Suddenly, Ninjas Appeared! # 3
The mechanical squirrel.
The thing popped out onto the floor with a pat and let out a cry.
━Krr. Rr. Rung!
A hard, metallic whir of a sound.
At the sight of it, Keongkeongi puffed its fur up into a bristling ball right back at the thing.
━Krrrung…!
Two squirrels, squared off against each other in a tense standoff. I decided the situation did not look good. If Keongkeongi was this wary, then that mechanical squirrel had to be a genuinely threatening and powerful opponent.
"Pretty adorable, right?" said Mechanic Ki Seung-jae. "But you'd best not underestimate it. It's built from mana chrome, so it's completely mana-affine. A fully automated machine made with A-rank equipment materials."
In other words: extremely durable. And just like an awakener's weapon, it would no doubt boot up the moment mana was pumped into it.
It was remarkably similar, actually, to the way I reinforced Keongkeongi with my own mana and sent him into battle.
"I learned it from you, Ha Ildo. But my mechanical squirrel is going to be stronger and more ruthless than your Keongkeongi. That much is certain. So do yourself a favor and surrender."
"Well, that's the kind of thing you only find out by trying!"
Pat—!
I flung my hand forward. Taking that as the signal, Keongkeongi launched himself at the mechanical squirrel as if he'd been waiting for exactly this moment.
Pababat! Pababat—!
The two squirrels hurled themselves at one another. It was a genuinely terrifying spectacle, and it was only natural that the steel beams of Telos Tower crumpled and the floor caved in under the kuuoong— of their impacts.
A dead-even match.
No—actually, my side was at a slight disadvantage.
From what I'd heard, Ki Seung-jae's awakener rank had been A, and A-rank materials were tough. Keongkeongi's attacks just weren't landing the way they should.
"Impressed, aren't you? I've input the data on every dog-squirrel in existence. My mechanical squirrel moves and fights even more like a dog-squirrel than the real thing."
Fwaaat—!
Finally overwhelmed, Keongkeongi came flying back toward me.
Pat.
I caught him in my hands like a catcher snagging a fastball.
━Krrrung…!
Inside my palm, Keongkeongi looked furious. His fur was completely ruffled backwards, and his hide was mottled with black scorch marks.
If I let him fight any longer than this, he'd get seriously hurt.
Tsijik, tsijijik—.
The one small mercy was that the mechanical squirrel was wheezing and grinding unhappily too.
Soon Ki Seung-jae scooped up the mechanical squirrel in his hand and said, "It's stronger than my projected data values. Impressive. So the Prime Dog-Squirrel really is a different breed. But that's fine. Machines can simply be repaired—unlike living creatures."
He was right. A machine only needed repairs.
But Keongkeongi wasn't a machine. If he got hurt, a dozen different things could go very wrong.
This fight—by every measure, it favored the other side.
And honestly? It pissed me off.
"Ki Seung-jae. Back in the day, you used to throw a fit if anyone so much as scratched your gear or handled it rough. I still remember you raging when I broke one of your drones."
Ki Seung-jae had adored machines. He loved polishing them, tightening them, oiling them, and he hated seeing tools mistreated.
And yet here he was, using a mechanical squirrel like it was disposable.
"Ancient history," he said. "We live in an era where even humans are churned through and tossed out like consumables."
Which was precisely when it happened.
━Zeujji…!
Angangi, who had been secretly skittering along the floor, clamped down on Ki Seung-jae's ankle.
Angangi's grip strength was immense, and Ki Seung-jae panicked.
"What the—get off me, you damn ant!"
"Yes! Angang! Hold on just like that!"
Swish—.
I drew the beam saber from my hip and lunged straight at Ki Seung-jae, swinging with everything I had, aiming to sever his arm and put him down.
"Ildo Slash!"
Zuuoong—!
However hard the chrome plating on Ki Seung-jae's body was, the joints had to be its weak point. But the man merely clicked his tongue and raised a hand.
Pwaang—!
What I'd cut was Ki Seung-jae's bizarre bag. It looked like a briefcase, and it was heavily armored—the only thing that came off was the handle.
Thud—.
The briefcase dropped to the floor.
Ki Seung-jae visibly freaked out.
"That's mine!"
He lunged down toward the floor, and in that exact opening, Kalinoi the Tiger Owl—who'd been circling and flapping around the rooftop—didn't miss her chance. She dove straight at him.
━Piirrrr—!
Kalinoi the Tiger Owl was strong. In raw physical terms she could go toe-to-toe with an A-grade monster.
And so Kalinoi pecked at Ki Seung-jae with her beak, raked him with her talons, and battered him with all her wing strength.
Padadadadadadadat—!
A relentless barrage of wingbeats. Ki Seung-jae was too busy getting wailed on to think straight.
"Aaagh! What the hell is this thing! Where did an owl come from!"
"Looks like your intel on Tiger Owls didn't get its latest update!"
While Ki Seung-jae was still seeing stars, I snatched up the bag he'd dropped on the ground.
It was heavier than it looked.
"Mechanical squirrel! Protect me! What are you doing!" Ki Seung-jae shouted. But the mechanical squirrel made no move to guard him—it only barked a wary ━K.rr.Rung— from a distance.
"What are you doing! Is this a malfunction!?"
Ki Seung-jae seemed baffled by the situation, but I had a pretty good idea what was going on. He'd said his mechanical squirrel was more dog-squirrel-like than any actual dog-squirrel. Which meant it would naturally treat Kalinoi the Tiger Owl—the natural apex predator of squirrels—as its mortal enemy and keep its guard up.
Pat—!
Finally, the mechanical squirrel bolted into the distance!
"Tch, of all the variables to run into! You're telling me a too-perfect dog-squirrel algorithm is what screws me over!"
Pwaang—!
Ki Seung-jae snatched something off the ground and hurled it. It was a mechanical beehive packed to the brim with Machine Bees, and while I was flailing around fending them off, I realized Ki Seung-jae had vanished without a trace.
"For all his faults, that guy sure never loses his touch at running away."
"So—this is the bag I grabbed. Seemed like something Ki Seung-jae treasured a lot, so I made sure to salvage it quick."
Morning. I explained everything that had happened the day before to the group and showed off the bag I'd seized.
The bag itself was a single piece of precision machinery, and its security was rock solid. It opened by password, and needless to say, I had no idea what that password might be. No matter how I tried, it wouldn't budge.
"You don't think it's some kind of bomb, do you?" Lee Jina said. "Open it carelessly and we could all get hurt, or worse."
When she put it that way, it was a fair point. But Ari shook her head.
"I don't think it's a bomb. There's none of that distinctive signaling or beeping you'd get from an explosive device, and I can't smell any explosive compound either. That said, it's definitely something important. This bag alone…"
Yu Ari's judgment was that the manufacturing cost of the bag itself had to have run well past hundreds of millions of won. An object embodying an extraordinarily advanced level of engineering.
So what on earth was inside it?
━Hio-ong…!
One thing was certain: something good had to be in there. Kwang-kwangi—usually so docile and well-behaved it could almost seem timid—was showing a keen interest in the bag.
"No idea what it is, but it'd probably fetch a pretty price if we sold it."
I'd acquired it fair and square, so ownership was mine. If I asked the engineer Kim Dan to hack the bag open and she succeeded, it would sell for serious money for sure.
Ki Seung-jae had a rotten personality, but his craft was the real deal. Honestly, the fact that I'd grown so fond of drones and other gear? Fifty percent of that was just falling in love with the equipment he used to build.
Before long, Seo Yerim spoke up.
"So bottom line—first-generation awakener and mechanic Ki Seung-jae has become a terrorist. He's teamed up with Japanese awakeners to attack a corporation. He's planning to smash the very peace he helped build?"
Yerim looked genuinely furious.
"What kind of lunatic does that?"
Love her or hate her, she was an S-rank awakener who'd spent years holding up public safety in this country, so her anger at Ki Seung-jae's terrorism was only natural.
"They probably figured if they attacked our Telos, they'd make a name for themselves, ride the fame, and leverage it for something. Well, they thought wrong. Today, we're rounding up every last one of them."
Swish—.
Yerim looked around at the assembled group.
Seo Yerim and Cha Yura. Two of South Korea's S-rank awakeners were on this island—and on the Japanese side, there was S. Ninja and Tsubaki.
Four S-rank awakeners. Frankly, with this lineup, the sane reaction would be to question the mental state of any terrorist who tried charging in here. But then, sane was the one thing terrorists weren't—that was the whole point of terrorism, wasn't it?
"The match goes ahead as scheduled. When they attack the venue, that's when we take them down and bag them all in one go."
Yerim made the call, and the S-rank Cha Yura nodded in agreement.
"Good call. Here, the default is that we do not negotiate with criminals. How about we make a little wager—which country nabs more terrorists?"
It was an extremely combative proposal. But Seo Yerim seemed to like it.
And so time passed—.
Afternoon. We gathered on the wide sports field. On the surface it was for the final match, Korea versus Japan at football, but naturally it was a trap meant to lure the terrorists out into the open ground.
Pababat—.
After a while, ninjas really did begin to appear on the field, one by one.
The match fell apart in seconds, and I moved to evacuate everyone.
"This way! Into the bunker under the field! Everyone inside, quickly!"
"Hieeek…! This Oinoi was truly looking forward to the football match, that is what she was…!"
"This Coris doesn't quite follow what's happening, but ninjas showing up means fun times, that is what it means…!"
The nymphs were flustered in every possible way.
The ninjas paid them no mind and breathed fire.
"Fire Release: Inferno Breath!"
⟨ FLAME TECHNIQUE ⟩
Fwooooo—.
Scorching flames began devouring the grass.
Oinoi clenched her fist, looking absolutely livid.
"Setting the grass on fire is forbidden, that is what it is…! All nymph sisters shall now deploy the Nymph Secret Art: Ruthless Water Spouting…!"
"Ruthless Water Spouting it is…!"
"Hydro Pump, comin' riiiight up…!"
Fwoooooooo—.
Three nymphs opened fire from their mouths all at once.
Torrents of water as powerful as waterfalls roared out, and the terrorist ninjas who saw them gaped in disbelief.
"A water technique of this level—on a playing field with no water source anywhere in sight!?"