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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator:Bobt
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Just before the unidentified gangsters pulled the trigger, Locke first grabbed the back of the neck of the dumbfounded detective next to him and pulled him behind the stairs.
“Aaaah!”
As Daniel screamed and fell backwards, bullets and fire poured out of the gangsters’ muzzles. The narrow apartment corridor was filled with a net of flying bullets. If one didn’t tumble down the back stairs like Daniel, there seemed to be no corner to hide.
But Locke rather ran into that net of bullets.
He moved like a fired arrow while keeping his body astonishingly low. It was to the point where it looked as if his body was being sucked long into the other end of the apartment corridor.
However, no matter how much he lowered his body to reduce the hit area and ran fast, he couldn’t dodge all the bullets that were already filling the corridor and flying towards him. Even though the gangsters’ shooting skills were a mess, their submachine guns had already pulled the trigger and poured out all the bullets they had, thanks to the drrrng sound.
So Locke held up the Auror Blade in front of his body.
The copper bullets flying towards Locke’s Forehead met the unfathomable ultra-high-temperature blade. The part that met its core lightly vaporized, and the rest bounced off at an angle and flew in a strange direction. The half-melted bullets made a strange pew-sound.
The gray Auror Blade didn’t even move much. Locke just slightly flicked his wrist to melt and deflect all the bullets flying towards his body. The gunshot sound and the strange sound of ricocheted bullets mixed together in confusion, making the apartment corridor noisy.
And before that sound ended, Locke’s Aurora Blade, which had reached the front of the gangsters, began to dance.
The weak flesh of humans and elves was cut without a sound, and chrome and artificial muscles like special implants fell off with a piss-like sound, spilling the last words.
“Fuck-! What the hell is this bastard!”
“Shoot! I said shoot!”
The gangsters shouted and pulled the trigger, but even the bullets fired at close range were lightly deflected by Locke’s senses that were close to precognition and the nimble movement of the Auror Blade that was no different from weightless. Rather, those deflected bullets sometimes penetrated the bodies of other gangsters.
The narrow apartment corridor was also no constraint at all. Whether it was concrete walls or steel partitions, Locke’s Aurora Blade moved without hindrance. Where the blade passed, only a glowing yellow line and a deep groove remained.
In the end, when Daniel, who had fallen towards the stairs, hurriedly got up and stood in front of the corridor, the situation was already over.
“…My god.”
Daniel, who had clumsily taken out his gun, trembled as he saw the dismembered corpses and Locke standing in the middle of the heat lines drawn here and there in the corridor. It felt like he had glimpsed the fear of the Auror Master That his senior had talked about.
Then Locke shouted, looking at the other end of the corridor.
“Some guys ran away. You go check the informant first.”
“Wha? Oh oh…”
Locke started running, leaving Daniel, who was answering dumbly, behind.
Some had run to the opposite side of the corridor as soon as the gangsters, who had suddenly pointed their muzzles, started firing indiscriminately. Even if they couldn’t fully grasp the unfolding situation yet, it was quite ominous that they immediately started shooting as soon as they saw them and some started running away while placing others.
As Locke turned the corner of the corridor like that, he saw a door with a broken lock swinging. Screams were coming from inside.
He barged in through the swinging door with his shoulder and briefly saw the backs of those jumping off the window balcony and a man and woman lying on the bed.
The naked man and woman hugging each other screamed again at the sight of Locke appearing with a shining light sword.
Locke lightly ignored those screams and curses and ran to the balcony to check below. He saw three people running fast on the rooftop of the low building on the opposite side.
Locke also put away his Auror Blade and immediately kicked the balcony railing. His body flew over the crowded market alley.
Locke, who had leaped and reached the rooftop on the opposite side, began sprinting again after a natural fall. His eyes were fixed on the three people running ahead.
On the rooftops of the old downtown buildings, there were all sorts of old things messily scattered, from old water tanks to voltage regulators, from exhaust ducts to shrines of unknown gods and clotheslines with blankets spread out.
The fleeing ones skillfully stepped on and jumped between those structures and glanced back. And upon making eye contact with Locke, who had gotten very close, they began to panic.
Locke’s Eyes captured the appearance and dress of those who were running away. They all wore loose-fitting clothes to conceal their race and physique, and they even wore hoods and masks on their heads to make their faces unrecognizable. They looked clearly different from the corpses in the corridor who had seemed like back-alley gangsters at a glance.
Locke’s hand went to the Auror Blade in the scabbard, thinking of at least slicing their legs and interrogating them. But just before that blade of light rose, he saw them throw their bodies off the rooftop.
“Why do they like jumping off so much?”
He muttered like that out of habit and checked the situation below. He saw narrow market alleys crowded with people and the guys running through them.
Locke, who had confirmed their appearance, snickered because one of the three seemed to have twisted his ankle or something and was limping behind.
“You’ll hate it now.”
Locke’s Body dropped into the middle of the market alley. Thanks to those who had already fallen and ran ahead, the gazes of the people who had been bustling turned to him.
Ignoring all those gazes, Locke immediately caught up with the guy who was falling behind. He was going to subdue the guy first and then catch the other two as well.
The guy confirmed Locke’s Figure sliding through the crowd and ran limping like a madman. He also shouted something like a scream, seeming to be asking for help from those who had gone ahead. But because of the mask he was wearing, his voice was muffled and hard to understand.
Finally, Locke’s Hand grabbed the back of the guy’s neck. The guy screamed like a rat, kie-ek. As Locke’s Hand tightened, he felt the guy’s body stiffen.
At that moment, a sense of unease flashed through Locke’s Senses. When he turned his gaze forward, he saw another fleeing figure taking out a heavy submachine gun.
From that submachine gun, a booming tuk-tuk-tuk poured out.
In a split second, Locke released the hand grabbing the back of the neck and spun his body around to avoid the flying bullets. At the same time, Locke’s Right hand that went into his pocket grabbed and pulled out the revolver. In the middle of the market where blood and bullets were flying, the muzzle of the revolver aimed at the fleeing man’s forehead.
With a single bang, the head of the fleeing man holding the submachine gun jerked back. As he did so, the muzzle of the submachine gun he was holding also went up and poured out the remaining bullets towards the innocent sky.
“Aaaah-!”
“It’s a gun!”
After that very short scene, the market alley fell into chaos. The street that had already been bustling began to burst with the movement of people seized by fear.
Locke lowered the revolver that had been aiming at the other side in the middle of that chaos. His shooting skills were not bad, but he was not to the point of performing the miracle of hitting only the desired target in this mess. Firearms and Auror Masters were originally not on good terms.
His eyes saw the fleeing man staggering and straightening his body even in the chaos. As if the mask he was wearing had blocked Locke’s Revolver bullet, the guy was bleeding from his forehead but didn’t seem to die. Instead, as the mask shattered, the guy’s face was revealed.
It was an orc with black tattoos all over his face. The guy was panting excitedly with his fangs exposed. His electronic eyes glowed red.
At that moment, another fleeing man tapped his shoulder and began to move away. The orc turned his body quickly, looking angry even though he was covered in blood and snorting.
Locke put the revolver back in his pocket and checked the floor. The fleeing man who had become a rag by his comrade’s shooting was taking his last breaths. When the mask was removed, the face of an elf as skinny as a drug addict was revealed. The guy looked at the void with dull eyes and soon stopped breathing with a deflating sound.
Locke, who threw the mask on his chest, looked at the corpses scattered on the market floor in addition to that guy. They were the people who had been between the tattooed orc and the dead elf. Whatever bullets they used, the corpses had their heads or chests punctured and their limbs torn off. Locke’s Eyes sunk deep.
Locke, who got up, immediately chased after the fleeing men who were disappearing far beyond the alley corner. It was a chaotic crowd of people screaming mindlessly, but Locke’s Body easily penetrated through the gaps. The fleeing people didn’t even properly feel him brushing past them.
However, what caught Locke’s Eyes as he turned the alley corner was the back of a gray vehicle already moving away. That vehicle trampled the alley’s garbage piles and soon escaped into the bright main road, disappearing from Locke’s Sight.
Locke stood there for a moment, looking at the main road where the sunlight shone beyond the narrow alley.
“…This is getting a bit heated.”
A thin smile hung on the corner of his mouth. But his eyes were still cold and sunken.
At that moment, police cars appeared from the main road Locke had been looking at, with sirens blaring. Police officers who got out of the cars shouted, trying to calm the messed-up market alley.
Locke turned his body before encountering them.
* * *
“Damn it…”
Daniel bit his lip while examining the corpse lying on the bed.
The corpse with a skinny body had a net socket behind the ear connected to the computer next to the bed with a long cable, and judging by the blackened net socket part, it seemed that he had been hit by another magician’s spell. Or maybe he melted away while trying to hack into some corporation’s database and got caught by its firewall.
Whatever it was, what was certain was that this magician, who had been Daniel’s informant, was already dead.
Daniel, who had been biting his lip, didn’t give up and began to search the corpse’s room. It was to quickly find any other clues. The police report had already been made due to the gunshots in the apartment corridor. He had bought some time with the report that he was nearby and dispatched, but if he hesitated, other police officers would soon come looking for him.
“It doesn’t look good here either.”
“Ack!”
Daniel, who had been rummaging through the bookshelf, was startled by the voice from the apartment’s front door. The owner of the voice was Locke. Daniel, who saw him, hurriedly asked,
“Wha, what happened? Did you catch them?”
Locke shook his head. Daniel’s expression turned into a tearful one.
“I guess that corpse was the informant.”
“…That’s right. It’s not certain, but he’s a magician who had a connection with the ‘Children of the Trees’. The police higher-ups think they suddenly bomb factories randomly chosen, but in my senior’s and my speculation, they weren’t such ignorant guys. They hack into corporate data servers to find out security personnel and work hours to find suitable prey. No, they might even manipulate the information to make it so.”
Locke, who had approached the corpse, turned the face that was looking up at the void with dull eyes this way and that. And he shifted his gaze to the computer next to it.
“Hmm. This magician is dead, but the computer remains. Is there no way?”
“What? Are you telling me to hack that computer?”
Daniel made a troubled expression.
“That… The only cyberspace dive I’ve done is looking at cat pictures on the humor cyberweb…”
He hurriedly continued his excuse at Locke’s Gaze.
“No, I’m not a magician, and what would I have to dive deep for? People are all like that. I always have the police radio channel open, but other than that…”
Locke let out a small sigh. He was originally a pure human without even a net socket, so there was nothing they could get from here.
“Alright. Then let’s at least take this computer for now. If we take it to another magician…”
At that moment, there was a presence at the apartment’s front door. Locke grabbed the revolver in his pocket and turned his body towards the entrance.
“…I told you to stay in the car.”
Poking her head out of the open front door was a black-haired girl, Liz.
Despite Locke’s Words, she slowly entered the apartment. Daniel was dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of the girl, and then, realizing there was a corpse, tried to hide it.
“Uh, little girl. You can’t come up here now. Hurry back to the car. I’ll buy you ice cream or something later…”
“Locke, is it difficult?”
Daniel looked back at Locke with a puzzled look. It was a gaze as if asking what’s up with the kid. But Locke was only looking at Liz with heavy eyes.
The girl’s eyes turned to the dead magician’s corpse and the computer next to it. The ring of light surrounding her pupils twinkled.
“That magician and computer are broken, Locke. Nothing can be found out by ordinary means.”
Locke saw that look and grinned, revealing his teeth.
“…Yeah. It definitely didn’t seem like just a human.”
He turned his gaze to Daniel. Daniel had a puzzled expression, raising question marks as if he didn’t know what this conversation was about now.
“Huh? What? Why?”
“Go wait outside.”
“What? Hey, I’m a detective. This is a crime scene. But…”
Daniel immediately stopped talking when he saw something flashing deep in Locke’s Eyes.
“…Yeah, I should go out. It seems like you two are going to have a deep conversation. Then of course I have to go out. Haha.”
Daniel, who had become a sunken tearful face unlike his laughter, obediently left the apartment. Judging by the fact that he even carefully closed the front door, he wasn’t an insensitive detective. Maybe he was trying to eavesdrop on the conversation after doing that.
When the disturbance disappeared, only Locke, Liz, and the silent corpse were left in the messy apartment.
Locke spoke first.
“I have to ask the question I asked before again. What are you?”
“Liz is Liz. Liz cannot accept anyone else before Liz.”
“Are you really human?”
“Liz is definitely human. The heart beats, and starves to death if not eating.”
Locke’s Eyes narrowed. His hand grabbed the Auror Blade on his waist.
“It seems you have no intention of answering properly. Do you think I can’t touch you because you have the appearance of a child?”
“Liz knows Locke is not that kind of person. Locke is a much kinder and gentler person than Locke thinks.”
Liz looked up at Locke with an expressionless face, but with somewhat sad eyes. Locke, who met those eyes, froze for a moment.
A whisper brushed past his ear.
-I love you, Locke.
“You…”
At that moment, leaving the frozen Locke, Liz approached the magician’s corpse and the computer. And she said, fiddling with the long cables there,
“In 10 minutes, other detectives will come looking. The mister outside won’t be able to stop them. So Locke and Liz have to dive right now.”
“…Cyberspace dive requires a net socket. I’ve never had that piece of metal stuck in my head in my life, and as far as I know, you don’t have that either.”
Liz continued, tearing and attaching the cables while grunting.
“Liz can dive without a socket. But in that space, Liz can only float aimlessly. Locke has to find the necessary information.”
“…Cyberspace dive? Me?”
Locke had to feel a proper sense of perplexity for the first time in a long while. Even when training to become an Auror Master, and even after becoming one, he had never entered cyberspace that everyone else connected to. Sometimes he felt a huge gap between them and himself, but he had never wanted to abandon everything he had trained for his entire life and enter the world of the net.
Liz picked up the net gear on one side and looked up at Locke again, saying,
“There’s no time,Locke. Either trust me now or give up the pursuit.”
Locke’s Black eyes met Liz’s black eyes. Whatever Locke saw in that little girl’s eyes, he soon pulled out the handle of the Auror Blade from the scabbard.
“How do I trust you?”
“Liz trusts Locke. Locke, trust Liz too.”
A hollow laugh escaped his mouth. How long had they known each other to talk about trust? But after a moment, Locke sat straight on the floor and placed the Auror Blade in front of him.
He muttered,
“…I don’t know what this is doing.”
“In fact, most people live without knowing what they’re doing. Locke is much better in that he has realized that fact.”
Liz put on the net gear with complicated cables connected while saying incomprehensible things. And she approached Locke, who was sitting.
“Ready?”
“Go ahead.”
She nodded, then pulled the net gear down to her eyes, and placed her right hand on Locke’s Forehead. Locke’s Eyes widened. His field of vision in front of his eyes swirled round and round, and at some point, it turned black.
And an infinite space made of shining grid patterns unfolded before him.
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