Chapter 166

Turkam was excluded from this operation.
He can’t be said to be a good combat performer, not even in empty words, and he’s not a spellcaster in the first place. His immunity to corruption is no better than that of a civilian.
Even as Kim, he couldn’t risk letting her drive. Turkam had to take breaks, whether he wanted to or not.
Instead, I got a snippet.
– I’ll take care of the trainee while you’re gone.
– Yes? Me?
– You said you looked fine.
I left Leone in charge for a while.
I didn’t want to, but I didn’t know how to say no. He seemed desperate, so I said a few words, but I never expected the boomerang to come back.
“Ouch. How long am I going to be treated like the youngest?”
Among the group, Turkam’s rank was still at the bottom. Regardless of affiliation, it was simply a matter of ability. He was better than Noctane, who was on parole, but he was still no more than an acorn keeper.
‘I don’t see myself moving up the ranks anytime soon….’
Each one is a monster, and it’s a shame for a universal.
I let out a frustrated sigh, and my eyes fall on Leone. She’s sitting stiffly in a chair in the common room, her back stretched out. Ever since she left Ekidna’s office.
“The, uh, trainee?”
“Feel free to call me Leonora!”
“Uh, uh, yeah. That’s a good answer. Feel free to call me senior.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I chuckled at my quick answer.
“Why are you so uptight, did the director say anything?”
“No, of course not, you’ve been very good to me.”
“In what way?”
“I don’t have a lot of experience in the workforce, so I don’t understand things like labor contracts, but he explained everything to me in a way that I could understand. I think he’s a good guy.”
Legal questions immediately came to mind. Should a high school student be able to write a contract on his own? Should it be so easy for a disaster victim to join a foreign company?
I started to ask, but stopped.
“If I touch it, it’s going to be a pain in the ass.
Since his arrival at Dustborne, Turkham has been silent on a number of questions. Often, there were matters that no single agent needed to know. Such was the nature of Ekidna’s work.
I decided to keep my mouth shut this time.
“Yes. He’s a good man.”
There was a pause in the conversation. There was an awkward undercurrent.
“Mr. Senior. Do you mind if I ask?”
“Then. Tell me.”
“If you start as a trainee, you’re not going to be in the same operation as the boss, right?”
“I’ve never had a trainee under me, so I’m not sure. I guess not.”
“So it’s true….”
A grim look crossed my face.
“You’re just jealous of your team leader.
I could sympathize. Even the lowly position of trainee was similar to that of Turkham in the past. He was a junior in many ways, even if he didn’t belong to the same organization.
‘That sounds like a lot, ha.’
Scratching his head nervously, Turkam said.
“Follow me for a second.”
“What? Where?”
“That. Don’t ever make me say something twice because you’re like, ‘What? I don’t really care about it, but one of your seniors is Chelsea, and she’s a typical asshole. She’s always going to be a jerk.”
It was advice from the heart.
“I may seem like an asshole to you, but I’ve been there, done that.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll take that to heart….”
“And, you know, it’s like everywhere, but this company has a food chain….”
He took me under his wing, and I was speechless. Even as we walked down the hall and rode the elevator, he was generous with meaningful advice that drew on his life experience.
Fortunately, Leone was used to listening to adults as an active student. What’s more, Turkam’s story wasn’t boring. His tale of hardship was fascinating.
You’ve traveled far enough to reach the history reading room.
Turkam pulled out one of the disks in the stack and played it. The projector glowed and the image appeared on the screen.
– January 5, 2047, 14:12.
– The mission objective is to rescue a group of survivors from the Tertia Mall.
– We are now entering the first floor.
It was recorded using a body camera. It looked like Kim acted alone. Leone, who was staring at the shaking screen, asked Chapter in surprise.
“Hey, can I see this?”
“I took it for you to see. I asked, but you said you didn’t care about the records over here. I’m sure he’d rather see it gather dust than use it as a textbook.”
With permission, there was no reason not to.
Leone concentrated on the video, ready to be sucked into the screen. When one finished, Turkam immediately replaced it with another disk. The reading room was also a favorite spot for Turkam.
Sometimes it was Kim alone, sometimes a teammate was added, and sometimes the operation was executed without Kim.
Halfway through the show, Leone spoke up.
“Sir, by any chance, who is the strongest in Dustborn?”
“What, what, you’re asking all these childish questions?”
“That’s the kid, me.”
It was a teenage privilege to be able to get a night out when you needed it. Leone’s eyes twinkled, a steel plate in her face. The gaze was too much for Turkham to bear.
“You’ll see ……, but they’re all monsters.”
With a grunt, he rushed off.
“Anything to say about Mr. Asterike? He’s unrivaled in annihilation, you’d have to scour the continent to find him. Mr. Edwin can fall 50 stories and be up and sprinting in five seconds.”
It wasn’t a metaphor, it was a real-life example.
It was a shocking scene that sometimes haunts me in my dreams.
“Chelsea, ha. She traded her humanity for shooting skills. She’s a damn good shot with one gun. I saw her on a motorcycle the other day and she was just firing away and hitting everything.”
At least Arya is on the normal axis.
However, she also has a unique animalistic flair. Her only flaw is that she still can’t do arithmetic correctly.
“Like I said, we’re all monsters, but let’s say we’re trying to play favorites. Let’s say they picked a fight with the intention of killing each other without touching. Then it’s pretty obvious.”
It was a no-brainer.
“We’re all going to get our heads shot off by the team leader.”
* * *
– Edwin. Can we get started?
“Yes. You can leave at any time.”
Inside the alley, Edwin replied. As he waited for the signal, he was conscious of a weight weighing down his entire body. It wasn’t a mental burden, but a physical one.
A shield is strapped to his back like a turtle. In both hands, he grips a minigun that he inherited from Kim. It was a fixed combination, almost like a manual, when processing eggs without Asterisks.
It was awkward at first, but now I’ve gotten the hang of it.
Edwin poked his head out of the alley.
His gaze moved beyond the egg to the rooftop of a nearby building.
There was a human shadow there.
With his back to the sun, In-young assumed a pitching stance. Just as Edwin had gotten used to the minigun, Kim’s form was much better than it was at first.
– Here we go. Watch your ears.
The bright red cylinder flew with fierce momentum. Egg’s umbilical cord twitched as if it recognized the oncoming threat, but it was too late. Edwin lowered his stance, bracing for impact.
Soon after,
-Kaaaah!
The dynamite exploded and scattered sparks. The surrounding buildings were caught in the blast, causing cascading damage. After a loud ground shake, Edwin stepped out into the street.
A large silhouette peeked through the acrid smoke.
Drrrrr!
The barrel of the minigun swiveled, spewing bullets with ferocity. An earth-shattering scream echoed across the range. It was the first cry of an imperfectly born Parasite.
– Mr. …. How did the bullet get this far… Shoot with your foot……!!!
Chelsea’s bruises were drowned out by gunfire.
Shell casings littered the floor. He kept firing with minimal aim. Though he held a heavy weapon, Edwin’s role was not to kill.
Whoosh!
Through the flames, the Parasite stretched out its body.
A curved torso and razor-sharp legs on either side. It had well over a hundred legs. It was a centipede-like creature with arthropod-like features.
Blue ooze oozed from his bullet-riddled body. Chapters were visible, but they didn’t restrict its movement. It crawled through the rubble, larger than a house.
“Size is medium. The front is blunt and the body is sleek.”
– Looks like the ‘snake’ we caught last time.
“We’re going to cease fire and guide them to the point.”
Edwin dropped his minigun and grabbed his shield.
Poof!
The whip-like sweep of his torso struck the shield. The force of the thrust was considerable. Not only that, but his leg scratched the surface of the shield at the same time he hit it.
“We’d be in trouble if we took them on as infantry.
In an instant, the ranks could collapse and the unit could be wiped out. This was the problem. Sometimes you get nimble, weakly durable objects, and other times you get the opposite: dull but strong.
You won’t know until you crack open the egg.
No wonder so many countries respond with bombing.
But Dustborn has never failed to ‘hunt’.
You sprinted down the street and reached your destination. A cafe with the blinds drawn. Edwin stopped running and stood in the doorway. The gap between him and the pursuing Parasite was closing rapidly.
When he got close enough, he lunged as if to pounce.
Ta-da!
A large-caliber bullet, fired from nowhere, struck the Parasite in the head. Blue blood spurted, but a single shot wasn’t enough to subdue him; his body shook, and he was somewhat disoriented.
That was enough for me.
Chaaaaaah!
Edwin slid out of the way in a hurry. The off-target Parasite slammed into the café. The windows shattered, and his massive body slumped inside.
A storefront smashed up to the wall.
The room was painted green.
The Parasite has been immobilized by [Sticky Paint]. One second, two seconds. Eventually, Kim descended by the wire and entered the cafe, heading straight for the sprawled enemy.
A new device appeared in your hand.
[Signature]. Basically a lance. The weapon is compatible with the sidearms worn by the agent, and its special abilities change depending on the sidearms employed.
In the game, you can only equip one secondary per agent, but that’s not the case in real life. Just now, Kim was using a combination of [Dynamite] and [Tactical Hook].
This time, we’ve made it compatible with [Dynamite].
A cartridge was attached to the base of the [signature] I had made. I inserted the tip of the spear into the Parasite’s back and pressed the button.
-PubberBubbly!
The explosive detonated inside Parasite’s body. Meat and bodily fluids splattered in a messy mess. Kim grimaced at the nose-twisting stench.
The duration of [Sticky Paint] has expired.
– ……kyaaaaaaah!
The ceiling collapsed as he staggered to his feet. It was the last straw. Still threatening enough, Kim didn’t dare to confront it and stepped back.
Calmly, I slipped the grenade into the cafe.
The ground shook beneath his feet as he binged again. The building collapsed completely, sections of parasite jutting outward. Thin, hard legs wriggled, then stopped moving.
“That’s it. Thank you.”
When Kim announced the end of the operation, he pulled an empty reagent vial from his arm. He sliced the fragmented carcass of the Parasite into thin slices with his dagger and placed them in the vial.
“And we took a sample.
After a moment, the body turned to particles and began to disperse. Just as with Markus, the deceased ‘complete’ Parasite disappears from the world without leaving his body behind.
Even “failures” that crystallize without adapting to the transformation do not leave crystals in their bodies. Only when they die do they revert to their original human bodies and rest in peace.
But the flesh inside the bottle was still intact. A special object created exclusively by the Cellbrox Lab. After the cataclysm, Kim used to collect specimens and deliver them to the lab, just as he does now.
“It’s kind of pathetic when you see it like this.”
Chelsea descended from her sniper point and surveyed the ruins.
“I guess it’s only because the city’s so fucked up that they’re catching them outright.”
“That’s true. If we fight them in a healthy place, it’s going to cost us a fortune to recover each one.”
“Ugh, the more I fight, the more I’m in debt….”
Ironically, they were becoming freer as the world fell apart. Kim stared at the particles seeping into the air for a moment before turning away.
“Let’s go back.”
Your last day in Harenthal is over.
* * *
Kilikia’s downtown.
A woman stood idly in a neon-lit street, her head tilted to look up at the building in front of her. She hadn’t moved from her spot in over ten minutes.
I stared at the sign on the outside wall for a long time, muttering to myself.
“Dustborne Corporation…?”
It’s a familiar name you’ve known before, albeit with a twist.