EP.31 Resistance - 6
The semi-destroyed management room is dark. The only thing illuminating the inside is the daylight lamp leaking through the gap in the half-collapsed roof. Mountains of debris, overturned floor, and collapsed walls cause even that light to wander and fade.
Dark and shadowy—a place where if you hide with determination you won't be seen, yet if you encounter the sporadic light, your figure is revealed like a ghost. That was this management room.
I gripped the gun looted from the corpse tightly and hid my body in the shadows.
There's only one chance. I must use the darkness to sneak in, and drive an iron armor-piercing bullet into Kanisen's vital point while he's off guard.
If I don't kill him in one strike, there won't be a next time.
Kanisen was once the squire of a renowned knight, and received their ancient qi techniques from them. And the first thing knights learn after obtaining qi techniques is the Bantan GiGong. If Bantan GiGong is deployed, the power of ordinary arrows or bullets is reduced to the level of stinging raindrops.
Even without Bantan GiGong, the solidity of a trained body isn't something a bullet can easily pierce. If it's not a vital point, he would easily withstand one bullet and come to seize and kill me.
That's why guns, while recognized for their utility, aren't evaluated as very good weapons. They only have the meaning of giving the bare minimum of combat power to ordinary people who have nothing.
Walking carefully inward, I concentrated my mind. Thoughts could be heard from beyond the debris. Kanisen was kneeling on one knee on the floor, looking at the passage leading underground. Gamma was investigating the underground passage that had collapsed here and there, hanging from a single rope.
'I found it! They created the bottom of the Bottomless Pit in this way! If that's the case, if we install bombs at just two points, we can collapse this entire place!'
Hey, regressor. I thought you said it would hold for about a year. It seems like these guys have figured something out. What are you going to do about this?
Blaming the regressor in my heart, I soon let out a sigh. What am I going to do, I need to get rid of them to survive.
Fortunately, Kanisen is looking down the passage. In his mind, there was nothing but the desire to successfully complete this terrorist attack. Good. At this level, I don't have to worry about being discovered. If I can just get an angle, that's the end. I carefully took one step.
'Hm? A presence?'
The bad thing about mind-reading is that just because I can read the opponent's thoughts doesn't make me particularly better off.
The good thing about mind-reading is that I can at least read the opponent's wariness first.
Reading that sense of discord right before Kanisen turned his head, I hastily hid back into the shadows. Immediately after, his attention turned toward the passage. Kanisen frowned and glared at the passage.
'Just my imagination...? I'd like to investigate, but unfortunately. As long as Gamma is below, I can't leave my position right now.'
Right now, the only one capable of collapsing this Tantalus is Gamma. Kanisen alone, lacking technical knowledge, can't do anything. Therefore, he prioritized protecting Gamma above all else.
'Still, I've installed a simple trap in the passage. If someone steps on it, I'll notice.'
Ah, how thorough. Setting up a trap even at a time like this.
However, a trap whose existence is revealed inevitably has its danger reduced to a tenth.
Advancing carefully through the debris, I finally saw a glinting thread near my ankle. It was taut to an unnatural degree.
Is this thread trap the trap you trust? How laughable. Carefully lifting my foot, I stealthily stepped over the thread trap.
Jingle, jingle.
A double trap?
It was a double trap.
Damn it. I read the thoughts too carelessly. People around here make double traps so routinely that they don't really consciously think about it, so I got confused!
"Who's there!"
Kanisen reacted immediately to the bell sound. The distance is within arm's reach. If he rushes over, I'll be caught immediately.
It can't be helped. I thrust the gun around the corner and fired blindly.
Bang!
Kanisen covered his face with both arms and closed his eyes. It's the model response when facing a gun. If he deploys Bantan GiGong over his entire body, he'll be safe as long as it doesn't hit his face, especially his eyes.
A knight's method of dealing with a gun is to protect the body with Bantan GiGong and charge recklessly. Kanisen was trying to faithfully follow that doctrine.
If only my bullet hadn't hit the passage leading to the basement.
"Ugh!"
Sneering at the flinching Kanisen, I took advantage of the gap to hide my body in the debris.
There's no reason to shoot at his body when I know it'll be useless anyway. Instead, I aimed at the passage—specifically, the rope stretched across the passage—to make him hesitate. For him right now, Gamma's life was worth more than his own.
"Captain?! What's wrong!"
"Stay put, Gamma. Don't come up."
"What?"
"It's an attack. Stay hidden below."
"Yes, sir!"
Kanisen gave a firm warning and stood up. He gathered the debris piled around him and glared beyond.
'The rope tied to the pillar supports Gamma's weight. If this rope is cut, Gamma, who entered underground by squeezing through the cracked ground, will be isolated. I must protect the rope.'
Thanks for the explanation. I just need to cut the rope. I'll hit the rope with this gun and then escape. It'll be difficult to hit the thin rope, but if I shoot at the part tied to that pillar about five times, I'll hit it once.
'Let's pile up debris to protect the rope. And then go catch that guy.'
No, that's against the rules.
Kanisen layered broken steel frames and boards to protect the rope. It's a makeshift barricade, but it'll block two or three shots. Damn it. It's ruined.
"Who are you. Reveal yourself."
Kanisen, having finished assembling, took a step forward while keeping watch in all directions.
Well, I'm screwed. This is the conclusion I reached after careful deliberation.
He's deploying Bantan GiGong at full power. Even if I shoot an iron armor-piercing bullet, I'm not sure if it'll reach his skin. Even if it does, I won't be able to pierce skin protected by qi technique.
Now the gun is at best a blindfold. The bullet cannot penetrate him.
Then there's only one method left.
"Hello, comrade. Is the escape plan going well?"
I murmured while hiding deep in the debris. Kanisen flinched upon hearing the voice he'd heard a few minutes ago but hadn't yet become familiar with.
Realizing my identity belatedly, Kanisen lowered his voice.
"...It's that laborer. What did you do to Delta?"
"I let him meet his fate that will come soon a little earlier. This gun is his keepsake. I fired it once and the sound was clear? It seems he maintained his firearm very thoroughly. Just like his personality."
"You bastard!"
Trembling with rage, Kanisen grabbed a nearby iron pipe and swung it fiercely. A powerful strong sword. Beyond the debris, something could be heard crumbling. If I get hit by that, my waist will be severed.
However, with his skill level, he can collapse the debris to some extent, but he can't cleave through everything like the regressor. His senses are sharp, but compared to the King of Dogs, he's at the level of a deaf person, and unlike a vampire who dominates the space itself, he can't wound me without swinging his weapon.
He's stronger than me, but he's not something transcendent. Just the level of a knight who disappeared as a relic of the past.
Just ordinarily strong.
If it's just that level.
Sneering at him, I moved positions. I don't need to hide perfectly. I just need to go somewhere outside his field of vision, somewhere he can't figure out.
"You didn't come to save anyone, and you haven't prepared to escape. From the beginning, you were planning to collapse this entire place, weren't you?"
"You saw through it from the start."
"Honestly, if you think about it a little, it's obvious, isn't it? Everyone knows that the Resistance is like a moth to a flame. Everyone knows that this place is the Bottomless Pit where once you enter, you can't leave. If there are two well-known facts and I didn't know them, wouldn't I be the problem?"
"It was all an act. From the moment you saw me, you deceived me completely."
His voice contained anger. Kanisen moved with the intention of tearing me apart with his own hands.
Where to. I fire the gun once more. He flinched instinctively. Not because he was afraid of being shot, but because he knew my target was Gamma and was guarding against that.
Good. The bait is set.
While he was on guard, I moved behind the collapsed roof. It's pitch dark in all directions, and with many obstacles, voices echo this way and that. If I don't speak, he won't be able to pinpoint my exact location.
So Kanisen also gritted his teeth and spoke to me.
"Sending Alpha and Beta was also a trap you set, wasn't it."
'Answer me. Answer and show me your location. That will be your end.'
It was a transparent strategy, but I'll gladly play along. I need to speak too.
"What are you talking about? It's not a trap I set. Alpha and Beta and Delta also died, and even Gamma will die soon, but is that really because of me?"
Hearing my voice, Kanisen strode toward this direction. Reading his movement with mind-reading, I kept my distance by drawing a large circle.
Now then, the tactics are the same as a typical gun versus sword battle. I need to dig into him before he closes in by hearing my voice.
A gun? That's not a weapon anymore, it's a tool. Similar to a magic tool, it's merely a device to attract the opponent's attention and divert their focus.
"The one who drove them into a death trap was you, Kanisen."
My target is Kanisen's mind. His solid, but stone-like heart that shows cracks while weathering the harsh storms of time.
If bullets can't pierce the body, I must at least make holes in the mind. That's the combat method of a mind-reader, isn't it.
"Don't call my name so freely with that filthy mouth. They gave their lives, and they almost succeeded. If it weren't for you, they would have succeeded in their mission."
"Don't speak of others' lives with that filthy mouth. Even if it weren't for me, they would have died anyway. Blowing up Tantalus is a mission that was bound to fail from the start, a chicken rib with nothing to gain even if attempted. If it weren't for you, they would have used their lives on a more valuable and honorable mission."
"You speak presumptuously when you know nothing!"
I read his field of vision. He's coming this way. After lowering my breathing, I crawled under a fallen table. In the darkness, Kanisen's gaze slightly missed me. Having escaped from the dangerous position, I crawled under the collapsed cabinet.
Now. I ultimately have to defeat Kanisen. Without doing so, I won't even be able to escape from here. How to defeat him, I need to think more about that.
Then I saw the cabinet I had knocked down when I came here with Aji before. The cabinet where instructor uniform packets were stored, containing clothing packets.
That definitely had 'that thing' in it. It can't be used on the regressor, the vampire, or Aji. But it would work on Kanisen.
I carefully reached inside the cabinet and took out a slightly unusually shaped clothing packet, hiding it in my hand. The square, hard gray packet was heavy like a mahjong tile made of steel.
Alright. With this, all the pieces are gathered.
Let's use that after a long time. The skill I had sealed away since finding the legitimate job called gambling.
'Pickpocketing'.