Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Desperate Measures
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“So, have you decided where you're going once Cue is dead?”
“Think District 4 will take us? The Rusty gang all wear suits, they look sharp.”
“They're just a bunch of punks in nice clothes. Besides, the old district won't take us anyway.”
“You think they'd make an exception for us, since we worked under a boss like Cue?”
The gang members standing in front of the underground warehouse snickered as they chatted.
Most of Cue's subordinates did exactly what they were paid for and nothing more. It felt less like they were gang members and more like they were just part-timers.
Just as they were yawning lazily, thinking only of joining another gang, the door leading to the underground waterway suddenly burst open.
“Looks like it's finally over.”
“I don't know who found this door first, but Cue is….”
The two men, who had turned around indifferently, saw their faces turn deathly pale in an instant.
“Hello? I'd like to pass. If you're going to stop me, you'd better say so now. That way, I can quickly kill... I mean, persuade you.”
Outside the door, Nova was smiling brightly.
* * *
“Blue. Find out where Bani is.”
[Scanning the building!]
Thanks to Nova, Haon easily entered Cue's hideout and located Bani.
She seemed to be in a warehouse on the same floor as Cue, and there were three paths leading to it. It looked like they would have to split up.
“Nova, you go this way. Chacha, you go that way. We'll surround them so Cue can't escape with Bani.”
“Alright. Let's do that.”
Chacha, her face cold and hard, started off first.
She had joined them on the way to the hideout, armed to the teeth. The entire way, she had been grinding her teeth, vowing not to let Cue get away with this.
Nova seemed to be thinking about something, then pointed to a different staircase.
“Sweetheart. I'll go this way.”
“I don't mind, but why?”
“Just because. I feel like it.”
“...?”
Haon was puzzled, but since it didn't matter who went where, she nodded.
“Then let's meet upstairs. Be careful.”
“You must be the only person who tells me to be careful.”
Nova said playfully with a small smile, then ascended the stairs with wide strides.
Haon also transmuted all the entrances to the hideout into a solid material to prevent other villains from storming in, then set off.
The elevator seemed to have been intentionally broken, and the stairs leading to the fourth floor were blocked here and there with wooden boxes.
Haon fired mana bullets and altered the material of the walls as she hurried up the stairs.
Along the way, she encountered Cue's subordinates, but they only looked surprised to see her and showed no intention of stopping the intruder.
*This is it.*
Haon steadied her ragged breath and fired a mana bullet.
BOOM!
The thin iron door was blown clean off.
BANG—
Immediately, a bullet flew out from inside, but it couldn't penetrate Haon's mana shield.
“...Eun Haon?”
Cue wore a surprised expression, as if she'd never imagined the intruder would be Haon.
“Where's Bani?”
As Haon aimed the tip of her phone at Cue and asked, Cue snapped in irritation.
“Are you here to give me the money or what? You're too late!”
“I asked, where is Bani?”
“She's locked up in there. Give me the money first.”
The place Cue pointed to was the control room. The stairs Nova and Chacha had taken must have been the passages leading inside.
*I thought those two would have arrived first. It seems my path was the shortest.*
Haon quickly surveyed the warehouse's layout.
This warehouse, which jutted out from the side of the main hideout building, had walls made entirely of giant metal racks.
The floor they stood on was also made of racks, leaving the center wide open with no ground below.
*It's not a good place for a fight, but if Cue won't release Bani willingly, I have no choice.*
Haon created a round, blue mana bullet and issued a warning.
“This is the only thing I have for you. Release Bani now.”
“I thought you cared about her, the way you protected her. Guess you don't mind if she dies, huh? How pitiful. She can hear everything, you know. She's probably regretting ever getting close to you.”
Despite Cue's taunts, Haon remained unshaken.
“Don't talk like that. Bani is trapped in there because you kidnapped her, not because of me.”
*But if I can't get her out of here safely, then it will be my fault.*
Swallowing the rest of her words, Haon fired a light mana bullet as a warning.
“There's also the option of knocking you out and taking Bani.”
The mana bullet exploded at Cue's feet with a pop.
In that moment, a look of bewilderment crossed Haon's face.
“You didn't...”
Normally, Cue should have staggered or been pushed back slightly by the impact of the mana bullet, but she stood there without moving an inch.
*She already rolled the dice.*
Haon recalled Cue's ability and gripped her phone tightly.
“When the door suddenly blew off, I naturally assumed another gang was attacking, so I rolled the dice.”
Cue smirked.
Haon watched Cue with wary eyes.
An ability that made her invincible to a number of attacks equal to the number rolled on a die.
She didn't know what number had been rolled, so she had no idea how many hits of invincibility were left.
*In that case, the best option right now is...*
Haon quickly checked the material of the floor she was standing on.
Then, she instantly transmuted the floor and walls, surrounding Cue with bricks.
“W-what the! Eun Haon! Are you crazy? Get rid of this right now!”
Haon could hear Cue raging inside the brick prison, but she ignored it and rushed to the control room, throwing the door open.
Bani, her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged, looked up with a tearful, startled face.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Bani...!”
Haon bit her lip as she untied Bani's restraints.
She had been tied so tightly that her wrists and ankles were bruised, and she looked drained of energy.
“I'm sorry... Because I got caught...”
“Don't say that. This is all Cue's...?”
Haon, who was helping Bani up, flinched and glanced back outside the control room door.
*I think I heard something...*
Just as she was tilting her head, wondering if she'd misheard.
CRASH! BANG!
With a series of dull thuds, the brick prison was being smashed apart.
“H-how...!”
Haon couldn't understand how Cue was managing to break through the bricks.
Cue's ability wasn't about gaining strength or destroying things. It should have been impossible for her to break the bricks with her own power.
CRASH! CRUMBLE—
The moment one side of the brick prison was completely shattered, the control room's emergency exit clanked open.
“Bani!”
Chacha rushed into the control room and threw her arms around Bani.
Unlike the two of them, who were busy worrying about and greeting each other, Haon's face was pale and ashen.
Cue, having broken through the bricks, threw an empty potion bottle to the floor.
“You were just going to take that brat without paying me? Can't have that. One of you three has to die.”
As if one bottle wasn't enough, Cue emptied the remaining four potions into her mouth.
“Cue!”
Horrified, Haon shoved Chacha and Bani toward the emergency exit.
“Both of you, get out of here now. Find Nova and tell him to get you to safety.”
“What about you!”
“Don't worry about me, just go! She's trying to kill Bani!”
At Haon's shout, Chacha let out a low groan and turned away.
“Eun Haon. See you on the first floor. Got it?”
“Haon. You have to come back in one piece. You have to.”
Haon gestured for them to hurry and closed the control room door.
Across the gaping hole in the floor, Cue stood on the opposite rack.
“Cue. You drank five potions at once. You won't make it out of this unscathed. If you surrender now, I'll see if there's a way to reverse it.”
“Don't be ridiculous. No matter what happens today, I'm not getting out of this alive. If you'd given me the money, I might have lived a few more days.”
Cue slammed all the empty potion bottles onto the floor. They shattered with a crash, and a few drops of a black liquid scattered among the glass shards.
“Don't blame me.”
Haon thought it looked stickier than the other potions as she created a mana bullet.
Just then, Cue leaped with incredible force to where Haon was standing.
Stunned, Haon broke her mana bullet into smaller pieces and fired them.
THUD!
Cue slammed her fist down where Haon had just been.
Haon, who had narrowly rolled aside to dodge, was horrified to see the metal rack dented in the shape of a fist.
*If I get hit by that, I'll really die.*
Moreover, the mana bullets hadn't done any damage to Cue.
It had definitely been more than five minutes since she entered the warehouse. Could Cue have rolled the dice again in that time?
*That should be impossible. It's known that you can't roll the dice again without a cooldown.*
Besides, Haon had fired seven mana bullets. Even if Cue had rolled a new die and gotten a six, the last one should have hit.
This was the first time she'd seen an Awakened drink a potion. Could it be that she could now roll two or more dice? Or was her invincibility state now continuous?
Haon suppressed the curious Mana Engineer within her and fled to the opposite side.
It was hard to gauge how much stronger Cue had become, and there were no curtains here to wrap around her body.
“Stop running around like a rat!”
Cue charged, her eyes glaring fiercely.
*Of all things, why her fists, which I can't block... uh-oh...!*
Just as a flustered Haon tried to dodge, she stepped on the remains of a potion bottle and slipped.
WHACK!
A hand shot out from the shadows and struck Cue's head with the butt of a gun.