Chapter 113
A barrage of flares painted the sky over Area C red.
The sight alerted me to something going on outside, and before we left the mall, I turned to Latte.
“Didn’t Alessia tell you where she was headed?”
“What? Uh, yeah. Just that she was going to take a look around and come back──”
At that moment.
A series of explosions, accompanied by the sounds of ──quang! ──bang! ──bang!
“……I think I know where it is without you telling me.”
Explosions of this magnitude meant that a battle had broken out between the Awakened.
“Parnello, I want you to get the men who aren’t fighting right now to secure this place and……move with me. Latte, do you have any means of contact?”
“Oh, no. My cell phone is at Alessia…….”
I immediately handed her the radio I was carrying.
“Stay here and call me if anything happens.”
“Got it!”
She might look frail on the outside, but she was one of the elite survivors of Niflheim.
She should be able to handle most things.
“Let’s move.”
“Yes Master.”
We stomped the ground and sprinted down the road.
We were out of the hypermarket in a flash, running toward the nearest source of the flares.
Drrrrrrrrr…
The gunfire grew louder as we got closer.
As I entered the building where the sound was coming from, I could see members of the organization facing off against the apparently Awakened villain.
“Damned Corleone minions!”
The villain yells.
He was pinned down by one of our Hitmen, and was being tossed around by three others firing from all directions.
“Pour it on!”
“Holy……shit!”
Judging by the villain sprawled on the floor, there were originally two of them.
The more he moves, the smaller and smaller his radius of action becomes.
This is Corleone Great Awakening combat technique.
It shows that Corleone method of training in anticipation of a battle with the Awakened is working.
“Master and Lord Parnello are here!”
“Finish him off!”
A baptism of bullets rained down on the stricken man, backing him into a corner, until finally the dagger of the man in front of him pierced his abdomen.
“What happened to him?”
“While searching the building, we encountered a group of villains guarding a strange-looking mushroom, and as you can see, we killed two of them. No injuries.”
Villains are standing by?
That meant that there might be villains somewhere else besides here.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Another explosion from somewhere else.
“……I think I got it.”
I wondered why I’d lost contact with Alessia, and why I kept hearing explosions outside.
“Parnello, I need to ask you a favor.”
“As you wish.”
“I think Alessia is where the explosions are coming from, and I need to get there, but in the meantime, will you lead the others to clear the area?”
I decided it would be better for Parnello, who was more mobile and skilled than me, to go around and clear the area.
He nods as if he, too, sees the wisdom of the plan.
“That’s what I’ll do, and let me know if anything happens.”
I nod at Parnello’s words, borrow a spare radio from one of my men, and head out.
The sounds of flares and gunfire still echo through the streets like a battlefield.
“They’re doing it in style.”
It was the commercial district where I’d shared an egg roll with Alessia not long ago.
Alessia is there.
With a destination in mind, there was no reason to hesitate.
I bolstered my legs with aura and started running, kicking the ground with all my might.
Leaping over cars and building debris in her way, I jumped to the top of the tallest building in the neighborhood and landed on its roof.
My vision opens up even wider.
Confirming that I was headed in the right direction, I leap over a few more buildings and finally reach the commercial district.
“……This is serious.”
The view of the commercial district from the top of the building was devastating.
“I can see why he’s here.”
At the plaza in the center of the business district there were food courts, food, and colorful balloons for what appeared to be a festival.
Of course, it was all burned to the ground.
And in the center of it all, a battle was raging…….
“Hmmm. He must be infected, but how can he move like that, Lady?”
“Don’t talk to him, he’s disgusting.”
A quick glance showed a scarred Alessia and the clown grinning at her.
Bloody Clown, it had to be him.
“That’s a shame, I only gave you a gift.”
“You throw that……bomb and call it a gift.”
“You’re……crazy.”
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
At the same time, Bloody Clown fumbles a puppy-shaped balloon out of his pocket and tosses it toward Alessia.
“I bring you happiness!”
“Damn……kulkulkulk!”
Alessia grimaces as she tries to run away from the puppies coming toward her.
Meanwhile, the puppies keep getting closer.
In response, Alessia bites her lip and raises the dagger in her hand.
-Boom, boom, boom!
All the balloons moving towards her exploded at once.
“Anyway, you should have told me if you were sick, did you really have to go out for a night walk?”
“Master……?”
I blew on the end of my smoking Tommy and turned to Alessia.
“Your body.”
“……I’m fine.”
“You, you have blood on your lip.”
“Really?”
Alessia wipes the corner of her mouth, startled by my words.
“I’m faking it.”
“……A joke in this situation, that’s too much. Kulkulkulk!”
Up close, I can see that her condition is worse than I thought.
Pale skin, blue bruises on her legs and arms, and deep dark circles.
She’d been fighting him, and she’d gotten sick.
Luckily, I pulled out one of the gas masks I kept as a backup and handed it to Alessia.
“Get some rest.”
“……May I?”
Alessia takes the gas mask I handed her and smiles weakly.
“Yeah, I’ll give you a vacation so you can get some rest.”
After reassuring her, I look over the slowly clearing smoke to Bloody Clown, who is giggling.
“What’s so funny?”
“Well, it’s obvious, I mean, who doesn’t love a love story, and I love love stories? Hot haha!”
“……You’re still being an asshole.”
“What?”
“Just look it up.”
Without further ado, I swing [Al Capone’s Tommy] at him.
──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──! / ──!
The bullets whip toward him with a deafening roar.
The Bloody Clown is a villain and a clear enemy of Corleone.
Thanks to him, [Hitman] “Hunter of Villains” and [Enforcer] were activated at the same time, and my stats had almost doubled.
This meant that each bullet flew with more power than usual.
“What is this──?”
The guy who was trying to block the attack with an expression that suggested it was because it was a gun in my hand, but when he saw Tommy’s trigger finger being pulled, he quickly opened his palm as if miming in anger.
The plaza echoed with the sound of falling shells.
After a moment’s grinding, I unclench my finger from the end of the trigger, and he swallows a ragged breath, steadying himself.
The corner of his mouth twitches as he looks up.
“……Mime.”
Mime, a defensive skill he learned after escaping Niflheim.
It was one of his abilities that allowed him to pretend that there was a wall in front of him, creating an imaginary wall.
“It was dangerous! It was dangerous-it was dangerous! What a dangerous thing you’re holding, a gun that shoots cannons!”
On top of that, Mime is a deceptive ability that reduces the damage of ranged attacks by 70%, which is extremely annoying for someone like me.
I’m not sure I can take him out with a gun yet, so I’ll have to get into melee with him.
“You’ve become a nuisance.”
As I holstered my gun and put on my gloves, Bloody Clown looked at me curiously and shook his head.
“What, are you giving up already?”
“No. I’m going to play it for real.”
“Huh?”
I stomp the ground with my aura-enhanced foot, and my body bounces like a bullet.
“Mime!”
He unfurls his Mime once more, trying to block my attack but,
Zap──!
A cracking sound comes from the air where nothing should be.
I lean in, showing him the smile he loves so much.
“What?”
“The wall is coming down.”
Immediately afterward, with a loud crack, my fist pierces through the Mime’s wall and heads straight for his head.
“What?!”
With a loud crack, the fist slams into his abdomen, and his body bends into a C-shape, sending him sprawling on the ground, facing backwards.
His body lay in a heap on the ground.
I laughed at the sight and said to him,
“Here, get up, I know you’re not dead.”
“……Did I get caught?”
“You’re not going to die from this.”
He scrambles to his feet with a yelp at my words.
Unless he was defenseless, a single shock-absorbed attack with Mime was not enough to take him down.
So I’ll have to aim for the next one.
The guy asked me if I was bothered by the two I had been talking about.
Well, we’ve met many times, but this is the first time we’ve met in this world.
So……I might as well say something like this.
“No, Instructor Ji-hyun told me what an unremarkable guy you are.”
“What……?”
At the mention of Ji-hyun’s name, his face crumbles.
“Ji, did you say Ji-hyun?”
“Yes, Ji-hyun, the one who traveled all the way to the United States to capture you, and now she’s my teacher.”
“……What did she say?”
“Why, you want to know?”
The thing about Bloody Clown was that he’d put on a playful, cool demeanor to make himself seem demanding, but he was surprisingly fiery.
Bringing up old enemies like this was enough to set him off.
“Shall we, then?”
When I saw the anger in his eyes instead of his initially smiling ones, I decided it was a possibility and turned to him.
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“Okay, let me start with you, are there any other villains in this place that are more threatening than you, or at least on the same level?”
The guy nods at my question.
Given the nature of Plague and his demeanor, I didn’t think he was lying.
“Then let me ask you, what the hell has that bitch Ji-hyun told you about me?”
“What, that’s all you want to know?”
“……because it’s important to me.”
He doesn’t even use his signature tone, so he must be seething.
Well, it’s not too hard to answer that.
Whenever the topic of villains comes up, Ji-hyun would tell me about them.
Since it’s a straightforward question, should I tell him the truth?
I extended my middle finger to the guy who was waiting for an answer with a determined look on his face.
“She said you’re fucking weak, asshole.”
That was the pure truth.
