Chapter 149
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Burning Memories
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Jin had never really had much connection to home-cooked meals anyway.
His solo living had started back in his college days and stretched on for a full ten years after landing a job.
After all that time away from his parents' embrace, home-cooked meals had become something he could only glimpse during holidays—a precious feast with a six-month cooldown.
And now, having sunk to the level of a mere grunt in Lost City, it was a dreamlike luxury he couldn't even dare to covet.
Home-cooked meals? What the hell.
It had taken him over a year just to claw his way out of day-laborer hell.
So of course, when the lady of the house brought up her home cooking, he was buzzing with excitement.
How long had it been since they'd shopped for ingredients together and shared a meal like this?
This looks good, that looks good, no idea what that is, but anyway, it all looks good.
Beyond his bright, eager nods, a long-buried scene from memory quietly surfaced.
Long ago, at the supermarket hand-in-hand with his parents. He'd crammed himself into the shopping cart, gripping the railing with tiny hands and yelling "Go!" in glee.
The moment they stacked items one by one, shifting them around like Tetris blocks.
His mother's bright smile.
His father pushing the cart.
The chocolate he'd snuck in on the sly.
All of it froze like a worn, hand-tinted old photo, its colors faded.
But the warm scene didn't linger.
The edges of the photo curled and blackened as if burning away, crumbling to ash.
Whoosh.
Flames spread in an instant, devouring the memory.
Roaring inferno.
Acrid smoke stinging his nose.
The world spinning wildly—ground, sky, the lady of the house, Katrina, flying debris.
·········
······
···
His ears rang hollow.
Even as the rush of air slapped his face unnaturally hard, the sounds piercing his ears felt distant, like he was underwater.
Cough.
Jin hacked up a dry cough and groped around. He shoved aside the iron shards covering his chest and gear, then planted a palm on the ground to haul himself up.
—!
He staggered at the sharp ringing in his ears. Glancing at the hand he'd reflexively clapped to them, he saw it smeared with blood.
Cough.
As irritating tickles stabbed his lungs, forcing cough after cough, Jin slowly raised his head.
Through the thick dust haze, he saw the burning AV. The vehicle, engulfed in flames, belched black smoke, and the scorched air shimmered with heat haze, blurring his vision.
In this surreal scene, Jin turned his head again.
A short distance away.
Two figures lay collapsed on the ground.
The lady of the house and Katrina.
They weren't stirring, unconscious perhaps. Around their bodies, a purple glow flickered.
Self-Lightning Shield.
Thunder Shield.
The moment he'd heard the missile's shriek slicing the sky. An instinctive barrier he'd raised.
Not for himself, but for them.
"Urk."
Jin lurched violently.
Blood sprayed from his mouth.
His body, which had shielded others at the cost of taking every bit of the impact unprotected, screamed in protest.
The situation was bad in every way.
His organs mangled by the blast wave, razor-sharp iron shards lacerating his body—not just slicing, but embedding deep into his flesh.
Even just standing there, a pool of blood spread beneath his feet.
Far more leaking from his wounds than what he'd spat up.
Jin shook off the crashing dizziness like a tidal wave. His eyes, now bloodshot with no whites showing, burned.
Which bastard? Which fatherless son of a bitch fires a missile at a car with a mother and daughter in it? Even in this shit world, this crosses the line. This isn't right. And today of all days, you trash.
A flood of rage bleached his mind white.
At the same time, endorphins poured in, easily overriding his body's emergency signals.
Thud.
His body, which could pass out any second, took a step forward. Blood rained down like a squall, but his vision was already smeared red like a blood-streaked window.
Everything blood-red, nothing clear in sight.
As a result, Jin spat smoke-blackened breath from his mouth and slowly lifted his head, face twisted in fury.
A thin rift of clouds lingered in one patch of sky.
Swept in one direction. The scar left by a supersonic missile.
His gaze, fixed on the faintly lined sky, slowly dropped to the ground. And—
Infinite Tracks.
His superhuman eyes, boasting double-digit visual acuity, caught the frozen traces of iron wheels scraping the earth. A straight line rolling away—from the missile launch point.
Found you, you fucker.
Jin gritted his teeth.
One step forward, and his body wobbled off-balance, but he ignored it and pressed on.
Pain, shortness of breath, body feeling shattered—minor issues.
Splash.
His steps gradually picked up speed. The weight pressing into the ground set his direction, his blood-soaked fingertips pointing to his target.
"Where... do you... think you're... going?"
His voice low and gravelly.
The next instant, Jin's form vanished with a whoosh.
Blink
Blink your eyes shut and open— the scenery shifted in a flash.
Blink
His shaky peripheral vision sprayed blood.
He had no clear sense of his own condition.
Better that way.
One close look, and he'd probably hurl.
Blink
This one was too fast.
He arrived tangled-footed. The ground rushed up in his lost-balance vision, but instead of falling, he rolled forward to recover.
As his right hand grazed the tread marks on the ground, another
Blink
Blink, blink, blink, blink.
How many times did he repeat it?
Finally, the dirt track on the ground came to an end.
A massive silhouette loomed in the distance.
It was a tank.
Its body, supporting an abnormally large cannon barrel, advanced on continuous tracks.
And at the end of that path waited a transport ship, engines primed for takeoff.
Right then.
Jin drew his right hand back behind his ear.
A long bolt of lightning gripped in his clenched fist.
Lightning Spear
He hurled it at full power.
It streaked through the air and slammed into the tank. Even from afar, the explosion rang clear.
Boom────!
At the deafening blast, a squad of soldiers poured out from the transport ship.
Four in total.
But calling them human was a stretch—they were all cyborgs, bodies replaced with machinery.
Cyborgs.
The kind that would've been beheaded for filial impiety back in Joseon times—inhuman weapons of war.
But Jin was a human weapon too.
He charged with a roar, slamming his shoulder into the lead cyborg. Shockingly, its hundreds-of-kilos frame slid back.
Of course, every bone in Jin's body rattled too.
So what?
Bang!
Closing the gap in a burst of acceleration, Jin leaped fiercely.
The next moment, he landed crushing the cyborg's shoulder and clamped both hands on its head just below the groin—wait, no, its head.
Its upper body wrenched back like ripping out a weapon.
Grind!
Spark! Crackle!
Dull groans of twisting metal joints, sparks flying.
And so.
Its cable-and-alloy neck stretched taut, then the synthetic nerves replacing its mechanical ones snapped in unison—
Snap!
The head tore clean off.
Wires ripped from its spine sparked, lubricant and coolant spraying into the air.
Jin, thrown onto his ass by momentum, whipped his bloodshot eyes sideways.
Then a massive instep filled his vision.
Crack—!
His head snapped back, spraying blood.
Click.
The cyborg that'd delivered the soccer kick aimed its machine-gun right arm at the ground to finish him.
Rat-a-tat!
The barrel spun, spewing fire. Bullets shredded the earth mercilessly. Stone chips and dust exploded upward.
Jin was already rolling across the ground.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Bullets chased his back, casings flying everywhere, scorched gunpowder stench thick in the air.
Leaving it all behind, Jin slapped the ground with one hand.
The next instant.
Bang!
His feet shoved off hard, launching his body forward like a shell.
Speed evoking teleportation.
In a split second, he slipped into the cyborg's blind spot.
While its gun muzzle lingered on his last position.
Faster.
His fist swung.
Bam!
The skull-enclosing armor shattered.
But he didn't stop.
Not until the force fully transferred.
Crunch!
Fist buried to the hilt, the head caved with a grotesque sound. Its optic sensors crushed as a bonus.
Right after.
The cyborg flew backward.
Its head unrecognizable mush.
It crumpled knee-first, motionless. Only its glowing-red machine gun idled pointlessly.
Jin shook off clinging cables from his hand like dust. Metal fragments fell from his exposed knuckles.
Then he raised his gaze again.
Two left.
The pair standing side-by-side etched into his ashen eyes.
"······."
Machines know no fear, or so they say.
But now.
They hesitated.
Their comrade who'd fought beside them just moments ago lay in ruins. With blood-mixed lube soaking the ground, they couldn't move rashly.
But their pause wasn't fear—it was calculation.
They moved in sync.
Hiss—
Hidden ports on their chests and napes popped open, auto-injectors emerging.
Psst!
Blue liquid raced through transparent tubes into them, their bodies twitching faintly.
Nerve stimulant injection.
"······!"
Optics contracted sharply, focus narrowing. Muscle fibers swelled, alloy limbs creaking.
Confirming it, purple lightning surged from Jin's body with a crackle.
A bit weaker than usual.
No choice.
Injured as he was, nearly half his mana went to sustaining the shield over the lady and Katrina. Even while he was gone.
That was when.
The dosed cyborgs kicked off the ground and charged.
Cyborgs were built that way—their bodies far surpassed ordinary humans.
Thick alloy frames, reinforced muscles, optics analyzing foes to decimal points.
Yet their movements weren't heavy.
Bang!
Two massive shadows exploded forward.
Like two-legged tanks firing as shells—overwhelming pressure.
But Jin didn't dodge.
Instead, he accelerated toward them.
He narrowly slipped the incoming punch's brutal swing, closing in.
The follow-up.
His heel stomped the cyborg's knee.
Steel plate buckled, joint hyperextending.
Its leg buckled hard under its own weight.
As he went to finish it.
The second cyborg beside it moved.
Jin sensed it instinctively.
Flank, fast.
Its fist swept low.
Jin crouched his torso.
Impact rocked his side.
Blood surged up his throat, but he endured.
One step forward.
Devil-faced, he thrust his arm.
Crackle!
His blurred hand seized its throat.
Lightning followed.
Purple flash erupted, massive current flooding its innards.
High-mana-resistant alloys prevented lethal damage, but it froze the machine momentarily.
Enough.
Jin drew Gravis 707 from his waist—miraculously intact amid the chaos.
Its muzzle kissed the cyborg's jaw and flashed.
Bang──!
Metal shards and grayish brains flew.
As sparks flew from the rigidly toppled cyborg like a short circuit.
Jin turned.
There, the other cyborg—one leg bent—aimed its gun at him.
But Jin's blink to its rear beat its trigger pull.
Click.
Bang──!!
Its shattered occiput sent it face-planting.
Experience points equivalent to wiping a gang poured in at once.
Jin, staggering like a drunken dancer, braced hands on knees.
Panting, trying to steady his heaving breaths up to his jaw.
Woooong—
Sudden bass roar battered his ears.
What now, shit.
Jin lifted his weary head.
The enemy transport was attempting escape.
Even half-transparent now—optical camouflage activating.
Of course, Jin's eyes blazed watching it.
You think I'll just let you go? Huh?
Crackle.
Air trembled.
Purple lightning arced from his arms.
He gripped the gathered electricity in his palm, forming a spear in seconds.
Clenching it tight, Jin looked up.
Then hurled his arm with all his might.
Boom!
The spear rippled the air, embedding in the transport's engine in a blink.
Kaboom!!
Explosive current ravaged the internals; the motor burned as the craft tilted.
Then plummeted.
Far off, the ground shook on impact.
Urk.
Jin spewed a torrent of blood and slumped to the dirt.
His ragged body sagged, vision fading.
I'm done for, seriously.
No holding back eyelids amped to 100x King Kai Fist; he slowly shut his eyes.
As consciousness drifted away.
Urgent footsteps approached somewhere.
A voice calling desperately for him.
"Jin—!"