Chapter 3.
An Unexpected Clash
“So we're in the sa boat now.”
Saying that, I extended my hand toward Lancelot.
But Lancelot didn't take my offered hand and said.
“I'm not the one who will be in the sa boat.”
“Huh?”
“You will leave here on a transport plane with Kyle. I will move after finishing things up here.”
At these words, Kyle's expression soured once more.
“Brother?! Are you telling
to move with this guy?”
“Just handle the transport to the nearby area. After that, leave him to his own devices.”
“Brother…!”
“That wasn't a request. It's an order.”
When the word 'order' ca out, Kyle shut his mouth.
“It's because you're the only one I can entrust this task to, Kyle.”
“…I understand, brother.”
Kyle accepted the mission with a sour expression.
As he said that, he glared at .
A look as if he were seeing an insect.
Seeing that, I couldn't feel good either.
But I understood.
'Yeah, I can see why you'd be like that.'
Kyle was a mber of the World Federation Army's special forces.
A mber of a group gathered from the strongest individuals in the entire world.
The criminals he would have t in that capacity would not have been ordinary criminals.
He must have fought countless tis against those who committed evil deeds far beyond common sense.
So, I understood why Kyle harbored an excessive hatred for criminals.
“…If you want to move with , put this on first.”
Kyle took out a tal ring from his pocket.
It was a location-tracking necklace.
It was equipped with the classic function of exploding and blowing off the head if a forced removal was attempted.
As Kyle fastened it around my neck and activated it, the ring tightened to fit my neck's diater perfectly and locked in place.
My neck already felt stuffy.
“Isn't there anything other than a neck thing? Like a bracelet……”
“This criminal bastard talks a lot.”
“……”
I felt conflicted.
'He was a pretty decent guy when I t him in the ga.'
The Kyle I t in the ga was sowhat hot-headed and arrogant, but he was an excellent companion.
Because we were in a position to share the great cause of punishing cri.
But that was when I t him as a bounty hunter.
eting him as a criminal, there was no executioner like this executioner.
“Follow .”
I quietly followed Kyle's words.
Lancelot split off and went elsewhere.
And so, I followed Kyle out of Mugan.
The outside of Mugan was no different from the inside.
Utterly devastated.
Most of the facilities had collapsed, and fire and smoke were rising from here and there.
On top of that, all the vehicles and aircraft that had been parked or landed on the Mugan grounds had completely disappeared.
Because the escaped convicts had commandeered them to flee.
In the now-empty landing area, only two aircraft were docked.
One was Lancelot's, and the other was Kyle's.
As Kyle approached, soldiers opened the door for him.
“Welco, sir. But the person behind you is……”
“What do you an, person. He's the prisoner we're transporting today.”
“Ah, please co in.”
This aircraft was classified as a military transport plane.
The interior, fittingly, was quite spacious.
And empty.
Just a large, empty space with nothing in it.
Seeing it only through a monitor and then actually entering, I could really feel its scale.
And it was actually much larger than the transport planes of the world I originally lived in.
The year in the world of
was 2200.
And it was a world where magic stone energy and magic were developed instead of nuclear power.
Therefore, ans of transport that surpassed the laws of physics were abundant.
This massive transport plane was one of them.
Anyway, I took a seat near the wall window.
Kyle sat across from .
A crew mber asked Kyle.
“Where are we headed?”
“Korea.”
The Republic of Korea in the ga's year of 2200.
With that as its destination, the transport plane took off.
Whoosh-
This massive transport plane took off vertically and quietly without a runway.
This strange movent was possible thanks to the engine that utilized magic stones.
As the transport plane rose, I felt a strange excitent in my chest.
'I'm really in the ga.'
When I was in prison, I was too out of it to have a mont to accept the situation.
But now that I had regained a bit of composure, however brief.
I could feel that I had truly entered the world of the ga.
I stared, srized, at the scenery outside the window.
I could see a vast, polluted sea and a small island.
That island was where Mugan was located.
Mugan, where I had stood just a mont ago, receded in an instant, and the transport plane cut through the air.
'Hoo…'
An unknown wistfulness tickled my heart and passed.
The bittersweet feeling of having finally and completely separated from my original world.
The dizzying feeling of being dropped into a completely new world.
But this floating feeling did not last long.
Because Kyle's sharp voice pierced my ears.
“The cockpit is locked.”
I turned my gaze to Kyle.
“What?”
“The soldiers are all in the break room. And I just locked the break room door from the outside.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It ans that right now, in this place, there's only you and .”
Shing.
Kyle drew the sword at his waist.
* * *
'I'm fucked.'
The instincts in my head started blaring alarms like crazy.
'That crazy bastard Kyle…!'
I had been relieved after persuading Lancelot and even signing a contract.
But I had forgotten one thing.
That Kyle was a guy I should never be relieved around.
Of course, objectively speaking, Kyle was a good guy.
He despised cri to an extre degree, but that couldn't be a flaw.
His character was in the top 1 percent on this Earth, which was full of all sorts of personality-deficient people.
The problem was that I was in the position of a criminal right now.
I first tried to resolve it with words.
“…Are you sane?”
“Perfectly.”
“Think carefully. I have a contract with your brother. We're already in a cooperative relationship……”
“I rember the contents of the contract too. Even if I cut you down, there's no possibility of your brother being hard by the contract's clauses.”
“……!”
“Rember. I do not compromise with evil.”
The tip of Kyle's sword was aid at .
“Ak-jeuk-cham, evil is only to be cut.”
“You crazy bastard…!”
The conversation was over.
Because the tip of his sword ca stabbing precisely toward my glabella.
Speed comparable to a bullet.
In the very next mont, my skull should have been split and my brain mashed.
I should have died with a black screen and GA OVER appearing.
But…
“Huh?”
“What…?!”
I dodged it.
A fatal thrust that ca in an instant without any warning, I dodged it just by tilting my head.
“What the…?”
Even after dodging, I was montarily dumbfounded.
It took
a mont to comprehend what I had just done.
'What did I just do…?'
But Kyle's sword didn't wait.
Swish!
A horizontal slash that flew in an instant.
I bent my waist and lightly dodged the blade again.
“You…!”
Kyle was flustered.
And I realized.
The principle by which my body was moving.
'I can see it.'
I 'saw' Kyle's sword.
I 'perceived' his sword coming, and I 'read' the trajectory it drew.
This wasn't instinct or a lucky fluke.
My senses, sharpened to near perfection, had read the information of all the attacks coming at .
And I dodged.
A sword strike as fast as a bullet.
'…Is this this body's ability?'
Senses honed to the extre.
Co to think of it, I had experienced sothing similar in prison earlier.
That ti when I unconsciously guessed the number of people just by hearing their footsteps.
Slice!
Another sword strike flew at .
This ti too, I dodged the sword with minimal movent.
I pulled my right foot back and used the rebound to rotate my upper body.
Kyle's sword passed precariously in front of my chest.
After dodging like this three tis, I learned one more thing.
'It's not just that my senses have sharpened.'
The really important thing was…
'My body realizes what I want with optimized movents.'
The distance between perceiving and acting is as vast as the sky and the earth.
For example, people who watch boxing often read the trajectory of a boxer's lightning-fast punches.
But that doesn't an they can dodge a boxer's fist.
Because the body can't keep up with the eyes.
But my body, Riman's body, had no such discrepancy.
If it flies, I can see it, and if I see it, I can dodge it.
The body's operation flowed seamlessly from perception to evasion.
The scary thing was that this body was still wearing shackles and handcuffs.
On top of that, the handcuffs were for sealing abilities.
A legendary restraint that sealed magic and supernatural powers and even applied a debuff to physical abilities.
Even with all these disadvantages, I had cleanly dodged Kyle's sword.
'Perhaps…'
A certainty began to grow in my mind.
'I can win…!'
* * *
Kyle couldn't hide his bewildernt.
“How…?”
He hadn't been careless.
His opponent was the world's worst criminal, 'Black God' Riman Solaris.
Even though Riman was wearing ability-sealing handcuffs and shackles, his physical abilities were degraded from long imprisonnt, and he was unard, Kyle was not careless.
No, rather, it was because he wasn't careless that he had attacked when Riman was in this state.
Because it was most efficient to cut down the worst enemy when they were at their weakest.
But it didn't work.
'He's dodging all my sword strikes?'
Of course, Kyle was not using his full power right now.
If he swung his sword with all his might, this transport plane itself would be cut to pieces.
But even with that restriction…
'To think I couldn't even graze a single hair on his head…!'
No, it couldn't be.
'Yeah, it was just a fluke…!'
Kyle swung his sword again.
Faster, stronger than before.
But Riman read even that and dodged it.
He had even read the psychological state of Kyle behind the sword strike.
'He's agitated.'
Riman had a clear grasp of Kyle's personality.
On top of that, he already knew all the characteristics of his swordsmanship.
Kyle's sword was the Sword of Destruction.
Normal swordsmanship's motto is to bypass defenses, sharply exploit openings, and leave fatal wounds.
But Kyle's sword was the complete opposite.
A sword that cut down even the block if one blocked it.
If blocked with a shield, it would cut the shield as well.
A sword that aid to destroy everything that stood in its way without discrimination.
That's why it was incredibly strong, but also why it was weak.
Because that sword often made the mistake of cutting down what it should and what it shouldn't together.
'Now.'
Thwack!
This ti, Riman didn't dodge.
Instead, he closed in.
Toward the trajectory of that fierce attack, he threw his own wrist.
As Riman's movents suddenly changed, Kyle was flustered.
But he couldn't stop or twist the already accelerated sword.
And.
Slice.
He cut it.
The handcuff that was on Riman's wrist.
“Uh…?!”
Kyle's sword had cut Riman's handcuff.
Because it cut everything it touched, it had cut even what it shouldn't have.
In that mont, Kyle had a gut feeling.
That he had made a big mistake.
“…I'm fucked.”
“Thanks.”
Ability-sealing handcuffs, released.
Strength began to return to Riman's body.
And-
Crackle…!
Black sparks began to fly in Riman's hand.
Black lightning.
A bizarrely discolored electric shock that could never be seen in the natural world.
Seeing it, Kyle's face turned white.
The very next mont.
Riman, with the lightning-wielding hand, powerfully struck Kyle's abdon.
CRACKLE!
“Kuaaah…!”
The electric current began to fry Kyle's body.
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