Chapter 54
Chapter 54
I Guess I Can Take It as a Lesson
***
Facing the man who accelerated explosively once more, I raised the Progressive Nail. What I was aiming for was not the man.
The pillar beside him.
Yes, it was one of the supports holding up a building that had been disastrously shoddy from the design stage.
Scrrrk!
As the ceiling collapsed, I used the pouring heap of concrete as stepping stones and dashed forward, thrusting the Progressive Nail.
In that instant, the blade-like nail that touched the man’s skin let out a shriek and spat sparks.
A unit on a completely different level from Ublec elastic skin.
‘MUG—2? Or was it 3?’
I couldn’t determine its exact origin, but it was undoubtedly a special material devised with war in mind. To put it bluntly, it was military-grade.
Realizing its power was insufficient, I tried to add the principle of rotation to it, but the man had no intention of letting me.
The distance between us had already closed to an irrecoverable degree.
Without hesitation, the man spun into a roundhouse kick.
Boom!
I was sent flying and only managed to stop after crashing through several buildings.
It was a truly catastrophic blow.
“Looks useful for trimming peach fuzz.”
Before the dust cloud had even cleared, the man burst out right in front of me and thrust his palm forward.
Woooong.
As the same strange resonance from before coursed through my entire body, I sensed danger and rolled to the side. But the man’s offensive showed no sign of stopping.
Genetic manipulation specialized for combat. And accompanying it, Cybernetics surgery.
High-density artificial muscles,
A titanium alloy frame,
Omnidirectional detection sensors.
And even a prosthetic-type unit.
Each and every component that made up the man was overwhelming. He could be called the first genuine powerhouse I had encountered on Mars. Whatever his hand grasped turned to dust without exception.
Streetlights, vehicles, and even buildings.
Size and density did not matter.
His might had long since transcended the domain of humans.
Kuuung.
With the sudden forced demolition, the street quickly became chaotic.
“Resisting has its own meaning.”
The man, excitement brimming, did not even think of lowering the corners of his lips as he charged at me. An explosive leap, as if he had crossed space itself.
“That is, if you’re interested in playing the clown!”
The ground, unable to withstand the force, split into a spiderweb pattern a beat later before sinking.
I swung my blade-like nails to push away the man who had arrived without even his shadow trailing behind him, but in the blink of an eye, they were reduced to powder.
A match was decided in an instant.
As if to put a period to it, the man twisted his direction midair and thrust his palm forward at a speed no different from a flash of lightning.
This is the end.
The man had not doubted for a second that my head would shatter into pieces and scatter in the wind, but regrettably for him, that expectation remained nothing more than imagination.
What greeted him instead was a hard sensation.
Taking the place of the Progressive Nail was—
“Knuckle?”
“I see, so that’s how it was.”
If the unit’s performance had been absolute, I should have died the moment I allowed the first strike. But the only thing that had taken damage was the under armor. The same had been true for the Progressive Nail just now.
That was enough for me to be certain.
About the principle behind the unit the man boasted of.
All things in the world possessed their own distinct frequencies. These were called natural frequencies, and when they collided with an external force vibrating at the same rate, their amplitude increased exponentially.
That was the essence of what people commonly referred to as resonance.
What the man had equipped was a device that triggered such a phenomenon to induce the collapse of objects—Resonance.
However, matching a natural frequency to induce resonance was by no means an easy task.
One at a time.
At best, that would be the limit.
The fact that it had been blocked by a single knuckle that suddenly popped out made it obvious. The value set in the Resonance he had just thrust forward must have been tuned to biological matter.
In an instant, as if to recover from his mistake, the opposite palm shot up from my blind spot.
I knocked away the approaching threat with my bare fist. It was a punch delivered to shatter the knuckle. Since the resonance target would have been switched to metal, there was nothing to fear.
This was a game of tag.
A question of who would gain the upper hand first.
There was no way the man would fail to notice. Rather, being the one directly involved, he took it even more seriously.
“You….”
It was only natural that the man, his smile erased, launched a fierce assault.
Using both palms like whips, he struck in short, snapping motions, and a sharp noise filled the area. As the downward and upward strikes connected into one continuous movement, it resembled a windmill turning.
It was a traditional martial art centered on heavy blows—
‘Eight Trigram Palm?’
To someone facing it for the first time, its mysterious and unfathomable trajectories would be astonishing. But to a fixer who had mastered countless martial arts over a long time, to me who had personally experienced the Third World War, they were movements so familiar they almost felt nostalgic.
It was inevitable that I would deflect every incoming strike.
If he aimed for the knuckle, I used my fist,
If he aimed for my fist, I used the knuckle,
Before two materials with different natural frequencies, Resonance became nothing more than scrap metal. It meant nothing unless it struck its target, yet all it managed to catch were objects opposite to its set value.
At some point, as the tide had turned, the man let out a dry laugh.
He was aware that the weakness of Resonance lay in frequent switching. However, altering the settings took only a fleeting instant—so brief that no one but he himself could even perceive it.
He had never imagined he would encounter an opponent capable of piercing through even that moment.
“I must have misjudged you.”
“Guess you can take it as a lesson.”
Thud!
After exchanging a clean blow each with me, the man stepped back. He had realized that at this rate, we would remain locked in a perpetual stalemate. To tip the scales, he would have to stake his life.
When the organization members, oblivious even to that, tried to draw their firearms under the pretense of providing support, the man firmly stopped them.
“Hey, that’s enough.”
If we continued tearing at each other beyond this point, it would only be a loss for both sides.
“My apologies. Unlike me, these guys don’t understand style. Instead, we’ll take the body.”
“Do as you please.”
The moment a mutually satisfactory agreement was reached, the sound of sirens echoed from afar.
A signal that it was time to part ways.
“Impressive response, fixer. If the opportunity arises, let’s meet again.”
With no lingering attachment, the man turned his back and bid farewell.
***
I hurried to the unlicensed clinic and received the news I had been waiting for.
“Catalina, the child has woken up.”
As soon as I entered the hospital room, I saw Catalina smiling awkwardly. She was still haggard, but there was no hesitation in her eyes.
“It seems your memory has returned.”
“Yes.”
“I assume you heard the rough details from Mr. Shah Rukh Khan.”
“It sounds like a lot happened while I was asleep.”
Catalina took a moment to catch her breath. No matter how prepared she thought she was, she needed time to sort out her thoughts.
She spoke after a while.
“That day, Abigail asked me to help her. At first, I couldn’t understand what she meant. But….”
“Seems her continued persuasion brought your memory back as well.”
It wasn’t just the truth. She had also come to realize the part of herself she hadn’t wanted to know—the version of herself being manipulated by a third party.
Even though she thought Abigail’s words were reasonable, she couldn’t help but feel afraid.
“I was scared. That something like that had happened without me even knowing.”
And the social standing of the people involved was no small matter either. Catalina vaguely understood that exposing them would not simply resolve everything. In the end, lacking the courage, she had turned away from Abigail.
“How did you end up filing a kidnapping report?”
“On my way back, I saw someone taking her away.”
Moreover, it was right after they had that conversation. No matter how foolish she might be, she couldn’t fail to consider the cause and effect.
“I immediately sensed something was wrong. I had never faced them directly, but I’d seen people who gave off that kind of atmosphere a few times before. So I reported it, but….”
“And then your memory disappeared.”
There was no need to ask why they had left only Catalina alone. If they had dealt with her as well, the connection would have become far too strong.
One person going missing was a coincidence, but from two onward, it became inevitability.
Producer Raju would move more aggressively, and the Public Enforcement Corps wouldn’t be able to turn a blind eye either, so they must have taken appropriate measures.
Even so, their audacity remained unchanged.
Clutching her trembling hands, Catalina asked,
“Can you really resolve this?”
“If you testify.”
“But….”
“I know what you’re worried about. But you don’t have to. The fact that I’m standing here even after knowing the whole story is proof, isn’t it?”
I had just heard it from ripperdoc Hald.
The one behind everything was—
“Megacorp Marstop, right?”
***
The Meta-human side had brought Marstop into their fold to control the media. To be precise, to conceal their own activities.
They had secured a shield to blur the eyes of hunting dogs like Jin Geon.
From Marstop’s perspective, it wasn’t a bad deal either. The added value generated by the business they personally offered up was beyond extraordinary.
Not only could they manipulate idols who appeared in the media without making exorbitant sponsorships, but they could also erase any trace that they had done so.
The Meta-human side benefited from gaining a new ally,
Megacorp Marstop benefited from flaunting its influence,
Hald benefited from achieving revenge and securing a powerful backer,
It was the completion of a triangle that would never tire of biting and sucking at one another.
Sham Berry, an entertainment reporter at Moral Heinz, repeatedly wiped the sweat flowing down his forehead.
“Is this really true?”
“I told you, I’d give you the exclusive.”
Leaving out the parts about the Meta-humans and inserting the Pier Gang in their place, it still seemed overwhelming.
“No, this isn’t what I was hoping for.”
When Sham first heard the outline of the incident from me, he had thought it was just an ordinary scandal. A famous figure sponsoring several trainees and a resulting love triangle—something like that.
But once the lid was lifted, it turned out to be a demonic realm beyond imagination.
They used trainees as brokers to proliferate illegal Slot implantations through multi-level schemes, established a large-scale prostitution system with it, and finally erased evidence through brainwashing—methods so extreme they wouldn’t even be used on death row inmates confined in correctional facilities.
Even the inclusion of device extraction, one of the major felonies, faded in comparison.
Even Sham, a seasoned veteran reporter, hadn’t seen a case of this magnitude in a long time.
And the opponent was who they were.
Megacorp Marstop.
They specialized in manipulating public opinion and concealing information.
“What are you going to do?”
“Fortunately, we’ve secured a witness again.”
Whether from guilt or a sense of duty, Catalina had become proactive. The rejection reaction visible on her face would be perfect for staging a dramatic situation.
I was already looking forward to that day, but Sham couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about Marstop. No matter how hard we run around, this will be buried in no time.”
“Don’t misunderstand. We’re not taking on a megacorp. We’re just cutting out a single parasite inside it.”
They weren’t protecting a business strategy. A megacorp wouldn’t mobilize its full power to shield someone who had gone rogue.
“We just have to make them think that standing by is in their best interest.”
“If the two of us can manage that, it would certainly be convenient.”
“It’s actually easier if we use the power dynamics between corporations.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. It’s a golden opportunity for you too.”
Realizing what I meant, Sham swallowed hard.
“You don’t mean….”
“Let’s see the power of that parent company you’re so proud of.”
The major media outlet Moral Heinz.
Its parent body was Megacorp B&B.
If it was Marstop’s eternal rival, they would cooperate if only to reclaim the number one spot in the industry.