CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK—
I moved quickly in time with the footsteps of the unidentified pursuers, but instead of growing farther away, the noise only drew closer.
‘They’re coming after me.’
Why?
Who?
I did not bother thinking about questions like that.
- Public safety in Mekal Town has been remarkably good lately.
Just as the Beggar Chief had said, there had been no sign of Red Players in Mekal Town recently. Grid had remarked that rumors about me might be spreading through the Community.
Once my thoughts reached that point, suspicion became certainty.
The difference between a victim and a murder victim was only two letters.
I reminded myself that it would not be strange if someone came to kill me at any moment.
If their objective was to hunt me down, they would have come fully prepared, so fleeing rather than confronting them would probably be the wiser choice.
However,
‘The Main Quest is going to start soon…….’
I had no intention of backing down until then.
And naturally, I had no intention of leaving a potential threat alone either.
‘……If that’s the case.’
I had no choice but to kill them all.
I looked around.
The sewer pipe I was currently in was a straight passage.
[If they attack from both the front and rear, you will die.]
‘Where should I go?’
[Choose somewhere spacious. It will also make it easier to respond to coordinated ranged attacks.]
‘Somewhere spacious…….’
CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANK!
The footsteps drew even closer.
Now I could distinguish the sound properly.
It was the distinctive cold clang of metal striking metal.
‘Looks like they’re all wearing armor.’
There was a high chance they were Warrior-type Players.
I rapidly formed a strategy.
As someone closer to the Mage type, I would most likely die if I tried to engage Warriors in a straightforward contest of strength.
But were Warriors invincible?
Absolutely not.
Most Warriors were large like Cain, and their movements were loud and cumbersome.
More importantly, many of them lacked proper methods of ranged attack.
‘Spacious, my ass.’
A narrow place filled with obstacles would be better.
Conveniently, one such location came to mind.
I held my breath and moved quickly.
The moment I spotted a narrow pipe embedded in the wall, I immediately shoved myself inside.
It was closer to folding myself into it.
The instant my shoulders cleared the entrance, my body began sliding rapidly through the round pipe as though I had entered a chute.
All I could see was darkness and the dull gray interior of the sewer pipe.
My backside was soaked.
Some unidentified greasy liquid acted as lubricant and sent my body sliding onward.
Eventually, I saw light.
The pipe ended abruptly in midair, and my body dropped toward the ground as though someone had yanked me down.
SPLAAASH-!
Wastewater rapidly soaked through my clothes as though penetrating all the way to my bones.
A chill crept over me.
The fishy stench stabbing at my nose was impossible to ignore as well.
Still, I was not displeased.
The stagnant water had saved me from being injured.
I swept back my bangs, which hung limply like seaweed, and climbed a nearby ladder.
A group of rats and cockroaches wandering nearby hurriedly scattered away from me.
[This is the battlefield you chose. Do you like it?]
Of course I did.
I was in the center of an enormous steam-engine facility where water had pooled.
Narrow waterways were tangled intricately in every direction, while old, rusted steel frameworks, steam pipes, and all kinds of garbage intertwined around them like thorn bushes.
If we fought among these complicated structures, Warriors would struggle to swing their weapons freely.
And because the area was so cramped, the risk of being surrounded was lower as well.
I hid in the darkest corner, where the wastewater rose to my ankles.
Countless steel structures concealed me.
It was an excellent ambush point.
I held my breath while fingering the fuse of an Explosive Potion.
Just come.
I’ll give you something nice and hot right in the face…….
CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG—!
Almost as soon as I thought that, loud footsteps sounded from the passage above my head.
They were coming down the stairs.
One……
Two……
Three of them?
I could have sworn there had been more before.
Where had the others gone?
Perhaps several sets of footsteps had simply overlapped.
I swallowed dryly and waited for them to enter my field of vision.
But then—
“Why the hell is this place so fucking complicated!”
“Instead of getting angry, should we eat something first?”
“How the hell can you think about eating in here? There are fucking rats and cockroaches everywhere!”
“You’re angry again? That’s because you’re hungry.”
Something about them……
How should I put it?
The pursuers sounded rather stupid.
Their voices also seemed strangely familiar.
“Both of you, stop chatting and, uh, whatever. Focus. You said you heard footsteps earlier.”
“I don’t hear them anymore. Damn it, should I just say I imagined them?”
“Hey, hey, let’s just Log Out and go eat the old lady next door’s gukbap. What do you think?”
I withdrew every impression I had formed.
They were talking about eating the old lady next door’s hand.
‘……Fucking lunatics.’
[They are casually planning cannibalism.]
‘You do not have to explain it out loud.’
It was disgusting enough already.
Soon, three shadows descended the stairs.
“We should at least find the way out before Logging Out. If we quit the game here, I won’t want to log back in next time.”
I examined their appearances through gaps in the scrap metal.
A Mage as thin as a stick insect.
A short, fat Warrior.
And a freckled Archer.
‘……The Three Idiots.’
The Party of regular customers from my workshop had appeared before me.
“Huh? There’s someone over…… Huuuh?”
The fat Warrior spotted me.
‘Damn it.’
Now that I had already been discovered, continuing to hide in a corner would only put me at a disadvantage.
I slowly stepped out from behind the scrap heap.
SPLASH, SPLASH.
Wastewater streamed off both of my feet.
“What the hell, it really is Mr. Akkun?!”
“Sir, why are you here? Is it because of a Quest?”
“Perfect timing. Sir, do you know the way around here? We’ve been wandering for over thirty minutes. This place is practically a maze…….”
“Were you the ones chasing me?”
The Three Idiots exchanged glances.
For cannibals, they looked remarkably stupid.
“Chasing?”
“What's chasing?”
“What happened?”
“Is someone chasing you? Why? Did you become a Wanted Criminal?”
“What the hell, maybe he really did.”
“Mr. Akkun. Even if this is a game, you shouldn’t treat NPCs however you like. If your Affinity drops too far, you’ll die in no time.”
“If you didn’t kill an NPC or something, hurry over to the Scrap-Metal Tower with some money and ask them to cancel the bounty.”
“If you’re short, want us to chip in? In exchange, give us a discount on bombs the next time we visit your workshop.”
They began chattering among themselves.
I could not sense hostility……
Nothing like that.
But I could not be sure.
Would people who casually talked about cannibalism really have trouble hiding their hostility?
I pulled another potion from my Inventory so I could enter combat at any moment.
It contained a purplish liquid.
Holding the potion in one hand, I stared at them.
However, the Three Idiots merely talked among themselves without even looking at me.
It did not seem like they were deliberately lowering my guard……
No.
That might itself be an attempt to lower my guard.
Fine.
I would strike first.
[Wait.]
‘Wait for what? I have no idea what those bastards are going to do.’
[I am telling you to observe the situation.]
‘What situation—’
That was when it happened.
SCREEEEEECH-!
A spine-chilling sound of metal scraping against metal came from the ceiling.
The Three Idiots screamed and clamped both hands over their ears.
I looked upward.
Something black writhed disgustingly among the countless honeycomb-like pipes covering the ceiling.
“……W-What the hell is that?”
The Three Idiots’ voices trembled with fear.
“T-That…… damn.”
The black things were spider legs.
Enormous steel spider legs.
They sagged out from among the pipes like strands of mucus.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
They stabbed into the ceiling and anchored themselves securely.
Then their main bodies appeared.
“Peekaboo!”
Two men who looked like rag dolls patched with steel instead of cloth hung upside down from the ceiling like bats.
Instead of human spines, mechanical tentacles resembling the steel spider legs I had just seen protruded from their backs.
SPLASH! SPLASH!
A moment later, two more figures burst out of the wastewater behind the Three Idiots and me, near the entrance we had used.
Their lower bodies were not human.
Instead of fish fins, they had enormous propellers and thrusters.
Four of them in total.
“R-R-R-Red Wire……?”
The skinny Mage barely managed to speak.
I ground my teeth.
Red Wire.
A group of architects expelled from the Scrap-Metal Tower.
They had become mutants as well, but unlike the Know-It-All Alliance, they had chosen a different path.
The Know-It-All Alliance accepted their changes and sought ways to move forward.
Red Wire, on the other hand, rejected their mutations head-on.
They tore off their unpredictable new body parts and replaced them with machinery.
In other words, they were what one might call augmented humans.
As though proudly displaying the results, the two men hanging from the ceiling crawled across it while grinning maliciously.
Their pupils flashed with brilliant blue light.
“We put up a sign saying construction was underway. Why are all of you here?”
“One little rat, two, three…… Four of them, huh?”
The two men who had emerged from the wastewater responded as blue steam hissed from beneath the skin all over their bodies.
“Let’s clean this up quickly. We still have to clock out.”
“What’s the rush? Why not have a little fun first?”
“You know what the boss is like.”
“Fair point.”
CLACK-!
WHIIIIIR-!
They all raised their arms at once.
Their palms and forearms split open in the shape of crosses, revealing vicious weapons hidden within.
Barrels that spewed flames.
Harpoons crackling with electricity.
Rubber tubes dripping with pitch-black poison.
Even firearms loaded with lead bullets.
‘……Every single one is a ranged weapon.’
Unfortunately, I was not confident I could dodge them.
The area was cramped, and the many obstacles restricted my movement…….
[This is the battlefield you chose.]
Grid’s black screen twitched.
[I will ask again. Do you like it?]
‘Are you fucking mocking me right now……?’
Grid should have stopped me somehow the moment I decided to choose a narrow area.
Before that, they should have told me from the start that Red Wire, not Players, was chasing me.
They had not.
Grid had never once done anything like that.
They always gave me information too late, then appeared only when I was in danger to mock me.
‘If I die, you’re finished too.’
[What dream could I possibly pursue with someone who cannot even overcome half-baked creatures that are neither human nor monster?]
‘You’d have the right to say that if you had ever actually helped me…….’
But they had not.
Grid only rambled whenever they were bored.
They had never directly helped me.
And whenever I blamed them for it, their response was always the same.
[Look farther ahead, Akkun. In the end, it will all connect.]
They only spouted vague nonsense like that.
‘Shut up…… I do not want to hear any more.’
At that moment, the fat Warrior thrust his Shield forward and shouted desperately.
“W-Wait! Everyone from Red Wire! We got lost! We’ll go straight back the way we came! Seriously! We talked before, remember?!”
“Shut up, idiot.”
One of the men on the ceiling spoke.
“W-What……?”
“If you got lost, just die!”
Those words were the signal.
WHOOOOSH-!
Flames from a flamethrower and viscous poison engulfed the skinny Mage.
“AAAAAARGH!”
The Mage could not cast a single spell.
Wrapped in flames, he screamed and fell into the wastewater.
The water splashing everywhere gave off a horrific stench.
BANG! THUD!
Then one of the men on the floor fired an electrified harpoon.
It pierced the freckled Archer straight through the heart.
【-401】
Red numbers appeared above the Archer’s body.
ZZZZZZZT-!
Blue electricity immediately enveloped him.
【-22】
【-50!】
【-23】
【-28】
【-26】
【-48!】
“Ubbubububububub-”
The Archer jerked back and forth as though dancing before turning black as charcoal and collapsing onto the floor.
He died on the spot.
His body turned into Pixels and scattered through the air.
“YOU BASTARDS, WE GOT ALONG GREAT LAST TIME!!!!”
The fat Warrior wrapped his Shield, sword, and entire body in green mana as he roared in fury.
However, contrary to his determination, the mana coating his sword was unimpressive.
What followed was equally pitiful.
“Agh! Fuck! Agh! Time! AAAAAARGH!”
Dozens of lead bullets, flamethrower blasts, electrified harpoons, and poison covered him from head to toe as he slowly died.
Perhaps because he was a Warrior-type Player, he managed to endure surprisingly well by gulping down my potions.
But that was all.
He merely endured.
He could not even attempt a counterattack.
[Do you imagine you will fare any differently?]
Grid’s voice irritated me, but they were right.
Scorching flames and electricity, surging poison, and lead bullets raining down like a storm relentlessly battered the Shield I had created with 【Mana Manifestation】.
I could not even dream of counterattacking.
Escaping was impossible too.
I did not have the breathing room for it, and this place was practically Red Wire’s own backyard.
[They are the ones who designed Mekal Town’s sewers.]
‘……So I have no choice but to fight.’
I continued drinking Mana Potions to maintain the Shield.
It was about time I changed tactics.
I had no idea when their bombardment would end.
More importantly, Red Wire’s leader was nowhere to be seen.
“H-Help! Help me!”
At that moment, the Warrior reached a trembling hand toward me.
‘Do I really have to help this idiot cannibal?’
I hesitated for a moment.
[Bait.]
Grid’s single word made the decision for me.
I threw the Warrior a potion.
The fat Warrior drank it without the slightest suspicion.
And then—
“AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
With a deafening roar, he began charging directly into the bombardment.
What I had just given him was a Stimulant that increased his overall stats.
He should be able to endure more than before.
“YOU FUCKING PSYCHO CYBORG BASTARDS!”
The Warrior stomped forward, slowly but steadily closing the distance to the Red Wire members.
Thanks to him, the attacks directed at me stopped.
I used the opportunity to move toward their flank.
Perhaps because their attention was focused on the Warrior, they did not notice me.
If I missed this chance, I would not get another opportunity to escape alive.
I glanced sideways at Grid as I prepared to counterattack.
At that moment—
CLAAAAANG-!
The manhole cover the Warrior had just stepped over shot into the air.
Bent into the shape of an ‘L,’ it spun rapidly overhead.
Then a half-naked bald man emerged from behind the Warrior.
It was the man who had been screaming his lungs out earlier at Junk Crossroads.
WHIIIIIIIIIR-!
A circular saw spun violently from his split-open wrist.
Blue mana gathered along its teeth.
He casually pressed the saw against the Warrior’s shoulder.
Then he dragged it all the way down to his navel.
SHRRRRRK-
Thick blood splattered across the walls and floor.
Some of it struck me as well.
Before I realized it, a diagonal line of red blood ran from my forehead to below my left ear.
The Warrior collapsed with a THUD.
The bald man looked at me, blue light spilling from his eyes.
Steel plates had been stitched over patches of skin all across his body as well.
【Character Codex: Mechanic Kang】
【An outstanding Mechanic, the architect responsible for designing Mekal Town’s Underground Waterway, and the field commander of Red Wire! He has an extremely violent temperament, so be careful. If you approach him carelessly, something terrible may—】
“I thought I smelled something fucking disgusting.”
The wrist that had split open in a cross shape joined back together, and the circular saw smoothly retracted inside.
Kang rotated his wrist several times, then strode toward me.
“So it was you, huh? You fucking mongrel.”