051 – Nymph Punk 20XX # 3
Fortunately, the container was not far away.
A warehouse where guards in black clothes were loading and transporting items.
“Bang Bang, it’s your turn. Sorry, you’ve been trapped for too long, huh?”
I opened my business bag.
At that moment, Bang Bang, who had been quietly curled up inside, noticed me and moved its front legs back and forth.
━ Hioooong…!
“Go and take a video. So the strike team can be deployed quickly. Here, when you press this button, it will start recording. Done.”
━ Bang Bang…!
“Magic activation.”
I unleashed my magical energy.
Soon, Bang Bang became transparent by adjusting its RGB values to match the surrounding scenery and colors.
Just then, it slithered away and hid between the containers.
“What’s this? I heard the Doctor’s radio and there’s really a spy here. Where did you send it from?”
Clunk.
Hoo-oo-oo-.
He was a man wearing a black gas mask. His whole body was concealed in technical armor, with one arm entirely made of machinery.
At first glance, he appeared to be quite skilled.
At least A Rank.
Was this guy the one who stole Bifrost and escaped?
Clank.
I heard the sound of something being loaded.
I instinctively lowered my head as a mechanical arm flew past me.
Whoosh, thud!
The mechanical arm embedded itself into the container behind me.
The strange man coiled a wire around it and said, “Oh, did you just dodge that?”
“I happened to know someone with a mechanical arm. He was twice as fast and twice as strong as you─.”
Bang.
“Damn!”
I kicked the ground with all my strength. Small stones, sand, and gravel scattered and seeped into the gaps of the mechanical arm. The strange man only chuckled.
“You think today’s 4th Generation prosthetics would break from mere pebbles? Not a chance.”
But in that moment, I could burrow into his embrace.
I struck hard at his abdomen with my fist and simultaneously used both my right and left hands to hit his face from side to side.
Thud, thud!
A rapid series of strikes.
The A Rank stranger staggered back.
He touched the gas mask worn on his face and chuckled.
“You, quick-witted for a modern Awakened, are quite proficient in hand-to-hand combat, huh? If it weren’t for the armor, you’d be in serious pain. I know someone who moves like this. Are you, by any chance, Haildo?”
“…You know me?”
“Of course. How could I not know someone as famous as you? What’s with that look? Glasses? Ah─, this is troublesome. Just wait a moment. I’m not trying to deceive you, so don’t worry.”
Swoosh.
The man took out a device resembling a radio from his pocket.
He used it to contact someone.
“Hey, ‘Doctor’. We’ve got a bit of a problem here. Come quickly. I don’t know what to do. It’s an unforeseen situation. Check out the identity of the intruder you mentioned.”
Calling for backup?
What happened to “I’m not trying to deceive you”?
Of course, I was already ready, pulling out the beam saber from my waist while he was making the call.
“It’s not a weapon meant for direct confrontation, but it’ll hurt a lot if it hits.”
The beam saber was a weapon designed to slash Demons.
It meant the firepower was not suitable for human use.
Just then.
Thud.
Someone jumped down from a high place.
Dressed in a white cloak and wearing a cybernetic plague doctor mask, her stealthy approach indicated she was quite skilled.
Her figure was slim and curvy; was she a woman?
A plague doctor, hence the name Doctor?
The problem was that she seemed to be at least on par with the man with the mechanical arm in skill.
This put me in an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation.
“Ah, uh, ah?”
While I was tensing up, the woman appeared quite flustered.
Her voice was distorted, but her bewilderment was not hidden at all.
“Doctor, what should we do? That’s Haildo.”
“What in the world is happening? Um, this is troublesome. Haildo was the first secondary Awakened, known as ‘the Second,’ right? He’s even received medals.”
Do they know a lot about me?
They seemed to be quite informed.
What kind of organization are they?
My sense of caution intensified at that moment.
Inoi should have contacted Seo Ye-rim by now.
How long would it take Seo Ye-rim to get here?
It would be best to buy as much time as possible.
And I had to wait for Bang Bang to finish taking photos.
Bang Bang was already beyond my 20-meter magical zone, so I didn’t know what it was doing.
Swoosh.
I extended my magic further.
Wider than 20 meters.
More.
More!
50 meters.
The excessive expansion of my magical energy caused me to feel dizzy, but I could detect Bang Bang’s biological rhythm.
I immediately connected to Bang Bang’s mind and moved its body.
Finally, I was able to capture something that resembled a ‘door to a mechanical device’ being loaded inside the container.
Great!
If I just sent the video along, Telos’s strike team would be dispatched here.
“Let’s give up.”
However, the woman called ‘Doctor’ readily conceded the situation.
It seemed the man with the mechanical arm was taken aback as well.
“Really giving up? After coming all this way?”
“Haildo’s specialty is hand-to-hand combat, not crack exploration. If we fight someone who can make Kang Cheol-min second best in direct combat, we’ll be at a disadvantage as well.”
“Hey, isn’t that, like, too old-fashioned? If we were to fight again, that Kang Cheol-min guy could probably defeat that eternal D Rank loser? Of course, Kang Cheol-min is dead now, but…”
“The problem is that in the meantime, Telos’s strike team will arrive here. In the worst-case scenario, won’t the ‘Fire Witch’ come along too? Right now, I can feel that the city’s atmosphere is off. There’s a cluster of magical energy moving about 20 kilometers away. It seems to be the Illuminate team.”
Is that plague doctor perhaps monitoring the city?
No, it felt like she had her senses tuned in at a city-wide level.
Was she that powerful of a sensing type Awakened?
Didn’t an S Rank sensing Awakened from Germany, Weber, claim he could hear sounds throughout the city?
Does this mean that the woman is at least on par with an S Rank in terms of ability use?
Oh my, to think there’s another Awakened this strong.
Is she an unregistered Awakened?
Or a foreigner?
Certainly, the figure of her fitted suit under the doctor’s coat is quite foreign-looking.
I felt a mixture of anxiety and admiration during the moment.
Just then.
“Ah, this is annoying!”
Bang!
The man stomped his foot.
Simply that alone caused the asphalt to crack.
Incredible strength.
Soon, the man grumbled from behind his gas mask.
“Damn, why did I have to infiltrate a ridiculous organization for more than a month, only to have to leave now? Huh, fine. Let’s go. Move.”
Are they really leaving like this?
It was both a fortunate and unfortunate situation.
If such bad guys are free to roam around, how can ordinary citizens like me live peacefully?
These guys must be captured.
“You guys are not leaving!”
“I admire how you’re so persistent about it. By the way, I’m a fan of yours. Although it’s a shame to meet you like this, I’ll have to say goodbye for today.”
Clank.
The plague doctor pulled something resembling a can from within her coat. She pulled the pin and threw it, causing a strong purple smoke to start billowing out.
“…Poison…!?”
I quickly held my breath and closed my eyes.
I needed to do my best to prevent it from seeping into my body.
The problem was that villains would escape while I was incapacitated.
“Do you think that gas can hold Haildo?”
“At least for about five minutes, yes.”
“Stop right there!”
Swoosh.
I drew a throwing knife from my waist and threw it toward the direction of the sound.
But it seemed to miss, as I heard no more sounds afterward.
The brawler with the mechanical arm.
And the woman called ‘Doctor.’
The footage must have been captured on Bang Bang’s body cam, right?
# # #
“Yes, Minister. We failed. There were obstructions. Yes, it couldn’t be helped. Telos Corporation had already acted. Yes. It seems difficult.”
Kang Cheol-min could only express his disappointment over the failure of the operation.
Finally, the phone call ended.
“Ah, I’m completely exhausted. Aren’t special activity funds and the budget going to be cut? I’ve wasted an entire month. I guess I’ll have to put pressure on the corporation through Lee Joon-Hun now. So how about the Doctor? Your mask was penetrated.”
“Right? If we had fought as is, one of us would’ve probably gotten seriously injured. It’s not like I work well with you, Cheol-min.”
Yu Ara looked at the throwing knife lodged in her mask.
Right in the center of her forehead.
She had almost died.
In fact, Yu Ara felt a sense of gratitude about that.
Haildo had done his best in that overwhelmingly unfavorable situation.
“Anyone would have run away, but you chose not to, senior. Truly a remarkable person.”
Soon Kang Cheol-min spoke.
“Haildo, that guy. I met him after a long time, and he doesn’t seem to have lost his touch. Of course, if we had fought properly, I would have won now, but wasn’t he said to be a C Rank? He seemed nearly a full C Rank.”
“It seemed that way. He was almost reaching B Rank.”
“Well, he probably doesn’t realize it himself. But how can he rise to C Rank and just a few days later become B Rank? We need to act before things get bigger, don’t we?”
“Act?”
Yu Ara felt a sudden sensation.
Moreover, if the organization acted in this situation, it felt like they would be squashing a seed that had only just begun to sprout.
So Yu Ara casually said, “In the short term, it seems rapid, but look at it long-term. B Rank in ten years. That’s a common story. It’s nothing to be worried about.”
“Is that so? Still, he was quite skilled. How about we try contacting him from our side? We’re always lacking manpower these days. Isn’t that why we have someone like Lee Joon-Hun on the team? Ari, don’t you want to work with Lee Joon-Hun?”
“…No, Lee Joon-Hun doesn’t fit into a clandestine operation like this. He’s like the sun and loves to be the center of attention.”
“But! You’re subtly asking! It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong, we’re civil servants working for taxes! A dirty job that no one recognizes, but we’re also saving the world!”
“……”
─A team of Patriots composed of all A Rank and above Awakened.
Being civil servants, they were always underpaid and short-staffed.
