Chapter 69

Chapter 69

All sorts of assumptions emerged in Kim’s mind. Before the pieces could coalesce and become verbalized, her body moved. She formed a weapon with her hands behind the sheet to hide them from her opponent.
A pistol and a machete, respectively. Chelsea quickly grabbed the pistol and pointed it at Negrum.
Bang, bang!
“Aaaaaaah!”
Gunfire blended dizzily with Turkam’s screams. Turcotte wrapped his arms around his head and clung to the steering wheel. Chelsea’s skill was no longer in doubt, but this was the realm of instinct.
No blood splashed through the shattered glass. Kim shouted from the rear, too scared to realize the shot had missed.
“Step on it, quick!”
“Uh, yeah!”
The back of his hand throbbed with pain from the shrapnel, but this was no time to be coy. Turkam pushed down on the accelerator, ready to push the enemy away.
But despite his best efforts, the car didn’t move forward. With a bang, the tire exploded, and the car lurched to a halt, followed by the passenger door, which had been left unoccupied.
“No, I’m going somewhere.”
Nigrum’s face was visible through the crack in the door halfway down. He crouched down and brought his machete down. His stance was unsteady, but the blow would easily pierce a man’s skin.
It was ridiculously stuck.
Negrum gripped the blade with his bare hands. He struggled to push the hilt in, but all he could do was wiggle.
A sensation that pierced iron walls. Nigrum’s hands were bleeding profusely, a wound he had inflicted on himself with his outrageous strength.
“Minos is a killer these days. He keeps all these knives in his car. Is it fashionable?”
“Chelsea, take him out!”
Chelsea wasted no time in following his instructions. She pulled the trigger twice as she unlocked the door and stepped out of the car with Ainoa.
The bullet struck Negrum’s hand, but the force remained unchanged. He frowned as if he didn’t feel the pain, but on the contrary, that was the end of it.
“Let’s see if I can hit it from this position. My friend is good.”
“You talk a lot.”
Kim released his hand from the hilt of his sword without hesitation. It was time to make a decision. To reveal the spell or not.
‘I’m sure some of the bad guys can get away with it, but….’
This time, the opponent is bad. Negrum is an outright monster. A man whose physical abilities are pushed to the extreme by Westcreek’s spells, even in his normal life.
The odds are stacked against you in a head-to-head matchup.
It’s time to save at least one hand.
“Tee, Team Leader!”
That’s when Turkam pulled a knife from the corner of the car and handed it to me. The blade he’d gotten from Tamtam. In any other country, it would have been confiscated at immigration, but Bastitera was different.
This is the land of the warrior.
The land of Bastiterra is vast, and there are many areas that are uninhabitable. Hunters fight monsters on a daily basis.
Times are not so bad that you can’t bring a sword into the country. As long as you follow the proper procedures, you’ll get a permit. If you brought dozens of them, of course, you’d be in trouble.
Kim immediately drew his sword from its scabbard. A solid, light, black metal was revealed. It was encouraging to have a useful weapon in his hands, but the worst was yet to come.
I hurriedly escaped from the car. Smoke was billowing from the bonnet. No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t look like it could function anymore.
‘Fuck you.’
I had to make a decision.
Exclusion by force is not an option. We can’t win ten battles with the current formation. Should we have brought Westcreek, no, but someone would have been sacrificed.
Nigrum was born with a disfiguring horn on one side of his head. He grew up despised, but he had a natural gift. He gained a reputation as a warrior and hunter, and was quickly recognized and sought after.
He’s a hitman. A member of a noble faction allied with the Legion, meaning that for some reason, Ainoa’s location has been discovered by a traitor.
In the end, it’s an either/or.
‘Abandon Ainoa, or else…….’
Stay on your own and grab your ankles.
“Where did you get this?”
Negrum smiled in satisfaction. Before he knew it, he was holding Kim’s machete fixed and holding it up to the light of the street lamp. As if appraising its quality.
“I’d like you to refer me to a source if possible.”
“…….”
“Hmmm. Well, if you don’t like it, so be it.”
His mouth is teasing, but his eyes are busy rolling. Negrum realizes at once that there has been an unspoken exchange between Kim and Chelsea.
“You’re a good shooter for a Minoan, especially you, quick on your feet. It’s a rare talent. Most of my kind are dumb because we’re taught that a good body is good enough.”
Then he turned his gaze. In the direction of the capital, to be exact.
“But disgustingly, there are some people whose brains only work well for terrible things.”
Quack.
There was the sound of something breaking. Glittering shards dripped from Negrum’s ungripped left hand. They looked like ornaments made of quartz or something.
It was at this point that Kim was puzzled by the unintelligible behavior.
“Eek, eek, eek…!”
As Ainoa was being led away by Chelsea, she fell to the ground, the accessory embedded in her earlobe shattering. The sensation quickly faded from the tips of her ears.
Her ears were smeared with pale yellow mucus. Fluid dripped frantically from the corners of Ainoa’s eyes. In an instant, her nervous system paralyzed and she fell to the ground.
A conversation we had not long ago flashed through her brain.
– It’s a gift. Well, it’s not an expensive one, as you can see, but it makes me happy, and I’m not a fan of tacky decorations.
– Can I take a look?
– If you’re careful with it, I’ll curse my children and grandchildren if you break it.
We did check. No electromagnetic waves were detected, so it was determined that there was no problem.
“What did you say, a nachal stone? It’s a fascinating structure.”
This was an unfamiliar setup.
It was inevitable. Bastitera is a country where more than half of the land is still undeveloped, and in the game, even the existing civilization is decimated by civil war.
It’s not strange if something is hidden that the player doesn’t know about.
“……me, did I make a mistake?
A sense of floatiness took over my body, as if my feet were going out from under me. It was frivolous, to be sure. But in hindsight, it was something that would have happened even if I hadn’t brought Ainoa with me.
You have to assume that the thing called a nachal stone also functioned as a transmitter. In the worst case scenario, the lab’s location could have been discovered.
What the right answer would have been, we don’t know yet.
“Then let’s get to work.”
Jumbuck.
Negrum began to walk toward them at a brisk pace. Turkam picked Ainoa up and hoisted her onto his back. Chelsea and Kim tensed their muscles, guns and knives drawn, respectively.
The access was instantaneous.
I barely had time to blink. By the time I saw him accelerate, Negroom had already invaded Kim’s gap. It was like cutting and pasting from a movie.
I twisted my upper body and the blade grazed my forearm. A bitter pain ran across his skin. Instead of dulling him, the pain drove him into the fight.
The truth behind the royal deaths not revealed in the game. The right and wrong of behavior. Those thoughts turned to dust. More valuable information filled my mind.
First, location.
“I can’t get the angle.
The three are in a straight line. Kim’s body provides cover. No matter how good a marksman Chelsea is, they can’t deflect the trajectory of the shot.
You don’t have enough ammo. It’s better to be cautious. Negrum is wary of gunfire. He doesn’t have the durability to deflect bullets like Snowfield does.
“The most important thing is that I don’t go out at once.
Below, the enemy’s hollow chest is revealed. Their heights are about the same, but Negrum’s lowered stance has created a difference in eye level.
There was no time for the sword to slip from his grasp, for he was not only more skillful, but also more agile. He wasted no time in striking him in the collarbone with his sack.
Bam!
A dull impact struck Kim’s ankle. His legs buckled and his body swayed as Nigrum pushed him to the ground, reversing his grip on the machete.
The blade was about to pierce Kim’s throat.
“Hmm?”
The vain Negrum wiggled his eyebrows. The machete turned into a ball of light and scattered. An inscrutable phenomenon. Instead of trying to understand, he lowered his shoulders in a disarticulating motion.
A discharged round licked his shoulder. Negrum did not mourn the loss of his sword. His weapon was his hardened flesh.
The elbow came down on Kim’s head.
A loud crash echoed through the night, but there was no sensation of crushing bone. Instead, my elbow tingled from the recoil of hitting the iron with all my might.
“……Oops, that was a spelling mistake.”
Negrum stuck out his tongue, a shield suddenly appearing between them. It was a sight that answered all the questions he’d had during the battle.
A spell that draws or creates a weapon from nothing. The process of destroying them is simple. It’s a power coveted even by Bastitheans, who value physical strength over intellect.
When the attack failed, Negrum dismounted. He noticed the blade lying on the ground, but did not grab it. That, too, could have been the result of a spell.
Without even fully extending his bent knee, Negrum stomped the ground again. He left Kim on the ground and headed for Chelsea. Even as he sprinted, his eyes followed the direction of the gun.
Chelsea’s finger squeezed the trigger as Negrum jerked his neck to the side. The bullet barely grazed his hair.
The more precise the aim, the easier it is to read.
“This……!”
There was no time to correct the aim. The gun’s advantage was dead on arrival. Unless shot through the brain, Negrum won’t die in a single shot, but Chelsea’s flesh is fragile.
A bloody hand reaches out. The force in his fist was enough to crush a man’s rib cage and rupture his organs. It was Chelsea’s moment of death.
Get it!
A bullet lodged in Negrum’s right upper arm. Smoke rose from the muzzle of the [Wembley Mark] in Kim’s hand. Even as he lay on the ground, the hit was accurate.
It may not have been an emergency, but it was a close call.
Thump!
Chelsea’s body collided with the wall as her fist connected with it. “Thud,” she let out a stifled groan. Her breath was knocked out of her, but at least she was alive.
“Uh, kek, kek, kek!”
Of course, I didn’t die. He could barely stand up, let alone hold on to his wits. I lost my grip on the gun and my hands and feet twitched uncontrollably.
Seeing that the gunner was neutralized, Negrum turned his back.
“So, what do we do now?”
Shrugging off the bullet. A one-on-one confrontation. Kim regains his stance and grabs his blade, but it’s a pointless gesture.
“Ha, ha, ha.”
There’s nothing you can do about it.
An overwhelming power differential. The odds were already slim to none, but now they were completely gone. If you give up the fight, what can be your ally?
I had to think.
“…… Surrender.”
The knife dropped from his hand with a thud. If anything, surely. Not only did he drop the weapon, but he spread his palms out to show that he had no intention of resisting.
“I’m giving you Princess Ainoa, and you can do whatever you want with her.”
“I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t need your permission in the first place.”
“…I’m not asking you to let go.”
I thought, catching my breath.
“You have to choose your words carefully.
Nigrum.
Despite its important role in the murder of the princess, it doesn’t have much of a role in the game. He only clashes a couple of times with the Celbrox Labs, who are involved in the Bastitera Civil War.
A character who is ultimately defeated by the Professor’s command and the work of his elite agents. Despite their individual prowess, they are little more than minions.
Determining his role, we took a gamble.
“Negrum, I know your employer.”
There was a reaction.
It was hard to read his facial expressions in the dark, but I could tell he was freezing. Having been over a similar hump once before, my head was clearer than before.
“Take us, we’ll be useful in some way.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Negrum approached, step by step. Blood dripped from the wound.
“There are more than a few agents in Bastitera, of all stripes, and they’re already drawing attention to themselves, and if things keep going the way they are-”
“If it continues, what?”
I realized in hindsight that I was wrong.
Boom!
My vision dropped and my head was crushed to the ground. Shards of stone dug into his skin. Shadows fell over Kim’s body as he was forced to lie down.
“I’m a talkative person when I fight, and here’s why: words force you to think, so blurting out random sounds is surprisingly helpful.”
“Ugh…!”
“I’ve seen guys like you,” he said, “who think they can run their mouths and get away with it.”
Negrum’s condition was not perfect. He risked injury when he could have taken him out more safely.
That was his way.
They are weapon-agnostic, and will use any means necessary, even dirty ones, but their focus is on combat. They are not concerned with matters beyond the scope of combat.
“I don’t like complicated things, so I’ll just get rid of you and pretend I didn’t hear anything.”
A hoof slid up Kim’s spine.
Puddle.
The sound of breaking bones lay low. Negrum whistled as he gritted his teeth to stifle a scream.
“Oh. That’s great.”
The foot that crushed his back fell. Kim felt terrible pain and dizziness. His head spun from breathing heavily through his nose. He tasted blood in his mouth.
Tuck.
He heard footsteps. Kim looked up with difficulty.
There were shadows getting closer. Two people. I couldn’t see their faces, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.
The unconscious, limp woman was Ainoiter, who was being dragged by the hair by someone else’s hand.
“Looks like it’s over there, too. We tried our best, but it didn’t work out.”
“…Ah, easy, whoops. Bullshit.”
“Haha. Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t mean to mock you?”
It was a foregone conclusion from the start. I may have thought I could handle Negrum alone, but common sense dictated that I didn’t have a partner. If I was alone, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to be so relaxed.
“What should I do?
You cannot escape on your own. Turkham cannot know life or death. He reads Negrum’s life history as he knows it, and will not listen to your predictions of the future.
There really is no workaround this time.
When I say I didn’t expect it, I mean I didn’t plan a way out. The parts of my brain that I tried not to think about reasserted themselves because my way out was blocked.
“Why, how did this happen?
Because you brought Ainoa to Bastitera. He hadn’t brought enough power. The kidnapping and return trip went smoothly, and he was convinced he hadn’t been caught.
In reality, Negrum didn’t know anything about Yi Hyun Kim. Not even the existence of the Celbrox Labs. He was only able to track her down because the nachal stones reacted to the princess’s items.
Or should I say, bad luck.
“Shit.
I acted like an idiot. It was no different than when I faced the Snowfields. He should have understood that this was a critical time, but he was lulled into a false sense of security by his ineptitude.
Kim is no Asterique. She has no insurance to protect herself when her skills and Polaris’ knowledge don’t work. That’s why you need to plan carefully and take action.
I didn’t. I admit my mistake.
Meanwhile, another thought reared its head.
“How long do we have to do this?
At some point, there had to be a limit. The more we move to make the future better, the more unexpected events we encounter.
There are so many tragedies that are preordained. Even at events that are supposed to be festive, people die. There are many deaths that must be prevented, no matter how you twist the story.
It was a dilemma.
The more you block, the more your knowledge of the game becomes useless. I’ve been practicing my combat skills to be as improvised as possible, but it’s not enough.
This time, the mistake may have been a result of impatience, which is understandable in a world where monsters that can outrun any six-star agent are out to get you.
It was a time when my brain was filled with unpleasant thoughts.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you right now.”
Negrum receives something from a coworker.
“I’m a man of honor, and it would be a shame to see a man like you get killed. I’ll give you a role because you’re willing.”
It was a syringe. The material was plastic. The shape was no different from anything else on the market. The only thing unusual about it was its contents, which were contained in a transparent cylinder.
Ripe in the eye. A self-luminous blue liquid. I’ve seen it in the subways of Tulavia, in the Metropolis of Kilikia, and in the territory of old Shalem.
River of Lethe, Chapter, and Ilixir.
It’s found all over the continent and has many different names, but all life on Polaris has one thing in common: it’s recognized.
That they shouldn’t be touched.
Just looking at it triggers a visceral feeling of revulsion.
That’s the subject of Legion’s research. The lieutenant has a theory. From the Legion, he must have passed into the hands of Negrum’s employer, a nobleman of the Mountain Clan.
“You will be executed. After you tear the princess apart with your own hands.”
Pook.
The needle pierced Kim’s neck.