Plundering what belonged to others was more difficult than one might imagine.
It was even harder when someone’s life depended on it.
How many people could ignore a desperate plea for mercy?
All those softhearted people were already dead.
Those who remained were people who valued themselves above everyone else.
They were the Raiders.
“So it is that one this time? There is still an hour before it opens.”
“Damn desert. If I survive today, I will finally be free.”
“Lucky you. Today is only my third day.”
A man wearing a leather jacket and a motorcycle helmet stood at ease, holding a chain and a Machete.
“Your third week, with those weapons and that outfit? There is a limit to how blatantly you can lie. Anyone can see that you are at least in your ninth week.”
“Huh? No, wait. If he were really in his ninth week, he would not be wasting his time here. He would be desperate to raid a fourth-week Sentinel base for Points—unless he is some deranged pervert.”
“Heh heh heh. That is why I am telling you to believe me.”
The harsh desert wind whipped sand between them.
The Raiders wandered through a devastated city where not a single drop of water could be found outside the well-stocked Sentinel bases that opened here and there.
Unlike the Sentinels, who only had to endure for four weeks, the Raiders had to survive for ten long weeks.
“Now, now. Everyone, let us take it slowly this time. We do not know what mission will be waiting once we leave, so we should enjoy ourselves while we have an easy mission like this. Am I wrong?!”
He was the sort of man who used the world’s descent into madness as an excuse to indulge his depraved instincts.
“You lunatic. Our lives are at stake. What do you mean, enjoy ourselves? Fine, do whatever you please. I am only going after the Guardian Stones.”
“Come on. Judging by the way you only target first-week bases like this, you must be near the bottom anyway. Let us enjoy ourselves together, huh?”
Raiders generally fell into two categories.
Those ruled by their desires and those obsessed with Points.
They never joined forces.
The Raiders who remained here were the ones who had been forcibly molded to survive in this world.
Anyone incapable of taking from others was already dead.
They had scattered throughout the area, their eyes burning as they desperately tried to secure one of the limited entry slots.
It was already too late to search for another Sentinel formation.
Of the twenty Raiders gathered here, half would be unable to enter and would die a meaningless death.
“Listen up!! I will gut any bastard who runs in front of me, so stay away while I am still asking nicely. I will fucking kill you. Understand?”
“Fuck off. Try it, you bastard! I will smash your skull apart with my Sledgehammer!”
“You little shit. Do you want to die right now?”
Under ordinary circumstances, Raiders were not allowed to attack one another.
Killing or injuring another Raider resulted in a Penalty. They could lose Points or even suffer the same death they had inflicted.
The Penalty disappeared once the invasion began, but before then, anyone who wanted to kill another Raider had to accept the resulting loss.
That was why they limited themselves to threats without actually acting on them.
They snarled and claimed territory, trying to convince everyone around them that they were stronger.
Once the base opened, however, they would obstruct one another and prevent their rivals from entering.
They would not hesitate to tear off the limbs of anyone who pulled ahead.
Failing to enter the Sentinel base meant certain death.
Once the first battle among the Raiders ended and the survivors entered the base, the true hunt would begin.
Survival of the fittest.
The Raiders were fighting a different kind of battle for survival from the Sentinels.
[00:00:01]
[The stage has opened. Secure the Guardian Stones!]
“HRAAAAAH!!! You are dead!! Move!!”
“Get out of my way!! Haste!!”
“Fireball!!”
“Lightning!!”
They launched ranged attacks at anyone they could see, determined to crush their rivals before doing anything else.
Most were reluctant to waste Points and merely fired warning shots to make the others hesitate, but a desperate few directly injured their competitors.
“Urgh!! That damned bastard actually shot me! Even if I die today, I am taking you with me!!”
“I warned you earlier, did I not? Anyone who gets in my way is dead!!”
“You fucking bastard!! Fine, I will pound your brain into paste!!”
“Huh? G-get out of my way, you bastard!!”
The distance between the vanished Barrier and the base was approximately five hundred meters.
As they ran across that distance, which seemed both short and long, they continued raining attacks on one another.
However, they all knew the truth.
If they became entangled with someone and wasted too much time, they would fall behind and lose even the opportunity to obtain a Guardian Stone.
“Damn it!! Those bastards are pulling ahead! Stop clinging to me, you fucker!!”
THUD!!
One Raider forcefully shoved away the Sledgehammer-wielding man who had been pursuing him relentlessly and hurried forward.
His face quickly turned pale.
More than ten people were already running ahead of him.
Several of those at the front were moving so quickly that he could not even dream of catching them. Even if he ran with every ounce of strength he possessed, there was no guarantee that he could overtake those farther back.
“This is all because of that damned Sledgehammer bastard!!!”
“I will kill you no matter what, you son of a bitch!!”
The Raider who regretted provoking the wrong madman ran desperately with despair written across his face.
Nevertheless, his instincts had already told him the truth.
Today was the day he and that Sledgehammer-wielding bastard would die together.
At that moment—
CRACK-!
RATATATATAT!!
“AAAAAGH!!”
“…A gun?”
Several people at the front collapsed while clutching their eyes.
Those following behind cried out as their arms and legs were struck.
Upon closer inspection, the projectiles were not bullets but Steel Balls.
Their power, however, was terrifying.
Most of the people leading the charge were struck down before they could respond to the Steel Balls being fired like a machine gun.
At close range, they were powerful enough to shatter a human skull.
“What kind of first-week Sentinel has a weapon like that?!”
Such long-range fire from an advanced weapon might have been expected at a fourth-week Sentinel base, but not here.
Sentinel bases that had survived for more than a day sometimes established ranged defenses.
No one had ever seen one at a first-week base.
At this rate, the Raiders could be annihilated before they even entered.
They instinctively scattered and spread out, avoiding the Steel Balls as they headed toward the entrances.
Fortunately, there was only one shooter, so he could not block every entrance.
No one was guarding the routes other than the central one, so most Raiders headed toward those instead.
The five or six front-runners who had been shot continued to suffer a barrage of Steel Balls even after collapsing.
“Fuck! I think we chose the wrong base!!”
Still, there was one fortunate outcome.
Because the Sledgehammer-wielding man had delayed him, the Raider had avoided being shot and now had a chance to enter among the first ten.
“This should be enough.”
I nodded as I looked at the ten Raiders lying in every direction and groaning in pain.
There was no need to kill them.
The distance had already greatly reduced the weapon’s lethality, so I stopped after injuring them rather than wasting more Steel Balls.
My ammunition was not unlimited.
After today, it would probably be difficult to fire any more.
I had only around a hundred shots remaining, and I needed to take down at least four enemies with them.
“The System will deal with the ones on the ground anyway.”
Ten Raiders had already entered the base.
Although they had used different entrances, we had arranged the paths so that they would eventually be funneled into the same areas.
Seven had entered from the left and three from the right.
Using their superhuman strength, the Sentinels had transformed the urban area into a maze designed to gather the enemies wherever we wanted them.
“Ughhh···”
The Raiders outside were weeping, tears and mucus streaming down their faces.
They had already been automatically eliminated.
In other words, they would be incinerated.
Since I had been the last person to damage them, I would receive all the Contribution when they were incinerated.
There was no reason to dirty my hands any further.
I looked away from those waiting for their miserable deaths.
During the time they had left, they would slowly wither beneath the terror of approaching death.
‘I know that fucking feeling better than anyone.’
I had been a Raider myself in previous cycles.
There had even been times when I died without ever properly entering the base.
Even when infinite regression was guaranteed, the approach of death brought a fear that no living creature could reject.
No matter how many times I could regress, death was not something I wished to experience repeatedly.
CLICK.
I slung the modified Toy Gun across my back and looked at the people waiting behind me.
“Seven entered through the left Market entrance. Proceed with the rat-herding maneuver as planned. Split them up before engaging them. Do not let your guard down, and make absolutely certain that you fight only one at a time. Even Raiders who normally refuse to cooperate will join forces once they realize they are at a disadvantage. However, unlike our original plan, divide them only once. I will handle half of the seven before joining you.”
“Yes, sir!!”
The Runners from Teams 2, 3, and 4, who were responsible for the left side, quickly ran off.
They had already rehearsed the plan, so all I could do was hope that they managed to hold the enemy back.
In truth, it would not matter greatly even if they failed.
They only needed to endure until I arrived.
“There are three on the right. However, two of them were fighting each other earlier, so they are unlikely to cooperate. Do not bother separating them. Trap them together. They may even begin fighting among themselves.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Runner from Team 1 disappeared as well.
I told Team 5’s Runner to relay the order that they had to defend their current position at all costs.
After checking my equipment, I set out.
[Modified Steel-Ball Gun]
Rank: Magic
A gun modified to the point that it can no longer be called a Toy Gun. Fires Steel Balls with tremendous lethality.
It was the result of upgrading the Toy Gun together with the Disposable Workbench.
A Magic-rank item was overwhelmingly powerful during the early stages, making the weapon extremely reassuring.
“Had I known this would happen, I could have dealt with all of them alone.”
It had been a tentative experiment that produced an extraordinary result.
“I never imagined I could upgrade the Disposable Workbench and the Toy Gun with Boundless.”
Originally, I had intended to modify the Toy Gun with the Disposable Workbench.
On a whim, however, I placed them into Boundless. When I saw that the success probability was nearly 90 percent, I attempted the synthesis and received an enormous reward.
The result was a Magic-rank weapon rather than a Normal one.
With this alone, I honestly felt capable of confronting all twenty Raiders by myself.
“Still, safety comes first.”
It was better to follow the plan and defend carefully than to lose a Guardian Stone through sheer misfortune and be incinerated.
The Urban Map had several entrances, but we had carried out construction so that they all eventually led into one of three routes.
The first was the wide-open central route.
If the Raiders ran straight through it, they would quickly encounter Team 5 and the Guardian Stones.
Originally, I had planned to turn the city into an even more elaborate maze and scatter the enemy from the center toward the left and right.
However, once I obtained a Magic-rank weapon, I changed the plan and concentrated the workers who had been assigned to the central route on the left and right instead.
I guarded the center myself and drove the Raiders toward either side.
As a result, not a single enemy entered through the central route.
‘Concentrating all our firepower in the center and eliminating them in one strike would have been the easiest and simplest method, but….’
I might have attempted it with people who had already learned to work together.
These people, however, were novice Awakened who had not even adapted to their own abilities.
The chances of our allies being injured by Friendly Fire were far greater.
They could panic and be annihilated like a flock of sheep cornered by wolves.
If everyone became entangled and obstructed my vision, even I would have difficulty fighting properly.
I abandoned the plan as soon as I considered it.
“I hope they carry out the rat-herding maneuver properly.”
BOOM-.
The first signal echoed through the area.
Sure enough, I heard the Raiders’ bewildered voices from nearby.
“Fuck, what is this now?! Why did the wall suddenly collapse?!”
“I think they deliberately split us into two groups.”
“Damn it. It looks like they want us to go this way. Is this not a trap?”
“You idiot!! Of course it is a trap! Damn it! You cowardly bastards, stop hiding and come out!! Once you show yourselves, I will skin every last one of you alive!!”
STEP. STEP.
I slowly followed their confused voices deeper into the passage.
They had been divided even more precisely than I expected.
Four Raiders stood before me, shouting in every direction.
The remaining three would struggle through the maze and its traps before being eliminated by the other teams.
“I came out. Does that mean you are not going to skin me?”
“What…?”
RATATATATAT!!
My remaining Steel Balls swept across them.