Chapter 201: Episode 201

Episode 201

“But I doubt they’ll just let us walk in,” Bellica said, lifting her head.

Fifty androids, whose appearance alone set them apart, stood guard in Sector 6. While regular androids were a clear mix of human and machine, these were almost indistinguishable from humans, right down to their faces.

They were called the Personal Guard.

The sight of their weapons alone was overwhelming. They were on a completely different level from the ones we’d fought through on the lower floors; this was clearly Eve’s main combat force.

“As expected, something’s off,” Winslow said, folding his arms.

“What is?”

“It’s too easy.”

’I can count more than ten times I almost died just getting here, you know?’

“I heard the Queen of Victoria has two hundred thousand flight-type androids and a thousand units of the Personal Guard protecting Eve. But we only saw a few thousand flight-types below, and there are only fifty of the most important guards here.”

’You’ve got to be kidding me… He shoved me into a place like that? Just from the sound of it, even he couldn’t handle those numbers!’

I let out a sigh, my mind racing.

“If their defenses are this thin, there’s a good chance Eve moved her residence. This place might be a decoy.”

“That’s not a possibility,” Bellica interjected. “Eve’s main body, the central computer, is irreplaceable. All of her vast data and the source of her intelligence are stored there. Even if it could be moved, operating that enormous system anywhere else would be impossible.”

“Hm.”

At that moment, Winslow suddenly stuck his thumb up.

“If things are going smoothly, then everything’s A-OK! Reduced security is good news for us. We’ll wipe out these fifty units and go straight to Eve!”

“Understood.”

We had come this far on the backs of sacrifices. Whether we lived or died, our only option was to keep moving forward.

As we advanced, the fifty androids of the Personal Guard spread their wings and readied themselves for battle.

Just as a fight was about to break out—

VMMMM!

Countless screens materialized in midair throughout the vast, coliseum-like space.

Bellica glanced around, then flinched in shock.

“Th-this is a live broadcast channel! It’s connected to every city in Machinatio!”

“Oh?” Winslow stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Eve is up to something amusing. Is she planning to broadcast our battle to the entire world?”

A wide grin stretched across his face.

“I like it! That’s exactly what I was hoping for!”

“……Sunbae?”

Winslow strode forward, his arms spread wide.

“I am Winslow!” his voice boomed, echoing through the space. “Are you listening, Eve? Your plan is to annihilate the last vestiges of human resistance before everyone’s eyes, putting a final end to humanity’s rebellion, isn’t it? But what happens if we win?”

“Humans have the right to be free! Even those who choose to obey have the right to choose their own master! Your vaunted intellect ends here! At this very moment, humanity declares complete freedom from the machines!”

“To the people who live without the freedom to even breathe! To the humans who don’t know the parents who gave them life, who have data crammed into their heads and are forced to live like livestock, like machine parts! To those whose lives are worth less than a fly’s, executed by firing squad for simply being left out of the system! Watch closely! This is the will to be free!”

RUMBLE!

The magic power Winslow had unsealed surged explosively.

He began to cast a spell.

<Winslow Original – Rock Gravity>

Omnidirectional metal-based magic detonated.

“My original specialty is toxins, with a 99% aptitude! But I abandoned it to fight you androids instead of monsters!”

The airborne guards began to creak, their bodies dragged down toward the ground.

“Feel my resolve!”

Some guards were slammed into the floor or smashed against the walls, their bodies crushed by the immense pressure. The remaining ones immediately began to respond.

“Initiating Over-Boost to respond to Variable No. 49. Firepower increased by 200%.”

“Commencing attack.”

The guards’ torsos began to glow a searing red, as if overheating from within. They charged forward, enduring the pressure of Rock Gravity.

“Hngh!”

Bellica reached into her coat for her gun, but I stopped her and stepped forward.

“I’ll handle this. You focus on protecting him.”

“Jance!”

I lightly lifted my right foot, activated Devastar, and stomped down hard.

My body vanished in a burst of black smoke and reappeared just as my kick caved in the head of a charging guard. In the opening I’d created, I inscribed a magic circle.

<Flame Tauros>

The explosion went off the instant I leaped away. One guard crashed to the floor.

—Tower Master. The guards’ armor is more durable than expected. With Flame Tauros, I estimate you will need to hit the same spot five times to penetrate it.

’As I thought, I’m still not proficient with sixth-order magic.’

I had only just arrived at the Sixth Floor Trial and started learning these spells. Using them in real combat was still tricky.

’Then I’ll just do what I always do and win by sheer volume!’

—I will follow the Tower Master’s command.

<Fire Cannon> ×100

Fireballs rained down from every direction.

The guards, slowed by Rock Gravity, were struck by the fireballs. Their already glowing-red bodies heated even further, exceeding their maximum heat tolerance, causing their frames to split and explode.

’It’s working!’

—Effective. Exploiting high temperatures is the key strategy.

I flew around with Devastar, snapping their necks with my kicks and scattering Fire Cannons everywhere.

Their laser attacks were dangerous, but I was gradually getting used to their movements. This wasn’t so bad.

When I glanced at the screens on the walls, they were filled with messages cheering me on. “You can do it!” “Win!” and so on.

’Is this really okay? No one seems to care about banned words or censorship anymore.’

“Hahahaha! Splendid, Kim Yusin! As expected of my junior!” Winslow, still maintaining Rock Gravity, let out a booming laugh.

—Tower Master! Incoming projectile at twelve o’clock!

’Ugh!’

I jerked my head aside, narrowly dodging the bullet that whizzed past.

’Where did that come from all of a sudden?’

I turned around. The strangely shaped golden bullet flew past me, traveled several hundred meters farther, and then detonated in midair.

’……?!’

As the bullet’s energy wave spread, the Fire Cannons I had deployed reverted to dormant mana.

It was the “Cancellation” effect I had experienced during the flying trial on the Fifth Floor.

’This must be the tactical weapon version from the science division, not magic.’

Still, it was a good thing I had seen it before. I was startled for a moment, but I immediately restored the magic circles and reactivated Devastar.

I fired off Fire Cannons to keep the charging guards at bay, using the smoke to obscure their vision as I looked back.

“Are you two okay?”

Thankfully, neither of them seemed injured. However—

“Ah… ah…”

Winslow’s body was trembling.

His chubby legs, his missing jawline, the rolls of flab bulging in layers around his belly.

The impossibly handsome, pretty-boy Winslow was gone without a trace. In his place stood a heavyset man, plain as day.

“Uh, aaah. Wh-what?”

Winslow touched his own body as if he’d lost his mind.

“T-Tower Master?”

Bellica rushed over in a panic, but Winslow recoiled with a stiff expression.

“No!” he screamed. “There’s no way! I’ve always been that handsome and cool! Right? I’m right, aren’t I?”

“How did this even…”

At that moment, Winslow’s gaze shifted to the surrounding screens.

Unfortunately for him, his right eye was as developed as my Deva’s Eye, and he could read every single word on the screens.

[Who’s that pig?]

[Where’s Winslow?]

[Look at all that flab. He looks disgusting.]

[There’s no way that pig is Winslow, right?]

“No!” he screamed as the messages flooded in. “That’s not me! I’m not Winslow!”

He clutched his head and howled, collapsing to the floor. Wrapping his arms around his head, he sobbed uncontrollably.

’Just as I suspected. Winslow clearly has a severe trauma related to his appearance.’

From the first time I met him, he had gone to pathological lengths to hide how he really looked. The only ones who knew the truth were the homunculus Enlil and me, a complete outsider from another world.

’I’d always wondered about it. The diet spell he used required a massive amount of mana to maintain; it was absurdly inefficient.’

On top of that, Winslow had never been able to fight at full strength because he kept the diet spell active even in battle. He only used spells that consumed little mana or that he could cast quickly, like launching the missiles Bellica had produced. ’It seemed the idea of his true form being exposed terrified him more than death itself.’

In the end, Eve, who could read human emotions, had sensed Winslow’s fear and was now mercilessly digging into his weakness.

’There was a reason she was broadcasting this to the entire city and had even opened up the chat.’

Winslow, the leader of the Resistance and the Tower Master, was a celebrity. Even now, people who had just seen his true form were flooding the chat with ridicule.

“Get up, Tower Master!” Bellica shouted.

Freed from Rock Gravity, the guards had caught their breath and were resuming their attack. As lasers rained down, Bellica hastily opened a subspace and pulled out a specially coated barrier, setting it up in front of them.

It managed to deflect the lasers, but the barrier was quickly being shredded.

“Tower Master!”

“It’s not me! That’s not me! I’m not that person!”

The guards drew their sword-like devices and charged.

Bellica frantically drew her pistol and fired, but they dodged her shots with ease.

“Please! Move!”

Bellica threw her gun aside and wrapped her arms around Winslow’s body. Winslow still hid his face, unmoving.

Just as the guards tore through the barrier and raised their swords—

CRACK!

A guard’s face caved in under my kick as I reappeared.

As the android flew back, I bent my leg and activated a fresh Devastar on my sole.

<Devastar>

I spun and unleashed a roundhouse kick.

Another guard charging from the side was sent flying several hundred meters before slamming into the floor.

“Ah…!”

“Are you hurt?”

Bellica, her eyes brimming with tears, looked up at me.

“……Tower… Master?”

At those words, Winslow, who had been lying face-down with his forehead pressed to the floor, slowly lifted his head. I flashed him a wide grin and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Good. You look fine to me!”

“You…!”

I had shrouded myself in a veil of water, taking on Winslow’s handsome form.

“What are you afraid of? What makes you so anxious, Sunbae?”

Winslow’s pupils quivered.

“Why do the eyes of complete strangers matter so much? Look beside you.”

Winslow turned his head. He saw Bellica’s face, streaked with tears and filled with worry.

“Does she look disgusted?”

“……”

“Your appearance doesn’t matter. Anyone who gets hung up on that and can’t see your true worth is someone you should be glad to cut out of your life!”

I turned my raised thumb toward my own chest.

“Believe in me. Believe in your own true worth!”

“……”

“Tower Master! They’re coming!”

I turned my back to them.

“It’s useless!”

I thrust out my right arm. I performed no spellcasting gestures; I simply extended my arm.

And then—

<Rock Gravity>

The charging guards collapsed to the floor in unison.

“Who dares laugh at me!”

I swept my arm toward the lasers flying in from the front, and Mirror Shields unfolded one after another, refracting the beams.

“I am the strongest in this world! I am Winslow!”

Wherever I pointed my hand, Rock Gravity detonated, and wherever I swung my arm, Mirror Shields spread out without a single gap.

The power of the magic was on a completely different level from when Winslow himself had cast it earlier.

CLANG!

CRASH!

Just then, guard reinforcements smashed through the glass ceiling from Sector 5 and poured in. Bellica’s jaw dropped.

Their numbers had quadrupled—over two hundred guards now filled the space.

“Pathetic! You think you can stop me with this paltry number!”

I raised both arms high toward the sky.

“I am… huh?”

Winslow, who had been lying on the floor, slowly pushed himself up. His face streaked with tears, he thrust his arms toward the sky and shouted.

“I am!”

A shiver ran down my spine. ’I had never felt such a vast flow of magic before.’

“Winslow!”

The very air seemed to split open.

The arms, legs, and necks of the two hundred guards were torn from their bodies as if in a public quartering, their frames ripped to pieces.

Bellica let out a horrified scream and collapsed where she stood.

As I watched the android scraps fall like rain, I smiled and dispelled the water veil.

“I respect you, Sunbae.”

Winslow, blood streaming from his nose and mouth, his eyes turned pitch-black, gave me a crooked grin.

“Of course. I am Winslow.”

* * *

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