward.

The subject was, of course, a Levy unit.

Yet, despite being in the middle of their own facility, they were far from smoothly executing the operation, unable to even pinpoint the intruders’ location.

“…Is system access still down?”

• We’re trying our best. But… it was an independent network to begin with, and it seems the staff completely cut off access while evacuating, so we’re having difficulties. We’ll request system recovery as soon as we find the Doctor. –

“…God damn it!!”

Now…! I need them to pinpoint where the intruders are, but instead, they’re just spouting leisurely nonsense. I cut off the mic and cursed at the headquarters engineer.

Thanks to the unnecessarily outstanding internal design, only intermittent, subtle vibrations could be felt. As a soldier deployed on the front lines, I couldn’t be happy about not being able to confirm the enemy’s size or armament.

Even if they could just tap into the security camera feed, this shit wouldn’t be happening. I internally cursed the so-called experts who couldn’t do anything right.

“…Hey, aren’t you being too anxious? If even you’re like that, the atmosphere will worsen.”

“If it’s just ‘worsen,’ that’d be a relief….”

He, who trailed off, was known for his good instincts within the squad.

When gambling, he always knew the perfect timing to back out, and he sensed the shitty missions from the moment the orders were issued.

That intuition was fiercely warning him… that this underground floor was an absolute death trap.

The eyes of the person in charge, Grisha, gleaming with madness, flashed through my mind.

Even though it was an order from a superior, the suspicion that we were caught up in an absurd situation had already sprouted… and from the moment we got off the elevator, a very, very, extremely bad feeling hadn’t left me.

It was as if… someone was constantly watching us with a creepy feeling.

Despite the environment being far from contaminated, a sticky substance clung to every step, unpleasantly preventing us from going deeper.

The only reassuring thing was that almost all the troops at the gate were deployed, so the probability of engaging the unknown enemy first was low…?

• …This is the squad in charge of elevator 4. The shaking seems to be getting closer. We’ll report immediately if we find the target. Over. –

• Wait, I’ve confirmed something moving inside the operating room. High-density thermal energy detected… &^&(*…?! ……!! –

This is… jamming?

For terrorists with unknown motives, they seemed to have prepared quite a lot.

• Can’t hear you well^&%^… Say again#^%……. –

• Damn^*&……. –

Ear-piercing static grew, eventually consuming the entire channel.

The communication between the underground troops and headquarters being cut off sent a chill down my spine… but on the other hand, this could be seen as a desperate trick from the cornered opponent, unable to handle Paradise’s forces.

They probably want to target individual units due to their disadvantage… but if it were that easy, Mega Corp would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.

Clank!! Click…!

Without a single error, all Levy unit members entered a perimeter security posture.

Maximizing the sensory functions provided by their helmets and individual Implants, they aimed their loaded guns down the hallway, ready to eliminate any suspicious individuals approaching.

“The vibration is still felt from afar… Were there any employees left inside the operation room? Well, that’s good, we can use the cameras.”

…A presence? Or a biological reaction?

A comrade who seemed to have sensed something cautiously approached the room labeled ‘Operating Room 7.’ Then, without any friction, the door naturally slid open, welcoming the visitor.

But… just as I thought that even though the system in this area was paralyzed, convenience facilities like lighting and sensors were still operating normally.

Another squad member who had experience working in the harvest zone muttered.

“…? That door wasn’t automatic, was it….”

Crack!

There was no time for caution or anything else.

As if closing a mouth that had been opened, the teeth of the blast door violently slammed into the body of the squad member who had gone ahead.

The sight of limbs, crushed brutally between the wall and the door, convulsing, entered my eyes.

Everyone reflexively tried to respond… but the target was ambiguous. What, the door? Should we shoot and shatter the blast door? That wouldn’t bring him back to life.

No, in the first place, can we even call this an attack? It was a final moment that was more convincingly seen as an accident caused by a malfunctioning system, so the judgment was delayed.

Crack!!

Once again, the widely opened door finished off the helplessly incapacitated squad member.

Only now could they confirm the existence of something other than the police officer intruder.

The machine’s blood-red eyes seen through the briefly opened gap.

But just as talking to pebbles on the road doesn’t bring a response.

Just because a person faces a lump of iron without artificial intelligence head-on doesn’t mean they’ve made eye contact with it.

But even while thinking it was a foolish expression, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had seen something lurking inside the surgical machine.

…The entity that carries out modern warfare is a corporation. And if its essence is Droids, Modified Humans, and ultra-luxurious equipment.

The nightmare of modern warfare was nothing else. Interdimensional demons that are difficult to even resist without corresponding asymmetric power.

“Network Hacker—! Location unknown!! What are these morons at headquarters doing, not responding when the facility has been completely taken over…!!”

“God damn it, destroy everything!! If you don’t want to die, just break everything you see!!”

Even special screams or last words were a luxury for the dead.

When a dazzling beam of light passed by, the body of a squad member with an unfamiliar ring-shaped mark on their helmet collapsed.

“Grenade throw!! Take cover, you bastards…!”

The dollhouse that had revealed its true colors began to welcome its guests.

The section lighting flickered madly, disrupting vision, and all the machines with even a little mobility stretched and woke up from their slumber.

The sight of even miscellaneous… devices like cleaning robots moving arbitrarily looked like a machine rebellion, the kind of thing you’d gossip about at a drinking party.

“…This is absurd.”

How many hackers were mobilized to launch this kind of offensive at the gate? As non-experts in the virtual world, they couldn’t even guess. They could only desperately hope that the headquarters engineers responding were less incompetent.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

“Ugh… ah…!! You unconscionable bastards!!”

I think that numerical violence is a really dirty, cheap, fundamental, and risk-free tactic.

…Isn’t that something I shouldn’t be saying? Don’t be ridiculous, if what’s here wasn’t a consciousness, I would have already collapsed with a nosebleed.

Maybe the capillaries in reality have already burst from not being able to withstand the overwork.

This darkness is clearly a space that’s no different from my base, but I keep cutting down the weeds that keep growing out of nowhere.

And on the other hand, if there’s an object that’s subtly different from what I implemented, I mercilessly tear it down and rebuild it.

A hell that combines spot-the-difference and reaction speed tests.

If all of this is a constant attempt to seize control, you can roughly understand my situation.

Still, my brain, which is close to the realm of the inhuman, could withstand doing two games at the same time.

But what if we add a real-time strategy simulation here?

“Ah, shit…! I didn’t see the grenade?!”

While suppressing the tricks that the headquarters guys are pulling, I don’t forget to jam communications.

I issue attack orders for the simultaneously initiated battles, and since there’s no way medical equipment would have an aiming system, I specify the firing angle one by one.

In a hurry, I overload the battery of a transport robot that was charging and send it charging into the middle of them like a suicide bomber.

I was relieved by the boom! But as soon as I checked the surgical equipment, my main weapon, which was damaged by the high-explosive shell, I closed all the doors and bulkheads in that section and cut off the power.

If you don’t like it, smash everything and escape…!!

Boom—!!

…Oh, crap. Now that I see it, it seems like a defense game element has been added as well.

If you don’t invest the necessary resources in the right places to block them, you’ll be broken through in no time.

Look, the Levy unit that I just locked up is concentrating their firepower, tearing down the entire wall, and escaping again. As these disposable limbs are destroyed, their numbers are also decreasing in a war of attrition, but the situation is precarious.

“Just a little… just a little more…!!”

Quickly. A little faster. More efficiently. I push the calculations to the limit.

It’s not enough to just sit demurely at the top and issue orders. I recklessly split my consciousness to the point where the self that is me becomes faint and shove it into the machine.

It was as if I was whispering to the group of cells that make up my body to do their assigned tasks.

An individual yet a collective, a swarm and a complete being. I feel like I’ve become the protagonist of some Zen koan-like riddle.

Zhiiiiiing—!!

Crack!!

The more sophisticated turrets and soldiers push back the faltering Levy unit, and the abyss that was shaken by the external invasion regains its solidity.

Even though I somehow managed to achieve this, my anxious heart doesn’t calm down. I was worried about my body leaning helplessly against the wall, but… the main reason was Anne.

Before I could even clash with the killing machine I had prepared, Helena, who was moving while dealing with the rushing Anne, ended up colliding with a group of enemies.

The combination of Anne, who had gained a means to suppress superhumans with the power of enhanced armor, and the Levy unit, whose attack power alone was threatening, was bound to be quite annoying.

For example…… if she gets shot while briefly stopping to block a blow that flew in a difficult trajectory like that…!

“…You sons of bitches who deserve to die.”

Helena, who immediately sensed what would happen next, sneered.

Her body, exposed to the merciless barrage, flew into the air.