Chapter 79
A crisp finger snap rang out.
Light warped, tearing through space as heat surged out.
Before the majesty of the gaze of a god, the world trembled and was pierced with a hole.
Unceasing destruction poured from the void, accompanied by sound, light, and shockwaves, annihilating everything around.
Half the civic hall was completely obliterated, and the wreckage rained down like fire and brimstone.
A massive amount of experience points were sucked into the EXP Lighter in Finger Man's coat breast pocket with overwhelming force.
Finger Man stirred and rose to his feet.
The wound from the 'Sacrifice Bullet' that had entered through his forehead and blown out the back of his skull had begun to heal. However, half his brain tissue was still exposed to the air, making his back look grotesque.
"......Shimaenaga-san...... You protected me, didn't you......"
He stroked the feathers soaked in the blood of his lifeless underling.
Fluffy, fuzzy, and noisy... but like this, it would never rise again.
Meanwhile, Shirokko had once again been blown clear outside the civic hall.
"What kind of joke is this......"
His shattered, torn body regenerated with light, and Shirokko came back to life.
"Damn, this still hurts like hell as always......"
Shirokko coughed up blood, grumbling about the searing pain as his body was restored.
The pain was a sign that the revival-type anomalous substance embedded in his heart was being consumed.
"Status"
────────────────────
Shirokko
Level 295
91,852/121,852
86,471/90,471
Skills
'Pepperoncino Lv7'
'Margherita Lv7'
'Pizza Lv7'
'Catania's Dust Lv7'
'Boss Lv6'
'Bullet Rain Lv6'
'Shooting Lv6'
'Full Auto Lv6'
'Scorching Wind of Sicily Lv5'
'Desert's Treasure Lv5'
'Footwork Lv5'
'Smooth Death Lv5'
'Decay and Funeral Lv5'
'Mass Cremation Lv5'
'Equivalent Exchange DEF Lv5'
'Weak Constitution Lv4'
'Precision Shot Lv4'
'Evasion Lv4'
'Human Hunting Lv3'
'Survivor Lv3'
'Quickdraw Lv3'
'Fixed Damage Lv3'
'Urban Combat Lv2'
'Inflation Lv2'
'Sure Hit'
Equipment
'Sacrifice Bullet'
'Cartridge'
'Vermilion Dawn'
'Dungeon Contender 2001'
'Phoenix's Tail Feather'
'Dungeon Equipment Insurance'
'Shita Chi Storage ver2.1'
'Recovery Potion 4000' ×12
'Toughness Enhancer'
─────────────────────
(Level 295... 'Phoenix's Tail Feather' consumes 5 levels to auto-revive the wearer after death... I used to be level 301, so yeah, guess I did die once, huh......)
He remembers the moment just before death.
"That sound...... Dammit, that bastard, could it be......!"
Shirokko frantically raised his hand toward the sky.
From out of nowhere, his beloved Thompson submachine gun—'Vermilion Dawn (Aurora de Vermilio)'—flew into his hand.
He dashed through the ruins of the town obliterated by the explosion and hurried back to Finger Man's side.
(The explosion's aftermath didn't leave a crater...? He aimed it at me. His skill control has improved... Is he growing in the middle of battle?)
When he returned, he found Finger Man just starting to get up.
"Tch, Finger Man!"
Finger Man reacted to the voice, raised his gaze, and looked at Shirokko.
His sunglasses had fallen off. In the chaos filled with gunpowder and flames, his pale eyes held an eerily calm stillness.
The strangeness of it all reminded Shirokko of the fear he once felt in the deserts of North Africa.
"How the hell did you survive the 'Sacrifice Bullet'... Finger Man, tell me!"
"......"
"Hey, Finger Man, answer me before you die—how did you survive!"
"......Honestly, I thought I was already the strongest."
Finger Man muttered quietly.
He tried to stand up.
There was a click as a gun was aimed.
Finger Man froze.
"Don't move. You know I'm faster. You can't beat me. Just tell me how you survived."
Finger Man glared at the gun barrel pointed at him, then lowered his eyes to the unmoving Calamity Beast in his arms.
"I've now got a reason to kill you, Shirokko."
"Yeah? Like I give a damn."
Shirokko fired a warning shot into the floor right next to Finger Man.
"What's with that look, Finger Man? I'm just killing enemies. You're the one who picked a fight. If that underling meant so much to you, you should've stayed out of it."
"So it's my fault... I did something terrible to Shimaenaga-san......"
Finger Man gently caressed the remains of his underling with a sorrowful expression.
Shirokko felt a wave of revulsion.
If he were a nastier bastard, he could've just shot him dead without a second thought.
"I respected your guts—the fire in your belly to get revenge on the Doctor, who was hailed as one of the 'Four Emperors of Dungeon Academia,' for that tanuki geezer's honor. It shone too bright for me to even look at. But see, the enemy was too strong. When you misjudge your enemy, you'll always break. The fact that my gun's now pointed at someone like you is so ironic it makes me sick. But if you ask me whether switching sides would fix everything, the answer is still no."
"......What the hell are you talking about?"
"Hell if I know. Anyway, if you'd just tucked your tail and run instead of waving around some useless sense of justice, I might've let you live. Or if you'd just played dead when I hit you with that first lukewarm 'Mass Cremation Lv5'. But no, you had to puff up and fight back. You knew damn well your opponent was Gregorious Shita Chichigasky. You should've realized his bodyguard was out of your league... Tch, looking at you, you're so green it's painful."
Shirokko's face twisted in disgust.
Finger Man, still stroking the white feathers, suddenly spoke.
"When I was a kid, people used to tease me by calling me 'Hideo'. I didn't even get the joke—it was just wordplay—but I liked being called that. In middle school, I got burned by my dumb sense of justice and turned into someone completely apathetic and bitter. I thought turning a blind eye was the smart way to live. I had to lick loafers. I was scared of that delinquent... He barged into class like he owned the place—what was it again? Oh right, the captain of the tennis club. When he grabbed him by the collar and yelled, I felt so relieved. I thought, 'Thank god it wasn't me.' I was truly glad it wasn't me, from the bottom of my heart."
"......What the hell are you blabbering about?"
"......I stopped caring about justice ages ago. I've grown up too... But if disgusting malice is right in front of me, and I could stop it just by snapping my fingers, who the hell wouldn't do it?"
"Not everyone, actually. There are shockingly few people who can hit back when hit."
Finger Man clutched the white feathers tightly in his hand.
His fist trembled. A quiet heat lit up his eyes.
Finger Man had been lying to himself.
Trying to act on justice? That's just pathetic.
It's lame, uncool, totally out of fashion.
So he put on a more convenient motive—something that wouldn't get in the way.
On the brink of death, cradling the rapidly cooling body of his friend, he found himself reflecting—and noticed a blue flame burning inside him.
Putting on a serious face to protect a friend's dignity isn't something to be ashamed of.
Honoring someone who risked their life to protect you isn't something to be ashamed of either.
"Huh? What's this...?"
Finger Man suddenly noticed a flashing icon at the edge of his vision—it was the Daily Mission update. The icon was blinking obnoxiously, making it impossible to ignore. He opened it.
──────────────────
★Daily Mission★
Let's keep at it, little by little every day!
'Take him out'
Do it
★Today's Daily Mission Complete!★
Reward: '66.2 trillion EXP to the side where Finger Man wins (limited time)'
Consecutive days: Day 108
Steady Rank: Platinum Multiplier 10.0x
──────────────────
(No way, Daily-kun, that's way over the line...!)
A massive light burst out from the Daily Mission window and rushed toward Finger Man.
The EXP Lighter tried to absorb it, but the capacity was instantly overwhelmed and it overflowed.
"GyaaaaAAAAAAAH——!"
Finger Man was engulfed in the intense light and began to shine like the sun.
When it all settled, there he was, spasming and rolling his eyes back in a full-body convulsion.
"A-almost ascended to heaven, there..."
Finger Man felt the power brimming through his entire body, clenching and unclenching his fists.
He could physically feel it—this power was on a completely different level than before.
(66.2 trillion EXP... Just how many levels did I gain...?)
Finger Man nervously diverted his gaze to his status.