WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 31: Resistance - 6

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The half-destroyed management office was dark. The only light came from the fluorescent lamps shining through gaps in the partially collapsed roof. Mountains of debris, an overturned floor, and collapsed walls made even that light wander and fade.

It was dark and shadowy enough that anyone determined to hide could disappear completely, yet whenever they crossed one of those scattered beams of light, they would emerge like a ghost. That was the management office.

I gripped the gun I had taken from a corpse and hid in the shadows.

I had only one chance. I had to slip in under cover of darkness and put an armor-piercing round into Kanisen's vital point while he was off guard.

If I didn't kill him in one blow, there would be no second chance.

Kanisen had once been a squire to renowned knights and inherited an ancient qigong technique from them. The first thing knights learned after acquiring qigong was Bullet-Deflecting Qigong. With it wrapped around their bodies, ordinary arrows and bullets became little more than stinging raindrops.

Even without Bullet-Deflecting Qigong, a trained body was not something a bullet could easily pierce. Unless I hit a vital point, Kanisen could shrug off a bullet and come after me to kill me.

That was why guns, despite their usefulness, weren't considered particularly good weapons. Their only value was giving ordinary people with nothing else even a minimum amount of fighting power.

I carefully stepped inside and focused. Thoughts came from beyond the rubble. Kanisen was kneeling on one knee, looking toward the passage leading underground. Gamma was hanging from a rope, examining the partially collapsed underground passage.

'I figured it out! So this is how they made a floor in the Abyss! Then if we plant explosives at just two points, we can bring this whole place down!'

Hey, regressor. Didn't you say this place would hold out for about a year? These people seemed to have figured something out. What were you going to do about this?

I blamed the regressor in my head, then let out a sigh. What else could I do? If I wanted to live, I had to get rid of them all.

Fortunately, Kanisen was looking down at the passage. His mind was filled with nothing but the desire to successfully carry out this act of terror. Good. I probably wouldn't have to worry about being noticed. Once I got an opening, it was over. I carefully took a step.

'Hm? Was that a presence?'

The bad thing about mind reading was that knowing what the other person was thinking didn't suddenly make me better.

The good thing was that I could still read their wariness before they acted on it.

I caught that sense of unease right before Kanisen turned his head and hurriedly hid in the shadows. A moment later, his attention returned to the passage. Kanisen frowned and glared at it.

'Was it just my imagination...? I'd like to investigate, but that's unfortunate. I can't leave while Gamma is down there.'

Gamma was the only one capable of bringing down Tantalus right now. Kanisen alone couldn't do anything without the technical knowledge. That was why protecting Gamma took priority over everything else.

'Still, I set a simple trap in the passage. If someone steps on it, I'll notice.'

Ah, how thorough. He'd even set traps while passing through here.

Still, once you knew a trap existed, its danger dropped to a tenth.

I carefully moved through the debris and saw a glinting thread near my ankle. It was stretched unnaturally tight.

Was this thread trap what you were relying on? How laughable. I carefully lifted my foot and quietly stepped over it.

Jingle, jingle.

A double trap?

It was a double trap.

Damn it. I'd read his thoughts too carelessly. These people made double traps as a matter of course, so he hadn't even considered it important enough to think about!

"Who's there!"

Kanisen reacted immediately to the bells. He was right nearby. If he rushed over, I would be caught at once.

I had no choice. I stuck the gun past the corner and fired.

Bang!

Kanisen covered his face with both arms and shut his eyes. It was the textbook response to a gun. If he used Bullet-Deflecting Qigong over his whole body, he would be fine unless a shot struck his face, especially his eyes.

The way a knight dealt with guns was to protect his body with Bullet-Deflecting Qigong and charge straight in. Kanisen tried to follow that doctrine faithfully.

He would have, if my bullet hadn't hit the passage leading underground.

"Urgh!"

I laughed at the flinching Kanisen and used that opening to hide among the debris.

There was no point shooting him when I knew it wouldn't work. Instead, I aimed toward the passage, more precisely, at the rope hanging over it. To Kanisen, Gamma's life was worth more than his own.

"Captain?! What's going on?"

"Stay still, Gamma. Don't come up."

"What?"

"We're under attack. Hide below."

"Yes!"

After giving Gamma a firm warning, Kanisen stood. He gathered nearby debris and stared beyond it.

'The rope tied to the pillar is supporting Gamma's weight. If it breaks, Gamma, who forced his way underground through the split earth, will be isolated. I need to protect the rope.'

Thanks for explaining. So I just needed to cut the rope. I could shoot it with this gun and run. Hitting such a thin rope would be difficult, but if I fired five shots at where it was tied to that pillar, one of them should hit.

'I'll pile up debris to protect the rope. Then I'll go catch him.'

No, that was cheating.

Kanisen stacked broken steel frames and planks over the rope to protect it. It was an improvised barricade, but it would stop two or three bullets. Damn it. I was screwed.

"Who are you? Identify yourself."

Kanisen finished assembling it, then took a step forward while watching every direction.

Well. I was fucked. That was the conclusion I reached after careful consideration.

He had Bullet-Deflecting Qigong at full power. Even if I fired armor-piercing rounds, I didn't know if they would reach his skin. Even if they did, they couldn't pierce skin protected by qigong.

The gun was now no more than a blindfold. Bullets couldn't penetrate him.

That left only one option.

"Hello, comrade. Is your escape plan going well?"

I hid deep within the rubble and spoke. Kanisen flinched at the voice he had heard a few minutes ago but had not yet grown accustomed to.

Realizing my identity a beat late, Kanisen lowered his voice.

"...You're that laborer. What did you do to Delta?"

"I let him meet the fate waiting for him a little early. This gun is his keepsake. I fired it once, and the sound was nice and clear. He must have maintained it carefully, just like his personality."

"You bastard!"

Trembling with rage, Kanisen grabbed a nearby iron pipe and swung it fiercely. A powerful sword strike. Something collapsed beyond the debris. If that hit me, it would probably snap me in half at the waist.

Still, Kanisen could only destroy some of the debris. He couldn't split it all apart like the regressor. His senses were sharp, but compared to the King of Dogs, he was practically deaf. Unlike the vampire, who controlled space itself, Kanisen couldn't hurt me unless he swung his weapon.

He was stronger than me, but not transcendent.

Just a knight, a relic from a bygone era.

Ordinarily strong.

If that was all,

I laughed at him and changed positions. I didn't need to hide perfectly. I only had to go somewhere outside his field of view, somewhere he couldn't know.

"You didn't come to rescue anyone, and you weren't preparing to escape. You intended to collapse this entire place from the beginning, didn't you?"

"You saw through it from the start."

"Honestly, wasn't it obvious if you thought about it for a moment? Everyone knows the Resistance is like moths to a flame. Everyone knows the Abyss is a place you can't leave once you enter. With two obvious facts like that, wouldn't I be the problem if I failed to figure it out?"

"It was all an act. From the moment you saw me, you deceived me completely."

Rage filled Kanisen's voice. He moved, intending to tear me apart himself.

Not so fast. I fired again. Kanisen flinched instinctively, not because he was afraid of being shot, but because he knew Gamma was my target and guarded that side.

Good. The bait was set.

While he remained wary, I moved behind the collapsed roof. It was pitch-black everywhere, and the many obstacles made voices echo in all directions. If I didn't speak, Kanisen couldn't find my exact position.

That was why Kanisen gritted his teeth and spoke to me.

"Sending Alpha and Beta was also a trap you laid, wasn't it?"

'Answer me. Answer and reveal your position. That will be your end.'

It was a transparent plan, but I was happy to play along. I needed to talk too.

"What are you talking about? It wasn't a trap I laid. Alpha, Beta, and Delta are dead, and even Gamma will soon die, but was that really because of me?"

When Kanisen heard my voice, he strode this way. I read his movements with mind reading and moved in a wide circle to keep my distance.

Now then, the tactic was the same as an ordinary contest between gun and sword. I had to dig into him before he closed the distance after hearing my voice.

The gun? It was no longer a weapon. Like a magician's prop, it was only a device for drawing the other person's eye and distracting them.

"The one who drove them into danger was you, Kanisen."

My target was Kanisen's mind. His heart was hard like a stone, yet cracked by the harsh winds of time.

If bullets couldn't pierce his body, I just had to punch a hole through his mind. Wasn't that a mind reader's way of fighting?

"Don't speak my name with that filthy mouth. They gave their lives and nearly succeeded. If it hadn't been for you, they would have completed the mission."

"Don't talk about other people's lives with that filthy mouth. Even if I hadn't been there, they would have died. Blowing up Tantalus was a mission doomed to fail, and one that had nothing to gain even if it succeeded. If not for you, they could have spent their lives on a mission with more worth and honor."

"You know nothing, yet you dare speak so arrogantly!"

I read his field of vision. He was coming this way. I lowered my breathing, then crawled beneath an overturned table. In the darkness, Kanisen's gaze slipped just past me. After getting out of that dangerous spot, I crawled beneath a fallen cabinet.

Now then. I had to defeat Kanisen in the end. Otherwise, I wouldn't escape from here. How I would defeat him was something I needed to think about further.

Then I saw the cabinet Azzy and I had knocked over the last time we came here. The cabinet where clothing packets were stored, the one containing packets of instructor uniforms.

That definitely had that thing inside.

It wouldn't work on the regressor, the vampire, or Azzy.

But it would work on Kanisen.

I carefully reached into the cabinet, took out a strangely shaped clothing packet, and hid it in my hand. The square, hard gray packet was as heavy as a steel mahjong tile.

Good. All the pieces were gathered.

It had been a while since I used that.

The technique I had sealed away after finding gambling as a legal source of income.

Pickpocketing.

Footnotes:

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