Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Bogers Gang (3)
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Bogers's reaction was extremely explosive.
Suddenly, why was he saying something like that?
'Did he hit some kind of seizure button?'
Not caring about his burger master or his subordinates, being a narcissist with that face meant there was seriously something wrong with his head.
These weren't the kinds of thoughts I'd normally have while teasing Bogers every time he opened his mouth, but anyway.
"What did I even say..."
"You got a magic circuit implanted in some back alley, right? The pain you're feeling must be considerable. And since it's fire-type magic to boot, you're probably enduring searing agony on your skin every single moment."
"Aha."
"So you're pissed at Hotdog Man over there, who looks like he has a proper magic circuit. That wizard comment just now must've been the switch. People living in lower districts like this tend to harbor a lot of hatred toward corporations and noble houses anyway."
"Th-that kind explanation is really appreciated..."
No time to listen right now.
Bang! Bang!! Boom!!!
The concrete wall caved in.
Rebar was exposed inside.
With his eyes rolled back in rage, Bogers charged straight at me alone.
It felt like I was a Spanish bullfighter.
I wished I had a red cape,
but unfortunately, the only weapons I had right now were my two fists.
The pistol Christine gave me?
Of course I left it at the grocery store.
Too annoying to carry around without a holster.
Boom!!!
I dodged slightly, and Bogers slammed face-first into the wall. Oof. That had to hurt.
The wall cracked wide open,
spiderweb fractures spreading out.
The room was already a total mess.
The disco ball that had been lighting it up was long since shattered, leaving only the neon lights filtering through the hole in the window as the sole light source.
"...How long are you gonna keep running?"
"Oh, so you can talk."
His eyes were completely rolled back, so I thought he'd totally lost it.
Bogers seemed to have snapped back to his senses from the impact of smashing his face into the wall.
...Grind.
A menacing sound came from Bogers's mouth.
His metal-coated teeth gleamed with a shiny luster.
I chuckled at the sight.
"Gang boss afraid of the dentist too, huh? I get it to some extent. That classical music they play there gives me chills down my neck sometimes."
Probably a fear imprinted at the genetic level.
From my perspective, it wasn't good at all if the opponent regained his cool.
Much easier to deal with when he was charging in blindly without a care like before.
But this time, my taunt seemed to have the opposite effect.
"Hoo, enough. Such low-level provocation. Filthy personality, filthy."
"Not as filthy as a gang boss."
"...You really don't lose a single word. Anyone would think you're from the slums."
Bogers wiped the flowing blood with a handkerchief pulled from his pocket.
But the tattoo's color didn't shift back to black.
Which meant
he was still deep in combat mode.
Bogers no longer yelled or showed excitement.
He simply approached me with calm footsteps.
......
It felt even sharper now.
In the end, fights weren't won with words, but with the body.
Bogers assumed a stance like a UFC fighter in the ring, perfectly composed.
And at the same time, a fist flew at me.
──Thump.
The entire world began to move in slow motion.
Little by little, very little by little.
Even slower.
Only the heartbeat pulsing every few seconds
proved that the world was still flowing.
Muscles swelled, lungs contracted.
Senses sharpened to the point where I could feel the movement of blood vessels throughout my body perfectly.
In the slowly flowing world.
Michael's stunned face in the distance zoomed in real-time.
Michael was speaking at a speed like a sluggish caterpillar.
"Joo-ost- caa-re-fuu-ll..."
His speech was so slow it was hard to make out the words.
'Trying to give another weird explanation.'
Anyway.
Before I knew it, a massive fist was just an inch from me.
I ducked my body, confirming my face reflected in the gemstone ring on Bogers's finger.
My build had gotten pretty big, but not to the extent of Bogers, whose whole body was packed with muscle.
As I slipped inside his extended fist,
Bogers's pupils slowly dilated.
I threw my fist straight out.
Targets: chest, solar plexus, gut.
Pok, pok pok.
I actually heard those sounds.
Because the world had slowed, my movements had slowed too.
And then.
Bogers's body pulled away from me.
Not staggering back in pain, but lifting straight into the air.
──Thump, thump thump.
The heartbeat returned to normal speed.
The world moved fast again.
"Gahk...!!"
Bogers clutched his solar plexus and slammed into the wall.
He seemed to barely stay upright leaning against it.
"Sh, shit..."
I thought that would've been enough, but his eyes were still filled with the will to fight.
I don't know what great sin an ordinary job-hunting student like me committed to end up dropped into this game world.
But I couldn't just stand there idle.
I ignored my numb fist
and rushed forward, kicking Bogers in the gut.
Crack!!
His body folded forward along with the fingers clutching his abdomen.
But.
Even with his fingers crushed and innards churning.
Bogers was staring at my face.
A sudden ominous feeling washed over me.
"...Cheese, you bastard!!"
A bright light burst from Bogers's mouth.
That oh-so-familiar thing from FPS games.
A flashbang.
The so-called 'flash' effect.
But unlike the ones I knew, the ear pain hit before the blindness.
With heightened hearing came heightened vulnerability.
It felt like a grenade exploding right in front of my face—my ears rang fiercely. Enough to throw off my balance in an instant.
'...So that's why he gold-plated his teeth.'
Not just because he hated the dentist.
A momentary mistake, and I lost my hearing and sight.
It'd come back soon, but in this situation, that brief moment was the problem.
At the same time, a heavy pressure bore down on me.
"─Die─!!"
Killing intent I couldn't hear rang in my ears.
Definitely something choking my neck from behind.
Makes sense—he couldn't punch with broken fingers.
'1 second, 2 seconds...'
When oxygen to the brain is cut off via the carotid, a person loses consciousness in just seconds.
Beeeeep—.
Tinnitus ringing in my ears.
In this life-threatening moment.
I instinctively grabbed what I thought was Bogers's arm.
Squelch.
Warm liquid splattered on my cheek.
I wrenched it off with force
and threw his body forward.
Beeeeep—.
Back when I first fell into this world.
The faces of those thugs threatening my life flashed through my mind.
The PTSD-like crisis instinct commanded my brain to fire signals to every nerve.
Move as fast as possible.
...Crack!! Bang! Thud!
Faint sounds reached me.
I kept slamming my fists down toward what I thought was Bogers.
I never stopped moving.
Because I still couldn't see a thing.
After a few seconds like that.
"...Dog Man! It's all over now...!!"
Michael's voice breaking through the tinnitus stopped my actions.
Along with my muffled ears clearing.
My blurry vision gradually returned.
"Guhk, guhek..."
I looked down at Bogers's face, collapsed on the floor with all his teeth broken.
Ugh.
One arm that looked cybernetic was completely torn off, and some unidentified black liquid was leaking from the cross-section.
Not real muscle, but mechanical...
A bit of a shock.
No wonder he moved so well despite the burning pain—a mechanical loader.
As I stopped moving, Michael's cautious voice came from behind.
"...Hotdog Man. Are you alright now?"
"Mm."
I nodded without replying.
Because of those memories from when I first arrived in this world, I'd moved a bit excessively without realizing.
"Kuh, heh heh... The real deal is different, huh. Cough."
The fallen Bogers muttered.
He still had the energy to speak.
This guy's pretty tough.
His blood-smeared face looked straight up at me.
"The fight's over. Now finish it."
"Nah, pass."
"......??"
For a moment, Bogers showed a dumbfounded reaction to my immediate response.
Then his expression twisted in rage.
"...You saying I'm not even worth killing? Noble spawn alright. Fuck, so damn arrogant."
What noble?
But Bogers, under some weird misunderstanding, continued while spewing thick blood.
"Sticking to your no-kill principle, huh? No-kill in Risk City. Fucking hilarious."
"Not that. Shut up."
Just burdensome, that's all.
To completely eliminate any future trouble, I'd have to kill every last gang member in this building, Bogers included.
Not as easy as it sounds.
And like I'd told Michael earlier,
my anger had mostly faded midway, so I'd even thought about just heading back.
Though I couldn't actually do it.
Anyway, time to wrap this up.
I left the wriggling Bogers alone and turned toward Michael.
"Alright, let's head back."
"...You sure it's okay to just leave him like that?"
"Yeah, for now."
As I turned my back casually, Bogers stood veins bulging in his neck from behind.
Didn't look like a one-armed guy.
"...Fuck, where do you think you're going! Kill me! Kill me already!!"
I paused at his reaction.
Was he harboring some strange hope?
Bogers looked up at me and shut his mouth.
And then.
"Get lost."
I don't obey the orders of the weak.
Bogers buried his face deep upon seeing my extended middle finger.
Left alone, Bogers.
He groaned in pain but couldn't regain his senses amid the blazing rage.
"Fuck, fuck! I'll kill him...!!"
No subordinates left, his half-assed magic circuits all smashed, arm gone.
But none of that quelled his fury.
However.
......
Someone appeared before the dazed Bogers.
The girl with shaggy hair covering her face—Liberra quietly watched the wriggling Bogers.
It was a mystery how the girl who should have been waiting at the grocery store had followed Abel and Michael on the truck.
Bogers, muttering curses alone, suddenly sensed the presence and looked up.
"...You, you're."
He stopped speaking upon confirming the girl who appeared like a ghost.
Soon, Bogers's face lit up with joy.
"Yeah, you came! See, it's not a bad deal for you either!"
Bogers concluded he'd successfully recruited the girl.
Why else would she come here suddenly?
He had no choice but to think that way.
"Cough, great choice. Just help me out, and I'll help with your revenge too. I'll take care of your comrades! Heh heh, that fucking bastard dared leave without killing me? Can't let him—."
Bogers stopped mid-sentence.
A very cold sensation touched his nape.
Cold and sharp, something.
"...Uh, hey?"
"I made a contract with the corporation. To live quietly like a dead rat in this bottom slum."
"Y-yeah? I know."
He knew the girl before him was a mutant—a genetically engineered lifeform created by some corporation,
and that she was being hunted by various corps because of it.
He'd learned purely by chance.
"But the contract has exceptions."
"Wha..."
"If something happens to my family or comrades, I'm free to act on that alone."
"Fuck, what kinda bullshit is that!!"
Bogers's voice exploded.
But the girl, Liberra, remained utterly calm.
Liberra thought of the grocery store owner.
Since entering the Bogers Gang hideout,
from secretly watching the whole time, he seemed to have a very soft personality.
Especially since not a single gang member had died yet.
She didn't dislike his softness.
On the contrary, it felt warm—really good.
But not everyone in the city would show him consideration.
This was a city gathering the world's trash.
Risk City.
So the conclusion was simple.
She just had to fill in that softness for him.
From the shadows, from the darkness.
"When the hell did I touch your—."
Bogers's death was instantaneous.
Without even a chance for last words.
Even though it was the death he wanted.
Bogers's end wasn't the conclusion he expected.
"Comrades, you touched."
Because she'd joined his group.
Still just comrades, not quite family yet.
But maybe someday.
'Hotdog Man...'
She muttered the nickname playfully.
For now, that was enough.
The girl stood up from her crouch.
Leaving Bogers's body like this could lead to other problems.
A corpse was a lump of information,
and uncontrollable variables were best removed.
...Hmph.
And.
The simplest cleanup method was always
On the way back riding the truck.
Michael suddenly spoke up.
"Should we leave the gas pipes open on the way out?"
"Why suddenly?"
"Y-you said earlier you wanted to blow up that building."
...Did I say that?
My memory was hazy from how pissed I was.
Now that my stress had eased somewhat, I wasn't in the mood to go back and smash the place.
"Nah. It'll be fine even if you don't."
Right after I said that.
—BOOM!!!
A fierce heat erupted from behind the truck.
We got out of the truck for a moment.
......
......
The Bogers Gang hideout blazing fiercely.
The explosion had been so massive that embers rose and fell from the sky like snowflakes.
A bit of silence passed.
"...H-Hotdog Man?"
"Wasn't me."
"No, I don't wanna suspect you but..."
"Really wasn't."
I felt wronged.