Terran in Neorust (1)

-Suh, swoosh, swoosh!

Sitting on a high bar chair, Skoba tilted his glass with a frown and yelled at the regular sounds of work coming from above.

“Hey, be quiet!”

“Huh?” The bar’s new bartender, who had identified herself as just the bartender, was a red-haired woman who was now looking at him.

“What, guest, do you have any complaints? It’s noisy and disturbs the other guests.”

“That’s what I want to say, red hair! You can’t drink alcohol because of that noise, huh?!”

“Then, get out.”

“What?”

“Pay first.”

“What? Ouch!” The next moment, Skoba was pushed by an unknown force and bounced out of the door. He tried to charge right back in but was knocked back down to the ground.

“What, what, this…”

“Skoba, you did it.” A resident passing by saw him and burst into laughter.

“You can’t go against the bartender.”

“I was just telling them to keep that noisy guy up top quiet!”

“That’s the bartender’s, you know.” The resident held out his hands, and vulgarly mimed the relationship between the two. Skoba wanted to break his fingers but instead stood up and began brushing himself off.

“I just wanted some peace and quiet.”

“You shouldn’t look at a tree that cannot be climbed. Isn’t that our rule of survival?”

“Damn, I realized it now.” The human bartender who had suddenly taken over the empty building after Heirech died was, undeniably, suspicious. But after hearing Mokoud’s rant, they came to her and bought the cocktails that cleared up the effects of the unpleasant brainwashing that had accumulated in their bodies over the past few years. Any dissatisfaction with her vanished after trying just one of the cocktails she offered. Residents in the backstreets of Neorest were quick to welcome these new, actively helpful residents. They were suspicious still, but it was preferable to those who tried to brainwash them.

“Wait, I haven’t finished drinking yet.”

“If you apologize, they might let you in again.”

“No, hey… really?” The resident just smiled and disappeared. Skoba remained there to ponder for a while. However, he hadn’t finished drinking, and the poison accumulated in his body hadn’t been fully resolved…

“Wow… hey, miss bartender? Ugh!” Eventually, he turned and knocked on the door. A blue electric current flowed through the door as if to block him, making him feel sick. He should’ve gotten a sense of it when she made a cocktail that went far beyond Heirech. His opponent was someone with abilities that couldn’t be imagined

“Ha, right…” Skoba pondered very deeply but eventually knelt down and cried out.

“Please take a look, bartender! I was wrong!” A man kneeling down and crying. It was a sight so common the last few days on this street that no one really paid attention to him.

-Suh, swoosh, swoosh!

“Woah, it’s a little quiet now.” Claire knew the man was on his knees outside, but she didn’t want to bring that noisy guy inside, so she left him for a while and decided to store the remaining cocktail in a container.

“But, bartender.” Seeing him kicked out, the guests were all politely quiet, but one spoke up with an interesting look.

“So, what is that man doing?”

“That’s a secret.”

“Oops, they have a lot of secrets.”

“Drink while you can,” Claire responded slyly and picked up the shaker. Her hair, tied up, was moving side-to-side. Whenever her hair danced, the heads of the guests moved together with her unconsciously

“Be sure to prepare yourselves.” The customer emptied his cup and stood up. He left a few bullets and some mechanical parts next to the glass as payment. Claire collected them together with deft hand motions and looked far away.

“It’ll probably be awful tonight.”

***

-Suh, swoosh, swoosh!

“You said tonight would be terrible?” Kang Shinhyuk stopped his work and turned to Claire. She was squatting down to meet him at eye level as he sat down and worked.

“Yes. The customers were also crowded compared to other days. It seemed that rumors have been spreading, but rather than that…” Claire gathered the information she had gathered all day and summarized

“I wonder if they raid on a regular basis? It doesn’t seem like the robots are coming.”

“Well, given the state of the road and the building, perhaps not.”

“It is a bit extreme here, so perhaps…”

“Everyone has to find a way to live.” The inhabitants of the downtown area were probably protected by the robots. But these people were living illegally, so why didn’t the robots actively try to wipe them out? Maybe they would learn the reason tonight.

“How is your work progressing?”

“Excellent. It’s much more comfortable without the elves interfering.” Immediately after speaking up, Kang Shin-hyuk realized he had said something unnecessary. Claire was clearly suspicious.

“…Are those elves pretty?”

“No, not really.”

“What a quick answer.”

“It’s true. Compared to Claire, they’re all ugly.”

“Huh? Huh?” Claire poked him in the cheek with a spiteful expression but gave up after wondering if she was bugging him as the elves had.

“Can I watch?”

“What about the bar?”

“I closed up early today. It felt like everyone was in a hurry to head back tonight.” Claire settled down and watched him work. He was accustomed to having someone watch him work, so he left her be and honed the shackles.

-Suh, swoosh, swoosh!

He was sizing them, inserting metal parts, and nailing parts together. Even a small piece was roughly half the size of the room, so he was engaged in a major construction project. After spending so much time on it, he had completed one of the dozens of pieces according to his blueprints and took out the Great Heavenly Spirit containing Halo’s energy to imbue it.

“Okay, completed one with this. Claire…?”

“Huh?”

“How long have you been doing that?”

“Not sure.” It seemed like some time had passed, but Claire was still watching him. As he tilted his head, she smiled and stood up.

“Ah, I’m full.”

“Did you eat?”

“Hm? Sounds like something is coming from outside.” She explicitly switched topics, but it was true there was a sound coming from outside. Kang Shin-hyuk stored the parts away and stood up.

-Tick, kzzt, kzzt!

“It sounds like an electric bug zapper.”

“That’s it.” The two approached the window, noticing something crowded outside their house. They were moving bodies with skin decayed in places and had oddly twisted parts.

“Now, even zombies.”

“It’s a really diverse world.”

“Actually, I had some expectations.” Claire scratched her cheek.

“When the original demons appeared, the undead always followed. I’ve seen the dead reborn after being contaminated with magic.”

“Is that why you prepared that safety device?”

“I thought it would be helpful.” Kang Shin-hyuk looked over the mass of zombies. Should they stay inside like this, or go out and take care of them? No, no matter how good the protective layer was, the durability of this house wasn’t very high.

“Why do you think most of them are coming here?”

“Ah, the undead are drawn to beings full of vitality. So, strong people like us.” Even though the residents of this street seemed strong, they fell short of those two. Kang Shin-hyuk took out his pistol. It was made entirely of silvery metal, and his name was engraved with a rune on both sides of it with blue metal engravings. It fit perfectly in his hand.

(Thyrsus No.0: Phoibos]

[SSS rank]

[Special Abilities: Supply Ammunition, Light Bullets, Blessing, Protection]

*Supply Ammunition: As long as you have ammunition, it is automatically loaded into the magazine. Increases the destructive power of bullets by 40%.

*Light Bullets: Fires off bullets of light. It compresses light with the force of vibrations from the wind to further increase speed and power and has a reflective ability. When live ammunition is loaded, energy consumption is extremely reduced, but the effect of the ability is reduced by half.

*Blessing: Fires off holy bullets. It deals 300% damage to darkness and everything that is tainted and will pursue tainted entities. When live ammo is loaded, the energy consumption is extremely reduced, but the effects of the ability are reduced by half.

*Protection: Blessings of strong light dwell inside to protect the user and strengthen the user’s ability to handle light.

[The hidden version of a luxury pistol made in the series. It is recognized as No.O because it shows its power when shooting ‘without’ live ammunition. It is an artifact pursuing the ideal of extreme light. Because it has a user-limited imprint, it cannot be used by humans other than the owner, but its power increases when it is held by the owner.]

Phoibos, one of the names for Apollo. Thanks to his high level of light mastery and metallurgy, he was able to reach the monumental rank of SSS, but that was only possible thanks to the high-quality materials he had used from the light basilisk.

“It’s prettier than mine.”

“Sorry, I made it while emphasizing the properties of the pistol.”

“The coolest one is one I cannot shoot…!” Phoibos was most effective when fired without loading, but that wasn’t really something the zombies would appreciate. He activated the gun’s special ability to reload quickly and motioned to Claire.

Only

“Then, let’s go to the roof.”

“When did you make this hatch?!”

“I thought it would be nice to have an easy exit to the roof.” There was a hinged door on the ceiling of the third floor.

“MacGyver!”

“Be on the lookout.” Claire nodded and produced her own armament, the pistol Kang Shin-hyuk had made for her as well as the one she made for herself, and her two drones.

“…Damn it.”

Opening the hatch, they could see the sky was covered in black mist.

Shapes were raining down from it.