Chapter 289

The beautiful medical duo that entered through the exit earlier caused some cameras to flip 180 degrees to capture them, but the majority of the indoor lighting was focused on the main desk, the flower of the newsroom, leaving no shadows behind.

Is that why?

In addition to the friction sparks left as bullets intermittently sprayed off combat armor or surrounding structures, the faint trajectories of the swinging blades were particularly vivid and haunting, etched into the retina.

Shweeek—!!

Thud…!

The frantic noise of the two metals colliding sent shivers down the skin, creating an echo that sent chills through the body.

Even if this source of sound was not reproduced, it was highly questionable whether it would still be pleasing to the ear. The sound effects that would have replaced it would undoubtedly be the busy cutting sounds of blades tearing flesh.

“This dog, arm!! Why is a tracker like Enema here…!!”

Instead of holding onto severed ears or punctured body parts, the Paladin, who was desperately transitioning to close combat, drew a knife from his belt, and his veins, bulging from the screaming, stood out even more.

A blood coagulant, anesthetic, rapid hormone secretion agents, and various types of combat enhancers were administered simultaneously by a body monitor implant that sensed the emergency, keeping the Arcadia Paladin barely alive at death’s door.

The question, filled with a sense of grievance, was thrown at the approaching tracker, demanding to know why he was in such a place…

“Do you have the discernment to figure that out? Then you should know. You’ve already misstepped. A bug that crawled out of its den will not live once it’s caught by its master.”

Unlike him, whose face was revealed because the Hazard Suit was smashed, the opponent still hid their expression beneath a black, shiny helmet, making it hard to be certain.

But that tone was full of mockery, scoffing at anyone who heard it.

Even though Masanari had never shown such an attitude in front of Anastasia, he seemed busy pushing the man, looking sadistic… In truth, he was interpreting this stagnant combat situation as calculatively as he could, piece by piece.

‘Despite intentionally raising blood loss and blood flow to dangerous levels, there are minimal shock signs. It’s amusing enough that this is less like a normal human and more like an implant storage.’

Clang!

While secretly admiring the cockroach-like tenacity of life, she swatted down the rifle barrel that was trying to swivel sideways and effortlessly protected herself by raising her knees against the incoming kick, not giving an inch of her gained advantage.

However, no matter how hard she tried intentionally to show more effort in her responses in order to break his spirit with the evident gap in skill, the Paladin, with bloodshot eyes, continued to resist fruitlessly, unsure of what he was even seeing.

…Masanaari, who had previously taken the time to dislocate joints and twisted the gun itself to break most of the fingers caught in it to prevent any silly moves, inwardly lamented at the sight before her.

If she had known it would go like this, she should have saved some bullets for the pistol and shot for vital points.

Because there was absolutely no time for reloading, nor time to retreat and repair.

While there was a certain aesthetic to knife fighting and brawling happening at zero distance, this was not particularly beautiful. The reason? The reasoning was simple.

With the constant interference from the outer field, the disgustingly pathetic resistance, and Anastasia’s request to hold them back as much as possible, it was rather peculiar that it wasn’t turning into a mud fight.

“Eek?! Sister…!”

“No, why didn’t you just stick with that girl!? I’ll handle going out myself!!”

Bang!! Clang!

Despite receiving orders to escort the head announcer to safety and rushing to the desk, Erin reprimanded Bethany, who had her legs go weak at the nearby murder-fest, while tightly hugging her away from the collapsing desk as she rolled sideways.

Using dozens of combat powers to save their Paladin amid the scene of their comrades’ heads bursting open—or scattering—was the only chance the remaining survivors of Arcadia had to escape from the oncoming gunfire.

On the other hand, in a form dragged down by the pumped-up physicality and weight of the life-threatening Paladin, Masanari frowned but managed to deflect any attempts to strike.

“Arrogant…!!”

Of course, in the face of survival, one’s pride and reputation didn’t matter, but to see an opponent who had succeeded in avoiding her ambush acting dishonorably lacked the ‘m’ of honor was amusing enough that her tongue flicked out in exasperation.

Noticing that the hostage was paying attention to her, the Paladin would ridiculously try to turn things in a different direction, constantly dragging himself towards the women, as though he was trying to revolt.

To be honest, Masanari herself wasn’t the type to ponder too deeply on ‘collateral damage’; she focused mainly on respecting and accommodating the will and interests of her precious benefactor. However, given the situation would only end up binding her to the slowly dying corpse, she thought it might be better to abandon consideration for once and just dispatch the head cleanly…

“……! Motherfuck!!”

In the chill of despair, realizing there was no way to escape other than to somehow kill this damn tracker.

Instead of the rifle entangled in her roughened arm, she readied her knife, gripping the less damaged side, and attempted to stab down at the fallen Masanari.

However, it wasn’t that she was simply a modified human, and the chances of her being unable to block such a blatant strike while rolling over slightly were, frankly, lower than they should have been.

Click!

As expected, the combat knife of the unidentified Paladin and Masanari’s Japanese-style blade clashed ferociously between their faces, becoming entangled.

As if to ensure the attack would land by any means, various factors came together as they repeatedly pressed against the lurching terrorist leader, whose face was furious and smeared with sweat.

In contrast to that, maintaining extreme calm, Masanari simply stretched her neck side to side in disgust, as if the droplets of blood and sweat that were dripping down to her forehead were bothersome.

“Hmm, do you not know? If you hadn’t been trying to distract yourself by firing at those poor employees in the middle, your head would have been off long ago. Isn’t it better for you to just give up?”

…In the meantime, the man, seeing her making such a serious remark in a joking tone, became extremely furious.

“Shut up, you corporate dog!! Do you think Enema will let you go safe?! When Exatech and Elysium are devoured by monsters, society will collapse!!”

“Then how do you plan to prevent the disasters that the company can’t stop? It’s a marvelous skill to come up with such interesting topics like a meteor, but you seem to be lacking the mental acuity to look at reality.”

“Just wait, you bastard…! The prophet’s foresight is never wrong. He knows the answer!! We cannot fail as we follow his foresight!”

Ultimately, giving up on defeating Enema’s special agents by either verbal retorts or direct confrontation was needed.

If they could die while preserving the righteousness and dignity of their actions, then that would truly be noble. But this corporate fanatic was really getting on his nerves, and the man hissed angrily at him.

The truth is that they came fully aware of the visit by Edamatsu and Anastasia to catch a lead, and Masanari was deliberately goading them in an emotional process aimed at that end.

…Anastasia found it very uncomfortable that reports about her and her environment were constantly being drafted; thus, she was slowly getting used to the way this interrogation was styled.

But because of that, the Paladin, who had been struck with sudden catastrophe, could have faced the battle proudly if only the implants throughout his body had worked as they should, but though his central nervous system might have been intact, there was no miracle item to self-heal the shredded muscles and insides, leaving him merely frustrated.

He hadn’t been lacking in preparation at all in maintaining his grasp on his dwindling life…but what could he say? He could only claim he was out of luck.

Yet, he was doing okay. He truly wasn’t losing his mind after all.

Why? Because the tracker’s nimble movements and outstanding reflexes were momentarily blocked from his quick motions. If the brothers could fire a few rounds at him while he was distracted… All it would take was to pull the trigger…!!

…What? Why is nobody firing?

★

It felt strange to be pointing a gun at a person instead of the score targets at the shooting range for the first time in a while.

Was it the jerky recoil making my shoulder stiff and painfully tingly that was affecting my aim, or was it simply that when I cornered one person, the one next to me blew their head off, contrastingly highlighting my own inadequacy?

My Peacemaker was also a lightweight model, using large caliber ammunition typical for a pistol, causing the barrel to rise after each shot.

Since there was someone right next to me firing a cannon, even if this was what I had encouraged, I found it sort of dispiriting. Sigh.

“…You’re not going to backtrack and pull out some tough question later after sneaking in just those last hits, are you?”

-!? Of course not. I wouldn’t dare disrespect you, Ahsa. …If you’d like, I can start taking out one by one from now. –

“Shut up!”

What I said was a different matter altogether, since it was incredibly comfortable.

I hadn’t had this much leisure to chat carefree during a battle for quite some time… the pressure of not having to tackle the rear alone was huge, and it reaffirmed once more that the sheer number of players indeed mattered.

If it was just me alone, I’d have to think about how I might annihilate them from outside by dropping the lights, let alone the entry.

If it were Zero alone, he wouldn’t have dared execute a surprise attack up top with that weight, nor even thought about splitting forces, instead diving into a dogfight or finding a way to draw them out of the room to battle.

That Arcadia Paladin dude… I thought I’d catch him immediately since he had a blade stuck in his collarbone, but just look at how loudly he’s still shouting while holding out against a tracker.

I have to admit, the durability of cyborg mercenaries is something to recognize. Had that other Crusader’s head not been taken off in a single strike, he would have probably injected painkillers and stimulants into his veins before diving at us. Ugh, horrendous.

– …Arcadia’s remote squad has lost its will to fight. Unit Zero will return shortly. However, if a survivor emerges among the humans that don’t meet the conditions you specified, would that be a problem? –

“Eh? As long as they’re alive, I don’t mind. Why rush it? Escort them out alive if they’re trackable. It’s almost over here, isn’t it?”

Bang!!

“Creak!? Grunt…”

Since most of the staff had already fled, every moving object left is an enemy.

With Gretel’s analysis that my abdomen and chest were covered with bulletproof plating, trembling hands managed to aim a shot at the throat, and with a sound reminiscent of a deflating balloon, the last enemy fell over.

Phew… it’s finally over. No, strictly speaking, if I count the number of hostile forces still inside, it’s technically not over, but whatever.

As I wiped the cold sweat off my brow and stood up, flexing my knees and back, the bizarre scene of the broadcast room came into view, now adorned with strange embellishments.

The several stands that I had smashed swinging like a baseball bat with were twisted beyond recognition, bloody stains deeply embedded in the audio board, shards of glass pouring from various instruments, and crushed aluminum storage containers sprawled everywhere.

It was rather ridiculous how whatever equipment had someone else’s flesh on it appeared to be in decent enough condition to be reused.

…Even if you look at it from all angles, and even the most conscientious remodeling contractor would need a new newsroom for a while before repairs would be finished, right? I had acted unilaterally, so they wouldn’t expect me to cover all this damage, would they? No way.

Putting those miscellaneous thoughts aside, I slowly moved toward the rigid Paladin and Masanari, who were intertwined with blades like a scene from a movie.

Upon closer inspection… phew! What a relief. It’s a completely unfamiliar face.

If it had turned out to be some boss character from the early chapters, I might have ended up strangely contemplating whether to let them live, but now I felt a little less burdened.

By the way, was Masanari actually pretending to be pinned down here to keep the Paladin adequately restrained? And what the hell did she do to make the one on top appear teary-eyed as if he’d cracked under pressure?

During the fight, she had also been screaming out, trying to spill some info about the cult leader, so maybe it crossed her mind that the employees remaining in the corridor could overhear and that civilian-related information might already spill out, leading me to hesitate momentarily from shooting. I had held back thinking they’d definitely make a run for it.

“…I apologize. My muscles enhanced by drugs are producing strength beyond limits while ignoring fiber ruptures, so for a moment, I lost my momentum.”

“Is that so…?”

It felt like she was hiding something, but if she said so, then it was that way.

Speaking of which, despite her thick uniform and armor giving an impression of a fleshy physique, the person inside was actually a slender woman. If pinned down by a man, she could very well experience a disadvantage due to weight difference.

Ah, “slender” is only in relation to the big men I had imagined before; she was decidedly a tall athletic beauty who emerged from Enema’s genetic engineering in another aspect.

Regardless of how much she moved under my will from now, since we are on the same boat, we must avoid slander against one another.

“You, a little girl like you, pretending to be a doctor and slaughtering our brothers and sisters? What kind of grudge do you hold??”

“Geez, what exactly is the intention behind sticking such modifiers? And I, technically, only killed one!!”

At that moment, the Paladin, who had been blinking around in confusion, finally made eye contact with me.

But for her to lash out angrily as though I was placing guilt on her was just funny to me.

Didn’t I just suggest surrender upon entry? Didn’t I even send you away alive while attaching a guide to the underground team that hadn’t offered much resistance? The guards inside didn’t provide adequate relief measures to those who fainted either, right? Why are you yelling out loud as if you did something praiseworthy?

Based on the task contents, they appeared to be practically no different from promotional bait.

I admit the one who swung the blade was to blame. But if you put it like that, you guys just dived into a chain saw after detonating a bomb at the broadcasting station, didn’t you? Even the famous Five Eyes would be doomed if they scratched a corporate nerve, so during an era where they aimed for peaceful resistance movements…

“This fucking bitch—!!”

But of course, a person who can reflect wouldn’t be committing acts like this.

Rather than engaging in self-reflection here, the man chose to get angry at my excuses, served as wordplay, and rose in his final rebellion.

Scrape! Next came a crunch!

Even if they were implanted with components to forcibly control body movements, they still needed some space to perform evasive maneuvers.

Just as the weight pressing down on his upper body disappeared, Masanari swiftly swung her arm and knocked his jaw upward.

While I was quietly watching from the side, as soon as she crossed the line, Unit Zero struck him on the back of the head with the butt of a heavy weapon, and his head came off in the most pitiful way…

Hey, hey!! Guys! Those two civilians are freaking out; couldn’t you have handled this in a calmer manner!? Please!

“…I’ll make sure to improve in the future.”

– I will take care to handle things more quietly in the presence of onlookers. I will remember that moving forward. –

While they didn’t mean “clean up the environment,” maybe they felt it had to be too harsh given how crowded the indoor conditions were, so they each withdrew with a bow, claiming to dispose of the noticeable mess.

It was almost like a lie that they had been struggling, as Masanari effortlessly sprang up with a single flick of her leg, dragging the remaining Paladin corpse, while Unit Zero used the heavy weapon’s butt he had been holding upside down like a broom to sweep the debris into a corner.

…These guys, lacking common sense even more than me, it was truly absurd.

Anyway, I knew from monitoring that the news broadcast had been cut off, so now it was time to deal with how to treat the witnesses.

We had to warn the general staff still outside that legal action would be taken if they went off spilling what had happened today, but these two seemed unconcerned about that.

“I heard you’re not an ordinary model. By any chance, are you really a corporate executive? Some illegitimate child or something?”

“No… I know you’re incredibly fearless for various reasons, but why are you asking about that right now?”

Sitting awkwardly on the floor, Bethany, whose nurse uniform was now dangerously rolled up due to slumping down, had nothing to say. Why? Because she was too busy crying her eyes out, worrying!

More precisely, she was now trying to regain her breath and calm down.

Instead, Erin, who was patting her manager’s back to help calm her down without even thinking of taking off the ill-placed gauze near her forehead, threw out her first greeting upon seeing myself and Unit Zero approaching.

Considering they had been trapped and battered, they were certainly close to Masanari’s landing point and had to be startled, but the fact that they had the energy for such a joke still surprised me.

It’s a question of whether strong people become successful or successful people become strong.

Moreover, it felt like the remark had a sharper edge than it originally appeared genetically, which made me oddly uncomfortable and stare at her with a slightly defiant attitude… but without the need to pick who was first, we smiled at the same time.

“Thank you, miss. I hadn’t worried much about the overwhelming number of anti-fans, but… this feeling of getting some concern back isn’t so bad.”

“I feel like you would have been perfectly fine even if I hadn’t come. Well, I’ll accept your gratitude even if it’s just a courtesy.”

I was a little embarrassed trying to pay back my debt, being familiar with Erin’s kindness, and upon facing her, I couldn’t really bring myself to indicate something like, “I purposefully did that out of anxiety for your plummeting ratings!”

So I threw my words halfway, but Erin seemed to feel that after making a decision leading to a bloodbath, I needed to express due sincerity in return.

She beamed a smile once more and said, “Didn’t I mention it in the waiting room? If you’re going to turn someone who hates someone to the death, you have to save them right before they die. Then how do you think I, who already found you cute, feels? I hope my thank yous wouldn’t be treated as so much empty talk.”

“Eh…what? I apologize…?”

“Sure, you can say sorry all you want!”

Recalling that decision to be properly directed felt oddly justified. With even an appealing theory behind it, before I knew it, I found myself rather in the position to apologize in return, and she accepted it outright.

I realized that this was indeed a way to diffuse an oddly ticklish atmosphere. I learned something new.

I thought that I wouldn’t be outdone by Aaron, who is known for his way with words. Maybe he was being lenient because we were partners? I might have to throw him some top-notch information that would interest him soon.

Just tell him to eat it up for me.

As for what happened next, there wasn’t anything particularly special.

Erin took my outstretched hand and stood up first, while Bethany, whose outfit had become almost completely disheveled, was sorted out by the two of them as they fixed each other’s clothes, and I waved goodbye, saying I’d made it home safely.

So, after a misadventure out that had me crawling back after a long absence, I took a refreshing shower.

I lay in bed, watching the other Zero units patch up the tattered Unit Zero, and when I thought about whether there was already a special report on today’s ordeal, I switched on the television.

To my surprise, rather than being in a state of monitor calibration, Memorial Times News Channel was currently on the air, prominently featuring Erin Skully, who had bandages and coagulated gel on her head.

[ We sincerely apologize to our viewers for airing unintended violence and extreme biased content. Furthermore, I would like to emphasize once more that we could show the dangers and insanity of the cult that self-proclaims itself as Arcadia while concluding this special broadcast with just one last word. As you can see, your sanctuary, Neo Haven, is safe!! And…. ]

A backdrop full of bullet holes and a screen slightly smeared, possibly hastily wiped down.

It was evident that filming insisted on continuing, even if the situation was dire.

While trailing off a bit, Erin, appearing as if she had not been in on any prior agreements, gestured at the camera as if to zoom in a bit.

[ For the safety of us all, let’s work diligently at our own places, and I sincerely thank those of you who have helped us. This was the announcer for Memorial Times, Erin Skully. ]

With that closing remark, she gave a winking smile, full of embarrassment, which was out of character.

It represented a small promise to keep secret her exact, unclear hobby of ‘hunting down reactionary forces.’

Then came a text message on the personal contact number I had reluctantly given her, asking, “Could you possibly tell me what floor you’re on? They’re in a frenzy here since you vanished mid-commercial shoot. A director is impatiently waiting….”

“Eh?”

My brain froze up instantly.

Wait, aren’t they supposed to have stopped the filming?

No, even if a news channel went through that big uproar, it’s only natural for studios without major incidents to continue with their work, right?

But since Masanari had come with me, surely they would have heard by now that I’d gone home without issues, right?

……What the heck does it mean for them to be firmly believing that I was just taking a breather to shower and fix my makeup before returning after a stress-relieving spree?! As if I’d pull something like that on purpose! Hey!!

Approximately a week from that day, in a bar at Neo Haven, the owner, with a well-groomed mustache, and a recent high-profile white-haired mercenary both exclaimed in unison at an advertisement flowing across the television in the store.

“……That girl, who on earth?”

“………Ahsa?”