Chapter 115

Chapter 115

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 115Not long after I contacted them, I handed Alessia over to the emergency team that arrived, then immediately headed beneath the sky where the green flare was glowing.

Perhaps because of the backlash from repeatedly overusing aura, my muscles trembled and my joints seemed to scream every time I took a step, but right now, I didn't even have the luxury of wasting time over something like that.‘Because I need to end this damn situation right now.’“You Calione dog! Die!”

As I ran through the empty streets, a villain who had been hiding inside a building charged at me.

“──Don't get in my way.”

I reached out, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into the ground. He let out a brief death cry and lost consciousness.

Time spent on trash like this was far too precious, so I left him there and continued forward in a hurry.

The flare had gone up from a place not far from where Alessia had been.[Jack's botanical garden]

Jack's Botanical Garden.It was a café made by renovating a three-story building into a botanical garden, and one of Sector C's famous landmarks.

Just as I was about to enter the entrance decorated with large flowerpots, I felt something strange in the air.‘It's too quiet.’If a flare had gone off, then organization members should definitely have arrived here, yet the surroundings were far too quiet.[「Skill: Aura Sonar」 activates.]

Just in case, I tried checking inside the building, but it was impossible to see within.

The interior couldn't be detected at all, as though it were covered in a dense fog.

It wasn't difficult to guess why.

“Plague's ability.”

A technique unique to him, using mushrooms to scatter spores through the air.

Remembering how he had used this method in the game to shake off mages tracking him, there was little doubt.‘That means there's something important inside.’After checking the gazes directed toward me, I clenched my fist and confidently entered the building.

At the same time, the distinctive smell of grass and humidity of the botanical garden washed over me.

Judging by the gas mask giving off a faint heat, something had definitely spread through the air.

As I cautiously advanced, I saw something writhing on the floor.

Black suits and golden badges.

They were Calione organization members.

Judging by the stab wounds and cuts all over their bodies, I could tell they had been slashed by someone's blade.

“...

It must be the guy Bloody Clown mentioned.”

I recalled how he'd nodded when I asked whether there was another villain as dangerous as him or even more dangerous.‘As expected, they stationed him at the most important location.’Since the flare had already been fired, the other organization members would gather here as well.

After propping the two up so the others could handle them later, I headed deeper into the botanical garden where acrid powder was spreading.

Step─ Step─As I went farther inside, I saw an enormous tree beneath the moonlight.

No.

An enormous mushroom as large as a tree.

Kush─ Kush─ Kush─The green mushroom constantly writhed as it sprayed spores into the air.

At a glance, I could tell it was the cause of this entire incident.

I quietly took Tommy out of the Cube and aimed at the mushroom.

And at that moment.

Tingle──A chilling sensation ran through me, and I stepped back.

At the same time, my gas mask dropped limply to the ground.

“...

Luck? No, instinct. To think you avoided my attack purely on instinct.”

A voice came from behind the mushroom.

A man dressed in white mourning clothes stepped out from behind it with slow footsteps.

“You seem different from those small fry just now.”

The moment I saw his clothes and the sword at his waist, I immediately knew who he was.

“...

White-Clad Rakshasa.”

“Oh? You know me?”

A villain who devoured and absorbed the souls of those called strong, using them to increase his own power.

He was quite a troublesome bastard who would do any filthy thing necessary if it meant killing and absorbing someone stronger than himself.‘That's why the community nicknamed him Unlucky Choi Yeon.’The fact that he was here meant...

Hoo, I let out a light sigh and stood directly before him.

Apparently pleased by that, the corners of his mouth rose.

“Then this will be quick. Either you die, or I do. Let's decide it that way.”

The man smiled as he spoke, drew the sword from his waist, and pointed it at me.

He's still a lunatic here too.

“...

Before that, I have a question. Why didn't you touch those organization members lying outside?”

“Ah, those two brats? Obviously, eating them would only foul my palate, so why bother?”

He didn't kill them because they didn't meet his standards?

I thought it was ridiculous for a villain to have such pointless convictions.

“But you appear sufficient as my opponent.”

“Really? Hearing that from someone famous like you makes me feel like I've definitely gotten stronger.”

The moment he acknowledged me as an opponent meant the player already possessed strength on the level of a named NPC.

It was practically the game's official combat-power measuring device acknowledging me.

“By the way, I wouldn't recommend trying to run away. The moment you inhaled the spores at this distance, you're as good as dead.”

Don't tell me he targeted the gas mask first so I couldn't run away and would be forced to fight him prepared to die?

Even his approach was exactly like him.

“You look fine, though.”

“Me? I received a vaccine, so naturally I'm fine. Now then, how about we fight for each other's survival? My hands are already itching so badly I can barely stand it.”

He grinned like a rakshasa as he spoke.

At the sight, I couldn't help but let out a dry laugh.

“Ha, you're exactly the same. Seriously. But what should I do? Those spores don't seem to work on me either.”

A notification window floated in the corner of my vision.[「Trait: Thousand Poison Immunity」 is currently active.]

His attack wouldn't work on me in the first place.

The gas mask had only been there to make them lower their guard as much as possible.

“...

Why are you perfectly fine? He said even Awakened wouldn't last long...”

“Guess it doesn't work on me. Anyway, I'm short on time, so a spar isn't happening.”──A hunt, maybe.

“A hunt?”

I looked at the confused bastard reacting to the word hunt and spoke to ‘them,’ who had been watching us.

“Subdue him and transport him too.”

“What do you mean, a hunt──!”

The bastard suddenly sensed something and raised his sword.

At the same time, clang! rang out, and his body staggered.

How naive.

Why did he think I'd come alone?

This was war.

A war between the Villain Alliance and Calione.

And whenever war broke out, Calione was an organization that always won.

“Sniping...?!”

“So you can block incoming bullets. Then it'd be better to raise the intensity a little.”

The moment I finished speaking, red dots surrounded his entire body.

“Try blocking this too.”──!!! ───!! ──!!! ─! ──!!! ───! ─!! ──!!! ──!! ────!! ──!!!

The dark botanical garden was engulfed in continuous flashes and gunpowder smoke as though lightning were striking.

The bastard swung his sword, trying to block the hail of bullets coming from every direction, but did he really think we'd bring ordinary bullets into a situation like this?

“Anti-

Awakened rounds. They're special rounds with mana stones embedded in the bullets, so they should hurt quite a bit.”

Each round was expensive enough that ordinary guilds couldn't afford them, but why would that matter?

Calione's armories were overflowing with those ‘Anti-

Awakened rounds.’

Lines of fire overlapped with lines of fire.

No matter how desperately he struggled, a human only had two hands.

With an ability that amounted to physical enhancement under certain conditions, there was no way he could stop the violence of sheer numbers.

It would only make the execution take longer.

“Guuugh!”

Eventually, bullets began embedding themselves in his entire body one after another, and I quietly watched.

Until his dance stopped.

I slowly raised my hand, signaling them to cease fire.

Because I could see the bastard who had been frantically swinging his sword stop moving.

White-Clad Rakshasa's head hung limp.

He dropped to his knees, then collapsed face-first onto the ground.

A moment later, Parnello walked out carrying a sniper rifle almost as large as his upper body and checked the bastard's condition.

“...

He doesn't appear to have stopped breathing. Shall I finish him?”

Parnello, who had subdued him in an instant, looked toward me and asked.

“In accordance with the Family's rules, we'll show mercy... but we'll make him tell us everything he knows. Send him to the technicians.”

“...

He'll probably regret not dying here instead. As you command, Young Master.”

Looking around, I saw organization members still hiding in the darkness while maintaining a perimeter.

There appeared to be about half the number originally deployed.

“How are things elsewhere?”

“Yes. Thanks to Ratte, most of the remaining villains hiding throughout Sector C have been eliminated. At this rate, the situation should be resolved quickly.”

“...

That's good.”

That meant once we removed the mushroom in front of us, all the urgent problems would be resolved.

I pulled Tommy's trigger and tore apart the mushroom in front of me, and the spores filling the surroundings gradually began to disappear.

“Good work. Young Master.”

“...

The situation isn't completely over yet. First, move the wounded, and the rest──”

At that moment.

“Bravo──.”

A familiar voice I'd heard somewhere before came from behind us.

“I never expected the situation to end this quickly. How unexpected.”

When I turned around, I saw White-Clad Rakshasa, who had definitely been unconscious, limply clapping his hands.

“...

Plague.”

“Ohh, you recognized me immediately. Correct. I am Plague, executive of the Villain Alliance and the plague of all mankind.”

White-Clad Rakshasa bowed toward us in an extremely courteous manner, like a gentleman greeting a lady.

But my eyes weren't directed at him.

They were directed slightly farther back, toward the ornate red mushroom growing from the back of his neck.‘Clown Parasitic Mushroom.’A fungus he frequently used to hide his body and deliver messages.

He must have secretly made it parasitize the bastard's body from the beginning.

“Why did you do this? There wouldn't have been anything for the Villain Alliance to gain by touching Calione's territory.”

I immediately asked him the question I'd been wondering about all this time.

Why had someone who never touched Calione in the game done something like this?

It was something I couldn't understand within the limits of common sense.

The only result was that they suffered losses.

But what came out of his mouth was beyond my expectations.

“Fear and warning. I merely delivered those two messages with respect and reverence.”

“Ha, respect and reverence. After pulling this kind of shit?”

“Think carefully. Not a single person died from the disease, did they? And the scale of this terrorist attack was exceedingly small considering we were dealing with Calione. From the beginning, I never even considered this an attack.”──Yes. It was merely the delivery of a message.

“A warning to Calione, who declared war on the Villain Alliance. A warning to Calione, who planted a spy within the Villain Alliance.”

You did this just as a warning?

“You're insane.”

Parnello said what I was about to say first.

Plague burst into laughter with a khee!

“Insane! That's not wrong. If there's anyone who loves humanity enough to go mad, I can proudly say it is me. Kheeh! Kheheheh!”

The bastard's body shook with laughter, then suddenly stopped as he raised his head and looked at us.

“Anyway. I'm glad it seems this message was successfully delivered. I hope Calione will reconsider after this opportunity. Even now, if we could return to the old relationship where neither side interfered with the other──”

“──Rejected.”

“Huh?”

At my immediate answer, he looked at me as though puzzled.

“I've been curious for a while now... just who are you to reject the Villain Alliance's message to Calione?”

Creak── creak──He turned his head toward me at an angle impossible for a human neck to even attempt.

I slowly walked toward him and spoke.

“The heir and Hitman of Calione, the place you reduced to this state, and──.”

I brought my face close enough that only he could hear, and whispered with anger and hatred.

“The veteran player who's going to catch and kill you, you bastard.”

“What? What does that──.”

Crunch──When I crushed the mushroom growing from White-Clad Rakshasa's neck with my hand, his body lost its strength and collapsed limply.

I looked down at the bastard's body.

“...

Just wait, Plague.”

Calione's Vendetta

will be far beyond anything you can imagine.