World Runner: A Merc's Trial in a Spirtual Dystopia Ch.10

I made my way over to the group. Stout had her eyes on me while her men had their eyes on the other three guys. I made sure to walk around her, and by extension, her men and went to stand beside the other guys.

“Four of you? I expected more. Does Padre underestimate the seriousness of this?” Stout asked, her cold voice permeating through the quiet area.

“Padre is well aware of what this job requires. Too many people and this whole thing goes to shit.” I glared back, challengingly.

A nice ass she may have, but I wasn’t gonna sit by and let her start off by bossing us around. Sure, we were working for her right now, but we weren’t her gonks. We were our own people, and no one could tie a leash around our necks.

“Tch. I’ve just got here, and you filth are already pissing me off.” Stout scrunched her nose in disgust as she looked at me, meeting my glare with her own. “But you’ll do. A lot is riding on this. Don’t fuck it up.” Stout barked out before turning around and walking back to her car. One of her guys approached me and roughly handed me another data shard before following his master.

She was a bitch, a massive one who needed some correcting. As I watched her ass sway on her way out, I felt almost compelled to teach her a lesson. I still hadn’t had any sex since coming to this world. The extra testosterone staying pent up granted me the ability to push myself even further before, and it did wonders for my mental willpower.

But that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to walk up behind her and grab a handful of her ass cheeks. Show her who’s boss.

One day.

Today was payday, and money always came before playtime.

I put the data shard in my neck, and the location, along with the escort route of the guy we were protecting, came into view.

Linden Jared. Sounded like a bitch, but he also didn’t sound familiar.

But realistically, it didn’t matter who the fuck he was. It was our job to protect him, so protect him we will.

“You got his location?” Norio asked, stepping up behind me.

“Yeah.” I got it. “He’s on the other side of Northside.”

“Good!” Jackie grinned, walking toward the car. “All we gotta do is pick this corpo gonk up and get him to Militech tower.”

“Let’s hope it’s not that simple.” Gustavo frowned.

“Agreed.” I nodded. At our response, Jackie looked confused. Did I have to spell it out for him?

“We’re getting paid to deal with the fuckers going after him and finding the son of a bitch who planned all of this. If we see no action, we’ll be getting scraps at best.”

Jackie’s eyes widened, and a deep, disappointed frown tugged at his face. “En realidad? Eso apesta!”

“Let’s Delta,” Norio ordered, walking to his bike and hopping on. He turned on the ignition and waited.

Yeah, he couldn’t go off without the location. That shit was in my head-

Which means I was leading this operation.

“Norio’s right. Let’s get this shit over with.”

“Hell yeah, esse!” Jackie grinned, all three of us heading to Orta’s car.

“Don’t crash my shit, yeah?” Gustavo asked, taking the passenger seat. Jackie took the back seat.

“Of course.” I shrugged. It didn’t matter if I crashed it. This shit was armored. A simple crash wouldn’t scuff it too bad.

The car started, likely by command of Gustavo, and I grabbed a hold of the wheel. This wasn’t my first time driving since coming to this world, so I was no beginner. I floored it out of there, and the purr of Norio’s bike told me he was following closely.

The car was silent as we made our way over to Lindel’s location, and once we arrived, we wasted no time in hopping out of the car and moving toward the armored car he and two Militech soldiers were waiting at.

“You the mercs?” The suited man, who had to be Linden, asked. His voice was professional, if not a little nervous.

“No, we’re the hookers you called.” I deadpanned. “Let’s get this started.”

“Yeah…” Lindel said quietly, rushing back into his armored car while the rest of us hopped back in our rides. This time, I got shotgun before Jackie could take it while Gustavo drove and Norio rode his motorcycle.

All engines started, and we waited as the armored Militech truck drove off before following it. Norio sped up, getting ahead of it to lead the charge, while Gustavo and by extension, us, hung back.

Our vehicles moved through the city. The plan was simple: fool the mercs they hired into attacking us by thinking we didn’t have numbers.

Which was true; we didn’t. But we had power.

“So, about Lindel…” Gustavo Orta spoke up. Both Jackie and I raised an eyebrow at him since he paused instead of continuing.

“Yeah, what about him?” I asked.

“Our job is to protect him until we flatline his attackers and track the corpo trash that hired them…So, why don’t we just get all we need out of Lindel and flatline him after as well.”

“Because you’d be making an enemy of Militech,” I answered almost immediately.

“Corpo’s don’t like anyone.” He shot back.

“Yeah, but going out of our way to attack one of their own is gonk-head levels of stupidity.” I crossed my arms. “It’d also cut any chance of ever working with Corpos again.”

“Tch.” Gustavo scoffed and returned his eyes to the road. Jackie was just looking at both of us, saying nothing.

Which was surprising.

Working with Militech, or at least having an into the corp with Stout, was huge, and I didn’t want to lose that just because this dumbass thought they could get more out of scamming Militech.

Did I think Miltitech would actually go after us for such a thing?

Not really, but they damn sure would put us down if they saw the chance.

For several minutes more the road was quiet as we passed through Kabuki.

Suddenly, I sensed something and perked up. The others noticed my sudden movement.

“Somethin’ up?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, reaching into my pocket dimension and pulling out my Ticon.

It wasn’t that I sensed energy-

It was that I didn’t.

One second there was a relatively calm Nen ahead of us, and the next it was snuffed out like a candle in the night.

Zetsu.

We were being stalked, and by a Hunter of all things.

*BANG*

A bullet rang through the air, sniper by how it sounded. I didn’t see what they were shooting at, but if I had to guess, I’d say Norio.

I opened the door to the car and hopped out, closing the door and climbing to the top, all while it was moving. I activated my Ten, just in case that sniper decided to fuck around and find out.

“Orta, get me close to the truck!” I shouted, crouching down in order to maintain my balance on the moving car.

“Alright!.”

The car sped up, helping me get close enough to the car.I ran along the top of Orta’s ride and jumped onto the armored car, pulling myself up and getting a better look at the situation.

Norio was fine, still riding his bike, and the attackers were nowhere to be seen.

I looked around, expanding my senses and using my eyes to the fullest extent that I could, along with Observation Haki.

*BRRTTTTT* *BANG*

My head snapped to the side and I activated my Sandevistan, slowing time and dodging the bullets that rang toward me. My eyes locked onto the attackers who were waiting on two sides of the side streets in their cars. I quickly counted them as I jumped off the car and made my way toward them. Eight, two cars, four in each car, all shooting.

My Sandevistan reached its time limit and the world proceeded as normal. I activated Armament Haki over my Gorilla Arms and crossed them over my face in an ‘X formation,’ all while rushing one of the cars.

I ate all the bullets and just as I was getting ready to jump onto the car I was targeting, it sped up, trying to slam into me. Good thing I had Observation Haki, it helped me react in time. I jumped into the air, their armored car slammed into me as I sprawled my body on the windshield.

The car I was on top of took off at full speed, and bullets still rained on me from the ones within, but I was in the perfect position to get shit done here. I reached into my pocket dimension and pulled out my Inverted Spear. I raised it into the air and brought it down with all my might, stabbing a hole into the armored windshield and piercing the driver.

The car spun out of control before crashing into a building. I jumped off the car, and threw myself behind one of the many buildings for cover.

*VROOM*

My eyes widened minutely as Norio’s bike charged toward the car I had disabled, and his blade slashed at one of the exiting mercs, beheading them.

They rained bullets down on him, but his motorcycle zoomed around the corner and the engine quieted.

At least now I had someone with me.

The mercs were firing at both Norio and I behind our cover, they had all hopped out and were using their cars as cover. Smart. Doing some dumb shit like hopping in their cars and driving anyway would leave their asses as nothing more than sitting ducks-

And I was the drunk bastard with a shotgun!

I peeked around the corner and fired three shots, hitting only one of them and more than that, the guy I hit didn’t go down.

These guys were chromed out, and I could also sense some abilities from them. At least one of them had Nen, and if I had to guess, there was likely to be another one or two of them that had either Nen or Haki.

As I peeked around the corner one more time, my eyes widened as I looked closely at one of the faces of the mercs firing at us. The blond-haired, dark-skinned man frowned deeply behind his red shades, sending more bullets my way and I hid myself behind cover again.

What are you doing here-

Maine.

— Chapter End —

Author's Note: Thought I posted this last night, my bad.