novelraw Chapter 156 : Chapter 156
Chapter 156 : Chapter 156
Chapter 156: Villain (4)
“So? You are going to spill everything?”
At Jack’s question, the employee’s pupils trembled.
When he hesitated, as if clinging to his last shred of resolve, Balzac, standing nearby, reached out his hand once more.
“H-hiiik!”
At that single gesture, the employee jerked up like a live fish struck by electricity.
“Y-yes! Y-yes, I w-will…… I will tell you everything……!”
His trembling hands hurried to his mouth.
Grabbing at his blood-soaked molars, he twisted them roughly.
CRACK-!
With a sickening sound, a bloodstained artificial tooth came free in his hand.
When he crushed it, a small, tightly coiled metal sphere popped out.
Pressing the button at its center caused the sphere to unfold into a rectangular card key.
The master key Jack had demanded.
“H-here…… j-just ask…… I will tell you everything…….”
As if offering a tribute, the employee held the card key out with both hands.
Watching him, Jack clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘What on earth did he do?’
Even after Jack had broken his arm and crushed his fingers, the man had stubbornly held out.
Yet after Balzac moved his fingers just a few times, he surrendered as if ready to sell his very soul.
There was no trace of Magic Power.
Which meant that all that pain had been inflicted purely through technique and knowledge.
‘Has he gone beyond mastering pain and learned how to break a human without Magic Power?’
In any case, it was very much like him.
Jack snorted softly and snatched the master key from the employee’s hand.
Sticky saliva and blood smeared it, but he did not care.
“Tsk, you should have just cooperated from the start. You only made it exhausting for both of us.”
“H-haha…… s-sorry…….”
Balzac really had done something impressive this time.
Now then, shall we move on to the finishing stage?
Looking down at the senior employee bowing pitifully, Jack tightened his grip on his sword.
***
Jack’s interrogation was ruthless.
The location of the Security Room, the coordinates of various passageways, target points, even the place where the boss was staying.
The exchange of questions and answers took less than a minute.
“That should be enough.”
Jack nodded in satisfaction, then clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, you really made things troublesome. If you had talked sooner, we both would have been less tired.”
“H-haha…… t-thank you! T-then I will…….”
Relief at having survived washed over the employee’s face as he let out a servile laugh and staggered backward.
But a villain was a villain.
Jack was a vicious man who knew no mercy.
FSSHT-!
In an instant, a sharp sound sliced through the air.
“Huh……?”
The senior employee’s pupils went slack.
With an expression that did not even register his own death, he collapsed straight to the floor.
THUD-!
Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, the soulless body sprawled helplessly.
‘…Fast.’
I swallowed dryly.
Even though I had clearly seen it with my own eyes, I could not follow the trajectory of the blade.
That was how he had been able to clean up the surroundings in an instant earlier.
“Shall we wrap things up and get going?”
Jack did not spare the corpse a glance as he walked straight toward the inside of the cage.
There, the Lycan was still waiting, its agitation unspent.
“Grrrr…….”
Having neatly devoured one employee, the beast was drunk on the taste of blood.
And Jack, who had walked in on his own two feet, looked like nothing more than another appetizing human.
According to Jack, the finest meal imaginable for a Demonic Beast.
Naturally, the Lycan sprayed saliva and lunged at him.
BOOM!
An explosive burst of speed as it kicked off the ground.
But Jack did not dodge.
SLASH-!
With a chilling cutting sound, the Lycan’s massive body came to an abrupt halt.
CLANG-!
The thick chains constricting its neck and limbs were smoothly severed and fell clattering to the floor.
What Jack had cut was not the Lycan itself, but the restraints binding it.
Its body was freer now.
From the Lycan’s perspective, it should have been an even easier situation to attack Jack.
But that did not happen.
“G-rrk.”
Letting out a confused sound, the beast backed away.
It had realized something.
That the person before it would never be its prey.
“Tsk, looks like it finally sank in?”
Jack strolled leisurely toward the subdued creature.
Then he opened his mouth wide.
Instead of teeth and tongue, a pitch-black abyss yawned within.
What happened next was even more astonishing.
WHOOOOSH-!
The flow of the air reversed.
A powerful suction arose, like a giant gourd sucking in a yokai.
“Grrk?”
Space warped around Jack’s mouth, and the enormous Demonic Beast’s body stretched like pulled taffy as it was dragged in.
“GRRRAK!”
The beast’s short scream ended almost as soon as it began.
Its house-sized bulk vanished into Jack’s mouth in the blink of an eye.
“Tsk, Demonic Beasts really do taste awful.”
After swallowing it whole, Jack frowned as if his stomach felt unsettled.
“It is thrashing around inside. Makes me nauseous. Tsk, let us finish this quickly.”
He thumped his chest as if suppressing a dry heave, then immediately started walking again.
Toward the secret vault and the boss’s location the senior employee had revealed.
I naturally moved to follow behind him.
“Hold it.”
Jack stopped and blocked me.
“You stay here. Do what you were doing before.”
“What I was doing before?”
An ominous feeling made me hesitate.
“What are you staring at? Your job here is to buy time. I can handle the other side on my own.”
“……”
I looked around.
This was chaos beyond chaos.
Inside the transparent cage, terrified Silver Wolves and their pups were crouched together, watching us warily.
On the floor lay the remains of an employee torn apart by the Lycan, scattered bones everywhere.
That was not all. The corpses of security staff Jack had efficiently slaughtered were strewn about the area.
You want me to stay alone at this horrific crime scene and buy time?
When Patrol might show up at any moment?
“……This boy’s body is not suitable for buying time.”
Suppressing my panic as much as possible, I offered an excuse Balzac might use.
Rather than refusing the role outright, I pointed out the current conditional limitations as a reasonable objection.
But Jack’s reaction went far beyond my expectations.
“Tsk, what a pain. If that is the case…….”
Jack muttered irritably.
“Then just get caught by Patrol. You can switch bodies anytime anyway, can you not?”
“What?”
I am not the real Balzac. I cannot jump between bodies.
The moment I am caught, there will be an identity check, and if the disguise Edward gave me comes undone, my life is over.
And yet this lunatic was casually talking about breaking me out later.
“Tsk, looks like you got pretty attached to this body. I will pull you out before your identity is exposed, so stall for time and get caught obediently.”
‘Is that…… even possible?’
The problem was, if it was Jack, it really did seem possible.
Whether a police holding cell or a prison, he looked like the type who would smash his way in as if it were his own house.
A strangely complicated feeling flickered through me.
That was when it happened.
BOOM-!
A heavy vibration shook the ceiling overhead.
The sound of massive machinery activating.
“Tsk, they are faster than I thought. Did some diligent Patrol guys show up, or are these the people from this side?”
Jack twisted his lips into a grin as he looked up at the ceiling.
Their arrival was sooner than expected.
But rather than panicking, Jack seemed amused as he started walking again.
“Either way, just buy a bit of time and get out. I will finish up quickly and leave too.”
As he disappeared into the darkness, he added the location of a certain place.
“When it is over, we meet there. If you get caught by Patrol, I will come rescue you.”
With that, Jack’s presence vanished completely.
I was left alone in front of the wrecked cage.
WOOOOONG-!
The vibrations were growing stronger.
It was probably the large room elevator we had used to descend, coming down again.
And inside it would be heavily armed Patrol members.
‘……Is it really okay to get caught?’
The thought suddenly occurred to me.
There was no escape route here to begin with.
The master key that could be used in an emergency was already taken by Jack.
I was trapped in this deep underground sealed chamber.
Playing hide-and-seek with Patrol here?
That was pure insanity.
‘Maybe being caught quietly is actually safer.’
If Jack really would break me out later as promised, would it not be better than resisting and getting injured?
That thought had just crossed my mind.
[Kihihihit!]
The Mimic began writhing in midair.
[Thump-thump! Thrill-thrill! Delicious! Kihihihit!]
Feeding on the tension I felt, it flapped its pages wildly and burst into manic laughter, as if this entire situation were the most delectable entertainment imaginable.
‘Crazy bastard.’
It had been quiet lately, and of course it chose now to go insane again.
‘Does it not understand the situation?’
Just as I frowned and was about to glare at it, the fluttering pages froze.
[I see it! I seeee it! Kihihihit! I seeeeeee it!]
Along with the Mimic’s bizarre cry, a new system message appeared before my eyes.
DING-!
[Tactical Manual]
[Awakening condition met: MacGuffin, desperate crisis]
[Do you wish to awaken the latent potential of the passive ‘Reporter’s Sense’? Y/N]
‘Awakening?’
A proposal thrown at me in a desperate moment where my identity could be exposed at any second.
I never expected to see the word “awakening” here.
There was no time to spare.
I immediately sent my acceptance.
DING-!
Another cheerful notification rang out, followed by a new message.
[‘Reporter’s Sense’ is activating.]
Reporter’s Sense.
A passive skill whose grade had improved when I became an official journalist.
An ability that activated when sensing danger or the scent of a scoop.
It seemed to be triggering for the first time since being upgraded.
‘Is it going to show me something new?’
I stared at the message window, puzzled.
Soon, a square holographic screen expanded, unfolding before me like a news portal.
The first thing that caught my eye was a bold headline.
[Exclusive. Horrific scene beneath a luxury pet shop, illegal arena operators arrested.]
The first headline was about this very place we had turned upside down.
But what truly seized my attention was the second article below it.
[Breaking) Underground pet shop arena terrorist arrested, a cadet’s twisted sense of justice…….]
“……What?”
I doubted my eyes. Why was the word “cadet” appearing here?
I hurriedly read the article’s contents.
The enhanced Reporter’s Sense was clearly displaying the body of an article presumed to be written in the future.
[…The individual who led the underground arena terror attack was arrested at the scene. Shockingly, the culprit was identified as a cadet currently enrolled at ‘Zero Academy,’ a man surnamed Ryu…….]
A chill ran down my spine.
No, wait, Jack, you bastard. You said you would rescue me, and you did not?
Villains really cannot be trusted—
[At approximately 5 p.m., an unidentified accomplice assaulted the detention center in an attempt to rescue the individual. During the ensuing clash, CCTV footage captured the suspect’s Human Skin Mask and clothing being torn away…….]
No, he did come to rescue me.
But even so.
“……”
I continued scanning through the article displayed by Reporter’s Sense.
The content was disturbingly detailed, vividly describing what Jack and I had done.
‘If this is really showing the future where I get caught by Patrol……’
My identity would be exposed to the entire world.
In the worst possible way.
ZZZING-
At that moment, the elevator doors leading underground opened.