Chapter 32: Chapter 31
TL/ED: Hamsterminator
Sudden!
Help Natasha (Select)
Rescue the hostage (Select)
XP 2,500
Jin, who grasped only the keywords as if speed-reading, turned his head.
“Hey. Don’t tell me the ‘goods’ are...”
"Yeah. People."
A plain answer came back.
Natasha was holding the steering wheel with only her right hand.
Even though one of the side mirrors had fallen off, her left hand, which held a cigarette and tapped off the ashes, was relaxed.
It wasn't the typical reaction of an average trucker, so Jin fiddled with the Gravis at his waist.
Still, since he’d been treated to a meal, he didn’t pull it out right away and tried to talk calmly.
“I’m currently at peak hostage sensitivity for various reasons, okay? Can you summarize this in 3 lines before I make a biased judgment? 2 would be better.”
In the meantime, engine sounds grew closer.
There were curses, 'that bitch', 'this bitch'-
And gunshots followed.
‘Bang!’ The sound of a gunshot and a bullet grazing metal, ‘Ting!’
Came from right beside him.
If it were his face, it felt like it brushed his ear.
This was chaos.
Jin grabbed the handle by the window and checked the side mirror again.
Since it was a freight truck with a useless rearview mirror, there were multiple auxiliary side mirrors.
So, not the smashed rectangular one.
Below that, the relatively smaller mirror showed the road.
Vrooooom!
Two black muscle cars were tailing the truck closely.
The bullets clearly came from there, the guy sticking half his body out the window.
Out of his mouth came more 'that bitch', 'this bitch'.
Bastard. Dude’s got a hell of a voice.
Jin turned his head.
Then Natasha spoke.
“I got scammed. It wasn’t the first time, and not just for a day or two. I tolerated it even though I knew, and I guess he took me for a pushover. When I saw he was about to cross the line, I gave him a polite warning.”
Let’s stop there.
Her next words came with a puff of cigarette smoke.
A dimple appeared deep on Natasha’s cheek.
“So, guess what the scammer did-?”
“You’re asking questions in this situation? Hey. Bullets are flying right now.”
Bang! Ting! Bang! Ting!
Bullets grazed the car body in a rhythmic beat.
Given the situation, Jin’s retort was only natural.
Natasha, accelerating, replied.
“Maybe he got spooked alone or something, but get this, he tried to kill me. He finally crossed the line. As a result, he’s tied up back there in the cargo hold.”
At that, Jin nodded while glancing at the side mirror.
There was an unexpected question in the middle, but
This was pretty close to a 3-line summary.
To recap-
“So, the scammer crossed the line and you kidnapped them, but now his underlings are chasing after the kidnapper? Screaming ‘bitch’, ‘crazy bitch’, ‘fucking bitch’, and all that?”
“Exactly.”
To Natasha, who confirmed it, Jin added,
“You didn’t expect them to chase you?”
“Nope. I wiped the scammer’s neural socket clean. I didn’t think I’d be tracked. Looks like they pulled something. Who knows. Maybe he swallowed a tracking device in advance.”
While muttering that, Natasha let out a dry laugh.
“Believe it or not, it’s up to you, but I didn’t mean to drag you into this. You shouldn’ve had a this much better body? Right?”
“Can I still get off now?”
“I don’t mind, but... you probably won’t shake off the suspicion of being an accomplice.”
Jin roughly understood the situation.
But it wasn’t like he could believe everything Natasha said, he’d have to hear the hostage’s side too.
When a conflict arises, shouldn’t both sides be heard?
...Though that’s only in normal situations.
Bullets are flying. Bullets!
So Jin stopped thinking deeply.
If he had to choose between the two.
Rather than gun-toting lunatics shouting with rags in their mouths, Natasha, who at least gave him a ride and a hamburger set, seemed better.
Simple is best, after all.
“Gotta earn my meal.”
Having made up his mind, Jin rolled down the window.
Then he leaned his upper body out and pulled the trigger of the Gravis.
BANG-!!
With a loud gunshot, the left headlight of the chasing muscle car shattered!
“Sh-Shit!”
The trash talker, who had also been leaning out from the back seat and shooting, flinched and ducked his head.
He wasn’t the only one surprised, through the rush of sharp wind, Natasha’s voice reached his tingling ear.
“Did you just fire a cannon?!”
However, instead of answering, Jin pulled the trigger once more.
And then he realized.
It didn’t hit as well as he thought it would.
Neither the first shot nor the one just now.
He had clearly aimed at the driver, but only the innocent headlight and the hood had gotten smashed in sequence.
It couldn’t be helped.
A moving car, an unstable posture, the extreme recoil of the Gravis. On top of that, he was shooting one-handed.
With that many penalties stacked up, even Jin couldn’t expect a clean hit.
Still, he was starting to get the feel of it, and just as he was sure he’d hit the next shot, the moment he pulled the trigger again.
“Get your head down!”
With Natasha’s voice, the vehicle jolted.
Right after, the freight truck zigzagged between lanes, overtaking the cars ahead.
As Jin hurriedly ducked into the passenger seat to avoid the hunk of metal that had moved from being in front to right beside them, Natasha asked,
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Didn’t hit anything.”
More than that, what really disappointed him was missing that last shot he’d taken with full confidence.
Especially since the slide of the Gravis had just locked back, the magazine emptied.
“Damn. Of all times.”
The spare magazines Brof had prepared were resting peacefully in the trunk of the Manticore. And the Manticore was still parked at the motel lot, so Jin had texted Khalifa to grab some when leaving the factory.
He ignored her reply asking if he got into some kind of trouble, that wasn’t public knowledge.
Anyway, back to the present.
"This got troublesome."
Muttering that, Jin holstered the Gravis.
Then he cracked his neck left and right with a sharp pop.
“I’ll just...”
Before even hearing the rest of Natasha’s words, he leaned his body out the window.
This time not just his upper body, but legs and all.
Whoosh!
With a springy motion, Jin climbed onto the roof of the freight truck and, feeling the wind pushing against his back, leapt toward the cargo hold.
At that, the rear view, which he had only been able to see through the side mirrors until now, spread before his eyes.
VROOOOOM!!
The two muscle cars, having somehow navigated the maze of traffic, were now closing the distance with ferocious engine roars.
Maybe they’d decided it was now or never.
The foul-mouthed bastard who had been sticking his head out the window, this time holding a rifle instead of the handgun that hadn’t been working out for him, spotted Jin on the trailer and flinched.
“Fuck! When the hell did he get up there?!”
Even flustered, the moment he aimed the rifle.
Jin focused.
Classical mechanics says,
If you know where an object initially was, and how fast and in which direction it's moving, you can predict where it will be at any given time.
The same applied here.
He knew the direction the muscle car was coming from, its speed, and initial position.
So if he could predict where this bastard would be in 0.1 seconds...!
Do not attempt unless you’re a superhuman.
In the next moment.
Jin flashed through the air and landed precariously on the roof of the muscle car just as it swept beneath his feet.
Obviously, he didn’t have the luxury to look cool.
Given the speed, he had to flatten himself like a frog to avoid being thrown off, crawling with his bangs flying in the wind.
And once he reached the right spot.
He clenched his fist and swung it wide.
CRASH!!
His fist shattered the windshield and slammed into the side of the driver’s face with brutal force.
BEEEEEEP!!
As the guy collapsed forward and smashed his head on the horn, his comrades finally screamed in alarm.
“Oh! Fuuuck!”
"What!"
Ignoring the unoriginal screams, Jin grabbed the steering wheel.
The accelerator was already being floored by the unconscious driver, so he simply adjusted the direction and crossed into another lane.
Thud!
The vehicle slammed into the side of the other muscle car that had been running alongside it, shaking violently.
“Guh!”
“Ugh!”
As all the passengers were tossed forward and back from the shock.
The foul-mouthed bastard in the rear passenger seat cocked his rifle and aimed.
“Die! You little shit!”
But Jin was faster than the muzzle flash. He Blinked right into the bastard’s seat and grabbed the barrel before the rifle could fire.
A half-beat later, the gun finally discharged. In such a confined space, the bullets sprayed everywhere, regardless of the shooter's intent.
Ratatatatatat!!
Blood burst like fireworks, splattering across the front and rear windows, dyeing the interior of the vehicle red.
“Fuckin’ hell!”
Just as the foul-mouthed bastard let go of the trigger, his eyes widened in horror at the carnage he had just caused.
Smack!
Jin slammed a fist into the bastard’s face and lifted his head.
And there it was, the guardrail.
CRASH!!
With a deafening boom, the muscle car was launched into the air, soared dozens of meters in a parabolic arc, then crashed nose-first into the ground.
BOOM! SMASH! THUD-BOOM!!
The heavy vehicle rolled over and over along the ground before finally coming to a halt, engulfed in flames.
Jin looked down at the scene, clinging to a streetlight pole like a cicada.
“Shit.”
Of all things, this guy was the last thing that caught his eye.
He had jumped in with a gambler’s instinct, and somehow, it worked out.
Sliding down the pole and landing on the ground, Jin wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand and muttered,
"...I let one get away."
The original plan had been to Blink into the other car the moment the muscle cars collided.
But things had gone awry because of the crazy bastard who suddenly started spraying with a rifle.
"Tsk. What a waste."
Jin wrinkled the bridge of his nose slightly.
...Ratatat!
...Ratatatatat!
From far outside his field of vision, sporadic gunfire echoed in the distance.
Did Natasha finally get caught?
Still, he figured he had done more than enough.
As Jin thought that and started to walk in the direction the sounds came from.
Suddenly, the gunfire stopped completely.
Who knows how much time passed after that.
A familiar freight truck appeared from the opposite lane.
Honk honk! The horn blared.
“Hey.”
Jin waved at the freight truck that slowed down beside him.
A familiar voice responded warmly.
“Hey, my ass. Are you crazy?”
***
Whether it was a rest stop or an abandoned construction site, Natasha parked the truck in a small, unclear-purpose clearing.
After gripping the wheel for a moment, she turned to Jin.
“You. Just what the hell are you...”
Her words trailed off.
Unable to finish the sentence, she just opened and closed her lips awkwardly before letting out a long, heavy sigh.
“Let’s get out for now. We’ll talk details later.”
Then, Jin and Natasha stood side by side in front of the cargo hold.
As Jin stood there calmly with his arms crossed, Natasha unlatched the locks and threw open the cargo doors.
An empty interior.
A man with his hands and feet tied up came into view.
Squinting at the sudden light, he soon spotted Natasha and began to thrash wildly, muffled cries escaping his gagged mouth. To Jin, he looked just like a fish flopping on land.
"He's really full of energy."
“Agreed.”
Natasha replied and climbed into the cargo hold.
She peeled off the black tape from the man’s mouth, and the expected string of curses burst out.
“You fucking bitch! You think you’ll get away with this?!”
“Calm down, Kevin.”
“Calm down? Calm down, my ass. You don’t get it, do you? My men will soon-!”
The man, Kevin, had his cheek grabbed roughly.
Staring him down, Natasha spoke.
“Kevin. This is why you’ll always be a third-rate Linker. Where the hell did you sell your intuition? What’s the point of having ears? Didn’t you hear the gunshots? Why do you think I opened the door? Hm?”
Jin tilted his head.
So the scammer was a Linker?
Then...
As Jin looked back and forth between Kevin and Natasha with renewed interest, he mentally updated his three-line summary, inserting ‘Linker’ and ‘Solo’ into it and chewing on the implications.
“If you’ve got the guts, keep shouting. It'll be fun to watch.”
With that quiet warning, Natasha released her grip.
Kevin, rubbing his stinging jaw and moving his mouth as if testing his jaw muscles, muttered faintly.
“Fuck... How did it end up like this...”
A bitter monologue.
Then Natasha slowly began to speak.
“Listen carefully, Kevin. I could just sell you off to District 48 as you are. But that wouldn’t profit me enough either. So I’ll give you a chance. Hand over all the money you stole from me, right now. If you do, I’ll make sure you don’t end up as a slave.”
"Too bad. I don’t have any money. If you don’t believe me, don’t waste time here, go search my office or something.”
“Sigh. Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.”
Natasha shook her head with an exhausted expression.
“I don’t get why you’re making me repeat the obvious twice. Let’s just keep this simple. Where are the physical assets stored? Tell me both the location and the password.”
To that, Kevin scoffed.
“Bullshit. You hit your head or something? Why the hell would I tell you that? Huh? What do I get out of it?”
“You get to keep your life.”
“Fuck off. Just kill me.”
“Exactly what a third-rate would say. So desperate to see how ugly this gets?”
As Natasha reached into her coat, Kevin bared his teeth.
“Torture, huh? Go ahead and try. I’ve already shut off my pain sensors, I won’t feel a thing.”
What?
You can turn pain on and off?
Jin was stunned by the shocking revelation.
Zap!
Suddenly, a sharp pain sparked near his chest.
Crackle! Crackle! The sparking electrode conveyed a silent will.
***
“What’s wrong?”
Natasha turned her head toward the hand that had just rested on her shoulder.
In her view, she saw Jin with his index finger sparking.
“Step aside. Let me try.”
~~~
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