Chapter 17: [Hazard] - (22 Years Before the Original) Rapture Hunting: Core Extraction Labor 2
Old folks, parents, or the middle-aged uncles and aunties of that generation always say the same thing.
“Life never goes the way you want it to.”
Some lives plummet regardless of desire, while others keep climbing, even as they comfort themselves and settle for the present.
Life is an enigma.
Some are brought down by a single stroke of “luck,” while others don’t just rise—they achieve true “success.”
What, exactly, is success?
A life that makes others look up to you?
A materialistic life where you solve the crushing financial burdens of others with ease?
A life where you hone an unmatched talent until you stand at the very peak?
Everyone has their own standards, but to me, this is what a “successful life” looks like:
“A life where you eat well, live well, and enjoy things smoothly, like water flowing downstream.”
A future where, even if hardship comes, you overcome it and eventually look back and say, “Ah, there was a time like that.”
At first glance, it might sound like the mindset of an old man, but any Korean man in his twenties would understand exactly what I mean.
“The middle is the hardest.”
That’s why, by my standards, a successful life is one that maintains the middle and flows as smoothly as possible.
So, why was I suddenly reminiscing about all this?
“I finally found you.”
“It” arrived all of a sudden.
The surrounding air turned frigid, and a suffocating pressure clamped down on my chest.
It was like the sensation I used to feel as a kid when diving underwater in a public bathhouse, only now it was crushing my entire body.
“So it was you? Those pathetic things hunting Raptures?”
Her voice was soft and delicate, but the “anger” and “annoyance” beneath it were so palpable that anyone could tell she was in a foul mood.
If I had to describe “her” in colors, it would be black and purple.
Her outfit was mostly white with a purplish tint, but her aura was the exact opposite—pitch black. And then there was the purple, which served as her trademark color.
“.....A Heretic!”
“......Huh?”
Not her head. No.
Above her head floated a small, jellyfish-like mechanical creature, and thick mechanical tentacles connected to her waist gave the impression that the machine was the one controlling her.
A jellyfish-like machine floating overhead, a woman who looked like a fragile girl, and a flat, cold tone that carried no emotion.
Why is she here? No, more importantly, she moved? This early?
As someone who had played the original game, I knew exactly who this being was.
Beside me, Grave gasped and clutched the Therapy Coffin tightly.
“.....That’s strange. One of them looks like a lightly armed mass-produced model, and the other is just a human?”
“.....Aren’t you looking down on humans a little too much?”
“Shut up. I never gave you permission to speak.”
“Tch....”
She glared at us with killing intent in her eyes.
The Heretic, Librelio.
Her exact ranking was never revealed, but among fans, she was informally considered the “number one Heretic.”
In the original NIKKE story, she first appeared in the Eden arc, etching herself into players’ memories with her short but intense impact and an image reminiscent of the deep sea.
Well, supposedly it was also because of her body type, which made the “flat-chest loli brigade” cheer?
Anyway, as she revealed herself, the atmosphere shifted so drastically that it really did feel like we had been dragged into the abyss.
“.....Hmm.”
“Khh....!”
“You there, pseudo-human. What’s inside that coffin you’re holding?”
“!?”
“Why do I sense the aura of a fellow Heretic coming from it?”
“I... don’t... have... any... obligation... to tell you!”
“.....Open it. Stop spouting nonsense.”
Librelio narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at Grave, her attention shifting entirely to the coffin in Grave's hands.
She gave the order in a commanding tone, demanding that the Therapy Coffin be opened.
“We’ve only just met, and you already have a kleptomaniac streak. Are all Heretics like that?”
“......You, stop being so irritating.”
“Irritating? What’s irritating? Why? Ah, could it be that you’re the type who thinks the world should revolve around your plans?”
“Shut up, human. This is your final warning.”
Her purple eyes widened as she unleashed a wave of killing intent.
When she opened those already dim eyes even wider, she looked like a vengeful spirit from a horror movie.
And yet, why was it that...
Even with that aura, like some water ghost from a nightmare...
Even with a presence that would have suffocated and killed any ordinary human or NIKKE...
“Really? Then what are you going to do about it?”
Slowly raising his arm, Hook said,
“It’s just my nature to beat up any bitch who starts trouble with someone she’s meeting for the first time.”
He attacked Librelio head-on.
The [Soul Mark] of the spirit of the dead, which brands its target to deal only critical damage, swept over Librelio.
Kuaaaaaaah! Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh! Boom!
“Ghk!?”
“A superhuman!?”
Contrary to the prestige of the name 'Heretic,' the air was filled with the sound of massive impacts and explosive blasts.
Grave, who had been crushed under the pressure, stared in absolute shock.
Hook quietly slipped on the [Appsolabs Knuckle] and said with a smile,
“You know what happens when you touch someone else’s property without permission, right?”
The first battle with the unofficial number one Heretic had begun.
================
Grave thought she knew the man called Hook, and yet she didn’t.
Even after more than two years, Hook’s “absurd strength” still lay far beyond the bounds of her common sense.
She had known he could take down Tyrant-class Raptures by himself.
But she had never imagined he would actually fight a Heretic. No, she hadn’t even considered it, because she had assumed it would be such an obvious defeat that there was no point in imagining it.
Pwoosh! Crash-crack-crack-crack!
“Since you look like a jellyfish, you’re just flinging those tentacles around at random~? Don’t you need to hydrate?”
“Shut up!”
Librelio, sent flying by the [Soul Mark], showed a rare flash of fury as she hurled dozens of razor-sharp tentacles.
However, despite their sharpness, they were instantly dismantled by a single strike of [Demon Slash].
Slash! Crash-crack-crack! Drip, drip.
“You... you!”
“Ah~ why are you so angry? I’m the one who should be angry here, right? Hm?”
The situation had unfolded suddenly.
As usual, Hook and Grave had been roaming the surface to replenish energy for Cinderella’s core.
Then, all at once, the air grew heavy and suffocating, like they had been dragged into the deep sea, and a single NIKKE appeared.
No, calling her a NIKKE was questionable. Her obvious hostility and alien appearance—especially the disgusting jellyfish-like Rapture floating near her head—announced her true nature.
A Heretic.
Those who betrayed humanity and turned to the side of the Raptures.
They were originally NIKKEs, but through corruption, thought conversion, or some other process, they were modified by the Raptures into strange beings—half Rapture, half NIKKE.
And—
The strongest of them, known as the vanguard of their leader, the Queen, and far more powerful than standard Raptures.
At this point in time, they were the greatest threat to humanity, known to be even stronger than the Pilgrim NIKKEs wandering the surface.
“Superhuman! It’s dangerous! We need to get out of here now!”
“Who said you could run? How arrogant.”
Grave had also encountered such a being once before during her long years on the surface.
Unlike that other being from the past—the one that had nearly taken Cinderella away from her without resistance—this time her instincts screamed that this was truly dangerous.
A different kind of threat from that time.
The Heretic before her was on an entirely different level, evoking a fear like sinking endlessly into the deep sea and being crushed in an instant.
Every alarm in her mind was ringing, warning her that this was the most dangerous threat of all.
“You run first. Protecting Cinderella safely comes first.”
“.....What?”
More fragile than herself.
Hook, a human—a living, breathing being of flesh and blood—had simply and lightly told her to run.
Grave was shocked by the statement, but—
“Hah.... Run? You’re telling her to run, not the human?”
The one who reacted even more fiercely to Hook’s words was the Heretic, Librelio.
It was only natural.
Grave and Librelio both looked human on the outside, but their essence was machine.
Grave was a NIKKE, an android.
Librelio was also an android, but her internal structure was a technical “assemblage” of nanomachines.
She was a “machine human” made not of blood and flesh, but of iron, nanomachines, and artificial coolant.
By any common-sense standard, the one who should be running was Hook.
And yet, the human in front of her was telling her to leave him behind.
From their perspective, did that even make sense?
Slightly irritated by the reactions of the two women, Hook looked at Librelio with a smile that remained on his lips while the laughter in his eyes slowly vanished.
“Why? Is it weird for a human like me to tell a NIKKE like Grave to run?”
“.......”
“Wow, I can understand you, but Grave... you’re going a little too far. Hey, we’ve been together for what, two years? And you still don’t know me?”
“Superhuman.... this isn’t a joke! That thing is a Hereti—”
Grave, whose common sense had not yet completely collapsed, grabbed his arm, but—
“The clue that can wake Cinderella is over there.”
Hook spoke in a tone that was gentle and kind, yet somehow sent a chill down the spine.
At those words, Grave, who had been holding his arm, and Librelio, who had been so stunned she had genuinely wanted to kill him, both froze.
“Wouldn’t it be a waste to let a chance that rolled right into our lap slip away like this? So hurry up and take Cinderella and get to safety.”
That smile, tinged with a faint, lingering madness, left them both rigid.
Grave felt her common sense shatter all over again, and—
“....Ha... ha... hahahaha. Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
For the first time, Librelio, who had worn an expression of indifference or a slight frown the entire time, laughed out loud.
It was a first.
Not a single NIKKE, nor the humans who occasionally ventured to the surface.
Not even the Pilgrims wandering the wasteland.
There had never been anyone as bold, as infuriating, as the human before her.
“......Fine. I’ll acknowledge that much, at least—your spirit.”
Librelio was colder than ice.
With every word she spoke, the air around them sank further into a freezing void.
“Why the Queen woke me. Why she chose me instead of that idiot Nihilister or that arrogant Indivilia.”
Dark, blackish-purple energy began pouring out from her body.
The jellyfish-shaped Rapture floating near her head gradually grew larger, until it reached the size of a Lord-class Rapture.
Librelio glared at the two of them with savage, violet eyes.
“Yes, human... it was you. You’re the one who’s been hunting Raptures all this time and getting on the Queen’s nerves.”
Grave hurriedly drew her weapon, ready to respond to the sight of pure terror incarnate.
“Too late. Die.”
With Librelio’s cold declaration, a tentacle shot forward at supersonic speed, aiming to pierce both Grave and Hook through the stomach—
“.......Huh?”
“......Huh?”
—but the tentacle stopped dead right in front of their abdomens.
The sudden halt startled not only Grave, but also Librelio herself.
“......Heretics... basic personality traits of looking down on others, plus a theft habit, highly vulnerable to provocation, and also full of arrogance and bluffing.”
Ignoring both of their reactions, Hook pulled out a tablet that looked so old it should have stopped working long ago and pretended to scribble something on it.
Grave and Librelio were both dumbfounded by the sight, but—
“How full of yourself do you have to be to miss an enemy’s trap and just charge in blindly like that?”
Hook looked at Librelio with a mocking smile.
Only then did the two of them finally grasp the situation.
“.....W-what is this!?”
“Th-that is!?”
A soft-looking tentacle was binding Librelio’s body inside a crimson formation that seethed like lava.
She couldn’t feel anything, and even though it wasn’t her own will, her body had gone rigid.
Librelio was flustered, and Grave was too stunned by the absurdity of the situation to react.
“Life is shit from the start. Even when things are going well, they can twist themselves all to hell—that’s life.”
Hook leisurely mocked Librelio as he closed the distance.
“Hand over the core, you bitch.”
The more powerful [Demon Slash - Silver Mist] shattered Librelio’s body into pieces.
Crash-crack-crack-crack! Boom!
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