Calamity Magnetic Pulse

Kalleva's men watched one of their companions get taken out right in front of them. Even the slowest among them snapped to their senses. The few closest to the girl didn't even have time to draw their guns; they instinctively raised their machetes and swung at her.

At this point, they no longer cared that she was the woman their boss had his eye on. Their boss was still missing, and nobody knew whether he was alive or dead.

As members of the biggest gang in the settlement, Kalleva's men were used to getting their way. Street fights were their specialty. But now, they were nothing more than a backdrop for the girl.

Faced with seven or eight gleaming machetes coming at her all at once, Irin didn't panic in the slightest. A dark red glow flowed in her eyes. The Corrupt Calamity had heightened her senses throughout her body, returning her to that same state of "stopped time" she'd entered when facing the cave Kobolds.

Irin could clearly see the attack paths of every gang member. As she dodged them with perfect precision, she drew the dagger hidden beneath her black dress, strapped to her thigh, and drove it straight into each enemy's vital points.

Four gangsters attacked from four directions at once. The one behind her was especially close; his machete was just about to hit her back. Brian instinctively shouted, "Look out!" to warn her.

But the girl's heightened senses had already picked up the wind whistling behind her.

Irin timed her move perfectly and ducked, making the gangster behind her swing at empty air. By then, it was her turn. She swept her leg in a 180-degree arc, knocking down the three attackers from the other directions. As for the one in front, before he could swing his machete, Irin moved first and plunged her dagger into his chest.

The girl gave a cold snort at his pained, resentful expression, then raised her slender heel and kicked the corpse to the ground without mercy.

Everyone inside the Haisha Bar, including its owner, Brian, was completely dumbfounded.

This was the pretty young lady they'd thought was a bit dim and spoiled, a rich girl. Yet now, as she faced the gang's attack, she was like a black butterfly dancing among them, putting on a dazzling display of fighting.

But fists were unbeatable within seven paces. Beyond that—

"Oh, no!" Brian screamed inwardly. He'd been so absorbed in watching the girl completely dominate the fight that he—and many others in the Haisha Bar—still had their guns in their holsters.

By the time Brian realized he needed to draw his gun and join the fight—

The Kalleva gang across from them had already disengaged their safeties and chambered their rounds. The men who'd fought Irin at close quarters hadn't died for nothing. At the very least, they'd held the girl up long enough to give the gangsters behind them a chance to open fire.

"Die!"

With hate and madness in their voices, the five or six Kalleva men left aimed their black muzzles at the girl and prepared to pull the triggers.

In that instant, only one thought remained in Brian's mind.

It was over.

No matter how good the girl was, she couldn't be faster than a bullet. Four or five pistols—and even a submachine gun—were about to open fire on her. There was nothing around her to use as cover, only the gangsters' corpses scattered across the ground.

And the worst part was—

The girl had her back to the gangsters who were about to shoot, her back to the gun barrels that were about to spit fire and turn her into a sieve.

At a moment this critical, the girl was looking somewhere beyond the fight?

Yes.

She was looking in the direction Irin had come from.

There—

A young man stood watching the fight.

Liao Ji read the message in Irin's gaze as she looked at him. It was something along the lines of:

"I'm done. Your turn!" "You've been talking a big game, so don't let me down now!" "Your girl's life is in your hands!" "If you've got some big move, now's the time. Hurry up, or I'm going to die!" "Hey! Hey!!!"

"Dimples!!!"

Something like that, anyway.

It was clear that Irin had chosen the most audacious way to fight. That meant she'd trusted him from the very start, believing that when the gangsters behind her stopped playing fair and pulled their guns, he'd be able to protect her.

If that was the case—

Then he certainly couldn't let Irin down.

A crackling sound filled the air as sparks of electricity gathered at Liao Ji's fingertips, and the magnetic field centered on him shifted violently.

Tiny grains of sand on the ground by his feet began to vibrate at high frequency.

A thin layer of dust on the bar's tables and chairs floated a few inches into the air.

Liao Ji's hair puffed up as if a current of air were blowing up from beneath him. All around him, the bar lights flickered. In that instant, sparks burst from every ceiling light, and then they all went dark.

The dead neon lights only made the transparent halo gathering in the young man's hands stand out all the more in the dimness. It shone with the radiance of daylight.

The whole process seemed long, but in reality it took only an instant.

As the Kalleva gangsters pulled their triggers, the electric ring of light in Liao Ji's palm burst outward. It expanded in the blink of an eye, until it covered the entire Haisha Bar.

Hum!

This was the second protagonist skill Liao Ji had used from those he'd carried over from his previous playthrough, after [Holy Healing]. It was an S-rank control skill from the Marksman class's Mechanical Maid, used by the top-tier six-star Disaster Rank Corrupted, Zero: [Calamity Magnetic Pulse].

Of course, this was only its lowest-level form, Lv. 1. As its level increased, it would evolve into [Super Calamity Magnetic Pulse] and other forms.

The high-frequency pulse halo swept through everything inside the bar.

The electromagnetic wave didn't violently blow everything to pieces like an explosion. It was more like a colossal tidal wave that took place on a microscopic scale.

Every Kalleva gangster felt a current pass through his body. Then, it was as if someone had taken a heavy hammer and smashed it into his mind.

Those with weaker constitutions blacked out on the spot. The ones who barely managed to shake off the pulse's disorienting effects still staggered, their vision spinning wildly.

Forget aiming; they could barely stay upright.

Everyone except Irin had no idea what had just happened.

The Kalleva gangsters were especially baffled.

Where were the gunshots?

Why hadn't their guns fired when they pulled the triggers?

Their muddled minds instinctively ordered their fingers to squeeze again, but all they heard was a "click," like a gun jamming. The triggers moved, but nothing else happened.

H-how could this be?

It wasn't just the ordinary guns. Even the submachine gun, imported from the Mechanical Alliance, had a built-in smart chip to improve its power and accuracy. It had never jammed before, yet now it seemed to have—

Shut down completely!?

A faint smell of something burning even drifted from the part of the gun that housed its chip.

Ordinary electromagnetic pulses only affected electronic components. But under the influence and mutation of the Corrupt Calamity's power, any weapon—no matter what it was made of—could be disarmed and destroyed by Liao Ji's [Calamity Magnetic Pulse] if the skill treated it as a target and it was within range.

And that wasn't all.

A simple disarming control skill wasn't enough to make Liao Ji choose [Calamity Magnetic Pulse] as the skill to extract and copy from Zero.

In the game, Zero's [Calamity Magnetic Pulse] had another powerful effect.

While disarming and controlling enemies, it also gave its user an immense boost to their attributes.

In short—

It didn't merely destroy weapons. It plundered the energy around it to do so, then temporarily reclaimed that energy and returned it to the user.

And so—

Just a moment ago, the Kalleva gangsters had still been reeling from their guns malfunctioning and their minds being thrown into disarray.

The next moment, the daylight halo that had caused it all appeared again. This time, it was no longer pure white; streaks of dark red ran through it. Like a fishing net being hauled back in, it rapidly reeled itself in, finally shrinking back to the point where the ring of light had first erupted.

And that point was Liao Ji.