Chapter 21: Chapter 20
TL/ED: Hamsterminator
Five more days passed.
During that time, Jin...
Just ate, slept, and pooped.
But there was his own reason behind it.
To begin with, it was hard to engage in productive activity, first of all, Jin was a patient.
Though he might look neat and warm on the outside, the truth was that his whole body had been wrecked and only barely healed, so even a slight exertion would make him go "Ugh!" here and "Argh!" there, enough to bring tears to his eyes.
Even for Jin, it was one of the rare times his condition had hit rock bottom, so the first reason was simply that he didn’t bother to ignore the rest signals his body was sending.
The second reason was the issue of location.
Since the entire building was the Resistance’s base, it was all about security, security, and more security wherever he went.
He couldn’t go anywhere alone.
It was only because Jin had handled a request for the Resistance, as a so-called mercenary on the same boat, that he was allowed to stay at all.
Originally, staying here wouldn’t have even been allowed.
So restrictions on movement? Nothing to be done.
It was just a discomfort to be endured in the position of someone indebted.
Hence, there was only one place where Jin could stay comfortably, as always.
A corner of the treatment room. A hard bed that dug into his back.
He had no choice but to become a bum who lay there all day waiting eagerly for breakfast, lunch, and dinner times.
End of excuses.
Ah, breakfast was here.
Jin lit up at the sight of the food on the plate.
Bacon, omelet, hash browns, sausage, toast.
Every single item greasy, a very satisfying menu.
If only there were some spicy kimchi and cold dongchimi to go with it, the air-ground balance would have been perfect...
Putting behind the regret that couldn’t be filled, Jin began to devour his meal.
The speed at which the food disappeared was fast enough to see with the naked eye, "devour" was the right word.
A mysterious sight, no matter how many times you saw it. Truly extraordinary.
Albus, who was beside him, spoke up.
“How do you eat every meal like someone who hasn’t eaten in three days? If that’s a talent, it sure is one.”
“This place’s hospital food’s not bad.”
"Eat first, then talk. You're spraying it everywhere.”
Knowing from experience that it didn’t take Jin more than a few minutes to finish a plate, Albus kept his words brief.
And exactly one minute later.
A burp rang out like an alarm clock- burrrp.
Naturally, Albus opened his mouth again.
“I heard you’re leaving today. Is that right?”
“What? Who told you?”
“Who else? Your doctor.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Jin recall that there were only two people in the building he had actual conversations with.
Ben, who he’d at least exchanged a few words with but there’d been no reason to go down to the garage.
What? Even in a place with this many people, living with cobwebs in my mouth is the same.
Jin let out a hollow laugh, and Albus handed him a terminal device.
“Here.”
“......? You fixed it?”
“Of course not. The circuits were completely melted, no way to bring it back even if it woke from the dead. I just got the closest replacement I could find.”
Jin, who had been feeling miserable over the terminal that had crossed the Jordan River thanks to the lightning magic spell, accepted it with a pleased expression.
“Feels like I’m getting too much.”
“It’s not free. You’ll have to pay back everything, the treatment here, the way you devoured five servings every meal. All of it, later.”
Jin knew Albus’s words sat right on that subtle line between a joke and a serious remark.
Pay it back later.
That meant he might work with the Resistance again someday.
“Deduct it from my next job fee.”
With those words, Jin stretched out his body.
He shook off the last lingering fatigue from his body and rose from the bed.
“Well then, let’s get going.”
***
Obviously, it wasn’t a departure ceremony or anything like that.
It was just the day a Solo who had briefly joined hands was heading off on his own path again, so the only ones who came to see him off were Albus and Grace.
And Ben, who had come to see Manticore’s first outing.
Before leaving.
Still, as a matter of connection, Jin exchanged contact info with the three of them before mounting the motorcycle.
Insert key, turn it, start it.
After lightly brushing the powerfully trembling frame, he finally roared off with a strong burst of engine sound.
Even up to this point, things had been pretty good.
Who would have known?
That less than an hour later, an accident would happen.
“Ugh...”
Jin groaned, collapsed on the roadside.
He had no idea how many times he’d rolled before coming to a stop.
First of all, his left arm was definitely broken.
He couldn’t put any proper strength into it.
But at this moment, the emotion that surged stronger than pain was none other than rage.
Jin spat out a curse mixed with a metallic edge toward the air.
“Hey, you fuck...ing son of a bitch...”
Of course, the status window didn’t even blink.
「???」━━━━━━━━━━━
NEO ?? ??? ????
??? ?? ???? ?????
?? ??? ?? ?? ????
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jin clenched his teeth.
Then, lying flat on the ground, he started to retrace what had just happened.
The road connecting district to district.
The so-called highway naturally had no traffic lights.
In terms of minimizing vehicle bottlenecks and allowing high-speed travel, it was effectively a common highway found in any country.
The problem was the road had defects.
Of course, this too was fallout from the corporate and family wars.
The company responsible for road construction just up and vanished midway.
So even though a section without a central divider stretched for over 10 kilometers, Jin had accepted it with a shrug.
When a truck coming from the opposite lane suddenly swerved across the center line and charged at him, he was startled, sure, but he avoided it with insane reflexes.
The problem was that he didn’t dodge it completely.
And right then, the status window had to block his vision.
Talk about a double whammy, disaster upon disaster, a perfect storm.
Simply put, he’d been unfairly screwed.
And so now.
Jin, who had flown a good several meters and then rolled several more, screamed up at the sky or rather, the status window.
“You fucking bastard, seriously! How is it possible that not even once...!”
He was so angry that even the curses couldn’t come out right, and his jaw muscles bulged as he gritted his teeth.
As blood rushed, a spurt of red dripped from his torn forehead, drip.
No, no. Let's calm down.
Think neg- no, think positive thoughts only.
Yeah, I’m an Irregular.
A fighting race that gets stronger after overcoming death.
You watching, Kakarot?
I’m invincible.
Reconstruction is god.
Perhaps thanks to his desperate rambling.
The furious heat flooding his head began to cool little by little.
Then naturally, that vacant space was filled with pain.
“Hnngh...”
Just as Jin groaned while checking his grotesquely twisted left arm.
Hic- along with a sound, came the trudging steps of someone approaching.
“You okay?”
Asking “you okay” to someone who’s obviously not okay, this guy’s clearly not in his right mind. And this smell? Wait, is that alcohol?
Only then, beyond the slowly fading status window, Jin saw a wild-haired old man with the sun at his back.
The man made a gap between his thumb and forefinger as he spoke.
“If you’d just dodged a liiittle more to the side. You were swerving well, why’d you flinch at the end?”
At the same time, another drip of blood fell from Jin’s forehead, drip.
“Are you the truck driver?”
“Ah, yeah. That’s me.”
So it was drunk driving?
Sure, the status window had been a problem, but the root cause of the accident was that truck crossing the center line.
Jin decided he’d hold the man accountable, with his fists. Just as he was about to get up, setting his broken left arm in place.
“First, take this. Hic- sorry about that.”
Reeking of alcohol, the middle-aged man approached and pressed something into Jin’s hand.
A few crumpled bills of different colors.
For a moment, the strength drained from Jin’s fist.
Ah, damn.
I’m weak to this kind of thing.
Maybe it’s because I’ve lived broke. I understand better than anyone the value of those pathetic few bills.
Whether he hadn’t washed properly or just didn’t bother, the old man reeked of body odor, and Jin couldn’t judge the money he’d handed over based solely on its face value.
Besides, the man seemed slightly off in the head, too.
So Jin couldn’t bring himself to get angry or forgive him. He could only let out a deep sigh.
Then, clicking his tongue, he spoke.
“Hey. Sir. I’m alive because I’m me, you hear? Me. You get that? If it had been anyone else, their arms and legs would’ve snapped like twigs and they would’ve been shredded alive on the asphalt. So starting tonight, before you close your eyes, repeat this three times: ‘I’m a murderer.’ Got it? Only then will your guilty conscience stop you from drinking and driving again.”
Saying that, Jin looked at the half-drunk old man wobbling before him.
Who the hell am I giving this speech for?
Jin regretted it. The guy didn’t even seem sure he’d live out the day.
“I’m going.”
Saying that, Jin walked past the old man and lifted the fallen Manticore from the ground.
Unlike its acrobatically launched rider, the bike’s body had surprisingly taken little damage.
Though the screen was smashed, and it had scratches and dents all over- overall, it was a mess.
“Damn it, seriously...”
It hurt worse than cracking a brand-new phone screen on day one, but what could he do?
Unless he wanted to beat up some nameless old man, he’d just have to move on.
Jin steadied his mind and was about to climb back onto Manticore when.
“Hey.”
The old man, who had somehow crept up beside him, casually placed a hand on Jin’s shoulder and asked in a familiar tone,
“What’s your name?”
“You sure ask a lot of questions. Jin. Why? Planning to buy me dinner later or something?”
Jin shot back with a crooked smirk, and the old man grinned.
“Your body’s all beat to hell. At this rate, you’re not gonna live out your years.”
“You mocking me now? All this is because of you, you know... Forget it. Let’s not see each other again, yeah?”
Jin started the engine.
Then, without looking back, he picked up speed.
The old man quietly watched as Jin’s figure quickly disappeared from view, then sniffled and walked back to his truck.
A moment later, inside the vehicle, as he began turning it around, having crossed the center line, there came a beep from the radio.
[Colonel? Is everything alright?]
“Ah, yeah. There was a little misunderstanding.”
[A misunderstanding?]
“Nothing serious. I did something a bit regrettable, but I made up for it no, fixed it before sending him off. He’ll definitely be thankful later. Hic. Anyway, what’s the situation?”
[It’s clear from the evidence that Styx made a move. And this ominous mana... it’s Crow, no doubt. But, sir... there’s something odd.]
“What is it?”
[According to the mana examiner, there were two unidentified individuals who confronted Crow. He says both are unidentifiable.]
“...Unidentifiable? That’s hard to accept. If they went up against Crow, that lunatic, they’d have to be at least Level 6 Solos or direct bloodlines of one of the families.”
[We think the same. So we’re considering focusing on mana pattern variations in our investigation. What are your thoughts, sir?]
The old man paused, his sharp eyes fixed on the rearview mirror.
But only for a moment.
Then he slowly shook his head.
“...No. Forget it. Waste of manpower. Let’s finish what we’re assigned to first.”
[If we assume they’re Solos, we could dig a bit deeper into the Resistance’s account records and...]
“They’re not stupid either. They’ll have used triple or even quadruple layers. And HQ has no intention of getting directly involved in this matter. So if you don’t want to be writing a report, don’t do anything that might get traced back. See you later.”
[...Yes, sir. See you later.]
With that, the radio fell silent again.
The old man fumbled around the passenger seat, grabbed a bottle of liquor, and popped the cap off with his thumb.
He took a deep swig, then stepped hard on the accelerator.
The truck, driven by Colonel John Harrison of the city government’s special forces, sped toward Mute Town.
~~~
Hi! If you are enjoying this novel, please leave a rating and review on NovelUpdates via the link below. Thanks!