The Novel's Extra-Chapter ss20: Side Story 20 – Dream in a Dream (20)

“Get up. It’ll be hard for me to fight them all alone.”

I extended my hand towards Rachel after finding her thanks to the [Book of Truth].

However, she had been poisoned to the point where she found breathing difficult. Her blood vessels turned green underneath her milky white skin.

I placed the Orb of Regeneration in her hand.

“Hold onto this tightly.”

Shwiiiish!

The assailants threw numerous daggers at us like bullets, but I shot them all down with real bullets. As expected, it would be hard to find a weapon more powerful than a gun in this world without mana.

“You… are…”

Rachel weakly muttered as she propped herself up with Galatine and leaned against my shoulder.

I aimed at the assailants, but…

“What the hell?”

They stared at us from on top of the alley like a bunch of statues. I hesitated to pull the trigger because I had no idea what they were planning.

“Haa… Haa…”

Rachel slightly recovered, but her body was burning up.

Then a cold breeze blew and the assailants instantly made their move. They rode the wind and displayed a completely different speed from before.

I activated bullet time as I shot my handgun with one hand and swung a dagger in the other.

“Huh?”

I had anticipated their trajectories, but the wind surrounding them veered my bullets off course. Not only that, the wind allowed them to defy the laws of physics. They could instantly soar in the air or suddenly appear behind me as they charged.

I couldn’t understand as I fought these bastards that freely moved everywhere. Why did they simply watch before when they possessed such speed? They could’ve already killed Rachel when I hadn’t arrived yet. Did they just want to toy with her?

Clang!

A dagger flew towards my head, but I threw one of my own to deflect it. However, I couldn’t block the assailant that flew towards me faster than the dagger. I simply couldn’t handle all of them moving so fast.

“Keuk!”

I took a few steps back after being punched in the guts. A few cracks appeared on my Spirit Stone armor.

The assailants suddenly stopped and jumped on top of the alley again. They stared at us like a group of owls.

What were they doing? Were they just laughing and toying with us? Or did they have a reason for doing that?

I composed myself and reloaded my gun while thinking. A single word popped up in my head.

“Wind…”

These bastards only made a move when the wind blew. Come to think of it, a mana storm had occurred when they first ambushed Rachel. Did that mean their powers somehow came from the wind itself? I would’ve written Lancaster’s settings in detail if I knew this would happen.

Whooosh!

A powerful gust blew this time. As expected, they threw their daggers along with the wind and proved my theory. Countering them became much easier now. I just had to get rid of the wind, right?

“…!”

I allowed two of their daggers to hit my waist. My Spirit Stone armor and aether immediately prevented any serious damage, but I pretended to crouch with my arms around my waist.

“Ah!”

Even Rachel fell for my acting as she exclaimed in surprise.

The assailants took the bait thanks to her. All nine of them rode the wind and charged at me.

I immediately activated the Spirit Stone’s power.

Krrrwaah!

The ground shot up and sealed the entire area to cut off the wind. The entire place grew dark as well.

“This can’t be…”

The assailants found themselves in trouble now that the wind disappeared. On the other hand, I couldn’t be more comfortable. A sharpshooter like me who could see everything considered the darkness my most dependable ally.

Click… Clack!

Aether fused with my handgun and transformed it into a shotgun. My defense would significantly drop, but my destructive power increased by several times. Every bullet would blow up their bodies with excruciating pain.

Shwiiiiish!

The assailants threw hundreds of daggers in every direction, but Rachel stepped up and blocked all of them.

“A-Are you alright?!”

She desperately asked after being fooled by my acting.

“I’m fine, so you can continue resting.”

Rachel didn’t seem to be in a good state. She probably felt dizzy and tired as the poison and Orb of Regeneration clashed within her body.

“No…”

She stubbornly refused.

Bang!

Rachel immediately covered her eyes and hunkered down when I fired a shot. I slowly walked forward and pulled the trigger again.

The assailants completely lost their mobility after I sealed the area and everything became dark. I shot my shotgun at their chests.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of something crashing into walls could be heard. My shotgun shells sent them flying. After all, a mere human could never stand up against technology.

Kwachik!

A dagger flew out from nowhere and struck my shoulder, but I didn’t care as I shot another shell into the bastard’s mouth.

Bang!

Splatter…

I blew his head off and splattered his brain all over the place.

“Ugh…”

I groaned in disgust and suppressed the urge to vomit. A metallic taste lingered on my tongue and the scent of blood filled the area.

However, I didn’t stop and continued pulling the trigger. I destroyed everything in my path. The assailants didn’t give up and charged at me with their lives on the line.

A dozen gunshots rang out within the sealed area.

“Hoo…”

The once human bodies became a pile of unrecognizable mush. I swallowed back my puke while standing in the middle of this. This was why I hated fighting in close combat and chose to be a sharpshooter.

I released the earth walls sealing the area and moonlight shone down on our surroundings. The scene of massacre looked like hell on Earth.

Rachel stared at me, but I couldn’t tell how she felt.

“Are you alright?” I asked as I approached her.

She didn’t respond. Instead, she slowly raised her hands and held my gas mask. Then, she drew her face inches away from mine and stared at me with trembling eyes.

I hardly ever saw her so shaken up. No, it felt like déjà vu from the past.

“Blood…”

She muttered while wiping the blood off my gas mask.

I smiled and shook my head. “It’s not my blood.”

Rachel stared at me intently.

The gas mask probably wouldn’t be any use this close. We looked into each other’s eyes without a word.

Why did I wear this tacky gas mask anyways? What a shame… I should’ve worn something much cooler. Tons of cool masks existed, right?

“…!”

Rachel suddenly wrapped her arms around my neck. The dagger flying towards my neck stabbed her arm instead.

I quickly turned around and saw an arm from one of the bodies I blew up. It seemed to have thrown the dagger by itself even after being separated from its body.

I immediately shot it with my handgun.

Whiiiiing…

A siren blared when I thought everything had ended. The gunshots must’ve attracted the police.

I looked at the sky and turned back to Rachel. She gazed at me in exhaustion as her eyes slowly closed. She looked quite peaceful as she fell asleep.

***

Rachel slowly opened her eyes to a flickering light bulb on the ceiling.

Zzzt… Zzzt… Zzzt…

The light bulb dazed her and made her feel as if she might still be dreaming. Her entire body felt like peacefully floating.

“Are you awake?”

A voice dragged her consciousness back.

Rachel turned and saw a man sitting on a chair. They met a long time ago, but he seemed so familiar as if they just met yesterday. It was Kim Hajin.

As expected, this wasn’t a dream. Rachel touched her face and clothes before getting up, but suddenly felt dizzy and staggered when she stood.

“Are you alright?” he asked in his usual kind voice.

She felt awkward and couldn’t get used to it after such a long time.

“Yes…” she awkwardly replied.

“Then, look at this.”

“…”

She had a lot of things to ask, but decided to do as he said for now. Kim Hajin typed on a keyboard and clicked the mouse a few times. She looked at the file he opened.

[A ravaged body has been found…]

[A massacre took place…]

[Is it a zombie drug?]

She had seen some of this news while eating at Kimcheon Food Country. It seemed Kim Hajin already knew where the first incident took place.

“Don’t you think the clear condition is related to this place?”

“…”

Rachel thoroughly went over the file before nodding.

She kept stealing glances at him while pouting as if to show she had a lot of questions to ask. For her, the clear condition became secondary to what really happened. Had he really been Xtra? Why did he help her as Xtra? Also, what was the truth behind James Finley?

“If you’re curious how Lancaster’s minions came here… I can only guess his organization already infiltrated the general assembly. Hmm… Or they might’ve gathered enough contribution points to intervene with the general assembly…”

Kim Hajin didn’t give Rachel a chance to ask and continued talking about important matters even though she expressed her discontent by pouting. He continued with formal talk as if indirectly telling her he didn’t plan on explaining or she didn’t have the right to know.

“We should probably round up your guild members before getting involved any further, right?”

Kim Hajin asked, but seemed to have already decided as if he was the guild leader.

Rachel tried to retort as the English Royal Court’s vice leader, but couldn’t utter a word. She tried to say something, but her vocal cords wouldn’t work. Instead, an excruciating pain spread all over her body.

She tried to suppress the pain and strange sensation, but…

Growl…

A growling sound rang out across the room.

“Ack!”

Rachel flinched in surprise and covered her stomach with a pillow. Not that it would do anything to stop the sound.

Grooooowl…

Her stomach growled even stronger this time.

She felt shame and embarrassment that she had never felt before in her life.

“This… No… This is… What I mean is…”

She stuttered incomprehensibly.

“…”

Kim Hajin silently stared at her and Rachel didn’t want to decipher the meaning behind that look. She bit her lips and closed her eyes to concentrate on controlling her stomach.

“Are you hungry?”

“…”

Rachel slightly opened her eyes at his words and replied in a shaky voice.

“I keep trying… but I can’t help it…”

To be frank, it was a natural phenomenon. Her mana-enhanced body drew most of its energy from the mana she breathed in around her. However, this world had no mana and she had to supplement all her energy with food alone. She couldn’t escape from her destiny of becoming a glutton.

She would probably struggle with this new lifestyle. Her appetite had increased by several times. If compared to an animal… it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say her appetite now matched an elephant's.

“No, I completely understand.”

Kim Hajin thought about feeding Rachel before anything else.

“Ah… this is really… ah… why am I like this… why…”

She felt like she would cry without anything to eat. Twelve hours had passed since the fierce battle last night.

“Just wait a bit.”

Kim Hajin got up and headed to the kitchen. He thought about cooking the same food that Evandel liked, except he would make four or five times the portion.

First, he opened the refrigerator and pretended to take out ingredients while rolling the random dice. The random dice filled the refrigerator with top-class ingredients.

Growl… Grooooowl…

Rachel’s stomach continued growling.

She panicked as her royal image diminished from her noisy stomach. Kim Hajin played some music to cover up the sound.

Her stomach could no longer be heard thanks to his thoughtful gesture. He had to crank up the volume a bit though to drown it out.