Chapter 58: Titan (1)
gacorporations.
The rulers of this city.
And furthermore, those who ruled the entire world.
What happened if you fell out of their favor.
If sothing more dreadful than a nightmare occurred, what exactly happened then.
The very first thing was that a label called a ‘tag’ was attached.
It was a brand on the Electrosphere that only gacorporations could attach and remove.
The mont this tag was attached, every existence in the Electrosphere turned hostile.
ta-watch that monitored the city’s thoroughfares.
Active ICE that constantly lay in wait within institutional facilities.
Net-hunters that specialized in hunting those who bore tags.
The instant one even slightly approached the Electrosphere, they would be monitored and pursued by all of the above.
The changes did not occur only in the Electrosphere.
With a tag attached, normal social activity beca impossible.
No matter who he was, he would be fired from his job imdiately, and no company would ever try to hire him again.
Not only his profession, but his rights to property were also lost.
Contracted real estate and the items within it were automatically seized by the gacorporations, and all bank accounts and other assets were frozen.
At the sa ti, the nurous social welfare services provided by gacorporations were cut off.
From trivial things like signal indicators appearing when crossing the street, or elevator call privileges, to pensions ant to guarantee a comfortable life after retirent—he lost every right to both large and small benefits.
And if the gacorporations’ anger still did not subside?
At first, ‘bounty hunters’ roaming the backstreets would move.
Adjudicators who had legally been delegated the state’s authority to enforce punishnt, holding charges arbitrarily assigned by gacorps in their hands.
If one still endured, then gacorp agents would co next.
Loyal lackeys raised by gacorporations, who had devoted their entire lives to their masters.
So then, what was the thod.
The way to escape the wrath of the gacorporations.
More precisely, the way to lift the curse called a tag.
That question itself had been his concern for the past several years.
And the conclusion he reached was only one.
To beco a dog of the gacorporations.
To go under them and obey thoroughly.
That was the only way out.
“Even so, doesn’t it seem a bit much for three Ghostcatchers to deal with that thing?”
“Shut up.”
Raja spoke roughly.
“Arrogant bastards. If you’re going to die from sothing like this, it’s better to clean you up right here.”
The job he had secretly taken this ti had to succeed no matter what.
Because that was the condition the gacorp had set.
The condition that would free him from the nightmare called a tag.
“There are plenty and plenty of guys who can replace those bastards.”
Madness flickered in Raja’s eyes.
Along with it, the desire to remove the tag slowly began to boil up inside him.
Uuuuuung……!
A chilling vibration that resonated throughout the entire exhibition hall.
It was the sound made as the monster moved its body.
A four-legged monster made of thick tal.
‘Titan, huh…….’
I felt like I understood why that machine bore such a na.
It was about twice the size of the AT-71 I had encountered in the past.
‘Is the concept similar too.’
A grand magic weapon developed to deal with Spelltech, their archenemy.
Judging by how it activated a spatial disruptor the mont it detected a spatial trickster, that seed highly likely.
‘Of all things to run into, it had to be that kind of bastard…….’
One thing was certain: just like the AT-71, it would be prepared with defensive magic.
What mattered was what grade it was.
Checking that wasn’t difficult.
Pajijik, magic gathered in Diesel’s hand.
A raging lightning storm condensed into a single sphere and blazed intensely.
‘Sphere of the Brain Dragon.’
Normally, it was a spell that was projected very slowly toward the opponent.
‘Double casting.’
Using the newly acquired power called a ‘star’, I stacked another spell on top.
‘I combine Lightning Whip.’
What I was doing now wasn’t simply manifesting two spells at the sa ti.
I fused ‘Sphere of the Brain Dragon’ with ‘Lightning Whip’, rging the formulas into one.
This was a privilege granted to a mage who had reached the realm of two stars.
“…….”
A hint of surprise flickered across Pinkbit’s face as she watched.
‘Now that I look at it, it’s kind of like a flail.’
A chain weapon with sharp tal attached at the end.
Diesel swung a spell that looked similar to it.
As the sphere flew in at high speed, Titan hastily executed an evasive maneuver.
But that had already been accounted for.
I forcibly twisted the mana whip and chased down the tank, striking it.
But.
Pajijijik……!
With a loud noise, it rely scraped the surface.
It failed to damage Titan’s armor.
‘At least grade 8 defense.’
Looking at the source of the mana light emitted by the defensive magic, I guessed it was probably engraved on the underside.
Just like the one carved into the AT-71.
In the last battle, Diesel had countered it by approaching at close range and tearing the magic apart by hand.
Would sothing like that be possible this ti as well?
At that mont, Matafil shouted from beside Diesel.
“I’m going to fire!”
The cyborg’s arm, modified into a rocket launcher, spewed flas.
A missile streaked toward the steel monster, trailing white smoke.
Tang tang tang……!
In that brief instant, Titan attempted to intercept the missile with its machine gun, but every round sliced uselessly through empty air.
The attack carrying the hopes of the three Ghostcatchers struck the top of the tank squarely.
Kwaang!
With a thunderous explosion, dust billowed out, obscuring visibility.
“At least this should buy us ti to run…….”
Just as Matafil muttered that—
As if denying his words, Titan’s gun barrel erged through the dust.
Soon, the completely unhard tank revealed itself.
“Crazy…….”
“Take cover!”
Judging that the attack hadn’t worked, Diesel imdiately hid behind a wall and shouted.
At the sa ti, Titan’s main cannon roared.
Was it because of the grand magic weapon’s manual?
The first shot headed toward where Diesel was taking cover.
Tukung!
It failed to penetrate the thick wall, but a vicious sound followed as fragnts rained down.
‘What’s its armant status……?’
If I had been connected to the Electrosphere, I might have been able to look up detailed specifications.
No matter how cutting-edge the weapon was, they would have released at least so basic information to show off its specs.
As I was thinking that, Ar suddenly displayed so information before my eyes.
〈Is this what the master is looking for?〉
【Titan】
【Control Interface】
【-Minerva System】
【Electrosphere Response Device】
【-Firewall : Grade 8】
【-ICE : Black Tracker, Reaper, Leviathan, Thornwall……】
【……】
【……】
Only the information I wanted, neatly distilled, was transmitted directly into Diesel’s cyberbrain.
〈Where did this co from?〉
〈It was lying in that server room earlier.〉
As expected of my kid.
Diesel spoke sincerely.
〈Get ready to go back and get your belly torn open by Jjiru.〉
〈Just don’t die.〉
I hurriedly scanned through the most important information.
‘With an 8th-grade firewall and ICE like this, hacking is out of the question…….’
【……】
【……】
【Armant】
【152mm A-97 Heavy Cannon】
【-Standard rounds, 6 shells】
【-Anti-personnel grenades, 2 shells】
【-Compressed Mana High-Explosive shells, 0 shells】
【-Anti-tank missiles, 0 rounds】
【20mm M81HB HMG】
【-FMJ, 0 rounds】
【-High-velocity armor-piercing rounds, 0 rounds】
【7.62mm M890D GPMG】
【-Mana-piercing rounds, 30 rounds】
【-Mana high-explosive rounds, 0 rounds】
【……】
【……】
‘What kind of exhibition piece is loaded with this much ammo.’
Six standard rounds for the main gun, two anti-personnel grenades.
And thirty rounds for the most troubleso multipurpose machine gun.
Excluding the one standard round and three machine gun rounds just fired, that gave the current ammunition status.
‘Should I at least be grateful that the penetration power isn’t that great.’
Of course, that was only relative.
The only thing it couldn’t punch through was the main pillar of the exhibition hall where Diesel was taking cover.
Anywhere else, everything would be pierced clean through by the main gun’s standard rounds.
Just like the wall Matafil was hiding behind right now.
“Not there—take cover behind this wall!”
Diesel shouted toward Matafil.
In response, the cyborg hurriedly moved his body toward Diesel.
Pshhk……!
With the sound of cylinders compressing in his legs, his massive fra sprinted at trendous speed.
At the sa ti, the tank’s main cannon spewed fire once more.
“……!”
Kwaaang……!
A massive explosion pulverized the concrete wall Matafil had been hiding behind just monts ago.
If he had stayed there, it wouldn’t have been just the wall that got shattered.
‘It’d be nice if I could share specs with my teammates too…….’
〈Should I move directly and input the data for the others?〉
It was a good thod, but doing that would also expose the fact that I was controlling an Electrosphere spirit.
〈Put it on hold for now.〉
〈If that’s what the master wants.〉
“Do you have so kind of plan, mage?”
Matafil approached Diesel, catching his breath as he asked.
Below him, Pinkbit’s tiny face ca into view.
“Can’t you use spatial magic at all?”
Pinkbit projected a hologram into the air—25cm in a circular shape, 50m in a rod-like shape.
That probably ant she could open a portal with a 25cm diater up to a maximum of 50m.
I thought it was completely unusable, so this was at least good news.
‘I hate fighting AIs.’
The era when humans could outplay machines through mind gas had already ended a hundred years ago.
And on top of that, our opponent was a combat AI developed by a gacorporation—the ‘Minerva System’.
“Why did it suddenly stop bombarding us?”
“It’s probably trying to assess the situation.”
Diesel answered Matafil, who was loading his pistol.
The reason it couldn’t act rashly right now was likely due to a lack of information.
Under normal circumstances, it would have grasped the situation precisely through CCTV everywhere and satellite data, but with the Electrosphere cut off, it wouldn’t be able to go that far.
‘So being unable to use the Electrosphere isn’t only a disadvantage for us.’
Since it had just confird that the wall couldn’t be penetrated by standard rounds, it might be waiting for us to co out first.
Above all, it wasn’t exactly overflowing with shells either.
That said, trying to flank it wasn’t favorable terrain-wise.
There simply wasn’t any space for that huge body to squeeze through.
After weighing the situation, Diesel rapidly worked his brain.
Option one.
Run.
There was only one exit from this building.
To reach it, we would have to pass through the lobby where that monster was blatantly blocking the way.
A vast lobby with not a single piece of cover.
‘The mont we reveal ourselves, it’ll imdiately open up with machine-gun fire.’
Even though there were only twenty-seven machine gun rounds left, that was more than enough to tear the three of us apart.
And seeing that they were labeled mana-piercing rounds, we couldn’t even gamble on compressing a barrier to break through.
Then what about going back the way we ca?
That would be like digging our own graves.
Anywhere underground, we’d be within range of that thing’s spatial disruptor.
And once the Electrosphere was restored, gacorp agents would be dispatched, so we needed to get far away from this site before that happened.
Ti was not on our side.
The Minerva System knew that well, which was why it wasn’t moving rashly.
In conclusion, running was impossible.
Then option two.
Fight.
When facing soone head-on, certain prerequisites were needed.
Even if hit, we couldn’t be knocked down.
We needed enough power to take the opponent down.
The forr might be manageable by making full use of cover, but right now we lacked the firepower to damage that monster.
To deal damage with magic, we would first have to strip away its high-grade defensive magic, and we also had no heavy weapons capable of piercing that thick tal armor.
Judging by Matafil holding only a pistol, it seed that the missile he had just fired was his last remaining heavy weapon.
‘We didn’t co in expecting a fight like this in the first place…….’
Therefore, fighting was also impossible.
At least in our current state.
‘Then the remaining option is…….’
Having reached a conclusion, Diesel looked at his teammates and spoke.
“We need to arm ourselves.”
“What……?”
Arm ourselves to increase our firepower.
Enough to destroy that monster called Titan.
“All my weapons are in the car. And obviously, the car is more than 50m away.”
“No. Not that.”
“Then what……?”
Matafil looked Diesel over with questioning eyes.
The answer was very simple.
“We arm ourselves with the weapons in this exhibition hall.”
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