Chapter 55
Chapter 55
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Ep. 55
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Guh! You mad bastard…”
The cyborg pinned under my foot wasn’t dead yet. His lower body was completely wrecked, and his upper body was half-smashed, but the bastard still tried to resist me.
“You’re dying with me!”
“Tin Can! Don’t!”
What he pulled out was a detonator. He squeezed his eyes shut and flipped the switch.
But nothing happened.
“Wh-what?”
The cyborg frantically pressed the switch again with a bewildered look. He jabbed it over and over, but the bomb didn’t go off.
I reached into his torn-open abdomen and yanked out the half-broken bomb.
Just as I thought.
I hadn’t sniped him from afar and had come to finish him off myself because of this bomb.
Some cyborg soldiers and mercenaries implant bombs in their bodies. There are two reasons for it: one is to take out enemies even in death, and the other is for the thrill.
The former is when players shove a bomb in for practical purposes. Since it’s a game anyway, it’s like preparing a suicide option just to screw over the opponent.
But this is reality, so it had to be the latter—someone who’d implanted it himself purely for the kick.
The more parts you replace with machines, the duller your sense of being alive gets.
The cyborg’s home, the Star Union, was a society that suppressed personal desires and emotions, unlike Mega Corp. That’s why quite a few cyborgs betrayed the Star Union in pursuit of extreme pleasures.
Most head to the Space Dogs, but Mega Corp gets its fair share too.
The Space Dogs were all about daily life-or-death battles and didn’t exactly ban indulging twisted urges, making it a popular spot for crazy cyborgs. That’s why Space Dogs cyborgs don’t bother implanting bombs for thrills.
No way a Space Dogs cyborg, overflowing with love for life, would shove a bomb in their own body.
They might force one into someone else for fun, but they treasure their own hides.
Mega Corp was better than the Star Union but still limited ways to blow off steam. So cases like this guy, implanting a bomb for kicks, cropped up now and then.
In the game, Mega Corp cyborg suicide bombers had that exact backstory.
Normally, I would’ve brushed it off as just lore.
But I’d already fought a Hulk mutant on Yuseong’s ship with a bomb wired to its heart.
Realizing lunatics who actually walked around with bombs in their bodies could exist outside of game settings made me extra cautious, of course.
If I’d sniped the cyborg and the bomb went off by some fluke, it would’ve critically wounded No. 26 and Adhai.
Better to play it safe.
“Sh-shit! Fuck! Why won’t it blow?!”
My worries weren’t unfounded. Seeing the bomb in my hand, the cyborg wailed. I stomped down on his chest to shut him up and gripped his head tight with my combat arm.
As I squeezed, he let out a scream-like groan.
“Urk! Gruuaagh!”
I’d planned to kill him slow since he’d tormented No. 26, but there were still enemies left. Instead, I yanked upward hard with the arm holding his head.
“Kk?!”
“Tin Can!”
Ripping off the cyborg’s head pulled out his mechanized spine too. With his breath cut short, his tongue lolled out, and black oil mixed with blood oozed from the shattered spine.
“D-damn it!”
The heavy weapons guy, who’d been blankly watching me kill his buddy, finally snapped to and swung the barrel of his composite grenade launcher my way.
With the kids right there, no way was I letting him fire grenades. I hurled the cyborg’s head at him.
His skull was coated in steel plating—a blunt weapon in itself—and with an Aimorph’s raw strength behind it, there was no surviving a hit.
“Gaaak!”
The head smashed into the heavy weapons guy’s shoulder. He screamed and dropped his weapon to the floor.
“You fucking piece of shit! Son of a bitch!”
With his shoulder shattered, he spat furious curses and bolted.
Instead of chasing him, I checked on No. 26 and Adhai. No. 26 didn’t seem to have any visible wounds.
｢Yeah. Check the little one first.｣
As she said, Adhai was sprawled awkwardly on the floor, tangled in the net some enemy had shot at him. I sliced the nets to shreds with my claws.
｢Great young one｣ ｢Thanks｣
｢Me｣ ｢Injured｣ ｢Minor｣ ｢Fine｣
The net was designed to constrict around targets, leaving thin scratches in a net pattern all over Adhai’s blue scales.
Adhai had no recovery traits, so it’d take time for those to heal fully.
…Gotta leave the heavy weapons guy for Adhai.
Eating him should cheer Adhai up a bit.
After checking them both, I turned to William last. He stared at us with an expression caught between joy and dread.
‘Either die to the enemy or live as my slave—no other options.’
Anyway, Adhai had taken a bit of damage, but no one was critically hurt. I called out to No. 26.
｢More food?｣
｢Just eat the dead one?｣
She got it right away after spending so much time with me. I patted her once in approval and gave chase to the fleeing enemy.
The hunt was nearing its end.
“Hah, hah, hah…”
Hof clutched his broken shoulder as he ran. Container cover that usually felt reassuring in ops looked alien today.
“Hik?!”
Sensing someone—or something—looking down at him, Hof whipped his head around in terror. He scanned wildly like a madman, but nothing was on top of the containers.
Then a whooshing sound came from behind—like fan blades spinning or massive wings flapping.
He spun around fast, but the spot was empty.
“……”
Shaking, Hof unslung the weapon from his back and gripped it. A Gauss rifle he’d bought out of pocket to protect himself.
‘Gotta swap ammo!’
This thing wouldn’t die to grenades. Hof figured only penetrators could win.
“Guh, damn it!”
With his right shoulder busted, he had to reload one-handed with his left. He barely chambered the penetrator rounds and hefted the rifle with that arm.
Hof thought.
All these obstacles were against him. It could fly. Might be watching from some high perch right now.
‘G-gotta get out of the port district!’
Genet’s car at the sector edge. Best bet was to grab that and peel out.
Target set, Hof ran again. Ominous wingbeats echoed in his ears, but he forced them out.
Normally he’d report to Sihyun Yujin ASAP, but Hof wasn’t in his right mind.
He’d rolled through countless battlefields, but he’d never seen a monster rip a living comrade’s head off and chuck it like a ball. Buddies could’ve snapped him out of it, but they were all dead.
‘I-is this the right way?’
He ran and ran, but no sign of the boundary fence. Just endless similar-looking containers.
Pain and fear made it hard to tell if he was on track.
‘No! It’s right! Gotta be… Huh?’
As he pep-talked himself onward, something not-a-container caught his eye for the first time.
Genet slumped against one, her head a bloody mess.
Her prized goat horns were snapped clean off, and her white hair was dyed red with blood, like it’d always been.
“G-Genet?”
“U-ugh… H-Hof?”
Hof rushed over and checked her leaning against the container. Up close, her wounds were worse than thought—scalp torn wide, exposing white bone.
“Y-you okay?”
“H-hurry… r-report to the, the lady…”
Her stammering reminded him of his duty. He yanked out his comms.
“Hey! Don’t you die on me too! Stay with it!”
“Ha… Last face I see is yours? What a shitty life…”
Genet muttered despondently. Even now, her usual snark made Hof start to retort.
“Psycho bitch, you’re still bitching at a time like this?”
“Urk… If it w-was you, you’d do the s-same…”
Before she finished.
Something pitch-black dropped from atop the container and seized her head. A shadow-like hand yanked Genet upward.
Then came the meat-grinder sounds, and blood sprayed from the container top. Genet’s twitching legs went limp, her pants soaking dark with piss and blood.
“Hiiik!”
Hof didn’t even think to fire his Gauss rifle—he just ran.
All his training, heavy weapons expertise, kill count under his belt.
None of it meant shit in this insane mess. All he could do was flee like a scared kid.
Was it heaven’s miracle?
The port district boundary appeared before him.
To run even a second faster, he ditched the Gauss rifle.
“Heh, hah, hah…”
His broken shoulder flopped wildly as he sprinted, but overwhelming terror drowned out the pain.
Running like an Olympian, he dove into the car. Lucky—Genet had left the keys in. Who could’ve predicted this shitshow?
He fired up the engine. The midsize sedan growled to life, and he floored it.
The car rocketed forward like a missile. Containers shrank in the rearview in seconds.
Hof exhaled in relief.
Finally free of that hellhole port district.
‘C-contact first…’
He should’ve called when his team started dropping. Better late than never—he grabbed the comms to tell Sihyun Yujin.
Left hand on the wheel, so he typed with his right. Shattered shoulder made it clumsy.
He barely sent the message to the number, then checked the rearview again for pursuit.
“Huh?”
Something small near the boundary flickered in the mirror.
A flash of light, and the car shuddered hard. Tire shot out, vehicle spun out of control.
“Wh-what?!”
Hof grabbed the wheel with both hands desperately, but too late. A pole loomed ahead.
A crash boomed out, and Hof flew through the windshield. He arced like one of his grenades and slammed into the road.
The pole toppled onto the car.
Sparks flew from the pole’s camera, igniting the leaking fuel. Flames roared up.
“U-ugh, uuh…”
He had to get out, but his body wouldn’t obey. As he wormed like a maggot, glass crunched behind him.
It was here.
The thing had followed.
It tossed a long object at his feet: his buddy Dwayne’s sniper coilgun.
“True mercy is when you could take revenge… but choose not to.”
A woman’s voice he’d never heard, serene and level, came from behind him.
Undeniably the monster that massacred his team.
“I’m not merciful.”
It hoisted him roughly.
“N-no, pleeaase…”
‘Don’t! Spare me! Please! I’m sorry!’
Hof begged, but his broken jaw only whistled air. Ignoring him, it slung him over its shoulder and trudged back to the port district.
Behind the hellbound Hof, only the blazing car remained.