Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: How to Live in Fusion Punk
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Jin rose to his feet.
He wiped the blood-splattered face guard with his hand, revealing two figures—a man and a woman—aiming their guns at him from beyond.
And between them sat Albus.
He clutched something tightly in his hand, eyes bulging wide, but the look in them held no joy—only confusion and wariness.
Only then did Jin realize he was still wearing his helmet and moved to flip up the face guard.
Cough!!
A beast leaped onto his back from behind.
A beastman with a hyena's head. Even in its death throes, it gaped its jaws wide toward Jin's nape.
Clack!!
Sharp teeth like dagger blades clashed against empty air, ringing like metal.
A bite strong enough to spark in that instant.
But it missed.
Jin had already bent his upper body deeply forward.
Then, planting his right foot firmly on the ground, he snapped his left foot up and back.
His heel rocketed upward, shattering the beastman's jaw.
With a heavy crunch, the hyena head snapped back sharply. Carried by its forward momentum, it skidded violently across the floor.
At the end of that path stood the three resistance fighters.
Their gun barrels swung toward the beastman's ragdoll-like occiput before hastily snapping back into position.
Jin removed his helmet.
“Phew—”
Exhaling a cool breath, he shook out his sweat-matted hair side to side. He turned to the two who still hadn't lowered their guard and to Albus, who belatedly wore a dazed look.
“Long time no see.”
“...You sure you called him?”
The woman, having heard Jin's brief rundown (three-line summary), glanced at Albus.
“Yeah.”
Only after that confirmation did she slowly lower her gun barrel.
The bearded man beside her did the same.
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Didn't know if he'd come. Didn't want to give false hope.”
The woman and the bearded man nodded in understanding.
Jin shot them a look that said, You called him and weren't sure?
Of course he'd come. Duh.
This punk didn't trust me, huh?
Mag pies don't forget favors.
Jin doesn't forget meal money.
Of course, that wasn't the whole story.
But whatever—it was the Korean spirit, right?
In the end, the two lowered their guard first and introduced themselves.
“Name's Ossia.”
“Den.”
The woman: Ossia.
The bearded man: Den.
Obviously, Jin didn't know them.
He hadn't met every resistance fighter during his ten days at the base. He'd mostly been holed up in the sickbay anyway.
“Jin.”
After the quick introductions, he approached Albus.
“You okay?”
“Thanks. Didn't think you'd come...”
“Cut the repeats. Can you move?”
“Hole in my gut. No strength left.”
Jin was already eyeing the wound.
Been a while since it happened? The bandage was soaked dark with blood, filthy. At this rate, infection—not the wound itself—would be the killer. Even in this advanced world, sepsis was no joke.
Jin, who had never once worried about such things, paused in thought.
Then Den moved.
“Get on.”
The bearded man offered his back to Albus and hoisted him up with surprising ease.
A mechanical click. Only then did Jin notice his legs were cyberware.
“Where to? That base from before?”
“Nah, it's...”
As Jin pulled his helmet back down and asked, Albus started to reply.
“Don't talk anymore. I'll explain.”
Ossia cut in, turning her head.
“The base is gone. Soon as a few key fighters botched a mission, we got hit hard in retaliation. Everyone scattered in the chaos. Can't even reach them now.”
Jin furrowed his brow.
The base gone?
That he hadn't expected.
“Anywhere else?”
“Safehouse. Bit far, that's the issue.”
“Then that's our answer. Let's get out first.”
Jin jerked his chin toward the shattered outer wall.
And so, into the hallway.
Ossia and Den, following behind, flinched in shock.
The entire passage was carpeted in corpses.
Every one mangled beyond recognition.
Puncture wounds were the tame ones.
From pulped faces to limbs twisted past their limits, bones protruding.
TB's forces, crushed like bugs.
“......”
The three pairs of eyes swept over Jin's back as he led the way, afresh.
They had seen the bloodbath.
They knew what it meant but kept quiet, given the situation.
Besides, the blood-soaked hall held not just enemies.
Seeing comrades sprawled face-down in blood, eyes unclosed, naturally clenched their jaws.
Jin had seen the fallen resistance fighters too.
Ones he might have saved if he'd arrived just a bit sooner.
But that was hindsight.
He'd done his best.
Run like hell and saved these three, hadn't he?
So Jin felt no guilt.
But he didn't pass them by without a glance. Least he could do.
As they cleared the hall, Ossia spoke.
“They probably heard the shots. More could be coming. Hurry.”
The group's pace quickened naturally.
Thud thud thud.
Descending stairs briskly, numbers on the landings ticking down one by one.
Suddenly, Jin at the front thrust his left arm straight out and halted. He turned, finger to lips, and Ossia and Den silently raised their guns.
Showing them his open palm, Jin crept down the stairs step by step, silent.
Then, landing on a platform, he threw a punch. The enemy ascending dodged by snapping his head back. Huh?
The gap closed in a flash. The two figures tangled.
Arms and legs flashed pak pak pak in the dark. At point-blank, breaths mingling, a brief exchange unfolded.
Jin palm-blocked a knee to the gut, then axed down his opposite elbow. The foe crossed arms to defend but staggered under the brute force. Jin rammed his shoulder, pinning him to the wall.
Bam!!
Simultaneously, he drew Gravis 707 and jammed the muzzle to the man's forehead.
“...Huh?”
His trigger finger froze.
The face staring back, brow furrowed, was awfully familiar.
Goblin mask?
Jin slowly lowered the hand gripping Gravis.
“Fenrir?”
“That smell... damn it. What're you doing here?”
The husky voice confirmed it.
This was Fenrir!
Jin relaxed his other arm too.
The elbow off his throat, Fenrir coughed lightly, rubbing his neck. Fuzzy fur, long claws—he'd partially beastman-transformed in that instant.
Beastman form...
Beastman?
Jin flinched.
He snapped Gravis back up at Fenrir.
“You traitorous bastard! You're with TB!”
“What bullshit... why would I be with those guys?”
“Then how'd you get here?”
“Coords, obviously... and you?”
“Me too, coords...”
Jin's words trailed off.
He tilted his head back—
Toward the bearded man descending the stairs. More precisely, Albus on his back.
“You called this guy too?”
“...Both came. Crazy.”
Albus's expression turned complicated.
In this hopeless mess, cut off from support, he'd thought whatever and called solos—and they both showed.
Absurd enough to laugh.
Though it stung his gut wound.
Heh heh, ugh!
Ha ha, ow!!
Alone, he laughed, winced, laughed, winced—a solo show. Watching, the two solos pieced it together.
Oh, he called this guy too.
Skipping needless talk.
Jin briefed on the situation and goal.
Fenrir nodded.
“Safehouse. Got it. Let's move.”
With the wolf beastman joined, the group exited the ruined building.
Then, from the darkness beyond sight, shouts echoed.
“Over there?!”
“No contact with Bravo Team!”
“Hurry!”
Reinforcements already.
Ossia gestured urgently toward the opposite direction.
“Follow me!”
The group hurried after her.
“Huff, huff—”
Albus caught his breath, glancing back.
Through hazy vision, soldiers entering the ruined building.
He pressed the detonator hard.
Rumble rumble boom—!
A heavy shockwave rippled out.
The ground shook. Jin whipped around, startled.
What the—?
Anyone seeing the moonlit building collapse would react the same.
Fenrir's eyes shook above his mask too.
Then Den said,
“Albus blew it! Hope it buys time!”
It did.
The crumbling structure drew the pursuers' eyes plenty. The group used the gap to widen distance.
But the gap lasted mere minutes.
“There!”
A booming roar erupted somewhere.
Like a hunter spotting prey.
The searching pursuers' heads snapped one way.
“Incoming!”
Fenrir yelled.
At once, enemies slid into view ahead, around the bending alley. Shwick!
Ossia and Den fired instantly.
Fenrir's warning had been swift.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!!
Muzzles flashed. Full-auto, not single shots. Two seconds emptied a mag. Foes shredded, bleeding out.
That instant, fragments burst from the wall to Ossia's right.
Followed by a sharp crack—bang!
Sonic crack from a supersonic round.
Impact crack,
Then gunshot thump.
Skilled soldiers gauged enemy position by the delay.
Jin just instinctively looked up.
Edge of vision.
Sniper on the rooftop, bipod down signaling it.
Jin's form vanished like a lie.
Then, flashes between group and sniper. Like water striders. Flash! Flash! Flash!
Next moment.
Chaining Blinks to close in, Jin midair-kicked the sniper's occiput.
Crunch! Face slamming pavement sprayed blood like wheel spokes. Jin landed, grabbed the grounded rifle.
Flung obstructing helmet aside, stepped onto the railing, squeezed trigger at soldiers closing from all sides.
Bang!
Bang!
Recoil shook his body. Momentum meant for the bipod hammered him instead.
But Jin didn't stop.
Emptied the mag, then Blink-chained back into the sky.
Last coord in the air for one reason.
Easier to chain big moves.
Whoosh!!
Straight-drop heel crushed a TB-helmed head, pulped the contents.
Snatched the rifle from the twitching foe's hands. Sling kept the bleeding corpse stuck, but ignored, he hosed the surroundings.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!!
Faces distorted in light-dark strobes crumpled. Some return fire, but no turnaround.
Click, click.
Resistance on the trigger. Jin tossed the rifle—and corpse—aside.
“Tch.”
Ear stung; he touched it. No soft flesh—just blood dripping. Grazed in the frenzy.
Jin shrugged it off.
Not the head. Good enough.
Thoughts that'd shock others. He turned.
What met his eyes:
Shwick!
Foe crumbling, blood spraying—and Fenrir charging behind.
Bloody hands crossed X-style, claws gleaming red like paper-cut flesh.
“'Bout time?”
Fenrir twitched his nose at Jin's quip.
“...What the hell have you been up to?”
A loaded mutter.
Jin grinned.
You haven't seen the bloodbath yet, rookie.
Ossia and Den, regrouped, reloaded.
“Offense dying down. We can shake 'em now.”
“Albus pulled his weight. Real pros like this.”
Hope flickering? Faint smiles on their battered faces.
But only briefly.
“...Ah.”
Ossia's jaw dropped. Den's eyes darted side to side nonstop.
Jin couldn't ask why.
Overwhelming presence at his back.
“......”
Slowly turning, at the path's end stood a figure.
A man with striking white hair to his shoulders.
Fluorescent eyes pierced the dark, teeth-like on their skin.
Primal gaze dominating the area.
Flickering streetlight cast his shadow on the wall.
A massive lion's shadow.