Chapter 63
My powered suit’s leg strength allows me to reach the cockpit faster than the golden Apollyon. A familiar yet more advanced array of equipment greets me. The powered suit connector detaches from my neck and is replaced by the control device for the Apollyon.
I forcefully rotate the machine in the narrow space, blowing away the container with an overhead kick maneuver. The container holding this Apollyon gains tremendous speed and charges at the golden Apollyon, but it dodges with ease. However, this allows me to avoid the scenario of being killed while trying to board.
Having missed its biggest opportunity, the golden Apollyon floats motionless in the air. I take advantage of this opening to check if the machine is built according to my specifications.
Machine name: 『Falschblau』. It is a blue mass-production Apollyon with a bulky, rectangular appearance. Covered in blue armor, its supposedly long limbs appear shorter than usual. Its face, the sensor area, features an eerie mono-eye surveying its surroundings.
「You’re not going to attack?」
I provoke Hiniru in a nonchalant manner, but there’s no response. This likely means he has shifted to buying time, realizing he can’t defeat me. The Reformists probably just need to prevent us from reaching a certain point to achieve whatever they’re planning.
So I have to act even without information.
I ready my left arm. Instead of a normal hand, it’s a cannon. The left arm of the 『Falschblau』 is twice as long as the right, equipped with the 『Kōmitsu Solutions Manufactured Apollyon Fusion Incendiary Weapon Model UK-12』 integrated into the armor. It’s a so-called weapon arm. I aim at the golden Apollyon and pull the trigger.
「Firing!」
「I guess a wannabe hero can just shoot right away. I’m jealous!」
But the golden Apollyon dancing in the sky dodges gracefully like a butterfly. Hiniru’s machine, an F-Type—using negative mass matter for flight—is always in a near-zero-g state, allowing it to achieve even faster evasive speeds than normal engines or artificial muscles, close to those of a cyborg. However, it still depends on human reaction speed, making this result terrifying.
Indeed, I’ve never directly fought Hiniru. I’ve always dismissed him, thinking he self-destructs on his own.
But he’s a high-ranking player in 『BCD.』 If he’s also survived numerous brushes with death…
The golden figure flickers and vanishes. I instinctively leap away, seeing a rain of bullets pouring down from the side.
That’s right, from the side.
I turn to the right and see the golden Apollyon aiming a handgun. Without even time to wonder when it got there, I somersault again to evade as bullets rain down from the left this time. The bullets are all golden too, and before I know it, the golden Apollyon is floating above the building again.
「How’s that, Orange? You’re helpless! Your skills are nothing but fodder before me and 『Ugly Gold』!」
Golden bullets pour down from all directions again. I focus on evasion but still take a few hits. Although each shot has low power, its pinpoint targeting of gaps in the armor gradually accumulates damage to the machine. Unable to find an opening to counterattack at this speed, I grow frust- no, I don’t. I have an excellent memory for things that interest me, and I remember every word of the NMM explanation.
《Console Information: Enemy machine temperature rising, currently 624°C. 376°C to overheat.》
That’s right. There’s no way it can keep up those absurd maneuvers. If it’s just to avoid my counterattacks, there’s no need to shoot from the right and left. And there’s no way the negative mass matter can cool down in time while constantly flying. The price for all those impossibilities is Hiniru’s machine approaching overheating.
And if the negative mass matter exceeds 1000°C, it will denature and render any NMM unusable.
「Bring it on, Hiniru.」
That’s why I deliberately provoke him. But Hiniru doesn’t respond. Instead, he raises ‘Ugly Gold’s right hand.
「Yeah, but you won’t be facing me. Go, drones!」
The sound of tank tracks and bipedal footsteps echo through the gaps in the rubble. As if surrounding this mountain of debris, 3 tanks and 2 Apollyons appear. Rather than not noticing them, it’s more accurate to say that my attention was diverted by the ‘Ugly Gold,’ causing me to overlook their presence.
Then the tanks open fire at me. Their aiming speed is many times faster than what I’ve seen in reality, but it’s no match for NMM acceleration. All 3 shots hit the rubble, scattering dust with an ear-splitting roar.
I try to take advantage of the opening and approach the tanks, but the unmanned Apollyons aim their assault rifles and fire at me. Their movements are sluggish, but their shooting is extremely accurate, targeting the 『Falschblau』 crown. However, the heavily armored body slips through the bullets, lowering its posture. It further lowers its stance, spinning its body to drive its feet into the abdomen with centrifugal force. The hundreds of kilos of metal, accelerated by the NMM, easily tear through the unmanned Apollyon’s torso, crushing its internal components. The tank cannon-like kick sends the remains bouncing countless times.
This is the theory I came up with after hearing about NMMs: a big, heavy, fast machine using NMMs would be the strongest. That’s why I deliberately chose a heavy armor type during the custom order. Of course, it’s also for sniping with the UK-12. My previous machines had too thin armor. I need to match the armor to the escalating firepower.
Next, I pull out a blade and use NMM to leap over a charging unmanned Apollyon, bouncing off the rubble thrice to charge at a tank, then swing the tank around and slam it into another tank. Perhaps surprised by my clunky-looking machine performing acrobatic feats, both the unmanned Apollyons and tanks completely fail to react, stopping in a daze. But the moment I swing the tank around, the last remaining tank takes aim at my stopped feet and fires. The bullet hits me, scattering sparks. The impact assaults the cockpit, making me involuntarily close my eyes.
《Console Information: Enemy machine’s temperature has decreased to 127°C. 873°C to overheat.》
The creaking sound of dented armor and the errors blaring in the cockpit are followed by the finishing words. ‘Ugly Gold’s cooling is nearly complete, meaning it can move like that again. I click my tongue at the nasty tactics, but before the sound even reverberates, ‘Ugly Gold’ soars behind me, aiming its handgun.
The gunfire completely engulfs my body, blowing off the armor. The biggest obstacle for ‘Ugly Gold,’ which uses handguns as its basic equipment, falls to the ground. But the one who first cries out in anguish at the result is not me, but Hiniru.
「Wh-what is that?!」
The machine is already unscathed. No, more precisely, the 『Falschblau』 has discarded all its damaged parts. Parting the dust, a slender silhouette with slit eyes emerges, shedding its bulky armor. The AI’s mechanical voice flows through the cockpit.
《《Shed Armors System》 activated. 『Falschblau』 is transitioning to mobile form.》
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Cast off system!?