BCST 40

As the dust cleared, his shape slowly revealed itself.

A man whose whole body was brutally honed muscle, tattoos covering every inch.

Roughly a Rank-2 body, then.

An upper-tier Rank-2?

And much more massive than Alibek Kibizo, who had once gone bounty-hunting lightly—this guy had a far greater bulk.

Lately I’ve been running into burly types like this more often…

While I was examining Durdin with that thought, I suddenly noticed something unusual about him.

Wait — that guy?

“Heh heh. Sharp-eyed, aren’t you?”

He must’ve noticed my gaze. Durdin lowered his voice meaningfully.

“Yeah. I’m Durdin — a man born with a flesh-and-blood body, no implant procedures like the others. Surprised?”

Indeed, with my own eyes I could find no visible parts anywhere on his body.

Of course, if implants were inside his body they wouldn’t be visible — but judging from his proud claim, probably not inside either.

In the future, flesh-and-blood bodies like mine wouldn’t be that special.

But here, in District 56—

Especially for people close to ordinary citizens, cyberware implants that make life more convenient were nearly mandatory.

A person who didn’t get them had a markedly different quality of life in every respect.

Gang groups, in particular, often implanted combat cyberware to get strength quickly.

And their boss being a pure flesh-and-blood man…

That was definitely unusual.

While I was inwardly fascinated, Durdin seemed to read my expression and frowned.

“You… you thought I’d be weak because I’m a flesh-and-blood body, didn’t you?”

“?”

No—I didn’t. Have they been harassed by prejudice so long it turns into paranoia?

Besides, this one’s also flesh-and-blood; there’d be no reason to sneer at him.

I wasn’t thinking of his body type at all—I just thought he looked weak.

Looks like their eyesight isn’t great.

Crunch!

“You who make that face… do you know what happened to guys who looked down on me?”

This time he read me right.

I opened my mouth with a bored expression.

“Are you going to say you killed them all? Fine, then. You’re a very bad guy.”

Durdin paused at my words, then continued.

“…Yeah. You know me well. I killed them all.”

He raised one arm.

The forearm he tensed became thicker than a bull’s thigh.

“And that goes for you, too!”

Twoaang—!

When he first appeared I hadn’t seen his leap point and had been shot toward the landing.

The propulsion that made that possible erupted from Durdin’s lower body.

In the blink of an eye, Durdin’s torso was right in front of me.

Click-clack—.

His huge, rough right fist drew back hard.

“Now, die!”

[Shield]

Clang!

My shield held the blow for a moment and then shattered.

But that brief opening was plenty of time for my Rank-3-level body to react.

Whoosh!

As his fist hit the shield, I slipped out of its trajectory and landed a punch to his abdomen.

Because he’d been running at high speed, my punch’s force would have been like a sharp awl—

Thud—.

His heavily trained abs absorbed the attack.

“Hah. Is that the best your fist can do?”

Meanwhile—

Fwoooosh—!

The gust his punch created.

That pressure alone shattered and scattered everything that was in front of him.

Metal chairs, bottles and glasses, drug syringes, and the corpses of gang members—

I glanced at the wreckage and admitted it frankly.

This guy actually hits.

Not like Alibek Kibizo, who barely clings to Rank-2.

This fellow was a properly trained upper Rank-2 physical powerhouse.

It would be reckless to try to beat him purely with raw stats without physical martial arts or magic.

I conceded cleanly and returned to my mage role.

[Arcane Blast]

“What?!”

My magic is faster than his fists.

I hit the head of the man who was about to attack with an Arcane Blast.

Kraang—!

“Grrr!”

He cried out and barely managed to raise an arm to protect his flying head.

But as payment, one of his arm muscles was shredded.

Between the ragged flesh you could see bone.

The radius and ulna split into two.

Crack.

I aimed my fingers at the gap in his rib space.

[Arcane Blast]
[Rapid Fire]

The Arcane Blast shot out straight like a laser.

The red beam pierced between the bones.

Bang!

“…Gah!”

A dark spot appeared on his forehead.

A clear, thin liquid trickled out, then red blood began to flow.

I lowered my hand from the sight I had just aimed at.

“Easy.”

Could a non-Rank-3 creature really stop the two-step upgraded spell I’d used?

No way.

If you want to play with me now, you’ll need at least a Rank-3.

“Du-duuurk!!”
“Oh my God! This is insane!”

The gang members screamed.

Is it their turn now?

At that moment, my [Senses] sent a faint warning.

Like a sign that something had been missed.

When my gaze turned to Durdin again—

Shurrrrk—.

Amazingly, flesh was filling in the shredded forearm and the hole on his forehead.

Lowering my eyes, what caught my attention was a syringe stuck into his other forearm.

This guy—did he jab himself with a drug in that short time?

“So that’s the thing.”

That must be the prototype “Hekaton” that Selebrics is secretly experimenting with.

In the game it rapidly restored HP—so when it works in real life, does it look like that?

Like some parasitic alien regenerating, flesh filled his torn arm.

The rapid regeneration was excessively unrealistic.

After barely a breath, Durdin’s wounds had been restored and light returned to his eyes.

“…That was dangerous. Solver—are you a mage?”

“Hm?”

What is he talking about now?

What did he think had happened to his men just now?

“I thought you were one of ours because your body’s so developed. Your punch isn’t bad either.”

A person who judged more by firsthand experience than what they saw — a kind of practical wisdom.

I don’t want to learn from him.

“Also, after clashing with you once, I see — you’re flesh-and-blood too.”

“You finally noticed?”

At my words, Durdin relaxed his regenerated arm and spoke.

“So you knew as well, huh? You know why those high-district guys try to maintain flesh-and-blood bodies.”

He said that as he took some items from his waistband.

Ssshh.

More than six syringes, it seemed.

Given the circumstances, those must all be Hekatons too.

Plunk!

And he plunged them all into his neck.

His eyes widened and he immediately flashed a wide grin.

“Because pure flesh holds infinite potential!!”

At the same time his body began to swell in places.

Prudook—, ttu-dduk.

As Durdin had shown before, his muscles hypertrophied and serpent-like veins writhed.

The huge man became even heavier.

The transformation was visually overwhelming, so I couldn’t help but comment.

“You’re… disgustingly grotesque.”

I don’t usually wait for transformations, but this was a spectacle nowhere else could match.

“Kk-kuk…! Everything revealed?”

I was about to say “not yet” when—

Two-kwaang—!

He shot toward me at a speed incomparable to before.

His power out of control, he didn’t even bother to throw a fist — just a pure body ram.

“Die!”

But the mass and speed were overwhelming.

Minimum Rank-3-level force.

I had to avoid it.

[Pick and Blink]

Kwa-kwa-gwang—!!

I was teleported into the air.

Below my feet a long line of dust rose in a straight path.

And at its tail—

Kooong—!

There was another explosion and dust cloud, and he rocketed toward where I was hovering like a projectile.

[Pick and Blink]

As my view flipped, a voice came from above.

“Where do you keep dodging to?”

Fair point.

You can’t win just by dodging.

Boom.

I was just about to draw power and prepare another Arcane Blast when—

“Hm?”

—my Pick-and-Blink revealed the surrounding scene to me.

“Ugh. Ughhhh…”

“Kill me, please… please…!”

People strapped to what looked like torture devices.

Each of them was so battered by brutal torture they were no longer sane.

Syringes scattered at their feet.

“….”

The sight made me forget I had been casting Arcane Blast for a moment.

Bastards.

They weren’t to be killed that easily.

As my expression hardened with that thought—

“Kuhahahaha! Power surges!”

Two-kwaang—!

He smashed through the ceiling and shot at me again.

Seeing that, I reached out and casually cast a spell.

[Gripping Hand]

Kooong—!

His direction bent, and he smashed into the floor.

He hit the ground so hard the vibration ran up both legs.

“Kuh… that’s something.”

[Arcane Blast]
[Rapid Fire]

Using the rapid-fire trait to boost firing speed rather than penetration.

Ku-gwa-gwa-gwang—!

I rained multiple Arcane Blasts in an instant at the man plunged into the ground.

He’s a big target, so even sloppy shots hit well.

Ku-gwa-gwa-gwang—!

Crimson light flickered from both my hands as more magic fired.

It felt like my mana pool—doubled by distributed stats—was draining fast from the rapid volley.

I don’t normally do wild spray attacks that skip calculation and spout magic indiscriminately like this, but—

“U-oooh—!”

Durdin was taking it bare-handed.

His huge body tore and burst, yet he regenerated at the same speed.

Shooting one by one wouldn’t do.

I’d have to grind him like a blender to inflict effective damage.

Ku-gwa-gwa-gwang—!

Is that enough?

When I finally stopped attacking, I could see him barely standing in a pit in the ground.

His huge body more than half torn open, bones and entrails exposed.

Durdin, his face smashed, trembling, laughed and said:

“…Heh. Now your mana’s out, right? My victory for enduring this pain.”

Even as he spoke, signs of regeneration appeared.

I reached out toward such a being and said,

“Nope.”

[Low-Grade Regeneration]

It was already a prototype with bad side effects.

And didn’t we already see what happens when using “Low-Grade Regeneration” through Alibek Kibizo?

This was the perfect curse magic to properly twist the abnormal regenerative power of an artificial drug.

“W-woh?!”

The body that had been rapidly regenerating began to grow excessively and lose its original shape.

It looked like a giant sphere of flesh cultivated from human tissue.

Parts that should perform bodily functions twisted and collapsed under mass of flesh.

It became literally a living lump of meat.

“Grr, grrrrr…!”

He mumbled something, buried in his own flesh.

“What are you saying? I can’t hear you.”

I answered curtly and calmly cast the next spell.

I’d rather not have used it yet…

But it was the perfectly suitable spell to finish off that kind of creature.

The one I’d learned this time: [Ghostly Roar (鬼靈咆哮)].

It was the only spell I had that dealt spirit-type damage.

Spirit damage causes necrosis at the hit area, so it was ideal to kill that thing.

I should pay Payneuf a visit after this.