WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Max-Level Swordsman of Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 21
──────
Kang Doseok’s blade cut across the rear of the vehicle.
Screeeech!
A long tear opened in the thick armor plating. The severed metal was ripped away by the fierce wind, exposing the wires and pipes inside.
Amy watched from the open hatch.
Kang Doseok stepped onto the torn armor and climbed on top of the vehicle. His collar whipped wildly in the wind.
He stopped in front of the access hatch on top of the aerial armored vehicle.
Shing!
His blade moved four times.
The heavily secured hatch was cut free in one piece. Kang Doseok kicked the metal plate away and jumped into the dark interior.
Thud!
“...Holy shit. He’s just going in there?”
Shunk!
[Urgh!]
A short scream and the sound of something falling came over the comms.
Shunk! Shunk!
[Gah!]
[You crazy son of a...! Shoot!]
Ratatatat!
Clang-clang-clang!
[Grrk...!]
Shunk! Shuunk!
Gunfire and the sound of slicing flesh rang out one after another.
Arkad also stared through the hatch in disbelief.
“How many people are in there?”
“It seats twenty, but there are twelve. No... Eight now. Six. Three...”
“...This is insane.”
Just as Arkad answered, flashes burst inside the cockpit of the aerial armored vehicle flying ahead.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Crash!
The windshield shattered, and Kang Doseok emerged from the hatch again, leaping into the air. He pressed the switch on the winch hanging at his waist.
Click!
The automatic winch began to turn.
The cable reeled in rapidly, pulling Kang Doseok toward Amy’s aerial vehicle.
At the same time, the aerial armored vehicle tilted, its pilot gone.
Whoooom!
The black vehicle spun as it plunged toward the dark red wasteland.
Kaboom!
The aerial armored vehicle slammed into the ground. Its massive body scraped across the surface, sliding dozens of meters. Then the antigravity engine mounted underneath exploded with a deafening roar.
KABOOM!
Bright red flames surged over the wasteland. Black smoke and broken armor plates scattered in every direction.
A moment later, the winch beside Amy stopped turning. Kang Doseok came through the flying vehicle’s open hatch.
Thud.
Both his feet landed on the floor.
“......”
Amy stared at him, her mouth hanging open.
From jumping out, to swinging his sword, to blowing up the aerial armored vehicle and returning, it had taken him just one minute and thirty seconds.
“......”
Arkad looked equally stunned, unable to believe what had just happened.
The vehicle Kang Doseok had cut apart had the same specifications as Nightfall’s standard aerial armored vehicles. It could withstand most explosions and antitank weapons head-on.
He had brought one down with a few swings of his blade.
Arkad looked out through the open hatch. Unconcerned, Kang Doseok unfastened the cable around his waist.
Click.
His sword slid into its sheath.
“Close the hatch. There’s a draft.”
“...Oh. Right.”
Amy finally came to her senses and closed the hatch.
The aerial vehicle accelerated, heading deeper into the eastern contaminated zone.
Before long, a massive metal structure appeared beyond the dark red wasteland, buried amid the collapsed terrain.
A Kairos Biofields laboratory.
Specifically, the one containing the star for the Windwheel Cleaving Sword Art.
* * *
The aerial vehicle stopped above the laboratory.
Its lower thrusters roared, holding it in the air. Amy got out of her seat and headed toward the cooling bath installed at the back.
“I’ll give you all the backup you need from here.”
Unlike when they had met in Kabel’s office, she was now wearing a tight black net dive suit. Made from thin, specialized fibers, it allowed heat to pass freely between her skin and the coolant, leaving exposed only the sockets that needed a direct connection to her body.
“Don’t get yourself killed thinking about me. Just answer when I call.”
Amy connected cables to the sockets on the back of her head and her arms. The cooling bath’s lid slowly began to close. She waved.
“See you when you get back.”
Bzzzzzt! Hissss!
The net dive cooling bath closed with a noisy hiss. After watching it shut, Arkad and Kang Doseok walked over to the open hatch. They grabbed the descent cables and jumped out.
Whoooosh!
A fierce wind swept over them. The laboratory exposed amid the collapsed terrain rapidly drew closer.
Once they landed, Arkad was the first to look up. A massive metal outer wall rose from the middle of the wasteland. The exposed section alone was larger than most military facilities.
If Shabel’s Storm had not swept away the layer of sand covering the surface and collapsed the ground beneath it, this enormous facility would never have been revealed.
The upper levels of the buried laboratory jutted out like a giant metal structure.
“This is the Kairos Biofields laboratory?”
“Yeah.”
“Kabel gave me a rough explanation. Apparently, this isn’t the only research facility you players are after.”
“There are probably about thirty.”
Arkad looked up at the laboratory, then turned to Kang Doseok.
“...Thirty of these?”
Kairos Biofields had hidden secret laboratories throughout the eastern contaminated zone.
Back when this had been a game, every one of those places had offered a quest.
Each laboratory had a different research goal and different rewards left inside. Gunmen, mages, netrunners, swordsmen, even cyborgs. The facilities players targeted depended on their class.
Soon, the city government would announce the laboratories’ existence.
From that moment on, the eastern contaminated zone would become a battlefield, flooded with players and guilds.
And the place where Kang Doseok now stood would soon become a battlefield for swordsmen.
“The others will be here soon. We need to finish before then. Follow me.”
Kang Doseok walked along the metal outer wall.
The ground had collapsed, leaving only the laboratory’s upper levels exposed at an angle. Its main entrance was buried dozens of meters below.
Arkad looked up at the wall.
“The entrance seems to be buried underground.”
“There’s a way in.”
Without hesitation, Kang Doseok headed around the back of the building.
A round exhaust vent was set into the far end of the wall, half buried in sand. It looked like an ordinary vent, but a locking mechanism connected to an emergency passage was hidden inside.
Arkad tapped the round cover.
Clonk. Clonk.
“This place was only uncovered when the storm passed through, so you can’t have been here before... Is this part of that knowledge players have?”
“Yeah.”
Kang Doseok took a few steps and stopped in front of an old terminal beside the vent.
“Amy.”
A moment later, her voice came over the comms.
[I hear you. But the entrance has no power at all. I can open it as soon as it gets some.]
Kang Doseok looked at Arkad.
“Can you power it? I hear this is your specialty.”
“Easy.”
Arkad placed a hand on the terminal.
Bzzzt!
Purple electricity flowed into the old wiring. The dead screen flickered, then glowed blue.
[Power’s on. Give me one second.]
As Amy spoke, dozens of lines of text raced across the terminal.
Click. Click. Click.
The locks securing the round cover released one after another.
Hissss!
The emergency passage, sealed for a hundred years, slowly opened.
A musty smell drifted out of the darkness.
Kang Doseok went in first. Arkad followed right behind.
The passage was barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through. Rusted pipes and broken wires hung in a tangled mess along the walls, while a long trail of blood, hardened black, stretched across the floor.
[Go right.]
Amy’s voice came over the comms.
[With the power you just supplied, I got a connection to the emergency passage circuits. I’ve got the internal layout, so just follow my directions.]
Kang Doseok stopped at a fork.
“Not right.”
[What? The layout says that’s the way to the central research wing.]
“It’s collapsed. We’re going left.”
Kang Doseok changed direction without hesitation.
After a brief silence, Amy grumbled.
[Why’d you even bring me, then?]
“To open doors.”
[You’re going to use a talented, sexy netrunner like me as a glorified lockpick?]
“The door. Open it.”
Kang Doseok pointed at the bulkhead at the end of the passage. A red warning light blinked faintly above the door.
[...It’s unlocked. But wait. Hang on.]
“What?”
[There are thirty-two life signs on the other side. I don’t think they’re human.]
Kang Doseok paused. Then he focused all his attention on his hearing.
Something scratched beyond the bulkhead.
Scritch.
Scritch, scritch.
[I’ll find another route. Going around through the lower floor will take a little longer, but...]
“We don’t have time. Just open it.”
[Do you even know what’s in there?]
“Just open it. It doesn’t matter.”
[......]
Amy fell silent for a moment.
[Don’t blame me if you die.]
Clack!
The bulkhead rose. Dozens of eyes flashed in the darkness at once.
They were mutants. Creatures made through experiments on living humans.
Mutants with membranes stretched between their arms and sides covered the walls and ceiling.
Some had spines jutting out of their backs. Others had huge wings instead of arms, or entire faces stretched into long beaks.
Skreeee!
A piercing cry rang out.
The mutants poured into the passage all at once.
Kang Doseok’s hand closed around his sword’s hilt.
Shiiing!
The sharp whistle of his blade filled the narrow passage.
The mutants charging at the front split apart together. Those behind collided with the severed bodies and tumbled to the floor in a heap.
Kang Doseok moved in among them.
With every swing, wings and heads fell. A mutant diving from the ceiling was split in two by a diagonal slash. Another crawling along the floor had its head pierced by the tip of his blade.
In less than ten seconds, the passage fell silent.
[...Uh. Um. Life signs. All gone. Confirmed.]
Amy’s voice came over the comms.
Arkad silently watched Kang Doseok flick the blood from his sword.
“Hey. Kang Doseok.”
The voice came from behind him. It was Arkad. Kang Doseok turned.
“This isn’t my first time seeing mutants from failed experiments. But I thought you’d brought me along to provide fire support, too.”
“If we need it.”
“From what I can see, you’re more than enough on your own.”
Kang Doseok did not answer. He started farther down the passage.
“Follow me.”
Kang Doseok and Arkad moved quickly through the corridors.
Amy opened the bulkheads blocking their way. In sections without power, Arkad fed electricity into the terminals.
Clack!
[Left at the next intersection. Keep going, and you’ll reach Experimental Wing 2.]
Every time a door opened, mutants sprang out.
Winged ones dropped from the ceiling. Those that moved with unusual lightness proved to have hollow bones when he cut them open. Following behind Kang Doseok, Arkad examined the bodies scattered across the floor.
“......”
All mutants were strong by nature.
They were, after all, the results of military research meant to turn people into living weapons.
Building muscle, strengthening bones, and attaching new organs were not particularly difficult in themselves.
The problem was the failures.
Mutants that could not endure the changes often lost their minds. They became monsters that tore apart any living thing they saw.
Just how many people had the rampaging mutants killed during Bio Rampage?
Arkad swallowed.
Every creature here was more than most mercenaries could handle.
Taking them down properly would require a combat squad armed with heavy weapons.
Yet before Kang Doseok, their heads fell in the order they charged him. He was not even making any particularly large movements. Just a slice, then a plop.
Without realizing it, Arkad stared at Kang Doseok’s back.
‘Are we really the same species?’
As if cutting through an aerial armored vehicle with a single stroke had not been enough, he was killing creatures that would require an entire specialist combat team armed with heavy weapons. He made it look like a stroll.
Arkad could not even guess how strong Kang Doseok really was.
Then Amy’s voice came over the comms.
[Hold on.]
Kang Doseok slowed.
[I’ve picked up one life sign inside Experimental Wing 2.]
“Another mutant?”
[Yes, but... It’s different from the others. Its pulse is steady, and its brain waves are almost the same as a human’s.]
Kang Doseok looked at the bulkhead at the end of the passage.
“Found it. We’re heading straight there. Open the door.”
[There are two locks. Give me a moment.]
Arkad approached the terminal and pressed a palm against it. Purple electricity spread through the wiring in the wall.
Bzzzzzt!
The dead ceiling lights flickered on one by one.
Amy immediately took control of the newly powered electronics.
Clack!
The thick bulkhead split open to either side.
After passing several more junctions in the same way, Kang Doseok and Arkad stepped into their destination.
“...It’s huge.”
Arkad murmured as the vast interior of Experimental Wing 2 spread out before them.
Dozens of culture pods lined the walls. Most had broken glass or empty interiors. Dried culture fluid and fragments of mutant bones lay mixed together on the floor.
Kang Doseok walked past them all, heading for the far end.
There stood a single culture pod giving off a faint blue glow.
A little girl was visible through the clear glass.
She looked about seven years old.
She sat on the bottom of the pod, hugging her knees. Her waist-length black hair drifted slowly in the culture fluid.
Several tubes were connected to the breathing mask covering her nose and mouth.
Gurgle.
With every breath she took, bubbles rose through the culture tank.
Sensing their presence, the girl slowly moved her eyes.
She was looking at Kang Doseok.
Arkad stopped.
“She’s alive.”
[Not just alive. Fully conscious, too.]
Old records appeared one after another on the screen beside the pod.
[Experimental Subject N-01.]
[Final surviving subject of the flight adaptation experiment.]
[Experiment result: Conditional success.]
[Time on life support: 110 years, 7 months.]
[Time awake: 6 days, 14 hours.]
Amy spoke.
[She’s been awake in there for six days. She was asleep for the past hundred years.]
“Got it. Open it.”
The pod’s indicator flashed briefly.
Hissss!
The culture fluid sloshed as the pod’s lid opened upward. The breathing mask came loose.
Thump!
“Cough, urgh!”
The girl spilled out along with the culture fluid. After several ragged breaths, she slowly raised her head.
“Kh, keh.”
She coughed for a long time, so hard it seemed to wring her heart. Water dripped from her entire body.
Kang Doseok took off his coat and tossed it over.
Flap.
The coat settled over the girl. Her wet eyes slowly lifted.
Her gaze met Kang Doseok’s.
“...Hic, mister, urgh. Who are you?”
Ten years.
She was only the third NPC Kang Doseok had met since falling into this world.
“I’m cold. So cold...”
Her name was Nisha.
The only successful subject of the flight-adapted mutant experiments.
Her age: approximately 110.
Looking exactly as she had in the game, the little girl clutched the coat tightly and stared at him.
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