The wailing klaxons echoed relentlessly through the corrugated canyons of Sector 9, their harsh crimson pulses washing over the rusted pavement in rhythmic waves.
While the scavengers and low-tier residents bolted for their underground bunkers, locking heavy deadbolts and pulling steel shutters down over their windows, Deku Kwanoh walked in the exact opposite direction.
Every step forward brought him closer to the quarantine perimeter where the colossal pillar of emerald light still roared into the smog-choked sky.
The air grew heavier, thick with the sharp scent of ionized ozone and raw, untamed energy.
The gravity here felt subtly warped; loose debris and gravel occasionally twitched and drifted a fraction of an inch off the ground before crashing back down, a side effect of the spatial distortions bleeding out from the newly sprouted Divine Tree.
As Deku turned a sharp corner past an abandoned industrial depot, three figures stepped out from the shadows to block his path.
They weren’t ordinary slum thugs like the ones in The Rust Bucket.
They wore sleek, matte-black tactical armor stamped with the insignia of a mid-tier mercenary group—the Vanguard Hounds.
Each of them carried high-frequency blade rifles, and their posture screamed military discipline and combat experience.
”End of the line, kid,” the lead mercenary growled, tapping the barrel of his rifle against his thigh.
He surveyed Deku’s slime-stained high school uniform with an expression of open disgust.
“Sector 9 quarantine zone is locked down under corporate ordinance. Anyone moving toward the perimeter gets neutralized. Turn around or get put down.” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Deku stopped.
He didn’t flinch, nor did he raise his hands.
Instead, his dark eyes scanned the three mercenaries with clinical detachment, calculating their stances, their weapon safety locks, and the micro-twitches in their muscles.
”Corporate ordinance,” Deku repeated, his voice smooth, calm, and dripping with profound condescension.
“Whose permission did you get to block my street?”
The lead mercenary narrowed his eyes, a harsh laugh barking from behind his visor.
“Are you mental? This is a combat zone. You’re just a stray rat—”
Before the mercenary could finish his sentence, Deku vanished.
It wasn’t just physical speed; it was an explosive application of the spatial distortion he had unlocked.
By warping the micro-distance between himself and his target, Deku bridged ten feet in a fraction of a millisecond.
CLANG!
Deku’s palm slammed directly into the barrel of the lead mercenary’s rifle, forcing it upward just as the man instinctively pulled the trigger.
A searing beam of plasma scorched the empty air above Deku’s head, illuminating the dark, deadpan smirk forming on the high schooler’s lips.
Before the other two mercenaries could raise their weapons, Deku pivoted on his heel, driving a devastating, space-amplified roundhouse kick into the side of the second guard’s helmet. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping dot com.
The impact sounded like a cracking anvil.
The mercenary flew sideways, crashing hard into a stack of rusted steel drums before sliding unconscious onto the gravel.
The lead mercenary panicked, trying to swing his rifle butt downward, but Deku was already inside his guard.
With surgical precision, Deku struck the pressure point on the man’s wrist, forcing him to drop the weapon, and followed up with a brutal open-palm strike to his chest plate.
The kinetic shockwave traveled straight through the armor, knocking the wind out of the mercenary and sending him crashing backward onto his knees, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
The third mercenary froze in sheer terror, his rifle shaking violently in his hands as he stared down at his incapacitated comrades.
He looked back at Deku, whose uniform was still covered in the grime of his arrival, but whose aura now commanded absolute, undisputed authority.
Deku slowly lowered his leg, adjusting the neatly knotted tie at his collar as if he had just finished a casual stroll through a park.
He stepped up to the trembling mercenary, leaning in close.
”Tell your superiors,” Deku whispered coldly, his eyes burning with dark ambition, “that a new tax collector has taken over these street corners.”