Chapter 58
“Cough… kuh-hek…!”
My vision was blurry.
Maybe I had swallowed so of it—Anti-rain’s peculiar chemical sll lingered all over my mouth. After a few coughs, water trickled out.
‘Where… is this…?’
I had no strength in my body.
Looking around, I realized I had woken up in the very place where I had been fighting desperately against the zombies just monts ago.
The canal at the bottom of the slope on both sides was now filled with water. Earlier, it had only reached up to my shins—this was a completely different scene.
‘What happened…?’
I retraced my mories.
Aaron had clearly told to sohow hold my ground near the canal… and now, I must have been fighting sowhere down there, subrged in the water…
“Ah.”
Only then did the mory return.
The underground canal had suddenly begun to shake. A torrent had surged in from far away through the sewers. To keep from being swept away by the current, I had used [Thousand Pound Weight].
“Cough… so when he said to hold out… this is what he ant… cough!”
That torrent must have co from outside. I didn’t know the exact reason, though.
“He must have asked the weather bureau to release an Anti-rain squall just over this area.”
“Hm?”
I turned toward the voice and saw Maria right beside , close enough for our shoulders to touch. Silence lay unconscious on the ground next to her.
Maria, like , looked like a drenched rat. Her black hair and clothes were soaked, dripping with water laced with chemical slls.
It was such a contrast from the ‘perfect secretary’ image she always maintained at the Academy that it felt strangely new to .
“Maria, are you alri—”
“Shh. Keep your voice down.”
Before I could finish, Maria covered my mouth. Then she jerked her chin toward sothing, and I turned my head to follow her gaze.
‘That’s…!’
Aaron was there.
He wore black gloves on his hands, and opposite him, Araya was in a pitiful state, on the brink of death.
Around them lay the bodies of those soldiers in military powered armor I had seen earlier—literally split in half, scattered in pieces.
‘Has the fight already ended?’
It seed Aaron had arrived and cleaned up the scene while I was unconscious. Judging by the lack of heavy battle traces, it hadn’t even been a fierce fight.
‘Ha…’
To think that the opponent we had struggled so much against was defeated this easily.
Even knowing there had been reasons he couldn’t join the battle right away, I couldn’t help feeling a wave of futility.
As I was thinking that, I realized sothing strange—Aaron wasn’t killing Araya imdiately.
‘What are they talking about?’
The mood felt like they were having a serious conversation.
It seed they hadn’t noticed we were awake yet, too focused on their exchange.
‘I can’t hear well from here…’
Holding my breath, I concentrated on their conversation. Bits of words began to faintly reach my ears.
“…do you think you can… resist?”
“If… sohow… then… resolve…”
Resist? Resolve?
What were they talking about?
I glanced at Maria to see if she could make sense of it—she was already entirely focused on their conversation.
With no choice, I turned my attention back to them, and at that mont, Araya spoke to Aaron through ragged breaths.
“Hiding it… won’t last… forever…”
“That’s none of your business.”
Aaron replied coldly.
Araya forced himself to continue.
“Truly full of holes… is that your strategy? Playing guardian… in place of the dead, winning favor…?”
“I could do that.”
“Hhuek… I hope you realize your position. You are, after all… a villain.”
And then his eyes glead.
“You will end up killing Iri as well.”
By the ti I arrived, the situation had more or less been resolved. From the entrance all the way to the main hall, the corpses of humans and androids lay in uncountable numbers.
“I’ll check the inside alone. You start cleaning up from here.”
“Yes, sir!”
I left the cleanup to the Stingray employees who had co with , stepping carefully over the debris as I moved forward.
I was worried about Iri and Maria’s condition.
Since I doubted they could hold out until reinforcents arrived, I had hastily pressured the weather bureau—under the Stingray na—to force an Anti-rain squall over this area.
Fortunately, the operation itself was a success, and a large number of zombies had been swept away by the torrent.
Among the zombies, there were probably not only reanimated corpses but also living humans whose minds had been taken over, but I didn’t have the ti to worry about their safety.
‘Iri has [Thousand Pound Weight], so she probably wasn’t swept away…’
Given her specs, I thought she would be fine—but the problem was I couldn’t guarantee it 100%.
My pace toward the main hall grew more urgent.
Deeper into the hideout, I found a small group of zombies remaining.
I lightly activated the [Cloud Spider] module, disposed of them, and entered the main hall.
[W-Who’s there!]
[That’s…!]
[It’s Aaron Stingray! Damn it!]
Inside the main hall were androids ard with powered armor—about the sa level as the ones I’d seen at the hotel.
They were, of course, no match for . In one strike, I severed their waists and necks with the [Cloud Spider]’s threads.
In less than three seconds, I wiped out every hostile, and then other things ca into view.
“Iri…”
Iri was lying face-down by the water, unconscious. Beside her were Maria and Silence.
It seed the androids I’d just cut down had been in the process of pulling them out of the water.
‘Good. They’re alive.’
My [Trauma Biotric Scanner] detected no major irregularities in any of their vital signs.
I used the [Cloud Spider]’s threads to move them one by one into a corner.
Once things were relatively secure—
The last thing that caught my eye was a monk standing before the Buddha statue, looking flustered.
‘…That’s him.’
The sa man captured in the footage Maria had sent . Dressed in a thin orange robe with a shaved head, he looked every bit the monk, but there wasn’t the slightest sense of religious devotion about him.
‘Araya…’
The na he’d used when introducing himself.
I rolled the na around in my mouth a few tis before furrowing my brow.
‘As expected, that’s a na that never appeared in the original story.’
Was he like Ciel, soone who transmigrated into a random body? Or was it simply a fake na?
Either way, I couldn’t be certain at this stage.
But one thing was clear.
“So it’s you.”
“…Aaron Stingray.”
He was my enemy.
After confirming each other’s identities, a few seconds of silence passed. The next mont was obvious.
Paaahh—!
Like a martial arts palm strike, he thrust his hand toward . At the sa ti, a dark blue aura shot toward like a bullet.
“Magic? Pathetic.”
My specs were already high enough to block even sniper rounds from afar. That so-called magic bullet he’d fired looked no more threatening than a crawling bug in my eyes.
I didn’t even feel the need to dodge.
Moving forward, I swatted the magic bullet aside with my hand. The dark blue mass struck my hand edge-on, ricocheted away, and smashed into the wall.
The spot where it hit began to lt as if doused in acid—or rather, it was breaking down into so unrecognizable ‘sothing.’
‘Spatial distortion.’
A condensed mass of magic power, twisting the point of impact. If it touched a normal human, they’d et a bizarre and grueso end.
But to , it was nothing more than a child’s trick.
“Khh…!”
One step, then another.
I slowly closed the distance, cornering him. He gritted his teeth and fired another round of magic bullets.
This ti, five.
They felt heavier, more nacing—likely because he’d packed in more magic power. Still, I kept moving forward without stopping.
Shhhhhh—!
I casually batted the incoming magic bullets away with my hands.
Of course, I wasn’t equipped with any Anti-Magic-related modules, but it didn’t matter.
The gloves I wore were none other than the Lv.5 Arcane Module [Cloud Spider], a top-tier combat module also known as a “Ga Changer.”
A re set of magic bullets, no matter how much magic power he cramd into them, was nothing I couldn’t deflect.
Frankly, even a flying rock would be more dangerous—it would at least have so physical force behind it.
“It’s useless. Give up.”
“Damn it.”
Araya tried sothing else.
He attempted to use magic to reawaken the fallen androids, or to corrupt the ground beneath with magic bullets to bind my feet.
But it was pointless.
From what I’d seen, his abilities were at best on par with the protagonist in the original story right after developing basic necromancing skills.
In other words, no match for .
Before I knew it, I was standing before Araya, looking down at him from a distance where I could grab him with one hand.
Compared to my height of over 180 cm, his fra was small and slight. I reached out, intending to grab him by the collar.
“Damn it!”
Even though he must have known there was nowhere left to run, he didn’t stop resisting. He roughly slapped my hand away and tried to counterattack again.
That annoyed .
“You’re starting to get on my nerves.”
I needed information.
I had intended to keep him in at least a condition where he could still talk, but his attitude snapped the last thread of patience I had left.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue.
Before he could try anything, I kicked him hard.
Kwaaaang—!
His body flew like a shell and slamd into the Buddha statue’s face.
“Ghhk!?”
“This isn’t over yet.”
I used the [Cloud Spider]’s threads to reel him back toward before he could hit the floor, forcing him to his knees.
Then I kicked him again.
“Graaagh!!”
This ti, he smashed through the Buddha statue and crashed into the main hall wall, before gravity pulled him down into the water pooled in the canal.
Splash—!
Rustle—
Once more, I manipulated the threads to drag him back. Then I kicked him, reeled him in, kicked him again, and reeled him in once more.
Through this repeated cycle, I beat the thought of resisting right out of him.
Of course, since he still looked like a monk, kicking him didn’t exactly feel pleasant—but my anger far outweighed any fleeting pity.
Only after I’d beaten him to the point where he wouldn’t die but was barely recognizable as a human being did my anger subside a little.
I dragged him up in front of again.
He tried crawling away, but his trembling arms couldn’t move his body forward at all.
“Huff… huff… you… bas…tard…!”
“Good. You can still talk.”
I thought I might have gone too far, but thankfully, he still had enough strength left in his tongue.
“I’ll ask. Answer truthfully.”
“Bas…tard… why… like this…!”
“Focus.”
I pressed my foot down firmly on Araya’s already broken thigh.
“Gyaaaahhh!”
His scream… sohow sounded rather satisfying—
Damn it.
I snapped back to my senses and took my foot off before going too far.
“I’ll ask again—”
I was in the middle of speaking when—
I sensed sothing strange from behind.
Maria seed to be slowly regaining consciousness.
‘Tsk. I’d better finish the sensitive questions quickly.’
Determined to choose my words carefully, I asked calmly—forcing down the anger boiling inside .
But how long could this patience last?
“I’ll ask you. You—”
No, it was no use.
The more I opened my mouth, the angrier I beca.
This wasn’t the ti for questions anymore.
This bastard.
This damn bastard…!
“…Why did you do it?”
A transmigrator.
In other words, if he was a reader of the original novel—
If he was soone who had solved that absurdly difficult quiz and entered this world, I would have thought he’d never do “sothing like that.”
But maybe I had been mistaken.
I truly never imagined—
That there would be a transmigrator (fan) like this.
“Why did you kill the Witch Evangeline?”
I never thought there would be soone who wanted to destroy this world themselves.
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