WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 46: Rule One: Trust No One
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1.
Lately, I had been thinking hard about something.
Me, who had spent my entire life thirsty for stimulation and cheap dopamine.
How had I managed to behave so quietly lately, like a proper young lady from a good family?
“He vanished to the left! Chase him! Kill him!!!”
“Block off his escape route first!!!”
“Keep pushing him!!!”
There was the answer!
With every day being this much of a clusterfuck, when would I have time to crave stimulation?
I shook them off in Uehara Cedric mode, then got into several nasty skirmishes with the pursuers I encountered.
The result was...
“Huff... Huff...”
Breath caught in my throat.
A considerable amount of magical power spent.
And.
“Holy fuck...”
A dagger buried deep in my left shoulder, all the way to the handle.
“Ha... Fuck... Can I pull this out? No, probably not, right?”
Even with adrenaline pumping through me, it hurt like a motherfucker.
Fine, I admit it. I had been stirring up trouble all over the place this iteration because I wanted a power-up event.
But did it make sense for that many people to swarm a single Grade 7 fixer?
No matter how efficiently they carved Rowan up, it wouldn't be cost-effective.
And the fixers gathered on this butcher street were not limited to fifty.
Fifty was only the number I'd counted when I first saw their faces.
Every time I turned a corner, more of them popped out from the sides, so there had to be even more in this area.
As I ran while clutching my shoulder.
“Found...”
I ran into one of them after rounding a corner in a hurry.
Before the bastard whose eyes had gone round could shout at the top of his lungs, sticky magical power passed through my Engraving and assumed a mindscape.
“Die.”
Swish!
It was Death Sentence, engraved and honed to the absolute limit of my proficiency.
Without a moment's interval, I drew three straight lines.
Slice!
Limbs fell away with unreal ease, and the torso toppled backward.
Blood shot up like a fountain, making the already red space even redder.
“No one saw that, right?”
Assassination successful!
“He's here! That fucking bastard's here!!! Jack got hit!”
Fuck! Failed!
Unfortunately, a witness had exposed my location.
The bastard who had spotted his prey screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Please! Don't do that!”
Pew!
I fired a Death Sentence with the intent of blowing his head apart, but it merely grazed the cover and left a small scratch.
Hidden behind cover, the bastard shouted like a living siren.
“Don't be scared, keep chasing him! As long as you stay hidden, that bastard's useless!”
He wasn't wrong.
There was a reason they had chosen this butcher street as their hunting ground.
Even within C Sector, this was a narrow maze of alleys where every sort of structure and building tangled together like a spiderweb.
It was filled with cover and blind spots, while thick sewer steam rose everywhere and blocked even the view.
The information they had gathered on me had let them identify Death Sentence's weakness and exploit it perfectly.
Pheee!
Phee! Phee! Pheee!
Whistles rang from every direction like regular signals.
The sounds of people drew closer.
“These bastards are bleeding me dry...”
A chase in real life was not thrilling movie action.
Pursuers were not extras who conveniently got picked off one by one according to the script.
“He's dangerous! Stronger than Sunming! Everyone, be careful!”
“Ten have already gone down! Don't approach carelessly! Pinpoint his position, keep your distance, then rush him together!”
“Grade 7 goes first, Grade 8 follows!”
To survive. And to kill me for certain.
They slowly tightened the noose while keeping their distance.
Their danger level could not even compare to the mindless zombie hordes from Project Z.
“Over there! He's over there!”
“Close in! Close the distance! Block every route toward Night Blossom Garden!”
“Don't let him meet up with Yiming!”
So they had read me that far.
Yeah, they weren't idiots either. They knew that if I ran crying to Yiming, they would have wasted their effort.
Honestly, I didn't know this area well.
If they kept driving me until the very end like this...
Fragile Cedric would be surrounded by an unknown number of hairy middle-aged men.
But with this iteration already nearing its end, I couldn't waste the Copy of the Copy of the Wondrous Dharma Insect-Sound Sutra on these fuckers.
Conclusion.
Outnumbered and at a geographical disadvantage. I could see the end coming.
“...Come to think of it, this pisses me off.”
The iteration was almost over anyway.
That fake True Progenitor who had run away from home had probably already fled far away.
It was a shame about the challenge Points, but I had gathered enough information. I could save the rest for next time.
Was I supposed to be scared of these pathetic bastards, run away, then die miserably while they slowly tore off my limbs one by one?
“No.”
Think of Xuan Sunming.
Even with his own death right before him, he had tried to crush my head and take me down with him.
Ah! Wasn't that the fighting spirit of a Necropolis fixer, brimming with guts?
I took out Exseed, the Gold Carp Family's illegal doping agent that Sunming had left behind.
Crunch.
I twisted off and broke the ampule's tip, then downed its contents in one gulp.
A bitterness sharp enough to sting my tongue pierced my brain.
Then.
“Oh... Oooooh!!!!”
This feeling. It was my first time!
A tingling current ran through my veins and nervous system.
Every layer of sound made by the pursuers around me separated clearly.
My dilated pupils greedily drank in reflected light.
My concentration instantly rose to its peak.
“Hooooo...!!!”
The edges of objects looked sharper.
Hot breath flowed between my teeth in time with my pounding heart.
[ ‘Drug Resistance’ neutralizes Exseed’s side effects. ]
“Doping!!! The best!!!!”
I would not run anymore.
If I was going down, I would take as many as I could with me.
I immediately hid behind cover and judged the timing by the approaching footsteps.
3
2
1
Now!
“Huh?!”
The pursuer close behind me sucked in a breath upon seeing me suddenly spring out from the side.
It was the last thing that bastard saw.
Slice!
Like a victim caught in a wire trap in a B-grade horror movie, the man was sliced apart without breaking his running stride.
I explosively leaped along the path he had taken.
“Come get some, you sons of bitches!!!”
I launched my own countercharge.
“W-What?!”
“Crazy bastard!”
Four pursuers scattered in panic and widened the distance after I suddenly charged out.
I confirmed that they were Grade 8s and 9s.
Phee! Pheee!
“He's over here! Block him!”
“Hide! Buy time until the others get here!”
Death Sentence was certainly weak against cover.
But that was only when I was the one running away.
I kicked off the blood-slick floor and leaped into the air.
I soared above the heads of the bastards who had hidden behind cover and relaxed.
“Huh? Huh?!”
“Wait...!”
I rained Death Sentences down on the bastards as they looked up with their mouths hanging open.
The cause was the one that had taken down the former strongest Grade 7, Sunming: death by falling.
The attack moved slowly compared to the others, but its power was the strongest.
There was no better remedy for enemies who had stopped moving and hidden in place.
Crunch! Crack! Smash!
Crude signs, boxes, and vendor stalls collapsed.
A pool of blood spread broadly beneath them like a foundation.
I used the momentum to perform a stylish forward roll in midair before landing.
Even I couldn't believe how smooth that movement had been.
“This high is fucking insane!!!”
Jon Jones!!! Did you feel like this too?!
But.
There was a reason I had kept running with my ass shaking.
This fight would not end just because I killed a few people.
The moment I started charging in the opposite direction.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I saw an opponent bounding along walls and signs on a bladed prosthetic leg.
Their movements carried the strange acceleration unique to Physical Augmentation.
“Die!”
Even when I fired slashes at them, they forced their way through the gaps and closed the distance.
Only a Grade 7 could move like that, like a Sandevistan.
While wearing a protective garment with a single engraved character, they could withstand one Death Sentence.
I did not retreat.
I took another step forward.
Whoosh!
The prosthetic leg swung horizontally as if to cut me in half at the waist.
Swish!
I slid beneath it on my knees.
With Exseed's effects combined with Laplace’s Eye, the heavy chunk of metal passing over my head appeared to break apart frame by frame.
“What?!”
As I slid past him at point-blank range, I fired two Death Sentences with death by falling as the cause.
Smash!
The Grade 7 fixer who had proudly shown off his fancy prosthetic leg crumpled like an empty can and slammed into the ground.
As expected, death by falling had the greatest power.
“Hup!”
I sprang up with a twist of my waist and moved immediately.
There was not even a moment to rest.
The encirclement was closing in by the second.
The longer I delayed, the more people I would have to face at once.
After that, I entered a state of total absorption.
“Kill him!!!”
“Argh! Aaargh! Don't push!”
I barely avoided greatswords, pudaos, spears, machetes, and rocket hammers.
I fired Death Sentence in straight lines, circles, tentacles, and bullets.
“F-Fuck...! You said he was Grade 7! Grade 7!!!”
“You monster!!! Get out of our city!”
“Aaaagh!!!”
It was a simple game.
Kill, and live. Fail to kill, and die.
Kill too slowly and get surrounded, and die.
I charged into the attackers who had never expected me to strike back.
“Die, you bastards!!!!”
I drew on every ability I had developed in real combat and crushed enemies like a killing tank.
“Spare me!! Reinforcements! Reinforcements!!!”
“Where the fuck are all the Grade 7s?!”
“They're already fucking dead over there!! Dead!”
How long had it been, and how many had I killed?
“Huff...! Huff...!”
Sweat poured down like rain, mixed with blood.
The butcher street was covered with fresh meat that had only just been slaughtered.
“W-Wait... I'm sorry, I was wrong... I said I was wrong, okay?”
Smash.
Only after finishing off one pursuer who begged for his life despite being the loser did I brace my hands on my knees and gasp for breath.
“Argh... I'm dying...”
I was not exaggerating. My body was in tatters.
The Grade 8s had not been much of a problem, but the proportion of Grade 7s had been unexpectedly high.
I had been stabbed and cut everywhere, with flying daggers embedded in my body.
Without Exseed, my body would no longer have moved as I wanted it to.
Still, this should have preserved my pride as the strongest Grade 7, right?
Or had I finally risen to around Grade 6?
I had never met a Grade 6, so I did not really have a sense for it.
“...Is this as far as I go?”
Even a drug high had its limits.
My entire body screamed from my injuries and excessive overclocking.
If they captured me alive, I did not think I would die pleasantly.
“Well, that was fun.”
I prepared Death Sentence, ready to blow my own head off.
Then I pressed my fingers together like a pistol and held them to my temple...
Something felt wrong.
“...”
Why was it so quiet?
I had killed a lot, but not even half of them.
Had they gotten fed up and run away because the losses were too great?
Necropolis fixers were definitely not that soft.
“Cedric, you really do make enemies diligently.”
The familiar voice from the other side made the tension drain out of me.
I understood why silence had suddenly fallen over the area.
Wearing her beloved jet-black dress, Ceres emerged with her arms crossed.
Perhaps she had overcome her inner complex, because she wore tall high heels.
My guardian angel.
“Ceres!!!”
Cedric was seriously tearing up at seeing her again this iteration!
“What are you doing here!”
I almost ran over and hugged her, but stopped myself.
Look at the state I was in.
I could not get blood all over Mama Ceres's dress. It was too beautiful.
Ceres saw my condition and sharply furrowed her brow.
“Ha... I came as quickly as I could, but I was late. Come here.”
Ah, Mama's warmth wrapped around me...
Perhaps she was using healing magic, because I felt my throbbing wounds begin to close.
“You can lean on me.”
“How can you be so merciful...!”
“You really aren't ordinary, are you? I saw what happened on my way here. You put on quite a show.”
“I fought hard despite the geographical disadvantage...”
I felt warm and drowsy.
The fragrant scent of lemons, Mama Ceres's scent.
Exhaustion and relief mixed together, and I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment.
“Cedric.”
“Yes, Ms. Ceres...”
“I have one question. Will you answer honestly?”
“Of course...”
Ceres brushed back my hair, matted with blood, and spoke softly.
“Why did you spirit the True Progenitor away?”
Footnotes:
Jon Jones is a mixed martial artist whose career has included doping controversies.
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