Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: New Phase (4)
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This was another secret training ground inside a "facility" operated by the Prophets.
The expansive training hall had a floor made of hard, smooth material, and the only people moving around inside its vast interior were me and the "instructor." The man stood tall with a dignified posture, hands shoved in his pockets, looking down at me as he spoke.
"No need for introductions, right? You already have a rough idea of what kind of guys we are anyway. Training beats pointless chit-chat any day."
As the man with the torn lip said, we didn't need any self-introductions. I already knew this guy's name. Blonde hair, a scar pulling his mouth into what looked like a smile. Sunglasses covering his eyes.
His name was Inoue Saburo. A villain from the original work Alice in the Multicolored Garden, serving as the action captain for the Prophets.
Action captain or not, he was just an early-game low-level supervisor type, ultimately defeated by the protagonist's chicken ability, same as always.
His wailing outburst of 'Me, beaten by chickens? Impossible!' while trembling in rage was considered one of the highlights in Alice in the Multicolored Garden. But I probably wouldn't get to see that scene play out in real life.
That said, setting aside his mid-story placement or his role as comic relief, Inoue Saburo was undeniably an exceptional figure in terms of career and real combat experience.
For starters, he was introduced as a former yakuza knife fighter, and in the original work, there was even a part where he bragged about his vast real-world battle experience.
There was no one more suitable to teach an aspiring genius elite villain like me. So I nodded confidently, pulling the most villainous expression I could muster.
"Of course. Heh heh heh."
Inoue Saburo seemed to freeze at my villainous face. He stared down at me silently for a moment before snorting, probably to mask his own fluster. With one corner of his mouth torn, his sneer looked even more pronounced.
"Good, that's quite the confident look. Excellent. This'll be fun to teach. I'll mold you into the ultimate villain."
My appearance and talent shone no matter where I was. Even Saburo was grinning now, clearly pleased with me. I nodded and asked,
"So, how will the training work?"
"Hey, come on out."
Saburo turned his head at my question and beckoned toward the back. From the corner emerged a girl limping along on crutches. She was about my age, with tanned skin and striking purple eyes.
Her face felt vaguely familiar, but the crutches made it hard to place her. Was there a listless-looking kid like this in the original work?
But what threw me off wasn't just her being my age or the sense of recognition.
"...She's missing a leg, though?"
"...She's on crutches."
What kind of test was this? Was he planning to gauge my villain potential by seeing if I could strike her down without mercy?
If so, that'd be a problem. What if I accidentally killed her? I'd feel guilty and wouldn't sleep at night.
Saburo let out a hollow chuckle at my question. He must've thought I was showing pity.
"What, think she's weaker just 'cause she's on crutches? Once you're in our world, you don't underestimate someone for missing a limb or two. Hey, get ready."
The girl nodded at Saburo's command and tossed her crutches to the floor. They hit the hard surface with a heavy thud like metal chunks dropping, kicking up dust.
"...Huh?"
As she stretched and glanced at me, she crossed her hands and twisted them. The crutches on the ground floated up, writhing and contorting until they reshaped into a prosthetic leg—like an intricate iron artwork twisted from massive wires.
She shook her head, and without any visible mechanism, the prosthetic snapped perfectly onto her leg, moving as naturally as flesh.
The girl glanced at Saburo and asked,
"What should I do?"
What should she do? Was she seriously asking that after seeing my genius talent and physical enhancement ability?
My pride stung. I'd planned to go easy, but now I couldn't hold back either. I rolled up my sleeves, fixed her with my most menacing villain glare, and she just tilted her head with a blank look. No hostility toward me, but no friendliness either.
Saburo grinned even wider at her question and said,
"She's our precious client's daughter. Treat her gently—no marks on her body."
The girl nodded. With each step she took, her leg let out ominous clanks. She stretched, glared at me, then hardened her expression and breathed deeply. Saburo shouted,
"Begin!"
The moment I awkwardly shifted into a stance and stepped forward, her purple eyes narrowed. The twisted prosthetic compressed like a spring, then exploded outward, sending metal shards flying everywhere.
"Whoaaa!"
No matter how tough my body was, getting caught in that blast would leave scars all over. I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them to find her rocketing toward me on the explosion's force, fist swinging right at my face.
But that was a miscalculation on her part. I was a physical enhancement ability user. Amateur attacks like that? I could grab them mid-swing and counter hard. I deliberately thrust one hand toward her, ready to counter the instant her strike came.
Except.
I saw the scattered metal shards suddenly hurtling toward me. As I froze in shock, chunks of iron latched onto her right arm, forming a savage gauntlet that smashed toward my right arm.
"Uh-oh."
BAM!
With a deafening boom, I went flying, bouncing around like a ball.
"Oooow!"
Tumbling with my scream, I suddenly understood the anguish Shinsuke must've felt getting pummeled by Hwayoung. When I staggered to my feet, my arm throbbed—definitely badly bruised. The girl looked baffled to see me get up unscathed.
The metal shards clinging to my arm had already reformed into her prosthetic. She tapped the floor with it and said,
"Weird. I aimed to break it."
Saburo laughed.
"What a disobedient brat. I specifically said no visible injuries. If he weren't a physical enhancer, I'd be in hot water."
The girl glanced at him and replied,
"But he gave me a weird look. He provoked me, so he deserved a lesson."
"Uahahaahahaha!"
Weird look? She called my perfect villain expression weird? Saburo cackled like it was the funniest thing, while I clenched my fists and stood again.
"Hey! Rematch! You little...!"
BAM!
"Oooow!"
Of course, I wasn't her match. My body couldn't keep up with her bizarre fighting style and overwhelming destructive power beyond my imagination. When I came to and looked up, she was gazing down at me, shaking out her hands.
She tilted her head and asked,
"Want more?"
Her posture screamed "bring it if you dare," scraping at my pride.
And in one corner of my original knowledge, a character with a similar fighting style surfaced.
An ability user who freely manipulated hunks of metal.
There was definitely one.
A character who, during Prophet operations, suffered some accident that forced her to replace most of her body with machines. Her face was partially exposed, and her combat method matched this girl's.
Back then, being mostly mechanical, she fought by disassembling her body or latching onto other machines in grotesque ways.
Her personality was as twisted as her form.
Combat Weapon Carmen.
Yeah, that was the name.
In the original, she was covered head to toe in machines, but apparently, after getting wrecked in a Prophet mission under Saburo's watch, her body had been patched up with cybernetics to bring her back for more ops.
The Prophets weren't infallible; they had their failures too.
Right now, she had a sullen expression, but she was quite the beauty, and her long, lithe limbs were far more appealing than the grotesque mechanical mess from the original.
Plus, her quiet demeanor was nothing like the cackling psycho from the story.
...Maybe I could redeem her too, at this stage?
For the record, she didn't die to the protagonist in the original.
She fused with more machines to show off greater power, only to get fried by an electric ability user on the protagonist's side.