Chapter 50: 11th Floor: Deputy Warden
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 50: 11th Floor: Deputy Warden
- SLAM!!
Rebecca flew back and slammed into the wall.
Without a moment to check on her, I threw myself to the side.
- Whoosh—!
A powerful gust of wind grazed my face, whipping my hair wildly.
I lifted my head and looked back.
"You..."
"Yaaawn... How did you get that necklace off? The system said it was functioning normally."
The Deputy Warden appeared, descending from the upper floor in his pajamas, yawning without a hint of tension. His face showed not anger or curiosity, but sheer annoyance.
"Well, I can figure that out after I catch you."
He casually reached a hand into the air.
- Vwoom!!
I could see the air shimmer slightly, but it was too faint.
'Damn it, I can't see a thing!!'
Psychokinetic abilities are generally divided into two types.
One is the power to move objects in empty space, true telekinesis. This type is usually weaker, often used for clever tactics or combat support rather than direct attacks.
The other is the invisible hand. It looks like psychokinesis, but it's actually an invisible hand exerting direct physical force.
Assuming the same power level, this invisible hand type has immense physical strength. It has physical force, but you can't see it or attack it. It's like compressed air.
And based on my experience feeling his power firsthand, the Deputy Warden is the second type: the invisible hand.
- Whoosh!!
I dodged his psychic fist again,
- THWACK!!!
only to be hit by another and sent flying. I flew a long way before crashing into the corridor's barrier.
"Keuk...."
'Damn it...'
His psychic fists are about the size of a human torso.
This morning, he held my torso while lifting a man and twisting his legs, which means he uses at least four of these invisible fists.
And yet, each one of those fists is stronger than me.
"Troublesome bitches. One defies me, the other tries to escape. As payment for annoying me, I'll execute you myself."
He crossed his arms and approached leisurely.
"Keuk... Don't be so arrogant..."
I charged forward again.
To have any chance of winning, I had to close the distance.
- Whoosh!! Whump!!
This wasn't about dodging what I could see; it was a matter of prediction.
Using the data from the last hit and the movement of his eyes, I narrowly dodged to the side and kept running.
But,
- THWACK!! THUD!! THUD!!!
"Oh, you're pretty tough, aren't you?"
I was caught mid-charge, struck by one fist, then another as it pulled back, and then a third sent me flying once more.
- CRASH!!
He hadn't moved a single step. I was the only one getting battered, crashing into the same barrier as before.
'Feels like I got hit by a car...'
Every muscle in my body trembled from the impact.
If my defense stat wasn't high, my bones would have been broken, or my insides ruptured.
Despite the pain, I charged again.
"Hoh? Charging in again?"
- Whoosh! Whump!!
'The same one-two pattern.'
Followed by an uppercut straight down the middle.
At the perfect moment, I leaned back and bent my knees to dodge it. Then I used the rebound from my knees to jump high, evading the next attack.
- THUD!
His fourth fist slammed into the bare floor.
'I got past four. Is that all?'
But for some reason, that bastard's expression was completely relaxed.
"Is that all...? I guess you didn't have any hidden abilities after all."
"What...?"
- SMACK!!
My head snapped to the side.
I lost my balance.
I tried to steady myself before I fell, but another hand struck me hard in the stomach.
"Keuk!!"
My flying body was caught by a retracting hand.
Both arms, both legs, my torso, my head.
In an instant, I was completely restrained.
"With this, you won't mind an immediate execution, will you, death row inmate?"
- Creeeak....
"Gyaaaaaaaah...!!"
He began to pull on my limbs.
Drawing and quartering.
If this continued, I'd be torn limb from limb and die.
"I'll kill you slowly! Hehehehe..."
A grin stretched across his face. He was enjoying the sight of my suffering with the look of a depraved psychopath.
"You crazy bastard... You die too!"
"What?"
"REBECCAAAA!! NOW!!!"
Rebecca, who had regained consciousness long ago.
She had been lying still on the floor between me and the Deputy Warden on purpose.
Waiting for her chance, her red eyes burning with vengeance had been waiting for this very moment.
- Fwoosh.... KABOOM!!!
The flames Rebecca had been secretly gathering exploded.
They instantly spread down the corridor in both directions.
"You crazy bitch!!"
The Deputy Warden hastily retracted his hands. If my prediction was correct, the flames would engulf his body before all the hands were destroyed...
But,
a hand he had hidden until the very end pushed the flames away. Then, the rest of the quickly retracted hands formed a stable barrier against the fire.
'Damn it...'
The flames engulfed not only the Deputy Warden, but me as well.
But I didn't back down.
Instead, I charged through the fire.
Entering the flames, my clothes burned away and my body was seared.
"Keuk..."
Still, I ran.
This was my last chance.
"Hahaha!! Did you really think I'd fall for such a pathetic ability—"
My vision was obscured by the fire.
I broke through the flames and charged.
"DIIIIIE!!!"
"Where do you think you're going!!"
In the narrow corridor, ash from the intense heat scattered in the air.
And amidst it all, a dissonant white space.
His hands lunged for me, but now, I could see them.
Not as a faint shimmer in the air, but the complete outline of his psychic hands.
- Whoosh!!
I dodged the one-two combo he threw out of habit.
I jumped over a low fist coming straight at me, planted my feet on the ceiling, and ran.
The secret technique of the Mecarto family, Spatial Footwork, which I had learned in the past to close the distance against ranged attackers in confined spaces.
It wasn't a skill in my status window, so I couldn't use divine power to replicate it perfectly, but knowing the principles and techniques, I could briefly execute a similar version.
When a fist flew toward the ceiling, I dodged to the side and ran along the wall.
It was as if I had four surfaces to run on.
"You little rat!!!"
Flustered by my movement across the ceiling and walls, he sent all his remaining hands after me—
but hands I could already see were no longer enough to stop me.
With acrobatic movements, I moved along the walls, evading the massive hands.
And then,
I finally reached him.
"You think you can win just by getting close!!"
He threw a punch with incredible speed. He had two powers: psychokinesis and physical enhancement.
If I hadn't known, I might have been caught by his surprise punch, but I was already aware of it.
Like flowing water, I naturally lowered my body, letting the punch graze past me, and struck a vital point on his side with all my strength.
- KABOOM!!
"Ugh!"
With a sound like the air itself exploding, he reflexively hunched over, clutching his body.
I grabbed his descending head and brought my knee up to meet it.
- CRACK!!!
It's hot.
The flames surging behind us threatened to consume us both.
Enduring the pain of my burning flesh, I moved my feet.
I kneed him in the head one more time, and as he fell backward, I got behind him, grabbed his neck, and twisted.
"Gggghhhk!!!"
The Deputy Warden tried to resist, to control his psychokinesis, but—
- SNAP!!
I was faster.
His neck broke, and his body collapsed limply to the ground.
- Thud...
My muscles and burned skin screamed in agony.
"Haa... It's done..."
It's okay.
I'm almost there.
I've taken down the final boss. All that's left is to get out.
"Rebecca!! Can't you put out the fire?"
"Cough!! I... can't..."
I could wait for the fire to die down, but if I do, the guards we locked up will put it out first and come running.
A corridor with no cover like this is the perfect place to get shot and die. The outside is no different.
The problem isn't just the forces inside this detention center.
Because of the incident in this prison block, a request for support has probably gone out to a nearby military base. A superhuman detention center would surely have that kind of backup plan.
The moment I killed a guard, a timer started.
"No choice, then..."
I put a hand in my pocket, gripped the authentication key tightly so it wouldn't fall out, and charged back into the flames.
- Sizzzle...
"Keuk..."
Enduring the feeling of the soles of my feet cooking, I pushed through the fire. In the distance, I could see Rebecca slumped on the ground amidst the flames.
I approached her, and her condition looked worse than I expected.
"Rebecca? Can you stand?"
"......"
"Huu..."
I could see it in her expression.
Anger, regret, and despair.
A mix of emotions.
"I... I can't move my legs. Escape is impossible... You should go. I'll hold them off here..."
Rebecca, who really had no abilities other than breathing fire.
To be paralyzed from the waist down after just one hit from a psychic hand...
Her...
Instead of leaving her, I lifted her up in a princess carry.
"What are you doing...? It'll be hard enough for you to escape even if you abandon me..."
'Yeah, what am I doing?'
I told myself never to get attached to the people inside the Tower, but I couldn't help it.
No, it was already too late.
The moment I heard she'd been betrayed by a friend she'd trusted for five years, I was already invested.
'Right, I might still need her.'
It seems being paralyzed doesn't stop her from using her powers, so you never know.
I crossed through the fire, holding her.
Clutching the authentication key in one hand, I ran through the flames with my injured and burned body.
My whole body stung.
My clothes had already burned off, leaving me practically naked.
I kept moving my legs without rest, deactivating the barriers with the key.
Just a little further.
Past the main building's front entrance and across the empty parking lot is the detention center's main gate.
I just have to take out the sentries in the towers on both sides and use their keys to open the thick steel gate, and I'll be out.
- Clank.
I stepped through the last door of the main building.
A bright light shone on us, blinding me.
- Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
The moment the door opened, a merciless hail of bullets rained down on us while we were blinded.
- Thwip, thwip, thud!
"Keuk..."
"Gasp!"
I reflexively pulled back, trying to use the steel door as cover, but,
I was hit in the left arm and shoulder,
and Rebecca took a bullet to the stomach.
"Cough...!"
She coughed up blood.
"These damn bastards!!!"
I quickly hid her behind the door and charged out.
There were about ten enemies. The personnel on duty outside must have joined forces with those who remained inside the main building.
"She's out again!! Open fire!!"
They were firing from behind a temporary barricade made of three vehicles in front of the main entrance.
- Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
I dashed outside, dodging bullets and taking cover behind a nearby pillar.
My defense is high enough that a single rifle round won't pierce me, but it still scrapes my skin, draws blood, and the physical force makes my body go stiff. I have to avoid getting hit if I can.
"She's behind the pillar. Throw a grenade!"
'Idiots...'
- Tink...
The moment the grenade landed at my feet, I grabbed it and threw it back at them.
The grenade flew right over and landed neatly behind their cover.
"Huh?"
"Aaaah, get down!!"
- KABOOM!!
While they were hitting the deck, I charged.
- Rat-a-tat-tat!!!
A few men outside the grenade's blast radius fired again, but without a proper firing line, hitting a high-speed target isn't easy.
And when I got close and used one of their comrades as a shield, they couldn't even shoot properly.
"You bitch!!"
A man with a riot baton charged at me.
'Ah, this bastard...'
The one who sold me out on the computer.
The man who humiliated me when I was trapped in the air vent.
- SPLAT!!
I swung my fist hard and completely blew his head off.
"Aaaah!! What the hell was that..."
"She's a physical enhancer!! Just shoot her!!"
Seeing a man's head explode, the guards started firing wildly.
But I was already in their midst.
Though I took a bullet or two, more than half of them died from friendly fire.
In the chaos, I got behind one of them, took him hostage, and snatched his gun.
"Just shoot!! We're all gonna die any—"
- Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!
- Rat-a-tat-tat!!
The bullets crossed.
My hostage was riddled with bullets, and my gun took down the rest of them.
They were familiar faces.
The guy who bought me three free hamburgers.
The one who gave me strawberry cake and kindly explained the prison rules.
"......"
I don't feel sad.
It's just that they weren't all bad people.
We just met under the wrong circumstances.
My vision turns red.
A bullet must have grazed my left eyebrow; it was torn, and blood was streaming down.
"Huu..."
And then I went to Rebecca...
"Surrender."
In front of the door, a guard was holding Rebecca hostage with a gun to her head.
Rebecca, looking half-dead, was held captive, unable to even resist.
"Ah..."
A voice that made my womb tremble just hearing it.
The guard who body-searched me.
He was the one holding Rebecca hostage.