Chapter 102

“…….”

It wasn’t a time to leisurely observe.

Like an audience watching a grand stage play or a performance art, the passengers, as well as the robbers, held their breaths in silence, mouths agape.

A head spinning and spewing fresh blood, a torso that had lost its vital organs yet still wriggled.

Perhaps beneath that silence lay not just confusion but also an instinct that suggested if they rushed out too hastily, it might be their own necks that would be lost.

But that strange magic was soon shattered.

Thud….

Bang!!

The big boy’s head, bouncing off the ground in an arc, fell, and the body that had been heaving and vomiting dark, foul blood collapsed.

Once the meaty wall that had been stealing everyone’s attention crumbled, everyone could finally confirm the identity of the flashy intruder.

His dark skin and curly hair peeking out between the bundles of fabric hinted at his ethnicity, but it provided no further information.

Notably, he was one-armed… If he were a relaxed person, he would have received a regenerative procedure or fitted a prosthetic arm to compensate for his weakness long ago.

Was he another scavenger come to prey on the situation? But doesn’t he look too neat for that?

And yet, he was too accustomed to fighting to be an ordinary person.

“Hm….”

Shaking his head and shaking off the beads of sweat, Asyef looked around.

Though he appeared calm on the outside, internally, he was sweating slightly.

He hadn’t intended to create such a dramatic standoff.

It would have been much more advantageous to keep the chaos ongoing so that those with numerical superiority wouldn’t regain their composure.

“Umm….”

Yeah. If only his overworked arm and overloaded implant would obey him.

Since earlier, he had been trying his hardest to move the stiff hand and shoulder that had frozen around the dagger. He reluctantly acknowledged that despite how things looked, it would be necessary to adjust his pace.

As he scanned the crowd like choosing someone to talk to, Asyef briefly made eye contact with the passengers who were assessing the bizarre situation.

If one were to guess the message contained therein, it would be something like “You’re doing a great job” or “Just hang in there a little longer.”

In truth, it didn’t matter much if he had not come to help them actively.

Given that the enemy’s enemy is a friend, the mere act of taking out the bastards trying to shove grenades into the cabin was reason enough to gain their trust.

“Well then…!”

After finishing an awkward greeting, Asyef quickly darted back the way he came.

“Kill that bastard right now, you idiots…!!”

The gang leader, who had stepped forward to catch the intentions of the hindrance, roared and rolled his eyes back.

“Hey! Shit, that guy’s getting shot!”

“Suppressing fire? Support fire?? Just shoot for now!!”

Bang!! Bang!! Bang—!

Realizing unexpected help had arrived in the standing area, where no crew members were assigned, well-armed passengers hurriedly turned and began firing bullets into the backs of the robbers.

…It seemed that because the non-professionals were hurriedly shooting, many of their bullets went astray, but still, thanks to them, the reckless meddler managed to create an opportunity to escape unharmed.

“Ugh!”

As a harsh metallic sound and a piercing tone cut through the air.

Asyef, who had just barely dodged the sparks flying at his feet as he chased after the escaped convict, hid behind a wall.

No one remained who would seek to question him about the cause of this chaos or to resolve the situation somehow.

The defenders gained strength from the knowledge that there were others who wanted to make the thieving bastards suffer too. The attackers, meanwhile, pondered whether they should be content with the items they had stolen or debate whether they should at least salvage their costs.

Eventually, there was no one who continued to pursue him to the end.

Having survived the crisis, Asyef leaned his trembling arm against the cold wall and slowly began to rub it.

Finding himself in a situation that necessitated unusual behavior, he was, after all, a skilled sharpshooter. Someone trained primarily for long-range combat.

Therefore, though he felt quite uncomfortable and empty, there remained a glimmer of hope for him to push further.

“Phew… Huh!”

Clatter! The shamshir, stained with two people’s worth of blood, lay scattered on the floor.

Raising his trembling hand, he pulled out the handgun he had brought from within his clothing.

…Upon reflection, considering the trouble of reloading, he regretted not bringing a rifle instead and stuck himself as close as possible to the wall’s corner.

What he needed to recall was past experiences. What he needed to calculate was the incoming trajectory.

– …You completely wrecked everything so thoroughly that the nearby cameras were all smashed! Now I can only create a sound pressure visualization prediction model…. –

“It’s not the first time I’ve mimicked a bat, so let’s at least make do with that.”

Though he said that… he showed no inclination to shoot half-heartedly.

After regaining control over the crosshairs, which kept wanting to drift off.

When his stiff arm wouldn’t cooperate, Asyef adjusted his entire body like a tank to alter the shooting angle, revealing only the muzzle and barrel around the corner of the hallway. Not a single finger, let alone a head, was exposed to being shot.

However, since the other side was also engaged in a shootout, they all took cover behind obstructions, so there was no target to hit with this passive approach.

Therefore.

The already messy ballistic calculations were further complicated by additional variables.

“……”

The handgun, tilted, faced the ground.

The parts he aimed at with a bullet that would lose most of its force after just one collision were numerous vital points, yet weak…

Boom—!

“Ugh?!”

Caught off guard by the sudden, searing pain while squatting behind the cabin door, the man clutched at his side and dropped his head.

Blood spurted from his torn clothing and the gaps between his fingers.

The gunfire was, of course, drowned out by numerous other shots, and in his line of sight were fellow gang members, so all he could ponder was what kind of unfathomable situation he was enduring.

However, Asyef, having already written off the future of his bleeding subordinate due to internal bleeding and organ damage, paid him no more mind.

It was difficult to predict the angle of fire for another shot in the distorted location, so he was too focused on changing positions and recalculating.

“Ugh!!”

“Shit…! Which fool is….”

The bullet that faithfully followed the trajectory dug into the target’s flesh and tore through its insides.

Among the individuals who had been hit by the untraceable attack, a chaotic atmosphere began to rise.

Distrust, confusion, panic. Various emotions flickered, and a weak yet tempting thought that they should quietly escape tickled the back of their throats.

The field manual to follow in actual combat exists in numbers equal to the organizations around the world, and when combined with outdated knowledge, the number even more increases.

Among them, Asyef belonged to a faction that operated under the philosophy that annihilating the enemy wasn’t the only way to victory; breaking their will to fight could also yield victory.

“Phew….”

In that sense, he had almost reached his target point.

Moreover, when he had briefly glanced before, he noticed a considerable number of dead and wounded inside the door, but he was above all a realist. Having achieved quite a significant outcome and helped valuable civilians, he felt it was a sufficiently satisfying result.

Had it ended there, it would have been truly perfect, but….

– Huh…? ……Ugh?! –

Ting!!

A sudden high-pitched moan reverberated in his brain and broke his composure.

The momentary lapse in concentration immediately affected his body, causing the bullet he had just fired to veer off course and go awry.

“……Rosaline?”

Checking the communication quality through the cyberware, he received a reading indicating no issues with the connection, yet called out quietly, but received no response.

Instead, he could hear… ragged breathing and dull thuds. And in between, the sound of her choking sobs.

“……”

Silently gritting his teeth, he felt a wave of despair wash over him as he listened to the real-time broadcast of his teammate and dedicated operator being demeaned in a way that would never happen again, a feeling akin to having his blood vessels burst, akin to what he had felt when he just took down the big boy a moment before.

It sometimes happens. When situations worsen, the rubbish who cannot face reality turn their eyes in the wrong direction.

Some might argue that trusting and waiting for a teammate is a method in itself, but… saying such complacent things in front of Asyef could easily lead to losing one’s head.

Creak…!

Lacking oxygen, he struggled to rise, his weary body swaying.

Though the visual quality of the transmitted information was heavily warped due to the captain’s accident, he could still clearly see the enemies approaching who had confirmed his presence in the back due to the most recent stray shot.

“…If you truly have no attachment to this world, I’ll end it quickly.”

With expediency. Regardless of whether he ate a few bullets or not, he resolved to clean up quickly and return to the cabin.

After all, he hadn’t much to worry about collateral damage, having an implant for hormone balance that mitigated worries of becoming incapacitated from blood loss or shock.

This precarious decision amusingly rested upon the inept meddler he had initially decided to disregard.

– …I find it very hard to forgive, you know? –

– If you disappear quietly even now… –

– …Take him and clean it up. –

“…Hah, this is something.”

Rather than being entangled in a private past grudge, he chose to act upon his inclinations, presenting himself as an ally to the weak.

His steps were light, but his actions were not.

Moreover, since a friend could also become a foe, the cheerful yet laughable suggestion to maintain a close relationship provided quite a refreshing change of mood for both Rosaline, who had been wronged, and Asyef, who acted as an indirect victim.

…Their ambiguous mission had morphed into something more acceptable, along with the delight of connecting with respectable contacts.

– Ugh?! Why is the communication still… Leader! Are you okay? –

“…My heart hurts a bit.”

As he half-listened to Rosaline’s message urging him to hold on a bit longer until reinforcements arrived, he aimed his firearm at where the enemies were expected to force their way in.

The identity of the reinforcements? There was no need to even ask that.

Even apart from the sound of pounding footsteps, the fact that Anastasia Valentine had joined the fray naturally implied that her remarkable mechanized soldier would follow suit.

“Hmm…? Who’s running so hard…?”

“Uh? Uhh???”

Thud, scuffle. Clang!

Before the scoundrels could even consult their response strategy, the rapidly arriving steel beast struck down the special forces attempting to deal with Asyef.

It was a storm of one-sided violence that could barely even be called combat, completely grinding them down, and as Zero and Asyef shared a glance, wondering if the audiovisual data to send to the two women waiting in the cabin was necessary,

Gazing intently. The self-defense handgun aimed at him seemed to provoke a condescending tone.

The rapidly budding inner camaraderie helped them take it all in good humor.

– …Is this some kind of provocation? –

“Hah. There’s no way.”

Asyef burst into laughter, along with a frustrating shrug, as one of his arms, the one he frequently used, had been taken away without permission by someone residing somewhere unbeknownst to him.