Clearing the Game at the End of the World

Chapter 107: Masquerade Party (21)

Pa-p-p-p-p-t!

Hah, hagh! Damn, my stomachs killing me!

No matter how he thought about it, GG was an educational game that helped with the Wasteland life.

I started to be able to separate pain and the ability to move at some point!

Going through a gameplay of content that could basically be called torture, Gyosu reached the point where he was somewhat immune to pain in reality as well.

Damn it! I got used to the pain! Thats weird! And our caravans name is BDSM too! It feels like it oddly fits!

The place where Gyosu arrived after all that running was the Investigation Bureaus garage, which he came out of not long ago.

The inside of the garage was completely different from when they left it, with only the red emergency lights blinking to illuminate a small outline of the dark space.

I dont have time. Exosuits that dont have support from the city die on their own with just a bit of pressure.

A normal Exosuits activation limit was around 35 to 40 minutes. 15 if they were in combat mode with shields on at max output. And it would be about right to say that each shot from the tanks would cut down on 40 seconds of that time.

The Raptors are the ones that planned this, so they probably have the next step planned out. It wont be easy to use the Exosuits.

Ian. And Vex.

He cant count how many times he sighed while he traced his way through the building based on the short scan of the place he did on their way to the Investigation Bureaus armory.

If he was lucky, he would have been able to sneak into enemy formation while they were busy with the Exosuits. He should have had enough firepower to get through the thinner side of the defense. But what next? What was he thinking of doing all alone inside there?

He did momentarily think of stopping Ian when he started running out. But just before the words stopped coming out of his mouth, the image of Vex alone and isolated inside made his throat block up.

Lets trust them. Theyre not normal enough to die anyway. Lets assume that they survive and do my job.

He left the IBs building, then ran through the dead, silent streets of the Dome. The people living in the Dome didnt run around in panic or try to run away when a commotion happened outside. They merely shut themselves inside their houses and prayed the moment would pass. Like good livestock, tamed and grown through peace.

As his eyes started to get used to the darkness, Gyosu analyzed and organized his surrounding situation.

Cracked flagstones, broken streetlights. That should be normal if an Exosuit squad ran past here. That direction is the Underdome. Mister Ralph told them to protect the generator, so they probably headed straight to the Underdome. The only building with the lights on over there must be the Administrative Branch building.

The Administrative Branch was in charge of various things, such as the Domes budget, residential matters, and the law, but the most important field they were in charge of was research. So the Administrative Branch building was made to be completely isolated from the outside situation with its own defense system in case of an emergency in order to protect the research materials inside. If necessary, that would at least buy time to destroy everything inside.

Of course, they could always turn it off themselves and come out, but seeing that its on, they probably got scared and decided to stay inside.

Or, they had something in there that they couldnt hand over to the Raptors even after the Dome was gone. Since there were two other Dome cities other than here.

As he followed the trail, the level of destruction on the streets steadily increased. The buildings had holes drilled through them like Swiss cheese. Those were from the pulse rifles. Buildings also had traces of severe damage from what looked like wrecking balls. Those were also probably because of the Exosuits.

Of course, there were also several bodies strewn between the debris and buildings. The corpses that were not wearing military uniforms but casual clothing like normal citizens had wounds that even Gyosu, who was used to seeing corpses, had a hard time looking at.

And, beyond the iron gate that seemed to have been melted down by a large welder, was the path down to the Underdome.

With three Exosuit units collapsed in front of it.

Any survivorsguess not

Gyosu approached a corpse inside the suit and placed a finger against their neck. It was still warm. That meant it hadnt been long since they died. Wait, but more importantly

The bodys too clean.

Back when he worked at the Dome, he once heard that you didnt need a coffin for someone who died in an Exosuit. Thats because the only thing that could break through that stupidly strong shield were anti-tank class large caliber bullets, but there wouldnt be a corpse left to put in the coffin if they were hit with something like that.

But the corpses of the three Investigation Bureau members in front of him were relatively clean.

It means they didnt use large caliber bullets

Something felt off. The entire street displayed the battle of the Investigation Bureau. Corpses burned to char, piles of trash, broken glass!

Click!

In that moment, at the same time Gyosu pulled out his gun, the trash pile right behind him shot up and started to swing something at his body.

Bang!

Eurghh

You scared me! Wait, why does he have a knife when hes dealing with Exosuit?

Shplt!

The corpses head exploded. To be exact, the head was at the exact same height as his heart. If he hadnt raised up the body to check its possessions, then the bullet would have hit its original target.

Are these guys crazy? A knife, and now a sniper?

Blocking the next wave of bullets with the mans body, he threw himself through a hole in one of the collapsed buildings walls. First, hell hide, then check the enemys location

Rustle!

Again?!

This time, a hand popped out of a mound of rocks. As a smile spread across the face covered in gray dust, he could see the enemys white teeth.

Im too late. He was faster than me!

The movement of the man pulling the trigger played in slow motion. Is this that thing in the movies where their life flashes before their eyes? Ah, Im not even going to go close to a rock mound in my next

Poww!

Just then. Faster than both Gyosu and the killer, Gyosus left arm landed a punch square in the hidden mans chin.

[Mmph whats all this ruckus? I just woke upIs it not over ye]

Good job. Dont talk to me; its distracting!

He almost died. If Hyde hadnt reacted faster than he did, then the lead bullet from that gun would have turned his brain into wet mush!

Gyosus eyes darted nervously around his surroundings. Pile of debris. Broken signs, beheaded streetlightseverything that came into his sight was now suspicious to the point he couldnt breathe right anymore.

A trash bag ghillie suit, a sniper aiming in that direction, and a guy that was waiting at the closest hiding spot! They hid this many troops as a spare in a place the enemy had already passed through?!

It was a meticulously planned ambush using the blind spots of a humans psychology.

Large caliber bullets? Large caliber bullets, his ass, the weapons hidden in the street were easy to hide, such as knives and pistols. And a sniper whos using a silencer as well.

The composition was focused purely on ambush. A combination that would have been ideally optimal had it not been for the Exosuits ridiculous shield.

And, the three Investigation Bureau corpses with only small wounds on the throat and chest region.

They forced the shields off?

He did hear rumors about it being possible. It was impossible to make it small enough to be portable, but the device was able to shut down all shields in a small area if planned beforehand. But because the device had to be basically constructed into the area at several different angles to barely make an area as big as a single car, it wasnt used during the war

So this is their territory after all.

Gyosu rummaged through the Executive Department agents body next to him, covered in gray dust and debris. One laser knife. One pistol with a silencer. One gas mask and an unidentifiable grenade.

All 100% person-to-person equipment. I feel sorry for Vex. It would have been a lot easier if he was the one here.

Although not as confident as Vex, Gyosu was fairly confident in his searching abilities, but the Executive Department was on a different level. Just with that ghillie suit, it wasnt just a trash bag covered with other trash bags, but an actual, smelly, slimy, sticky pile of trash bags you would actually expect to see in a back alley. And they made that into clothes and intended to lie down in it and wait for hours for an enemy they were not even sure would come.

Assassins and snipershe didnt know where they would pop out from. Not to mention, this was an area familiar to the enemy. But he couldnt slow down here. If he carefully crawled his way through the area, checking every suspicious spot he saw, then the war outside was going to finish faster than him.

Thankfully, Gyosu had quite a useful sidekick on hand.

Hyde.

[Need help?]

Tell me if you see anything suspicious. I cant slow down right now.

[Hm why dont you just give me a gun instead?]

And before Gyosu responded, Hyde picked up the Executive Department agents gun that was on the ground.

[Hm. It definitely feels a lot duller compared to when Im outside, but I wont have a problem using it. Ive used it a couple of times now, so Ive gotten the hang of what you do.]

Only then did Gyosu realize that something was incredibly different from normal.

You!

[I didnt mean to! Really! It was like this when I woke up!]

His left arm.

Beyond just his finger, hand, and elbow, his entire left arm up to his shoulder had that distinctive foreign feeling.

It was the cost of using Hyde in reality, and he fell asleep at that point.

Pa-p-p-p-p-t!

[Upper right! Building window!]

Bang!

Slightly open manhole. Reflection!

Crunch!

Gaghhhhh!

Left alley! One with the beanie!

[Thats a civili]

Why would a guy trembling in fear reach for the inside of his jacket? Just shoot!

Ba Bang!

Ever since Hyde woke up, Gyosu has been caught up in a weird feeling. In the past, it just felt like Hyde was watching everything that Gyosu saw, but after Hyde took over an entire arm and woke up.

[Ceiling! Red line!]

Shlk!

Even before Hyde said it, the laser-sensing device that he perceived was also part of his perception.

Like how Gyosu was sharing his senses with Hyde, Hyde was now sharing his senses with Gyosu as well.

[Ive seen something similar to this in your memories before.]

What? You know what our current condition is?

[Ye. Multitasking.]

Can you save the nonsense for when were a little safer?!

Bang!

He did say it was ridiculous, but Gyosu agreed that it conveyed the meaning. As a soldier and a survivor, he had a history with firearms, so Gyosu always considered the guys who shot two pistols or machine guns at once idiots. It wasnt target practice, but real life where the enemy moved and even shot back, and to aim for two targets at the same time. If they werent shooting enough to the point where aim didnt matter, holding two guns in battle was not only useless but a detrimental, stupid action.

But right now, Gyosu had become that idiot and was running through the Underdomes streets. Without any difficulty, they just needed to hold a gun in each of their own hands and shoot the enemy they sensed.

No, no. Not each of our own hands. What am I talking about? Theyre both my hands!

[Hey, whats the leader of a caravan doing making an unfair trade? You would have been dead if it werent for me, and you think an arms too much? This isnt inside! You would have been dead! Over!]

If you put it that way, I cant

[Car!]

Ba-bang!

Both of the guns in each of Gyosus hands shot simultaneously towards the assassin hidden inside a scrapped car and pierced their forehead.

There were a lot fewer enemies than he expected.

So those guys from IB Squad 3 werent idiots.

Three of their members died at the entrance. So they prepared countermeasures.

It looked like the Exosuits completely decimated this alleyway as they went past it. Shield Absorbers needed to be placed beforehand. So if they destroyed the entire alley as they went past it, they would have been able to destroy the devices before they activated.

Thanks to them flattening all of the buildings and setting everything on fire, the Executive Department has a lot fewer places to hide in. Its easier to find them compared to the entrance. Hyde, how many shots are left on the left?

[Uh wait! Lemme check your memories!]

I didnt count!

[Then why dont you use your smart brain to count?]

My brains already running too much trying to operate two screens, and you want me to count your bullets?! I didnt even shoot them with my hand! And you can use my brain too!

There he is! Its the guy Boss talked about!

S! He was in front of the water store when the toe guys died! Whys he so fast?

[Thats]

Kill them! Its the Underdomes gang!

Shhhshk!

Gyosu used his running speed to slide straight into an alleyway, then stored the pistol inside its harness and put on the gas mask he picked up earlier before throwing the weird-looking grenade that came with it.

[You need to lean out for me to shoot!]

We dont have time to shoot all of them. Theyre connected to the Executive Department and probably got separate orders. The reason I ran all the way here was to avoid getting caught by them too

Cough, cough!

Sir! The guy, cough! Smoked us!

Geurghh!!!

Its not just gas, its a toxic gas!

An orange smoke spewed out of the grenade Gyosu threw. The gang members that had been coming his way with a barricade made of all sorts of junk started to cough, then collapsed as they threw up blood.

[Gas grenade?]

The heart of ambushesnot really, looking at how deadly it is. What else would the grenade be if all the assassin had on him was a bunch of stealth weapons and a gas mask?

It honestly didnt look like a weapon that just a gas mask could block, but Gyosu used the chaos to slip past the gang members in the yellow smoke. His skin stung to the point where it made him uneasy, but it was far better than dealing with endless waves of druggies.

Hah, hah!

[What are you doing? I thought you were busy! Your friends are dying!]

Let me take a breather too, you bastard! Do you know how hard it is to run and fight at the same time? I ran all the way here like it was some horror game speedrun!

[Tch. Youre the one thats in a bigger rush inside.]

There wont be many places to rest from here on, so weve got to use this chance to recharge some stamina.

How long did it take to pass through the Underdomes residential area? 15 minutes? It was an impossibly fast speed, even taking into consideration that an Exosuit squad passed through beforehand. Aside from being a little out of breath, it didnt look like he used up that much stamina either.

[Dont you actually think the other life is healthy for you at this point? Why, you know. Like for the placebo effect, or mind control.]

Its probably more like I got used to the danger. Ive experienced this level of danger to my life almost every single day in there. Anxiety actually uses up a surprising amount of stamina in these situations.

Dammit, this is depressing. Ive gotten so used to these kinds of situations that I dont even get nervous anymore. How did my life turn out like this?

Gyosu shook off the thoughts that started to creep into his mind the moment they saw a chance. Its a good thing he has leftover stamina. He still had a long way to go.

That gas bomb was effective, but it sank quickly because it was heavier than air. If the air sinks, then the gangs that the Executive Department hired are going to start pushing in from behind, so if he doesnt start moving forward like he already is, hell have to deal with the Executive Department and gangs at the same time, back-to-back.

When he left the alley and traveled a bit forward, a facility different from the run-down buildings he had seen until now came into sight. A building with windows made of glass, full of bicycles with small screens on them.

Its the power plant.

[Power plant?]

Yeah. Anyone living in the Dome has a certain amount of power they need to generate every day. Theres one in the Upper Dome too, but most come here to the Underdome.

[Dont they only have nice facilities like these up there?]

The Domes actual high-class dont have a power quota in the first place, and this is more of an eyesore than a nice facility.

[Why?]

When you cause a crime in the Dome, they weld you to that bicycle instead of sending you to prison. You need to continue pedaling until you complete your sentence, but its a bit gruesome to watch. Some people die too.

There was blood seeping out of the remaining debris where the Exosuits passed through. All of the other people would have escaped, but the prisoners had a chain welded to the bike, so they couldnt avoid it.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

There was shattered glass all over the ground. Some corpses had prison uniforms, some from the ED, probably because they didnt need to hide anymore, and about four Exosuits that were completely tattered to a scrap. Assuming from the crackling wires and crushed piles of scrap metal, it must have happened while passing through the turrets that defended the central power plant.

When he continued to follow the traces of the Exosuits deep inside, he arrived at a place where his field of vision suddenly opened up and all the other miscellaneous buildings nearby disappeared. It looked like they dug a deep hole and buried massive water tanks in it, then built a tower of cables on top of it.

Were here.

[This is the place?]

Probably.

To Hydes question, Gyosu nodded.

He hadnt seen the central generator, the Domes most important facility, before, but the debris of several Exosuits scattered in the distance and, amongst them, the last two Exosuit units still fighting proved that this was indeed where the enemy was located.