Chương 9

"You there! State your name and occupational class!" A man clad in full body armor pointed a plasma rifle at Oliver's chest.

"Oliver Nightingale," he replied, hands raised to shoulder height. He saw no reason to lie.

"I'm…an [Underkeeper]." Except, it might be prudent to not mention the [Grave Robber] class to a peace officer casually pointing guns about.

"Confirmed." He thankfully felt placated enough to lower the plasma rifle, pointing it at Oliver's feet rather than his torso.

"No bodies have been found on the premises, coroner. Return to your station." He was not a coroner. He barely knew the first thing about forensics or really anything about dead bodies that weren't actively attempting to kill him. But Oliver decided to ride out the misunderstanding. [Technomancer]'s drone resided on the other side of the alley, next to the now closed ramen shop's door. It was in pieces, absolutely smashed with sparks flickering out of bits of hardware.

Oliver suspected that the peace officers really didn't like his fellow experiment subject.

"Coroner, please—" the officer was cut off as another explosion shook the block. A screen fell from above, smashing into the ground. The splintered screen flickered, showing an ad for a nanobot drug tablet in shards of different shades. Oliver kept his footing with practiced ease. Likewise, the officer's body armor kept the man from falling over. Out of curiosity, Oliver used Appraisal on the man. Gil Derwin. Human. [Cybernetic Officer] level 48.

There was also a brief description of both Gil's body armor and the plasma rifle he held. Both objects that Oliver should definitely not mess with. Without a further word to Oliver, Gil rushed off in the direction of the explosion, calling out codes into his earpiece. Rationally, Oliver knew he should use this chance to slip away down the other side of the alleyway. He should find a nice shadow and slink about in it for the foreseeable future.

However, he had no further leads as to where [Technomancer] might be holed up. He might be able to find some sort of hotel and use the scraps of Mel he still had to get himself a room. Or he could summon his sanctuary once it came out of cooldown in a few hours and hole up for 8 hours. But neither option got him any closer to his goal. So, against his better judgment, Oliver rushed after the officer. The street was engrossed in absolute bedlam.

Drones dodged about while dropping bombs and shooting plasma beams as [Cybernetic Officers] returned fire. Both sides were dying in equal measure. The drones exploded whenever taking in critical damage which rained molten metal down on their opponents as a final attack. The officers struggled desperately to continue their assault. A few with massive riot shields darted across the battlefield, attempting to block the worst of the drone strikes.

Gil, the officer who'd been speaking to Oliver moments earlier, took cover and fired at the nearest drone. He was an incredible marksman and hit his target twice in quick succession. He then dodged a flamethrower blast from his opponent with ease. Only after that drone crashed, leaving a crater in a nearby building's wall, did Gil look over his shoulder and notice Oliver. He tensed up and turned his plasma rifle on Oliver.

"You! Coroner!" Oliver didn't give him the chance to continue that line of thought. He fired his blunderbuss, striking the metal breastplate of the officer's armor. The bullet ricocheted off.

"An antique?" The officer sounded baffled as he looked down at the small dent in his armor. But that small dent had been created via silver. And Oliver's skill expounded on any damage dealt with his medium. When the officer took a step, the metal armor creaked, corrosive cracks spiderwebbing out from the dent like a pebble striking a windshield. Before the officer could react to the seemingly uselessly outdated weapon somehow damaging his extremely expensive modern gear, Oliver had gotten in close.

He stuck with the shovel, a swing from the side staggering the officer and sending the plasma rifle skittering to the street. But Gil was far from helpless. His right hand glowed and in less than a second, a blade of energy zapped into place in his palm. He sliced at Oliver, who parried the attack with the flat of his shovel. Despite the clear technological superiority of Gil's blade, Oliver's simple silver shovel did not give under its power.

Oliver deflected it and took a step backward to put a bit of space between himself and his opponent. Big mistake. Gil waved his left hand to the side and his discarded gun leapt across the street to his open palm, magnetized to his glove. He fired a shot. Only Oliver's high Dexterity kept him from being absolutely obliterated by a plasma shot to the head. And even then, it didn't save his ear.

The nice part about plasma beams was that they hurt significantly less than a lead bullet, a metal cleaver, or a zombie's teeth. Oliver barely even processed the pain of his missing ear. A burst of intense heat followed by a hot ache. As far as weapon wounds went, he'd take plasma over every other option he'd experienced. Oliver side-stepped and went in once more, this time jabbing his weapon like a spear. The extra reach gave him an advantage over the far shorter plasma blade Gil wielded.

Gil still attempted to deflect, but the officer was too slow. Oliver twisted downward, curving the blade's trajectory, and embedded the shovel into Gil's forearm rather than the neck he'd feinted for. He dismembered the [Cybernetic Officer]'s hand below the wrist. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The plasma blade flickered out as the gloved hand fell to the street, no longer powered by the main body of the armor.

Despite losing his hand, Gil readied his gun, his other hand remaining steady as he prepared a point blank shot into Oliver's chest. The [Grave Robber] was already mid-swing as the [Cybernetic Officer]'s finger pressed down on his trigger. The attacks stuck simultaneously. The shovel's blade sliced through the officer's neck, striking a reinforced spinal cord and toppling Gil over. Oliver, meanwhile, met a plasma blast straight to his chest. This time, the plasma didn't melt straight through his body.

Instead the blast's energy sent him soaring back into the alleyway where his back slammed into the ramen shop's metal door. He fell in a heap on the ground. When he finally blinked away the black spots obscuring his vision, Oliver marveled at the fact his heart was still beating. Then he looked down at his chest and saw the reason why. His jacket, newly reinforced by an enchantment to resist damage, was completely burned through. As was his shirt under it.

The singed cloth still smoldered in a red circle around a massive pink bubbling patch of now exposed skin.

"Ow." His lungs protested as he attempted to take a deep breath. Several of his ribs were broken. His Resilience helped keep his body in one piece, but it certainly didn't feel nice. He fumbled for his pack and drew out one of his two remaining healing potions. He downed the liquid in a single, large gulp. He sighed in relief as the pain relief hit immediately. Still a bit uneasy on his feet, Oliver swayed as he hobbled over to Gil's prone body.

The [Cybernetic Officer] twitched, but he didn't have a magic healing potion like Oliver. All around him, the officers were in battle by the [Technomancer]'s drones. His fellow experimentee had brought in a few reinforcements in the form of a few more drones. Likewise, several more officers had arrived on the scene as well. It remained a stalemate. Explosions and shouting filled the air. Nobody paid Oliver any mind as he stood over the dying officer.

With a jerk, Oliver removed the shovel from where it lay, embedded in Gil's neck. Then brought it down again, digging into the same spot and slicing through the metal spine like a tough root. Congratulations! You have defeated Gil Derwin. Human. [Cybernetic Officer] level 48. You have been awarded [71] Mel. Only 71 Mel. That wasn't about to replace his ruined equipment. It wasn't even enough to make up for the healing potion. Oliver wondered if he could replace his now destroyed jacket with the officer's armor.

But a quick examination of the damage his bullet had dealt to the center of the armor's body disillusioned him of that idea. Plus, the shiny metallic armor wasn't his style. He rummaged through the rest of the dead man's gear, sticking the plasma rifle in his bag along with the dismembered hand that had created the plasma blade.

"Gil's down! [Technomancer]'s backup arrived!" Glancing up from his looting, Oliver realized the law enforcement had made great strides in conquering the battle against [Technomancer]'s drones. Enough had been destroyed that the officers now were able to take the time from their fight to notice him.

"Well, shit." Oliver dropped to the ground as several of the officers opened fire on him. He propped Gil's dead body up and felt the solid impacts of attacks making contact with the damaged body armor. As much as he loathed to part with it so soon, Oliver decided it was time to use one of his newest additions. He pulled the pin of one of his two silver grenades, and lobbed it at Gil's comrades.

"Shrapnel grenade!" one of them called out.

"Leave it! Don't lessen the barrage on him! It's a distraction. Trust in our armor to absorb any damage!" That very likely was the case for normal bombs. But not when Oliver's Silver Potency came into the mix. Boom! Bits of shrapnel reached as far as Oliver's position, embedding themselves in Gil's body. The sound of pulse rifle fire was replaced by screams as the silver burned into the bodies of his attackers. A few death notifications popped up. But less than half as many as he'd hoped for.

He quickly reloaded his blunderbuss and quickly tried thinking up a tactic to group the rest of his enemies together. He had one final grenade at his disposal and he needed to maximize its possible impact. However, now that he'd played that card once, they'd be harder than ever to route. There were still a couple drones buzzing around, engaged in battle. He might be able to use them as a distraction or a ploy." Surrender now!

"an officer said through a loud speaker." If you give up peacefully we — Ugh!" Whatever the faux offer was going to be, it no longer appeared on the table.

"It's her!"

"Damnit! Shoot! Shoot!" Oliver braced himself behind his corpse shield, but felt no impact on Gil's body. Instead there were more screams and loud gurgles of death. Slowly, he peered up over Gil's power armor, blunderbuss in hand, cocked and ready to fire at the slightest provocation. But he found that nobody was even looking in his direction anymore. Their backs were turned to him. A part of him felt a tad insulted.

He watched as a new challenger, clad in sleek black body armor with neon pink trim sliced down each and every officer. Her blade sliced through their armor as if it were cotton. Severed limbs and heads rained down on the steel street in her wake. Oliver's eyes barely managed to track her as she swiftly cut through the remaining ranks. Kiki Hayse. Human. [Rebel]/[Swordsman]/[Neon Samurai] level 49. The multiple classes picked up by his Appraisal were a clear giveaway that this was a fellow experiment subject.

Though, through context, Oliver was fairly certain he could have pieced that together regardless of his skill.

"You!" she called over to him when she caught sight of him behind Gil's corpse. She pointed her blood sword in his direction.

"You're the one [Technomancer] sent me to fetch! Right?" She pivoted on her ankle and sliced up, searing through her enemy's armor like butter and chopping a peace officer's jaw from his face.

"Sounds likely!" Oliver called back. He decided not to lower the gun. She had several levels on him, but that didn't mean he was entirely helpless against her. He'd taken down higher level opponents before, the dead body of Gil was proof enough of that. If she intended to turn that blade on him, he wasn't about to let her claim the bonus level without a fight. Still… he was curious how she managed to battle so many peace officers simultaneously while at a level negligible to his own.

She clearly had a reputation for murdering them as well. Granted, all of her classes appeared combat focused unlike his. Not to mention, Gil was the strongest officer by nearly ten levels, but Kiki moved with ease through her remaining opponents. They acted as little more than fodder for her.

"Are you a necrophiliac?" she called to him.

"Crawl off that corpse already and let's move out before more of these pigs pop up." Oliver bit his lip and considered quickly. [Technomancer]'s drones weren't attacking her. And she was clearly an enemy of the peace officers. That, at least, spoke something to the authenticity of her words. And really, where else was he to go? He'd joined the fray initially so as to not lose contact with [Technomancer]. Apparently, Kiki had been sent to guide him to the hideout.

She could be lying to him in an attempt to catch him off guard, but all the details seemed logical and the timeline matched up. Really, he couldn't ask for a more convenient path out of this situation. His mind made up, he dashed in her direction, pausing only to quickly snatch up anything valuable that was easily accessible along the way. No sense in letting the loot go to waste. Not like the dead had any use for it.