EP.24 Grand Casino -4
EP.24 Grand Casino -4
Officially it was a reconnaissance mission, but I always had to be ready to fight the drug cartel inside the casino.
There was no telling when or where our identities might be exposed, or when they might try to stab us in the back.
Constant vigilance and combat readiness were essential.
But in the current situation, there was one thing I couldn't understand.
Did we really need to fight at all?
We had smoothly extracted information about the organization from the bartender.
Yata and Kor were clearly participating in the games as well, collecting intelligence in their own ways.
If we shared what we'd gathered, pieced it together, and followed procedures step by step, I was certain we would eventually reach the intel we needed.
But as always, reality betrayed me.
"What the hell is this situation!"
"Sorry! I tried to strip the drug organization boss down to his underwear too, but I failed!"
"No, why are you trying to strip the final boss?!"
We were supposed to be playing an infiltration action game, not a stripping game.
Yet this incorrigible crow had to go mess around with a different game and inevitably cause this disaster, and now the genre had shifted into a survival game.
An extreme getaway survival scenario where we had to dodge every bullet from the drug organization inside a burning casino.
Heart-pounding, sure, but this wasn't what I signed up for.
"Isn't anyone curious at least once about what color underwear the drug organization boss is wearing today?"
"Are you insane?! The drug lord isn't some celebrity—what kind of bullshit is that?!"
"Ahahaha!!"
Thanks to my infuriating companion crow, I doubted I'd live out my full natural lifespan.
A troublemaker who escalated matters every single time something happened.
But she unfailingly offered a helping hand at every crucial moment, so I couldn't outright hate her either.
The crow who left me stuck between a rock and a hard place was merely exasperating.
"You must have some plan in mind, pulling this again, right?"
"Hmm? I wonder?"
"I've learned full well that you can't just say things outright."
Honestly, whether it was a drug ring or terrorists, they weren't really that threatening an enemy.
However, the Grand Casino was located in the South, and given how the Divine Beasts inhabiting the South had been acting unusual lately,
I refrained from using Divine Beast power as much as possible—Divine Beasts were sensitive to one another's power.
If I went on a rampage here, I could end up fighting Divine Beasts as a follow-up act.
Thinking about how I'd been fighting Divine Beasts non-stop lately, that was one development I refused to accept.
"Anyway, since things have come to this, we've got no choice but to fight."
"Are we going with that plan?"
"Yeah, I'm counting on you. Miho."
"Just leave it to me, dear husband!"
Miho scooped up Tia, who was still stroking the bartender's shaved head.
Then she left the area at high speed, taking Tia with her.
"Please be careful out there...!!"
"Yeah."
Right after that, Kor also went out, following behind the fox.
With that, all the conditions had been met.
The ones remaining in the VIP lounge were me, Yata, and Alice.
I hadn't expected Alice to be included, but it was fine.
Alice's ability wasn't the type that affected phenomena like Miho's, Tia's, or Kor's, so there was no problem whatsoever.
The same went for Yata's ability. In other words, the three of us were individuals who could use our abilities as much as we wanted with no issues.
"Even if you can't tell me, you can help, right?"
"Of course."
"I was worried you'd cause a mess and then say you couldn't."
"No matter what, I'm not that shameless."
"Right..."
I did feel she was already plenty shameless, but I kept my lips firmly shut so it wouldn't slip out.
"Alice, are you okay with fighting?"
"Yeah, no problem. I came here to help you, boss, from the very beginning."
"Thanks. Then let's give it a shot."
A completely abnormal situation: just three people against an entire organization.
But I no longer knew whether it was normal or not that I felt not a shred of worry.
***
Five seconds.
It might sound very short, but in practice, that wasn't the case at all.
A handgun bullet travels at over 300 meters per second, and a rifle round flies at speeds reaching 900 meters per second.
In other words, dozens of bullets closed in on our position every 0.5 seconds.
In that sense, being able to know the future five seconds ahead was an enormous advantage.
Because knowing where bullets were coming from and when they would reach my body meant I could even dodge them.
The only catch was... guns really were still powerful.
"Husband, blood is streaming from your forearm."
"I know..."
I, too, had tried to fight using only Yata's ability as much as possible, but that judgment had been arrogance.
Left with no choice, I resolved to borrow Tia's ability just a little, deflecting all the bullets away with wind.
Then I sprinted behind the cover of the bar to staunch the wound on my forearm and hid myself.
During that time, screams began erupting simultaneously from every direction, so I could tell that Alice was taking down the organization members at an absurd speed.
At this rate, Alice might sweep them all up by herself.
I had asked her for help, but just twiddling my thumbs in the back was a pathetic look.
After quickly finishing emergency first aid, I emerged outside again and immediately charged at a nearby enemy.
A man spotted me and opened fire.
I dodged what I could by reading the future, and for the bullets I couldn't evade, I lightly flicked the air threads to alter their trajectories.
When I succeeded in closing in, the man tried to smash me down with his rifle butt, but my leg was one beat faster, sweeping his shin away.
In the end, the man crumpled from the transmitted pain, and I grabbed both sides of his temples and slammed my knee into his face.
Finally, I seized the companion snake that had been crawling up from behind and ripped it in half.
"Cough!!"
"Finally, one man and one animal down..."
While Yata and Alice had already taken out hundreds of enemies, I had barely dealt with just one.
I got a late start, but I had no intention whatsoever of yielding all the prey to them.
The situation now was different from when I'd struggled because of the no-weapons policy upon entering the casino.
Because I'd finally succeeded in seizing an enemy's weapon.
I smoothly picked up the man's rifle from the floor and set the selector switch to burst fire.
Then, gripping the rifle's vertical foregrip and taking a proper hold, I charged forward.
There was no shooting posture more unstable and less accurate than firing on the run.
But for me, precision wasn't all that important.
Because I had already grasped through future sight exactly where to aim and fire to hit enemies, I could boast a near-100-percent accuracy rate.
On top of that, I constantly disturbed the air threads, randomly altering the wind's trajectories while shooting, so enemy bullets couldn't even get near my body while mine homed in on enemies' foreheads even when they were behind cover.
At this moment I was practically a roving fortress. Flaunting an impenetrable state that took not a single scratch was immensely satisfying.
Though the occasional need to pause and rifle through enemy corpses to replenish spent ammunition was an embarrassing downside.
"Boss, I think you need to evacuate. A third of our personnel have already been taken out."
"What the hell! What even are those bastards? Just three of them are slaughtering our members like they're killing rats?!"
"I don't know. They're individuals whose identities we can't identify."
"What utter horseshit do you mean you can't identify them? It ought to be clear whether they're from a rival faction or agents sent by a government agency!"
"The rival faction lost the earlier power struggle and has no time to attack, and I received word from our government-side collaborator that there was no plan at all for government agents to visit."
"Fuck! Then where the hell did these bastards come from?"
"That is... my apologies, we don't yet have enough information to determine that."
"You incompetent shit!"
The drug organization's boss raged, slapping the cheek of the man who appeared to be the ring's strategist.
The boss's fury was enormous—so much that their conversation was audible all the way over here.
Still, thanks to that, I got to hear the keyword I'd been wanting.
'Government-side collaborator.' The collaborator they mentioned had to be exactly the traitor who was the target of this mission.
If so, what I needed to do became clear.
The strategist or the boss of the organization. I had to capture one of the two and find out who the traitor was.
With that thought, I ignored the small fry and turned my steps toward where those two were.
"The bastard is targeting the boss!"
"Stop him, now!"
Drug cartel members threw their bodies in the way to block the path to the organization boss.
Though the boss's own actions were garbage, the loyalty of his underlings was oddly high.
No matter how capitalist the world had become, surely life was worth more than this, yet their willingness to sacrifice themselves so lightly was bewildering.
"Boss, use this opening to evacuate."
"Tch! Sons of bitches!!"
Spitting on the floor, the boss and strategist heading out moved toward the elevator.
It was absurd to use the elevator rather than an emergency exit even in an emergency.
Even so, the fact they were brazenly using the elevator to head upstairs meant they intended to use the helipad on the casino rooftop.
If they got away on a helicopter, I wouldn't be able to catch them without Tia's power.
I had to prevent that at the very least.
"I absolutely won't let you go...!!"
"Such persistently annoying bastards...!!"
After I took care of the organization members blocking the way, this time a man built like a bear and an actual bear blocked my path.
As much of a nuisance as they were, I tried to send the man off quickly by firing at his torso, but he sneered at me with an ugly grin as if nothing had happened.
Then he unbuttoned his dress shirt and showed me the thick vest he wore underneath.
"Bulletproof vest! You stupid fuck!"
"Aha, so it was a bulletproof vest."
"That's right! Even if you shoot me a hundred times, I won't be fazed!"
"Then by any chance, is that noggin of yours also bulletproof?"
"Huh?"
—Bang!
I immediately pressed the muzzle to the man's forehead and pulled the trigger, and his huge frame collapsed into one with the floor in a truly pathetic instant.
Since even I, despite borrowing Divine Beast power, had to remain wary of guns, anyone who was not a Divine Beast stood equal before one.
"Grooar!!"
"Agh...!!"
Enraged by the death of its human companion, the brown bear swung its front paw at my head.
I barely managed to dodge by throwing my body backward, but the bear's paw that sliced through the air pulverized the slot machine beside me.
After witnessing its destructive power firsthand, the thought that everyone was equal before a gun vanished from my mind.
I had once seen research results stating that the force of a bear's front-paw swing exceeded a ton.
Compared to a gun where a graze at least lets you live, a graze from a bear's front paw could genuinely mean death.
Comparing the two, guns started to look like toys.
"Grooar!!"
This time the brown bear's posture to charge at me made the situation worse.
As a countermeasure, shooting didn't seem like it would kill it, and I had neither the speed nor the strength to dodge or block a charge.
In conclusion, I'd have to use an ability to bring the thing down, but I didn't want to use any more abilities.
Overuse of future sight and air manipulation already had my head throbbing.
If I used my abilities any further, I'd be unable to use them later when a critical moment arrived.
So here, I decided to toss aside appearances and go with a shameless strategy.
"Alice! Sorry, I know you're busy, but can you help me a moment?"
"Yeah...!!"
The rabbit came over near me with a bright voice, as if she were happy to be called.
The instant she arrived, her rabbit ears flickered wildly and her eyes sparkled.
"What should I help with? I'll do anything for you, boss!"
"Ri-right."
For some reason, it was like watching those underlings who were trying to protect their drug cartel boss.
If anything, her loyalty seemed even stronger than theirs...
The truth was, the feeling coming across to me was too clingy to be called pure loyalty.
Anyway, I decided to think about the rabbit's changes later and prioritized dealing with the brown bear.
"Right now, I have to chase after the guys who are escaping, see? So could you take care of this brown bear right in front of me?"
"Yeah, okay."
"Thanks, Alice! Then I'm counting on you!"
"Kyaahwoong...?!"
Overflowing with gratitude, I unconsciously hugged Alice's small body way too tightly.
It was my fault for forgetting that she was a woman first, even if she was a Divine Beast.
Leaving her a brief word of apology, I tried to follow the path the two escapees had taken.
Naturally, there was a brown bear charging at me to stop me...
"D-Don't get in my boss's way...!"
"Grooargg!!"
—Crunch!
Thanks to Alice smashing the bear across the face with a crowbar, I was able to safely resume my pursuit.
When this job was over, I'd have to give Alice a proper reward.
'Was I too late...'
I resolved the bear problem with a low-down trick and managed to reach the front of the elevator, but it was already too late.
The elevator panel was changing from '1' to '2', so they must have departed.
Left with no choice, I decided to go up using the nearby emergency stairs.
Considering that the rooftop was situated on a high floor, as befitting the Grand Casino where nothing was lacking, and that the elevator was high-speed, taking the stairs to pursue was a foolish move.
While someone else comfortably heads to the rooftop in mere seconds, someone else sweats buckets trudging slowly upward.
No one would say this wasn't foolish.
But in a situation where I couldn't wait idly for the next elevator, chasing them as far as I could was the obvious choice for me to make.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck...!!"
Leaping up the stairs two at a time, I spat out curses.
Already fatigued, the act of going all the way to the rooftop by stairs was a trial among trials.
I should've let Alice handle the pursuit and dealt with the bear myself instead... Pointless regret crept in.
But having already climbed all the way to the 8th floor, the only person who had to see this through to the end was me.
"Hah...! Hah...!"
The rooftop was on the 10th floor; just two more floors to go.
Holding out hope that the helicopter hadn't taken off yet, I climbed to the 9th floor and then had to clutch the back of my own neck.
"Going somewhere in such a hurry? You're not getting past here."
"Argh! Fucking hell!"
The remaining organization members were blocking the stairs to the 10th floor.
I was certain that if I tried to fight them, I would absolutely miss the two.
"Move while I'm asking nicely! Unless you want a taste of psychic powers."
"Psychic powers...? Puhahaha! Guys! He says psychic powers!"
"""Hahahahaha!!"""
The sight of the men bursting into laughter at my words reminded me of that big guy who had scoffed similarly.
I'd meant to conserve my ability use, but I couldn't just quietly endure such irritating laughter.
I decided to grant these guys the same ending as the big one.
'Just roll all the way down to the first floor.'
Forming the thought into a sentence, I cast an illusion on all of them.
Then, each and every one of them laid their bodies down and, just like that, rolled down the stairs.
Crash! Crunch! Thud! Boom! All sorts of gruesome sounds rang out, but I had no leeway to care about that.
Since using Miho's ability had brought on a headache like a needle stabbing into my brain, I had to pour all my concentration into going upward.
I was in a state where I could use no more abilities.
Even so, I relied on sheer grit to climb, barely reaching the 10th floor, and I grabbed the door handle leading straight to the rooftop and flung it open.
'Phew...!! Now I could breathe a little.'
Unlike the stuffy air inside, cool air rushed into my lungs, making my throbbing head feel a bit clearer.
I might not be able to use abilities further, but I could still handle shooting without trouble, so my mind eased—only for a moment.
Above the helipad, the helicopter was nowhere to be seen; I could only let out a sigh.
'I really was too late...'
The fact that I couldn't even hear the sound of the helicopter's rotors told me I'd been too late a while ago.
The night sky was empty, with nothing visible except an unusually bright moon and stars.
I let out a long visible breath along with my sigh and dropped the rifle I'd been keeping shouldered to the floor.
I knew that such an act was dangerous in a situation where remnants could storm the rooftop at any moment.
But the crushing sense of futility sapped every ounce of strength from my body, leaving me without even the power to hold a gun.
"Fuck..."
When I tried to look back on my mistakes and reflect on where things had gone wrong,
Suddenly, I heard both a fierce wind and a cheerful woman's voice in my ears at the same time.
"Hey there! Young man in despair!"
"Huh...?"
"Could the person you're looking for be, by any chance, this fat and ill-tempered-looking man?"
"Ah, well..."
"Or maybe this sly-looking, bespectacled man?"
"Both..."
"If it's neither!! Then it must be this beautiful and noble older sister, yes?"
"...Everyone except the older sister."
"How honest! To such an upright you, I shall give you the chance to marry m—"
"Not interested."
"You're so mean!"