Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Ta-da!

Kim immediately pulled the trigger. The first shot pierced Walker’s hand and shattered the oil bottle. The next two shots struck him in the abdomen.

The wound was obviously fatal, but instead of backing down, the walker threw himself at it and plunged into the seventh floor.

Your free hand reaches into your handgun holster. No time to draw. Kim charged fiercely, shield raised.

Boom!

It slammed into him like a tank. The distance between the walker and the wall was very close. The walker had to be impacted back and forth against the wall.

“Eep, eep. Off…….”

The walker is slumped over with only his back against the wall. It was completely neutralized. Kim pressed the muzzle of his gun to the opening in the gas mask.

Bam!

“……Huh. They fight like hell.”

Robben, preparing to take covering fire, lowered his gun. He watched the engagement, half horrified.

“You’ve seen him take a bullet.”

Kim cleared her throat as she rose from her crouch. The droplets of blood on her hands were particularly noticeable. Proof that she wasn’t quite ready.

“Let’s get our shit together.

He recalled the words he’d spoken to himself to Asterique.

Those who can, get the job done. On the battlefield, where hundreds or thousands of people are fighting, there’s only so much a 2-star agent can do.

Mary, who would have been a five-star in the future, simply died. The life of a two-star is like a flying insect. If you don’t want to be killed, you have to be thorough.

– What to do with walkers? Well, they’re annoying. They’re annoying, but as far as I can tell, the only thing that works on them is ‘shock’.

– I mean, even if you’re fighting with a brain that’s a little bit fucked up, you still have a mind, right? It’s sending signals from your brain, it’s moving your body through your nervous system, so you just shake it up.

– If it’s too hard and too much trouble… just bash your head in. That’s what I do.

It was a script that was part of a side story. A scene where an elite agent from the Cellbrosics Labs takes questions from a new agent and gives advice.

The man who spoke is an agent who can take down enemies with physical immunity plus physical damage, but unfortunately for Kim, he doesn’t have that kind of power.

“Save the small talk for later. They keep coming!”

Bryce was too scared to yell, and the walkers showed up. Three in number. The Whitefangs fired suppressive fire as if they’d been waiting.

A strange phenomenon then occurred. Beyond a certain point, the speed at which the bullets flew became extremely slow.

“Is that a spell?

Kim didn’t know all the spells the walkers had. In the game, Walkers with special abilities are lumped together as “Walker Spellers”.

‘It’s supposed to deal magic damage with standard attacks… but that’s not how it works in the real world.

There was no way all the abilities would be the same, as if they were copied from a game, so I had to improvise.

Kim ran left and targeted a walker from the flank. His target wasn’t holding a gun. He quickly fired a single shot, aiming for the forehead.

The bullet went through as normal.

“I guess full coverage is hard after all.

Spells have their limits. While they are certainly outside of the norm, they are not inherently powerful.

“People like Legionnaires and Ast are outliers, they don’t usually produce that kind of output.

I don’t think he’s capable of controlling momentum from all directions. If he could, he’d be an executive, not a walker.

The prediction was correct. The walker staggered as it landed on the gas mask. He suffered a mild concussion, making it impossible to maintain his spell.

One of the walkers belatedly fired a submachine gun at Kim. As he held on with his shield, Whitefang rained bullets down on the walkers.

No matter how tough the walker was, it couldn’t withstand ten wind holes in its body. It collapsed and soon became immobile.

‘There are four of us now.

There were still more than half the walkers left, even counting those killed by mercenaries and snipers. No, even half was too hopeful.

“I’d say seven, 80 people.

I don’t know how many of them will make it over here, but I had to hold this position somehow.

The smell of gunpowder, gunfire, screams, and shell casings made for a frantic battle. The only consolation was that there was a brief respite in between.

Robben glanced over at Kim as he changed magazines. Kim was just as busy loading [Ivory]’s ammo.

Crafting a spell from scratch will automatically replenish your ammo, but it’s less wasteful to shovel it yourself. I’ve been told this, so it’s something the Whitefang crew knows.

“Bryce. How long has the string been like that?”

“What?”

“So… were they always that good at fighting?”

His physical abilities were not exceptional.

He would be better than the average person, but everyone in Whitefang was a trained warrior. If anything, Bryce was the most physically gifted of them all.

But I guess you could call it combat sense.

Situational judgment to prioritize targets, shoot exactly when you need to, and formulate a plan in your head to identify enemy vulnerabilities.

It was getting sharper and sharper.

“I said something.”

Bryce grinned with amusement.

“I was an asshole when we first met, but I guess I’ve come a long way in a short time.”

“That’s too short a time frame for that.”

“So think about it.”

He shrugged.

“I tried it, and it seems to fit.”

* * *

Fuuk.

The tip of the blade pierced his armor and stabbed him in the heart.

After a brief convulsion, he gasped. At Snowfield’s feet, a man who appeared to be the commander of the Guard lay bleary-eyed and dead.

“……ha.”

Snowfield drew her sword and gasped for air. She wiped the blood from her blade and looked around.

The corpses of the guards were piled up. Frozen to the bone, dead from blood loss and shock from mutilation, or from impalement.

Snowfield was not unscathed. His commander had done a good job. His armor was dented and scratched in many places.

To put it another way, that was it.

I wasn’t proud of my major. There was no sense of accomplishment. He swung his sword like a machine with an empty head.

Now that my head has cooled down a bit… all I can think about is home. The last time I saw it, the ashes were fluttering.

It was the reverse of Snowfield.

Normally, she would have felt a rage that had nowhere to go. But for some reason, she felt an unexplainable tingling in her stomach.

“…….”

You decide not to give it much thought. It wasn’t relevant to the role he was being asked to play.

The battle is far from over.

“The enemy is already out of health, surround them and push!”

Other units of the security forces showed up and filled the void. Even in the middle of the fight, reinforcements kept coming.

Snowfield stared at the approaching enemies, then turned her attention downstairs. As she surveyed the charter, she noticed something odd.

“Progress is slower than expected.

The lowest level, the most dangerous, was easily cleared by the Legion’s special smoke screen. I had hoped that Outlaws and Walkers would be enough for the next level, but they were having trouble somewhere.

One word stuck in my head.

– Be accountable.

Accountability. It wasn’t a word that resonated with him. In his long wanderings, the only person Snowfield had ever been accountable to was himself.

…… This is something you should get used to.

Snowfield kicked the railing and jumped off.

I rolled my eyes as I fell. It didn’t take me long to find it.

Seven floors underground. I spotted a familiar face.

Blame.

Snowfield’s feet landed softly on a railing on the seventh floor below. A quick glance around revealed several walkers lying on the floor of the passageway.

The casualties were around two dozen people.

In the aggregate, it’s a modest number, but in terms of power, it’s a big loss. Each one of them is worth more than three or four riflemen.

At the center of the massacre was him. A nameless man who called himself Carib’s friend.

“You didn’t take my advice.”

Bam!

Kim responded with a shot.

The bullet was stopped by the frost that covered his armor. Unconcerned, he ejected the remaining rounds and threw the gun away.

“Shit. Did they just get the riot police?”

“I guess so, you bobber bastards!”

The men fired, too, emptying the magazines they had just replaced. Snowfield was about to dive underfoot.

“Shoot!”

Kim shouted, staring off into the distance, and at the angle his head was turned, Snowfield gave up advancing and ducked against the wall.

“……?”

No sniping after 5 seconds.

“I must have learned it right last time.

Kim smirked at the way he shrugged. She’d never seen Snowfield so wary of a firearm before in the game.

“You don’t want to exert yourself against us.

As far as Snowfield is concerned, Whitefang is nothing more than an overbearing weed. They’re easy to deal with, as long as you watch out for their spell-breaking sniping. They don’t take much damage.

In fact, the only thing special was the three bullets Mary had spellbound, but there was no reason for Snowfield to know that.

It was a good time killer.

The troopers closed the distance. Of course, the White Fangs were not the only troops guarding this place. Rather, they were a small force.

Thud, thud, thud!

Another platoon of men from Lotus Company spread out a barrage of ammunition to pressure the enemy. Everyone was mindful of their spacing from the snowfield.

The strategy for dealing with the Legion’s “Knights” was clear even before the operation began. Don’t approach, don’t let them approach.

“I just don’t know if that makes sense.

Snowfield wasn’t going to stay dumb for long, though, as she lowered her upper body and began to glide across the floor.

It was a ridiculous speed, hard to think about from his deformed position. He closed the distance between the mercenaries in a matter of moments, staying against the wall and blocking sniper fire.

“What the fuck, what a monster…!”

“Aaaahhh!”

Snowfield prioritized neutralizing the enemy rather than killing them outright. He sliced off fingers, arms, and sometimes even shoulders as he broke through enemy lines.

Kim was able to identify several things.

“Performance has definitely dropped.

His movements are slower than before. Most importantly, he’s not using his spells as aggressively.

Snowfield is human after all. He’s been spellbound and fighting harder than anyone else since the beginning, and there’s no way he’s normal.

The fact remains that he’s a demon, but that little bit of lag would prove fatal.

There’s another monster here.

Snowfield sensed a gaze. The woman who had just walked out of the freight house was staring at him with golden eyes.

‘……Castus?

White skin and horns. They were of the same race.

It’s not that unusual, and certainly its congeners are rare. There are only a few Pecatums living outside, and half of them are Castus.

But they’re not so rare that you’re unlikely to encounter them in your lifetime. Snowfield has seen many of his kind in his travels. Even among the Outlaws.

They used to be welcoming, but not anymore. Life in Pekatum was harsh, and many viewed their own people as something to be feasted upon.

It had been a long time since Snowfield had come to think of his people as simply other. This time was no different. He was about to fight in silence.

A horse was heard.

“……Catastrophe.”

followed by Open.

Blood-red sparks burst forth.