-1: 44
"Show some more results, huh?" I murmured to myself as I made my way through the Central Government buildings and back towards the elevator leading back to the Outpost.
It was a reasonable request.
As things stood, I was only a Special Commando because of my combat achievements. That gave me some leeway, but it was also not real power. At least, not in terms of influence.
It was more like a safety net for the Central Government's side.
Since I had proven so capable, they needed to give me slack so I didn't rip the leash out of the hands of the owners. Like a dog being trained not to wander too far.
Of course, I knew exactly what they were doing. I wasn't stupid.
I was dangerous. Unpredictable.
A fresh military academy graduate, thrown into a life or death situation with three Nikke... One where 99.9999% of other Commanders would have died.
Not only did I live, I cleared out the Raptures in front of us AND defeated the Tyrant-Class Rapture responsible for the missing Vanguard Nikke that served as the original mission.
Then I not only recaptured a power station from the Raptures that supplied the Ark with additional resources, but I destroyed yet another Tyrant-Class Rapture there with only a handful of Nikke and NO back up.
If it was just that, it would be worrisome enough for the upper brass.
But I succeeded in contacting a Pilgrim, making friendly contact, and then taking care of ANOTHER Tyrant-Class Rapture as well as PERSONALLY injuring it.
It had gone from being unlikely to impossible.
And with today's antics of mine, I'd shown that I had the ability to sway the masses to my side as well.
Altogether...
'Check.'
...It was a knife right at their jugular.
Burningum saw right through me.
Andersen hadn't, but that was because he seemed to be seeing someone else in me.
Not that I minded. It made things easier on my part.
But Burningum saw me clearly. And while he didn't say it, I could read between the lines.
While that guy understood me... mostly in that I wouldn't turn against the Ark unless they forced my hand...
The point was that the Ark... Or rather, the Central Government thought otherwise.
I was a man who could rally the masses and likely Nikke to lead a revolt if I wanted to. And there was likely plenty of footage showing that fact right now.
So Burningum was telling me to bring 'proof' that I was on the Ark's side by reclaiming key sites for the Central Government on the surface.
...But he was also telling me to set up my own domain on the Surface as well.
He didn't have to give me a map. But he did anyway.
A man like that was very intentional with his actions.
...I still didn't know exactly why he asked for my signature, but maybe he was into collectibles and planned to resell it later for credits.
Either way though, Chief Burningum wanted me to both have an escape route while convincing everyone I was on the Ark's side.
And to do that, I needed to play to the Ark's benefits. Ideally secure resources, supplies, and the like.
"Hm..." I walked through a back alleyway to take a shortcut back to the elevator. "This is a bit difficult."
It was a balancing act.
Show off too much, the Central Government would see me as a threat.
Do too little and the Central Government would think they could control me and start exterting their influence.
Ideally, it would be best if I could reach the position of a Deputy Chief, but those only opened up when there was a vacancy. And while I didn't know much, I could guess that the people with those positions were clinging onto them with their lives.
...Well, it was possible that Andersen might resign in the future if he planned to pick up his role again as the Legendary Commander.
If he really was the leader of the Goddess Squad and intended to rally them together, he was probably going to leave the Ark.
Obviously, upper brass wouldn't like that, so they'd probably dishonorably discharge him... unless he just plain resigned.
Might be possible.
"Mm... a lot to think about." I murmured to myself.
It wasn't like I was up against a wall. And I would never be.
Enikk was on my side. And she's said it herself: she would choose me over the world.
Definitely a bad thing for an impartial judge of the entire Ark to say. But that was a trump card I could pull.
And if Sophia finished her research on the tasks I gave her, confirming my theories, I could give Enikk an emergency escape too.
The Surface may very well be dangerous in comparison to the Ark...
But honestly, to me it was just an open world survival game.
Food? Considering that fabricators were legitimately a thing in this world, I just needed the base components. As for problem solving...
This was something that I noticed the Ark lacked: generative AI.
For some godforsaken (and maybe LITERALLY godforsaken) reason, they had jumped from generative AI to true synthetic intelligence. Somehow, they could make minds that operate in cyberspace.
But in that process, they'd jumped over generative AI.
Now, I hated generative AI because it was mostly used to create AI slop by noncreatives and lazy people... But if properly trained, it was an excellent tool for problem solving.
Case in point: protein synthesis.
If I fed it the entire genome of certain vegetables and plants, it could definitely give me some workable DNA chains to play with and synthesize.
...Now, that all depended on me having the MATERIAL to synthesize that stuff...
But considering how stupidly advanced tech was here and some of the ridiculous things we had, I was confident in being able to deconstruct and work back a few steps before jumping forward again.
If there was one skill that I possessed undoubtedly, it was the ability to rederive things from first principles.
Like martial arts.
That was definitely my main hobby in the past.
But anyway...
Gotta make a trip back up to the Outpost, chat with the girls, decide how we were going to organize things, meet with this 'Matis' squad and-
Malice. Ill-intent. The feeling of something cold pressed at the back of my head.
I didn't hesitate.
Ducking low, I lashed out with my armored leg in a sweep. At the same time, I swung my left arm up with my shield to bash away the gun before discarding my shield. Then I pounced up, hands reached back to draw my Zweihander, chucking the sheath as a projectile at my attacker before lunging with a stab.
"What the-?!"
A woman with bobbed black hair, an outfit with red highlights. Altogether, someone who screamed 'terrorist.' Not just in attire, but in her gaze, presence, aura.
She managed to barely dodge my stab, staggering back.
"Crow?!" Another woman's voice echoed.
But I ignored it.
The woman- No, Crow was her name it seemed. And a Nikke, judging from the Missilis logo tattooed on her skin.
"You-!"
Silver flashed as I swung again.
Did she think because I was a human I couldn't do anything to her? That my sword was just an ordinary blade?
Crow let out a sneer and swung her left arm up to block.
My Zweihander connected.
It shattered.
But in exchange, the woman- No, the Nikke's arm flew off as well, spraying crimson coolant.
"Dammit!" Crow leapt back, dropping her gun to loosen her weight. "Viper! Jackal! Get-"
I didn't let her retreat.
I stomped on the ground with Fa Jin, utilizing Bajiquan footwork. At the same time, my gauntleted hand formed a claw to tear off her head.
Because I could sense it.
This Nikke...
She was the enemy of humanity. Someone who was just waiting for an opportunity to raze everything to ash.
I was close.
My gauntleted hand grazed her throat, tearing off her trachea.
But then I had to dodge, gunshots aimed at my limbs.
Crow kept staggering back, clutching at her bleeding throat and staring at me with sharp eyes, clearly reassessing me.
A woman with crimson eyes, almost gray hair, and a revealing white blouse and skirt outfit with a pink leather hacket moved to Crow's side, holding her up.
At the same time, another woman with platinum blonde twin-tails and pink highlights, as well as a revealing outfit that reminded me of a gyaru... Well, it was complicated to describe.
But that woman ran out from a nearby alley to move to Crow's side as well.
I picked up the hilt of my shattered Zweihander as well as my discarded shield. Then I stared at the three women- No, at the Nikke.
'Exotic... And from Missilis.'
All three of them had the logo and that squad name on their attire.
I'd need to remember to ask Syuen about them later.
While I didn't get bad vibes from the other women, Crow...
'She has to die.'
It was the same vibe as meeting a school shooter the day before it went down. Like the time I noticed someone at high school acting weird, decided to skip a day of school, and found out later there was a lockdown as that student was caught smuggling firearms for a massacre.
The problem was...
"...You can harm humans."
...That they bypassed the safety limiters. Somehow.
I was sure that the way I resolved Marian's issues weren't public. And I know for a fact that the axioms I'd given the Nikke under my command hadn't spread either.
So that meant one of two things.
One, these Nikke were broken...
Or two, I didn't register as a human to them.
Crow glared at me. Then she paused, her eyes widened as she glanced at the woman with the pink jacket.
That woman's eyes widened and she looked at the last woman. The one who had fired at me. "Jackal?"
That last woman, the Nikke with her hair styled in twin-tails. Jackal. She paused and then aimed her gun at me again. Confused, but determined.
A flicker of intention.
I immediately side-stepped just as a bullet pierced where my heart would have been.
...Something that should have been impossible for a Nikke whose inhibitors hadn't been shattered, either physically or through the axiomatic jailbreaking I did to the Nikke I knew.
"Wow, leader." Jackal laughed, although her crimson eyes looked confused. "...It looks like we can kill this guy. Hey, Viper. Why don't you-"
A blur of gray.
My shield, reclaimed while they were talking, flung at high speed to try and cut off Crow's already damaged neck.
It connected. But whether because she flinched, or because of luck, it didn't pierce through, only deepened the gash.
"Kuh!"
"LEADER?!"
The woman with the pink jacket, Viper, picked Crow up and shouted, "Jackal, enough! He's too dangerous! Cover fire! We have to run!"
At the same time, Jackal aimed a pistol at me. The one that should be used for self-termination.
"G-Got it!"
She was panicking.
Was it because she didn't really want to hurt me? To hide her surprise that I COULD be hurt by her? Or was it her NIMPH kicking in with the limiter?
I didn't know. But it made her slow down.
So I advanced, reading her aim a second ahead of her shot and charging after Crow.
Gunshots echoed, but they missed me each time.
Jackal's eyes widened in panic as she ran after Viper and Crow, continuing to provide covering fire.
As for Viper, she was starting to panic as well, glancing back with genuine fear in her eyes.
And for Crow...
The leader of Exotic stared at me with cold eyes. Not interest anymore. Not like what she originally had. But with recognition of a mortal enemy. Someone who would not stop unless they took her head.
I was gaining on them.
But before I could reach them, I felt a flash of mortal peril and immediately leapt back, using qinggong footwork, the light footsteps allowing me to swiftly retreat.
The moment I did, the ground beneath me suddenly gave way beneath me as an explosion erupted where my momentum would have taken me.
'Explosives? Were they planted beforehand? ...No.'
My eyes took in the source of the explosions.
A sewer pipeline. Natural gas. Then a spark. All performed via manipulation of pathways.
This was a cyberhack. Not a coordinated attack, but someone manipulating the devices that should be managing the infrastructure underground.
The moment I parsed that information and glanced back at Exotic, they were gone.
I stood there, eyes narrowed as I reflected on what happened.
"...It seems like I'm making more of a splash than I thought. And it seems like there's more players on the board than I thought too."
A shady underground syndicate. And NOT one that was run by Mustang.
This wasn't classy. Not mafia or gangsters, but terrorists.
Before I could dwell on it any more, Eternity showed up beside me in a white flash, her mechanical antigravity modules surrounding me to repel any attacks.
"Commander Hoopa. Mother- Lady Enikk sent me to escort you back to the surface. She also says to never come unescorted again in the future."
"...Thanks, Eternity." I nodded at the white-haired autonomous Nikke. "I'll remember that."
...Ah.
...Marian, Rapi, and Anis were all going to chew me out for this when I got back, weren't they?