How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Better Than You

***

It was not an ordinary type, either.

It was reinforced with alloy and fitted with a large filter. It looked as if he could survive even if he were dropped into space right now.

“I ca just in case, but what a complete ss this place is. The dog guarding the yard is nowhere to be seen, and soone let the rabbit loose so it’s hopping around.”

Dog and rabbit.

It was obvious what those words referred to.

Moreover, he had approached at this timing as if to make a point. He was clearly not so Clubber who feared the morning.

One could tell just from the way he casually used words that implied a hierarchical relationship.

The boy was undoubtedly the superior of the man who had fled.

Yes, one of the ones who had designed this entire board from the very beginning.

“Do you know Mr. Wolf?”

“Wolf? Ah, that ripperdoc? You could say we’re connected, or you could say we’re not… but who are you to be asking that?”

“I’m a fixer, sent by a victim sacrificed by you people.”

“Oh, is that so.”

The boy shrugged.

It was no coincidence that the corpses of the gangsters he had passed earlier flashed through his mind. Here, there had only been one possible variable.

“Should I say I’m lucky I t the ambush in advance? Still, this has beco troubleso. The ones who used to clean up after are all dead.”

“So you were in league with the Pier Gang as well.”

“You found out that much? Then I really can’t let you leave alive.”

The boy, spinning in circles on his aggressive skates, turned the valve attached to his gas mask. The mont he did, breath seeped out through the filter.

Hooook.

The exhale he released condensed the moisture in the air, blooming into snowflakes.

Needless to say, the surrounding temperature plumted in an instant. As the chill seeped into her skin, Sakuya wrapped her arms around herself. It was a teorological phenonon too intense to simply call winter.

“Oppa?”

“Stay far back until I co get you.”

That was not the result of any Unit at work.

It was simply pure supernatural power.

The boy’s gas mask was not equipnt ant to block foreign substances. It was rely a device to flamboyantly release his ability.

That made one thing clear.

The boy’s identity, the force backing the ripperdoc—

‘A ta-human.’

It was the long-awaited appearance of one of my own kind. Yet I felt no joy. They had willingly taken part in extracting devices, and they had chosen to sacrifice innocent trainees as offerings.

I thought I understood why the ripperdoc had broken away from the Mafia.

It was an organization that had such human weapons in its ranks. Whatever vision he had seen, it would not have been strange.

However, the blueprint Ga-on had hoped for was slightly different from that of the ripperdoc. No matter how much they were being pursued by the municipal governnt, I had wished that they would at least not lose their final shred of hope and would preserve their true selves.

Perhaps that was why I felt disappointed while facing the boy.

I felt as though I could understand how ta-humans had fallen and beco corrupted.

But the boy interpreted my reaction differently.

“Look at that dumbfounded face.”

As the boy sneered and waved his hand, the chill that had been scattered like fog swirled together and ford a single shape.

It was an icicle.

An icicle refined so smoothly that calling it an awl would not have been an exaggeration.

Shuk!

Moreover, the speed at which it was fired rivaled that of a bullet.

And it was not just one. Dozens, hundreds of them rained down in succession, turning the entire area into ruins in the blink of an eye.

Alone, the boy easily surpassed the firepower once possessed by the Pier Gang.

More threatening than anything else was the fact that the weapons evaporated without leaving a trace. No matter how distinct their shape, their essence was ultimately water. There would be no evidence left at the scene.

It went without saying that he possessed ample qualities as an assassin.

There was one more thing.

Thud.

In front of the icicles, the coat failed to properly function as protective gear. Designed with a specialization against firearms, it was vulnerable to blades that drilled into a single point.

Perhaps it was a structural flaw inherent to sothing woven from fibers.

Even so, I tried to force a lead bullet in. Even a ta-human was ultimately human.

There was no way he would be fine with a hole blown through his head.

Click.

However, the lead bullet lost its montum before it could even reach the boy.

The boundary between the fog and the boy was indistinct. It was impossible to tell how much he had turned the valve. The gas mask continuously expelled cold air as if it were a steam engine.

It was then that icicles shot upward, riding the thick fog that had settled over the ground.

Until now, they had only been fired in one direction, making this attack difficult to predict.

Barely dodging the icicle that grazed the tip of my chin, I caught sight of Clock, skewered like a kebab.

“So that was your aim.”

“Without that silent pistol, you’re nothing special.”

“Yeah, is that so.”

I discarded Clock and lowered my stance, but the boy remained dismissive. He seed to think that no matter how much I struggled, there was little I could do.

As if rebuking that complacent judgnt, I crossed dozens of ters in the blink of an eye and swung my folding knife.

“Kh.”

It was such a sudden developnt that even receiving the attack properly proved difficult.

Had the motor embedded in his aggressive skates not activated to execute an evasive maneuver, it might have been a fatal strike.

“Ha, right. So you were hiding so tricks after all.”

Ga-on’s strike had certainly been formidable, but that did not guarantee victory. All he had to do was widen the distance.

With a light leap, the boy sprang upward and dashed along the wall. It was a structure unsuited to defying gravity, but all he had to do was form a sheet of ice over it.

Any place that could serve as a foothold—that beca his track.

However, three-dinsional maneuvering was not the boy’s exclusive domain.

Using the incoming icicles as stepping stones, I leaped and slid in pursuit of him.

It was an environnt where an ordinary person could not even stand, yet I naturally kept my balance and gave chase. In an attempt to shake off, the boy swung his arm.

In an instant, the ice sheet the two of us had passed over broke apart and transford into icicles.

Before the boy could pass judgnt, I broke through the wall encircling and leaped upward. The ti I could remain airborne was only a few seconds.

But it was more than enough to counterattack.

In that fleeting instant, the rotation had already begun.

Kiiik.

As I swung the folding knife, the fog scattered. The sudden gale generated at close range robbed the icicles of their direction, causing them to strike the innocent roadway instead.

Even the chill that tried to suppress the rising vortex could not withstand the pressure difference and was sucked into the folding knife.

Though his shield had vanished, the boy did not panic and removed his gas mask. It was not only I who had wished for the distance to close.

“Coming near was your mistake.”

I could hear the boy’s voice, but it was impossible to make out his face. A cold far beyond anything from monts ago swirled violently.

Crack.

At the ominous splitting sound, I looked at my hand and widened my eyes. The color had drained from my skin; it had split open, revealing the flesh beneath. More shocking was that the muscles and veins that should have been visible were entirely replaced with ice.

As a bonus, the folding knife, unable to withstand the sudden contraction, shattered.

‘Ice Age.’

A catastrophe no one born on Earth could ever forget manifested from the boy.

***

Without warning, the world was dyed white.

Even from far away, it was unmistakable. Simply drawing a breath was painful, and Sakuya involuntarily took a step back.

What on earth was happening at the center of that?

Worried about the young man, Sakuya could not easily bring herself to move away. She had been told to wait, but she could not be certain that obeying those words was truly the right choice.

Moreover, she possessed a tool.

That unknown ‘power’ that had briefly halted the ripperdoc.

With that, there might be a chance.

That was why she broke her promise and confidently stepped forward. But the courage she had painstakingly squeezed out collapsed before the cruel result.

She saw the young man’s face, cold and frozen solid.

There was not even the slightest margin for revival; the word plaster statue would have suited him better.

The boy, now wearing his gas mask again and locking the valve shut, let out a hollow laugh at the unexpected guest.

“What is this, you crawled in here on your own? Thought your prince had won? Seriously, girls with their heads in flower fields are such a pain.”

Since Sakuya was one of the targets to secure, this was sothing he should have welcod. Of course, that did not an he felt particularly pleased.

“So you thought it was obvious that I’d lose?”

Having never once been defeated since his awakening, the boy could not help but take it as an even greater insult.

It felt as though a sacred ground he had treasured had been trampled.

“Hey, do I look easy to you? Am I a pushover? I’m asking you.”

“No, I….”

Sakuya’s reply was unsatisfying. It was not only her tone that lacked clarity.

Her expression looked completely broken.

Realizing that tornting her would yield almost nothing, the boy roughly scratched his head. Even though he had won overwhelmingly, the aftertaste was unpleasant.

It was only natural that the anger he felt toward Sakuya shifted to Ga-on.

“Hey, this is all because of you. What the hell are you, huh? Showing up and causing shit.”

So he trampled him as if to put on a show.

Each ti the aggressive skates rolled, wheel marks were clearly carved into the face.

It was already a form that could hardly be called human.

Looking at the cracked lump of flesh, the boy smiled in satisfaction and turned his head toward Sakuya.

“Hey, look at your prince. Well? What do you think?”

“…….”

“If you want to preserve even this much intact, answer .”

“Even so….”

“Even so?”

“He’s still cooler than you.”

Wiping at her reddened eyes, Sakuya protested in a low voice. At the sight of her refusing to bow her head to the very end, the boy put strength into his leg.

Crunch.

The face that had at least retained so shape shattered into pieces, the fragnts scattering in all directions.

“Oops, guess I overdid it without aning to.”

“Ah… ah….”

Sakuya collapsed to her knees and scread.

***

Immortality ant, just as the word implied, that one had escaped death.

But in this world, there were circumstances so horrific that death would have been preferable.

The ti I had nearly experienced being lost in space before was one of them.

Not dying, yet being no different from dead.

That was not much different from the disaster I was facing now.

‘Freezing to death.’

No, since I was not dead, perhaps frostbite was more accurate.

This illness, originating from hypothermia, halted the circulation of blood and induced necrosis of the body. In the end, the heart would stiffen and death would follow, but immortality alone was the exception.

It rely imposed restrictions on movent.

I had experienced it several tis before.

Back when the routes between Dos had not been clearly defined, I had to traverse them relying solely on intuition. A wrong choice would leave buried in a snowfield, unable to do anything.

‘How did I escape back then?’