novelraw Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Chapter 66
At first, upon hearing that they had rammed through the back gate with a truck, he thought it was another hostile faction.
That was only natural.
They were bastards who bartered Creatures for humans.
Even if it was not just the Genorua Family, weren’t they the sort of people who were bound to make enemies no matter what?
Because of that, it was also true that at first he did not think of it too negatively.
‘An unexpected variable isn’t welcome, but.’
If they had gone so far as to bring a truck and take it all in, shouldn’t they at least be counted as allies?
Of course, if they became an obstruction, then from that moment on they would have to be regarded as enemies again.
That was what he had been thinking just a short while ago.
“…….”
Jin Crow silently stared at the CCTV screen, his expression twisted, inside the control room where only the remains of severed androids lay scattered.
It was only natural to be bewildered.
Why were cadets in the Free Planetary Alliance right now?
No, even if he conceded a hundred times, it was possible.
It was a place famous for tourism, and a paradise for mercenaries, so people often drifted in to earn some pocket money.
But…….
“Why did it have to be you?”
If it were other cadets, then frankly speaking, it was none of Jin Crow’s concern.
All cadets were adults, and it was only natural that they bore responsibility for their own choices.
The problem was that if even a single Knight of the Stars was killed or injured, things would become troublesome in many ways.
‘Baek Hui-young. He’s subtly mentally fragile.’
Of course, he was someone who had endured even after witnessing the destruction of not just Earth but the galaxy multiple times, so it was debatable whether calling him mentally weak was appropriate, but at the very least, it was an established fact that he was sensitive to people around him dying.
There was a reason he had carried out orbital bombardment on a planet of the Marbre Family when Miel had been subjected to cruelty.
Whether it was a thirst for what he had lost, or whether his mind was gradually deteriorating from repeated regressions, there had also been descriptions in the original work of Baek Hui-young’s personality becoming increasingly paranoid.
And from the standpoint of someone who had met him directly, it was impossible not to worry.
‘His eyes looked half gone.’
To put it bluntly, if he were in his right mind, would a mere first-year cadet come all the way to the instructors’ office just because something seemed a little suspicious and spout that kind of nonsense about identities?
At the time, because of the confusion, the thought that he was the protagonist, and the incident involving Miel overlapping, it had been let go without much comment, but thinking about it now, there was no bigger waste case than that.
“Whew.”
Jin Crow roughly tossed the filter of a cigarette that had nearly burned down completely onto the floor, then harshly swept back the hair covering his eyes.
Was it because there had been so much going on these past few days?
With eyes in which darker-than-usual dark circles stood out, he scanned all of the factory’s internal CCTV.
‘The back gate is almost done, and the place where people are being held starts from underground, huh.’
For now, he let it slide that Famille and Miel were among those standing at the back gate.
……It made his insides feel like they were bursting, though.
On the surface, it looked like nothing more than a dust-filled factory, but as befitted a place used by filthy bastards, there were underground facilities going down five levels—things that were not even necessary in a normal factory.
Naturally, the place where Baek Hui-young and Beatus were rampaging was also the first basement level.
“This is getting complicated.”
For now, as long as there was a contract with Tita Genorua, he could not just pretend he knew nothing and leave.
He had already taken the money, and he also could not stand by and watch bastards who trolled with Creatures.
But running into cadets because of that?
Well, no matter how he thought about it, it did not seem like a particularly good future awaited.
‘Can’t be helped.’
In truth, the answer might already have been decided.
Wouldn’t the cleanest way be to wrap things up without encountering the cadets?
No matter that some guy—whether his name was Geum Gang-hyeok or Geum Min-su—had seen through his identity, and that he had been openly going around alleyways saying he was an instructor, up until now it could still be dismissed as nothing more than the misconduct of a single instructor.
‘Jin Crow’s reputation makes that possible.’
But if he got entangled with cadets in any way, then from that point on the problem could spiral out of control.
Couldn’t he already see it flashing before his eyes?
「Shock! Instructor J exploited cadets’ labor and colluded with the underworld of the Free Planetary Alliance……!」
「A cadet’s tearful confession! ‘Expelled from the Central Special Service Academy due to Instructor J’s fabrication and threats…….’」
「Human Composite State Ministry of Defense, after much deliberation, seeks death penalty for Instructor Jin Crow for bringing down military prestige…….」
Of course, unless he had gone mad, things would probably not go to such extremes, but still, there was always the chance, wasn’t there?
Originally, a soldier’s duty was to proceed with as few problems as possible.
Yes, exactly so.
Mulling it over like that, he stood up from his seat and examined the internal map spread out on one side of the control room.
‘There’s a passage that goes all the way down to the lowest basement.’
What was important right now was rescuing the people.
After committing the map to memory, he quickly left the control room and headed for the stairs at the end of the corridor.
And at the moment he descended the stairs and reached the fifth basement level—
Kwaaaaaaaang!
The instant he opened the door, a thunderous explosion rang in his ears, and something pierced down through the ceiling.
“Hi, hiiiiik!”
“Kyaaaaak!”
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
At that, the people who had been lying listlessly in piled-up cages, fitted with restraints, let out screams mixed with confusion and terror.
Jin Crow, too, narrowed his brow at the sudden situation and stared straight ahead, where dirt and dust were chaotically tangled.
Sching-.
Of course, his jet-black longsword was already drawn.
‘A person?’
A vague silhouette entered his vision.
Whether the criminals had at least not skimped on construction, amid the debris of densely embedded frames and reinforced concrete, the one who rose to his feet was a shadow that looked like a man.
No, to be precise, it might be more accurate to call it some mass of muscle unfolding from a crouch while trampling a man beneath it.
“You little brats. How dare you lay a hand on Lord Jimmy Silver’s factory…….”
And soon, after the dust settled, the name the man muttered was one Jin Crow also knew.
Jimmy Silver.
The union head of the Interstellar Transport Union (ITU), one of the five major powers of the Free Planetary Alliance, and the loyal hound of Stero Mer, chairman of Mer Corporation.
‘So it was his factory.’
Thinking about it, it might have been inevitable.
When Carpe Diem, which controlled the cultural sector, and the mafia, which controlled the underworld, procured Superhumans, they smuggled them through the Interstellar Transport Union.
Wasn’t it an impressively neat division of labor?
“Oh, and who might you be?”
That was when it happened.
As the dust cleared a bit and his field of vision opened up—apparently the same was true for the bastard—he stared at Jin Crow while making exaggerated gestures with arms that looked as though his shirt might burst at any moment.
‘He’s damn huge.’
That was the sole impression he had upon seeing the bastard’s fully revealed body.
He easily stood over 2 meters tall, and his body was not just thick overall but felt as though it was packed solid with muscle.
On top of that, thick sideburns and eyebrows.
Even hair slicked back with pomade.
How should he put it.
It felt like looking at a macho Hollywood character from the 1990s.
And to top it all off, a white shirt with suspenders.
Jin Crow stared at him and spoke with a sneer laced into his voice.
No—he was about to.
“Cough!”
“……Hm? Still alive. You’re tougher than I expected, hahahaha!”
That was, until the moment he saw Beatus’s face, crushed beneath the bastard’s foot and gasping for breath.
Jin Crow’s brow twisted.
And in that instant.
Jimmy Silver raised his signature crude fire axe and bared his gold teeth in a vile grin.
“Farewell, brat.”
“That’s as far as you go.”
The moment the bastard raised the axe, Jin Crow hurled himself forward without hesitation.
His objective was not an attack.
Because of that, he controlled all his Gears and focused solely on leaping straight ahead.
Kikikik-.
Creaking—yet rotating far more smoothly than before—Gears supplied the Psionic energy that had now grown familiar at his toes.
Kicking off the ground, he extended the longsword in his hand toward the axe descending ever closer to the throat of the unconscious Beatus.
Kagagagagagagak!
In a fleeting instant, the two blades interlocked and sparks flew.
And by the time Jimmy Silver twisted his face at the heavy pain transmitted through his hands, Jin Crow had already grabbed Beatus by the hair and withdrawn behind the bastard.
“……Tch. Hoo.”
Of course, Jin Crow had not pulled off such a movement without paying a price.
Though it was a motion made possible by already having taken an awakening drug, the sudden strain made it feel as though muscles he had not prepared were twisting unnaturally.
“……Beatus, even you.”
Was this how it had felt when the Roman emperor Julius Caesar had been unlocked by Brutus’s dagger?
While his chest ached at the betrayal of Beatus, whom he had trusted without doubt, he released the hair he had grabbed simply because there had been nothing else to hold onto.
Then he faced Jimmy Silver, who was now staring at him with clear interest.
“Hm, first time seeing you. Are you also in cahoots with the ones up above?”
An answer was not particularly necessary.
He was an opponent who had to be killed anyway.
So instead of answering, Jin Crow lightly loosened his slightly stiff wrist and angled his blade downward, and at that sight Jimmy Silver wiggled his eyebrows with shameless delight before muttering as if disappointed.
“Kids these days, not a shred of romance among them, tch.”
Then, calmly placing a cut cigar between his lips and lighting it, the moment the smoke wavered in the air the two charged at each other without either waiting for the other.
“Urachaah!”
The bastard pressed him with a fire axe so heavy most people would struggle to lift it with both hands, wielding it with one, while Jin Crow deflected and flowed with the blows, spinning his Gears ferociously.
‘His level is at least a seasoned Triple, or Quad.’
It felt similar to, yet different from, Brigadier General Kim Cheol, whom he had encountered before.
If Kim Cheol felt like mixing necessary technique into overwhelming power, then Jimmy Silver was—how should he put it.
The impression that he would crush everything with sheer strength alone was unmistakable.
His black pupils flashed.
Buuung.
The axe skimmed past his head, but there was no panic.
“You’re like a mangy cat thrashing around in a sewer!”
Jimmy Silver shouted as if incensed by Jin Crow dodging his axe without fail, but Jin Crow paid it no mind and continued leaving wounds on the bastard’s body.
Slash-.
He brushed past his side and cut across his waist.
Puuk!
Drawing a military dagger, he stabbed into the forearm.
Puh-eok!
At the same time, he drove his shoulder precisely into the solar plexus.
“That tickles!”
But Jimmy Silver did not care.
The slashed waist was automatically staunched by writhing muscles, and the dagger embedded in the forearm was healed as if he had no intention of pulling it out.
As for the solar plexus…… he snorted as though it were laughable.
“Damn it.”
This was why he hated bastards with absurd endurance.
In the end, Jin Crow leapt back, intending to put some distance between himself and the bastard who kept swinging the axe as if he would never tire, just to catch his breath.
And then, right at that moment.
“Hm?”
As if sensing killing intent, Jimmy Silver lifted his head and tilted it while staring at the ceiling he had smashed through earlier.
「Penetration Stack」
In the flickering lights of the underground, a cold voice entwined with killing intent was intoned.
「Meteor Shower」
“……Baek Hui-young. You crazy bastard!”
And Jin Crow, recognizing what it was, did not even spare Jimmy Silver another thought, immediately turning his body, grabbing Beatus, and hurling himself as far away as possible.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!
In that instant, an overwhelming impact engulfed Jimmy Silver.