Chapter 6

It happened three days ago.

I had been running around day and night to grow the organization and business as usual, when suddenly, our hideout was raided.

A massive explosion occurred, erasing several members without a trace, and the solid barricades we had set up were completely destroyed.

Blood Wolves’ boss, ‘Big David’, initially judged it to be the work of a rival faction.

He thought it was a terror attack orchestrated by competitors feeling threatened by Blood Wolves, which had been rapidly growing around the Black Market in Sector E.

Although the situation was unexpected, David’s judgment was swift.

Many people considered him a muscle-headed fool based on his appearance, but in reality, he was quite quick-witted.

After all, he was the man who had grown a fledgling gang into a massive organization with hundreds of subordinates.

David quickly brought the chaos under control and commanded his men to somehow subdue the attacker.

Surprisingly, the culprit was just one person.

A scrawny young man, barely in his twenties.

“What the hell are you, punk?”

Big David grabbed the young man’s hair with his huge hand and questioned him. The youth, terrified, couldn’t answer.

“Not going to talk?”

“Kim… no, Shade Wells…”

“Shade Wells?”

It was a name he had never heard before.

“Why did you attack us? Who gave you the order? The Oliver Family? Or the cops?”

“I-I’m sorry! Please, just spare me…!”

“Who sent you?”

“I-it was just me… I acted alone… no…!”

“You planned this all by yourself? Why? Do you have some grudge against us?”

“Ah, aaah… ugh-huh-huh…! This isn’t how it was supposed to go! This isn’t it…!”

Shade shook his head and wailed.

David was dumbfounded.

Just moments ago, this guy had gone berserk and trashed the hideout, and now he turned into a sniveling coward.

“P-please spare me! I must’ve lost my mind for a moment! I swear I’ll never make the same mistake again…!”

“What a weirdo.”

David scoffed at Shade’s pleading. At that moment, a subordinate came to report.

“Boss. There’s something weird about this punk’s module setup.”

“What’s weird about it?”

“He’s got all kinds of bizarre things equipped, including a few Arcane Modules. Some of them even have conflicting performance… Normally, if you wear them like this, not only would your performance drop, but you’d also probably end up dead.”

“Hooh.”

Big David looked Shade up and down with intrigued eyes. Shade, now a wreck, shivered under that cold gaze.

“How is that even possible?”

“I think it’s because of this.”

The subordinate handed over a tablet and showed the screen. A 3D blueprint of an unknown module was rotating slowly.

“This module seems to be the core, regulating the compatibility of the other modules. We’ll need to study it more to understand the details though…”

“Is there any problem?”

“Can we proceed a bit more aggressively?”

Aggressively.

Though he said it indirectly, he essentially asked if it would be okay to kill the subject during the research process.

And Big David’s answer was concise.

“Proceed.”

“N-no way… Mr. Wells…!?”

Miyu, who was watching the video footage with me, turned pale.

She must’ve felt responsible in many ways. After all, she was the one who supplied weapons to Blood Wolves and made Shade an Adaptee.

“Is that the end?”

I asked as I ended the video. The guys in front of me nodded vigorously.

“Y-yes! That’s everything!”

“That’s all the footage we have stored! If there’s anything missing, we’ll explain whatever we can!”

“So please spare us… urgh!”

The ones kneeling in front of me were Blood Wolves assassins who had come targeting me.

Just five minutes ago, they had been brimming with confidence, but after I took down a few of them as an example, they became docile real quick.

Right now, I had just finished watching the stored recording from their cybernetic (electronic brain) devices with Miyu.

And we faced a horrifying truth.

The protagonist, Shade Wells, was dead.

“What kind of monster is that bastard?!”

“The rumors said he had a terminal illness! They said this was the perfect chance to go after him!”

“Who the hell looks like a patient when they crush a Level 2 reinforced exoskeleton with bare hands?!”

“I think my thigh bone’s completely shattered. I feel like I’m going to die…”

“M-me too…”

“Shh, Aaron Stingray is infamous for being a mad dog! He’s a nasty bastard—if we piss him off for no reason, we’re dead too!”

There was no time to grieve the fact that the protagonist had died. A conversation among the thugs, shared via their internal comms network, popped up on the corner of my UI.

I had briefly activated my hacking module to keep an eye on any suspicious activity, but after seeing this, it seemed I didn’t need to worry too much.

I deactivated the hacking module with some relief. This damn terminal illness made it physically taxing to keep using modules.

Still, I didn’t let my guard down as I turned to the thugs and asked,

“So, what happened after the footage? You there, answer me.”

“W-what?! Me?!”

“If you lie, I’ll make you look just like that guy called Shade in the video.”

And I meant it.

The only reason I hadn’t crushed their heads yet was because Miyu was right beside me. I couldn’t give such trauma to this innocent girl.

So I’d endure it for just a little longer.

Until I diced these bastards into pieces.

“Answer me. Now.”

“S-so, um…”

According to him, a Blood Wolves engineer dissected Shade alive for research.

It was to figure out how he had managed to maintain such an “abnormal” module configuration.

After extracting the necessary information, they apparently gobbled up the large number of combat modules Shade had been using.

“The boss took a few modules for himself first, then distributed the rest to his subordinates. A lot of them had pretty good performance, so…”

He trailed off.

Basically, thanks to stealing Shade’s modules, their combat power had received a major boost.

“Ah…”

Miyu, who stood beside me, turned even paler. Then she swayed heavily, and I caught her before she could fall.

“You alright?”

“Ah… I-I’m sorry…”

“If it’s too hard, you don’t have to listen.”

“N-no. I’m responsible for this too…”

“…Do as you like.”

I said it with flair, but to be honest, I wasn’t exactly in great shape myself.

My body didn’t feel good, and more than that, the direction that all this information was pointing toward was incredibly shocking.

“Shade was a Transmigrator like me?”

Of course, it was just a guess. But looking at the circumstances, it was the only conclusion I could reach.

“Maybe… it was inevitable.”

The reason I became Aaron Stingray was because I got first place in a quiz event.

In other words, it wouldn’t be strange if the other top scorers in that event were also invited to this world.

But that didn’t make it any less frustrating.

“That dumb bastard…”

Whoever transmigrated into Shade clearly tried to rewrite the story to suit themselves.

For that, they became an Adaptee earlier than in the original plot by meeting Miyu sooner, and prepared various combat modules before assaulting the Blood Wolves’ hideout.

“But in the end, he died.”

I didn’t know the exact cause.

Maybe it was just a simple mistake. Or maybe he failed to draw out the full potential of Shade’s talents.

Yeah, Shade Wells was a growth-type genius character. It’s entirely possible the transmigrator couldn’t bring out 100% of his abilities.

Well, either way, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was—

“This is a headache.”

Thanks to him dying in such a flashy way before the story even properly began, all of my plans had been blown to pieces.

There was no protagonist now.

This world would have to endure all its trials without a protagonist, and the characters would have to grow strong enough to overcome the world’s crisis on their own.

Countless villains and monsters would show up one after another. When they threatened this city and humanity, there would be no one to take the lead in those fights.

And there was something even more annoying.

“There might be more Transmigrators besides him and me.”

I had no idea how many Transmigrators there might be.

But I could say this much for certain: they wouldn’t cooperate with me. They’d try to twist the story to suit themselves—whichever way benefited them most.

In that process, there was no telling where the original storyline would end up.

“…”

My head throbbed.

Terminal illness.

The death of the protagonist.

The growth of the supporting characters.

Transmigrators.

A world in crisis.

The Stingray Family.

Corpse Eater.

Arcane.

Point Shop.

Trinity Academy.

So many keywords swirled chaotically through my head. They clashed, scraping against the edges of my brain like razors.

Then, at some point—

Miyu’s figure appeared in the corner of my vision.

Her face looked scared, or perhaps regretful.

A certain flash of realization passed through my mind.

‘…Right, it’s not over yet.’

A direction began to emerge.

I could still salvage this.

If it were me—the reader who understood this world more deeply than anyone else—it was possible.

The scattered plans were slowly beginning to take shape.

There was no need to hesitate.

“Modular Miyu.”

“Y-yes?! Wh-what is it?!”

“Seems like you have a request for me.”

“Ah, no… I, um…”

“You want me to destroy everything these guys took.”

“…!”

Miyu’s eyes widened at my words.

As if wondering how I had read her mind.

But to me, it was simple.

I knew how the character ‘Miyu’ would act in this situation.

Miyu was a fragile character.

Because of past wounds, she shut herself in a room and only dealt with machines instead of people.

But while she lacked confidence and feared the world, turning away from it, she was not a foolish person.

She must have sensed something off about the Blood Wolves from the beginning.

She had simply ignored it.

Lying to herself and turning her eyes from reality made things pleasant and easy in the short term.

With the credits and materials the Blood Wolves provided, she could conduct research and crafting she couldn’t have done back when she only sold through vending machines.

“Say it clearly with your own mouth.”

But now, things had changed.

Miyu had seen reality.

The reality that the things she made, and the life she saved, were both destroyed.

“If you want to make up for your mistakes, even now, I’ll help you.”

“I-I…”

A hesitant expression.

But the words she’d say were already decided.

“C-can I really… ask that of you, Mr. Aaron…?”

“Yes.”

I nodded in response.

“But there’s a condition.”

“A c-condition…?”

“You’ll become my exclusive modular.”

“W-what do you mean by that…?”

“Exactly what I said. From now on, you’ll only follow my instructions when it comes to making and managing modules. If you promise that, I’ll help you.”

“H-huh? What are you…?”

Miyu seemed flustered.

But from my perspective, I needed to restrict her activities going forward.

‘Miyu’s technology is dangerous.’

She probably still hadn’t realized it, but some of the technologies she possessed could twist New Valhalla City from the very foundation.

Originally, she was supposed to grow emotionally through interactions with the protagonist and come to understand the danger of her own creations… but that person who was supposed to do that was now dead.

‘I’ll have to take on that role instead.’

More importantly, other Transmigrators might also be targeting Miyu. It was best to take action before they tried anything.

‘It’s not just Miyu.’

I’d have to take care of everything.

The things the dead protagonist was supposed to do.

And also the things Aaron Stingray, the villain, was meant to do.

Protagonist and villain.

I had to carry out both roles simultaneously.

Perfectly. Flawlessly.

“One last time—do we have a deal?”

I looked at Miyu again and asked.

Miyu answered in a resolute voice.

“…I-I’ll do it!”

“Deal.”

I nodded in satisfaction, then said,

“Module online. [Cloud Spider].”

Among the many deactivated modules, I activated one again. At the same time, a black leather glove formed over my hand.

I clenched and unclenched my gloved fist.

The sensation felt strangely familiar.

Probably thanks to Aaron’s memories.

“That bastard… Big David, wasn’t it.”

Blood Wolves’ leader, Big David.

He would pay the price.

For killing my favorite character.

For ruining all my plans.

‘I know, Big David.’

I know exactly what you fear most.

“Well then, let’s start with you lot first.”

“W-what?!”

I spoke to the ones kneeling in front of me.

Their faces filled with terror, but I didn’t care.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep