Smart Weapons

24. Smart Weapons

The entire floor of the apartment building Carl entered had been cleared out. Every obstacle except the load-bearing walls had been smashed to pieces, letting Carl spot the stairs at a glance.

The RPG had been fired from the fifth floor, but Carl had no intention of taking the stairs up there normally.

Unless the attackers were idiots, they would have definitely planted mines and other traps around the stairwells. Carl did not have time to dismantle them one by one.

He briefly glanced at the height of the ceiling above him. After spotting a recessed ceiling light and calculating his jumping ability, he acted decisively.

The Monomolecular Wire shot out and whirled in Carl's hand, cutting a one-meter square opening directly above his head. Once chunks of rock and rebar-laced concrete fell down, Carl stepped forward, planted his foot on the fallen ceiling debris, and jumped.

The distance from the apartment ceiling to the floor was 2.8 meters, plus another 20 centimeters of floor thickness. There were three meters between the floor of one level and the floor of the next. Carl was 1.8 meters tall, could jump 50 centimeters, and with the reach of his arms, he could barely touch the second-floor ledge.

A standard basketball hoop was 3.05 meters high. Did that make this a dunk?

As Carl leaped, one hand caught the edge of the second floor. His five fingers alone naturally could not support him as he climbed, so the Monomolecular Wire came in handy again.

Only the blade portion of the Monomolecular Wire possessed its molecular-width sharpness. The rest of it was essentially a chargeable wire whip. In other words, it could serve as a climbing rope.

The Monomolecular Wire extended again, though this time it was not the bladed end that flew toward the recessed light in the third-floor ceiling. After piercing the light cover, its tip pulled the rest of the wire through and wrapped around the metal base inside. Just as Carl had expected, these apartments had been designed according to a standard plan. What the first floor had, the second floor had too—recessed ceiling lights.

Carl yanked hard on the Monomolecular Wire he was using as a climbing rope. Something in his wrist gave a crisp click, and his body was pulled upward. Once half his body had reached the second floor, he braced an elbow against the floor, tightened his abdomen, and flipped himself up. At the same time, he tore down the precarious recessed light that had borne the sudden force of his weight, pulling down a section of ceiling as he reeled in the Monomolecular Wire.

"Cool. It actually worked."

As long as Carl personally experienced a braindance recorder's actions once in a braindance, he could remember and learn every technique they displayed. The method he had just used was actually a trick from an adventure braindance.

When the recorder had been about to fall off a cliff beside a waterfall, he had thrown a rope toward a tree near the edge and successfully used it to leave himself hanging in midair.

Carl had heard that quite a few braindance recorders had died filming that movie, but as long as someone succeeded once and recorded it, Carl could retain the relevant technique in his mind.

Before actually trying it, though, he had not been entirely certain he could pull it off. He had only given it a shot because, even if he failed, he would at worst fall back to the first floor. He had not expected it to work so well.

Whoosh.

The sound of the Monomolecular Wire retracting seemed a little sluggish. There appeared to be a slight friction issue in its mechanical structure.

All right, so there was a price to pay after all.

The Monomolecular Wire could be retracted by control, but that was generally for people standing still and raising a hand to retrieve wire they had thrown out. No one had tried hanging from the Monomolecular Wire like Carl had, then using its retraction to pull themselves upward.

Using the Monomolecular Wire to reel in a person—now that was turning things upside down.

Carl did not know that only Viktor's craftsmanship was good enough for this. If it had been a Monomolecular Wire modified by another Ripperdoc, it might not have endured Carl's reckless abuse.

"This is when I envy Mantis Blades. If I had Mantis Blades, I could just stab them into the wall and climb."

The intense firefight outside made the sound of Carl cutting through the floor almost negligible. Taking advantage of the constant gunfire, he repeated the trick.

"Whoosh, crack."

This time, the noise was a little more obvious, as if the Monomolecular Wire were voicing some kind of protest.

But after reaching the third floor, Carl had no intention of cutting through another floor.

If he cut upward again, there might be someone above. And even if there was not, the attackers on the fifth floor would have no trouble hearing activity beneath their feet.

Now it was time to take the stairs.

When Carl reached the stairwell and examined it, he found that the attackers had not planted any mine traps on the stairs leading from the third floor to the fourth.

Did they think the warning from the traps below was enough?

Carl remembered that some types of mines could be linked through data. In other words, once triggered, whoever they were connected to could immediately know which mine had exploded. For the attackers, the traps on the third floor might indeed have been sufficient.

Too bad Carl had not learned hacking properly yet. Otherwise, he would have blocked that connection long ago and turned the mines to his own use.

Keeping low and placing each step carefully, Carl slowly made his way toward the fourth floor. There, he saw someone standing with his back to him at the edge of the floor, continuously firing downward. The gun in the man's hand was something Carl had never seen in reality before.

It was actually a Smart Weapon.

Arasaka TKI-20 Shingen: A smart submachine pistol manufactured by Arasaka. Equipped with advanced technology, it could automatically track targets. Small and refined, it was an excellent weapon dreamed of by every soldier and mercenary. If your aim was bad, you could not go wrong with this. The only requirement for using it was probably having a Smart Link installed.

An advanced Arasaka weapon had appeared in the attacker's hands. Why was that not surprising at all?

Carl was seven meters away from the man with his back turned. He had no confidence that he could rely on stealth to approach from behind in this completely open area and silently take him out.

At any point, if the man had even one second to turn around and react, he could use that Smart Weapon to blow Carl's head off. Carl had no Subdermal Armor. Bullets still hurt when they hit.

So this was as far as stealth went.

He had already gotten as close as possible. This was much better than setting off an explosion on the first floor and getting chased down by a Smart Weapon.

Carl raised the Kenshin.

Bang.

Blood burst before Carl's eyes.

"Nice gun. I'm taking it."