Jade
"I'll admit it, Vinea, you've got balls," a certain insufferable nun radioed me, waiting atop what looked like a battle tank with spider legs instead of treads. "But this is the end; you can't beat us." She spread her free arm and proudly listed off: "We've got over seventy aircraft, a thousand colonists, two thousand native fighters, forty armored vehicles, and the Imperial Guard itself on our side!" She wasn't lying; the hundred or so spotlights illuminating the impressive force gathered in the plaza before the palace proved it. This was nothing like the pathetic blockades of cops and noobs I'd encountered on the streets so far. "Surrender now... and maybe I can guarantee you, at the very least, a dignified death."
"How about a counter-offer?" I asked, speaking into the walkie-talkie-style mic connected to my car's radio. "Admit that the weapon that helped you so much is a hacked item, and I won't kill all these idiots who followed you here."
"Hahaha! Honestly, how pathetic. Just because you're cornered, you're going to start calling your opponents hackers? Good grief, grow up," Norma replied, and her little army laughed along with her.
That bitch, she struck first to ruin my credibility, didn't she?
It didn't matter. I had only one target.
But I don't see him anywhere...
Still, I shouldn't underestimate him. That idiot was an expert at playing the ninja; he'd likely already set countless traps all over this plaza and the entire palace. He'd sabotage the enemies, and I'd destroy them, that was how we worked...
Too bad, because I don't plan on giving him the chance! I hit the gas, making my tires screech, and sped straight toward the enemy blockade.
"Idiot. Attack!" Norma ordered; her spider-tank's cannon fired, as did the mounted machine guns on other vehicles. Mages rained down fireballs and other spells, while archers loosed arrows imbued with special properties.
"Hmph! I don't need [Skills] to handle this," I said, accelerating as fast as that strange steam-powered sports car would allow.
Spinning the wheel masterfully, I made my car dance through the barrage of projectiles, weaving, pulling handbrake turns, and even executing 360-degree spins.
As I neared the blockade, however, I became an easier target regardless of my maneuvers, and the wall of cars, motorcycles, and armored vehicles ahead was not something my vehicle could overcome on its own.
"Now, this calls for the [Skill: Chaos Locomotive]!" I shouted, gripping the wheel tight as the front of my car melted and reshaped itself into the V-shaped cowcatcher typical of steam trains, while the engine swelled to several times its original size.
"What?!" To my delight, I heard the little nun's surprised reaction as I sliced one of her subordinates' cars in half with my own, smashing through it at hundreds of kilometers per hour. After so many hours of gameplay and piloting so many different vehicles with enough mastery to unlock [Classes] specialized in handling them, I had finally unlocked the [Class: Chaos Rider (Legendary)]. This granted me not only certain passive [Skills] from all the other pilot [Classes] but also the (Legendary) [Skill] to transmute and control any vehicle.
The only reason I hadn't switched [Classes] sooner was to avoid blowing my cover as Anelise, but I didn't need to worry about that anymore.
"Seize her!" Norma ordered.
"Guhuhu! Now the real fun begins!"
Rapidly approaching the palace gates, where even stronger enemies were attacking me, I activated my [Skill] again, and my car became enveloped in a protective shield formed from what had once been smiles.
"Mistress! This is madness! We should be fleeing, not attacking!" Armadeiro complained, trembling in the occupied seat and shielding his head as spells, arrows, and powerful projectiles dissolved my car's protection as easily as water melts sugar.
"Come on, come on...!" I muttered.
The car continued to gain speed, heading towards the palace gates, each of the vehicle's complex systems exploding in flames, and the tires melting; I was more "thrown" forward than actually driving. It was what happened when you replaced a car's engine with that of a steam-powered locomotive.
"GYAAAH!" The imp screamed, grabbing my legs when he saw the palace gates approaching too fast.
"BAAM!" I burst through the imperial guard in front of the gates and the latter all at once as my car shot through them like a bullet.
Coughing from the dust, I kicked the crumpled door of what remained of the vehicle and mounted what occupied the passenger seat: a motorcycle.
"Brraaaamm!!" My motorcycle roared as I sped through the palace corridors.
Damn, I've already lost two resurrection rings?! Some of the earlier attacks must have pierced the car's defense... whatever, I still have more than enough!
"M-Master, ahead!" Armadeiro pointed to the high-level soldiers and state-of-the-art equipment ahead; the imperial guard.
Even though I was riding my motorcycle at almost a hundred kilometers per hour and normal players couldn't even keep up with me with their eyes, those NPCs were different: the elite of the elite among the artificial beings, unhindered by human limitations, specifically programmed to keep the capital in order if players went too far. I had no doubt that, the instant I was within their reach, my motorcycle and I would be torn to pieces in millions.
So, I never got into their range.
"W-What?!" The imperial guard in the corridor was surprised when a pair of leather wings sprouted from the sides of my motorcycle and propelled me out the window.
I piloted the craft with artificial pterodactyl wings out the window, and up the wall above the palace, to the roof. Soon, however, the surprise faded, and the aircraft unloaded their ammunition against my motorcycle on the roof: "vrururur!!"
"Hurgh!" My feet touched the ground of the palace's central courtyard, hiding in the shadows before the dust settled, while the aircraft chased a motorcycle that was advancing without a driver.
"I- I can't believe it, they lost us! Really!" Armadeiro said. "We can kill the empress, commit the ultimate evil! After so much chaos, destruction, murder, lies, and even incest... Gaarh, I couldn't have chosen a better Mistress! I feel like I'm about to lose my mind from such admiration, Mistress!"
"Silence!" I ordered.
"Ah, it's not necessary" Norma's voice sounded echoing, metallic. "I knew you'd end up here" finally, the damned little nun revealed herself... or rather, revealed her spider-tank, leaving the shadows on the other side of the courtyard with heavy footsteps. "Your beloved little brother is in that direction, after all. Isn't he the one you really want to kill? It's a real shame that, after I crush you in this game... I'll crush him too. In real life! Aah-hahaha!"
"What the hell are you talking about, you bitc-"
"BOOM!!" The cannon roared, and an entire wall was blown to bits.
Don't get distracted, it's just a bluff! I told myself, kicking open a door into a hallway and dodging the follow-up shots as the palace crumbled behind me under the cannon fire.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" The corridor right behind me vanished into rubble, smoke, and fire; the cannon blasts were punctuated only by the hysterical laughter of the [Nun] [Apostle] echoing from inside the tank.
I couldn't stay in the line of fire for long. So, I leaped onto a maid's cart parked in the hallway.
"Any vehicle," the class description said!
"[Chaos Motorcycle]!" I conjured, transforming the maid's cart into the skeletal frame of a motorized vehicle and speeding ever closer to the enemy tank outside.
"Some beat-up jalopy like that, big deal!" Norma sneered, opening her tank's hatch and aiming a mounted machine gun, a weapon far more agile than the cannon, right at me.
Wrong choice.
Smashing through the window with my cart, I modified it a second time, equipping it with an aircraft engine just like the one that had brought me to the Vanguard. And what is ammunition, really, if not just a piece of metal moving incredibly fast?
An impact briefer than the blink of an eye. And then:
"Gah... Argh..." The little nun, her upper body completely painted in neon red, dragged herself away from the overturned tank.
"Wow, the stats on that outfit you're wearing are pretty damn good, huh?" I remarked, stepping on her head.
"You'll regret this... You'll regret this, you cursed incestuous bitch! Dying here was the best thing that could've happened to you!"
"You're in my way, Norma. Didn't I tell you before? To stay away from us?"
"You... crazy bitch."
"Zwush!" I finished off my hated enemy with my giant open-end wrench. I didn't know why I still carried it, but in the end, it came in handy.
"You haven't seen anything yet," I said to the corpse. "Hm?" I noticed, strangely, that her hacked weapon was glitching and flickering, there one moment, gone the next. Finally, the weapon vanished completely. Well, it was a hacked item; it was to be expected that it would behave oddly. "Anyway, I have to move on before the Imperial Guard gets here."
The rest of the way was short and uneventful: I climbed a flight of stairs, used my grappling hook to move quickly, and reached a pair of massive wooden doors, the Empress's chambers.
If I hadn't seen him until now...
"So this is where you were, Bro?" I smiled, a smile that felt strange even to me, happy to find Legiano on the other side.
"Sis" he greeted me, rising from the chair where he'd been sitting, facing the door.
Legiano held a knife in one hand and a revolver in the other, both weapons far finer than his usual club.
And at his feet, the corpse of the commander of the Imperial Guard, Ferdinanko.
Game Over ☠
Marilyn
"Ugh... Ah! Bitch. Bitch!" I hurled the full-immersion helmet against the wall, smashing it to pieces. "How dare she... how dare she?!" I stood up, clawing at the scar on the left side of my face until it bled. "Again... I was defeated again?! And by a woman like that?! No, no! NO! I will never accept this! I will never let myself be the target of those suspicious glares again! I am Elvis's goddamn pilot!" I screamed, overturning my desk and throwing my mirror to the floor. Surrounded by destruction, I paused, panting. "...Activate them. Phase three begins now." Leaving the room, I gave the order to the men waiting silently outside.
"Ma'am, wouldn't it be better to start from zer- Gack?!" I grabbed the throat of the man who questioned me.
"Do as I say, or I'll have you shot for insubordination."
"Y-Yes, ma'am!"
In an instant, the room next to mine erupted into activity as my orders were relayed: a dozen men and women sat down at state-of-the-art computers, while others opened metal lockers along the wall, quickly donning bulletproof vests, arming themselves, and pulling ski masks over their faces.
I left them all behind, climbing the stairs of the rented apartment up to the building's roof.
"A reclusive loser like you, a perverted degenerate... Jade, I can't wait to hear you cry as I tear your disgusting, precious brother apart, piece by piece, right before your eyes! Ah-ha! Aah-hahaha!" I laughed, practically visualizing the scene as I stared at that beautiful shooting star approaching with a low hum.