Chapter 110 – Masquerade Party (24)

Crunch, crunch, crunch crunch—

‘Well, this is convenient.’

[Right?]

From his sprint all the way from outside to the Underdome and the fights starting at the Underdome residential area to the central generator, it’s been a while since his stamina ran out. He did jump onto the wall because he was in a hurry, but separate from his left arm’s strength, the rest of his body was completely drained of strength, so he was unable to climb up as fast as he wanted.

Watching how much I was struggling to climb up, Hyde decided to take it into his own hands and…

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.

Started to crawl up the wall just by alternating between the fingers. He crawled up the wall with the rhythmical flow of pressing piano keys, with the rest of his body just hanging there. Well, it was a nice rest for him and all, but…

‘Uh… doesn’t this look a little weird?’

[Does it? I don’t think so, not really.]

As if. The Investigation Bureau man looking at us from below rubbed his eyes like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, then started writing something down on his notepad. The expression on his face was definitely that of someone who just saw something incredibly interesting!

Well, there was the slight problem that he was probably not going to be treated as a human anymore, but thanks to this hand, I safely crossed the ceiling horizontally and arrived where the maintenance equipment was located.

‘That must be what the IB person was talking about.’

[There’s a bunch of stuff that looks important. Which one sends the power up to the city?]

‘Do we have to think about it? Just turn all of them on. Who cares if we waste a little? It isn’t our house anyway.’

Clank! Clank clank!

Gvwooom—

Without even a moment of hesitation, Gyosu pulled all of the levers that he saw and pressed every button with a case covering it. He didn’t have time to go through the manual of a complicated facility like this, and in this current situation, turning on something wasn’t going to be a bigger problem than keeping it off.

Vwoom—

Hmmmm—

Pzzzzzzzzzt!

“Oh!”

“I-it worked! The power’s back! We succeededdddd!!!”

The lights turned back on in the dark cavity, and with a bright light and sound, the central generator that had been quietly dormant started to operate once more.

Thunk— chrk!

G-r-r-r-r-r-umble—

“Uh… something’s still moving.”

[Because that was the maintenance panel. I think you moved a bunch of stuff used for maintenance!]

Dust started raining down from the ceiling, and the fresh air of the night sky started to flow into the musty cavity.

“The ceiling is… opening up?”

[It’s outside! That person told you that the tower was connected with the outer area!]

“I know he said it was connected…”

But not in this sort of way.

As the power from the central generator spread out to the city, lights throughout the streets lit up one by one.

—Blink!

Through the hole in the ceiling, the generator tower stretched endlessly up into the sky. It wasn’t just connected to the surface; from the generator down here to the building up on the surface was one whole building.

“Uhhhh, w-wait. That’s…”

[It’s breaking…no, splitting?]

From the massive spire connected to the power generator and its building, about the top eight stories of the building were splitting in half, as if peeling off their skin.

“Jesus Christ… The Dome’s main cannon hasn’t ever been used before or even been rumored about its whereabouts, but who would have known it’s in a place like that?”

It was actually obvious when he thought about it. The cannon collected and fired all the power stored inside the central generator, which held the city’s daily quota of power. It was no wonder that such an insane device would be close to the central generator.

The structure that revealed itself in the top 30% of the Dome’s few modern buildings…

…was a massive, futuristically designed device that you would expect to see in a sci-fi movie.

“That’s the reason the Dome settled down here…”

There were only a few of these made, even during the Great War. And based on calculations, not even literally, but with real, scientific calculations, as long as it had enough power and it wasn’t a nuclear attack, this absurd, massive weapon was able to take the upper hand in any aerial or ground defense battle 99.9% of the time. In a world that was destroyed because of the nuclear war, Area 47 was the only area with a city that had this device installed outside of the radiation’s influence, so technically, this was the only stationary strategic weapon left in the world.

“Mayor Zeus.”

Trrrrrrrrrrrk—

Click!

“This is…”

[It’s telling you to go up.]

A ladder was conveniently lowered down to him, and connected to the end of it was an elevator.

Thinking about it, this maintenance panel was in a slightly more secure place than the power control unit at the bottom of the tower. Normally, they would have first needed to pass the security of the power control unit, then call the elevator to come all the way up here.

“If this maintenance panel was for ‘Zeus’, then it makes sense why it’s so hard to reach!”

Gyosu grabbed onto the ladder that was basically luring him to it and started to climb up.

“We have to try shooting it.”

[Let’s shoot it!]

“M-Mister Gyosu Paaaaark!!!! Y-you can’t touch the main cannon! If something goes wrong, it can fry this entire city!!! A foreigner shouldn’t touch…”

Clank, clank, clank.

Completely ignoring the Investigation Bureau man’s calls down below, Gyosu swiftly climbed up the rungs of the ladder.

“I’m sorry… but we’ve come a little too far to care about procedures!”

Arriving at the elevator, Gyosu pressed the button above the one for the highest floor, a button blinking with a lightning bolt drawn on it.

Ding—!

Vmmmmmm!

The elevator Gyosu was riding started to rise towards the Dome’s highest heavens.

Booooooom!

[KT-05! Destroyed a tank, sir!]

[You don’t have to completely destroy them; just aim for the tracks! If you can’t target the tracks, aim for the right side of the rear armor! The coolant container bursts easily because it’s thin!]

Along with his subordinates, Ralph Monclair was rampaging through the enemy formation like a beast. The thought of retreating or returning is long gone. He and his subordinates abandoned their defenses and concentrated only on preventing the enemy tanks from approaching the city.

[MJ-06! Report your squad’s status!]

[…]

[MJ-06! Jackson! F—, are you dead?]

[…]

Ralph gritted his teeth as he looked at another ID turned off on the comms panel. Not a few names are left now.

‘5 were completely destroyed and 14 were partially damaged, so…9 more. There are still nine more tanks left…!’

They might be able to stop the remaining infantry and combat vehicles as long as they neutralize all of the tanks. If they collected the aspiring troops that didn’t pass the test to become a part of the three divisions and the police in charge of the city security into a sort of reserve army, they would still have a sliver of hope left…

‘But that’s all useless if we don’t stop the tanks. It’s the end. The Dome in Area 47 is in the Raptor’s hands now.’

He hoped they would be evacuated in time.

Ralph thought of his wife and children in the city. She’s a strong woman, so she’ll be able to take care of the children without me. His youngest was barely two. Will they remember my face? Probably not. Thinking that his children needed to live through this cruel world without their father, guilt swept through his mind like a wave.

And because of that…

“I’ll buy even a second of time before I die.”

Pzzzzz—

He heard his battery turn off, unable to withstand the continuous large-caliber gatling shots, but Ralph still ran forward regardless.

“If I don’t do so, I don’t think I will be worthy enough to see my family’s faces at my memorial!!!”

Cl-unk—

He saw a soldier behind the crowd of gatling guns aim an RPG directly at him.

The Raptor’s infantry tactic. As long as they were able to neutralize an enemy, especially if the enemy’s gear was difficult to reproduce, like the Exosuits, then they were allowed to rain down artillery on even their own allies.

Watching the RPG launcher follow his movements, Ralph threw himself in the middle of the infantry holding gatlings.

‘…Please, let my life be valuable enough to delay the enemy’s advance for even a moment…’

After seeing the infantry around him move away as if they realized his intentions, Ralph closed his eyes.

—zzzzzpt!

Baaaang!

An explosion.

Impact.

And among all of it, the sound of…

’…A shield’s repulsion?’

A shield, causing friction against the atmosphere to the point where his ears rang.

Ralph swallowed hard and opened his eyes again.

The Exosuit’s shield was there, round and blue as ever, as it completely encased him. Every other part of the Exosuit and every support device that he saw after turning on his vision aid with shaking hands were also turning back to green.

“Don’t tell me… no way!”

Bl-ink!

Suddenly, a powerful light spurted out through the moonless, dark sky. As the city’s central tower shone out like a pillar of light, from the tower to the city outskirts, and from the city outskirts to the Electric Pole! He saw the lifeline of electric currents connect to them.

Tzzzt—

[RM-01! The power has returned!]

[This… The city’s central generator seems to have been turned back on!]

[We’re saved! We’re f—ing alive!]

From the emergency comms channel came not a staticky buzz but the clear, joyful cheers of the members that survived.

And—

Tzzt—

[Ahem, hello, people of the Investigation Bureau. You remember my voice now, right? Remember me?]

It was the voice of a man in his mid-20s, one that could be instantly connected with an image of a confident smirk, and one that definitely shouldn’t be heard on a channel connected only to the Investigation Bureau’s Exosuits.

‘ZEUS-00?’

[That’s right, it’s me, BDSM Gyosu Park. You’ve all done hard work scuffling with those lizards with what little battery you had. Starting at this time, I announce that the Dome’s central generator is completely active, and…]

‘This isn’t a new ID, it was already part of the channel. Zeus… wait. Zeus?’

Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing—!!!

Tzzt—

[If you don’t want to get caught up in it, please send the ally’s coordinates right now. Over!]

The moment Ralph turned his head towards the city after realizing something, a blue light started to gather at the tip of the pillar of light in the city, and a horrifying sound he had never heard in his life started to ring out into the air.

Bang!

“Incompetent! Useless! Dome rats worth less than trash! I even sent them the mechanized prosthetic limbs because they seemed unreliable, but they still failed! My hunt! The Raptor’s sacred huuuuunt!!!”

Sol Amar continued to squawk out in anger as he watched everything unfold from the Noisy Pack’s armored deck, the sturdiest tank in the nest. The suddenly brightened city. The Exosuits that had been dying were rampaging through the base full of energy.

‘The city’s power returned. Those pieces of s— failed to defend the generator! Those incompetent bastards!’

The Executive Department agents that betrayed the city had actually tried to blow up the generator tower the moment they took control over it in order to completely destroy Area 47’s Dome and cut off any chance of the enemy counterattacking, but Sol stopped them. To just blow it up, he was too tempted by the city’s enormous infrastructure and the only remaining city-level weapon in the world, Zeus.

Of course, in the current situation where that outstanding weapon was about to scream out upon him, it’s been long since Sol forgot that fact.

“…Aaahhh! Damn this! Retreat!”

“W-wait just a moment, Pack Leader! We still have a chance, sir! Even though the Exosuits regained their power, most of them have already been dealt with, and there’s still some time before the electromagnetic net reaches our troops, so if we concentrate our firepower on the Exosuits and drive as quickly as possible to the empty Dome…”

Bang!

“Gugh, why, why…”

Thud.

“Hmph! Stupid bastard. Do I look like that much of an idiot to you? How dare you look down on your superior! Worthless piece of trash! Trash that’s trying to overthrow me! It has a chance of succeeding, like you said! But that giant plasma cannon is aiming our way! How are you going to hold responsibility if I die by any chance?”

After shooting the Noisy Pack soldier he made his new adjutant 10 minutes ago, the man continued to spit out curses as he kicked his body.

Aside from Sol, the rest of the soldiers fell deathly silent.

Their fat superior was an incompetent, violent piece of garbage that considered the soldiers’ lives like a piece of paper.

The soldiers’ expressions started to crumple, and one of them stood up and raised his gun.

“…F— that pig… He doesn’t know when to sto—”

Bang!

“G-George! That bastard just!!!”

Bang!

The soldiers that couldn’t take it anymore, surprisingly, collapsed with a gunshot through their heads even before they had a chance to point their guns at him.

“…I see, the answer to why this sacred hunt failed is right here. It was because traitors with a vision tainted enough to dare point their guns at their superiors were squirming in here like maggots.”

Sol, who precisely shot the heads of the two soldiers without even turning around from the same position he was in after kicking his adjutant, slowly twisted around and looked at the muzzle that smoke was still floating out of.

“Before I became Pack Leader, I barely passed everything else on the qualification exams, but for my ideals and pistol shooting, I always received top marks. It means I am worthy of being a Raptor’s Pack Leader. I’m a being that you ordinary soldiers can’t even imagine becoming. Huh! Try that again! Those who are dissatisfied with my command, come out right now! I’ll follow the Raptor’s rules! If you kill me, I will hand over my place! Come out, I said!”

Sol was sweating profusely as his sticky emotions full of anger and bloodlust lashed out, but unlike his flabby body, the barrel of his gun searched his surroundings without even a slight waver.

Click.

“…If you don’t have any objections, follow the command. The tanks have already been isolated by the enemy forces, so the central division, including the Noisy Pack, will make a detour to the north and retreat to the right side of the battlefield. Tank troops, hold position, and delay the enemy forces.”

“T-that’s…! You’re using the tanks and the entire central division as bait!”

Click!

“Sit down. I’ll let you off the hook this time because you’re the driver. While the tanks delay and the central division baits the enemy and lures their attacks, we go to the Dome!”

“T-the Dome?”

“Yes. The Noisy Pack command vehicle has a camouflage function, correct?”

“There is, but it can’t avoid the Dome’s radar and will need to take off all of the armor if we even want to use it…”

Slap!

“Then go out right now and take them off! As if the radars will work after using that much power over there! While the rest of the troops bait the enemy, we hide in the Dome!”

Sol slapped away the cheek of the soldier that talked back to him, then rummaged through the box containing his personal items as he heard his orders being delivered.

Civilian clothes that fit his body. Clothes similar to those worn by the citizens of the Done that he investigated in advance through spies.

‘The higher-ups prevented me from engaging in external activities, saying that my appearance would have a negative impact on the Raptor’s public reputation. It was humiliating, but thanks to that, my face is not yet revealed to the Dome. I’ll ram this armored vehicle into the entrance of the Dome, and while these guys with uniforms handle the leftover scraps of the Dome, I’ll pretend to be a citizen of the Dome and sneak into the city!’

Taking off the uniform jacket covered with medals he personally ordered, Sol let out a sinister laugh. He will survive. He will surely survive and watch the Raptor’s glory spread all over the world.

Kkrrrrrgggghhh!

“F—! Damn it! Why now of all times?”

Ian jumped out of the armored car that would no longer move forward, then shot the Mini Shooter, which managed to break through the external armor and break the tracks.

Boom!

Cl-ank!

With the sound of a leather pouch exploding, the Mini Shooter flew away with a massive hole shot through its heart, along with its thick armor plates on the front and back.

“Gahemm! Aside from the fact that I might only be able to eat with my right hand with a few more shots from this, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say this has one hell of a nice shot.”

The hand cannon he brought from the Investigation Bureau’s armory was one that was worthy of its name. Consisting of half of a gun’s body and half of auxiliary parts attached to the arm, this monstrous weapon used 24.1mm bullets that only ships used, but had the critical disadvantage that the arms and joints of the user had to absorb all of the recoil.

Pzzzzzzt!

The situation wasn’t as bad as he expected. He did see a lot of collapsed Exosuits after ramming his way into the muzzle of a tank while crushing the infantry with his armored car, but the guys that had been lingering near death’s door suddenly were flying around like a toy that was winded back up.

The cause was clearly the city’s tower, which blinded his eyes even at this far distance.

“Keheheh, just what I expected from the man I acknowledged, Gyosu Park! You did it once again!”

Booooom!

After blowing away two infantrymen that popped up next to him, Ian decided to relax. It was a shame he couldn’t take revenge with his own hands, but he’s still killed enough. Now all he had to do was wait and watch that cannon or something deal with his old…

“…Ah, lighter. Damn it.”

In Ian’s eyes, who was once again blaming himself over the fact that he didn’t take that lighter from Anne, he suddenly recognized an odd movement among the enemy troops. When it came to military strategy, his body had seen more than enough of it for a lifetime and more.

“These guys… they’re ditching everything and running. Tanks… were abandoned first. Armored vehicles, combat vehicles, infantry… they ditched everything? Are they crazy? Did their commander panic or some—”

Completely dumbfounded by the unimaginably ridiculous situation, Ian then recalled the identity of the commander, which he had forgotten for a moment.

“…Sol, that bastard was the commander. I forgot because of how little that role fit him. If that piglet bastard threw a bait big enough to fill the entire pond…”

His principle of action was very simple. Absolute self-preservation. Always stay at the closest escape route in dangerous operations. And in a failed operation like this one…

“All I need to find is the opposite side of the bait. Keheheheh, there he goes over there!”

In Ian’s vision, he could see dust billowing up in the empty Wasteland lot. Something vaguely visible yet transparent in sight.

‘The armored car’s dead… and all of the combat vehicles are all running in the opposite direction. There isn’t anything to ride—’

D-dd-d-d-d-d-du!

P-pt! P-p-p-pt!

“Found him! It’s the guy that was driving the hijacked vehicle!”

“He viciously massacred our allies! We’ll be promoted if we capture him!”

‘Damn it, there’s no end to these bast…!’

Vrrraaaaaam!

The moment he saw two soldiers come on a motorcycle with a sidecar, a wide smile spread across Ian’s face.

‘They say the heavens help the ones that help themselves!’

Moments later, a motorcycle painted in the Raptor’s signature black began to gallop towards the Dome.

Pzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Kkiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing—!!!!

[V-Vessel. Are you sure we should shoot this?]

“Heheheh, why? Scared? I thought you would like this the most.”

Gyosu was sitting in the cockpit of Zeus, located even higher than the top floor of the Dome’s tallest building.

[I mean, I do like it…]

Pzzzzzt!

Zing! Ziiiiing!

[This… doesn’t look like it’s in the best condition.]

Even at this very moment, outside of the cockpit located right next to Zeus, where an enormous amount of power was gathering, countless large sparks and electric arcs were flying all over the place.

“It’s obviously… not fine, probably. Let’s see. The blue dots here are the Exosuits. Mister Mon said he saw Ian leave on a motorcycle, and Ezel said he’s safely with Vex…”

[‘Not’ fine? Did you just say it was not fine?]

“Of course. They cut off the power going to the city in the middle of them drawing power together to shoot this. While it was cut off, the unfathomable amount of power that’s been collecting is probably going to get pushed up through the pre-entered charging path at once. It’s probably a little more overcharged than usual.”

[T-then, if we shoot that…]

“It’ll sting a bit?”

Gyosu tried his best to input the coordinates Ralph sent and the enemy’s travel route into Zeus’ line of aim as best as he could. Because the weapon was almost the best in the world, everything else was automatic, but because of just how much power it discharged, the radar was blocked, and only the aim was manual.

‘I’ve thought of this before, but I think scientists are the smartest idiots in the world. They made a stupidly strong weapon like this but made the aim manual.’

Tzzt—

[Zeus, ready to fire. RM-01, start the countdown.]

[Heyy! Gyos… ZEUS-00! Why are you there? Do you know how big of a deal this is?]

[Of course I know. The side of my head’s burning hotter than the sun right now.]

[Not that! Zeus is the city’s most important weapon! Even if you are an allied member, you’re not allowed to touch that thing! If it were the old days, it’s as if the US nuclear submarine received a comms from a major of an allied country and announced, ‘We’re prepared to launch your nuke; start the countdown.’ It’s like the nuclear key that the US president should have had was passed on to another country!]

Kkiiiiiiiiiiiiing—!

[I’ll do it if you don’t. It won’t be my problem if I graze by you guys because I go the timing wrong.]

[Damn it! You never take no for an answer! Shoot when I count to five! We’ll be at the coordinates I sent you!]

[Roger—]

Bzzt—

All the preparations were over. Inside Zeus’ cockpit, Gyosu had his hands on the handle with his eyes glued to the observation device when a sharp voice nagged at him inside his mind.

[We won anyway! Won’t they be fine on their own even if we don’t shoot this?]

“We did win… but their movements look a little weird.”

He didn’t know what got into them, but it looked like the enemy went a little around the battlefield and started to fight again.

“Looking at how they’re moving like that, although it’s clear they’ll all die, they were given some kind of order. To die fighting, or something like that. And the Raptor’s soldiers are brainwashed pretty thoroughly, so most of them will actually charge forward if they receive an order like that.”

Their victory was guaranteed, but separate from the victory, he expected there to be quite a few casualties.

“It’s easy to see casualties in war as just numbers, but in reality, each and every one of them are human lives. Just like you and me. Each one with someone who will come pray for them at their grave.”

Gyosu shifted his right hand towards the fire button, but then switched hands and raised his left hand.

“What material is this?”

[Uh… I don’t know either. The strength is from the structure of your body, and the hardness is from the structure of my parent gene, Edeorna. But I don’t know exactly how the mutant virus interpreted it.]

“Hm, really?”

Krgk, kkkgrk!

He heard a stiff friction sound when he slightly rubbed the tips of his fingers together. It didn’t feel like metal.

Just when he was about to quit thinking and push the button, he heard his mother’s voice in his head. His mother’s desperate cries to survive no matter what.

“…Was that you?”

[N-no! It really wasn’t me! This is suicidal, no matter how you look at it! You’re the one who thought of her!]

“Is that so?”

Krgkkk.

He hesitated for a moment. To live. Survive. The one last thing he could do for the two people who sacrificed everything they had for him.

Gyosu looked down at his left hand. The sharp, bumpy arm was no different from a mutant’s. The nagging voice in his head. His friends that are like his brothers. The people in the Area 47 chatroom, the Investigation Bureau, the Dome, the countless people that he met in his life.

Heh.

“Yeah, I need to live. No matter what.”

Gyosu’s left arm slowly lifted up from the fire button.

While Hyde was letting out a sigh of relief, Gyosu continued.

“But mother, from my experience living like this, just living wasn’t everything in life. You need to live well, ‘well’!”

And then he slammed his hand down on the button.

Thnk.

Thnk.

Th-thnk.

Starting at the center of the city, where the tower Zeus was located at, the city started to turn dark once again.

And the star of electricity that seemed to have absorbed all of that suddenly dispersed—

Pzt—

And a thin string of light shot down towards the surface. Compared to the energy it contained, a very thin, weak light.

Tzzz—

Tzzzzzt—

Breaking that silence, a blue current started to leap out, following that thin string. That current continued to get stronger and more violent as it revealed its true form, then—

KKRGZZZZZZZZZZK—!!

GGRRRRRRBBOOOOMMMM!!

Finally, a thundering tornado of currents swept across the earth.