Into the Creations 1276

Chapter 1276 – 1276. Pheromone Monster

I got out of the car and walked down the street.

Through the wireless earphones in my ears, I heard Sophia’s voice.

-You see the house with the penguin sculpture at the entrance, right?

“Yes, I see it. I guess you like penguins.”

-…My daughter liked them. You can go into that house. Is there anyone there?

Sophia was watching my location through GPS from the car. It was dangerous for her, a civilian, to move directly, so I was moving alone.

I stopped walking and spread my senses. I could feel the presence of four people hiding inside the house and six people hiding outside. The enemies had already noticed my presence.

“There are 10 people hiding nearby. They’re all watching me. About two of them seem to be B-class, and the rest seem to be around C-class. Should I take them down?”

-…Please avoid fighting as much as possible.

“I’ll try. Where is the data?”

-It’s in the doghouse in the yard. There’s a small drawer on the lower right side of the roof. Get the USB inside. The drawer won’t be easily visible. You’ll have to feel around with your palm to find it.

“There’s a reason why those guys haven’t found it yet. I can’t believe it’s hidden in the doghouse.”

-Haha. I’ll take that as a compliment.

I entered Sophia’s house through the front gate.

At the same time, bullets flew at me.

Thunder Heaven Style Electromagnetic Barrier.

The bullets couldn’t penetrate the electromagnetic barrier and fell to the ground.

‘They shot without hesitation. Those bastards. Did they decide to go all out?’

Mere bullets can’t kill me.

I maintained my spread senses and approached the doghouse. It looked quite fancy for a doghouse. But it was completely empty. There was no dog.

“I don’t see a pet dog. Did they kill it?”

-…Rex was taken by my ex-husband.

“Oh, I see.”

Sophia’s voice became gloomy. I felt like I had asked a pointless question. It seemed she didn’t have a good breakup with her ex-husband.

I crouched in front of the doghouse. I ran my hand along the lower right side of the roof. There was something that caught my finger.

I pulled it. A drawer opened, and a USB popped out.

“I found it.”

-They couldn’t find it either. That’s a relief.

“But it seems like I’ll have to fight.”

Thump, thump.

Two men walked towards me from my right and left. Two B-class ability users. The other eight were hiding and waiting.

“Hey. Hand that over.”

“I promise. If you hand over the USB, we’ll let you go without doing anything.”

They each held a sword and an axe. Sword energy swirled around their weapons. I put the USB in my pants pocket and summoned the Fire Lotus Daggers.

“I’m warning you too. Step back right now. Then I’ll let you live.”

The hairy man holding the axe chuckled.

“You seem to be ignoring us because we’re B-class… Do you know how many A-class ability users we’ve killed? More than seven.”

“You’ll be the eighth soon since you’re going to die today.”

The skinny man holding the sword spoke in a chilling voice and charged at me. I raised the Fire Lotus Daggers, coated in sword energy, and blocked the skinny man’s attack.

As if he had been waiting, the hairy man swung his axe at my neck.

I tilted my head back to avoid it. The hairy man and the skinny man’s attacks were simple.

‘These guys are just a distraction. The real ones are…’

Bullets flew. Crack! The electromagnetic barrier flashed and blocked the bullets. The fallen bullets rolled on the ground.

‘It’s the work of the eight hiding. Judging by the fact that there was no gunshot, they must have used magic or an artifact. And…’

The bullets that fell on the ground seemed to be made of a different metal than copper. They must be special bullets that work even on A-class hunters.

Whoosh.

The axe and sword came at me at the same time.

Simple and slow.

That’s what I thought at that moment. The axe and sword suddenly distorted and split into dozens.

[Using Momentary. Remaining stacks: 6]

I used Momentary in a panic.

Reflexively, I analyzed their arms and postures. By my standards, their postures were clumsy. They hadn’t professionally learned martial arts.

‘This isn’t a technique, but an ability. The distortion of the axe and sword is… the hairy man’s ability… and the splitting of the sword and axe is the skinny man’s ability.’

Even if they distorted and split, there was something that didn’t change. That was the reach. Their attack distance hadn’t increased.

I lightly stepped back. Thanks to the effect of Momentary, it became an incredibly fast backstep.

“What.”

“Do you also have a speed-type ability?”

I lowered my upper body and knees and brought the Fire Lotus Daggers to my side. Then, I infused them with lightning energy and swung them at the enemies.

Blue sword energy cut through their bodies. The hairy man’s upper and lower body were separated, but the skinny man was lucky, only bleeding from his side.

“Fire at once!!”

The skinny man shouted.

Bullets poured in from all directions. I didn’t react separately. There was no need to react. The electromagnetic barrier surrounding my body neutralized all the pouring bullets.

“Damn it! I didn’t hear anything about him being immune to bullets!!”

The skinny man screamed and swung his sword at me. The blade split into three. Instead of trying to block it rashly, I stepped away using footwork. Then, I stabbed the Fire Lotus Daggers into his weak point.

“Cough!”

The skinny man couldn’t even block it, let alone dodge it, and was stabbed in the chest.

“You can’t even block such a simple attack? Were your physical abilities and mana only B-class? Your combat skills are less than C-class. Right. …You guys weren’t hunters.”

If they were hunters, they wouldn’t have been so easily defeated.

They probably didn’t want to become hunters but became hunters anyway. To become a hunter, you can’t have a criminal record. These guys were criminals even before they awakened their abilities.

‘Well, they could be guys who didn’t want to do hunter work.’

After confirming that the skinny man had stopped breathing, I looked around. I could sense through my senses that the guys who had shot at me while hiding were running away in a hurry.

I repeated Sophia’s words in my head, telling me not to kill people as much as possible.

I reverse-summoned the Fire Lotus Daggers and went to Sophia.

***

Back in her studio, Sophia sat in front of her computer, constantly tapping on the keyboard. I sat on the bed, watching her work, and quietly closed my eyes.

Bang!

I opened my eyes at the loud noise. I wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand and turned my gaze to the source of the sound. Sophia, who had gotten up from her chair, was staring at the computer like crazy.

I looked at my smartphone. It was 11 AM.

“…Sophia. I can’t say good morning. Did you work all night?”

“……No. I slept in between. You woke up late. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes. I slept soundly. You don’t look good, Sophia. Did something go wrong?”

“Jack Taylor was captured by Boshi. Because of that, Bluecad’s activities have stopped.”

I got out of bed and scratched my head.

“Just because one person was captured, Bluecad’s activities stopped?”

“Because Jack Taylor was the center of Bluecad. The politicians who followed Jack Taylor have decided to wait and see. …And I’ve become a journalist spouting nonsense again. Some media outlets are supporting me, but… that won’t last long either. Boshi is too good at using the media. And for some reason, influential figures in the political and business world are openly supporting Boshi.”

“……Can’t you make the fact that Jack Taylor was captured public?”

“Boshi is not an easy opponent. Jack Taylor is currently officially on hiatus due to poor health. No one will believe it even if I say that Jack Taylor was captured by Boshi.”

“Hmm…”

“Do you want to hear something worse? You and I have become wanted criminals. Our faces are spreading on the internet in real-time.”

Sophia pointed at the monitor.

My face and Sophia’s face were posted on internet news. There were even bounties on us. Sophia had a bounty of $50,000, and I had a bounty of $3 million.

“Isn’t the bounty difference too big?”

“You’re an Awakened, after all. And an ability user who is close to A-class.”

“Hmm. I guess so.”

“…You’re so calm. I thought I was going crazy when I saw this.”

“I don’t get excited over something like this. What’s important is what we do next.”

Sophia sighed deeply.

“Bluecad is planning to rescue Jack Taylor. But…”

“It’s not going well, is it?”

“It’s lukewarm because there’s no center. They seem to be preparing a separate protest… but it won’t be very effective. The current Bluecad won’t be of any help.”

“Then, should we two rescue Jack Taylor?”

“…No. That’s difficult. Another way is…”

Sophia stared at me intently.

“There’s a way. It’s something that requires your consent.”

“I said I’d help. I hope it’s not too unreasonable.”

“Do you know what Americans are enthusiastic about?”

“…Uh, I don’t know. Freedom?”

“Freedom is a given. Americans like heroes. Superheroes with superpowers.”

“I know that too. The successful hunters in America are called heroes, aren’t they? They’re more popular than most celebrities.”

“That’s right. So, I was wondering… do you have any intention of becoming a dark hero?”

“…Are you serious?”

“I’m serious. Putting aside the evaluation of me, the public opinion of you is surprisingly not bad. The three people you killed yesterday were all mafia. They were also criminals with superpowers, villains. Some communities are already praising you, calling you Jupiter.”

“Jupiter?”

“Don’t you know? Jupiter, the chief god of Greek mythology…”

“No. I know that. What I’m curious about is why Americans are praising me.”

“It’s not common to have a dark hero who punishes criminals so fiercely.”

Skilled hunters don’t act like dark heroes. No matter how much people want it, dark heroes are still criminals.

There’s no reason to give up a stable job and become a criminal just to gain popularity from people.

“Do we really have to be that dark hero?”

“We’re already criminals. As it is, we’ll only be chased by the police and bounty hunters. But if you become the perfect dark hero that Americans want… we can move American public opinion in the direction we want. It might even be possible to define Governor Boshi as evil and pull him down from the presidency.”

“……”

I was lost in thought. I weighed various things.

First of all, it seems quite fun.

And next is the risk… After thinking about various things, I nodded. It was worth a try.

“Let’s do it.”