“Hmm?”
Soo wiggled her fingers, leaving the first monster, whose body had exploded, to tumble across the floor.
‘The impact felt peculiar.’
She hadn’t hit many people.
No, she had never hit a person to begin with.
Yet, the sensation in her hand from disciplining the cyborg-dog just moments ago remained vividly clear.
Of course, the cyborg-dog had been entirely alloy, and the monster whose body had just burst was, at least, covered in human skin, but still, there was something… something fundamental about the feel that was different.
‘Rebound force?’
A strange rebound force was perceptible the moment her fist connected.
Did her fist slip? No, it felt more like it was slightly pushed back… No, more than that.
‘It felt like pinching jelly.’
The sensation was akin to pinching or passing through jelly.
That was precisely it.
And not the soft, tender kind like konjac jelly, but the tough, resilient texture of a famous gummy bear.
‘It wasn’t a shield after all?’
Soo had only been able to perceive the existence of magic because she could see it.
She had seen a faint membrane enveloping the monster’s body.
Witnessing that membrane deflect bullets, she had even felt how it did so.
Thus, she had naturally assumed it was shield magic.
She had distinctly seen it emit a force slightly weaker than the incoming bullet’s momentum, effectively halting its speed at zero.
But… it wasn’t a shield.
After seeing it up close, hitting it, and finally smashing it, she understood clearly.
A force that pushed back against external impacts?
No.
Magic that repelled incoming projectiles.
That was why the bullets had fallen harmlessly, why the monsters remained unshaken even when hit by bullets while running, and why they hadn’t burned from the napalm.
“Wow!”
Soo threw her arms up in triumph, her body trembling.
‘It’s so much cooler than a shield…!’
But then.
If this was truly that kind of magic.
Why had these monsters only used it as a shield?
‘Are they conserving mana?’
Soo’s tail, which had been wagging in silent exultation, curved into a question mark.
“Magic thieves. Do you have mana too?”
Soo shifted her gaze.
Her eyes met those of the four remaining monsters.
A chilling silence descended upon the wasteland, where screams had echoed just moments before.
The monster, which hundreds of bullets and napalm could not scratch, had been killed by a single punch.
The Maika family, stunned by the spectacle, could only gape in silence.
And the monsters?
They had been silent from the start. No matter how many insults were hurled, they remained mute, focused only on slaughtering the family.
Now, these very monsters were staring intently at Soo.
They swiftly changed their target.
The most dangerous individual must be dealt with first.
No conversation or signals were needed.
The monsters’ thoughts were inextricably linked.
Even the monster that had just died was no exception.
They had confirmed where and how it had been struck down.
Based on that data, they would refine their strategy.
A single blow to the torso.
The end? Indeed, the end.
Truly? Truly.
Though there was no need to meet eyes for communication, the monsters exchanged glances, each thinking the answer in their mind was an error.
It was no error.
It had ended with a single strike to the torso.
This provided insufficient data to refine their strategy.
They needed to accumulate more data.
Thud— The monster at the very front lunged forward.
However, due to the considerable distance, Soo could observe the second monster’s movements in detail.
Its running speed was comparable to a buggy car.
Even without knowing the exact speed or the reason, she knew it was fast.
Now, she understood why.
They concentrated magic on the front of their bodies to eliminate wind resistance, while also cloaking their soles to propel themselves forward the instant they touched the ground.
This allowed them to accelerate far beyond their natural speed.
“Amazing…”
But how did they do that?
How did they even wrap themselves in that rebound force?
Soo, delving into the perplexing principles of magic, clenched her fist as the monster drew near.
‘It’s a shame to break it.’
Was there no way to preserve it and extract only the magic?
With that thought, she extended her fist, and—*Thwack*—this time, with a slightly stronger resistance, the second monster’s jaw shattered.
And then.
“Wow.”
A puzzle clicked into place within Soo’s mind.
Some of the enigmatic mysteries of magic had been unraveled.
How?
The moment she destroyed the monster, a part of its magic became clear to her.
If she broke one more.
Just two more.
What if she broke all three?
“Incredible.”
Soo’s eyes sparkled as she reached her hand back.
It was a small, white hand, like a fern frond. Yet, the instant it touched the buggy, *CRAUNCH*—the bumper violently crumpled.
The next action was obvious, needing no further thought.
Maika, who was in the buggy, shrieked and leaped out of the car.
Simultaneously.
*BOOOOM—!* The buggy car was ‘launched’.
The monster continued to run without stopping.
A monster that could block bullets and napalm wouldn’t halt just because a car was flung at it.
Naturally, it would push the buggy aside and reach Soo.
Everyone thought so.
It should have happened that way.
*CRASH-BANG-CRACK!* The third monster, struck by the buggy car, tumbled backward.
The buggy Soo had thrown was far heavier than any fired bullet or launched napalm.
Fortunately, it hadn’t died.
It just hadn’t died.
“I’m going to savor you.”
Soo bypassed the fallen third monster and rushed toward the fourth monster, who was following behind.
She moved twice as fast as the buggy had been launched.
The monster’s ocular implants couldn’t keep up with her speed.
Seeing Soo suddenly appear right in front of it, the monster’s posture rapidly lowered.
Regardless, Soo moved her body.
This time, however, she adopted a stance for ‘hitting even better’.
She stepped her leg slightly forward, hunched her waist, drove her shoulder deep, and extended her fist with greater force.
*CRUNCH*—With a dry, crisp sound, the fourth monster’s head exploded.
The fuel that had filled the monster’s head splattered onto Soo.
Soo didn’t dodge the fuel; she stared intently at it.
“Ah.”
The puzzle pieces clicked into place in her mind. Heat flowed through her veins. Her heart pulsed, radiating heat as if it would burst.
All of it reversed.
The heat gushing from her heart, the flowing veins, the roughly completed puzzle in her mind. And thus, the circuit was drawn.
Though it was scattered and incomplete in places, making it difficult to discern, Soo felt she could draw a complete circuit from it alone.
She decided to do it.
The fiercely gushing heat from her heart seeped into the imagined circuit.
And then.
Soo burst into laughter.
“It’s done.”
The splattering fuel shot upward into the sky.
As if gravity had reversed.
Amidst this, the fifth monster charged.
It was different from before. It appeared several times more upgraded than the monsters she had previously defeated.
It seemed to have accumulated data and understood how to counter her.
The altered form of the magic enveloping its body was proof of this.
Soo’s smile grew even brighter.
‘Perhaps I can’t break this one with a punch?’ With that thought, she extended her widely spread palm forward.
The emotionless monster’s body flinched. It immediately abandoned its attack and switched to defense.
It calculated and predicted the path of her attack.
Uncalculable. Unpredictable.
It gathered all its repulsive force in one spot, preparing for an unpredictable impact.
“Wow.”
The greedy dragon’s eyes pinpointed the movement of the magic.
It could also concentrate magic in one place.
Of course, she couldn’t replicate it yet, but she was certain she would understand it if she shattered it head-on.
Soo’s hand gripped the monster’s flesh.
She thought simultaneously.
What should she do to face an opponent that couldn’t be defeated with a punch?
She had seen this often in wuxia novels.
‘I just need to break the inside.’
She channeled the frantic heat raging somewhere within her body, near her heart, into her shoulder. She pushed it into her forearm. As it flowed into her hand, she simultaneously drew a circuit.
And when it was finally complete.
Trigger.
*WHOOSH—BANG!* The monster’s body exploded gruesomely.
****
“…Ah, no, that… that, what, what is that?”
Mere minutes, no, mere seconds.
The monsters, who had chased them for three hours even with twenty syndicate members thrown as bait, were annihilated in less than a minute.
A tiny girl had accomplished this.
The first was a punch, the second was a punch, the third was a buggy car, and the fourth was even a punch. The fifth?
He didn’t know.
It looked like she had grabbed it by the collar, but suddenly, the monster’s body had exploded in a fan shape. All that remained was a piece of the monster’s flesh tightly clutched in the girl’s hand.
“A Repulsor…?”
That small girl, a top-tier elite from Eden, equipped with a Repulsor?
It was an absurd notion.
An agent of the corporation, no, even a mere employee, wouldn’t be dressed in such rags.
Infiltrations or assassinations would be handled by ‘Netwatchers’ specializing in hacking, so field agents had no reason to conceal their appearance.
Then what was her true identity?
Could they just stand by and watch?
“Boss… shouldn’t we run?”
The syndicate member who had been Maika’s driver whispered.
“That monster… she seems to be one of Toppers’ women, doesn’t she? Just look behind her.”
As the driver said, Toppers was approaching the girl from a distance, smiling.
Toppers was a notoriously ill-temtempered man. Yet, that smile, no matter how one looked at it, was the demeanor one held toward a family member.
“If we get caught up in this, we’re screwed. How about we just flee?”
“…Do you think we can?”
Fleeing was out of the question. They could at least see the monsters’ speed with their eyes, but the girl’s speed… they couldn’t.
All their ocular implants confirmed was a blur of ash-gray.
Then, indeed.
From afar.
Maika, watching the girl stealthily approach the fallen monster, smirked bitterly.
“Hey, bring that over. We’ll just kill them both.”
“What’s ‘that’?”
It had a name, but Maika had forgotten it.
Fortunately, there was a way to describe it.
“The strongest thing we have.”
“…Didn’t we go to all that trouble to get that just to ram it into Toppers’ base?”
That was true. They had gone through immense difficulty to acquire it.
How much had they groveled before those Zyrec bastards just to buy that one thing?
But what was it all for?
It was a weapon needed for survival.
So, it had to be used now.
“We’re about to die right now, to hell with their base. Those bastards are nothing but cripples without Toppers, so just bring it over quickly. Don’t let them see you.”
“Ugh… Understood.”
As soon as the driver disappeared from his sight, Maika flattened himself. The girl’s attention was currently on the monster, but there was no telling when or how her interest might shift.
She seemed unhinged at first glance, didn’t she?
He couldn’t apply the standards of a normal person to her.
Even the petty and despicable Maika had a reason for surviving so long in the wasteland.
“Gasp… pant… It’s so heavy, seriously…! B-Boss…!”
After a long while, noisy breathing was heard from behind him. The girl was still focused on the monster. This was the optimal moment. He had to shoot now.
“Attach it.”
*Clatter*—Maika’s hand implant opened wide, and a thick mounting bracket rose up. Upon it, a blue stake engraved with various mechanical circuits was attached.
The weapon had cost two years’ worth of the family’s budget.
A weapon that even Toppers, the ruler of the Eastern Wasteland, would not survive, a weapon equivalent to a Repulsor in the wasteland.
“…Hey, what was this thing called again?”
“…I don’t know.”
In any case, it was a File Bunker with a long name.
And it was Zyrec Tech’s latest model File Bunker.
Though it was only the size of a forearm, it was said to possess enough firepower to pierce even a Repulsor once. How would it fare?
Maika swallowed dryly, a target reticle appearing in his ocular implant.
He didn’t need to look at anything else.
The ash-haired girl, conspicuous even in the wasteland.
The distance was 382m. There was no way he could miss.
At this range, it would reach her faster than the sound.
It would kill Toppers, who was standing beside her, too.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo…”
His hands trembled, but it was fine. Hadn’t they said it had guidance capabilities? So, if he just fired it.
If he just fired it.
*Whoosh*, the girl’s head snapped up.
Her chilling gaze pierced Maika.
“Dieeeeeee!”
Maika shrieked in desperation, pulling the trigger.
*THWACK—CRACK!* The air burst, and sound ripped apart.
With a recoil strong enough to send Maika tumbling backward several times, the File Bunker’s stake was launched.
“Soo!”
Toppers’ reaction was swift. The moment he judged he couldn’t deflect it, he shielded the girl and turned his back. He channeled power into his reinforced tendons, attempting to leap from his spot.
It was impossible.
Contrary to Toppers’ expectations, her body was excessively heavy. He could usually lift and run with at least 200kg, but now he couldn’t move an inch.
“What the—!”
His judgment, made the instant it was fired from a distance of less than 400m, was quick and accurate. However, Toppers, lacking a neural acceleration implant, could not continue his thoughts.
It was too late to dodge now.
His mind went blank.
“Kya ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Maika burst into laughter, seeing the two of them. If the File Bunker hit them directly, their bodies would explode and vanish without a trace.
Afterward, he would kill off the rest of his family, seize Toppers’ vast slush fund, and head straight for Eden. For Eden…
“Ha ha ha… ha, ha…?”
Maika could not continue his thoughts.
The stake, which had charged with enough force to slay a god, was now held docilely in a dainty hand.
