The Blackhorn Limousine
The day after receiving Chrome’s message, I retraced my memories and headed to his hideout to pick up the equipment he’d mentioned.
“…Whoa.”
When I’d gone with Estelle, we could slip straight through the back alleys, but relying on public transportation made the trip an absolute nightmare.
“Station 112?”
To reach Night Street, I apparently had to pass through Central Street’s Station 112. Just hearing the number made my head spin. No wonder Estelle had used the back alleys. How the hell was I supposed to get to Night Street? Did I seriously have to wait for Station 112? A hollow laugh escaped me.
“A taxi?”
He called a taxi? I tilted my head in confusion. A moment later, a sleek black limousine pulled up and stopped right in front of me. From inside, several men in suits who looked like bovine beastmen stepped out and opened the door for me.
“You must be Helper, correct? Doctor Aurum sent us. Please, get in.”
With the eyes of everyone on the street naturally drawn to us, I quietly slid into the limousine. The driver, who also appeared to be a bovine-type beastman, grinned cheerfully and greeted me.
“It’s an honor to serve you, Helper. I’ll be taking you from Blackhorn all the way to your destination.”
Blackhorn. The instant I heard that name, my future sight activated.
ㄴBut there’s no one as loaded as those Blaze bastards, what are you even saying
ㄴㅇㅇ lol If you see this again, come back
Hmm. So now it was even showing me HunterNet posts? Come to think of it, reaching 3-Star meant my future sight could start influencing the outside world. That made sense. From the content of the post, it looked like something was about to go down in the back alleys. I carefully memorized the message.
While I was doing that, the Blackhorn limousine cruised down the main road before quietly slipping into the back alleys.
“It might get a little bumpy, so please hold on tight.”
“Huh?”
“Here we go!”
The moment I worried how we’d even navigate the ridiculously narrow alley, the driver slammed on the accelerator. The wall in front of the limousine split open, creating a path just wide enough for one vehicle. The taxi literally smashed through the alleyways, racing forward at insane speed.
Was this the power of the Blackhorn driver’s ability? I watched the back-alley scenery whip past in awe when a sharp engine roar suddenly cut through the air. The instant an intersection appeared ahead of the taxi, a group of motorcycle riders burst out from both sides and began tailing us.
“Blackhorn! You’ve got no business ethics! None!”
“We told you not to trespass on our turf!”
The riders in yellow jackets shouted chaotically as they tried to attack the taxi. Some even physically blocked the road in front of us, but those riders were instantly split in half.
“My apologies. The back alleys have been rather noisy lately.”
“Is this really okay?”
“Of course. Please don’t underestimate Blackhorn.”
Sure enough, every single attack from the riders failed to penetrate the protective barrier surrounding the limousine. At this level, it really was nothing more than “a bit noisy.” I was quietly impressed by Blackhorn’s strength when—
“…Hm?”
Suddenly, a rider with a covered face emerged from within the wall that Blackhorn had split open. The moment the driver saw him, he clicked his tongue in clear annoyance.
“So it’s come to this after all…!”
The driver immediately swerved the car as if to ram the rider, but the motorcycle simply sank into the ground along with its rider. The submerged bike moved beneath the limousine, kicked off the ground, and shot back up.
“Ugh?!”
It thrust its face into the vehicle’s interior with ridiculous ease. I thought the invading biker would go after the driver, but his target was the complete opposite.
It was me.
The biker’s hand roughly grabbed my throat, and he tried to dive back into the ground with me in tow. But—
“…Ugh?!”
He let out a short scream and was sent flying backward, sliding across the ground.
“Are you alright, sir?!”
“I’m fine. Yeah.”
“I’m truly sorry. This one was our mistake. We’ll get out of here immediately!”
The driver slammed a button on the dashboard, and the taxi shot forward at tremendous speed. The bikers disappeared into the distance in an instant. It looked like we had escaped the danger for now.
“Phew…”
A sigh of relief escaped me automatically. If I had been even a few seconds slower activating my ability back there, I would have been dragged underground. Unlike magic that required incantations, the advantage of psychokinesis was that it could be activated with pure willpower alone.
[Arrived at Night Street.]
“We’ve arrived, sir.”
By the time the taxi reached Night Street, the driver immediately bowed deeply the moment I stepped out and apologized.
“I’m truly sorry about what happened today. As an apology, I’d like to offer you a complimentary ride voucher. Would that be acceptable?”
“Well… that’s fine with me.”
“Thank you so much. We truly appreciate you choosing Blackhorn Taxi.”
I accepted the VIP ticket he handed me and tucked it away carefully. It felt awkward to try squeezing anything more out of him, so this was probably enough. After sending the taxi off, I walked through Night Street once again and headed for Chrome’s hideout.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
When I knocked on the door, it opened almost immediately this time. Chrome’s headless robot greeted me. I followed the robot as it waved its hands in a friendly manner and stepped inside the shop, where I saw Chrome tinkering with a computer that looked like it had exploded once already.
“Chrome?”
“Welcome. I’m fixing a server that got smashed thanks to a certain someone.”
“Server?”
“Security server. I designed it so it wouldn’t be breached easily, but someone punched right through it in one go. Look how swollen this server is—like it’s pregnant. I have no choice but to make you take responsibility for this.”
“…You’re saying I did this?”
I didn’t remember doing anything in particular. I tilted my head in confusion, and Chrome nodded as he reminded me of what had happened yesterday.
“You searched my name on HunterNet without any precautions, didn’t you? That’s why.”
“Ah…”
“It was absolute chaos back then, you know? Everything went crazy. It nearly started a full-blown war. I had a hell of a time cleaning up the mess.”
“A war?”
“Even the internet has its own territories.”
Hmm. I’d better be more careful about searching things through HunterNet from now on. The risk was way too high. It was only because Chrome was the one who traced me back that I was still fine. If it had been someone else, I might already be dead by now.
“But I’m genuinely curious. How did you even search HunterNet like that? You just punched straight through it. Even the Mother Box can’t do that.”
“That’s a secret.”
“Hmm. Does it have something to do with your ability?”
Since I couldn’t talk about my future sight, I simply smiled and brushed it off. Once Chrome finished repairing the server, he clapped his hands together.
“Well. Whatever! Anyway, like I said in the message, I’ve finished adjusting the equipment for you. Go ahead and try it on.”
“Sounds good. Where is it?”
“Ta-da! Here it is! Dun dun duuun~”
Making sound effects with his mouth, Chrome presented a box wrapped like a birthday present. I let out a small chuckle and opened it. Inside was a gauntlet that resembled the Hand mode.
“Just slot the Mother Box into this square groove and put it on your arm.”
“Let me see… here?”
“Yeah. Right there. Good, good. Now slide your arm in…”
Following Chrome’s instructions, I inserted the Mother Box into the white gauntlet. The Mother Box immediately reacted.
New device detected. Magpie-02
“Magpie 02?”
“Ah. It’s a temporary codename I gave it, but I think it’s fine so I’m keeping it.”
“If it’s 02, does that mean there’s a 01 somewhere?”
“There is. It was originally a powered suit, but adjusting the entire thing would be too greedy, so I only modified the arm portion for now.”
“Powered suit…”
“If this test goes well, we can try the full thing later.”
“Sounds good.”
“Alright. Pairing seems complete, so let’s equip it!”
The moment I slipped my hand into the gauntlet, its surface instantly turned pitch black. Then white patterns gradually rose to the surface, and it began moving according to my will. As I flexed my fingers experimentally, Chrome gave me a quick rundown of its specs.
“What star are you right now…?”
“3-Star.”
“3-Star? You’re already 3-Star? Wow, that’s surprising. As expected of the rookie the Shinigami has his eyes on, huh?”
“I just got lucky.”
Becoming 3-Star really was nothing but good luck. It had only been possible thanks to something in the Magic Tower.
“At this rate, 4-Star won’t be far off. Though starting from 4-Star, you’ll need a bit more technique. Anyway, back to the main topic…”
Chrome called over one of his robots and placed it in front of me.
“Since you’re 3-Star, this should let you exert about 1.5 times your original power. Go ahead and smash that mannequin over there.”
Following his instructions, I threw a punch at the robot. It shattered instantly. This level of power was definitely enough to call it a formidable attack. But was that all?
“Is this it?”
“Of course not. If it were just a simple powered suit, there’d be no need to use the Mother Box, right?”
True. There were already plenty of simple powered suits on the market.
“This is the only machine in the world capable of manipulating mental images. We can’t just leave it sitting around. Why don’t you try inserting this?”
“What is it?”
“A data cartridge. When you insert it, the gauntlet’s form will change.”
I slid the small chip that looked like a SIM card into the slot on the side of the gauntlet. Immediately, a flood of Mother Box messages appeared before my eyes.
Data conversion in progress…
Conversion complete.
Initiating materialization process.
Process complete. Materialization commencing.
The gauntlet instantly changed shape. A barrel reminiscent of a railgun extended above it.
“What is this? A long-range attack?”
“A bit different. This equipment helps you release mental images at long range.”
“Release mental images at long range?”
“Simply put, it lets you activate abilities that normally require contact by firing them through this device, even from a distance.”
“Ah. So it basically lets me use something similar to 4-Star abilities?”
“Exactly! However, because it consumes a lot of processing power, you can only use it once per cartridge.”
“I’ll have to use it carefully then.”
Since my psychokinesis required physical contact to activate, this could become a pretty powerful trump card. But since I could only use it once, I’d have to be very selective. After removing the cartridge and returning the gauntlet to its original form, Chrome handed me several more cartridges.
“What are these?”
“Blank data cartridges. You can store mental images inside them. Until now, the mental images you extracted would dissipate after a while, right? Now you can store them here and use them whenever you need.”
“Oh. This is pretty convenient.”
I could pre-store colors in advance, then swap cartridges when I encountered an opponent that required a specific color. Until now, I had to extract mental images from the surrounding environment or convert them through the Mother Box every single time. This would drastically reduce that delay. I nodded in satisfaction as Chrome pointed at the Heart system hanging on my chest.
“I haven’t made any equipment using the Heart system yet. Honestly, it doesn’t even make sense that you already have the Heart system. I’ve only just finished the equipment that uses the Hand system.”
When he asked me to wait a little longer for Heart system equipment, a question suddenly occurred to me.
“How did you know this was the Heart system?”
“Doctor Aurum knows everything. Just kidding. After all that chaos, the fact that everything was cleanly resolved let me roughly guess what happened. If left alone, it was an incident big enough to split the entire district in half, you know?”
“It was that bad?”
“Yeah. I’ve said it multiple times now, but the Destruction Device isn’t called that for nothing.”
Not just blowing up one red Magic Tower, but enough power to split an entire district in half. I was once again stunned by the Destruction Device’s might when Chrome made me an offer.
“In that sense, I’d like to entrust you with a request. How about it? It’s the perfect opportunity to test Magpie’s performance.”
“A request? What is it?”
“It’s simple. I’ve detected the location of the E.Y.E system. All you have to do is retrieve it. Easy, right?”
“The E.Y.E system?”
The E.Y.E system was the one the Mother Box had said must be recovered with highest priority. Of course I was tempted, but it didn’t sound like it would be that easy.
“Of course I’m interested, but… there’s more to it, isn’t there?”
“Naturally! But it’s not a big problem. Just a tiny little detail?”
“…What exactly is it?”
The fact that he was calling it “no big deal” made it extremely suspicious. I stared at him with eyes demanding a more detailed explanation, and Chrome finally spat out the truth.
“It’s a really, really minor issue. The Reverse Factory noticed it first and is trying to retrieve it too. That’s all.”
“…So you’re telling me to boldly go steal an item that one of the Four Major Guilds is trying to obtain?”
“Yep. That’s right!”
Was he even making sense?