READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 292
I waited for a moment, but the combatant didn’t seem to want to run away.
However, it didn’t feel like they were ready to fight seriously as usual.
There was a determined will to succeed in their task. Though I couldn’t see their expression, they held the researcher on their shoulder, always ready to sprint.
This was different from fleeing. In this context, “fleeing” meant abandoning the researcher to save themselves, just like the other combatants leaping away over there.
The police didn’t come.
Strictly speaking, both sides were illegal, but if you had to differentiate between ‘breaking and entering’ and ‘illegal construction and research’, the latter was certainly a much heavier crime. We weren’t exactly in the clear either.
“…So that’s how it is.”
Alright.
I gripped the hammer tightly and lunged forward.
That combatant couldn’t use circuits.
If they were an Earthling, the story might’ve gone a bit differently.
I didn’t know much about the despair circuit compared to the hope circuit I used, but I at least remembered the theory from the comics.
To be precise, the comments I read suggested that when a combatant used the despair circuit, it wouldn’t work when they tried to flee.
“You have to keep feeling the emotions to keep the circuit running. If you give up that emotion, the circuit stops too.”
That was why the circuit hadn’t activated after I met the fake mom. I had to constantly feel hope for the circuit to run, but after meeting her, I had doubts about whether I could keep up with this.
Perhaps there was happiness in all that too. Sure, I felt despair for a while, but maybe I could’ve ended up happily living with a family that genuinely cared for me.
A fake family.
…In that sense, I was grateful that combatant helped me back then.
If only that combatant could run the circuit, they’d probably find strength to push through instead of giving up like now. Being not an Earthling and not using a circuit, it remained unclear whether the emotions they felt were despair or hope.
I swung the hammer. I controlled the force. I didn’t want to hit the combatant too hard, but the researcher could seriously be in trouble.
And that’s why I figured this combatant would try to dodge as much as possible.
But that didn’t happen.
Bam!
“Uh?”
The combatant raised their arm to block my hammer.
The visor of the helmet was facing me. I could feel them staring at me through the dark glass. What kind of expression were they making?
It wasn’t just the sound of a simple clash. There was something else, like a clanging, something felt off.
If they were another combatant, they would’ve been rolling on the floor clutching their arm in pain.
“You…!?”
But before I could respond, my hammer got pushed back. As the combatant staved it off, they charged forward, plowing beneath my hammer to make a run for it.
Sadly, there were no other combatants nearby.
And even if there were, Jua and Chae-yeon were occupying the skies above, while Yeon-woo would probably be raining down attack magic.
Seo-hee grabbed the researcher’s white gown.
The gauntlet had all five fingers. It was inspired by gloves, but it looked more like a knight’s armor gauntlet in reality.
Of course, applying force while running the circuit wouldn’t make it easy to slip away.
Rip.
The gown tore, but the researcher didn’t fall from Seo-hee’s grasp. The combatant’s foot lifted momentarily off the ground, and both the researcher and the combatant tumbled on the floor.
The combatant quickly got back up and yanked the researcher, but—
Ha-yoon’s sword whizzed past that hand. It wasn’t a big deal, as a magical blade wouldn’t harm a person.
All that happened was the combatant’s gloves and the researcher’s clothes got slashed.
“…”
The fingertips were blue. They must be an alien since there’s no circuit.
“Hey, stop it. It’s all over.”
I walked closer with the hammer in hand.
“You’ll just get hurt if you keep thrashing here.”
They had indeed been the last one standing until now, but it felt like they were just stubbornly sticking around out of pride, not because they were foolish.
For whatever reason—whether it was to protect their ego or something else—I figured they wanted to defeat me just once.
“Hey…”
Ha-yoon spoke to the combatant, who was trying to drape the researcher over their shoulder as their strength dwindled.
Everyone seemed to be stealing glances at each other awkwardly. It must be because they recognized that the combatant saved me last time.
They would generally fight like this, but still, they wouldn’t do something grim to someone who had saved their life.
Swoosh.
Seo-hee knocked that hand away. The combatant staggered back, their arm hanging slackened at their side. That was where I hit them with my hammer.
“…Stop it and go to the treatment center. It’s all over.”
As I approached telling them this, the combatant stared blankly at me.
I wondered if the eyes behind the visor were getting a bit unfocused. I couldn’t help but think that.
“You’re hurt…”
“…”
The combatant took a moment to catch their breath and then turned to face me, raising their hand.
They weren’t raising it above their head, but right in front of their face.
They lifted the injured arm too, getting in a combat stance.
I glanced at them for a moment.
Something felt really off.
Had they always been this relentless? Had they always thought they had to succeed this much?
I didn’t think so. Sure, they had stayed until the end to challenge me, but up to this point, it didn’t seem like they were doing it out of a desire to succeed in their task; it almost felt like they enjoyed challenging me.
Now, it was different. Now, they seemed solely intent on taking that researcher with them. It looked like they wanted to succeed in their task by any means, to receive whatever reward there was.
This stance they were taking against me was probably for the same reason—until the very end, they weren’t giving up and wanted to do everything they could in the end.
“Is it because of Noir Corporation?”
I asked.
I saw their blue fingertips. Those fingers reminded me of someone’s hand. Could this alien have come all the way to Earth from beyond space? Did they come dreaming of making money, only to ultimately struggle to earn properly and now find themselves stuck on Earth?
Pang-pang got tipsy when she drank coffee. And every time she met us, she always chose to get drunk.
I thought it could be because she liked that feeling, but… Maybe it was a struggle to forget the hard life on this planet.
Could it be the same for this one too?
I shook my head.
No, there wasn’t time to think about that now.
Honestly, I wanted to just end this right now.
“…Okay, if you don’t plan to answer.”
I tightened my grip on the hammer.
“I’ll finish this in one go.”
Before I could, the combatant lunged at me.
I reflexively swung the hammer.
A dull sound of impact rang out, accompanied by a sharp shattering noise.
The fatigue piled on from facing a monster and the tension from the threat posed to my family weighed me down. My annoyance toward why this combatant was acting like this. And the anxiety about the upcoming article.
All these emotions and my physical state may not have been controlled quite as well as usual. I might have loosened my grip a bit too much.
I may have just wanted to finish everything quickly and go home to sleep peacefully.
What was certain was that I struck the helmet, and something on it broke.
It isn’t rare for helmets to break. Still, Noir Corporation had that one thing down. The assurance that you wouldn’t die even if you got hit by a magical girl.
Otherwise, who would dare battle a magical girl or a hero?
Even if it cracked and showed the inside, usually the person inside would be unharmed. Aliens generally had a bit of magical power to handle it. That’s how protective suits operated—
But just surviving inside isn’t where the problem ends.
After all, hadn’t I just struck a human head? I quickly turned to check where the combatant had flown off to.
I dashed over there. To check the state of the combatant lying on the ground—
But before I could run over, the combatant sprang up from the spot.
It was as if they had no intention of letting it end like this.
And.
We locked eyes.
Yeah.
I knew that eye staring back at me from behind the helmet with heavily tinted visor. Just one eye, but I recognized that gaze. This was a certainty. Because this was someone I often met, a close friend.
The first person I had successfully passed my signature to when I was born.
“…Pang-pang?”
Blood was trickling from somewhere on their forehead inside the helmet. Reflexively wiping away the blood that flowed over one eye, it seemed they only realized what’s happening after hearing my name.
Pang-pang blinked. She looked at me with surprise through the visor.
“…Is it really you, Pang-pang?”
The other magical girls, except for Ha-yoon, looked somewhat shocked, exchanging glances. No, even Ha-yoon was surprised. It was just a different reaction compared to others who didn’t know Pang-pang’s face.
Pang-pang took a few steps back.
“Pang-pang, wait—”
But before I could finish, Pang-pang turned around and started to run. It was a sprint filled with all her might, something I’d never seen from the “combatant” until now.
I chased after her.