Chapter 59: Fierce Dog
Chapter 59: Fierce Dog
One rule of the fantasy world:
Every non-human species has a specialty.
Elves excel at spirit magic, archery, dashing through forests, and subsisting on plants.
Dwarves live in tunnels and mines, master smiths and builders by nature.
Beastkin pick up physical prowess, flight, or swimming depending on their bloodline.
Dragons wield magic. Orcs are virtuosos of violation. Goblins exist to get slaughtered.
The stereotypes run deep enough to calcify into common sense.
Looking at it that way, the Dream Demon's defining trait doesn't fit neatly into a single word—but it's probably something in the illusion family.
I considered charm and enthrallment, but factoring in sharing senses through a clone and pulling dream entities into reality,
it's pretty clear: the Dream Demon's core specialty is hallucination and phantasm.
'Still feels a little fuzzy...'
I'm only dwelling on this because of what the Unfading Giant Tree is showing me right now.
'This is like a mid-range VR headset.'
When I send a clone wandering through a city, smell, touch, taste, and sight all render perfectly.
I never paid much mind to finer details like pain reception,
but at minimum, I could feel texture on contact, catch the scent of food, and enjoy its flavor.
The world viewed indirectly through a druid's Authority, however, was a different story.
Not the same as a TV screen, and not the same as seeing it myself.
If I had to pick a comparison—half-baked VR feed? A well-made 3D stereoscopic video?
For a Constellation as renowned as the Unfading Giant Tree to offer up technology this underwhelming
makes elves seem like a race not particularly at home with this stuff.
"So? Good picture?"
"Looks fine. Thanks."
"Oh, it's nothing—"
I leaned back against the wooden headboard and settled in.
The bed's wooden frame, the bracelet Jeong Ah-rin wears every day—I'd been mildly surprised both were living wood,
but then again, could an Elf Constellation possibly fail to handle a bit of live timber? It made sense once I thought about it.
A technique for sharing senses through contact with living wood.
Maybe it's the gap between elven and Dream Demon racial traits, but it felt like watching a 1440p video downgraded to 720p. Still, it beat nothing.
At least it's better than those mud-mannequins locked behind the Protector.
Just like during the last encirclement operation, I could see Jeong Ah-rin's team—deployed in three-person squads—gliding toward their positions.
The bracelet on Jeong Ah-rin's wrist served as a relay, letting me take in her general surroundings.
Real-time Google Street View, basically. Conveniently, Jeong Ah-rin herself stayed off-screen; all I saw were Namgung Hui and Han Ye-ji behind her.
"Team 13, arrived at target point."
"Copy. Hold for signal."
I couldn't speak to Jeong Ah-rin's loadout, but Namgung Hui and Han Ye-ji were geared up unlike usual.
Namgung Hui had ditched her usual massive riot shield for thick black gloves, flexing and relaxing her hands.
Her outfit wasn't the standard uniform either—she'd strapped guards and greaves over her elbows and knees,
the whole getup screaming that someone was about to get pummeled with bare fists.
Han Ye-ji's long-barreled tranquilizer gun was nowhere in sight.
Instead she carried a shotgun loaded with rubber rounds and a collapsible three-section baton for close quarters—decidedly more lethal than her usual kit.
Fair enough. When the target's a criminal outfit tangled up with a Constellation, excessive force tends not to raise many eyebrows.
Unlike last time, this operation was unfolding in the heart of the city.
The three of them crouched in a dim alley between buildings, waiting in silence.
The scale of the incident had them wound tight, and I couldn't even send a message to them.
Though if the system had blocked me from merely watching,
it'd be weird if direct messaging to an Incarnation still worked.
For all the psychics and mages on the team, the suppression unit's breach was a lot like scenes from movies back in my old life.
Except, glancing upward, I noticed operatives clinging to the building's exterior with no ropes.
A squad flying onto the rooftop. A squad gripping the outer walls by sheer hand-strength. A squad ringing the building with a perimeter.
My limited viewpoint only showed part of the encirclement, but just like last time, well over a hundred Incarnations were swarming the site.
Come to think of it—this isn't even the capital. Why do such large-scale incidents keep erupting here?
Good for stacking points, sure, but it also means worrying about Han Ye-ji getting herself into real danger.
A game character can just hammer the revive button or chug an HP potion from the general store and call it a day. Reality doesn't work like that.
"Hey, any of you got smokes on you?"
"All three of us are non-smokers."
Jeong Ah-rin chatted with the squad leader in the next alley over.
One plainclothes operative lingered in the alley making casual small talk with Jeong Ah-rin, while one or two armed members hid in the adjacent alley the same way.
Detection types in civilian clothes handling perimeter watch, I assumed.
"Ah, shit. Nine people and I'm the only smoker?"
"What, the other squad shot you down too?"
"Yeah. All three of theirs are physical-build types—if they smoke, their Constellation chews 'em out."
"Our kid's with the Impregnable Fortress type too."
"Yeah? The newbie I heard joined up last time ended up on your team. Well, if nothing else, nobody's getting their jaw broken and eating pavement on your watch. Tell 'em I'm counting on solid backup."
Being downtown, a few passersby glanced our way,
but between the squad leader laughing around a cigarette and Jeong Ah-rin halfheartedly answering while fiddling with her smartphone,
nobody paid them much attention.
- Operation commences at 1900. Confirm mission parameters.
Ding. A text buzzed on the smartphone in Jeong Ah-rin's hand.
Right on cue, the two parted like strangers whose conversation had run its course.
"Three minutes. Once the op starts—Han Ye-ji, you suppress anyone bolting out the ground-floor door with gunfire. Namgung Hui, you stick to me and block anyone trying to force entry into the building from outside. Understood?"
"Yes, understood."
"...Yes."
Namgung Hui bowed her head. Han Ye-ji ground her teeth and racked the shotgun pump with a sharp yank.
She was pissed enough that she'd skipped the tranquilizer and the taser entirely, loading rubber buckshot instead.
The black shotgun clacked with a tooth-grinding menace.
Jeong Ah-rin brought up a clock app on her smartphone.
1857, 1858, 1859—
The moment the ticking digits hit 1900, the sound of shattering glass erupted from every direction.
"Breaching, breaching! Operation is go!"
Whether she had a voice-amplifying Talent or was just carrying a megaphone,
a woman's booming voice thundered through the city streets.
Incarnations who'd been hiding above the clouds swooped down like hawks snatching prey, plunging onto the rooftop.
Those clinging to the neighboring building's outer walls kicked off and smashed through the windows.
"Han Ye-ji, go! We've got the rear!"
Han Ye-ji pushed forward while the other two sealed off the back.
The two adjacent squads were doing the same, each locking down a direction—two people with tranquilizer guns or tasers fell in beside Han Ye-ji, while four Incarnations approached Jeong Ah-rin's position, each plugging an alley entrance.
With Jeong Ah-rin stationed behind Han Ye-ji, I had a good view of her.
"You're not getting through here!"
"This is a restricted zone—stay back!"
The suppression unit's Incarnations were state-contracted operatives, quasi-civil servants, but not actual government employees.
So when they blocked off the alleys with eyes blazing,
most civilians took the hint—Incarnations are doing something, something's going down—and backed off on their own.
They'd film with their smartphones, sure.
But force their way past?
...Well, someone did.
"Hey, you bitch, do you know who I—aaaagh!"
Probably thanks to the entertainment district location, a thoroughly sloshed middle-aged woman came barreling up,
jabbing her finger and shoving at Namgung Hui's chest guard. Namgung Hui didn't hesitate—she grabbed the drunk's wrist.
Then, with a grip on wrist and collar, executed an artistic over-the-shoulder throw.
"An Incarnation hitting a civilian—krkgh!"
She made a noise like a squashed frog. Flung flat onto the asphalt—if she got off with nothing worse than being knocked out cold, she should count herself lucky.
Even the ugly spectacle of her spinning through the air like a windmill before slamming into the pavement got filmed.
She'd been thrown by a physically enhanced Incarnation and didn't seem to have broken anything—they really did go easy on her.
As if making clear she wasn't moving from that spot, Namgung Hui kicked the unconscious woman hard,
sending her screeching across the road surface.
The woman's less-drunk companions bowed their heads in frantic apology, scooped her up, and fled.
"Everyone coming out—do we shoot?"
"Anyone bolting out is a non-cooperative potential collaborator. Light 'em up!"
As I watched, a rubber round went off behind them—fwump.
Pivoting the view around Jeong Ah-rin, I spotted several people charging out of the building entrance with their arms up.
A taser dart flew, splitting into dozens of needles midair and shocking the three at the front.
Simultaneously, a tranquilizer dart buried itself in the flank of someone veering sideways;
it billowed mist and dropped the followers behind them flat on the ground.
Suppression unit indeed—plenty of useful Traits on display besides Han Ye-ji's.
Amid the chaos, one woman with what looked like physical enhancement
used a fallen body as a shield and charged at horrifying speed—
"Who the fuck are you swearing at, you criminal piece of shit!"
Han Ye-ji, evidently nursing quite a temper, leveled the rubber shotgun at her gut and fired.
The rubber pellets, launched at speeds too fast to track, crashed into the woman's stomach like firecrackers and ricocheted in every direction.
The grim thump-thump-thump of rubber beads rolling into the distance told me exactly how hard she'd fired.
"Guh, uueegh..."
The bruising impact was vicious enough that I worried whether her ribs were even intact.
Looking closer, each slug inside the shotgun shell seemed to deliver two separate impacts.
How many rubber beads per shell?
Each of the countless pellets landing twice—enhanced ability or not, anyone middling would get turned to pulp.
If that second Talent weren't just double speed, but double impact force too... yeah, people would straight-up die.
Seriously, if the second Talent doubled impact force, she'd be in the military, not on a suppression squad.
Thank god for that limitation, I guess?
"Everyone, cooperate quietly with the investigation."
"Th-this crazy—uuuuegh—"
Faced with Han Ye-ji, eyes gleaming white with fury and the loaded shotgun barrel leveled their way,
most of the late-comers who'd burst out meekly backpedaled and clustered together at the building entrance.
Plenty of them, sure, but no one looked brave enough to charge headlong at a pissed-off woman with her finger on the trigger.
Especially with one victim right beside her, hugging her stomach and vomiting facedown on the ground.
'She's really, really pissed...'