novelnext Chapter 257 : Code Red
Chapter 257 : Code Red
【That will not do.】【I can no longer stand by and watch you run rampant.】
An unidentified voice began echoing inside their minds.
At the same time, sirens suddenly blared throughout all of Sector E.
Wiiiiiiiiiiing-!
-Citizens, this is not a drill.
-I repeat. Citizens, this is not a drill.
-As of 14:23, Code Red has been declared throughout Sector E.
A voice broadcast over loudspeakers.
At the same time, crimson lights unlike anything anyone had ever seen began shooting into the sky.
The light reflected off the thick storm clouds overhead, making it seem as though the entire city had been dyed red.
-W-What is this……!?
-What the hell is going on!?
The civilians who had been hiding inside their homes to avoid the war between the underworld organizations began panicking at the sudden declaration of Code Red.
After all, in the two hundred years since the city had been founded, such an alert had never once been issued.
Even during the previous attack by the Titans, this warning had never been activated.
Not even when the giants destroyed the city wall and turned part of Sector E into ruins had the words Code Red ever been spoken.
-Once again, we repeat.
-Citizens, this is not a drill.
Rumbleeeee-!
From far away came the sound of the defensive turrets moving.
The ground directly before the city wall split open, causing the illegally constructed buildings above it to collapse one after another.
New two-meter-thick walls rose both in front of and behind the original four-meter-thick wall, reinforcing its defenses.
The turrets atop the wall also rose higher, their barrels swiveling in every direction.
Following the automatic mana-detection system, they were attempting to aim toward the location where the strongest mana signature had been detected.
It was obvious what they were targeting.
At the moment, I had my Mana-Detection Sensor activated.
Furthermore, after receiving Omega's cells last time, I had gained the ability to perceive Source Power.
Right now, I could see exactly where mana was flowing and how it moved.
Mana was gathering...
Right here.
And...
“This... is going to be troublesome.”
Aaron muttered as he turned his head toward the city wall.
From where they stood, the enormous ten-meter railgun turrets looked no larger than ants.
But to Aaron's high-performance camera eyes, they were perfectly clear.
Just as expected.
The turrets were turning toward them.
‘Did they improve the system?’
According to the news last time, that mayor had supposedly learned from the Titan Incident and announced plans to install high-performance mana detectors all across Sector E.
At the time, the news had repeatedly shown the ruling and opposition parties practically tearing each other apart in the city council over securing the supplementary budget.
I hadn't cared enough to watch the outcome.
Apparently, though, they had successfully secured the funding and installed the mana detectors throughout Sector E.
Otherwise, there was no way the turrets linked to those detectors could have locked onto this location so precisely.
‘...This isn't the time to keep acting.’
Aaron tossed aside the cheap katana he had bought from the Black Market and immediately drew his true weapon.
“Module Online, [Cloud Spider].”
Black gloves enveloped his hands.
From his fingertips, billions of strands began moving in defiance of the laws of physics.
In an instant, he wove them together into a massive cloth-like structure.
A gigantic shield of woven threads, nearly twenty meters in diameter, spread above everyone's heads.
At that very moment—
Boommmmm-!
Shells fired from the city's defensive railgun batteries rained down at speeds exceeding two kilometers per second.
They descended with enough force to pierce through virtually any defense.
Yet they failed to penetrate the shield woven from Cloud Spider's threads.
Thud. Clatter.
As Aaron lowered the shield, the tungsten projectiles, stripped of all kinetic energy, rolled harmlessly across the floor.
One nearly landed on Marcello's head, but he barely managed to dodge it.
“Uwaaaah!?”
“Run, Boss.”
Aaron gave the order immediately.
As though he had no more time to waste, he spoke only those brief words before pointing toward the exit.
Fortunately, after spending so much time with Aaron, Kim Cheolsu had become quite adept at understanding his intentions.
“R-Right! I'll leave it to you!”
From the looks of it, Aaron had no intention of dropping the act.
Even after all this was over, he seemed intent on keeping me as the figurehead.
That part was admittedly depressing, but there was nothing to be done.
I had to stay alive first.
Only then could I continue pretending to be the Emperor of the Underworld—or return to being an insignificant nobody.
Kim Cheolsu hurriedly led the others out, yet managed to do so with practiced composure, as though he were completely unhurried.
“Phew......”
After successfully sending all the extras away, Aaron raised his eyes toward empty space.
Ordinary people would have seen nothing.
But Aaron sensed an immense concentration of mana gathered there.
The compressed mana was so dense that he could even see localized Otherworld Transformation occurring in that spot.
Space itself was twisting.
“Come out.”
【Sharp instincts.】
The air suddenly distorted.
A hole appeared as though space itself had warped.
A man stepped out from within it.
At first glance, he looked like an ordinary young man.
A baseball cap.
A striped shirt.
Jeans.
A backpack.
Of course, in a city overflowing with post-apocalyptic fashion, that attire could certainly be considered unusual.
However—
【So you've finally made things spiral out of control.】
His eyes were anything but ordinary.
They were reptilian.
His yellow irises and vertically slit pupils resembled those of a serpent.
Some humans fond of bizarre fashion cyberware occasionally implanted artificial eyes resembling those.
But these were incomparably more vivid than such crude mechanical imitations.
Beneath the collar of his shirt, scales resembling those of a reptile were faintly visible along his neck.
【Aaron Stingray……!】
The young man's pupils narrowed even further.
A weak-hearted person would likely have fled in terror from that sight alone.
Aaron merely slipped his hands into his pockets and replied calmly.
“So you're the Genie of the Lamp from the underworld? I went through quite a bit of trouble searching for you.”
【I warned you……!】
“Warned me?”
Aaron let out a faint chuckle.
“And who exactly are you to think you can warn me?”
【Insolent!】
The young man opened his mouth in fury.
At that instant, a tremendous wave of mana crashed over Aaron's body.
Yet Aaron did not even blink as he accepted it head-on.
Instead, something strange happened behind him.
The space engulfed by the immense mana began transforming.
The ordinary concrete floor became a desolate wasteland.
The massive blast door Aaron had previously split in half transformed into something resembling giant boulders.
“As expected... a Dragon truly is a Dragon......”
He had merely released a small amount of mana, yet the surroundings had instantly undergone Otherworld Transformation.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say he could kill humans simply by breathing.
Perhaps it had been another individual, but hearing that a Dragon had once devastated the entire European continent alone no longer seemed unbelievable.
Rumbleeeee-!
At that moment, the turrets atop the city wall moved once more, preparing another railgun volley.
The Dragon frowned with one eye before muttering in annoyance.
【I had hoped those would blow you away, but as expected, that wasn't enough. Instead, they've only drawn even more attention.】
With a casual wave of his hand, an enormous magic circle appeared.
At the same instant, every railgun several kilometers away exploded simultaneously.
That single action vaporized equipment worth hundreds of billions of Credits.
Yet the Dragon clearly could not have cared less as he growled at Aaron.
【This is all because of you. Had it not been for you, I could have finished everything within a year... no, within six months. But because you interfered...!】
“Interfered? What exactly did I interfere with?”
【You know perfectly well!】
The Dragon roared once more.
An immense amount of mana poured from his body.
Again, Aaron accepted it without so much as flinching.
Tentacle-like growths sprouted from the shoulders of his suit, but Aaron merely brushed them away.
“You're taking your frustration out on the wrong person.”
【You bastard...!】
“Yes, just as you said, I'd already figured out the general situation. I knew you were hiding down here while avoiding the Dragon ‘up above,’ and that you were trying to keep everything as quiet as possible for that purpose. But...”
Aaron tilted his head.
“What does any of that have to do with me?”
【You!!】
Unable to contain his fury, the Dragon lunged straight at Aaron.
As though he had been waiting for exactly that—
“Module Online, [Techblade].”
A razor-sharp blade materialized as Aaron assumed a defensive stance.
The young man's arm, which had appeared completely human only moments earlier, had transformed into a Dragon's foreleg.
Aaron swung his sword to block the Dragon's claw.
There was no technique.
No fancy swordsmanship.
Only a simple clash of raw physical force.
But the aftermath was anything but ordinary.
Boooooom-!
The instant Aaron's blade collided with the Dragon's claw, a tremendous shockwave erupted, blasting everything in the surrounding area away.
Cracks spread throughout the underground conference chamber, originally built as a bunker.
Water began pouring through the fissures.
【Ignorant fool! You insignificant inferior race dares interfere with my plans!? Just because you're stronger than other humans, did you truly believe you could defeat me as well!?】
“It couldn't have been much of a plan.”
【Silence!】
The Dragon transformed his other hand into another claw and attacked Aaron once more.
Remaining calm, Aaron activated Cloud Spider in his opposite hand, extending thousands of threads to intercept the incoming claw.
Screeeeeeeech-!
A deadlock.
The vibrating blade of the Techblade scraped against the Dragon's claw, showering sparks.
Cloud Spider's threads stretched to their absolute limit, looking ready to snap at any moment.
Meanwhile, Otherworld Transformation caused by the Dragon's mana steadily continued spreading around them.
The surroundings gradually became a volcanic wasteland.
As that happened, Aaron could feel his own strength slowly being suppressed.
‘He's no easy opponent......’
Within an area undergoing Otherworld Transformation, Mystics became even stronger.
And since the Dragon could reshape the surrounding environment into one perfectly suited for himself, the longer the battle dragged on, the worse Aaron's disadvantage would become.
‘I can't afford to drag this out......!’
Though they had exchanged only two blows, Aaron instinctively knew this opponent was unlike any he had ever faced.
If he wanted to win, he would have to use every means at his disposal.
‘I'd love to just wipe everything out......!’
He wanted to activate every Game Changer-class module he currently possessed at full power and end this immediately.
But if he did—
Sector E might literally be erased from existence.
The one fortunate thing was that Code Red had been declared.
There had originally been no Anti-Rain forecast for today.
However, to stop the invading Mystics, the city would undoubtedly deploy cloud bombs and initiate Level 5 Anti-Rain.
Once the rain began...
That would be the time to attack.
The problem was—
‘Can I hold out while restricting my output until then......?’
No.
That was the wrong question.
I have to hold out.
I couldn't let this hard-earned opportunity slip away.
No matter what, I had to buy time while ensuring the city suffered as little damage as possible.
Likewise, it was important to control the pace of the battle so the Dragon wouldn't go all out either.
Just as I was thinking that—
“……!?”
From somewhere, all of a sudden—
...Ninjas appeared!