Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Tense Encounter with the Civilians
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I loaded up my Fist Arts skill, applied a speed buff, and dashed out.
Hellcannon followed right behind me.
Fist fighting was all about ultra-close-range damage, which had the advantage of packing an insane punch into a single point. The downside was that it didn't work for wide-area healing.
Crackle—
When I activated my Sensing skill, the three area-of-effect abilities I had the highest familiarity with were Explosion, Electric Current, and Magic Bullet.
I chose Electric Current, the flashiest one in terms of effects, to heighten my skill sense. A burst of fireworks-like, brilliant lightning engulfed my vision.
Crackle-crackle—!!
Rumble!!
A massive wave of green electricity roared in like a tidal surge, booming thunderously. The charging enemies flinched and pulled back sharply, but not all of them.
One of them had spotted me and was barreling straight toward me in an instant.
I glanced sideways and dodged just a bit.
Boom—!
Hellcannon's sword clashed with the opponent's, scattering a sharp spray of mana.
The moment Hellcannon blocked the sword, I didn't miss my chance. I slammed my skill-infused fist into the opponent's gut with all my strength.
Third-stage Fist Arts skill.
[Gale Fist]
The shadowy figure, hazy like smoke, sharpened into focus for a split second. Then, propelled by the explosive mana wind bursting from my fist, it flew off like a shot and crashed into the ground.
“!”
A woman?
Surprisingly, the hair and eye color of the attacker matched Ephien's almost exactly.
“Philia! W-wait.”
I turned at the urgent shout from behind. Ephien was being dragged away by the cloaked figures.
Seeing that, the nearby guild members flinched and raised their swords.
Ephien yelled loudly.
“No, Offen—!!”
I could vividly feel Yugeon tense up and grip me tight.
Thud.
The entire forest shook.
A colossal wave of mana, sharp as blades piercing my skin, amplified even further by brainpower, came charging toward us.
Faster than reason could kick in, my Sensing skill activated. At the same time, the guild members layered their shield skills, forming a wall of white light.
Boom-rumble-rumble!!
“…….”
I had no idea what happened outside the shield.
I could clearly sense the whole forest rippling under one person's will in an instant, and I was inwardly startled that this unknown foe could wield both mana and brainpower.
Step step.
Someone was walking toward me.
The guild members' overlapping frontal shields vanished one by one, revealing the approaching figure clearly.
The guild members exchanged glances and fixed their stares.
One of the enemies, who had hidden their presence eerily well, now strode forward without a hint of concealment.
The one who appeared was a tall man.
It seemed to be their culture to grow hair long regardless of gender.
The white-haired man walking toward me had extremely long locks, but his towering height and solid build left no doubt about his gender.
A glimpse of his outfit under the cloak was surprisingly modern.
Given his clear resemblance to Ephien as kin, I quietly raised my hand in a gesture of no intent to fight.
Click.
The moment he aimed a gun at me, Hellcannon held a blade to his throat.
Hellcannon's sword glowed red.
The man ignored the blade at his neck and glared straight at me, the apparent leader of our group, as if to seize the initiative.
His ice-blue eyes chilled me.
“…….”
The brainpower surging toward me, trying to pin me down, was almost Ranker-level.
I felt the guild members behind me tense up, but I waved lightly to signal there was no killing intent here.
The man who had been glaring fiercely at me glanced somewhere and shouted.
“Ephien!”
It was about what I'd expected.
The hooded ones trying to drag Ephien away had bolted the moment they came under fire from the guild members.
As Ephien ran over, the man glared at him murderously.
Ephien burst out.
“He's my benefactor! He saved me!”
“Shut your mouth, you idiot! You dragged unknowns all the way here?! Why didn't you just die!!”
The man swung the gun from me toward Ephien.
I jumped in front, startled.
“Wait, hold on. Seems like a misunderstanding. Ephien didn't tell us anything. And you don't point a gun at your little brother.”
“Ha! Nothing? Then how do you know he's my brother?”
“You guys look too alike.”
“…….”
The man seemed speechless for a moment at my words, but soon fixed me—and then Ephien—with a razor-sharp glare.
I felt Ephien flinch and hide behind me, trembling finely.
Her breathing was wet with sobs.
“I never thought her brother would try to kill her after she barely survived.”
I muttered it loud enough for the man in front to hear clearly. The gunman frowned, glanced at Yugeon on my back, and slowly lowered the weapon.
The woman I'd hit with Gale Fist earlier approached from behind the man.
“……Ephien.”
Ephien, who had been silently shedding tears behind me, looked up at the woman.
Ephien hesitated, glancing at her brother's face, then approached slowly. The woman stepped forward, hugged Ephien tight, and stroked her hair.
Ephien's shoulders shook.
The kid couldn't even cry freely because she was watching her brother's reaction. How harshly did they usually treat her?
The woman, presumed to be Ephien's older sister and the one who'd charged at me earlier, spoke up.
“We were rude. We didn't know you were our youngest's benefactor. Thank you so much for saving Ephien.”
“It was just the right thing to do…….”
As I said that, I glanced back.
Perhaps to accommodate the heavily guarded pair, the guild members were watching from a distance with complicated expressions.
This was awkward.
These folks in front of me seemed to be the quest's 'civilians,' but they were no pushovers.
Civilians who could use brainpower.
There were still tons of 'civilians' lying low over there, barely showing their presence.
I pondered for a moment, then spoke my conclusion.
“Please comfort Ephien properly. The monsters had their blades right at her throat. She must have been terrified, but you've been on guard against us the whole time and couldn't even console her once.”
The woman's eyes widened.
Looking at Ephien, who seemed so young next to the taller adults, I smiled brightly.
“Ephien. You did well. Take care.”
Hellcannon looked at me.
As I waved to Ephien and stepped back one foot at a time, Hellcannon slowly retreated with me.
The three siblings looked flustered.
They must have thought I'd demand something in return for saving their youngest.
Of course, when I first saved Ephien, such thoughts weren't entirely absent. I'd hoped for some detailed info.
But their wariness was beyond expectations.
“We'll be off now. We have to go fight the bad rulers inside who torment people.”
At my words, the three siblings flinched.
I'd tossed out the bait on a hunch, and their reaction was too obvious—it was a bit startling.
If they were on the 'bad rulers' side, things could get tricky, but anyway, prying info out of newly met NPCs was my specialty.
Not really a specialty—just poke around randomly and gauge reactions.
“Wait.”
The biggest one.
“……What are you people?”
Ephien's brother, seeming like the leader of the civilian group, took the bait.
* * *
[Kaisha: Joined up with civilians]
[Kaisha: Civilians use mana and brainpower too, kinda freaked out]
[Kaisha: Wariness off the charts, even backstab potential]
[Kaisha: In this group, the leaders are siblings with white skin, white hair, blue eyes; rest are super diverse races]
[Kaisha: Even people looking like dark elves]
[Kaisha: (photo)]
Gilgamesh let out a short gasp of admiration as he checked the chat while climbing the stairs of a ruined building, Credit in tow.
“Oh, intriguing.”
“What?”
“The civilians Kaisha made contact with. They use mana and brainpower, she says.”
Credit, Goldbunker's vice-guild master, frowned slightly at Gilgamesh's voice, which showed zero sense of crisis.
“……Isn't that serious?”
There was a 'rescue civilians' mission during the operation. At this rate, they'd be the ones getting attacked instead of doing the rescuing.
If the hunters ended up weaker than the civilians, it'd be a total joke.
Gilgamesh chuckled.
“She already warned about backstab risks. But even if civilians use some brainpower, you think it'd touch a toe on Kaisha?”
If she was considering backstabs, Kaisha wouldn't be letting her guard down.
Credit nodded.
“Fair point.”
Brainpower aside, Kaisha was the most affinity-specialized among the three guild masters.
Dart's foresight in swapping paths with Fullminak, anticipating civilian encounters in the central zone, was brilliant.
If it'd been Dart, well.
Not a massacre, but he'd probably lose it to brainpower, kill a couple, and cross an irreversible line—high chance.
Looking at the map, Spaceking's advance wasn't that fast surprisingly.
Lots of enemies, probably.
Goldbunker, meanwhile, had covered serious ground without running into any real enemy forces.
Credit roughly guessed why after seeing the ruined city.
Goldbunker had just arrived and didn't know the situation well, but in a place like this, perfect for slipping into every nook, some countries might be playing watch-and-wait games.
The stairs suddenly ended.
Gilgamesh and Credit exited the broken building's hallway and leaped to the target next door.
A distance no normal person could dream of, but they landed effortlessly on the neighboring building's steel frame, then walked casually from that high vantage.
Wind blew.
“Wow. What a view.”
“…….”
Credit, seeing the same sight as Gilgamesh, couldn't agree with his sentiment at all.
A massive cityscape devoid of any presence.
Apocalypse world vibe.
Buildings crumbled and wrecked everywhere, no one to fix them.
Green moss and trees filled the gaps between traces of what was once clearly a thriving civilization.
As someone from a near-identical ruined civilization, Credit felt a pang of sorrow, crisis, fear at the empty city.
It hit too real, like staring at a collapsed modern metropolis.
Gilgamesh said to Credit.
“Isn't it fun?”
“What?”
“Humans vanish, and those fancy buildings are just cement and scrap. I'm obsessed with buildings, but looking at this makes it all feel pointless.”
“…….”
“Makes you think money means zilch in a world like this, and ponder what life really is.”
Credit glanced at Gilgamesh.
From what he'd observed, Gilgamesh seemed money-mad but didn't cling to it that hard.
To him, money was just an amusing toy.
He loved earning it so much he played the money-making game obsessively, yet his eyes always hunted something more important than cash.
No fear of losing it all meant bold moves and nerves of steel.
That guy couldn't fail.
But even if
Gilgamesh slipped and lost everything, he'd rebuild from dirt to sky-high wealth in no time.
Just optimized for stacking riches—mindset and habits.
The chat lit up.
["Guild master."]
“Yeah, what.”
["Found a territory spot, but guys from another country are already fighting there. What do?"]
Gilgamesh's lips curled at the interesting report.
“Oh yeah? Send location, we'll spectate.”
["Got it."]
True to his style of unleashing guild members, Goldbunker's players were spread wide across the city.
Gilgamesh laughed.
“What a steal this is.”