Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Don’t come out until I say it’s done
***
Sera hurriedly took Dobby out of Anima and connected a life-support device to his mouth and nose.
Click.
It was secured in an instant. It looked as if he were wearing a gas mask inside out. Responding as if she had been waiting for this moment, Sera lifted Dobby into her arms.
“Did the ones Allen sent break in?”
“That cannot be determined.”
As always, the reply was curt.
Even if Sera had noticed something, Ga-on already knew well that she could not voice it.
In truth, it was a question that did not even need to be asked.
The process itself had simply been unsophisticated. It was an attack that asserted itself too strongly, as if they wanted to leave traces behind.
“So they want to claim later that they’re unrelated.”
At that moment, a stray bullet lodged itself into Anima.
Who it had been aimed at was obvious.
It was proof that the group assaulting the mansion was drawing closer. There was no time to delay.
Ga-on was not the only one who reached that conclusion.
Sera was the same.
“I have heard that you are a problem solver, Ga-on-nim. And judging by your actions so far, I believe you are someone favorable toward Young Master Dobby.”
“That’s true, but—”
The moment he answered, numbers floated across his retina.
[243,780,000 Pia]
Information that had come in through short-range communication. Realizing it was Sera’s balance, Ga-on widened his eyes. He could already tell what she was about to say.
“This is my entire fortune, accumulated while serving Young Master Dobby. I will place a request. Please, save the young master.”
***
As Ga-on stepped out of the room, a faint scent of blood brushed past the tip of his nose. The gunfire that had echoed moments ago had begun to die down as well, leaving only one conclusion.
“The guards were taken out.”
On top of that, the androids were nowhere to be seen.
That meant there were no allies.
Holding out inside the mansion would have been the best option, but the opponents were professionals. Moreover, there was someone here who had to be protected. Someone who could not move properly, whose consciousness itself was unclear.
Changing the battlefield was the obvious choice.
“Miss Siri.”
“Siri? My name is Sera.”
“Anyway, you said there was a van in the underground parking lot, right?”
“Yes, they probably haven’t noticed it yet.”
With all functions in the mansion shut down and even the emergency generators inactive, they had to go down via the stairs. Following Sera as she ran quickly even while carrying Dobby, Ga-on spoke.
“Where is it?”
“It’s over there.”
The moment Sera pointed in one direction with her index finger, the headlights of a parked vehicle flashed on. It was a familiar shape.
A multipurpose van announced by R&C, a megacorp that manufactured anything that could be ridden—
“Railly Pro.”
Its zero-to-hundred acceleration was a staggering 1.3 seconds. The built-in battery pack alone guaranteed a range of ten thousand kilometers.
But even taking into account that it was a van, it was undeniably enormous. Simply put, it was no longer at the weight class it had been at the time of release.
“Was it modified?”
“You don’t seem to have time to admire it leisurely.”
After firmly securing Dobby in the back seat, Sera naturally got into the passenger seat. Following her into the driver’s seat, I stepped on the accelerator without even fastening my seat belt.
Kii-gik.
Getting out of the mansion as quickly as possible was the top priority.
I smashed straight through the parking barrier blocking the way. Startled by the loud crash, people appeared from all around, but the van had already begun accelerating.
Koo-kwang.
It shoved its way through the main gate and entered the road.
I heard what sounded like bullets striking from behind, but damaging the reinforced body was out of the question.
Having confirmed the van’s durability, I drove even more aggressively.
It was a situation where I couldn’t report to the Public Enforcement Corps, nor could I hope for reinforcements. As for Sera, she couldn’t even attempt a counterattack.
Relying on autonomous driving mode was impossible.
Not only could it not exceed the regulated speed, but the very concept of reckless driving had never been programmed into it.
What was needed now was pure skill.
Sera, checking the vehicles visible beyond the side mirrors, opened her mouth.
“There is a safe house purchased under a false name in District 36. If we get there, we should be able to shake off the pursuit.”
“I see, Siri.”
“Please stop saying things I can’t understand.”
I was already familiar with the terrain of District 43. As the saying went, generosity came from abundance, and the boundaries between nearby mansions were all vague. They assumed that since guards and the Public Enforcement Corps were protecting the area, no one would intrude into their homes anyway.
Naturally, there were even places with no walls at all. Designs that never even considered the existence of uninvited guests.
It wasn’t an entirely wrong assumption.
If only it hadn’t been a day like today.
“Hold on tight.”
Koo-kwang!
We left the road and tore straight through the garden of an unknown mansion. As long as there was space for all four wheels to touch, I forced the body through.
The van shook up and down as if it were driving off-road, but its speed did not drop even slightly.
Experience accumulated over hundreds of years made that possible.
Among the living, there were only a handful who could compare to me.
That was precisely why a question inevitably arose.
Even after passing through several properties already, the number of pursuing vehicles was not decreasing. On top of that, I couldn’t shake the impression that they were herding us toward a corner.
There was only one conceivable scenario.
“We’ve been had.”
“What do you mean?”
Allen had been waiting for this day. The cards he held would be proportional to that obsession.
“The safe house in District 36—it’s probably been exposed.”
Only then did Sera, having grasped the movements of the pursuing vehicles, let out a low groan.
“I wanted to deny it, but that wouldn’t solve anything.”
“Isn’t there anywhere else?”
“Heading straight to the main house or the company would be one option, but……”
“If the chairman isn’t there, it’d be pointless.”
And we couldn’t keep running forever. Even if we managed to shake them off smoothly—
“If Allen reported it to the Public Enforcement Corps, it’d be hard to escape the charge of kidnapping Dobby.”
At that point, official and legal punishment would be possible. And they could even borrow manpower from the colony.
“It can’t be helped.”
I sharply turned the steering wheel. Entering deeper into the colony would be suicide. That meant there was only one option left.
Right, toward the vast red earth beyond the Seed Colony.
But there was one thing that caught at me.
“We’ll have to pass through a checkpoint. Will that be okay?”
“It’s a corporate vehicle owned by Maximum Noise. Of course it gets a free pass.”
“So not a megacorp, but still a major company, huh.”
Even as we talked, the leeches clung to us relentlessly.
The speedometer needle was pointing at its limit, yet the distance was shrinking by the second.
An innate limitation a van couldn’t escape.
And yet, the delicate standoff continued.
Right up until we left the Seed Colony.
The forest of buildings that had surrounded us moments ago vanished, and an endless road stretched out ahead.
All that met the eye was red soil infused with iron oxide.
A perfectly uninhabited zone.
No sooner had traces of civilization disappeared than chilling sounds poured down. As a rainstorm of bullets erupted, Sera cast her gaze toward me. The enemy’s assault grew fiercer by the moment. It was obvious there would come a point when the van couldn’t hold out.
“Can we make it to another colony?”
“There’s no need to go that far. What I want is a place. A place where there isn’t a single person watching.”
“What do you mean by—”
Sera couldn’t finish her sentence. A sinister sight had appeared in the side mirror.
A man leaning his upper body out of the pursuing vehicle alone should not have been enough, yet she was seized by an unusually overwhelming sense of danger.
The weapon braced on the man’s shoulder—it was a portable anti-tank weapon.
Something meant for a battlefield brazenly revealing itself was enough that I couldn’t just stand by.
“Take the wheel.”
“W-wait a moment—”
Leaving the flustered Sera behind, I opened the window and climbed onto the roof of the van, spinning like a top.
Centrifugal force built up in just three steps. The ominous inertia crushed the roof, making it scream.
The moment the blade caught between my two fingers left my hand and the firing sound rang out were almost simultaneous.
Koo-kwang!
The warhead collided with the folding knife and exploded midair without ever reaching its target.
The shockwave that erupted along with the towering flames shook the surrounding area.
The van, unable to escape that range, lurched a beat later—but that was within expectations.
Watching the entire sequence, Sera let out an involuntary cry.
“What—”
Hitting a flying warhead head-on was an unheard-of feat. But she had no time to savor that extraordinariness, because she had to slam on the brakes.
A group that had been waiting in advance was blocking the road ahead.
What should she do.
As she hesitated, Ga-on climbed down from the roof and gave her a stern warning.
“Don’t come out until I say it’s done.”
***
The chase that had begun so suddenly came to an end in a vacant expanse so distant that the Seed Colony looked like a mere dot. Only dry winds blew across the land.
The group that had chased us from the mansion naturally surrounded the van.
Though the disadvantage was overwhelming, I showed no sign of tension and only let out a deep sigh.
“So, who’s in charge here?”
A man with his hair slicked back with pomade stepped forward. He had a neat appearance, but what caught my eye more than anything was his leg. Between the hem of his pants, a metallic prosthetic limb was visible.
Moreover, the frame wasn’t human in design, but that of a ferocious beast.
Perhaps because he wasn’t wearing shoes, it gleamed all the more conspicuously.
“Sprinter, Norman Sanders. As you can see, I’m in the middle of handling a commissioned job.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not surprised.”
“Should I be?”
Not every problem solver operating in the Seed Colony knew each other’s faces. Their numbers ran into the thousands, even tens of thousands.
Still, those with abilities outstanding enough to earn a nickname naturally drew attention.
Norman was one of them.
To the point that no one failed to recognize the name ‘Sprinter.’ On top of that, he had been rising to prominence recently. Anyone even slightly sensitive to rumors couldn’t help but know him.
And yet, not knowing the circumstances meant only one thing—that he was a stone that had rolled in from somewhere else.
“So you were a rookie.”
Even so, he seemed to have some sense. The moment he was driven into a corner, he readily showed his face.
That was a clear sign of surrender.
As a senior, there was no reason I couldn’t show a bit of magnanimity.
“You might not know this, but this is already a matter being handled by Maximum Noise. Chairman Koln approved it.”
“So you’re telling me to believe that he’s gone mad with the desire to kill his own child?”
“That part isn’t my concern. I just do the work worth the money I was paid.”
It seemed that Maximum Noise had fallen into Allen’s hands. In all likelihood, he also knew the whereabouts of Chairman Koln.
It was an interesting lead, so I listened, but Norman changed the subject as if he had no intention of saying more.
“Seeing you come out personally like this, you must be willing to negotiate. I’ll pay three times whatever you were offered. How about it? It’s better than making things complicated and troublesome.”
Unfortunately for Norman, contrary to his expectations, I had stepped forward to put a period to this.
Because of that, the words that came out of my mouth were bound to be anything but pleasant.
“Why isn’t there an option where you back off?”