How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Do supplents co from shoe soles these days

***

Judging by the fact that they showed up at just the right mont, it ant it was a prearranged action. Communications had already been cut. There was no way they had approached after hearing a distress call.

It was obvious that so unidentified group had lured them in.

“Captain! The door…!”

The problem did not end there. The hatch, which had functioned perfectly until now, began to split apart little by little.

Zzzzt.

What leaked out through the gap was a blindingly intense blue light. Even from a distance, the sparks flying in all directions made my face sting.

It was a familiar sight.

It was a tool that even Ion had handled at one point.

A plasma cutter.

It was closer to a tool than a weapon, but it was never sothing to be taken lightly.

It was one of the many special devices used to construct space passenger ships.

The opponent had clearly chosen it with that in mind. Moreover, whether it had been modified separately or not, its output was abnormally high.

As expected, the wall supporting the bridge lted away with absurd ease.

Koo-kwang.

Stepping in as if using the thick steel plates as stepping stones was a cyborg who had replaced his entire body with machinery—

“Giness.”

“Do you know ?”

How could I not?

“There aren’t many people who cross the final line as a human.”

It was the 24th century.

Advanced science and technology had already gone beyond the scope of human cognition. It was a structure where institutional chanisms inevitably had to follow. That was why humanity presented new standards.

Shackles that even a gacorp could not escape.

The ‘Four Fundantal Laws.’

Among them, the Artificial Intelligence Restriction Act was a asure established to suppress intellects made of 0s and 1s. It designated that artificial intelligence could only be used in prescribed ways and for prescribed purposes.

That was also why androids could not directly enter combat.

If responsibility were shifted onto convenient tools, what followed would be a war of attrition without emphasis.

Through the Third World War, humanity had experienced what kinds of evils aningless conflict produced. At the very least, they had reached an agreent to ensure artificial intelligence was used in the right places.

However, it was not without blind spots. Even if the domain of artificial intelligence was restricted, humans themselves were not.

A representative example was the act of entrusting one’s consciousness to a full-body prosthetic that artificial intelligence would normally use.

A blind sense of purpose that burned even one’s own body brushed against madness.

That was why people said—

“They call him the fanatic Giness, don’t they?”

“If you even know my alias, then we can skip the preamble. Open the engine room.”

“So that was your goal after all. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can grant your request. Even if you were to deal with all the passengers, my decision would not change.”

Ion refused with the feeling of swallowing needles, but—

“That decision isn’t yours to make.”

Suddenly, a pregnant woman appeared behind Giness—no, it was Neria. She pulled on a cable embedded in her palm.

In an instant, the adapter connected to its end latched onto the back of Ion’s neck.

Click.

Ion tried to tear it off, but Giness moved first and pressed down on his shoulder.

Perhaps because he was soone who had shed the human fra.

The pressure alone was overwhelming.

“Kh.”

“Stay still.”

“Connecting. Establishing a bypass route, breaching the ntal barrier.”

Stealing another person’s information required a high level of skill. At the very least, it required two or more slots, along with the corresponding talent.

Rare, high-grade personnel.

There was no way there would be two of them on board.

Realizing a beat too late that Neria was the Tuner who had shut down the ship’s equipnt earlier, Ion closed his eyes. He instinctively knew that despite producing countless victims, he would ultimately fail to fulfill his duty.

“Access code acquired.”

“Then we’ll move on to the next step.”

A blue light flared up from Giness’s forearm.

***

“They’re targeting the ion drive?”

Ga-on muttered, but Bintello did not move a muscle. That was only natural. His pupils had long since gone empty.

Ga-on had not asked expecting an answer anyway. He had already obtained all the necessary information.

What people commonly called an ion drive was generally composed of three devices.

Hydrogen collection armor.

A nuclear fusion reactor.

And an ion propulsion engine.

When all were present without exception, it allowed traversal of space at light speed, which was why the municipal governnt had strictly controlled it.

A strategic resource that even a gacorp could not own.

There was no way an ominous group would not covet it. If they succeeded, they could establish a foundation sturdier than anyone else’s.

But putting it into action was a separate matter.

The municipal governnt would pursue them for the rest of their lives.

Whether it was the result of confidence or arrogance was unclear, but what mattered was that their rampage would not stop just because soone told them to.

That was why I had no choice but to restrain the girl who readily volunteered to step forward.

“As you’ve heard, it’s an extrely dangerous situation.”

“But doesn’t it seem like it’s already too late to back out now?”

“Miss Phytoncide.”

At the subtly reproachful tone, the girl hesitated for a mont but did not retreat. She was not the type to ddle by nature, but it did not seem like turning away would solve anything either.

“I can at least protect my own body. I can control slots or units at the MUG—2 level, and besides, you don’t know where those people are, do you?”

A desperate protest.

And on top of that, the last words were sothing that even Ga-on could not help but find appealing.

“You can find out?”

“That grandfather’s device is still there, right? It can probably send at least an ergency signal. If we limit the transmission range, it should be possible to call only people nearby.”

“So you’re saying we try being the Pied Piper.”

After careful consideration, Ga-on soon reached a conclusion.

“Then don’t go ahead of . And if anything feels off, run imdiately. Even if I die. Can you keep that promise?”

“…Yes, I understand.”

With that, Ga-on ended the conversation and pulled a pistol from Bintello’s waist.

The embedded ammunition count was seventeen rounds.

Of course, with the auto-lock engaged, it seed like it wouldn’t be usable—

Click.

With a crisp sound, the security was released.

Ga-on lacked the qualifications of a Tuner, but he was not just anyone.

“What do you think? Seems usable enough, don’t you think?”

Shaking his head as if she was hopeless, Ga-on opened his trunk bag. He found Nuclase and poured it straight into his mouth.

“What is that?”

“A supplent.”

“Do supplents co from shoe soles these days?”

The girl looked at him suspiciously, but Ga-on consistently feigned ignorance.

“Then let’s go.”

***

The plan the girl proposed was quite effective. Bintello’s position within the group must not have been low, because every ti an ergency signal was sent, they ca running.

Ga-on retrieved the combat knife embedded between the brows of an unknown man and counted.

“That makes four. Looks like we’ve taken care of most of the patrol units.”

It was encouraging that the enemy’s strength was diminishing, but the longer the tail, the easier it was to get caught. In a few more minutes, there was a high chance they would be discovered.

“What do we do now?”

“We head to the bridge.”

Disassembling the ion drive recklessly was out of the question. The engine room had been designed to self-destruct if intruders entered.

Since only the captain could issue the release command, the enemy’s route was inevitably limited.

However, Ga-on had to stop after not going very far.

Unexpected guests appeared at a dead end.

And there were two of them.

“I knew it. What if we had really stopped searching?”

“Didn’t you say there was only one we missed? Why do I see two?”

It was the young man and woman they had seen in the cargo hold.

The man was called Matt, and the woman was Sheet, if he rembered correctly.

“Who cares. As long as we deal with them properly.”

“I suppose so.”

“No one escapes us anyway.”

The two chatted casually, as if they had already caught their prey.

Ga-on did not hesitate and pulled the trigger.

Fairly, alternating between the two.

However, the fired bullet failed to pierce the forehead and instead curved away. More precisely, it only scraped the skin and bounced off.

‘A slot?’

He had clearly undergone additional enhancent procedures on his forehead.

“Guys who are confident in their shooting always aim for the head first.”

The mont Matt extended his arm, his forearm opened up in four directions. What erged from inside was a chanical device drawing smooth curves like a parabolic antenna.

There had been no warning signs, yet the instant I faced it, a searing sensation dominated my entire body.

A pain beam that fired a specific electromagnetic wave, stimulating only the nociceptors distributed beneath the epidermis.

Also known as the ‘Pain Maker.’

I never expected to see a suppression weapon used by the Public Enforcent Corps or the military in a place like this, but it wasn’t the ti to be impressed.

Perhaps judging that Matt had restrained , Sheet raised her rifle.

I could tell what their tactic was.

Matt restrained, and Sheet finished the job—coordination that complented each other was the core.

But it wasn’t flawless.

To put it another way, the two of them together only amounted to one full fighter. Taken further, each of them alone was half-baked.

On top of that, the matchup itself was bad.

To soone like , who had died countless tis, pain that felt like it could kill was no better than a aningless attack.

My brief hesitation had rely been a gesture to induce carelessness.

Exploding forward, I ignored the bullet that grazed past my temple and charged straight at Sheet.

“What—”

I had just learned how tough the skull was. But—

“How about under the jaw?”

Pushing the muzzle between the soft flesh, I pulled the trigger.

Bang!

“Sheet!”

Almost simultaneously with Matt screaming and trying to steady himself for a counterattack, I spun like a top.

Using the collapsing Sheet as a foothold, I leaped and drove a kick straight into Matt’s abdon.

It was only natural that Matt let out a strangled cry at the spear-like strike.

Before the sprawled Matt could get back up, I gathered the last of my centrifugal force and threw the combat knife.

Thud!

The blade pierced cleanly through his neck.

Barely two seconds had passed since the close-quarters fight began. In the end, only one person was left standing.

“So that makes three out of five dealt with.”

As I replayed the battles that had unfolded so far, the girl approached my side.

“My help was pretty big, right?”

“What help?”

“I stopped the man’s slot.”

Now that she ntioned it, the intense pain did seem to fade at the mont of impact. But whether that had decisively influenced the outco—

“Not sure. I think I would’ve been fine without it.”

“Yes, yes. I get it. A man’s pride, right?”

No, that’s not it.

It felt like things were getting pathetic, so I kept my mouth shut.

In any case, I couldn’t keep talking. I had been feeling a strange gaze for a while now.

“How about coming out instead of just watching?”

“Oh, you noticed?”

A boy appeared from around the corner, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

A smile that was impossible to forget.

Yeah, it was him.

The main culprit behind the sudden massacre in the passenger cabin.

According to what I heard from Bintello—

“Your na was Ron, was it?”