Settling the Debt

Yosef kept weaving through the forest. By now, the skin on his head was covered in corrosion marks, exposing half of his mechanically modified face, which looked like a metal skull.

One eye glowed red.

"You animals..."

A savage expression twisted the half of Yosef's face that resembled a mechanical skull.

Who could have imagined that a mere Awakening Day would turn into such a disaster?

How long had it been since anyone had heard of an Inner City scion dying on Awakening Day?

What a disgrace!

But when he thought about how troublesome those Wish Power Creatures were, along with the glimpse he'd caught of that giant python-shaped monster when he looked back, his heart grew heavy.

At least he was partially mechanized. Combined with the devices on his body, he had excellent ways to mask his scent. Otherwise, those things might well have caught up with him.

Even so, the warning devices he'd set along the way had already alerted him that they were closing in.

There didn't seem to be many of them, and he could handle them. But Yosef had no intention of turning around to fight!

These Wish Power Creatures were clever and cunning. They deliberately exposed openings to lure their prey in, making them think they had a chance of winning.

That was why the two of them had managed to hold out for so long. They'd finally escaped; there was no need to risk it now!

"Just let me make it back in one piece. I'll bring people back and wipe out your nest. Damn it, I've lost so much!"

Even someone as wealthy as Yosef couldn't help feeling the pinch when he thought of everything he'd lost along the way.

Neither the concealed mine nor the repairs to the corroded parts of his body came cheap.

He'd gotten nothing and lost so much. It was a real disgrace.

"Hopefully that B-rank kid is still alive. Otherwise, I'll have gotten nothing out of this."

Yosef thought again of the three thousand units of Wish Power he'd lent out, and that Outer City nobody with a B-rank talent.

If that nobody had survived, he could at least make up for some of his losses.

After losing so much, he had to find a way to get it back.

Even turning the kid into a lackey through the debt arrangement felt like a bad deal. He'd have to figure out how to make him a personal cannon fodder and slave instead!

This frontier was even more dangerous than he'd imagined!

"I'll find his family and lend them another sum. Then I'll send him a little more 'pleasure.' That should make it possible. I'll think it over..."

Yosef mused to himself. An Outer City nobody had been noticed by an Inner City scion like him—surely the kid would be overwhelmed with gratitude.

"Hm?"

Just then, Yosef froze and stopped on high alert. The most recently placed warning device had been triggered, but it hadn't sent back any useful images!

Something was coming!

Standing still to eliminate the noise he'd made while running, Yosef enhanced his ability to pick up sounds.

But aside from the wind blowing through the branches, he couldn't detect anything else.

Yosef raised his shoulder-mounted cannon. His mechanical arm shifted back into Gatling mode, while his other hand pulled out another high-powered incendiary round. A grim look appeared on his skull-like, half-mechanical face as his mechanical eye scanned the area.

Then, the next instant, a bullet struck his forehead at a tricky angle!

The violent impact drove the bullet into his metal skull as if it had been embedded there.

Before Yosef could recover from the tremendous blow, a sensation of his very soul being torn apart suddenly hit him!

He'd felt this kind of attack before!

His father had made him try it in advance so he'd know how to deal with certain special attacks!

It was an attack from the mental side!

Mental power imbued into a bullet?

What the hell?!

But the thought was shattered by a second bullet, then a third! A fourth!

The continuous tearing sensation wiped out every thought and cut off all his ideas!

Rat-a-tat-tat~

A burst of rapid fire came from the treetops in the distance.

The intense pain made Yosef twist and writhe, desperately trying to dodge, but it was useless. The bullets seemed to have eyes, locking onto his head!

His alloy exoskeleton and the armor specially reinforced around his vitals—defenses that even Aliens hadn't managed to break through—now erupted with bursts of sparks as bullets struck them.

The unrelenting mental impacts left Yosef unable to mount an effective counterattack. He could only activate his shoulder-mounted cannon and fire wildly in every direction like a madman.

He snapped branches all around him, leaving terrifying gouges in the Giant Trees. He even blasted two of them to the ground!

His warped Gatling gun swept around like a whip, spraying debris everywhere.

The high-powered incendiary round, still unarmed, slipped from his hand and dropped to the ground.

Then, the next instant, he suddenly opened his mouth, revealing a dark gun barrel inside, and began firing wildly.

He looked completely insane!

Electronic voices blared from the "speaker" on his chest.

"Come out! You animals! You animals!"

"Who is it?! Who?!"

But of course, no one could answer him. All Yosef could do was writhe helplessly, his mind wracked with pain.

At last, a bullet pierced his final layer of protection, knocked away the armor over his eye socket, and burrowed inside.

Rat-a-tat-tat~

After firing into the sky for a while longer, Yosef finally toppled straight to the ground.

Yet even after he'd fallen, the gunfire didn't stop for a single moment. Tao Yu waited until both of Yosef's magazines were empty before changing them out and loading bullets into the empty magazines.

"No wonder mechanical and body modifications are so popular. They have an inherent advantage when it comes to defense."

Looking at Yosef, whose head had been shot to pieces, Tao Yu couldn't help feeling impressed.

Across the many world fragments of the Abyss, it was quite common for the weak to defeat the strong, or for an ambush to decide a fight on the first strike.

It wasn't unusual to hear of a top fighter being shot in the head and dying on the spot.

Many of the stories he'd heard, as well as the rumors he'd heard from his parents, mentioned things like that.

Clearly, Yosef's head modifications were meant to protect him from being ambushed with firearms. He'd added armor there, which had forced Tao Yu to fire more than a dozen extra rounds before Yosef lost the ability to fight back.

Tao Yu hadn't felt safe, so he'd kept shooting afterward.

Winuo had also possessed a full-body suit of armor, in addition to the powerful physique granted by his body modification. They'd probably armored themselves like that to give themselves room for error.

To keep from getting caught off guard.

"This bastard was a real schemer. He even had a gun in his mouth. If I hadn't ambushed him, he might've turned the tables even after I knocked him down, as long as I gave him an opening."

Thinking of how Yosef had fired wildly from his mouth at the end, Tao Yu couldn't help shaking his head.

Yosef had never even revealed that trick while fighting the Aliens.

Tao Yu had actually considered crippling him and forcing him to transfer his Wish Power. Thinking about it now, he was glad he hadn't gone through with it.

Of course. He wasn't stupid. If he really transferred it to Tao Yu, he'd be left with no value at all.

Looking at Yosef's corpse, Tao Yu fell silent for a moment. In the end, he decided not to search the body.

After being driven into a corner by the Alien attack, Yosef had probably already used most of his trump cards.

He'd been mechanically modified, after all. What if he'd installed some kind of self-destruct mechanism...

Boom~

A violent explosion shot into the sky. Even from a distance, Tao Yu could feel the gale and heat rushing toward him!

Looking at the fireball, which was larger than Winuo's high-explosive grenade blast, Tao Yu couldn't help thinking, Holy shit.

You really did have one?!

He looked back at the depths of the rainforest, then stuffed a few more fat, pale grubs into his mouth. Leaping down from the treetops, he quickly headed east.

The threat had been dealt with, and he'd already made a decent haul. Now all he had to do was stay alive and make it back!

His survival abilities were just about good enough for now. With the Wish Power he had left, he could consider extending the duration of his skills based on how much time remained, making each unit of Wish Power go further.

While the rainforest was still full of prey, he'd use up as much of his Wish Power as possible before heading back...

"...Static... That Wish Power Creature seems to have a parasitic ability. Its young are very weak and responsible for infecting hosts. They develop different abilities depending on the host. We found that the radio signal we picked up came from a crashed spacecraft, but most of the useful equipment had already been destroyed. What a shame.

"One android kept trying to trick us into feeding those Wish Power Creatures. We killed it, but there's a toxin called Black Water in this area. It could be dangerous for you if you're not careful, so this isn't a suitable site for a new settlement..."

Perched in the treetops, Tao Yu held up his old-fashioned receiver and listened to the latest report of the day.

It turned out that the Floating City siblings had nearly cleared out the neighboring grassland.

Yosef and Winuo, the two Inner City scions, had revealed all sorts of powerful trump cards when their lives were on the line. Tao Yu still felt a little uneasy thinking about it.

If he hadn't incorporated a mental attack into his ambush on Yosef, Yosef might have been able to pinpoint his location and launch a precise long-range counterattack.

Winuo's berserk state had also been explosive.

It didn't seem strange that those Floating City siblings could sweep through the neighboring fragment.

"...The mission objectives have now been updated. With the Inner City scions at the center, everyone will spread out and explore, looking for a site for a settlement and searching for new world fragments. There are three days left until the first group of pioneers returns. For these next few days, the main task for all members of the first group is to stick together and survive.

"Once you return to Starfall City, arrangements will be made based on your individual circumstances. As long as you make it back alive, you'll have completed the mission. Anyone with a Combat Talent or a Support Talent we recognize will receive a minimum reward of one thousand units of Wish Power..."

Clearly, the presence of the Black Water toxin that could give rise to Aliens meant that the grassland wasn't suitable for a settlement.

The forest might have potential if they put in the effort to explore it and spent some time there, but the siblings clearly wanted to find a better location.

A temporary settlement wasn't a problem, but establishing a new settlement there for the long term would involve considering many factors.

Living conditions, available resources, the general state of nearby world fragments, safety, potential threats, and so on.

Although the Floating City guy could be a little blunt at times, Tao Yu had to admit that ordinary people on this expedition were fortunate to have two powerful allies from Floating City.

They were the only ones with the resources needed to establish a relatively stable area.

The minimum reward of a thousand units of Wish Power for a Combat Talent or a recognized Support Talent alone was already quite generous.

This kind of benefit was probably only offered during a frontier expedition caused by a Space-Time Anomaly. It was enough to give an ordinary Outer City family cause to celebrate.

The Floating City siblings had a very different style from the two Inner City pioneers.

Or perhaps people from Floating City simply didn't care about the scraps ordinary Outer City nobodies had to offer...

After crossing the rainforest alone for several days, Tao Yu could feel the exhaustion that came with being on his own.

In terms of strength, he could beat Aliens and giant pythons. Even that Giant Python Alien might not be impossible to take on if he had a chance, as long as he pushed his body beyond its limits.

His ability to ambush could create all sorts of possibilities.

But...

The oppressive feeling of having to sleep with one eye open still kept Tao Yu on edge.

He was afraid he'd open his eyes and find himself staring straight into an Alien's cherry-red mouth.

Most of the time, staying alert and cautious was useless, a waste of effort. But he had no choice except to stay vigilant at all times.

Tao Yu had even developed different versions of Stealth based on the Alien and the giant python.

That meant they were both extremely good at ambushing prey.

With Tao Yu's current strength, if they successfully ambushed him, he'd be as good as dead.

Thanks to Bullet Time, he could spot danger in advance even while staying alert.

And now that he had Stealth - Modified, his survival abilities were quite strong as long as he could sense danger in advance. The catch was that he had to stay vigilant!

"I still don't have enough stamina or defense. If I could stay in Shadow Meld all the time, or if my defense were good enough to survive one ambush, I wouldn't have to stay so tense..."

Tao Yu sighed to himself. He thought of Yosef's head, which had taken more than a dozen shots, then remembered Winuo's full-body armor.

After listening to the broadcast, he climbed down from the tree and used a small knife to cut a piece of meat from the roast boar over the fire.

He still had some salt, but salt alone couldn't get rid of the gamey taste. This stuff was really hard to eat...