Transhumanism (4)
Transhumanism (4)
Hmm.
Was this group's name 'Tech Worm'?
I felt like I was finally starting to remember the group's name.
For one thing, they had a lot in common with 'bugs.'
"......Die!!"
Frankly, if they were human, they would already be dead. That's how it normally works.
I didn't consider these bastards—still alive and shooting at me with a chest, stomach, one arm, and one leg blown off—to be 'people.'
It was more appropriate to think of them as bugs.
"They're damn persistent."
"Can I take a quick look too?"
"......Absolutely not."
I answered Maya's leisurely comment—completely out of place given the mood—with a sharp retort.
The moment the hail of gunfire paused, I carefully poked my head out from behind cover.
Naturally, my head was protected by a barrier made of mana.
"...Why, why won't you die!"
And then the gunfire resumed.
Ugh, my ears were ringing.
I ducked back behind cover.
From the brief glimpse I got of the scene outside, a gruesome spectacle straight out of a third-rate splatter film was unfolding everywhere.
All I'd done was deflect a few grenades back at them, but the result was utterly horrific.
Anyway, there was only one bastard left now.
If I'd come with Catherine, Andrea, or Drex, I wouldn't have had to hide like this. We'd have swept them away in an instant with overwhelming firepower.
But that was too much for me to handle alone.
Striking them with lightning from outside might've worked, but then the NCPD or the City Security Department would've been dispatched even faster.
I was just more comfortable picking them off bit by bit like this.
Just then, Eve's voice rang inside my head.
[Now.]
The moment I heard that voice, I leaped out from behind cover.
"Finally came ou—dammit, my gun's jammed!"
The terrorist looked down at his firearm, which had suddenly stopped working.
I seized the opening. Using the mana I'd gathered, I released a shock from my fingertips.
Just like those ninjas I'd met in the sewers, in this cyberpunk world, very few people meticulously built in electrical resistance.
The vast majority merely used chrome made of materials resistant to impact or fire, at best.
Therefore.
"Keurureuk—!!"
It was only natural that the terrorist slammed his head into the floor with a sickening crunch.
I muttered a spell for reviving the dead while scanning the area.
"Did I take them all out?"
.......
Fortunately, no one got back up.
The one just now seemed to be the last.
I let out a short sigh and stretched.
My body felt stiff; it had been a while since I last exercised.
30. Transhumanism (4)
The enemy's firepower was 'crudely' decent, which worked in my favor.
Even for me, stopping an anti-tank missile would have been difficult. The impact force alone was staggering, and just reacting in time was a challenge.
But using that kind of weapon indoors would have been tough for them as well, so I understood their situation to some extent.
At first, I'd considered just closing my eyes and calling Catherine or someone else.
Luckily, I was able to wrap things up on my own.
A sparrow that tries to keep up with a stork will split its crotch, as they say. But since my crotch hadn't split yet, it was still doable.
I'd already seen the game's ending, after all. If I couldn't solve something this simple, I'd be too ashamed to hold my head up.
Since I was cleaning up anyway, I might as well be thorough.
With that in mind, I kept advancing deeper into the building. Even then, there was plenty of thrashing from the various bugs.
But the outcome itself wasn't much different from what I'd expected.
Like a listless robot vacuum, I continued descending into the building.
It was truly endless, like entering an anthill.
Whenever terrorists appeared along the way, I'd hide, fight, and then descend again. Over and over.
Just like every other criminal organization, this terrorist group had also set up base in the lower layers.
Since most buildings in the lower layers were illegal extensions, the interior was a maze.
"There's no end to it, no end at all."
"That's for sure."
I glanced back at Maya, who had answered.
.......
The strange feeling I'd had earlier must have been my imagination.
Maya looked perfectly normal, just like always.
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Then I called out to Eve softly.
"Eve."
[Confirmed.]
"Are the ones ahead the last of these bastards now?"
[Based on the signals, yes.]
Then we were finally nearing the end.
After being underground for so long, my breathing felt stuffy. The thick, clinging air of the lower layers swirled in my lungs.
...They were a bigger group than I'd thought.
Ugh, I was exhausted.
Maybe the cyberware joints I'd traded with Drex really were top-of-the-line; aside from the mental fatigue, my body moved lightly, if anything.
Still, I needed to finish this and go home—
That was as far as my thoughts got.
I'd gotten too used to peace, I guess. Letting my guard down in the heart of the enemy's den.
The moment we passed a certain corridor, Eve's urgent voice rang out.
[Sudden biosignal from the rear!]
By the time I heard that voice and turned around, it was already too late.
The concrete wall behind us collapsed.
Honestly, to people with the monstrous artificial muscles of the cyberpunk world, a wall might as well be air.
I'd known that for ages, but overlooking it was my mistake.
Perhaps using optical camouflage, a figure of indeterminate gender stood there, its body stained with mottled, distorted light.
My first impression was of an octopus. Mechanical tentacles writhed on its back.
This bastard, straight out of some low-budget spider-themed hero movie villain, reached out with an intact human hand and grabbed Maya.
Because of that, I couldn't fire an electric shock; it might hit Maya too.
I couldn't read their expression because their face was covered, but the bastard didn't hide their glee.
So the ambush had succeeded. Fine.
The air around me rippled in response to my anger. I prepared to fire a compressed air blast at the opponent's head.
"......Stop!"
A man's voice, unfamiliar, rang out.
It came from the direction we'd been walking toward—the place where Eve had said the remaining members were.
The man continued speaking in a voice like scraping metal.
"I don't know who the hell you are, but I've seen through the cameras that you use powers that violate physical laws. If you move even a little, the hostage's life can't be guaranteed."
"......."
A blade flashed at the fingertips of the octopus freak holding Maya.
You son of a bitch.
This was exactly why I'd tried to send her home. But now that things had come to this, it was clearly my mistake.
What had Eve been doing? Had she failed to detect them because her performance degraded without a prosthetic body? Considering they'd used optical camouflage, hiding their biosignals would have been simple.
In the end, I should have been more careful.
All kinds of thoughts raced through my head. But the incident had already happened. In times like this, I needed to stay calm.
I spoke with feigned composure.
"Alright, I won't move. But it's okay if I raise my hands and turn around, right?"
Because no matter what, if they read my true feelings, Maya's value as a hostage would change.
The man said to me.
"...Fine. Drop the pistol inside your coat too."
"Of course."
Very slowly, without stopping, I pulled the pistol from inside my coat, dropped it to the floor, and kicked it aside.
I raised both hands above my head. Then, slowly, step by step, I turned around.
There, a peculiar man sat.
First off, he was bald.
He gave an impression completely different from the bastards I'd seen on the way here. As if he had some kind of physical condition, the man sat in a wheelchair, gaunt, staring at me.
Since I had plenty of good bald friends (Drex, Smith, Four-eyes, Tom), I hated to judge someone based solely on a hairstyle. But at a glance, he had the face of a third-rate villain.
"Are you the 'Tech Worm' boss?"
"...'Representative' would be a more fitting term."
Boss, representative. I barely held back from saying 'Bug Chief.'
Maybe the man wasn't using the wheelchair as a fashion statement; he seemed to struggle just to stay upright.
But since Maya's life depended not on this man but on the octopus freak behind me, I didn't act rashly.
His head tilted to the left like a crushed pipe, the man stared at me.
As he did, his fingers on the armrest wiggled. It didn't seem meaningful, just a thinking habit.
The man slowly opened his mouth.
"...What the hell are you? Your face isn't even registered in the city's identity database. And what kind of cyberware are you using? Spewing fire, shooting lightning? That should be physically impossible for that body of yours."
He sure talked a lot, didn't he?
But something the man said was a bit strange.
I was a perfectly law-abiding citizen who paid taxes to the city. There was no reason I wouldn't be registered in the identity database.
Maybe Eve read my thoughts, because even without me asking, she quietly answered.
[...I've reinforced the security.]
...Hmm, I see.
Anyway, I didn't answer right away. I paused in silence for a moment, as if mulling things over.
But in reality, I was waiting for Eve. Eve, wasn't there any way right now?
[The hacking firewall is strong. If my prosthetic body were here, I couldn't be sure, but with the specs installed on 'Si-un's' data module, attempting to rescue the entity 'Maya' could be risky.]
Eve spoke at a speed at least twice as fast as usual.
The lifeline I'd been relying on most had snapped.
I didn't waste time agonizing over 'Why isn't this possible?'
A professional mercenary had to be skilled at distinguishing between what was possible and what was impossible.
At this point, I ruled out Eve's help. Since it would be hard to get help from anyone else, I had to navigate this situation purely with my own strength.
"......."
And so, for the first time in a while, I felt a genuine sense of tension.