Chapter 56
Chapter 56
8. Hunter Alliance -8
The 『Coffin』 was nowhere to be seen—lost, perhaps, while she was being pursued.
Her whole body was covered in small wounds, and after crouching low and moving quietly to stay hidden, she looked practically like a beggar. Hiding in this cramped burrow had left her caked in dirt, which only made the sight more pitiful.
There was a dried trail of blood on her cheek. Did the androids from that other world really copy even the bleeding, adding it as a feature?
Her golden hair, which she always wore neatly combed and hanging down, was in bad shape too.
Even in that tattered state.
"Oh my. Noah, what happened to one of your shoes?"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Elijah was still Elijah.
She was still wearing that subtle, playful smile, and of all things, she was worried about my missing boot. This wasn't exactly the time for that conversation.
Still, since the subject came up, I looked down and found myself looking pretty grimy.
I'd forgotten about it in the rush of everything, but because that Hori had made off with one of my boots, I'd had no choice but to run all the way here with nothing but a sock on my left foot.
I'd sprinted along forest paths, so there were holes worn through here and there⋯⋯ and above all, it was caked in dirt.
I changed the subject.
"That's not the important thing. What happened? Why couldn't you contact me, and that child in your arms⋯⋯"
Only then did Elijah put on an "oh, right" expression and open her mouth.
"Ah, that. Shall I explain briefly? I stole the book they needed for their ritual and was escaping with this child when I got hit by a curse that causes system errors, and, well."
"⋯⋯Don't explain briefly. Tell me in detail."
There were three separate things in that one sentence that needed explaining.
The starting point of Elijah's involvement in this incident was a single Community post.
[Last Will | (Hunter1) | No fucking way]
: I came into this stage to grind dungeons and some crazy bastards are killing all the natives
I get taking food and stuff since we're the ones saving the world, but right now they're killing every native who resists and putting collars on the rest and locking them up in pens like livestock⋯⋯ (omitted)
A hunter who had been working on clearing the stage had caught sight of a strange scene. Hunter Alliance personnel killing and burning villagers, and young beastmen being led away in restraints.
Elijah received the coordinates in a reply and immediately headed to that stage.
Elijah had heard about the Hunter Alliance's atrocities from Noah Won, and so she had joined in order to dig up the Alliance's internal information. Up until now, the infiltration had been successful.
She had been building her reputation by treating those around her with a bright, cheerful attitude, and she'd even heard news that she would soon be promoted to the next rank, Silver. With Elijah's talents, she could reach an even higher rank and extract even more support.
Which meant, obviously—if she interfered with these inhuman acts here, everything she'd done by joining would be for nothing. Elijah would be placed on the kill list right alongside Noah Won's name as punishment for obstructing the Alliance's operations.
But there was no hesitation.
"Well, I joined to stop this kind of thing, so."
That was truly the case, and besides, she still had a long road ahead of her.
Elijah drew her wire and began a guerrilla battle against the Alliance group.
The ability to self-repair through the 『Coffin』 stood out in this kind of fight. The reason the few are disadvantaged against the many is that it becomes a war of attrition—but if you can repair yourself on the spot when injured, what is there to fear?
Whether an arm was severed or a leg was severed, she had spare parts in abundance. Even fighting against Alliance members numbering a full twenty, the battle remained evenly matched.
So this story could have become one about a righteous person rescuing a beastman tribe from horrific plunder.
"Alliance members, step aside."
"Director Joero⋯⋯?!"
"I'll deal with that woman, so finish what you were doing. If the schedule slips, it may be your heads on the block instead of the ones already cut."
"Y-yes⋯⋯!!"
If not for the one person who had been there.
Joero.
The radical faction director called by that name was a middle-aged man with sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, a sharp-featured face, and loose-fitting green clothes that made him look quite slender at a glance.
A bow and quiver were slung across his back, marking him as an archer, and in his left hand he held an old book, open. Most striking of all was his head.
He had half his face wrapped tightly in bandages. Everything above his upper lip except the eye holes was meticulously wrapped, to the point that neither his hair nor his ears were visible.
In a way, he looked like a mummy.
Elijah made her judgment. Geumjeokgeumwang—to capture the bandits, capture their king.
To take down the group, you ultimately have to take down the leader first. Judging from his attire, she assessed that he would be vulnerable in close combat, and Elijah immediately charged at Joero.
Her physical strength fell into the formidable category. The monstrous power bursting from her mechanical arm—packed with all manner of components—was enough to snap the wrists of anyone fooled by the outer shell of a slender woman.
So she thought she could handle him well enough.
Clamp. Kikikikik—
She was caught.
"Everyone thinks that⋯⋯"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
Joero's gaunt grip clamped down on Elijah's forearm with the pressure of a hydraulic press, and the mechanical arm crumpled inward with the sound of bending steel plate.
And then, just like that.
Udeudeudeuk—!!
It was torn off.
I'd heard the saying that archers are secretly strength builds until I was sick of it, but.
"Torn off?"
"Yes."
"Could it be that the arm's material isn't actually that strong? Since it looks like a human arm from the outside. It seems to have proper skin and everything."
"Would you like to feel it yourself? Here. You can squeeze as hard as you like."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
It felt a little strange, but I reached out, took hold of Elijah's forearm, and gradually applied force. At first I felt the distinctive texture of human skin, but the more force I applied, the more I realized.
That beneath this skin existed a hard metal plate. From the midpoint on, stubbornness kicked in and I squeezed with all my strength, but it was hopeless.
Her arm was considerably⋯⋯ yes, comparable to the shield that the Republic of Korea's finest minds had painstakingly crafted for me⋯⋯ hmm, no. It was stronger than that.
And yet he had crumpled it with grip strength alone and torn the arm off. The hunter world defied common sense, but even so, this was strength beyond common sense.
Elijah agreed with my assessment.
"I thought so too. Because, hmm⋯⋯ it wasn't refined."
"Refined?"
"At our level, learning to control our strength is essential, isn't it?"
"True."
I nodded. For aggro management, and because problems could arise when harvesting stage resources or carrying out certain missions.
"But he seemed unable to control his own strength. I don't think he originally meant to tear my arm off—it looked like he intended to swing me around and slam me."
"Hmm."
I'd remember that. Monstrous strength. But recently acquired, it seemed, and poorly controlled.
I visualized the information about Joero in my head and urged Elijah to continue her story. While I was at it, I popped crackers one by one into the mouth of the young beastman in Elijah's arms.
"⋯⋯What happened after that? What do you mean you stole a book?"
"I told you my arm got torn off, right? I used that."
"?"
"Normally, people don't expect a torn-off arm to move on its own."
People adapt to their environment. Those who roam the forest develop the ability to live with the forest, and those who must hide while watching society's every move—like pickpockets—develop the ability to sense when to run.
So Elijah's judgment was sharp.
She couldn't win. She had to flee. But even if she fled, depending on how she did it, it wouldn't end in pure failure.
Shweeik—!
"If you intend to keep trying⋯⋯"
She swung her wire to attack Joero, but this was a feint. The real move was the torn-off arm lying below. If she connected a wire and manipulated the hydraulic system built inside—
Puhahk!
"⋯⋯Hm?!"
The arm sprang up mechanically and fired wires outward in a radial pattern.
Seogeok—!
Joero's left hand, which had been holding the book, was severed at the forearm and floated into the air. A strand of wire snatched it like a fishing rod and reeled it in—the book settled into Elijah's arms. She had struck sharply at his blind spot.
But Joero's expression barely changed. As he calmly shook off the severed arm, there was a crunching sound and the forearm instantly regrew, regenerating.
Elijah muttered, a bead of cold sweat rolling down.
"Um, are you perhaps a lizard?"
Of course, no answer came.
The Alliance members were closing in, and Joero drew his bow with his regenerated arm. At that point—having put some distance between them, but at the spot where widening the gap any further would actually be a disadvantage—Elijah murmured.
"Stage transfer."
Transfer. White light began to envelop her, and she became defenseless.
But it was Elijah herself who couldn't move under the pressure of the System's dimensional transfer. Objects that weren't people, unaffected by the stage transfer, still functioned.
"Auto-defense. Until every built-in component is expended."
Bbiririk—
With an inorganic beep, the 『Coffin』 moved.
Weeeing— tadadadadada—!!
Everything inside the 『Coffin』—mechanical arms, legs, wrenches, and all manner of odds and ends—began firing in every direction. And Elijah put her back to the Coffin, using it as a shield to hide her body.
"Graaah!"
"Wh-what the hell. What kind of freakish—!"
"Wait, something's coming out of the arm⋯⋯ it's wire! The wire's exploding!"
Kwaang—!! Shurururuk!
The launched mechanical arms overloaded and spun their built-in motors, and the connected wires became bombs that slashed wildly at everything around them. As long as the Coffin was operating, no Alliance member dared approach this area.
"⋯⋯They're not coming this way?"
Except—the direction where the beastman children were had not been designated as an attack range.
At that moment, two things happened simultaneously.
One was that one of the beastman children shook off the hand of the Alliance member holding them and ran toward Elijah. That direction was outside the 『Coffin』's firing arc, so the child could rush in without resistance.
Before the System's white light reached its peak, the child succeeded in burrowing into Elijah's arms. Elijah hurriedly opened the Shop window and purchased and applied a "Non-Hunter Companion Transfer Ticket."
And the other thing.
"Thanks to those vermin failing to even slow you down, I can't stop you from fleeing⋯⋯ Very well, then."
Kikikikikiki—
"If you insist on meddling in a matter with an obvious outcome and dying for it, I'll gift you a calamity that will linger forever."
Joero had drawn his bowstring without an arrow.
Elijah felt "something."
She didn't know what it was. A sensation like ominous words whispered at a decibel beyond human hearing, outside her range of perception. When her hand trembled at that incomprehensible chill—
"『- - - -』."
Something shot forth with words she could not understand, and it unmistakably struck Elijah.
[Error!]
[Intrusion detected in D-rank lower system (target: Elijah). Function access temporarily restricted.]
[This measure may be applied indefinite%⋯⋯]
"Follow her and make sure she's dead. Recover the book too."
With Joero's command ringing from afar as the last thing she heard—
After that, Elijah was transferred away in white light.
I was genuinely shocked.
"He has an ability that causes⋯⋯ errors in the System?"
"Yes. It's still happening now. It's even getting worse. Now when I call up my Status Window, there's barely a single character I can read⋯⋯ That's why I couldn't contact you."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Elijah's expression darkened. She was speaking as if it were nothing, but the shadow cast over her face was reminiscent of a patient who had received a terminal diagnosis.
Damage to the body could be dealt with somehow, but damage inflicted on the System left her with no recourse. If this continued and she ended up completely severed from the System⋯⋯ she probably didn't even want to imagine it.
Until now, I had thought of the System as absolute.
Because it supported a vast world, because powerhouses beyond my imagination were contained within the System's framework, and because when I had accepted it, it had restored my dying body in an instant—there was precedent.
There were many grounds for trust and few grounds to doubt its power. But⋯⋯ yes. No matter how easily a tiger can hunt a person, if a person fights just the very tip of its tail, the person would win.
So the System had gaps too, and those gaps could be targeted and exploited.
And this Joero, whom I'd have to fight from now on, had that kind of ability. The world is wide and full of cheaters. But my ability wasn't exactly shabby either.
"First, let me try to treat that error."
"What?"
"I've dealt with something similar before. Don't worry too much. It'll get resolved."
As it happened, there had been a reaction when I tested the strength of her mechanical arm. 『Download -2』 had identified some force afflicting her as a skill, and it was currently downloading.
[-> Download Slot 1 : 『- - - -』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 16%)]
And if this thing was a skill, then I might be able to handle it the same way I'd resolved the Zombie Virus. I'd never applied it to another person before, but as for that part⋯⋯ I'd find a way somehow.
I thought as the download progressed.
Come to think of it, there had been nothing wrong with the System up until the moment I landed in this stage. Then, once I began searching for Elijah and moving closer in her direction, the System errors had started.
In that case, perhaps this wasn't a curse acting on Elijah herself, but something affecting a broader range.
It didn't seem to spread like an infectious disease either. If it were that kind of thing, then right now, while I was in contact with Elijah, the rate at which my Status Window broke down should have been extremely fast. But it wasn't.
Then was the mechanism located somewhere other than Elijah herself? Rather than errors being induced around her cursed body—
Something like a summoned creature looking down over the area⋯⋯ or.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
The black Gate.
No, the thought had flashed through my mind, but there was no way.
Even if a black gate—something I'd never seen or heard of in my life—had appeared in the sky, even if the unease I felt from that gate resembled the something being downloaded from Elijah⋯⋯ it had to be coincidence.
Because gates were an ability exclusive to the plant bastards.
And if a hunter had used one—
[Neutral City] Somewhere in a back alley.
Looking down at a hunter cowering and trembling among a pile of corpses, 『Da』 fiddled with her round ears and spoke. Just as she had gently explained to Noah Won during the Tutorial.
"If a hunter betrays the 『System』 and serves the 『King of Plants』, then at the same moment they're expelled from the System framework—they receive her curse, and their ears become abnormally long and pointed. They call such people 『Elves』."
"S-spare⋯⋯"
"So, how many of those 『Elves』 do you think there are?"
It wasn't a question meant to be answered.
Seogeok—!
The man trembling in terror died with his pale complexion and expression frozen, his throat cut.