The Mechanized Homeless Man
Meanwhile, Baek Seoha pressed her fingers hard into her temples, trying to crush the headache pounding behind her eyes.
Beep. Beep. Beeeeep. Beep.
The signal tone had been going for a full twelve hours. It had reached the point where tinnitus was layering over it, a phantom ringing that would not leave her ears alone.
Time remaining until lecture complete: 03 seconds.
Two seconds… one second.
BEEEEEEEEP!!
The Mini Mesat on the monitor bobbed its head back and forth, doing a chicken impression.
Bwak! Bwaaak! Time's up! Hiyohhohohoho! Well? How was it, you suuuuper genius? Mesat's legendary lecture!! Your knowledge level just got an upgrade, didn't it?!
Baek Seoha staggered and leaned against the wall, glaring at the monitor.
"Shut up and just give me the question already. You pervert…"
Pervert? Pervert… transfoooorm!!
Mini Mesat clutched its head and hung it in what looked like a fit of rage. Then it sprang right back up and launched into a dance that looked exactly like it was taking a dump.
Oh! Exactly!! The time has come for you, too, to undergo metamorphosis at these hands! Awaken from your ignorant pupal shell and let us be reborn together as the new humanity!! Kishishishishishi!!
The jab hadn't landed at all. And that wasn't even what she'd meant!
"That's not—!!"
Baek Seoha started to argue, then clamped a hand over one ear as the tinnitus flared. She pressed her lips shut.
Don't get sucked into his pace. He's trying to rattle me. That's obvious.
At last, a question appeared on the monitor.
Ding!
Drumroll, please! Here comes your short-answer question!
Beep. Beeeeep. Beep.
Beep. Beep. Beeeeep.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Baek Seoha's stomach lurched in a conditioned reflex.
"……Uurp!"
Even so, she forced herself to parse the question slowly.
"How did the virtuous Mesat… become a Main…?"
There was no way she couldn't know. He had been babbling on that exact subject, day and night, for twelve straight hours. But Baek Seoha could barely bring herself to say it.
"Kh…"
She knew the answer was absurd.
Damn it!
If she didn't say it, though, she was never getting out of here.
"……Mesat is an innocent civilian who was kidnapped by a Main. Therefore, a hero must… res… rescue Mesat."
Baek Seoha squeezed her eyes shut and hung her head.
Mesat's cheerful voice rang through the isolation cell.
The cell shuddered.
KRRRRRRRRUMBLE!
"Eh?!"
A tremor ran through the floor, and then the walls of the isolation cell began to rise.
Vrrrrrrr—
Clunk!
An innocent civilian is waiting for you to rescue him! Off on an adventure we go! Let's go! Kishishishishishi!
Infuriating to the very last second. Baek Seoha clicked her tongue and stepped out of the lecture hall.
"Tsk."
Twelve hours, and she was finally free of that cell. But a phantom ringing kept circling through her skull.
Beep. Beep. Beeeeep. Beep—
"Stop it!"
Baek Seoha clapped her hands over her ears and ducked her head.
What are you even trying to do, Mesat?!
She couldn't make sense of it no matter how she turned it over. He could have killed her the moment he locked her in that cell. Instead he had spent all that time delivering a lecture that barely qualified as words, some kind of cult sermon. Why?
Don't tell me…
It couldn't be, but…
Does Mesat actually want to be rescued?
Objectively speaking, Mesat really was a once-in-ten-thousand-years scientific genius. Even Baek Seoha had to concede that much. The impossible optical weapons she had seen on the surface were proof enough. So a Main who had been hunting talent kidnapped Mesat and coerced him into service…?
That had been part of the Morse-code lecture. And it did hold a certain logic.
"No!"
Baek Seoha covered her forehead, her face twisting.
"Why am I… even thinking this…"
Mesat was a Main.
Get a grip, Baek Seoha! You're Baekho — a hero of justice!!
And yet…
If what Mesat said is the truth…
Then he really was someone who needed rescuing. She shook her head hard, trying to fling the thought away.
"I'll deal with that later."
She hadn't even escaped this crisis yet. Letting herself spiral would only make things worse.
Baek Seoha's boots met cold steel plate. She looked around.
"Where is this…?"
A vast cavern. Nothing in it but two enormous iron doors, one ahead and one to the left. She was still standing there, bewildered, when a monitor jutted out from the top of the door in front of her.
Mini Mesat was shadowboxing, throwing sloppy little steps.
"The second… gate…?"
Yes! This is a training center designed to improve your combat power! Ohhh! Exciting already, isn't it?! Hoit!
Baek Seoha frowned and lowered her gaze.
A hundred meters ahead, a hole irised open in the floor.
Vrrrrrrr—
Something was rising. The moment she saw it, Baek Seoha couldn't help but stare.
"You…?"
The homeless man Mesat had kidnapped. A face so burned into her memory by that horrific incident that it still visited her in dreams.
The problem was…
"Uurp!"
Baek Seoha clapped a hand over her mouth and barely kept from retching.
The last time she had seen him, his limbs had been severed. Now both arms had been remade into bladed forelegs. Steam hissed from the seams of his steel shoulders.
Fssssssssshhh!
And his lower body was no longer human either. Antennae twitched on his forehead as he came walking toward her on four legs.
It's like…
A mechanized praying mantis. How could anyone do this to a person?
A red light kindled behind grotesque compound-eye goggles that looked as though his eyeballs had been forced outward.
Ziiing—
"All hail… Lord Mesat… Praise… our master…"
Kang!
He drove a bladed foreleg into the steel plate and advanced.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang!
Baek Seoha backed away.
"Sir, do you remember me? I'm Baekho, a B-Class hero. The heroes came here to save you!"
The giant mantis hesitated.
"Hero… hero? Hero!!"
He flew into a sudden rage, hoisting his bladed forelegs high.
"Bear witness, my Lord! This humble one, Mantis, shall take the hero's head and offer it up to our magnificent creator… Lord Mesat!!"
Kangkangkangkangkangkang!!
He charged, slamming those scythe-arms down in a savage rhythm. Baek Seoha bit her lip and broke into a run.
Bang!
She sprinted up the wall as if gravity had simply stopped applying to her, and shouted at Mantis as she ran.
"I'm not your enemy, sir! Snap out of it!!"
Mantis tracked her and pivoted. Then his head snapped over at a ninety-degree angle.
Crack!
The compound eyes rotated a full turn.
Vrrrrrrr—
"Target acquired."
He raised a bladed foreleg. Steam jetted from the joints.
Fsssssssshhh!
"Deploying high-pressure slit nozzles. Air compression rate: 94.7%."
Something about the air had changed. Baek Seoha's brows shot up.
What's he trying to do?
Judging by those blades, he was a close-combat type. She had figured she should put some distance between them and keep talking him down.
That was a miscalculation.
Air compression critical threshold reached…
Wind Cleave!!
Mantis swept a bladed foreleg through empty air.
Whoooooosh!!
A sonic boom cracked as the air itself rippled.
BAAM!
Baek Seoha's eyes flew wide. In a fraction of a second, something that shimmered like heat haze came writhing right up to her face.
"What?!"
By the time she registered it, it was already too late. Evasion was impossible.
"Kh!"
She had no choice. She kicked the crescent of compressed wind.
But the instant the Wind Cleave touched her Skykick Boots, a searing jolt tore through her nerves.
"Hah!"
Her kick shattered the Wind Cleave. The wind, however, broke into a thousand fine slivers and shredded her hero costume to tatters.
"Kyaaaaaaah!!"
Baek Seoha fell from the wall and hit the ground face-first.
Thud!
"Kh…"
Her pale flank and hip were laid bare. The fabric between her chest and collarbone had been torn open as well, and blood was running down. She covered her chest with one arm and staggered to her feet.
Amazingly, the torn skin sealed itself in less than ten seconds. Ultra-high-speed regeneration.
If I hadn't newly awakened this ability, that could have been bad…
There was no time to catch her breath. Mantis came charging, all four legs cycling like a motor at high speed.
KRRRRRRREEEEEEEK!
"Kyaaaaaaah! Cut! Kill! Offer!!"
Baek Seoha rolled sideways, slipping the descending blade.
Counter!
From a low crouch she spun and kicked out at Mantis's leg.
CLANG!
The insectile limb crumpled and bent where the Skykick struck it. For a moment he seemed to wobble.
But contrary to her hopes, Mantis simply kept his balance on the remaining three legs.
"What…?"
Baek Seoha's pupils shook. Under any normal circumstances, an off-balance enemy would have given her the opening to seize the initiative. Instead, those vicious bladed forelegs came slamming down in a relentless chain.
Kang!
"…Kh!"
Still on her back, she caught the blade on the long boot that ran all the way up her shin. The second scythe came in just as sharp, and she met it with the other boot.
CLANG!
Both of her legs — her specialty — were completely pinned.
"Nnh…"
The blades bore down, forcing her legs further and further apart. Mantis's jaw split open to either side, revealing teeth as sharp as shears.
"There! There, look, my Lord!! I am useful! This loyal pawn of yours! So please… just don't disassemble me! I don't want to be taken apart anymore…! Hiiik! I'll offer you this female instead! Oooooh! Lord God! Accept this tribute!!"
Fanatical praise. What kind of experiments had Mesat put him through…
A chill ran down Baek Seoha's spine.
……I can't let this go on.
She popped open the multipurpose pouch on her belt.
Doctor… I think this is one of those moments I can't avoid. I'm sorry…
Seo Aegyo, the woman doctor, had been very clear in her warning. But the gap in power was overwhelming. She needed explosive growth, and she needed it now.
She drew a syringe from the pouch.
"Don't worry, sir. I will save you. I promise."
Mantis's glowing eyes flickered for an instant.
"……"
Baek Seoha smiled brightly, and without a shred of hesitation drove the needle into her left arm.