Chapter 35
Chapter 35
The moment I confirmed the mercenaries had finished their transmission, I spoke.
“Picker, start jamming.”
“Roger, Boss!”
As soon as the order dropped, the Honeybee squadron hidden in the alley released a burst of radio interference.
If they had been ordinary raiders, they would have panicked—shouting, banging on their dead radios, and running around in confusion.
But these men were different.
Snap.
When the man at the front raised his fist, the five behind him stopped instantly as if rehearsed.
Not a hint of agitation.
After exchanging a few hand signals, they changed formation in an instant.
Two-man teams.
Left, right, center.
A perfect 2–2–2 dispersed formation.
“What the hell are these guys?”
Watching the monitor, I swallowed dryly.
Their movements were flawless.
Like machines sharing a single brain, they smoothly occupied the alley’s blind spots.
Not ordinary raiders.
They were trained soldiers.
And not regular troops—special operations level.
Then it happened.
The point man in the central group suddenly stopped.
“Picker. Zoom in.”
Something felt off.
Through the goggles he was wearing, the Honeybee camera captured his pupils dilating strangely.
His gaze focused twenty meters ahead—beneath the leg of a fallen signboard.
Thanks to Spatial Tethering, I could prepare traps without even going to the site.
I simply placed tripwires and pressure mines into Storage, and Porter would deploy them while Picker handled the placement.
No human eye could possibly detect them in such a dark alley.
“Don’t tell me… he actually spotted that?”
The point man moved his lips slightly, and the nearby leader nodded.
Without using a radio, the other teams began to detour perfectly around my trap positions, as if they had shared the information instantly.
What was going on?
Then Picker’s voice rang out, urgent yet excited.
“Boss! Got it!”
A red waveform graph pulsed violently on the screen.
“They’re not talking with their mouths—they’re transmitting brainwaves! Encrypted ultra-shortwave communication! Do they think they’re the X-Men or something? Maybe they really are cyborgs!”
“Can you decode it?”
“Of course. Who do you think I am? This kind of encryption takes three seconds. Listen.”
Picker applied an audio filter.
The static faded, revealing the leader’s voice clearly.
“Twenty meters ahead. Tripwire detected beneath signboard support. Based on the disturbance pattern, likely a pressure mine.”
“Alpha team detour to one o’clock. Bravo team scale the wall at eleven. Charlie—do not disarm, pass through.”
“Assume ambush. Maintain vigilance.”
The point man had located an invisible trap.
The leader issued silent commands.
“This is definitely a trait.”
“I think so too.”
Their traits were easy to guess.
The point man likely had enhanced vision or danger detection.
The leader—something like telepathy.
Something feels wrong.
Normally, awakened with physical enhancement gained broad boosts like strength enhancement or reflex enhancement.
Just like Karambit or Hammer.
But these guys were different.
Vision. Communication.
Their abilities were extremely specialized—like machine parts designed for a specific function.
Then a memory surfaced.
Earlier, while Hammer hunted the Giant Mole, I had overheard him talking to his subordinates.
—Boss! We’ll awaken soon like you and take positions too!
—Yeah. Just keep working hard. Even if you don’t find your talent, you can awaken by forcing enough experience points.
At the time I thought it was just encouragement.
But seeing these mercenaries now changed my perspective.
What if they weren’t naturally awakened—but artificially created?
They could be human weapons engineered for specific purposes.
Everyone in the shelter had always wondered how the military had grown so powerful.
If artificial awakening existed… it would explain everything.
“Boss, their coordination is freakishly precise. Like robots.”
“Stay sharp. They’re far more dangerous than Hammer.”
Still, now that I understood their traits—
The advantage was mine.
Charlie Team
Alpha. Bravo. Charlie.
The Charlie team advancing along the right side moved silently, watching their backs.
They paid no attention to the ordinary-looking concrete block beneath their feet.
Clear.
Charlie-1 gave a hand signal and walked past the rock.
Charlie-2 followed without suspicion.
The moment their backs were fully exposed—
Whiiing—
A faint mechanical sound cut the silence.
Charlie-2 had just begun to turn his head.
The concrete surface split open.
From within burst a gleaming white weapon.
The ram installed on Porter, crafted from the tusks of the E-grade named mutant Iron-Tusk Boar.
Thud!
There was no time to scream.
The massive tusk pierced Charlie-2’s spine and continued into Charlie-1’s back.
Like skewering meat.
BOOM!
Porter accelerated without stopping, slamming both bodies into the wall.
Crack!
Their ribcages shattered with a sickening sound.
Instant death.
“HAHA! Boss! Did you see that? Following my refined instructions, the bear turned them into dried squid!”
Picker cheered.
Porter responded calmly.
“Too light. The weight of life is far too light. I require… something heavier.”
“Ugh, that freak. Stop with the roleplay!”
The ram retracted, and Porter’s armor closed again.
Once more he became nothing but a stone.
“Boss. Moving to next target.”
The alley now held only two crushed corpses and a bloodstained rock.
“No need to move. Camouflage. They’re coming here.”
Bravo Team
When the telepathic link suddenly cut off, the leader immediately sent a signal.
“Bravo. Confirm Charlie.”
Bravo team stopped.
Bravo-1 quickly turned around.
But the alley was empty.
No enemies.
No gunshots.
No screams.
They cautiously advanced to Charlie’s last position.
And discovered their comrades.
Smashed into the wall like ground meat.
What happened?
Even professional mercenaries felt cold sweat on their backs.
They instinctively stood back-to-back, scanning the area.
At that moment Picker’s eye flashed from above.
“They’re panicking! Perfect chance!”
“Fire.”
“Porter! Launchers one and two open! No gunpowder! Boss will yell if it’s noisy!”
At Picker’s order, the rock—Porter—silently opened its back plating.
Two of the four cylindrical launch tubes targeted Bravo team.
Unlike tubes three and four, which used explosive propellant, tubes one and two were pneumatic launchers driven purely by compressed air.
Pshhh!
A brief hiss echoed.
Thud!
Bravo-1’s neck snapped violently.
A steel harpoon thirty centimeters long pierced his throat and pinned him to the wall behind.
He hung there with eyes still open.
At the same time—
Crack!
Bravo-2’s temple exploded.
A high-carbon steel bearing, only two centimeters wide.
Just a metal ball—but accelerated by Porter’s compressed air system, it was deadlier than most rifle rounds.
Thump.
The second team collapsed.
Four men erased in seconds.
Not a single gunshot.
A perfect and eerie hunt.
The Leader
Near the alley exit, the leader—Alpha-1—twisted in shock.
The mental signals from his men had cut off one by one.
Wiped out…?
It had taken less than ten seconds.
No gunshots.
No screams.
This wasn’t just an ambush.
They had stepped into a slaughterhouse someone had carefully prepared.
The leader stayed calm.
Unknown enemy.
Unknown numbers.
Unknown attack method.
Fighting here would be suicide.
He decided immediately.
“Mission failure. Reporting to HQ.”
Without hesitation, he turned and ran.
Escaping the jamming zone and reporting was the priority.
Alpha-2 sprinted behind him.
Watching through the monitor, my eyes narrowed.
“Running away? Not happening.”
If they escaped, my location and information would reach the military.
Stealth ended here.
“Porter. Ram them.”
ROOOOOAR—
A heavy motor thundered from the alley.
Porter broke camouflage and launched forward, tracks spinning at full power.
It accelerated faster than most motorcycles.
Hearing the noise, the leader turned.
What he saw—
“…A toy?”
A crude machine covered in cement.
Barely knee-high.
A small armored vehicle charging toward him.
“Self-destruct?”
Instinctively, the leader raised his grenade launcher.
The weapon meant to send me to hell.
BOOM!
The grenade struck Porter’s front armor directly.
An explosion swallowed the machine in fire and dust.
“Done—”
The leader began to sigh in relief.
A machine that size should have been destroyed.
But—
BOOM!
Something burst through the smoke.
Not debris.
Porter.
Only slightly scorched.
It charged up the ramp and leapt into the air.
The bio-composite armor made from hardened boar hide and special alloy wasn’t something a single grenade could penetrate.
“Light! That impact was lighter than a feather!”
“Boss! It flew! That bear just flew without wings!”
The AI chatter meant nothing to the leader.
All he saw was the white tusk descending toward him.
Dodge—
His mind reacted.
His body did not.
A hundred-kilogram machine falling from above.
The kinetic energy was beyond even an awakened human’s limits.
CRACK!
The ram smashed into the leader’s face.
A ringing sound filled his ears.
His vision turned red.
Then darkness.
BOOM!
Porter landed heavily.
The leader’s corpse lay crushed beneath him.
One enemy remained.
Alpha-2 lay on the ground, face pale with terror.
“P-please… spare me.”
“Have you ever spared someone who begged like that?”
Porter fired a steel harpoon.
The battle ended.
“Ugh. Acting cool despite being a bear.”
“Thank you for the praise.”
Picker exploded.
“That wasn’t praise, you idiot!”
“Picker. Calm down. Collect the loot and erase the traces.”
“Roger, Boss! Bear, I’ll gather the loot—you incinerate the bodies.”
Items flowed into Storage one after another.
“As expected. These weren’t ordinary enemies.”
Their equipment was on a completely different level from raiders.
They were definitely military.
“Boss! There’s an item!”
Picker zoomed in.
A worn leather canteen.
It looked completely out of place among their advanced equipment.
Endless Spring Water
Grade: α-F
A leather canteen infused with mana from the Island of Time.
When the lid is closed, clean water gradually fills the internal subspace.
“α-F?”