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Scattered droplets of blood embroider the air.

The dislodged mask flies in a parabola, unable to defy gravity, and tumbles to the ground.

My mind, which I thought had become sufficiently numb from seeing so much blood and so many corpses today, is thrown into disarray.

My chest feels hot, as if a dagger has been plunged into it. Logically, to survive, I should immediately draw my rifle and return fire. But my hands were already following Horatio, pulling Omen by the back of his armor.

“Omen—!!”

“These goddamn, morally bankrupt, crazy bastards…!!”

Deaga-ga-ga-gak—!!

Ta-dang!! Tang…!!

I don’t know how much my pathetic strength helped.

To protect Omen’s body, which had fallen with a thud, from the pouring gunfire, I drag him, even if it means pulling him, to the bottom of the stairs. Domino, who had been returning fire with only his pistol, also waits, crouching low, once the defected suppression team shows no sign of pursuing us further.

“Hoo… Hua…. Hiss!”

Jjieeik…!

In that brief moment, he unflinchingly takes out a jackknife and removes the bullet lodged in his shoulder. Perhaps due to the blood loss and the side effects of the drugs he ingested, I could see his legs trembling even as he leaned against the wall.

“Hey, you bastards!! Look before you shoot, look!”

“So we only shot Omen and Nocturne, right? Daredevil or Hacker are bound to have it anyway….”

“That’s why I told you to only shoot the skin…!! Do you really want to die here?!”

Whether the guys above were yelling or not, we secured our immediate safety and checked on Omen’s condition first.

I grope his abdomen as he lies on his back, facing the ceiling.

As my hand gets closer to the wound he was covering, a sticky liquid smears on it. It wasn’t this soaked just a moment ago… True to his mercenary nature, he accurately tore open the wound.

Mustering my courage, I raise my gaze slightly and see his muscular chest slowly rising and falling. He’s still breathing…!

“Omen!! Can you hear me?! You’re alive, right!”

“………My head fucking hurts.”

“…!!”

I was briefly happy with his heavy reply, like a father annoyed by a hangover the morning after heavy drinking. But his face… was not in good condition.

He had succeeded in widening the existing wound, but it seemed impossible to penetrate the skull reinforced by the Juggernaut procedure. Dented bullets were visible embedded in his forehead and various parts of his head.

His cheek was also deeply torn, revealing his teeth even without opening his mouth, and ragged breaths kept escaping as if it were difficult to breathe through his collapsed nose.

But… the biggest wound was elsewhere.

“……I can’t see well. Did those bastards turn off the lights…?”

“…….”

Horatio bit his lip. He couldn’t help it.

In the place where Omen’s sharp eyes should have been… only bright red blood and flesh were flowing down on both sides.

If the optic nerves were completely damaged, it would be difficult to regain his sight with simple treatment capsules or serums unless he received Enama’s top-tier regenerative treatment services. And there was no way these guys, who reinvested every Credit they earned into modifications or equipment, would have hundreds of millions of Credits.

Then, in the end, that satisfied gaze I encountered at the hotel. The flickering eyes he showed when fighting. The inner light he showed even while pretending to be stiff and unsociable… would be gone forever.

When you undergo the Juggernaut procedure, you are born with a body completely different from your past self. It’s almost like reconstructing and growing every part of your body, so it’s only natural in a way. But if my memory is correct, the only part that remains the same is the eyes… How must he feel to have them taken away….

“…I’ll get you some awesome prosthetic eyes later. How about X-ray vision, huh…?”

“……I’d rather live as a blind man. …Cough! Don’t even dream of taking me to the clinic you went to….”

I could only admire the two of them for having the energy to joke around even in this situation.

I had once given up and closed my eyes for a moment at the threshold of death. Conversely, I had killed outlaws who resented others until their dying breath, and I had seen the end of groveling beasts in the underground.

…This is their strength. The determination to face any obstacle that comes their way in life without avoiding it. A brilliance that has a different origin from the desperation I felt. A pearl born in the most bleak environment.

Woo-oong…!

With a low vibration, Horatio’s Implant began to glow again.

That’s right, nothing is over yet. The suppression team that went to 7th Avenue showed the strongest firepower and the fastest work, but our forces here are also considerable. Furthermore, Paradise is waiting outside for the treasure trove that the recovery team will bring, so time is on our side…!

Bang!!

Daredevil jumped up.

I, who have no intention of remaining a bystander, also lie prone on the uneven stairs like Domino, resting the muzzle of my rifle on the edge. Whatever these bastards are planning, the price for trying to stab Mega Corp in the back will be terrible.

• This is the returning recovery team!! Right now……! –

“That’s absolutely not happening…!!”

The leader of the enemies, who had been cowardly maintaining the encirclement with a ballistic shield in front, proudly kicked a box next to him towards us. In his hand was a menacing-looking detonator.

Another light source was added to the basement, which was filled with Daredevil’s green light. What appeared from there was… a long coil wrapped in dangerous levels of sparks and various parts stuck all over it.

““!!””

The red switch that would wreak havoc on civilization was pressed before I could finish the distress call or Horatio could crush the enemy.

Click…!

………————!!

“Shit…!!”

With a sound like bees flapping their wings, the world collapses.

At the same time as the pure white light, a shockwave was emitted, blowing my body, which had been stuck to the floor, downwards.

I want to do a breakfall, but I don’t know what to do when rolling down the stairs like this.

I tried to cover my head with my hands, but my vision went dark as my temple hit the edge. Judging from the metallic sound, the rifle I dropped seems to have rolled down with its owner.

EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse: powerful electromagnetic wave)… Really…?

These crazy bastards are burning down the house to block the communication channel…?! If they do this, all the electronic equipment that isn’t shielded will burn out, causing complete chaos….

“Ugh?!”

“!! Domino!”

Domino, who was barely clinging to the upper stairs, was kicked by a military boot and fell next to me.

Amidst the confusion, I was about to draw my pistol after seeing the violence… but with the muzzles already densely aimed at me, I slowly removed my hand from near the holster.

Omen is seriously injured, Domino is almost unable to fight. But still…!

……Wait, what about Horatio?

There’s no way he, who was moving more fiercely than anyone else, would be this quiet. Something’s wrong.

…Carefully looking around, I saw a green figure that had also fallen to this bottom.

Like an abyss swallowing the dead, like a coffin where corpses are laid to rest, he was lying in the dark passage.

“Ah….”

The internal circuits directly hit by the electromagnetic pulse are physically burned by the generated current.

Then what will happen to a human who has Implants plastered all over the major parts of their body? Especially if there are circuits near the brain, which is as vulnerable as a vital point…?

“…….”

In a scorched state, like ashes about to collapse, Horatio was twitching.

Fortunately, he scratched the floor with his fingernails in the middle… It’s fortunate. Some powder was falling from his hair itself, which had been carbonized, but he was still alive anyway.

And… if he’s alive, there’s a chance.

“How are you going to live after screwing over Mega Corp…?”

“…The recovery team’s hacker has skills, but no sense. Of course, we’re going to work for another Mega Corp, right? Enama Corporation quoted hundreds of millions of Credits for the data and even supported us with a bomb. The scale is different from the start, isn’t it?”

When I spoke to the mercenary who was examining the fallen recovery team as if he were sure of success, an absurd answer came back.

……These short-sighted bastards. They’re trying to sugarcoat their intention to throw ashes on Paradise Saga’s operation, which must have cost at least a billion Credits, with just a bomb and empty promises.

“…Even if you cut off communication, you’ll all die at the hands of Paradise once we get outside the control line before we go back. ……Well, even if you take the data back safely, you’ll be lab rats.”

“……You look like a pretty sex droid, but you have quite the sharp tongue. It’s a shame we don’t have time…!”

With the threat still aimed at me, the mercenary’s hand was confidently extended.

“Memory card. Paradise prepared it, so it must be intact, right? Find it quickly and hand it over.”

“Ha…! You’re obviously going to kill me if I hand it over, so why would I….”

Bang!!

“Geureuk…!!”

“!!”

The bullet that hit the gauntlet luckily bounced off to a place where no one was. But even that small impact caused Omen to make a phlegmy sound.

“This isn’t a negotiation. You’re not in a position to do that either.”

“…….”

My thoughts are spinning idly, and a bitter taste lingers in my mouth.

I can’t see a way out. This time, it’s the moment when I, the only one who’s relatively okay, have to do something, but countless wrong answers float around like ghosts.

…I made eye contact with Domino, who had secretly taken out a blue syringe, I blinked my eyes to convey a sense of denial. What is a patient in such a wreck going to do….

Kadeudeudeuk!!

“I…! I didn’t live my life to die on such an auspicious day…!!”

There was another foolish patient.

Whether his fingernails broke or not, Horatio, driven by spite, forcibly scratched the floor and turned his body over.

“…Daredevil. You’re getting what you deserve for recklessly implanting shitty Implants. This is what happens when yellow trash acts up just because they got some experimental procedures from somewhere…!”

“Bullshit! Does your citizenship color feed you, so you’re doing double contracts…?!”

Even though the muzzle turned around and pointed at him, he confidently raised his middle finger.

He’s half machine, and he should know he’s lucky to be alive after getting hit by an EMP, but he seems to think he’s immortal.

If we drag this out any longer, they’ll just kill everyone and search the corpses.

What the enemies want is Dusk’s data, what I want is… the survival of the recovery team.

……Ha.

Horatio… you definitely said give and take, right…? It can’t be helped if the scales aren’t balanced. The item I could offer from the beginning was already decided. …It wasn’t my style to obediently accept a game set up by others either.

There are things to learn even from animals, and I never thought I would put it into practice.

I put my trembling hand inside my jacket. The defectors who were about to pull the trigger stopped moving when they saw my actions.

The guys gave a bitter smile when they saw the memory card I reluctantly took out.

One step, two steps. While their eyes are focused on the gift that will guarantee a brilliant future, I transmit the data.

Anxiously shaking my hands and legs… right now…!!

“Ah…!!”

“?!”

The memory card slipped prettily from my hand, falling to the floor, and my clumsy work boot mercilessly crushed it. Everyone was aghast at the sight of hundreds of millions of Credits, so close at hand, being shattered to pieces.

Click…!

In the meantime, I pulled out my Peace Maker and held it to my head. They stared at me with dumbfounded expressions, as if asking what I was doing. I thought I’d get shot once or twice the moment I pulled out a weapon, but this is a good start.

“…Now the extracted data is only in my head, so take me with you. In exchange… on the condition that you spare these three.”