The Only Chance (3)
Destroy-02.
In the concrete jungle where only the steel skeletons of buildings remained, creatures from level 20 to 80 made their home.
So Destroy-02 was not only a fast leveling ground but also a regular clash site between Eastern and Western players.
"Hahaha! You idiot! What, gonna show off again like last time?"
From Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before to Gaepan One-Minute-Before, five Western players in hundred-piece sets circled the Strongest Codename.
"Damn it! These bastards…!"
The Strongest Codename tried to sit up, but its left leg had been blown off in the Three-Minutes-Before's barrage.
"Ugh!"
Instead of finishing the Strongest Codename, the Gaepan crew was dragging things out and enjoying themselves.
Hostile actions were normal between East and West, so there was no need to hold back.
"I wouldn't mind a hundred-piece set myself."
There was a rumor that the more parts you broke, the more loot dropped on death.
A kind of superstition, maybe—but from the Strongest Codename's point of view, it wasn't entirely bad.
"You're all cocky now, but that won't last once my friends get here." Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before cackled.
"Puhahaha! You really think a swarm of level-10s can beat us?" someone jeered.
Gaepan One-Minute-Before fell into thought.
He used the Amara integrated frame, said to be the most efficient at level 70.
Its body was round like an egg and its arms stubby, but the machine gun that fired seven rounds per second had unmistakable firepower.
"They must have some backup. Maybe a big guild behind them?"
The Western players could only see the Eastern players' codenames. Rankers could learn details from the leaderboards, but that was out of reach for them.
"Talk all the trash you want. Smash them." Nobody in Destroy-02 could surpass the Amara integrated frame anyway.
Gaepan Three-Minutes-Before said, "Break their limbs first. Leave only the face and torso."
"Haha! Good idea."
Still seething from the Yahweh2 incident, Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before leveled his bolt gun.
"I'll make them crawl like insects." Just as the muzzle was about to flare, Yahweh2's voice carried from the far side of the ruined city.
"Stop!"
Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before turned.
"Haha! Finally you show up! Where's the hero of—"
Silence fell.
They could clearly see the codename, but the machines looked suspiciously like AI-controlled frames.
"…What? They've got weird parts."
An insect-like, predatory aura emanated from the silhouettes.
"Could that be—?"
The limbs were long and thin, but they moved tons of weight like feathers—the peak of mechanical engineering.
"It's a Grim Reaper."
A Metal Genome product recognized as prestigious even by intermediate users over level 200.
"No way that's real. How can they all be wearing Grim Reapers?"
If it was seven times more expensive than the Amara frame, the cost-effectiveness was awful, but—
"If you equip that at level 20… you literally become a Reaper."
"You crazy? You bought Metal Genome to catch us? What will you wear at 70?"
"Wait. Hold on."
Gaepan One-Minute-Before had just seen a new post on Atogram's free board.
Title: Aegis, King of Electronic Warfare, Appears on Atogram!
Over two hundred user-uploaded clips filled the link. Under a photo of Aegis bowing to Yahweh2 came the article details.
- Thus, this reporter traced Yahweh2's movements. As a result…
- Parts shop. Who's the branch manager? Cleared the shelves.
- Probably a VIP.
Gaepan One-Minute-Before skimmed the article and hissed through his teeth.
"They're the Golden Coin Wheel."
"What?"
The Gaepan crew looked back at Yahweh2.
"Check the Atogram board. I'm not lying."
Their pupils shifted fast.
"Y—yeah."
They were the East's strongest guild—the only one able to stand up to the West's Ascension guild.
"…What a pain."
Gaepan One-Minute-Before decided.
"Back off. You don't want to mess with the Golden Coin Wheel. If we fight them we'll just end up embarrassed."
Of course, Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before had already been hit enough to be furious.
"It's not over yet."
He aimed at the Strongest Codename's back and shouted, "You bastards! Give me my bolt gun! Hand it over and I'll let him go!"
Destroyer707 snorted. "Talk shit! You think that's a threat? Try to kill us then, see what happens!"
The matter had effectively been settled over comms.
"Damn it! This is driving me nuts! No way I'll— even if I have to launder the codename…"
Then Shirone spoke up.
"Let my friend go! If you send him over safely, I'll forget everything that happened until now."
"Huh?"
Destroyer707's group looked more stunned than the Gaepan crew.
"What the hell?"
You respawn if you die; you could just start again. Sure, parts could be lost on death, and the hundred-piece set was expensive, but—
"They're the Golden Coin Wheel."
Would people wrapped in Metal Genome Grim Reapers even glance at a hundred-piece set?
Destroyer707 looked at Shirone. "Hey, what are you doing? The Strongest Codename can just die. That'll piss them off."
"Maybe. But…"
Shirone stared at the Strongest Codename lying with his left leg torn off.
"Their misfortune doesn't make me happy." "I don't want to watch the Strongest Codename die. Sure, they can start over and we'll use that systemically later, but still—death feels bad."
Even in a virtual world.
"I hate giving up when there's a chance to save someone. The best outcome is for no one to die and for us to win. Their feelings aren't our main concern, but I don't want to abandon them if we can help it."
Destroyer707 gaped. "What a weird guy."
But if there was any way not to kill the Strongest Codename, that was infinitely better than doing nothing.
"Then what are you going to do?"
"Leave it to me."
What Shirone had learned in Mid Gear: if this simulation was also an electric world with relative time, "it's possible."
As Shirone pushed his focus to the limit, Gaepan Two-Minutes-Before muttered, "What's wrong with them? They don't seem to want to fight."
"Heh, now I get it."
Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before grinned. "The Golden Coin Wheel's honor. What happens to guys like us with nothing to lose if a guildmate gets wrecked? Record it, post it, and it'll be chaos."
"Right? The West will mock us. We'll be heroes."
"Exactly. If needed, launder the codename. We'll win this."
Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before shouted, "Hey! Give me my bolt gun! Or bring a million galactic credits! Then I'll let him go!"
Destroyer707 shot back, "You idiot! Why would we give you a million galactic credits?"
"Is that so? Then I'll break all his limbs! I'll record it, okay?"
"Ugh…come to think of it—"
A political problem remained.
"Now."
Shirone stepped forward, eyes fixed on the front. The Gaepan crew shouted, and he paused again, but his senses had already pierced deep into the world.
"The mind is the world."
His sense that traversed layers began extracting signals embedded in the scenery.
"I can feel it."
A torrent of information poured through—every speck of emptiness coded as electric signals.
Shirone jumped between code.
"Choeni Baldo."
A kind of memory jump—like taking a wormhole in reality.
"Huh?"
When Yahweh2 suddenly vanished, Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before fumbled with his AI. "Back, back!"
At his panicked comrade's shout, Yahweh2 had already grabbed the Strongest Codename.
"You… you—"
Clank! Clank!
Shirone's right upper arm split open and an output device like a bird's talon sprang out.
Energy beam.
A thick beam smashed into the midriff, dropping the armor's durability from 500 to 400 to 300.
In two seconds the armor would burn away.
"Argh!"
As Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before twisted and fell, his comrades aimed and fired. "Kill him!"
Shots cracked. Shirone hoisted the Strongest Codename and pushed off the ground, moving away.
"Damn! What's that speed?"
Only a black afterimage remained, like a hornet in flight; sparks scattered across the barren ground.
Shirone's friends joined the fray. "Good! It's started!"
Gaepan Two- and Three-Minutes-Before were singed by the energy beam.
"Argh! This is so annoying!"
Their output was capped by level, but their durability was pure Metal Genome.
"Puhahaha! This'll really kill!"
Durability 5,687/7,000.
No matter how much they were hit, the armor showed no immediate sign of breaking, and meanwhile Gaepan Four-Minutes-Before collapsed.
"You bastards!"
The Amara frame aimed forward; its motors roared as it unleashed a hail of bullets.
Rrriikk!
Destroyer707 rolled on the ground; flames licked his armor and its durability dropped to 4,544.
- Hey, you okay? Death Gongju over comms.
- Yeah. Parts that work at level 60 still hold. Just don't take it head-on.
"Come at me! Come on, you bastards!"
Shards flew in the manic spray of fire, and through the smoky haze Yahweh2 darted out.
"I'll take him!"
Gaepan One-Minute-Before also tracked Yahweh2's movement.
"That guy…"
His approach—like jumping through space—couldn't even be predicted by AI.
"He's using a weird option."
Like a black hornet hunting, Shirone danced quickly around the Amara frame.
"He's jumping space. But he can't freely choose his position."
He moved along the code.
"Here!"
Predicting the path, Gaepan One-Minute-Before twisted sixty degrees and fired at the expected spot.
"Got him!"
Yahweh2 was slipping between the bullets and closing in.
"What the hell? Shit—!"
Moving deftly in slowed time, Shirone activated a selective option.
"Turbo."
He accepted the doubled output and dashed forward, raising his left hand.
"If I take him down, it's over."
A flattened emitter popped out and unfolded into a blade-like energy cutter.
Gaepan One-Minute-Before screamed. "Arghhhh!"
Sparks flew across the Grim Reaper's armor and its durability began to plummet.
"6,871, 6,123, 5,231…"
Shirone's AI registered the gapless barrage deflected by his body and confirmed a penetration.
"Now!"
The energy cutter pierced the Amara frame's armor, and the Grim Reaper's left arm was shattered as well.
With a thud the attacker rammed in a body blow; the over-one-ton mech rocked back.
"Huh? Whoa?"
Attack-specialized frames have low centers of gravity, and once they fall it's hard to get up.
Kuuuuung!
The ground trembled. Where the gunfire had just stopped, the broken Gaepan crew stood dumbfounded.
"Hah. Hah."
Yahweh2—his left arm torn off—had one foot on Gaepan One-Minute-Before's stomach and the muzzle trained on him.
"Surrender."
The Amara frame thrashed briefly, then seemed to give up and dropped output.
Wooooom.
The chaotic noise died down, and a voice came.
"…I surrender."
"Apologize for attacking Death Gongju. And don't ever interfere with us again."
"We weren't going to touch you anyway. If you've got something to apologize for, do it. We lost."
"Cheh."
Gaepan Five-Minutes-Before turned his head. "Sorry. Happy now?"
His damaged mech had only its face and upper torso left.